At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. Acts 16:25.

There was nothing stale or flat about the religion of Paul and Silas. The world today needs Christians like that. What a faith to have when we really need it! Bill was a professed Christian. He had been brought up in a Christian home. But he got into serious trouble and went to jail. I visited him. He made one request—could I get him a Bible? He had neglected reading it for years. He now wanted to study, to seek to live by it so that this dreadful experience would never recur. He hoped God would forgive him and that others would still believe in him.

This boy was trying to stock his spiritual bank after it had collapsed. Are we depositing now in our own spiritual bank the spiritual wealth necessary for the evil days ahead? Or do we wait for catastrophe to strike before calling on the Lord? If we did this in the business world, or in any other profession, we would soon go bankrupt. Do we wait until we lose our jobs before taking out unemployment insurance? Do we wait until we have an accident before we take out collision insurance?

Moral and spiritual enrichment in our daily lives is like accumulating interest in the bank. We put it there now. The time to meet and gain victory over temptations that will come a month from this day, is now. Crucial days have dawned for us all. They will not get any better. We need to develop a morally and spiritually sound mind and character now.

Many of our failures may be classed as sins of surprise. We know later that it would never have happened if we had made adequate spiritual preparation. Granted that we do not know what is coming, but we are to cultivate a habit of daily preparation that will prevent us from falling into sin. No treacherous mountains we wish to climb require greater care than do the slippery places of the moral andspiritual life. There is a divine power available to us for every situation. Let us make sure of it now.