I read a sentence the other day in which a very powerful modern writer describes a certain woman as |having God on her visiting list.| We may recoil from the phrase, but it very vitally describes a very awful commonplace. Countless thousands have God on their visiting lists. They pay Him courtesy-calls, and between the calls He is forgotten. Perhaps the call is paid once a week in the social function of worship. Perhaps it is paid more rarely, like calls between comparative strangers. How great the contrast between a caller and one who dwells in the secret place! It is the difference between a flirt and a |home-bird,| between one who flits about on a score of fancies, and one who settles down in the solid satisfaction of a supreme affection.

|Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.| Such is the reward of the |home-bird,| the settled friend of the Lord. The shadow of the Lord shall rest upon him continually. I sometimes read of our monarchs being |shadowed| by protective police. In an infinitely more real and intimate sense the soul that dwells in |the secret place| is shadowed by the sleepless grace and love of God.