August 20th. When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is trying to make his boat go by pushing against the mast. He is like a drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his own head. Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when He said: |Which of you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?| The one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this -- that those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the goal. The Changed Life, p.11.