Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it . . . -Luke 14:28

Our Lord was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost which He has already counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary- the central point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has counted the cost.

The laver of the mirrors of the serving-women - Exodus 38:8

THIS was a good use to put these mirrors to. The women were so deeply interested in the work which was afoot, that they counted no sacrifice too great. But the main suggestion for ourselves is the wisdom of renouncing self-in-spection.

The mirror speaks of self-scrutiny.

The Danger of Heart-hardening

Another breakdown in the truth--feeling--act sequence comes when the heart for selfish reasons deliberately hardens itself against the Word of God.