out!) 
 
 BY- CHARLES -'A 
 SALMOND-MA 
 
 m 
 
 ^^^.; 
 
 
 ^■y-'-. 
 ?. v-,'; 
 
 >i'-' 
 
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 iFrnm t\\t IGibrarQ of 
 
 1Spqu?atl|eli by Ijim to 
 
 tljp Sltbrary of 
 
 Pnnreton Sli^ologtral ^pmtnary 
 
 BV4811 .S3 1896 
 
 Salmond, S. D. F. 1838-1905 
 
 For days of youth 
 
1 Thx UvMurT . 
 
jfot IDa^s of 1)011 
 
" / live for thou nuho Ic/z'e »:e, 
 For those ivho knoiu n:e true ; 
 For the heaven that smiles above »:c, 
 
 And waits my eo;i:ing too ; 
 For the cause luhich needs assistance, 
 For the lurong ivhich needs resistance^ 
 For the future in the distance, 
 jind the good ivhich I can doP 
 
for E)a^6 of l^outb 
 
 A Bible Text and Talk for the Young 
 
 for 
 
 Every Day in the Year 
 
 BY THE 
 
 v/ 
 
 REV, CHARLES A. SALMOND, M.A. 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 "Cive us day !y day our daily It cad" 
 
 EDINBURGH & LONDON 
 
 OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER 
 
 1896 
 
All Ktohls Resci~'ed 
 
 MORRISON AND ClUB, PKINTERS, EDINBURGH. 
 
Hutbor's preface 
 
 There are many books of Daily Eeadings for older people, hut few, 
 if any, winch are specially meant for tlie Young. It is therefore 
 hoped that, in days when so many books are prepared for the latter, 
 and enjoyed by them, there may be a place and a welcome for the 
 present volume. 
 
 The subjects of the Readings are varied, and their length is 
 moderate. It has been sought to brighten most of them by anec- 
 dotes and other illustrations ; because teaching or counsel, even 
 when founded on a text from the Best of Books, is little likely to 
 be favourably received by young people if it is prosy and dull. 
 A few of the 366 Talks have appeared in a more fugitive form 
 already ; but they will not be less liked on that account by any 
 Young Reader who may happen to recognise one here and there. 
 
 Though the volume is designed for individual use, — morning or 
 evening as may be found best, — it may have a use in the home 
 circle as well. 
 
 The Author hopes that the Texts and Talks will sometijucs be 
 read aloud at family worshiji, as other books of Daily Readijigs 
 often are. Perhaps it will be found that, while particularly adapted 
 for those still in their teens, these brief Addresses are not altogether 
 unwelcome, when printed as well as spoken, to some young people 
 even whose teens have now to be spoken of as " fifty years since." 
 
(Tontent^ 
 
 y-yi.'x^^Xr 
 
 PAOE 
 
 1. Thb Days of thy Youth (Eecles. xii. 1) 1 
 
 2. A Gift God Asks (Prov. xxiii. 26) 3 
 
 3. The Advocate (1 John ii. 1) 4 
 
 4. Knowing our Way (Job xxiii. 10) 5 
 
 f>, A Prayer and a Resolve (Ps. cxix. 117) 6 
 
 6. A Strange Command (2 Pet. iii. 18) 7 
 
 7. A Special Promise (Prov. viii. 17) 8 
 
 8. The P^rst Preacher (Heb, xi. 4) 9 
 
 9. God Sees (Gen. xvi. 13) 10 
 
 10. Not LI■\^NG to Olt.selves (Rom. xiv. 7) 11 
 
 11. The Fowler's Snare (Ps. cxxiv. 7) 12 
 
 12. A Little MiNiSTF.R (1 Sam. ii. 11) 13 
 
 13. The Wishing Gate (Prov. viii. 11) 14 
 
 14. Good Scholars (John viii. 31) 15 
 
 15. Hid in the Heart (Ps. cxix. 11) 16 
 
 16. Shine (Matt. v. 16) 17 
 
 17. The Beloved (Eph. i. 6) . . 18 
 
 18. My Jewels (Mai. iii. 17) 19 
 
 19. Poor Balaam (Num. xxxi. 8) 20 
 
 20. The Broken Heart (Ps. li. 17) 21 
 
 21. The Whole Heart (Ps. cxix. 2) 22 
 
 22. The Highest Rank and the Grandest Title (1 John iii. 1). . 23 
 
 23. Rich toward God (Luke xii. 21) 24 
 
 24. Behold the Lamb (John i. 29) 25 
 
 25. Whom DO YOU Serve? (Matt. vi. 21) 26 
 
 26. The Secret of Paul's Life (GaL ii. 20) 27 
 
 27. Joyful Progress (Prov. iv. 18) 28 
 
 28. Look unto Mb (Isa. xlv. 22) 29 
 
 29. Ak Unsparing God (Rom. viii. 32) 30 
 
 30. With Him— .\ll Things (Rom. viii. 32) 31 
 
 3J, Marked in tije E\r anj) in the Foot (John x. 27) , , , 33 
 
 vU 
 
Contents. 
 
 FE'B'EJJU%r 
 
 9. 
 
 10. 
 
 11. 
 
 12. 
 13. 
 14. 
 15. 
 16. 
 17. 
 18. 
 19. 
 20. 
 21. 
 22. 
 23. 
 24. 
 25. 
 26. 
 27. 
 28. 
 29. 
 
 GiAXT Hermon (Liikc ix. 28) . 
 
 The Trustee and the Treasure (2 Tim. i. 12) 
 
 Good Kunning (1 Cor. ix. 24) . 
 
 Christ our Captain (Heb. ii. 10) . 
 
 Satisfied at Last (Ps. xvii. 15) 
 
 The Name to be Remembered (Ps. xlv. 17) 
 
 IvErT from the Evil (John xvii. 15) 
 
 Meeting Places for all (Prov. xxii. 2) 
 
 On Earth, as in Heaven (ILatt. vi, 10) 
 
 Turn (Ezek. xxxiii. 11) . 
 
 The Best Boast (Ps. xxxiv. 2) , 
 
 Good Success (Josh. i. 8) , , 
 
 Watch (Mark xiii. 37) . . . 
 
 Ready Reckoning (Rom. viii. 18) . 
 
 Vanishing Goodness (Hos. vi. 4) . 
 
 Christ the Door (John x. 9) ■ 
 
 Choice (Ps. cxix. 30) . . . 
 
 Jesus and the Children (Matt, xviii. 2) 
 
 Persevere (Rom. ii. 7) . 
 
 A Soul in Prison (Ps. cxlii. 7) 
 
 Cruel Cain (Jude 11) . 
 
 Dorcas (Acts ix. 36) ... 
 
 Ready (Rom. i. 15) . 
 
 The Lord knowing them that are His (2 Tim. ii 
 
 The Lord's showing that they are His (2 Tim. 
 
 Greater than Solomon (Matt. xii. 42) . . 
 
 The Hope, and the Reason for it (1 Pet. iii. 15 
 
 The Sin of Neglect (Heb. ii. 3) . , . 
 
 Be Diligent (Prov. x. 4) . . • • 
 
 19) 
 ,19) 
 
 <^r^%CH 
 
 1. Emmanuel (Matt. i. 23) .... 
 
 2. A Puzzle for Many (Matt, xxvii. 22) . 
 
 3. A Dangerous Levity (Matt. xxii. 5) , 
 
 4. The Great Physician (Jer. xvii. 14) . 
 
 5. An Echo of Jesus (1 John iii. 11, etc.) . 
 
 6. Worthy Living, and Gainful Dying (Phil, i 
 
 7. Remejiber the Sabbath (Ex. xx. 8) 
 
 8. A Beautiful Biografhy (Gen. v. 24) . 
 
 9. Our Substitute (Rom. v. 6) . 
 10. It COMETH from Above (Jas. i. 17) . 
 
 viii 
 
 21) 
 
Contents. 
 
 11. A Good Keynote (1 Jolm iv. S, 10) . 
 
 12. Faithful though not Famous (Acts i. 26) 
 1-3. A Cloud of Witnesses (Heb. xii. 1) 
 
 14. Not Youks, but You (2 Cor. xii. 14) 
 
 15. Myself and Thyself (Job xxxiv. 32) 
 
 16. The Best of Friends (Matt. xi. 19) 
 
 17. MoHE FnEcious than Gold (Ps. cxix. 72) 
 
 18. A Wonderful Kf.y (1 John iv. 19) 
 
 19. Complete Confidence in Jesus (Matt. xiv. 12 aud Luke 
 
 20. Seeking the Lost (Luke xix. 10) . 
 
 21. No more Sea (Rev. xxi. 1) 
 
 22. The Brightness of the Firmament (Ps. viii. 3, 4) 
 
 23. The Best Guide (Ps. xxiii. 2) . 
 
 24. In Christ, Early (Rom. xvi. 7) 
 
 25. A Lesson from Carmel (1 Kings xviii. 21) 
 20. The Wise (Prov. xi. 30) . 
 27. The Fool (Luke xii. 20) . 
 25. By and By (Acts xxiv. 25) 
 
 29. Christ is Risen (Matt, xxviii. 6) , 
 
 30. Tire Best Gift (John iv. 10) . 
 
 31. The Tables Turned (Matt. xix. 30) 
 
 ix. 10) 
 
 oiTXIL 
 
 1. True Courage (2 Tim. iv. 17) • i . 
 
 2. In the Morning (Ps. cxliii. 8) . . . 
 
 3. The Nearness of Christ (Phil. iv. 5) . 
 
 4. God Hears (Mai. iii. 16) 
 
 5. Taking the Census (Ps. Ixxxvii. 6) 
 
 6. A Capital Exercise (Acts xxiv. 16) 
 
 7. The Fear that casts out Fear (Ps. Ixxxv. 9) 
 
 8. A Visitor at the Door (Rev. iii. 20) , 
 
 9. A Wise Prayer (Luke xvii. 5) . . . 
 
 10. A Covetous Man (2 Kings v. 20) . 
 
 11. Who has Won? (PhiL iii. 8) .... 
 
 12. Growth and the Secret of it (Hos, xiv. 5, 0) 
 
 13. Strange Perversity (John v. 40) . 
 
 14. Work Away (John ix. 4) .... 
 
 15. Your Garden and Mine (Song of Sol. i. 6) . 
 10. The Head (Col. i. 18) 
 
 17. A Rich Legacy (.John xiv. 27) • . • 
 
 18. Broken Cisterns (Jer. ii. 13) .... 
 
 19. A Lesson from Moutst Rephidim (Ex. xvii. 15) 
 
 20. Bringing us to God (1 John v. 12 and Eph. iii. 12) 
 
 21. Beholding and Trying Men (Ps. xi. 4) . 
 
 ix 
 
Contents. 
 
 22. Sovnxo ASD Reapinq (Gal. vi. 7) . . . 
 
 23. Christ's Brothers and Sisters (Matt. xii. 50) 
 
 24. The Way of Life (Ps. xvi. 11) 
 
 25. The Path of Death (Prov. xii. 26) . 
 
 26. Martyr Stephen (Acts xxii. 20) 
 
 27. A Good Soldier (2 Tim. ii. 3) 
 
 28. Good Company (Prov. xiii. 20) 
 
 29. A Wise Servant (Matt. xxiv. 45) . 
 
 30. Trusting the Pilot (Isa. xii. 2) , , 
 
 PAGE 
 
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 cv^f^r 
 
 A Perfect Likeness (Col. i. 15) 
 
 A Beautiful Vision (Isa. Ix. 8) 
 
 The Face of Christ (2 Cor. iv. C) . 
 
 Caught in the Meshes (Mic. vii. 2) 
 
 Christ's Property (Mark ix. 41) 
 
 The Character of Isaac (Gen. xxi. 3) . 
 
 True Gratitude (Ps. cxvi. 12) 
 
 A Lesson from Sinai (Ex. xx. 5) 
 
 Grieving our Best Friend (Eidi. iv. 30) 
 
 For Christ's Sake (Eph. iv. 32 and 2 Cor. xii. 10) 
 
 What she Could (Mark xiv. 8) 
 
 The Father Himself (John xvi. 27) 
 
 Looking up (John xvii. 1) . . 
 
 A Free Salvation (Mark x. 17) 
 
 How to be in a Majority (2 Chrou. xxxii. 7, 8) 
 
 Two Lovely Sisters (John xi. 1) . 
 
 The Proper Standard (Acts ix. 6) 
 
 Pleasing Gk)D (Heb. xi. 6) . . . 
 
 The Name above every Name (Matt. i. 21 ) 
 
 A NOBLB Aim in Life (Acts x. 38) . 
 
 Something to bh sure about (Niim. xxxil. 23) 
 
 A Free Pardon (Isa. Iv, 7) . . . 
 
 John the Beloved (John xxi. 20) . 
 
 The New Heart (Ezek. xxxvi. 26) . 
 
 Honest Work (Ex. xxv. 11) . 
 
 Crossing the Jordan (Josh. iii. 4) . 
 
 Weighed in God's Balances (Dan. v. 27) 
 
 Rebuked by an Ass (2 Pet. ii. 16) . 
 
 Tub Eleventh Commandment (John xiii. 81) 
 
 Shadow^ (Song of Sol. ii. 17) . 
 
 Aftsir MANY Pays (Ecclos. xl. 1) 
 
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 1.36 
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Contents. 
 
 ju:XE 
 
 1. THB LE3S0NS OF TIIK R.UNBOW (Gen. ix. 14, 15) 
 
 2. God's Banished buouuht Back (2 Sam. xiv. 14) 
 
 3. The Exile Home (2 Cor. v. 8) . 
 
 4. The Two Suns (Matt. v. 45 and Pa. Ixxxiv. 11) 
 
 5. A Fearless Conkidence (Ps. xxvii. 1) , 
 
 6. Who IS Kino? (Matt. ii. 1,2) . 
 
 7. A LniNG Way (Ilcb. x, 20) . 
 
 8. ANewSono(Ps. xl. 3) 
 
 9. The Lion, yet the Lamb (Rev. v. 5, G) . 
 
 10. Not Uncertain, though Unknown (1 John iii. 2) 
 
 11. Honour TO and from God (1 Sam. ii. 30) 
 
 12. On Pisgah's Height (Deut. xxxiv. 1) 
 
 13. A Stern Opponent, yet a Real Friend (Ps. Lxxxv 
 
 14. A Way of Escape (1 Cor. x. 13) . . . 
 
 15. OuB First Home (Gen. ii. 15) . 
 
 16. Hiding FROM God (Gen. iii. 8). 
 
 17. OuB Last Home (Rev. xxii. 14) . . . 
 
 18. Lazarus of Bethany (John xi. 11) . 
 
 19. Not (Ps. i. 1) 
 
 20. But (2 Kings v. i. nud 2 Tim. iv. IG, 17) . 
 
 21. Laying Past (Luke xii. 21) ... . 
 
 22. "Abba," Father (Rom. viii. 15) . 
 
 23. Looking unto Jesus (Heb. xii. 2) . 
 
 24. Nailed to the Doorpost (Ex. xxi. 5) 
 
 25. Weakness in Strength (Judg. xvi. 7) . 
 
 26. Strength in Weakness (Judg. xvi. 28) , 
 
 27. Christ's Feast and B.vnner (Song of Sol. ii. J) 
 
 28. Everyone from his Place (Zcph. ii. 11) 
 
 29. Holy Anger (Gen. vi. 7) 
 
 30. Think of Others (Phil. ii. 4) . 
 
 10) 
 
 PAOE 
 
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 JULY 
 
 1. The God of Hope (Rom. xv. 13) . 
 
 2. Work for Everybody (Acts ix. G) . 
 
 3. A Rich Inheritance (1 John v. 11) 
 
 4. The Master (John xi. 28) ... . 
 
 5. A Walk on Olivet (Luke xix. 29) . 
 
 6. The Secret of a Happy Home (Josh. xxiv. 15) 
 
 7. A Hard Life (Prov. liii. 15) . 
 
 8. Salvation by Grace (Eph. ii. 9) . . 
 
 9. Faijhfuj, in Little anp in Much (Matt. xxiv. 45) 
 
 xi 
 
 184 
 185 
 186 
 187 
 188 
 189 
 190 
 191 
 192 
 
contents. 
 
 10. Acquaintance with God (Job xxii. 21) 
 
 11. A Lie in the Right Hand (Isa. xliv. 20) 
 
 12. Loving much (Luke vii. 47) . • 
 
 13. Sad Ignorance (Luke xix. 44) . 
 
 14. The Voyage of Life (1 Tim. i. 19) . 
 
 15. Becoming Stars (Dan. xii. 3) . 
 
 16. A Lesson from Mount Moriah (Heb. xi 
 
 17. Living to Purpose (Gal. vi. 9) , 
 IS. The Nazarene (Matt. ii. 23) . 
 
 19. As Lights in the World (PliiL ii. 15) 
 
 20. A Ransom for many (Job xxxiii. 24) 
 
 21. Our Duty (Luke x-vii. 10) 
 
 22. God understands you (Ps. cxxxix. 2) 
 
 23. A Man of Progress (John iii. 1) , 
 
 24. Mount Zion (Heb. xii. 22) 
 
 25. Prisoners of Hope (Zcch. ix. 12) , 
 
 26. Try it for yourself (Ps. xxvi. 1) . 
 
 27. The Great Leveller (Isa. xiv, 11) 
 
 28. Filial Love (Epli. vi. 2) . 
 2f>. Not much Time (1 Cor. vii. 29) 
 
 30. The Only Begotten (John iii. 16) . 
 
 31. Constant Protection (Ps. cxxi. 5) . 
 
 17) 
 
 ^ugusr 
 
 1. A Happy Holiday (Zech. viii. 5) . 
 
 2. Leaving our Mark (1 Kings xi. 12 and 2 Kings xiii. 2) 
 
 3. Who will miss you ? (2 Chron. xxi. 20) 
 
 4. A True Obedience (Ex. xix. 5) 
 
 5. Idols in the Heart (1 John v. 21) . 
 
 6. A Lesson from Mount Hor (Num. xx. 28) 
 
 7. Bible Addition (Matt. vi. 33) . , 
 
 8. A Bountiful Harvest (Gal. vi. 9) . 
 
 9. Guided with God's Eye (Ps. xxxii. 8) 
 
 10. Onesimus of Colosse (Philem. 10) . 
 
 11. Was it by Chance? (Ruth ii. 3) 
 
 12. The Brazen Serpent (Num. xxi. 8) 
 
 13. Therefore (Ex. xxxi. 14) , 
 
 14. Retribution (Ps. ix. 16) . 
 
 15. Bible Mdltiplication (Prov. xi. 24) 
 
 16. Christ the Prophet (Acts iii. 22) . 
 
 17. One of God's Forget-me-nots (Isa. xliii. 1, 2) 
 
 18. Love in Anger (Ex. xxxii. 19) 
 
 19. Bible Subtraction (Luke viii. 18) . 
 
 20. Noah's Sermon (2 Pet. ii. 5) . 
 
 xii 
 
Contentd. 
 
 21. TuE Sechet op Safety (Ps. xvi, 1) . 
 
 22. Chkist THE PuiEST(Heb. iv. 14, 15) 
 
 23. Submit (Jas. iv. 7) . 
 
 24. Vulgar Fractions (Matt. vi. 32) 
 
 25. Christ the Prinxb (Acts iii. 15 and v 
 
 26. Christ our Surety (Ps. cxix. 12'2) . 
 
 27. Ph(EBE (Rom. xvi. 1) 
 
 28. A Witness to be relied upon (Roin. 
 
 29. No Difference (Rom. iii. 23) . 
 
 30. The Sprinkled Blood (Ex. xii. 13) 
 
 31. Balance (.Mark viii. 36) . 
 
 31) 
 i.9) 
 
 1. Spiritual Photography (2 Cor. iii. 18) . 
 
 2. The Living and Life-uiving One (1 Cor. xv. 45) 
 
 3. Not AsHAiMEo to Pray (Dau. vi. 10) 
 
 4. Giving up for God (1 Kings xvii. 13) 
 
 5. The Atonement (Kom. v. 11) . 
 
 6. The Valley of Achor (Hos. ii. 15) 
 
 7. Thankfulness (Col. iii. 15) , 
 
 8. QuARTUS, A Brother (Rom. xvi. 23) 
 
 9. The Test of Faithfulness (Geu. iii. 3) 
 
 10. Come with Us (Num. x. 29) . , 
 
 11. Fire from Heaven (Geu. xix. 24) . 
 
 12. At Once (Mark i. 18) . . . 
 
 13. Counting our Steps (Job xxxi. 4) . 
 
 14. The Lord Reigneth (Ps. xcvii. 1) . 
 
 15. Robbing God (Mai. iii. 8) 
 
 16. Christ the Rock (1 Cor. x. 4) 
 
 17. The Testimony of the Dust (Luke ix. 5 
 
 18. DouBLE-MiNDEDNEss (Jas. i. 8 and Geu. xlix. 
 
 19. Christ with us in the Ship (Matt, viii, 26) 
 
 20. Loving back again (1 John iv. 19) . 
 
 21. YouK Name, Sir ? (Gen. xxxii, 27) . 
 
 22. Sympathy (Gal. vi. 2) . . . 
 
 23. Self-Help (Gal. vi. 5) . , . 
 
 24. Support (Ps. Iv. 22) . 
 
 25. Son, Remember (Ps. Ixxvii. 11) 
 
 26. What like is the Fruit ? (Matt. vii. 20 
 
 27. Led to Destruction (2 Tim. ii. 26) . 
 
 28. The Finding of Moses (Ex. ii. 6) . 
 
 29. A Cheerful Giver (Matt. x. 8) 
 
 30. Fitly Spoken (Prov. xxv, 11) , 
 
Contents. 
 
 OCTOTE^ 
 
 1. A Welcome to the King (Ps. xxiv. 7) . 
 
 2. Settling Accounts with God (Eccles. viii. 11) 
 
 3. Eespect unto the Lowly (Ps. cxxxviii. 6) 
 
 4. On the Way to Greatness (Ps. cxix. 141) 
 
 5. The Christian's Heritage (1 Cor. iii. 21) 
 
 6. Christ the Sun (Mai. iv. 2) . . . 
 
 7. The New Testament Passover (Ex. xii. 26) 
 S. None like God (Ex. xv, 11) . 
 9. A Selfish Choice, and what came of it (Gen. xiii 
 
 10. Join Hands (Ps. cxxii. 1) 
 
 11. What is your Price ? (Zech. xi. 12) 
 
 12. Simon Peter (John i. 42) . 
 
 13. Keady for Either (Rom. xiv. 8) 
 
 14. Eeading (1 Tim. iv. 13) . 
 
 15. How God Tempts (Geu. xxii. 1) 
 
 16. Beware of Wrong Beginnings (Mic. i. 13) 
 
 17. The Folly of Earthly Greed (1 Tim. vi. 7) 
 
 18. Christ the Truth (Jolm iii. 2 and xiv. 6) 
 
 19. Lessons from Babel (Gen. xi. 9) . 
 
 20. Staying the Flood (Isa. lix. 19) . 
 
 21. Self-made Men (1 Pet. i. 14) . 
 
 22. Confessing Christ (Matt. x. 32) 
 
 23. Be Pitiful (Eph, iv. 32 and 1 Pet. iii. 8) 
 
 24. Be Courteous (1 Pet. iii. 8, 9) 
 
 25. Son Timothy (1 Tim. i. 18) 
 
 26. Not Hidden, or Far Away (Deut. xxx. 11) 
 
 27. In the Wrong Slot (Isa. Iv. 2) 
 
 28. Be Content (Heb. xiii. 5) 
 
 29. The Place of Safety (John x. 28, 29) 
 
 30. Which Twilight? (Rom. xiii. 12) . 
 
 31. Bbead from Heaven (Ex. xvi. 4) . 
 
 11) 
 
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 S^VE:ry['BE% 
 
 1. The True Test—" Daily " (Ps. Ixi. 8 and Lnke ix. 23) 
 
 2. Shoes or Sermons (Rev. xx. 13) ... . 
 
 3. The Raven and the Dove (Gen, viii. 7, S) . 
 
 4. Be Reverent (2 Sam. vi. 7) 
 
 5. The Unspeakable Gift (2 Cor. ix. 15) . 
 
 6. Cursing the Deaf and Tripping the Blind (Lev. xix. 14) 
 
 7. An Upsetting Sin (Prov. xxiii. 31) . 
 
 xiv 
 
 
 307 
 
 
 303 
 
 
 309 
 
 
 310 
 
 
 311 
 
 14) . 
 
 312 
 
 
 313 
 
Contents. 
 
 8. Not Worth the Candle (Hag. L 9) 
 0. The Mindfulness oi- God (Geu. xxi. 17) 
 
 10. Cod LivES(rs. xviii. 46) 
 
 11. Heavenly Aumouk (Eph. vi. 13) . 
 
 12. Giving TO God (IChron. xxix. 14) . 
 
 13. Ouu Mauchlno OuDEiis (Mark xvi. 15) . 
 
 14. Bad Coins (Jer. vi. 30) 
 
 15. SWII'TEII THAN THE TELEGlUrU (Nell. ii. 4) 
 
 16. The Tuue Vine (John xv. 1) . 
 
 17. Crossing the Riveu (Isa. xliii. 2) . 
 
 18. Sin's Bitter Fruit (Geu. iii. 24) . 
 
 19. Keeping your Temper (Prov. XV. 1) 
 
 20. To what Purpose? (Jer. vi. 20 and Matt. xxvi. 8) 
 
 21. Water from the Rock (Ex. xvii. 6) 
 
 22. A Queen who Lost and Kept her Crown (Estli. i 
 
 23. Led at Christ's Chariot Wheel (2 Cor. ii. 14-16) 
 
 24. A Member of the Aristocracy (Jer. ix. 23, 24) 
 
 25. Stirring up the Nest (Deut. xxxii. 11, 12) , 
 
 26. Selling THE Birthright (Hcb. xii. 16) . 
 
 27. Touching the Sceptre (Esth. v. 2) , 
 
 28. God Holding our Right Hand (Ps. Ixxiii. 23) 
 
 29. The Slander Book (1 l^et. ii. 1) . . . 
 
 30. The Wonderful Name (Isa. ix. 6) . 
 
 12). 
 
 Taok 
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 1. Surely and Quickly (Rev. xxii. 20) 
 
 2. A Dark Path to a Bright Career (Gen, 1, 20) 
 
 3. Gathering to Christ (Gen, xlix. 10) 
 
 4. Seeking onb another (Luke xix. 3, 5) . 
 
 5. Epaphroditus (Pliil. ii. 25) 
 
 6. Eyes to the Blind (Job xxix, 15) . 
 
 7. Pilgrims to Canaan (Num. x. 29) . 
 
 8. Hakd to Blot out (Ps. Ii. 9) . 
 
 9. The Three R's (Luke i. 1) 
 
 10. Closed Eyes opened (Ps. cxix. IS) . 
 
 11. Partakers of Others' Sins (1 Tim. v. 22) 
 
 12. Be Honest (Ps, Ii, 6) 
 
 13. Using the Means (Acts xxvii, 31) , 
 
 14. The Filling of the Cup (Luke xiii. 8) . 
 
 15. In His Steps (1 Pet, ii, 21) 
 
 16. The Common Lot (Geu, v. 5, 8, 11) , 
 
 17. Amid Changeful Weather (2 Tim. ii. 13) 
 
 18. A Helpful Master (Isa. xli. 10) 
 
 19. I must Work (John ix. 4) 
 
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 855 
 
Contents. 
 
 20. There also (Jolin xii. 26) 
 
 21. Shutting the Dooii (Gen. vii. 16 and Matt. xxv. 10) 
 
 22. Now (2 Cor. vi. 2) . . . 
 
 23. Heirs of God (Rom. viii. 17) . 
 
 24. The Safe Refuge (Ps. xlvi. 1). 
 
 25. The Yodng Child (Matt. ii. 14) 
 
 26. The Kindest Wish (3 Johu 2) 
 
 27. A Pressing Invitation (Rev. xxii. 17) 
 
 28. Hitherto (1 Sam. vii. 12 and John xvi. 24) 
 
 29. Henceforth (2 Cor. v. 15) 
 
 30. The Sin of Ingratitude (Ps. ciii. 2) 
 
 31. The Story of Life (Ps. xc. 9) . 
 
 PAOt 
 
 356 
 
 357 
 358 
 359 
 360 
 361 
 362 
 363 
 364 
 365 
 3G6 
 367 
 
 XVi 
 
jFor 2)a)28 of l^outb 
 
 XlbC Bags Ot tbS l^OUtb. January 1 
 
 "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth " (Eccles. xii. 1). 
 
 Tbt youth I As the old preacher utters his counsel, he calls to mind 
 his own youth with a sigh. It is for ever gone. Its days, and years 
 too, are like a short-lived dream of the long ago. But tluj youth is 
 still thine, though its days are hurrying by. Remember God in 
 them, he says. Let no day pass without thinking of Him, and of 
 what you owe to Him. Hear His loving-kindness in the morning — 
 in the morning of your life — in the free bright morning time, before 
 the noisy voices of earth can claim and keep your ear and heart. 
 And as you hear His loving-kindness every morning, let your life 
 each day speak forth His praise ! 
 
 " The days of thy youth " — how precious they are 1 Tliey are 
 happy days, influential days, fleeting days. 
 
 (1) Happy days — surely you feel them to be that ! No doubt 
 youth has its own troubles ; its sorrows, losses, disapiwintmeuts. It 
 is not all brightness. But there is in it far more of the sunshine 
 than of the shadow. Youth's tears are quickly dried ; and there is 
 soon again the clear shining after rain. One thing you juay be 
 very sure of — that, if you are spared to be old, you will look back 
 upon the days of your youth as very gladsome days. " The days of 
 our youth " — when we looked with new eyes upon a new world that 
 met us with a smUe — when the earth seemed so beautiful, and men 
 so true, and women all so good — when we marched to the music of 
 hope, with few burdens unon tho bacTv, and few cares upon the 
 
 (0 i 
 
January 1 ZbC DagS Of tbg l^OUtb, 
 
 heart, to make the wealth of life our own — what wonder that 
 we who are older look back upon them even now with a peculiar 
 pleasure ! They were for us what God and all the good desire that 
 they should be for you — happy days. 
 
 (2) Influential days : yes, they are that too, even when you are 
 least thinking of it. Youth is undoubtedly the seed-time for the 
 harvest that is to follow. The babe has been called " a bundle of 
 possibilities" In youth you have already begun to determine what 
 you are actually to be. Your heart is now open to impressions 
 which will leave their mark on all your future life. The choices 
 you now make, the friendships you form, the patterns you accept, 
 the habits you acquire — tell me these, and I may with much con- 
 fidence predict what sort of man or woman you will be. Now is 
 the time for high thoughts and noble purposes. Now is the time 
 for seeking a lifelong friendship with Him who will enable you to 
 realise them. 
 
 (3) Fleeting days — how swiftly fleeting 1 You are anxious to 
 grow quickly older ? That is a wish very sure to be fulfilled. The 
 year just gone — how short it seems to look back upon ! The years 
 will ever seem to vanish more swiftly as they go. The days of 
 youth will speedily pass into other days. But they need not be 
 " evil days " ; and will not be, if we have Him with us who has 
 promised to be with His peoj)le "aZi the days even to the end." 
 With a heart kept young by His presence even to old age, you will 
 have the best of life — an immortal youth — before you still. 
 
 " Then be thou zealous in tliy youth ; 
 Fill every day with noble toils ; 
 Fight for the victories of Truth, 
 And deck thee with her deathless spoils." 
 
a ©ift (50& ashS. January 2 
 
 " My son, give me thine heart " (Prov. xxiii, 26). 
 
 This, dear young people, is a season for giving as well as receiving 
 gifts. You have got some, I doubt not ; and you may have given 
 some. I wonder if you have yet acted on the invitation of this text ? 
 If you have not, do it now ! Then there will be joy among the 
 angels of heaven, and yours will be indeed a Happy New Year. 
 
 Wo find here (1) God asking something. Is not this unusual — 
 God, who is always giving, and to whom the earth belongs and the 
 fulness thereof, asking something? But the wonder grows when 
 we see (2) from whom He asks it. If you were told of some person 
 that he had a gift to bestow that the Queen was very anxious to 
 possess, you would at once say that surely he must be very rich or 
 great. But if you wish to know the person from whom the King 
 of kings asks this that He so much desires, you liave not far to go ; 
 for it is from you. And now notice very specially (3) what He asJcs. 
 It is something that He values more than all the money in all the 
 banks in all the world. It is not things you have, your possessions, 
 that He seeks. These are His already. They have been only lent 
 to you. What He longs for is — yourself. 
 
 We are told of the great teacher Socrates, that, at the beginning 
 of the session, all the scholars brought to him their gifts. But there 
 was one who hung back when the others ad^-anced with their 
 presents to their loved master. It was seen that tears were coursing 
 down his cheeks, when suddenly he sprang forward, and, flinging 
 himself at the feet of Socrates, exclaimed — " Master, I have nought 
 to oflfer thee. But I give thee myself ! " This was the most valued 
 of all the gifts. And Socrates answered, " I will give thee Ijack 
 thyself, better than when I received thee ! " 
 
 To satisfy His own love, to secure your safety and happiness, 
 God is saying to you, in view of the future year and the future life, 
 " My son, my daughter, give me thine heart ! " You wiU not be 
 in any sense the worse, but in every sense the better, for giving 
 obedience now to this gracious call. 
 
January 3 tlbc BDVOCatC. 
 
 " We have an Advocate with the Father" (1 John ii. 1). 
 
 The word " Advocate " here meana one called to help another. It is 
 now chiefly used of one who pleads a cause. And in this sense, as 
 well as in the wider one, Jesus is our Advocate. 
 
 Have you ever been in a law court, I wonder ? There you will 
 see the judge upon the bench, looking very solemn but very calm : 
 at the side, the culprit at the bar, looking very anxious and perhaps 
 downcast ; and, in front of the bench, the advocate, busy with his 
 pajjers, and very eager to make the most of his case. 
 
 Now, our text speaks of a case being tried. Who is the Judge ? 
 God, the Judge of all the earth, seated on His eternal throne. And 
 who is the culprit ? You, or I, who have broken God's holy law. 
 And who is the Advocate ? Ah, who ? Not ourselves — not any 
 other man : else there can be but one sentence — Death! But here 
 there is One we can trust, Jesus — whom multitudes have trusted, 
 and not in vain. 
 
 Men esteem an advocate who is able, earnest, fair, successful ; 
 and "Jesus Christ the righteous" is all this. 
 
 1. He is infinitely wise. When any case is committed to Him, 
 He can take in all its bearings at a glance, and knows exactly how 
 to represent it. 
 
 2. He is entirely earnest, and pleads as though He were pleading 
 for His own very life. 
 
 3. He is absolutely fair, and does not attempt to hide the very 
 worst that can be truly said against those He argues for. 
 
 4. And He is always successful. Millions have looked to Him 
 for aid, and He never once has lost a case He undertook. For He 
 has an argument that cannot fail, and that is — Himself, as the 
 sacrifice for sin. 
 
 Will you not commit yourself to Him, saying — " Lord Jesus, be 
 my Advocate ? " Not only will this give you boldness in the day 
 of judgment — it will give you present peace. 
 
•Bx'nOWfllfl our TKHag, January 4 
 
 " But He fmoteeth the way that I take " (Job xxiiU 10). 
 
 These are the words of Job, when he was in great perplexity and 
 distress. He was troubled,because he could not find God, to speak 
 with Him, and get his difficulties cleared away. Whether he went 
 l)ackward or forward, he could not perceive Him : whether he 
 looked to the left hand or to the right hand, he could not see Him, 
 But he falls back at last on this comforting thought — Whether I see 
 Him or not, He sees me ! " He knoweth the way that I take." 
 
 When you are sailing towards the Kyles of Bute, it seems at one 
 point as though your farther progress were completely barred. 
 Your vessel appears to be bearing down upon a small land-locked 
 bay ; and, standing upon the deck, you cannot see how it is possible 
 for you to get along much farther. But on the ship glides, under 
 the skilful direction of the pilot ; and just when you reach the 
 point at which your way seemed " hedged up so that you could not 
 pass," you perceive a narrow opening to the left, along wliich the 
 vessel is smoothly guided into the larger room beyond. 
 
 Even so may it be with you sometimes in your future life. 
 Tliere may seem to be so many difficulties ahead of you, as com- 
 pletely to hem you in. But if you have Christ with you in the 
 ship, not only will He know the way you take, but He will guide 
 you in the right way. With Him as your Pilot, you will find that 
 your difficulties marvellously disappear, and that, just where you 
 expected your progress to be stopped. He gives your course a new 
 direction, that will bring you through scenes of beauty and of peace 
 to the larger liberty beyond. When you come to the most difficult 
 part of your passage, and are called to launch out into the great 
 unknown sea, you will be comforted to see your PUot face to face, 
 and to know that He, not you, will still be at the helm. 
 
 You remember the beautiful hymn of Tennyson which closes 
 with the words — 
 
 " For though from out our bourne of Time and Place 
 The floo'l may bear me far, 
 I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
 When I have crossed the bar." 
 
January 5 B ipragec auD a IRcsolvc. 
 
 *' Mold Thov. meup . , . and I will have i'espect unto Thy statutes continually " 
 (Ps. cxix. 117). 
 
 In the heart of every prayer, there ought to he a resolve. And the 
 Psalmist here utters hoth. He gives us — 
 
 (1) A good Neio Yeai'^s prmjer : " Hold Thou me up, and I shall 
 he safe." This expresses our dependence upon God. When you 
 were learning to walk, you were glad of even a finger to support 
 you. When- some of you hoys were heing taught to swim, you were 
 thankful for the float, or for the belt and cord with which your 
 teacher held you up. Now you are called to go in the path of dutj', 
 and you may have to climb amid difficulties and dangers. You are 
 to set forth on the ocean of life, and you may have often to swim in 
 weariness against the tide. Commit yourself to Christ. If he holds 
 you up, you will be safe, and your progress will be sure. 
 
 But remember the and with which duty is linked to privilege, 
 as the Psalmist gives us — 
 
 (2) A good New Yearns resolve : " And I wiU have respect unto 
 Thy statutes continually." By God's statutes are meant His fixed 
 rules, those laws of His which He will not and cannot relax in 
 order to please us. If we break these, we dishonour Him, and at 
 the same time injure ourselves. Our true safety and well-being 
 cannot be secured except by having respect to God's statutes. What 
 is meant by this ? It means that we shall not only learn them, but 
 that we shall constantly remember and act upon them. 
 
 That word " continually " is an important word. A traveller is 
 climbing a difficult mountain, along with an experienced Alpine 
 guide. He is careful for the most part ; but at one point he fails 
 to have respect to his guide's instructions, and sinks into a deep 
 crevasse. The momentary carelessness has cost him his life. You 
 have the Best of all Guides, All- Wise and Almighty. But the 
 heights of holiness are hard to climb. The hill of perfection is 
 higher than Mont Blanc. Follow the Lord fuUy. Cleave to Him 
 closely. Have respect to His statutes continually. 
 
il Stran(}C C!;omman&. January 6 
 
 " Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of mir Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ " 
 (2 Pet. iii, 18). 
 
 One of the most interesting things about you young people is, that 
 you are growing ; and growing up, not down. Your parents like to 
 see that. You yourselves like to know it. Very probably there is 
 a door or a post somewhere, on which there are marks which tell 
 you how much you have grown in height from time to time. 
 
 Now it is pleasant to see you boys growing — big, and strong, 
 and manly. May you at the same time grow brave, and pure, and 
 wise. Above all, seek that you may grow in the grace and in the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 We read of one little boy, that " he grew, and the Lord was with 
 him." That was Samuel : and when his mother brought him a new 
 and larger tunic year by year, she found that he had grown in more 
 ways than one, and was better fitted to be a good and valiant servant 
 of Jehovah. Of another boy we are told, that he increased not only 
 in stature, but " in wisdom, and in favour with God and man." 
 That was Jesus Himself, the boy of Nazareth. 
 
 Make it your ambition to be like them. What a grand thing it 
 will be, if you are found growing more Christlike, the older you gi-ow. 
 This is really what is meant by growing in " grace." For grace 
 means beauty — and the highest of all beauty, girls, is the grace, the 
 loveliness of Christ. This is the sort of beauty you are to covet 
 and to seek. 
 
 It may seem a strange command this — " grow." You cannot by 
 taking thought, by wishing it, add a single inch to your height. 
 And yet you can help on your growth. You can avoid what will 
 hinder it. And by taking good food, breathing pure air, and ha^'ing 
 plenty of exercise, you may promote it. So, too, with your spiritual 
 growth. If you feed on God's Word, breathe the air of God's 
 fellowship, and enjoy the exercise of doing good, then you will gi'ow 
 in heavenly stature. But remember, that in order to growth there 
 must first be life : and it is only from Christ that either life or 
 growth can come. 
 
January? % Special iplOIUfSC. 
 
 " Those that seek Me early shall find Me " (Prov. viii. 17). 
 
 These are the words of Wisdom, wlaom we learn to know better 
 in the New Testament as the Lord Jesus Christ. Some put 
 " earnestly " instead of " early " in the text ; but we shall keep it as 
 it is, and take the words as a loving promise to the young from the 
 kind Saviour, who long afterwards said, " Suflfer the little children 
 to come unto Me." He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; 
 and He is saying to you, " Those that seek Me early shall find Me." 
 
 If we seek, it means either that we have lost something that we 
 need, or that we are without something that we wish. Now it is 
 the case that we have lost God through sin, and are in a very real 
 sense ourselves lost. Well for us all to feel our loss, and to seek 
 after Jesus as One we dearly wish to call our own I For if with all 
 our hearts we truly seek Him, we shall surely find Him, And 
 there is this special encouragement for you, " Those that seek Me 
 early shall find Me." 
 
 Jesus is seeking you : and there are special reasons why you 
 should seek Him " early." (1) It will be safer for you. You know 
 not when you may be called away from earth. There are little 
 graves as well as big ones in the cemetery ; and the reaper Death 
 gathers the " flowerets " as well as the bearded grain. But, with 
 Christ as your Saviour, you will be ready, and you need not fear. 
 
 (2) It will be happier for you. Your whole life on earth will be 
 the brighter if you give yourself to Jesus now, instead of waiting 
 till old age — even if you were sure that you would be spared so long, 
 or sure that you would find Him then. And besides this, 
 
 (3) It will be happier for Christ. You will rejoice His heart by 
 coming early to Him : and surely you would like to make Jesus 
 glad ? The Good Shepherd yearns over His lost lambs. The loving 
 Saviour will be at least as glad as you can be if you seek and find 
 Him now. How joyful for you both, if you are able to say — 
 
 " I've found a Friend ; Oh such a Friend I 
 He loved me ere I knew Him ; 
 He drew me with the cords of love, 
 And thus He bound me to Him." 
 
^bC Jfiret B>rcacbcr, January 8 
 
 "ITe, Icing dead, yet si'eaketh" (TTel). xi. 4). 
 
 This is said of Abel. He had his place far up the stream of 
 time : so that much can be said of him that can be said of nobody 
 else. 
 
 He was the first brother : the first to whom anyone on earth could 
 turn and say, "my brother." No doubt, for a time at least, Cain 
 was glad to have one to speak to and play with, whom he could 
 call by that sweet name. He was the first sJiepherd, too. The 
 names of other Bible shepherds will occur to you — Jacob, Moses, 
 David, and Jesus, " that great Shepherd of the sheep." It was from 
 his flock that Abel brought the offering whose acceptance by God 
 cost him life, but gained him life eternal. For He was the first to 
 die. In Abel it was that Adam and Eve first had their hearts 
 pierced at the sight of death. The first to die was not an old 
 person, but a youth slain by an envious brother's hand. But, then, 
 he was tJoe first to enter heaven. When he went there, he was for 
 a time the only human inhabitant of the heavenly palace. How 
 the angels must have looked at him ! How the Son of God must 
 have rejoiced to hear his solitary note of praise, knowing that, by 
 and by, there would be attuned to it the songs of "an exceeding 
 great luultitude whom no man can niunber ! " 
 
 And, lastly, Abel is the first preacher. " By it " — that is, by 
 his faith — " he, being dead, yet speaketh." He speaks still to us, of 
 One who is a Brother, " bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh " ; 
 of One who is a Shepherd, "the Good Shepherd," who gave His 
 life for the sheep, but took it again, that He might lead them to 
 green pastures and bring them to living fountains of waters ; of 
 One who is a Priest and also a Lamb, to whom the offering of Abel 
 pointed forward, and through whose Sacrifice it was that Abel got 
 to Heaven, and all poor sinners that have ever been admitted there. 
 Abel did not know that he was preaching by his faith, or that hia 
 sermon would be listened to so long. What kind of lesson does 
 your life speak? 
 
January 9 (3o& 6Ce3 1 
 
 " Thou, God, seest me" (Geu. xvi. 13). 
 
 Where is God ? In heaven, one answers. Everywhere, says another. 
 Here, replies a tliird. And all are right. But the last answer is, 
 in some respects, the best. 
 
 A sceptic — a proud careless man who said, not only in his 
 heart, but with his tongue, that there is " no God " — had printed 
 over his study mantelpiece the words ; " God is no-where." His 
 little daughter was one day playing in the room, when her eye 
 caught the words hung upon the wall. She began to spell them 
 out. " G-O-D, God ; I-S, is ; N-O-W, now ; H-E-E-E, here— God 
 is now here." She spelled them differently from her father, but 
 more correctly than he 1 And her simple, artless words, spoken 
 half unconsciously aloud, sunk deep into his heart. 
 
 Now, when Hagar gave this name to God — " Thou, God, seest 
 me," she felt and was thankful that God was near. These words, 
 as used at first, do not come as a warning, but as an encouragement. 
 
 They do give a note of warning. They remind us that God sees 
 us everywhere and at all times, that He looks us through and through. 
 Man looks upon the outward appearance, but God looks into the 
 heart. As with certain beehives made of glass, in which all the 
 operations within are disclosed to view, so is it with our hearts. 
 Everything within is naked and open to the eyes of Him with 
 whom we have to do. " Live guiltless : God is looking," was the 
 motto of Linnaeus, and is a suitable motto for others beside. 
 
 But " Thou, God, seest me " should bring us not warning only, 
 but comfort He looks upon us, not with, the cold eye of a 
 detective, but with the eye of a Friend and Father, who is deeply 
 interested in our good. He whose eye followed poor fleeing Hagar, 
 the slave, and whose voice spoke a word of comfort to her in her 
 distress, is looking down upon you in love. If you are relying upon 
 Him as your Father in Heaven, it will be with a thrill of thank- 
 fulness, and not with a shudder of guilty fear, that you turn to 
 Him and say — " Thou, God, seest me ! " 
 
t-IOt illV.ilO to Ourselves, January 10 
 
 •• Notu of us liveth to himself" (Rom. xiv. 7). 
 
 This is true in a sense of everybody. None of us could live only 
 to himself, even if he tried. We are all influencing one another. 
 The lives of difi"erent people are so interlaced with one another, that 
 one cannot be good without benefiting others, or bad without hurt- 
 ing somebody else. 
 
 But it is specially true of Christians, so far as they are worthy 
 of the name, that " none of us liveth to himself." Certainly Christ 
 did not. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and 
 to give His life a ransom for many. He both lived and died for 
 others. And if we are to be worthy followers of His, we, too, shall 
 be found living, not for self, but for others. 
 
 The selfish life is a miserable, unhappy, and, in the end, un- 
 successful life. You may remember the story of Kalph the Rover, 
 who, to serve his own ends, cut away the bell that used to warn 
 mariners away from the fatal Inchcape Rock. He hoped to secure 
 plunder from the wrecks. But one night, in a dreadful storm, his 
 own ship struck upon the self-same rock, from which the bell might 
 otherwise have warned him ; and, as he and his crew sank beneath 
 the waves, they were taught in a terrible way what a wretched 
 doom awaits the selfish life. 
 
 The truly Christian life, on the other hand, takes as its motto — 
 " As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men." It finds, 
 it contrives to make, such opportunities. And in helping others, 
 the follower of Christ is helped himself. For Christian service is 
 twice blessed. Any deed of love you render will not only benefit 
 him you seek to aid, but it will prove a blessing to yourself. You 
 will not be thinking of recompense, but Jesus will see to it that, 
 if you give even a cup of cold water in His name to a thirsty 
 soul, it shall not be left without reward. One of your hymns 
 appropriately prays — 
 
 "God make my life a little song 
 That comforteth the sad, 
 That helpeth others to be strong, 
 And makes the singer glad." 
 
January 11 zhc 3fo\vIer*s Snare. 
 
 " Escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers " (Ps. cxxiv. 7). 
 
 Do 3^ou know wliat a fowler is ? He is one wlio catches fowls, i.e., 
 what we now call birds or " fowls of the air." This he does in a 
 variety of ways. Sometimes he spreads a net with very fine meshes 
 over some tempting grain ; or he sets gins or traps for his feathery 
 victims; or he spreads quicklime on spots where they are likely 
 to settle, such as the tops of poles or tree branches, which holds 
 them fast. And then, he has often what are called " decoy birds," 
 — that is, birds which he has already caught, and tamed, and trained 
 to sing, so that they may tempt other birds into captivity. 
 
 Now there is one great fowler, against whom you must be upon 
 your guard. His name is Satan, the enemy of our souls. A clever 
 fowler is he. He spreads his grain. He sets his snares. He has 
 his decoy birds, too, in readiness. Alas for you, if he gets you 
 fairly entangled in the meshes of evil habit, or fettered in the 
 quicklime of despair ! Yet even then there is hope for you in 
 Christ, who has come to destroy the works of the devil, and who 
 delights to set the captive free. 
 
 The saddest captivity is that which has so broken the spirit of 
 the prisoner that he no longer has the heart to care for freedom. 
 A man who had been himself a captive in a foreign land once saw 
 an eagle, chained by the foot within a large iron-barred cage. He 
 resolved to buy for the noble bird his freedom. So, having paid 
 the price, he had a door of the cage flung open, and the fetter 
 removed. But, to his disappointment and the surprise of the 
 onlookers, the eagle never stirred. It had been so long in slavery 
 that it knew not what freedom meant. But in a moment or two, 
 a wing was stretched out, then the other, and the king of birds 
 looked up to the sky. The love of liberty was waking in his 
 breast. A minute more, and the disused pinions began to flap ; 
 and soon he was mounting upward to the azure blue. 
 
 May the Lord deliver you from every snare and evil work, and 
 give you to know the freedom wherewith He makes His people free, 
 — to rise higher and higher in the enjoyment of a heaven-bought 
 liberty. 
 
 Z2 
 
a little /DbintiStcr. January 12 
 
 " The child did minister unto the Lord " (1 Sam. ii. 11). 
 
 This i8 said of little Samuel, when he was living at Shiloh with 
 old Eli. It was not much that he could do, at that time, in the 
 way of service. He was not very strong, and he had not much 
 experience. But he had the desire within him to be useful, and he 
 was able every day to gratify that desire. He could open the door 
 of the tabernacle ; he could trim the sacred lamj)S ; he could in 
 many ways be a help and a comfort to God's High Priest. And 
 in all this, he was "ministering to the Lord." He was a little 
 minister, or servant, of Jehovah. 
 
 Now there is great room still in God's world for " ministering 
 children." There are words of love that none can speak so well as 
 they. There are deeds of kindness that can best be wrought by 
 little hands. There are messages of mercy en which little feet, 
 better than any other, may speed. 
 
 The great poet Wordsworth once wrote in a child's album these 
 words, which you should learn by heart — 
 
 " Small service is true service while it lasts : 
 Of friends, however humble, scoru not one. 
 The daisy, by the shadow that it casts, 
 Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun." 
 
 Certain it is, that Jesus does not despise any of His friends, 
 however humble. The smallest servant, and the littlest service, is 
 noted and valued by Him. 
 
 If, however, you are to serve Christ, you must give yourself to 
 Him. " Whose I am " should come first, and then " whom I serve," 
 in the motto of your life. But if this be so, you will not only be 
 found doing helpful things, but being a real heljj wherever you go. 
 " This is the little boy that helps the minister," said the pastor one 
 day, laying his hand on Johnny's head. The mother looked surprised, 
 but he continued — " Yes : for I see his eager attentive face looking 
 up at me week by week ; and he helps me to preach the better for 
 it." So Johnny ministered to the minister, you see, and through 
 him to the Lord. 
 
 »3 
 
January 13 ^be *WIl(sb(n0 ©ate. 
 
 " Wisdom is better tfum rubies" {PiOY. viii. 11). 
 
 There is a gate in the Lakes District in England called the Wishing 
 Gate. To it the young country people are said to resort, in the 
 belief that whatever wish they express while standing by it is very 
 likely to be granted. 
 
 If you could be brought to such a wishing gate, where what you 
 most desired was sure to be given, I wonder what your greatest 
 wish would be 1 To live long, to have plenty to eat and nothing to 
 do? Surely not. To be a grand lady, with rich dresses, a fine 
 carriage, a beautiful house, and plenty of servants ? Something 
 better, surely, than this. To be a mighty hero, famed for conquest, 
 and held in honour by a grateful and admiring nation "i Something 
 better yet than this. 
 
 Young Solomon made a wise choice, when he was brought to the 
 wishing gate. God said to him in a dream (1 Kings iii. 5) — " Ask, 
 what I shall give thee." And Solomon asked wisdom. God 
 approved his choice, and told him that, along with wisdom he 
 would get riches, and honour, and other things, which he had not 
 asked. And Solomon saw no reason afterwards to regret the 
 choice. He says, in the light of experience, concerning wisdom, 
 that it is " better than rubies." And so it is. Riches in the pocket, 
 or a jewelled diadem upon the head, is not to be compared in value 
 to the riches of the heart. What we have is of little account com- 
 pared to what we are. 
 
 Therefore, choose Wisdom. I write it here with a capital letter ; 
 because, while wisdom has been called " the choice of the best ends 
 and of the best means of attaining them," Wisdom is also a Person. 
 Again and again in the Book of Proverbs you find Wisdom so 
 represented ; and in this eighth chapter there are things said of 
 Wisdom that are true only of God's o-vvn Son. Choose Him. Take 
 Christ to your heart. If His Spirit dwell within you, yours will be 
 a happy life, a peaceful death, a glorious eternity. If you choose 
 Him, everything really desirable which you have not asked will be 
 also given to you by God. 
 
 H 
 
OOOO SJCbOlarg, January 14 
 
 " If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed " 
 (John viii. 31), 
 
 To whom was tliis spoken 1 "Was it to the Twelve ? No : it was to 
 "the Jews who believed on Him." So that, you see, those who 
 believe in Jesus are disciples : and all of them should seek to be 
 disciples indeed. Some are old disciples, like Mnason (with whom 
 Paul lodged, Acts xxi. 16). Others are young disciples, like 
 Timothy. Some have been long in Christ's school ; others only a 
 short time. But all, old and young, have much to learn yet from 
 such a Master, and ought to be eager to make the most of their 
 opportunities. 
 
 The word "disciples" means learners, or students, if you like. 
 Now we know that there are students and students at college ; 
 just as there are scholars and scholars in every school. Some are 
 content to have merely the name ; others do some work now and 
 again, by fits and starts. The true students, or scholars, are those 
 who love truth, and are patient in the pursuit of it. 
 
 Jesus wishes you to be good scholars in His school. If you 
 have believed in Him, you have obtained an entrance to His school, 
 as a beginner, in the lowest form. And perhaps you have risen 
 somewhat already. Go on learning, He says ; keep at it. Continue 
 in My word. Learn more and more, and live by what you learn. 
 If you are a humble, persevering learner and doer of My will, then 
 you will be a scholar worthy of the name, "a disciple indeed." 
 
 It is one of the great secrets of getting on in any art, to put in 
 practice what you have already learned. An old proverb says, 
 " Practice makes perfect." Well, religion is both a science and an 
 art. It invites you both to know and to do. You must therefore 
 seek to know more and more of the will of Jesus, and at the same 
 time to do it more perfectly ; and, as He Himself tells you, the 
 more diligently you do it, the better you will understand His 
 teaching. What a wonderful i^rivilege for you, to be an everyday 
 scholar in such a Master's school ! 
 
 15 
 
January 15 DID ill tbe IbCait. 
 
 " Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee" 
 (Ps. cxix. 11). 
 
 Why do you hide a thing? Either because you value it very 
 much, or because you are ashamed of it. The mother of Moses hid 
 her babe, because " he was a goodly child," and very dear. Moses, 
 long after, hid the Egyptian in the sand, because he was afraid to 
 have his deed of blood made known. 
 
 A boy or a girl has done something wrong. Shame says, " Hide 
 it." A boy or a girl owns something precious, that is in danger of 
 being taken away. Love says, " Hide it." May you have little to 
 hide this year in the first sense, else you are sure to be unhappy. 
 See that you hide God's Word m. the second sense, as a i^recious 
 treasure in the heart, and all your days will be joyous in the sun- 
 shine of His love. 
 
 " In the heart." Why in the heart ? 
 
 (1) Because the heart is the inmost, safest flace. A little girl in 
 a popish country was presented with a Bible. She learned through 
 it to know and love the Saviour. The promises of Scripture were 
 her comfort, and the pattern life of Jesus her constant study. But 
 people in that country were forbidden to read God's Word. What 
 did the little girl do to keep her Bible safe ? She buried it in the 
 garden : and she used to go as often as she could to dig up her 
 treasure, that she might enjoy the reading of it. Now, you have not 
 to hide God's Word in the garden. But you should hide it dee}) and 
 safe within the heart. An Irish boy whose Bible was burned by 
 his priest was able to tell him — " But you can't burn these chapters 
 that I have learnt by heart ! " And you are to hide God's Word 
 there — 
 
 (2) Because the heart is the place of greatest influence. There is 
 no part of the body so all-important as the heart. If it be sound, a 
 person as a rule is strong. If it be wrong, nearly everything goes 
 wrong. For the heart has to " circulate," or send round, the blood 
 to every member of the body. Now, just so is it with the spiritual 
 life. The state of "the heart" affects everything. From it goes 
 forth an influence which is felt on all that a person is and does. 
 See that you have God's Word then hidden there ! And remember 
 that " the Word " means sometimes not the Book, but the Son of 
 God (John i. 1). To have Him hid in the heart will be the secret 
 of a happy year and a happy life. 
 
 i6 
 
SblllC ! January 1(5 
 
 ^' Let your light so shine before men " (Matt. v. IG). 
 
 Shining is here brought before us as a duty. This verse tells us— 
 
 (1) JVho is expected to shine ? You ! Of course you must be lit 
 first, before you can shine. But if you are Christ's, you will be 
 found shining to some extent in His light. He says of Himself, 
 " I am the light of the world." But he also says to His people, 
 "Ye are the light of the world." And their business is, like the 
 reflector on the lighthouse tower, to send Christ's light out upon a 
 dark world. 
 
 (2) TVhcre ? In " the world " ; and that just means, your own 
 little world, wherever it may be. H the right spirit is in you, if 
 love shines out from you, it will reach somebody for good. A 
 believer once said despondingly — " I have no more influence than 
 a farthing rushlight." The answer was — "Well, a farthing rush- 
 light can do a great deal. It could set a haystack on fire, or burn 
 down a house ; and it can do more and better than that — it can heli) 
 some poor creature to read God's word, and to learn the way to 
 heaven." 
 
 (3) How? Through "good works." There must be not only 
 kind wishes in the heart, but kind deeds in the life ; for it is these 
 only that can be seen. Light itself is invisible. But we perceive its 
 presence in the objects it reveals. Now a very simple action, done 
 from a loving heart, may shed a deal of light on some darkened life. 
 A poor sufferer said — " That pretty posy in the cracked tumbler by 
 my bedside was brought to-day by a little girl, who said it was all 
 she had to bring. But it is worth a great deal to know I am 
 remembered. And that flower has made me think all day of the 
 green fields and posies I used to know when I was young ; and it 
 has reminded me of what a wonderful God we have. If this flower 
 was not beneath His making and care, He will not forget or overlook 
 the humblest of His children." 
 
 (4) JFlnj ? You are to shine, not that you may be admired, or 
 your goodness talked about, but that God may be glorified. An 
 architect once built a great pier, and put the king's name upon it 
 with words of honour. But after some years passed, the waves 
 washed off the concrete from the surface. And there, graven into 
 the stone, was the architect's own name in large letters seen ! Let 
 not yours be a mock hiimility like this. Be sure so to shine that 
 your Father, not you, may be glorified. 
 
 (2) 17 
 
January 17 ZbC JiSelOVeD. 
 
 " Acccjyfed in the Beloved" (Eph. i. 6). 
 
 This beautiful name makes us tliiuk of two things about Christ. 
 
 First, it makes us think of the love of His Father for Him. God is 
 love ; and He loves all the creatures He has made. But there is 
 One Being He loves above all else — the Son who dwelt in His bosom 
 from all eternity. Others are beloved ; but this is the Beloved. " My 
 Beloved Son, in whom I am ever well pleased." Can you wonder at 
 it ? Oh how God rejoiced to have such a Son I 
 
 Second, this name makes us thinkof the love of Ghrisfs people for Him. 
 There are manj^ whom they love on earth, and some have gone to 
 heaven. But He is to them "the chief among ten thousand, the 
 altogether lovely." He has the supreme place in their hearts. And 
 do you know the secret of it ? He has been more to them, and done 
 more for them, than any other could. He has been their Saviour. 
 He has opened the gate of heaven for them. They are " accepted in 
 the Beloved," 
 
 There is often a great love for Jesus in a little child's heart — a 
 love greater than for the nearest earthly friend. It is told of a great 
 philosopher, whose child lay dying, that, taking her hand, he said in 
 tears, " Do you love me, darling ? " " Yes," was the answer, " but I 
 love Jesus more." And that sorrowing father could not, in that 
 moment, be jealous of that love. 
 
 A little boy of five was reading to his mother one day, about the 
 Son of Man, who had not where to lay His head. He stopped for 
 a little, and said, with much emotion — " Oh, mother, if I had been 
 there, I would have given Him my pillow ! " Is Jesus your Beloved ? 
 And are you His ? Are you doing anything to show how much you 
 love Him 1 Kemember that He says — " If ye love Me, keep My 
 commandments." May it be yours to say to Him in all sincerity — 
 
 " My joy is in Thy beauty 
 
 Of holiness divine ; 
 My comfort iu the duty 
 
 That binds my life in Thine. 
 Oh for a heart to love Thee 
 
 More truly as I ought, 
 And nothing place above Tliee 
 
 In deed, or word, or thought." 
 
 i8 
 
^fi jewels. January 18 
 
 "In (hat day when I make up My jewels " (Mai. iii. 17). 
 
 The word "jewel" is derived, througli the Italian gioella, from the 
 word joy (gioja). It thus means, something that we rejoice in. It 
 commonly stands for precious stones or trinkets, used as ornaments 
 for the person, which many people are very fond of, and set a great 
 value upon. 
 
 Now, the jewels of God are not precious stones or ornaments of 
 gold, but the souls of His beloved people. In the great day, when 
 much that is worthless shall be destroyed by fire, He will see to it 
 that tJiey are kept safe. Not one of His people shall be amissing in 
 the day when He makes up His jewels. 
 
 A very little consideration will show you how unspeakably 
 precious the souls of His people are to Jcpus. 
 
 Think of tJie price Repaid to redeem them. It was not corruptible 
 things like silver and gold that He gave, but His own precious 
 blood. 
 
 Think of the search He made to recover them. He came all the 
 way from Heaven — He who humbleth Himself to behold the things 
 which are upon the earth — that He might search for His jewels in 
 the mud and grime of this sinful world until he found them. 
 
 Think of the care He takes of them. How He guards them, as 
 with His very life ! He is resolved that, whatever happens, they 
 shall be safe. And He says : " None shall be able to pluck them 
 out of My hand . . . and out of My Father's hand." Both Ilis hand 
 and His Father's hand are about them : so precious are His jewels. 
 
 Think of the preparation He bestows on them. Never did a 
 jeweller bestow such pains on getting a precious stone ready for its 
 place, as Jesus, by His Spirit, bestows on the souls He has 
 redeemed. 
 
 And think of the setting He has in store for them — a place in His 
 own glorious crown. They are His joy and " cro^\^l of rejoicing." 
 Oh, what an honour to have a place in the everlasting diadem of 
 Christ 1 
 
 19 
 
January 19 fijoot SSalaaill. 
 
 "Balaam also, the son of Beor, t\ey sleio with the stoord" (Num. rxxi. 8). 
 
 Such vras the end of this remarkable but unenviable man. Looking 
 at Balaam, we feel inclined at first to admire him ; but we soon see 
 reason not, after all, to envy him. 
 
 He was (1) a very majestic, but a very hollow man. You may have 
 seen a tree, tall and stately, with spreading branches and beautiful 
 green leaves, and you said — " A noble tree ! " But by and by the 
 woodman comes, and taps it with his axe. There is decay within. 
 There is a canker at its heart. It is, with all its fine appearance, a 
 rotten shell. Such was Balaam. 
 
 Then he was (2) a very clever, hid a very foolish man. He knew a 
 great deal more than other people. He was looked up to as a sage. 
 He could work wonders, and was counted a great magician. He 
 "could look after number one," and was very shrewd. He was 
 eloquent, and could even prophesy. But, after all, he was not 
 wise ; for to be wise and to be clever are too different things. With 
 all his knowledge, he did not know himself ; and he did not truly 
 know God. With all his shrewdness, he did not lay out his life 
 well. He lived for a -RTong end, and he used wrong means. There- 
 fore he was not wise. 
 
 He was, moreover, (3) a great gainer, hut a greater loser. No 
 doubt he was a successful man in a way, but not in God's way. 
 He was like a child giving up a valuable jewel for some toys. 
 When the toys were broken, or you had gro\^^l tired of them, you 
 might cry out for your jewel again in vain. So was it with poor 
 Balaam. He gained large influence — great fame — much gold — 
 kingly company and favour. But he lost God's favour. He lost 
 his own soul. So, what profit had he 1 
 
 The saddest thing about Balaam is, that (4) he was very near the 
 Jcingdom of God, and yet outside. He came into close contact with 
 God's people, and, in spite of himself, admired them. He blessed 
 instead of cursing them. He had much religious knowledge, and 
 could utter a pious wish about his death. But he fell fighting 
 against the cause and people of God, after temjjting Israel to gross 
 sin. How sad — to be so near and yet outside ! How sad — when a 
 great vessel goes down just outside the harbour 1 
 
 20 
 
XLbC JBrOkCn IbCart. January 20 
 
 "A broken and a contrite heart" (Ps. li. 17). 
 
 It is not the case with many things that they are more valuable 
 after being broken. But of some things this is true. 
 
 It \v;is true of the alabaster box of precious ointment, which the woman 
 brake (Mark xiv. 3). Had she kej^t it whole, it might have been 
 worth tliree hundred pence, as Judas said ; but when she broke it, 
 its fragrance filled tlie world, and its value could not be set down in 
 pence, or in pounds either. 
 
 It is also true of the body of Christ, that precious temple in which 
 the Holy Ghost dwelt, and which He had specially prepared for the 
 pure soul of Jesus to inhabit. Precious in itself, it became infinitely 
 more precious for us sinners, and therefore for Christ Himself, when 
 He could speak of it as " My body broken for you." For, through 
 the brc;iking of His body, — that is, His death ujjou the tree, — He 
 purchased our salvation. 
 
 And it is also true of the sinner's heart. The Bible sa^'s that, while 
 unbroken, the heart of the mcked is " little worth" (Prov. x. 20). 
 But, when broken, it is something which God will not despise. On 
 the contrary. He greatly values it. Much can be made of it then which 
 could not have been made of it before. And much is made of it. 
 For God makes it His dwellimj place. He says : " I will take up my 
 abode in that broken heart. With that man will I dwell, who is of 
 a humble and contrite heart." God also makes of it His rjarden. It 
 was too hard and stony before, to admit of beautiful flowers growing 
 in it. But when it is broken, the soil becomes soft and open ; and 
 the fair graces of the Spirit thrive within it. 
 
 When the great preacher Whitefield was at Exeter, a man in the 
 audience had his pocket full of stones, which he intended to throw 
 at the preacher. He waited through the prayer ; and, as the text 
 was about to be aim.ounced, he pulled out a stone. But God sent the 
 sword of the Spirit into his breast ; and the stone was never thrown. 
 He went up to Whitefield after the service, saying — " Sir, I came here 
 intending to give you a broken head ; but God has given me a 
 broken heart." The man proved himseK afterwards a good and useful 
 Christian. 
 
 It is a good prayer for each of us — " May I indeed have, Lord, 
 the broken and contrite heart I " 
 
 21 
 
January 21 (Jbe WbOlC Deatt. 
 
 "Blessed are they that seek Him mth the whole heart" (Ps. cxix. 2). 
 
 The broken heart, as we saw yesterday, is of much, value in the 
 sight of God. But there is a sense in which God values the whole 
 heart too. He likes the sinner to have a broken heart. But when 
 that is accomplished. He likes him as a believer to have a whole 
 heart. To this end God sends His Spirit, that He may renew the 
 heart of the penitent, and make it whole again, — though not in the 
 old hard sense, — that it may be wholly given to God. 
 
 If you ask what the whole heart is, and does, I will tell you. 
 
 It is a soft heart still : not cold, and selfish, and hard, but tender 
 toward God and man. It is a sound heart. Its beat is healthful. 
 Not weak and irregular, but strong, and steady, and true. It is a 
 simjle heart. Not divided in its loyalty, as with those of whom it 
 is said, "Their heart is divided, they are found faulty"; but 
 single in its attachment to Christ. And it is a satisfied heart. Not 
 fluttering about, vainly seeking rest and finding none ; not longing, 
 as a great man did, who had tasted all that worldly success and 
 praise could give him, for a short return to the earlier days of 
 youth and love which could never be recalled ; but a heart satisfied 
 in Christ, to whom a great sinner in the early days, who afterwards 
 became a great saint (Augustine), addressed these true and memorable 
 words — " Thou hast made us for Thyself ; and our hearts are restless, 
 until they find rest in Thee." 
 
 As to what the whole heart does, I will mention only three 
 things. It seeks God fully, and in doing so is blessed (Ps. cxix. 2) 
 It 'praises God constantly (Ps. ix. 1, cxi. 1, cxxxviii. 1), and in 
 doing so is made glad. And it obeys God cheerfully (Ps. cxix. 69), 
 and, keeping thus the precepts of God, it glorifies Him and does 
 good to others. 
 
 If you have received the broken heart, then ask that you may 
 also have the whole heart, which God delights to see in His own 
 people. Make up your mind that, whatever others may be, you are 
 not to be a " half-hearted " Christian. Be out and out for Christ ! 
 
 22 
 
Cbc blflbest IRanft anD tbe gratiDcst ^Itlc. January 23 
 
 " Tlutt we should he called the sons of Qod " (1 John iii. 1). 
 
 You young folks know what is meant by calling people names. 
 Those whom you love you call by good names. Those whom you 
 dislike or are angry with, you sometimes, I am afraid, call by bad 
 names. But our calling people names does not make them to be 
 what we call them. Though we give them a good name, that does 
 not always imply that they are really good. And your calling a 
 companion by a "nickname" does not necessarily mean that he 
 deserves it. It may tell more about you, and the state of your heart, 
 than about him. 
 
 But when God calls anybody by a certain name, it always means 
 a great deal. You may be sure that it is a name that applies to the 
 person to whom He gives it. 
 
 Now God here calls those whom He loves by a good name. Their 
 name is " Sons of God." No wonder the Apostle John holds up his 
 hands in amazed thankfulness ; for those who get this name from 
 God Himself have the highest rank and wear the grandest title. 
 " Behold, what manner of love the Father" — that is, Christ's Father, 
 and the Father of those who have Him as their Saviour and Elder 
 Brother — " hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons 
 of God I " 
 
 When our Sovereign wishes to show her regard for one of her 
 subjects, she sometimes gives him a new name, or what is called " a 
 handle to his name." She summons him into her presence ; he goes 
 down upon his knee before her ; she touches or gently strikes his 
 shoulder with a sword, saying, " Arise, Sir John " ; and although 
 when he knelt he may have been plain John Smith, he rises to his 
 feet a Knight. The Queen has called him so to good purpose. In 
 naming him a knight, she has made him one. 
 
 Even so, if God calls you something, you are sure to be it, if you 
 are not so already. Have you any reason to think that jou are 
 among the " us " of whom the verse speaks ? 
 
 23 
 
January 23 "Kicb tOWatD 60D. 
 
 " And IS not rich toward Ood " (Luke xii. 21). 
 
 This not applies to tlie man of whom these verses speak. He 
 was very rich in this world's reckoning. He had lands. He had 
 barns. He had grand crops. He had plenty of money. He had so 
 much of this world's good, that he was actually put about by it. 
 He needed to pull down his barns and build greater; and the time 
 for real enjoyment seemed to him to be still in the future — after he 
 had actually managed this, and so had secured a time of happiness. 
 But he was, after all, a very poor rich man. For he had no higher 
 thought than for the things of earth. All his plans were bounded 
 in by time. And with all his shrewdness, there was one thing he 
 forgot to take into account : and that was, what God might have to 
 say to his arrangements. This was a terrible mistake, as he very 
 soon and sadly found. And he said: " I will do this and that, and 
 then I shall be quite happy, and I will say to my soul. Take thine 
 ease, eat, drink, and be merry." But God said : " Thou fool, this 
 night shall thy soul be required of thee." And so God came that 
 night, and called his soul away. " He died rich," said the world. 
 " He died poor," said God. 
 
 I have known, dear young people, one who was rich in a very 
 different sense from this. His wealth lay, not in the beauty of his 
 Scottish estate on the banks of the Tummel, where at an early age 
 we buried him, but in the wealth of a nature which God, who made 
 him, had wonderfully endowed, and God, who redeemed him, had 
 unspeakably enriched. He was rich in a faith which, in early days, 
 had held out the hand to receive God's greatest Gift, and which 
 nerved him for duty and supported him in trial in after days. He 
 was rich in a love to the Saviour and to all, a love which flowed 
 forth wherever human sympathy might find its opportunity. He 
 was rich in good works : so that, though his ministry was short, he 
 lived much if not long, and left many behind him to bless his 
 name. 
 
 "We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 
 In feelings, not in figures on a dial; 
 We should count life by heart throbs. He lives most, 
 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 
 
 Let it be your aim and mine, so to live as to be rich toward God ! 
 24 
 
:J8ebOlD tbe Xanib ! January 24 
 
 " The next day John seeth Jesus, and sailh, Behold the Lamb of God " 
 (John i. 29), 
 
 Do you know what John's finger was pointing at when he spoke 
 these words? "Was it a flock of sheep? No. It was some men 
 passing ; and it was one of them whom he singled out, saying, 
 " Look, that is the Lamb of Grod ! " Wliat could he mean? 
 
 You know what a lamb is : one of the most innocent, meek, 
 modest, pure beings you can see. Now Jesus was all this. But 
 John means more than this when he points to Him and calls Him 
 the Lamb of God. 
 
 Also you know that a " lamb " is a term of endearment. Your 
 mother sometimes calls you " my lamb," because she is so fond of 
 you. And God loves Jesus dearly — far more than ever mother loved 
 her child ; but that is not why He is called God's Lamb. 
 
 To understand it, you miLst read the Old Testament. There you 
 often find lambs mentioned in connection with sacrifice. If you 
 had been a Jewish child, instead of a British one, you would have 
 been taken, not to church, but to the tabernacle or the temple j 
 and instead of hearing a sermon, you would have seen one. 
 
 Standing among the worshippers, you would have seen the 
 minister, or priest, offering up a lamb upon the altar, in room of 
 the sinful people. Could that save them ? No ; but it pointed 
 them to One who co'old. It spoke to them of God's Lamb, whom, 
 in the fulness of the time, God was to deliver up to the death for 
 U3. It told them of Jesus, who was to bear upon the cross of 
 Calvary the punishment due for our sins. 
 
 Long, long before, Abraham had said to his son Isaac, while 
 they were climbing Mount Moriah together — "My son, God will 
 provide Himself a Lamb for a burnt-offering." And now, John, 
 many generations after, is perceiving the deepest meaning of 
 Abraham's words. " This," he says, pointing to Jesus, " is the 
 Lamb of God, which bears, and bears away, the sin of the world." 
 
 Behold Him, young reader. Trust Him. Love Him. Follow 
 after Him. For, if you follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. He 
 will lead you at length into the throng who surround " the midst of 
 the throne " (Rev. v. C). 
 
 25 
 
January 25 MbOm 50 BOU SCXVCl 
 
 *'No man can serve two masters " (Matt. vi. 24). 
 
 There are several things we ought to bear in mind with regard 
 to service. 
 
 (1) We are all serving some master. People sometimes do not 
 acknowledge this. They boast of their freedom. So was it with the 
 Pharisees in the days of Jesus upon earth. They proudly declared 
 — " We are Abraham's seed : we never were in bondage to any 
 man." But what does Jesus say ? " Whosoever committeth sin is 
 the servant of sin." They thought themselves free ; but they were 
 aU the time slaves of the worst of masters. The question is — Who 
 is our master 1 We are certainly serving someone. 
 
 (2) Some are trying to serve two masters, but cannot. The two are, 
 Sin and God. But to serve both with the heart is impossible. Each 
 demands all our time and gifts. And their errands are in such 
 different directions that we cannot be giving obedience to both. 
 Nay, so opposed are the two, that, if the one have our heart, the 
 other may be, to a large extent, shut out of our thoughts. " If any 
 man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Robert 
 Hall wrote the word G-O-D on a slip of paper, and then put a 
 sovereign over it, to illustrate how completely the world may, to an 
 earthly mind, shut God out from view. Even a farthing, if brought 
 close to the eye, will hide entirely the glorious sun. 
 
 (3) TJiere is only One Master whom we ought to own and obey. He 
 is not a tyrant, but our Father. He does not give wages, as Sin does, 
 whose wages is death. But, being our Father, He gives us food, 
 and home, and comfort, and everything. He says to us, as His 
 children in Christ, " Son, all that I have is thine." And what He 
 expects from us is — the free, and joyous, and interested service of a 
 son in the Father's house. 
 
 Whom, then, do you serve ? Is Sin to have your heart, whose 
 service is the worst of slavery ? Or is God to have it, whose service 
 is perfect freedom ? 
 
 36 
 
ZTbC Secret of Ipaurs Xlte. January 26 
 
 " / live by the faith of the Son of Ood, who loved me, and gave Himse^/or me " 
 (Gal. ii, 20). 
 
 Paul here lets us into the secret of his life. When the physicians 
 were probing in the breast of one of Napoleon's veterans for the 
 bullet which was lodged there, he said, with a faint smile, 
 "A little deeper, and you will find the emperor." And so, when 
 you probe to the heart of the Apostle Paul, you find — King Jesus. 
 The uppermost thought with him ever is — " He loved me, and gave 
 Himself for me. And now He is my life." 
 
 It is told of a Roman servant, that, kno\ving that the enemy were 
 searching for his master to put him to death, he dressed himself in 
 his master's clothes, and, being mistaken for him, was captured and 
 put to deatli in his room. This was wonderful devotion ; and it is no 
 wonder that the master should have erected a monument of brass 
 in remembrance of such a servant. But here is something more 
 wonderful far — the Prince of Heaven taking upon Him the form of 
 a servant, that He might suffer in the sinner's stead. " He loved me, 
 and died for me." 
 
 Whenever Paul's love is in danger of growing cold, he has just 
 to remind himself of this — " He loved me." Whenever his faith is 
 getting weak, he falls back on this for his strengthening — " He gave 
 Himself for me." When his hope is threatening to grow dim, this 
 revives it — " He loved me, and gave Himself for me." If He did 
 this for me. He did it for a great end, which is sure to be attained. 
 Having conquered death, He ever lives to be my Helper. Why 
 should I fear ? Oh, it is a blessed thing to have such a Saviour to 
 trust in, and such a faith to live by. It is not the strength of your 
 faith, remember, that saves you, but the strength of Him on whom 
 it rests. It was said to a good Christian woman once — " And are 
 you the woman with the great faith ? " She answered — " No ; but I 
 am the woman with a little faith in the great Saviour." How 
 strong is the life that is lived by the faith of the Son of God ! How 
 happy is the death which is died in the faith of Him who loved us, 
 and gave Himself for us 1 
 
 27 
 
January 27 JO^fUl iprogrCSS. 
 
 ^ As the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day " 
 (Prov. iv. 18). 
 
 This is the kind of life I would wish, for you ; this is the sort of 
 path which I hope yours is to be — "the path of the just," or 
 righteous. By these are meant those who are accepted for Jesus' 
 sake, and in whose heart have been implanted the beginnings of 
 holiness. They are trusting Jesus, and becoming more like Jesus 
 day by day. 
 
 The life of such, we are here reminded, is (1) A bright life. It 
 is set in opposition to the way of the wicked, which is as darkness. 
 The two are as unlike as day and night are. Once the Christian, too, 
 was in darkness. But now he is light in the Lord ; and his is a 
 bright, joyous, gladsome life. But, further, it is (2) a helpful life. 
 The sun does not shine up in the sky for himself. He shows forth 
 the glory of God, and he does, at the same time, good to men. So, 
 if your path is to be " as the light of dawn," you will not be shining 
 only for yourself, but for others. God will be glorified in you, and 
 others blessed. Your cheerful radiance will shine out upon a world 
 of sin. Yours will be a gladdening, light-giving life. You will 
 be among the joy-bringers. And, then, we are here taught that 
 the Christian life is (3) a growing life. Just as the light of dawn 
 shines more and more unto the perfect day, so your life should grow 
 in beauty and in splendour with the years. It should be like the 
 path of the sun as he mounts upward to the meridian of his 
 strength. 
 
 But at this point the figure fails. For the sun, as we know, 
 begins to decline again, when the zenith has been reached. But 
 whatever may be said of his outward bodily life, the inner life of 
 the Christian — the life of his soul — should never know decline. " I 
 will constantly go on," should be his motto. " From glory to glory," 
 should be his path of happy progress. His is a life that leads to the 
 perfection of beauty — where God shtues. There is no night there, 
 and no possibility of even the most short-lived eclipse. !May the 
 good Spirit lead you on to that land of uprightness 1 
 
 28 
 
HLOOll unto /[he ! January 28 
 
 "Look unlo Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth " (Isa. xlv. 22). 
 
 One wintry day, 15tli December 1850, a boy of sixteen who had 
 intended to go to a church farther away, but was prevented by the 
 snow, went into a little ^Methodist Chapel in the town of Colchester, 
 in England. He was the son of pious i)arcnts, and was longing 
 after the truth ; but latterly he had been in great darkness and 
 distress of mind. A thin, pale man entered the pulpit : and, after 
 giving out the text (as above), he turned to where the youth was 
 sitting and said — " Young man, you are in trouble. You will never 
 get out of it until you look to Christ. Look I Look ! Look ! " The 
 youth afterwards tells : " I had been waiting to do fifty things ; 
 but when I heard this word 'Look,' what a charming word it 
 seemed to me. Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked 
 my eyes away ; and in heaven I will look on still, with joy 
 unutterable." 
 
 Do you know who that boy was? His name was Charles 
 Haddon Spurgeon, the greatest English preacher, in some respects, 
 of this or perhaps any century. The thin, pale Methodist preacher 
 did a good day's work, by the blessing of God, when he pointed him, 
 and multitudes through him, to the Saviour, that snowy Sabbath 
 morning in Colchester. 
 
 And now, he being dead yet speaketh. The message of his 
 ministry, so greatly blessed of God, and the message from his grave 
 at Upper Norwood to every boy and girl who reads this, is — " Look ! 
 Look to Christ ! There is life for a look at the Crucified One." 
 
 Tliis is a call to be addressed to "all the ends of the earth," 
 because this is something which people everj^vhere need, and need 
 more than anything else — to be " saved." And, dear j'oung reader, 
 is it not a wonderful and a blessed thing that this great need can be 
 so very simply met? It has cost God a great deal to provide 
 salvation : His own Son had to die in the room of sinners in order 
 to secure it. But all that is asked of you, in order that you may 
 have it, is a look — a simple look of trust to Jesus as your Eedeemer. 
 He has been lifted up that He might draw not only men and 
 women, but boys and girls to Himself 
 
 29 
 
January 29 Sll unsparlnfl (30&. 
 
 "He spared not His otim Son" (Rom. viii. 32). 
 
 God is tlie great sparer. He is sparing of His children (Mai. iii. 17). 
 Wlien He calls them to serve, He does not lay upon them an 
 unaided and overwhelming task. And when He calls them to 
 suffer, He does not permit them to be tried above that which, by 
 His help, they are able to bear. He " tempers the wind to the 
 shorn lamb." 
 
 But God is also the great giver ; and, for what He deemed a 
 worthy end, — the salvation of poor lost souls, — He was found ready 
 to give the very best He had to give, with unsparing hand. 
 
 This is the great wonder of the Bible. It is the wonder of 
 Heaven. It will be the wonder of eternity : — " God spared not His 
 own Son." 
 
 We cannot understand it. Your father and mother might be 
 able to tell a little of what it means, if you were to propose to go to 
 the heart of Africa where fever rages, or to some island where poor 
 lepers dwell, in order that you might do good among your fellow- 
 creatures. Would it not cost them a sore pang to part with you, 
 even for so good an end ? I know a mother who gave a bright 
 j^oung son to the mission-field in Africa. He laboured on for the 
 good of the poor black people there for a number of years, often in 
 complete solitude, sometimes in privation and in weakness. Then 
 the time for furlough came, and he had actually entered the 
 steamer to start down the lake toward home. But the people, 
 feai'ing Arab attacks, implored him to remain, and he had his 
 1 nggage taken ashore again. Then, after a time, fever laid hold of 
 him, and, at the age of thirty-one, he died in the midst of those he 
 longed to save, giving his last thoughts to the work for which he 
 had given his life. Can you wonder that a mother, while thankful 
 to have such a son, and thankful that he had given himself so nobly 
 to the service of Christ, should have a sore, sore heart in being called 
 to part with him ? 
 
 But even a case like this falls far short of what our text relates. 
 No son was ever to an earthly parent what God's cum Son was to 
 Ilim ; and never was there love such as the Father had for Him. 
 Yet, marvel of marvels, " for us " God spared not His own Son I 
 
 30 
 
tCHtb Ibfm-all tbln(J5. January 30 
 
 " How shall He not with Ilim also freely give us all things V (Roin. viii. 32), 
 
 This is what the apo.^tle argues from the fact that was under our 
 consideration yesterday, that " God spared not His own Son." Is 
 He likely, then, asks Paul, to grudge us anything else that will be 
 for our proper good ? If He has given this great and unspeakable 
 proof of His love for sinners, is He likely to withhold smaller 
 tokens of it ? 
 
 A friend pays j'our debt of £1000, let us say, to get you out of 
 prison. Is he likely to grudge you enough to keep you in life till 
 you are able to find work again? Or someone gives you a rich 
 jewel, worth more money than you could easily count. Is he likely 
 to grudge the casket which is needed to protect it ? 
 
 If the Queen conferred on a poor subject a rich estate, would the 
 royal treasury be taxed severely in order to pay his railway fare to 
 the place ? If your father plans by night and works by day in the 
 sweat of his brow to provide you with food, clothing, and education 
 for your future calling, would it not be Buri^rising— nay, quite 
 incredible — if he were to grudge you a drink of water? And if 
 God spared not His own Son, the giving of whom cost Him more 
 than tongue can tell, will He refuse to j'ou, who, in accepting 
 Christ, have become one of His children, that which costs Him next 
 to nothing? Surely not. 
 
 " How shall He not with Him ? " Ah, this is the important 
 word for us all — with Him ! With Him, or without Him — 
 which are you to-day ? Is He yours, or is He not ? 
 
 Without Him — that means a haj)hazard, risky life. No 
 matter what else you may have, you cannot be really satisfied ; and 
 you have no security for even the lesser good you enjoy. With 
 Him — you have fulness of provision, and complete security of good. 
 You can never exhaust the love that has bestowed upon you 
 Christ. And nothing can ever separate you from that love. People 
 speak about " insuring their lives." With Him, your life is well 
 insured; and your endless happiness too. 
 
 31 
 
January 31 /iftarlicO 111 tbe jBar an& in tbe jfoot. 
 
 " Mij sheep hear My voice, and I himo them, and they follcno Me " 
 (John X. 27). 
 
 When Christ sj^eaks, some do not listen ; others do. When He calls, 
 some do not follow ; others do. As an old writer, Jay of Bath, 
 quaintly says, " The shecj) of Christ are marked in the ear and in 
 the foot." You know to whom sheep On a hillside belong by tlie 
 mark or brand upon them ; and this is how Christ's sheep are 
 known to be His — " They hear His voice, and they follow Him." 
 
 Are. you able to recognise Christ's voice ? Have you ever heard 
 it ? Is there anything in its tones that ajipeals to something in 
 your breast? 
 
 Many years ago, a farmer in the liackwoods of America was out 
 working in the fields Avith his sons. His wife was away to the 
 village ; and at home there was a young child, with her older 
 sister Kegina left in charge. The latter was sitting down to teach 
 the child a little hymn which she had often heard her mother sing, 
 when, suddenly, the barn is seen ablaze ! The Indians are upon 
 them. The father and brothers lie bleeding. And Regina and her 
 little sister are carried off to the Indian settlement. Ten years pass. 
 By that time Regina's mother is old and careworn ; and she herself 
 is a tall Indian girl, though she still remembers some of the texts 
 and hymns she learned in earlier days. A successful war has been 
 waged against the Indians, and they have agreed to restore all 
 white captives by a certain day, at a certain fort. There are 
 two hundred of these ; and friends, including Regina's mother, are 
 there to claim their own. But the poor old woman does not see 
 Regina, and Regina does not know her ; and the disappointed 
 mother is in tears. " Is there nothing she will remember you by ? " 
 the captain asks. The mother thinks. " Possibly the hymn I 
 used to sing to her at her cradle." And immediately her voice 
 quavers forth — 
 
 " Alone, yet not alone, am I, 
 I find my Saviour ever nigh ; 
 Though in this solitude so drear, 
 He comes the weary hours to cheer, 
 I am with Him, and He with me: 
 Even here, alone I cannot be," 
 
 The old familiar verse, sung out, though more feebly, by the old 
 familiar voice, did its appointed work. It struck a chord of 
 memory in a j^oung breast ; it made a bright pair of young eyes to 
 glisten ; and soon a handsome young woman had stepped from 
 the group of rescued captives and flung herself upon her mother's 
 neck. Regina required no pressing to follow her mother home. She 
 heard her voice, and followed her. So may it be with you and 
 Christ ! 
 
 33 
 
(Slant Iberinon. February 1 
 
 He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray" 
 (Luke ix. 28). 
 
 So Luke introduces to us the scene of Christ's Transfiguration. 
 Both Matthew and Mark speak of it as " an hi(jh mountain apart," 
 and we gather from the former that it was in the north, in the 
 region of C.Tsarea Pliilijipi. Hence it is now gt-nerally believed to 
 have been Hermon rather tlian Tabor, which was a good deal farther 
 south, and the summit of whicli was not a place of solitude in our 
 Lord's time, but the site of a considerable fortress and town. 
 
 He went up "to pray." For the Son of God was a man of 
 prayer, and many a mountain-top in Palestine is hallowed ground, 
 because there He poured out His soul in communion with His 
 Father. Often Jesus had not where to lay His head ; but He 
 always found a place for prayer, and ofttimes, we are told. He 
 spent "all night in prayer" — not for Himself alone, but for those 
 whom God had given Him in the world, that they might be kept 
 from the evil in it. 
 
 " And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, 
 and His raiment was white and glistering." What a sight awaited 
 the astonished eyes of the three sleeping disciples when they were 
 awakened from their slumber I For they saw their Master then as 
 they had never seen Him before. They were eye-witnesses of His 
 majesty. They had a glimpse of the Prince of Heaven, with His 
 earthly guise for a brief season thrown aside. They saw the Man 
 of Sorrows clad in His native livery of heaven, and with a joyous 
 kingliness upon His face that spoke of His coming victory through 
 death. 
 
 " And behold there talked with Him two men, which were Moses 
 and Elias." With what rapt interest would the three privileged 
 disciples listen to the converse which passed between their Master 
 and these two glorified saints, as they spake together of the decease 
 which He shoidd accomplish at Jerusalem ! Moses and Elias ! It 
 would be a deeply moving sight to see these noble servants of the 
 olden time, with Jesus in the midst ; and we cannot wonder that 
 Peter would fain have continued on the mount. 
 
 But, suddenly, when they looked round, the glorious scene had 
 vanished ! " They saw Jesus only with themselves," and the 
 mountain slope was bare and ordinary as before. " Jesus only " ! 
 But was not He enough 1 " Hear ye Him," the Father's voice from 
 heaven had said to them and us. The Transfiguration scene has 
 served its purpose for Jesus and for them ; so let it pass. And as 
 the Saviour steps from the mount of glory into the vale of tears 
 below, let them not imagine that His true glory is in anywise left 
 behind. It consists, not in radiant apparel, but in the divine nature, 
 60 full of sympathy and power, which shines through His every look 
 and act, and which forthwith finds an object for itself in the dis- 
 tressed lunatic boy just at the foot of the Transfiguration Mount. 
 
 (3) 33 
 
February 2 jzbc trustee auO tbe ^Treasure. 
 
 " / know whom I have believed " (2 Tim. i. 12). 
 
 This is very often misquoted — " I know in wliom I have believed." 
 But an old saint, who was at the same time a scholar, was right 
 when he said — " No ; leave out the in. I cannot allow even a 
 preposition to come in between me and my Saviour. I know whom 
 I have trusted." It was Professor (or " Eabbi ") Duncan who said 
 that. 
 
 Paul here speaks of Christ as the Trustee to whom he had 
 committed something that he was sure would be quite safe in His 
 keeping. It was something so very precious that he could not dare 
 to keep it himself, and there was no one else but One only to whom 
 he could entrust it. But in the keeping of that One, he knew, no 
 evil could befall it. For that One he knew well, and knew how 
 worthy He was of the fullest confidence. 
 
 You may have heard of the Kohinoor Diamond, which was in 
 the possession of Dhuleep Singh. The name means the Mountain 
 of Light, and the precious stone was valued at £120,000. It now 
 belongs to the British Crown. Well now, suppose you had that 
 wonderful diamond put into your hand, and were strictly charged 
 to keep it safe for a month or a year— how would you feel ? Kather 
 uncomfortable, I should say. To have charge of it even for a day 
 would be torture. You would be afraid to carry it about with you, 
 and afraid to leave it anywhere, in case it should be stolen. But if 
 you handed it over to your father, and he put it into his " safe," 
 which fire could not enter, and thief coxild not break into, your 
 mind would be at ease ; for you know your father, whom you trust, 
 and you have confidence that he is able to keep things of the 
 greatest value safe. 
 
 But now there is something far more precious than the Kohinoor ; 
 and that is your immortal soul. You dare not try to keep it your- 
 self. Even your father or your mother cannot undertake to keep it 
 for you. But Christ can. And if you go to Him, and say from the 
 heart, " Lord Jesus, I commit my precious soul to Thee," He answers, 
 " Be not afraid. None shall be able to pluck you out of My hand." 
 
 34 
 
0000 IRunnlng. February 3 
 
 "So run, that ye may obtain " (1 Cor. ix. 21). 
 
 If you are to run to any good purjiose in a race, there is one thing 
 you must be very clear about to begin with, and that is, the goal you 
 vnsh to reach. The apostle lays stress upon that in tliis chapter ; 
 and he is able to say of himself, that he does not run "as un- 
 certainly." He is quite decided as to the point he is aiming at, and 
 the prize he hopes to win. Ho does not go zigzag on the course, 
 or pursue his way with halting and uncertain step, but he presses 
 straight toward the mark. 
 
 Another thing, as he tells us elsewhere (Heb, xii. 1), which we 
 must be careful about, is — to " lay aside every weight." Earnest 
 runners in a race strip off all unnecessary burdens ; and the man that 
 carries a needless load upon his back is too much handicapped to 
 hope for much success. A long, trailing robe would be specially 
 hiudersome, and would certainly be flung aside by one who meant 
 business in his running. Even so with the Christian race. "We 
 must not allow ourselves to be encumbered, either by the cares or 
 by the pleasures of the world ; and we must put from us the en- 
 tangling robe of unbelief, which so easily besets us, to trip us up at 
 every step. 
 
 And, again, having the right goal in view, and having stripped 
 off what would hinder, you must run with patience (Heb. xii. 1) the 
 race that is set before us. The word means what you boys would 
 call " staying-power." In order to attain it, you sometimes go into 
 " training " for your competitions, and exercise a good deal of self- 
 denial, so as to strengthen your powers of endurance when the 
 testing-time arrives. Some, as you know, in an ordinary race, go 
 bravely from the starting-place ; and it seems at first as if they 
 were to carry all before them. There is a grand spurt. But then, 
 alas ! all is over with them. They get " puffed out," they lose 
 heart, and are soon outstripped by those whom they headed at the 
 start. Let it be different with you. See that you run with " staying- 
 power " ; for, if this is needed anywhere, it is certainly needed in 
 tlie Christian race. That you may have it, keep " looking unto 
 Jesus," who is able by His Spirit to give you courage and strength, 
 day by day, and moment by moment, as you need it. 
 
 35 
 
February 4 CbtlSt OUt Captaftt. 
 
 " Tlie Captain of salvation" (Heb. ii. 10). 
 
 "We hear a good deal in these days of tlie " Salvation Army " ; and 
 perhaps you may have seen some of its curious " regiments " passing 
 along the streets. Whatever may be said of these people and their 
 strange ways, they have got hold of a right idea. The followers 
 of Jesus are an army — striving to subdue the whole world to 
 Him. 
 
 Much might be said of this army. Let me just ask you to 
 remember what their banner is — Love ; their music — Hope ; their 
 weapon — Truth ; their enemy — Sin ; their field of battle — Every- 
 where ; their Captain — Christ. 
 
 How it encourages the Church to know that their great Leader ia 
 with them. When Wellington's men were wavering one day in 
 battle, he himself rode forward into their midst. One of the men, 
 seeing him, cried — " There's the Duke ! God bless him ! I had 
 rather see his face than a whole brigade." Then followed a 
 tremendous cheer ; and at once the tide of battle was turned. So is 
 it with the Captain of Salvation. When we have such a Leader, 
 victory is sure. He Himself has borne the brunt of battle. On 
 Him, made perfect through suffering, the enemy tried his worst in 
 vain. He died to conquer, and rose again to reign. He can never 
 know defeat. 
 
 Will you not join this army of Christ, battling against sin and 
 wrong, and trying to bring in righteousness and peace in all the 
 earth ? Perhaps you say — " I can't do much as a soldier." But there 
 is one fortress you ought to ask strength from Him to take and 
 keep. It is mentioned in Proverbs xvi. 32 ; and to take and keep 
 it may be harder than to take a city. But Jesus can enable you to 
 overcome, and to drive out the pride, selfishness, hatred, envy, and 
 other enemies that are lurking there. And if you desire to promote 
 His kingdom among others. He will help you by His Spirit to do 
 that too. 
 
 36 
 
SatlSficD at Hast. February 6 
 
 " I shall he satUJied, when I awake, with Thy likeness" (Ps. xvii. 15). 
 
 There is a sense in wliicli it is true that we ought to live in con- 
 tentment — to be "content with euch things as we have." I hope 
 you will never be found among the grumblers, who are never thank- 
 ful, but always complaining, and who, miserable themselves, do their 
 best to make everybody around them unhappy too. 
 
 But there is, also, a sense in which the Christian even cannot be 
 fully satisfied, so long as he is here. He is discontented : not with 
 his surroundings, however, so much as with himself. His heart is 
 craving after something, which he never perfectly attains on earth ; 
 and that thing is the thing which he most of all longs for. 
 
 We are all wishing something more than we yet have. And 
 what we are wishing most, reveals what sort of persons we are. 
 Here is a boy whose one desire is to grow up rich and famous. That 
 tells me what sort of boy he is, and what kind of man he is likely to 
 be. Or here is a girl, whose crowning anxiety is to grow up tall and 
 beautiful, so as to be envied and admired. That tells me what sort 
 of girl she is, and what kind of woman she is likely to become. But 
 even if such things as these could be attained by you, at their best, 
 would they really satisfy your heart ? No ; for over every foimtain 
 of mere earthly satisfaction the words are written — "He that 
 drinketh of this fountain shall thirst again." 
 
 But now, there is in the true Christian's heart a desire which 
 tells us what sort of person he now is, and is not only likely but 
 sure to become. It is a desire which, when fulfilled, will bring 
 him full satisfaction — ^the desire to be made like to Christ. Tlie 
 words of Augustine are worth repeating here — " Thou, Lord, hast 
 made us for Thyself j and our hearts are restless till they find 
 rest in Thee." And though the soul that trusts in Christ does 
 have some taste, even on earth, of the sweetness of rest in Him, the 
 believer is never completely satisfied here below. With Christ, and 
 like Clirist, is to him the guiding star of hope. " I shall be satisfied, 
 when I awake, with Thy likeness." 
 
 37 
 
February 6 zbc IRame to be 1Rememberc^. 
 
 " / mil make Thy name to he remembered in all generations " (Ps. xlv. 17). 
 
 Whatever other name may be in view in tliis psalm, it refers 
 especially to the name of Christ. A greater than Solomon is here. 
 The King of whom this ancient song speaks is fairer than the sons 
 of men. His bloodless victories are still going on. His army is 
 always receiving fresh recruits, and never wants for officers from 
 age to age. Instead of the fathers He takes the children, to make 
 them princes in all the earth. And, though unseen. He continues 
 to live in the hearts of multitudes. The promise is fulfilled — " I 
 will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations." 
 
 When Jesus was on earth, if anybody had said that His name 
 would be thus enshrined in the memories and hearts of men in all 
 succeeding ages, he would have been laughed to scorn by the great 
 ones of the time. Many learned men lived then who thought 
 themselves far more worthy of being remembered ; but their names 
 are quite forgotten. And so with many powerful men, who figured 
 largely in the public eye in their day, but have now sunk into 
 complete oblivion. Yet the name of Jesus has not lost any of its 
 lustre. It rather grows in glory and in preciousness with the years. 
 Napoleon was right when he contrasted the fame and influence of 
 Jesus with his own, and with that of Alexander and other mighty 
 men before him. " We founded our empires upon force ; but on 
 Avhat was the empire of Jesus founded ? Upon love j and I tell you 
 that, to this day, millions would die for Him ! " 
 
 In what way does God cause the name of Christ to be always 
 remembered ? He does it in His Word. It lives for ever ; and the 
 name of Christ lives with it. In its every part, indeed, the Bible 
 is meant to point and to lead up to Jesus. But He especially makes 
 Him to be remembered in the living souls which hail Him as 
 Saviour and as King. He shall have a seed to serve Him in all 
 generations. Are you to be among those who, by what you are and 
 say and do, make the name of Christ to be remembered, and thought 
 upon, and loved in your own day and generation upon earth ? 
 
 32 
 
ftcpt from tbC JSViU February 7 
 
 " I pray not that Thcni shouldesl lake them out of the world, but that Thou 
 shoxildest keep them from the evil " (John xvii. 15). 
 
 Some years ago, away in the desert of Judea, I visited a strange, 
 solitary place, inhabited by a number of strange, solitary-looking 
 people. It was a monastery called Marsaba ; and those who lived in 
 it were what are called monks — persons who live apart from their 
 fellow-men, and think in that way to become holier and better. 
 They were curious-looking mortals, in their long and not over-clean 
 robes. Most of them were already old ; and it could be seen upon 
 the faces of many of them that, in earlier days, they had known a 
 good deal of the world and of sin. Yet there they were, trying in 
 in their own way to be good. 
 
 Theirs was not, however, Christ's way. He desires His people 
 to be good, not by going out of the world, but whOe remaining in it. 
 You -will not shut out the bad heart by shutting yourself up in a 
 monastery. But if you have God's Spirit dwelling within you, and 
 keeping you from the evil, then you may be in the world and yet 
 not of it. Like the diver when he goes down into the depths of the 
 ocean, and yet by his tube apparatus is kept in communication with 
 the upper air, so you, by prayer, may even in the world breathe the 
 atmosphere of heaven. For His people's own sake, and for the 
 world's sake — for their education, and for its good — Jesus desires, 
 not that His people should be taken out of the world, but that they 
 should be kept in it from the evil. 
 
 This is the very prayer your mother offers for you. Slipping 
 up to your room, after you are asleep perhaps, she tells Jesus of her 
 anxieties about you. " Mary — Johnnie — not out of the world. Lord, 
 for how sorely I woidd miss them ; but oh, keep them from the evil ! " 
 It was your father's prayer for you, perhaps, when you were sent 
 first to school ; or when, later on, you had to set forth into the 
 greater school of the world. 
 
 Make it your own prayer. " Lord, help me to live in the world 
 60 as to please Thee. I am surrounded by sin, and there is sin in 
 my heart. But do Thou save me and keep me ; and so I shall be 
 truly safe and happy, now and for ever." 
 
 39 
 
Februarys jfllSectlng iptaces tor Bll. 
 
 " The rich and poor ineet together : the Lord is tlie maker of them all " 
 (Prov, xxii. 2). 
 
 This verse reminds us that, thougli people are di^dded into rich and 
 poor, and though class is separated from class in some respects in 
 human society, there are certain ties which bind all men together, 
 and certain places in which the rich and the poor do meet. 
 
 The first of these which I would mention is — (1) The Cradle. To 
 be born into this cold and sorrowful world, is much the same 
 experience for the rich man's as for the poor man's child. There 
 may be a little softer down on the cradle of the one, and more 
 ornamentation round the cradle-head. But, to make up for this, 
 the poor child has often more of the mother's bosom and loving care. 
 And the earliest lessons of life are much the same to both. The 
 mysteries of the alphabet and of the multii^lication table are no 
 easier to the peer's son than to the peasant's. They are equally 
 dependent, in the matters of food, sleep, opening intelligence ; and 
 they both need the same schooling in obedience, to fit them for their 
 future place in life. There is no royal road to learning. 
 
 (2) The Gross is another place where rich and poor meet together. 
 Their paths may lead them apart, after early youth is past ; but in 
 the heart of them they are not so very far away from one another. 
 In one thing, at anyrate, they are alike : they have both met 
 temptation, and fallen before it. They have both sinned, and are 
 sinners in the sight of God. And if they have been brought to 
 realise this, there is one, and only one way of salvation for them. 
 " God be merciful to me, a sinner," is as suitable a cry for a young 
 princess as for a poor outcast of the city slums. Both need the 
 cleansing blood. There is a meeting place at the Cross. 
 
 (3) The Church is another place where rich and poor gather together, 
 Jesus welcomed to Him the rich nobleman and the beggar at the 
 gate, the woman who was a sinner and the ruler of the Jews ; and 
 those who believed in Him were prized by Him, for something else 
 than their worldly rank. So should it be in His Church. Though 
 differences of wealth and worldly j^osition remain, and must remain, 
 they must not be allowed to estrange hearts from one another, 
 through either the rich man's or the i^oor man's pride. Those who 
 sit at the one Communion Table should be brethren in Christ. 
 
 (4) The Cemetery, too, is a place where all miist meet. One may 
 be buried in an oaken coSin, and another in a pauper's shell. But 
 death is no resj^ecter of persons, and "dust to dust" applies to all. 
 And looming out beyond the cemetery is the Judgment Seat, where 
 " small and great " must stand, before the great white Throne. 
 
 40 
 
®n Eartb, as (n "Ibcaven. February 9 
 
 " Thy xoUl he clone in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. vi. 10). 
 
 There are two jjlaces mentioned here, which are very difTerent from 
 each other. The difl'ei'ence is not so much that the one is a place of 
 brightness and joy, and the other a place of toil and trouble. It 
 consists, first and chiefly, in this — that in the one God's will is done, 
 and in the other it is not. This is where the great difference lies 
 between heaven and earth. 
 
 You know what a " will " is. In one sense it is a document left 
 behind a person who is dead, to let others know what he wishes, or 
 wills, should be done with his possessions. But, in its first and 
 proper sense, it is a power within us, by which we choose and de- 
 termine that certain things shall, if we have our way, be done. Our 
 will directs our limbs ; a general's will directs his army; God's will 
 directs the universe. 
 
 Now it is certain that on earth a great many things do obey the 
 will of God. He makes the winds His messengers, and flames of 
 fire His ministers or servants. All nature around us is obedient to 
 God's voice ; and when we look up to the sky, we see the orbs of 
 light, harmoniously though silently singing their Creator's praise. 
 But there is one thing, alas ! which we find set in opposition to the 
 will of God. And that is, the will of man — by which I mean the 
 will of boj's and girls, as well as of grown-up men and women. 
 This is a sad and dreadful state of matters ; more sad and hurtful 
 than if your limbs some day refused to obey your will, or the soldiers 
 of an army to obey their wise and brave commander. 
 
 Now, if you sincerely pray, " Thy will be done in earth, as it is 
 in heaven," you must begin with yourself, and try daily and con- 
 stantly to observe God's will. 
 
 IVliy should you obey God ? Not merely because He is an 
 Almighty Governor, who can compel obedience, and who will punish 
 you if you trample on His authority. Not merelj-, that is, because 
 you fear Him. But because He is " Our Father in Heaven," whom 
 you love ; who loves you, and cherishes you ; who is so good that. 
 He never will ask you to do anything wrong ; who is so wise that 
 He never will tell you to do anything not fitted to promote your 
 highest interests. 
 
 And how should you obey God ? Like the angels ; or, as a little 
 boy once answered, " "Without asking any questions " — promptly and 
 fully. Like Jesus, rather let me say. You cannot go up to heaven, 
 to see how the angels obey ; but God's Son has come down to earth, 
 and showTi us in Himself the beauty of the heavenly life. In doing, 
 or in suflfering, seek to obey as Jesus did. 
 
 41 
 
February 10 tTurtl ! 
 
 " Turn ye, turn yc . , . for why will ye die?" (Ezek. xxxiii, 11), 
 
 A YOUNG soldier, who had led a careless life, but had become after- 
 wards a Christian, described very well the change that had been 
 wrought in him when he said — " Jesus Christ said to me, Bight about 
 face ! And I heard and obeyed Him, in my heart." That is exactly 
 what we call " conversion." It is a turning-about of the face — from 
 the world to God. But with the face, it is a turning also of the 
 heart. " Ye turned to God from idols," says Paul to the Thessa- 
 lonians (1 Thess. i. 9). The idols that they formerly loved and 
 trusted in were as nothing to them now, in comparison with God. 
 The current of their affections was not diverted away from Him 
 now by other objects ; but it set toward Him. They had been con- 
 verted — turned round. Face and heart had both been turned to 
 God. 
 
 So is it with every Christian ; and everybody ought to be a 
 Christian, It is esj)ecially sad when it is true of boys and girls 
 brought up in a Christian country, and in a Christian Church, and 
 perhaps in a Christian family, that they are not so. 
 
 You will observe that God's call to " turn " implies that our faces 
 are in the wrong direction to begin with. This we know, too well, to 
 be true. The most innocent-looking child, when it grows a little 
 older, is found seeking after what is evil — with its face turned away 
 from God, and toward the world and sin. If you have a wooden 
 boat with some lead in one side of it, when you place it in the 
 water, it will heel over to the side where the lead inclines it. So, 
 in our nature, the heavy, evil thing called sin draws our life over 
 to its own side ; and this wrong tendency is in us all. 
 
 But God wants us to be turned in the right direction. He has 
 no pleasure in wickedness, and no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked. It grieves Him to see our faces and our hearts averted 
 from Him ; and it is not only displeasing to Him, but deeply 
 dangerous for ourselves. Therefore He cries, with all the earnestness 
 with which you might crj' to a blind or a senseless man making 
 straight for a precipice, " Turn ye, turn ye : for why will ye die 1 " 
 
 42 
 
ttbe JSSCSt :(Boa6t. February 11 
 
 " My soul shall make her boast in the Lord " [Vs. xxxiv. 2). 
 
 Boys and girls are sometimes given to boasting. They boast about 
 themselves, perhaps, or about their possessions, or their friends. 
 They even have boasting matches occasionally. I remember one 
 little boy boasting to me, when we were children, that he had more 
 mice at home than we had ; and I had to acknowledge on that score 
 defeat ! The habit of boasting is a foolish one, especially if it be 
 about what we have and we can do. Those who have most, and can 
 do best, are usually those who say least about it. 
 
 But to boast in the Psalmist's sense is not a wrong thing. If 
 your heart is very full of anything, or anybody, you cannot help 
 speaking of them ; and it is a very pardonable thing, when a boy 
 or a girl, full of love and admiration for father and mother, for 
 example, is fond of speaking to a companion in their praise. Nom', 
 the heart of the Psalmist is here bursting with gratitude ; and out of 
 the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. He is so full of 
 what the Lord is and has done for him, that he cannot help speaking 
 of Him. So he says — "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord." 
 
 This is the safe and proper boast. Is it yours 1 Have you found 
 such a friend in the Lord that you feel inclined to bless Him at all 
 times, and rejoice when you can get somebody else to magnify Him 
 along with you 1 Do you feel that He has done so great a thing for 
 you, and wrought such a deliverance for you, that you cannot be silent 
 about it 1 
 
 In the great American War, a touching incident happened. The 
 father of a large family was called out to join the troops. But a 
 friend of his, who was unmarried, came forward and said — " I wish 
 to go instead of you : let me be your substitute " ! The wish was 
 granted, and this noble friend fell in battle. Can you wonder that 
 he in whose stead he fought and fell, was very grateful ? He often 
 used to tell, what he also had printed upon his tombstone — " He died 
 for me ! " 
 
 I do not wish you to speak about Christ what you don't feel ; 
 but I hope you do rejoice in Him as your Substitute. If so, your 
 soul may well " make her boast in the Lord," saying — He died for 
 me I 
 
 43 
 
February 12 <B005 SUCCC60, 
 
 " Then thou shall have good success" (Josh. i. 8). 
 
 You would like, I am sure, to succeed in life. This is a natural 
 and proper wisli, and, to fulfil it, will require botli prayer and pains. 
 Success is seldom or never given to the idler. " It is lesson after 
 lesson with the scholar, blow after blow with the labourer, crop after 
 crop with the farmer, picture after picture with the painter, step 
 after step and mile after mile with the traveller, that will secure 
 what all desire — success," 
 
 But you are especially to be mindful that there are two kinds 
 of success. There is a had success, which some men are winning or 
 have won : bad in its means, and bad in its result. Satan himself 
 tasted it in Eden, when he succeeded in tempting Eve. Judas 
 Iscariot tasted it, when he succeeded in betraying Christ. The man 
 tastes it who becomes rich through fraud, and the boy or girl who 
 gets to the top of the class through cheating a neighbour. Whoever 
 gains one or other of the world's prizes at the cost of principle, tastes 
 it, only to find that what he sought so eagerly as luscious fruit, is 
 like the apples of Sodom — ashes between his teeth. In such success 
 may you never share ! 
 
 Good success is what you are to covet : a success whose object is 
 good, a success which is attained by worthy means, a success which 
 will bear the light of eternity. And if you seek it, as Joshua did, 
 then you will attain it, whatever may be the world's opinion of you, 
 or its verdict upon your life. 
 
 What, then, is the secret of such success, as told to Joshua ? It 
 is found, first, in courageous and constant observance of the will of God 
 — " That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written 
 in this book of the law." And, second, in having the presence of God 
 with us in all our life — " As I was with Moses, I will be with thee. 
 I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. The Lord thy God is with 
 thee, whithersoever thou goest." 
 
 Consult God's will then, day by day. Seek the blessedness of 
 those who not only know, but do what He commands. And plead 
 for His constant presence with you. Then, whether your life-work 
 is to be a long or a short one, you will have " good success." 
 
 44 
 
TaHatCb ! February 13 
 
 " / sat/ unto all, Watch " (Mark xiii. 87). 
 
 The duty of watchfulness is often urged in the Bible. Tliere is 
 something you are to watch over, something you are to watch 
 against, and something you are to watch for. 
 
 1. You are to watch over yourself. Our hearts are so wayward, 
 and so deceitful, that we need to maintain a constant watch over 
 them, else they will be sure to lead us wrong. Bad words and 
 wrong deeds take their rise from bad thoughts and evil feelings in 
 the heart. Some are fond of watching over other people's character 
 and conduct, not their own. " I must have closer attention," said 
 the teacher, " and wish none of you to look off your books. The 
 first that sees another do so will please let me know." Harry said 
 to himself, that he would watch Joe, whom he did not like ; and in 
 a little while he was heard crying to the teacher — "I saw Joe 
 Simmonds, sir, looking off his book ! " But Harry himself was 
 caught. He had been more careful to watch over others than 
 himself. 
 
 2. You are to watch agaimt temptation. Beware of the beginnings 
 of evil. Be on your guard against the approaches of sin. The 
 Christian has been compared to a sentinel upon the walls, not only 
 because he is expected to be alert and constantly on the outlook 
 against the enemy's approach, but because it is his wisdom not to 
 attempt to ward off the foe in his own strength, but to tell his 
 commanding officer. When temptation comes, when sin approaches, 
 at once tell Jesus, the Captain of Salvation. In His strength you 
 will overcome. 
 
 3. You are to watch /or opportunity. That is, you are to be on 
 the outlook for the chance of doing good. If you wish and seek for 
 this, you are sure to find it. Somewhere, there is somebody whom 
 you can benefit and cheer. Be like John Newton, who said — " I 
 perceive that there is a heap of happiness in the world, and a great 
 heap of misery ; and my aim in life is, to take some few grains at 
 least from the latter, and to add some grains to the former heap." 
 By watching for opportunities this devoted man was enabled, in a 
 wonderful way, to fulfil the purpose of his heart. 
 
 45 
 
February 14 TReaDg TRecftOnflig. 
 
 " I reckon that the sufferings are not worthy to he compared vxith the glory" 
 (Rom. viii. 18). 
 
 Paul was a good aritlunetician. He could deal correctly and 
 effectively witli very large sums. And lie knew well what he was 
 here speaking about. He knew well both what is meant by 
 " suffering," and by " glory." 
 
 There are few men who have known what suffering means better 
 than Paul did. You boys like tales of adventure. Where will you 
 find a true story that is more thrilling than the short account Paul 
 is able to give, in the 11th chapter of 2nd Corinthians, of his life's 
 experience since he became a Christian ? " In labours more 
 abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in 
 deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 
 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered 
 shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep ; in journey- 
 ings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine 
 own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in 
 perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false 
 brethren ; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in 
 hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." This 
 is a long list of adventures. But it is not a case of " an old salt, 
 drawing the long bow," about his hairbreadth escapes. It is all 
 literally true. Paul had endured all this, in addition to his daily 
 anxieties about the interests of all the different Churches he had 
 been the means of planting here and there. He knew suffering 
 well. 
 
 But he also knew the meaning of "glory," as few men on earth 
 have known it. He was himself caught up to the third heaven, into 
 Paradise (2 Cor. xii. 3-4), and he there saw sights and heard un- 
 speakable words, which he could not relate to any other. What he 
 does feel at liberty to tell is, that what the prophet said of old is 
 quite true — " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
 into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them 
 that love Him." 
 
 And what he tells you, if you are one of those who love God, is 
 that, as the result of his comparing and computing, he reckons the 
 sufferings of the present, no matter how great and varied they may 
 be, as not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be 
 revealed in us. They are out of all proportion to one another. 
 There is no comparison really between them. 
 
 46 
 
DanlSblng (3OO&ne00. February 15 
 
 " Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew " (Hos. vi. 4). 
 
 In hot eastern countries, especially at some seasons of the year, the 
 appearance of a cloud is very welcome, as the promise of a refreshing 
 shower. And the dew which falls upon the tender herb is counted 
 of the greatest value. But very often, as the sun rises in the sky, 
 the morning cloud, from which the eager farmer hojjed for the 
 reviving rain, passes away ; and, to his regret, he sees the morning 
 dew quickly dried up under the scorching rays of the sun. It is to 
 this that God likens the goodness of Ephraim. It had been full 
 of promise, but it had quickly vanished. It had melted like the 
 morning cloud, and been dried up like the early dew. 
 
 Is it not sometimes so with you ? You begin the day well, with 
 good desires and holy resolutions. But, before long, the world's 
 influence is upon you. Hot temptation scatters the good thoughts 
 and feelings ; the glowing pleasures of earth abeorb and dry up the 
 dewy freshness that was upon your spirit in the morning. By night 
 your heart is hard and dry again. And what you find to be true of 
 a single day is too often true of a whole life. It began full of 
 promise. There seemed to be a great deal that was good about it. 
 The character appeared to be fresh, and innocent, and fair. But 
 by and by the early promise disappeared. The field which had 
 glistened with pearly dewdrops lay hard, and sodden, and barren 
 afterwards. 
 
 You may have heard the story of young Giuseppe, a beautiful 
 boy who lived near Naples. An artist saw him one day, and was so 
 much attracted by him that he painted his portrait, and, hanging 
 it upon his wall, called it Innocence. He wished to get a companion 
 picture, to set in contrast with it, under the name of Guilt ; but, 
 for long years, he searched without seeing a face bad and repulsive 
 enough to suit his purpose. At length he saw a scowling criminal, 
 lying in a Roman jail awaiting execution ; and he said — " That is 
 the face I have been searching for : that will do for Guilt, to set 
 alongside of my picture Innocence ! " What was the artist's 
 surprise to find, on inquiry, that the wretched felon awaiting his 
 death was none other than the once fair, young Giuseppe ! 
 
 The Lord direct your heart into the love of God, and keep you 
 in it ! Then your goodness wiU not be as the morning cloud and 
 early dew, which quickly pass away. 
 
 47 
 
February 16 CbtfSt thC 2)00r. 
 
 "I am the Door^' (John x. 9). 
 
 I8 not this a strange name wliicli Jesus gives to Himself here — the 
 Door 1 What does He mean by it ? 
 
 He is speaking of the sheepfold — the place of peace and plenty 
 for His people — in which they are " safe " and " find pasture." And 
 He says, " You can get in there only by me : I am the Door." 
 
 Suppose that, wandering one day in the grounds of a palace which 
 you were anxious to reach, you were lost. If one met you in the 
 guise of a shepherd-guide, and, in answer to your bewildered look 
 and question, said, " I am the way," you would know what he 
 meant. You would know that he intended to assure you that he was 
 the one to bring you to the palace. And if, on reaching it, as you 
 sighed and said, " Oh, what a lovely palace ! Would that I could get 
 in ! " he were to show you on his hand a princely signet-ring, and 
 say, " I am the Door," you would know that what he meant was, 
 "It is I who have the right, the power, to let you in." 
 
 Now, what is called the sheepfold here is elsewhere represented 
 as a palace. In both cases, what it means is, Christ's true Church. 
 To His people on earth, that is very much what the fold is to the 
 sheep ; but, in heaven, it will have not only the peace and safety of 
 a fold, but the splendour of a palace, and all God's people will live 
 there as children of the King. And Jesus, who now meets you as 
 the Shepherd-Guide, and says, " Come with Me : I am the Way " — 
 if you believe in Him and follow Him, will, as you near heaven's 
 entrance, reveal Himself to you as the Prince, and, saying to you, 
 " I am the Door," He will let you in. 
 
 If Christ is the Door, what is the key ? I will tell you. It is 
 Faith, so that the entrance is sometimes called the " Door of Faith." 
 See if you can find a verse where it is told as a wonderful thing, 
 that God has opened that Door to the like of you and me. 
 
 48 
 
CbOiCC. J'ebruary 17 
 
 " I have chosen" (Ps. cxix. 30). 
 
 The power to choose is one tliat you young people have, and lik^ 
 very much to exercise. It is a great gift ; but it is one not to he 
 lightly used, because we shall have to answer to God for the use We 
 make of it. 
 
 All through life we are called upon to choose, but it is especially 
 in early days that important choices have to be made. You will 
 soon be at the parting of the roads, if you have not reached it 
 already, where you will have to make up your mind which way 
 you are to go. And everything depends, under God, on whether 
 you choose the way of life or the way of death. There is a famous 
 picture by Sir Noel Paton, called The Choice, in which a youth, 
 clad in armour, is being called upon to choose which path he is to 
 follow. A handsome but gay and luscious-looking female figure, 
 with a foaming goblet in her hand, is trying to tempt him along an 
 easy, flowery path — which, however, as we see, leads down to a dark 
 abyss. A fair angel form, on the other hand, is beckoning him to 
 enter upon a steep and narrow path, which, climbing upward in 
 the rocky defile, leads to a far-off realm of light and peace. And 
 we see from the expression on the young warrior's face, that his 
 resolve is taken. He will not listen to the temptress, but, shaking 
 himself from her grasp, ha is minded to follow the angel upward, 
 in face of whatever difficulty, to the region of purity and light. 
 
 There meets you, dear young reader, not an angel merely, but 
 God's own Son ; and He says to you, at the parting of the ways, 
 "Come with me." The world, in its most alluring strains, and 
 exposing to ^dew its most tempting attractions, says, " Nay ; come 
 with me ! " Which are you to follow 1 Which do you choose ? 
 Choose Christ ! For though the path in which He leads may seem 
 rough and steep, it is a path which leads to glory ; while the way 
 of sin, however broad and easy, is a way that leads down to death. 
 
 (4) 49 
 
February 18 jesus auD tbe Cbtl^ren. 
 
 *' And Jesus called a little child unto Him " (Matt, xviii. 2). 
 
 Jesus and the children — how close the ties between them were 
 when He was here on earth ! And we know that He is " the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 
 
 1. He was Himself a young child ; and He grew np like other 
 children. He learned His lessons, enjoyed His games, climbed the 
 hills with His companions, just like the rest. Only in one thing 
 He was different : " He knew no sin, neither was guile found in 
 His mouth." No bad deeds marred His life, no false words escaped 
 His lips, no impure thoughts lurked within His heart. 
 
 2. The children were the first to suflFer for His sake. Soon after 
 His birth, you remember, the cruel decree of Herod went forth, that 
 all the little boys in and around Bethlehem, of two years old and 
 under, should be put to death. Jesus escaped, for He was by that 
 time safe in Egypt. But a cry of anguish rose upon the air, which 
 shortly before had echoed with the angels' song. Many mothers 
 were weeping for their little ones, and would not be comforted. 
 
 3. The children had much that was attractive in the eyes of 
 Jesus afterwards. He called a little child to Him one day, and 
 made him the text of a beautiful sermon, which we have, in outline, 
 in the beginning of the eighteenth chapter of Matthew. He told 
 the disciples that, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, they 
 must needs be as humble and trustful as that little child, and that 
 the lowliest in heart were they who should really have the highest 
 place within His Kingdom. 
 
 4. The children were not only interesting to Jesus, however, but 
 they were very dear to Him. He was much displeased when the 
 disciples sought to keep them at a distance, fearing that they would 
 be an annoyance to the Master. He took the little ones in His arms, 
 and blessed them, and drew them close to His heart. He said, 
 " Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name, receiveth 
 Me." 
 
 6. The children, too, on their part, were interested in Jesus, and 
 felt that there was something in Him which drew them to Him. 
 Their young hearts were filled with His praise ; and there was no 
 praise He valued more than theirs. When they shouted their 
 Hosannas, the chief priests and scribes might be " sore displeased " 
 (Matt. xxi. 15) ; but Jesus loved to hear them. It seemed to Him 
 the most perfect praise He had heard on earth : not so much an 
 echo of the older people's welcome, as an echo of the angels' song. 
 
 SO 
 
pCraCVCrc ! February 19 
 
 " Patient continuance in well-doing " (Rom. ii. 7). 
 
 "WELL-'wiRniNa is good ; but well-doing is far better ; and patient 
 continuance in well-doing is better still. This last is what the 
 follower of Christ must try to maintain. He must seek to be like 
 Him who had to " endure the contradiction of sinners against Him- 
 self," but who, in spite of opposition and discouragement, went 
 about continually doing good. The patience of Christ is one of the 
 most needful, but one of the most diliicult lessons for the Christian. 
 
 Over the doorway of one of the oldest houses in the High Street 
 of Edinburgh — that old historic street, where the noble families of 
 Scotland used to dwell — this legend is engraven, " He that tholes 
 overcomes." " Thole " is an old Anglo-Saxon word, meaning " to 
 bear " ; and the motto is intended to teach, that patience is the road 
 to victory. Perhaps you have found this already to be true among 
 your companions. A bad-tempered comrade has taken " an ill-will " 
 against you, and has set himself, in ever^^ Avay possible, to annoy 
 and vex you. But if you have been enabled to " thole " it all in a 
 spirit of meekness, he has at last become ashamed of himself ; and 
 the victory is yours. 
 
 The precise lesson of out text, however, is, not merely that we are 
 to bear trouble patiently, but that Ave are to persevere in actively 
 doing good in face of every discouragement. 
 
 When Abraham Lincoln was asked if he expected to end the 
 great American War while he Avas in office as President, he said " he 
 didn't know." When further asked what he meant to do, he 
 answered, "To keep pegging away, sir — pegging away." And we 
 know what came of it. You remember the story, too, of Robert the 
 Bruce, when, sorely disheartened, he had to take refuge in a barn. 
 Lying on his back, he noticed a spider endeavouring to attach its 
 web to the top of a beam. Twelve times it tried and failed ; but, 
 at the thirteenth time, it succeeded. " I will follow its example,' 
 he said. " Twelve times I have been beaten, the thirteenth I may 
 succeed." So he arose, and did Likewise. 
 
 Even so, many a spiritual "\dctory is awaiting the young Christian 
 worker and warrior Avho, in the strength of God, is determined to 
 persevere. 
 
 5^ 
 
February 20 a goul in lOrlSOtt. 
 
 "Bring my soul out of prison" (Ps. cxlii. 7). 
 
 It is a sad enougli experience for the body to be in prison. But it 
 is far worse to have an imprisoned souh What is a prison ? 
 
 It is a place devoid of comfort. It is the very opposite of a home. 
 The prison fare is poor. The prison bed is hard. Little sunshine 
 visits the inhabitants. The whole life within is, and is intended to 
 be, comfortless and dreary. 
 
 It is a place devoid of company. Or, if company there is, it is of 
 the worst and most undesirable sort. You have heard stories of the 
 Bastile in Paris, where for long years prisoners were kept entirely 
 apart, and were thankful for a few pins to amuse themselves with, 
 to keep them from going mad. And you have also read of the 
 Prisoner of Chillon. 
 
 It is a place, especially, that is devoid of liberty. The inmates 
 cannot do anything that is not allowed by the jailer. Their life is 
 most monotonous and joyless. It is like tramping always upon a 
 treadmill, with no variety in it, and little that is good coming out 
 of it. 
 
 If you were put into a prison, how would you feel ? You would 
 be very apt to feel degraded, disgraced, miserable. And yet the 
 body may be imprisoned while the soul remains free. Paul and 
 Silas knew true liberty at Philippi, when their feet were fast in the 
 stocks, in the inner prison. Their souls rose to fellowship with God, 
 and the other prisoners at midnight heard a sound strange to their 
 ears in such a place — the song of heartfelt praise. Bunyan, too, 
 was free in spirit, when, in Bedford jail, he wrote the wonderful 
 story of the Pilgrim's Progress from the City of Destruction to the 
 Celestial City ; and, with the spiritual companionship he enjoyed, 
 he could not be comfortless or solitary. 
 
 The worst imprisonment is that of a soul which feels itself shut 
 out from God and shut in with sin. No wonder that, when the 
 horror of this experience is felt, the cry goes forth, " Take my soul 
 out of prison ! " Some may have to pray this prayer for the first 
 time ; for they have never escaped from bondage at all. Others 
 may have to pray it over again ; because they have fallen, and been 
 ensnared by evil habit, and feel themselves hemmed in on every 
 side. 
 
 The key of escape from the prison is j)rayer. He who Himself 
 cried, " My God, my God ! " can give the opening of the prison door. 
 May we know the freedom wherewith Christ maketh His people 
 £reel 
 
 52 
 
Cruel Cam. February 21 
 
 " Tluy have gone in the VMy of Cain " (Judc 11). 
 
 Two lives, like two rivers, may rise within a few feet of each other — 
 from the same home, perhaps, or from beside the same watchful 
 mother's knee. But they take different directions from the first. 
 The one turns toward God, the other to worldliness and sin. It may 
 be a very small watershed that separates them, to begin with ; but, 
 wliile the one flows on its smiling course till it is merged in the 
 summer ocean of endless felicity, the other flows sullenly on its 
 troubled bed, then rushes heedlessly forward, till it is engulfed in 
 the region of never-ending storm. 
 
 As for Cain, his mother expected great things of him. He was 
 the first little boy the world ever saw. Eve was naturally very fond 
 of him. She called him " possession," or " darling " ; and gave as her 
 reason, that she had gotten "the man" from the Lord, who, she 
 hoped, would be the promised Deliverer. But alas ! she was to be 
 sadly disappointed. Soon she saw that sin was in his heart ; and 
 she was gi-ieved to find that this child of her bosom was on the 
 devil's side. 
 
 This did not appear all at once. At first, it showed itself in 
 little acts of self-will and disobedience. Then perhaps, after Abel 
 was born, in envy and selfishness when the two little boys were at 
 play : " that's mine" — " you shan't have that" — " I'll strike you I " 
 And then the day came which was clearly to reveal the characters 
 of the two — when they were grown lads, with the duties of men, 
 and were called to sacrifice to God. It showed Cain in the worst 
 possible light. 
 
 While Abel came, feeling and telling God that he was a sinner, 
 and implored forgiveness, Cain would only come, confessing that he 
 depended on God for his daily food. If he had plenty of that, he 
 did not care about sin, and salvation. His heart was hard, and his 
 will stubborn and unsubdued. And when he saw that God was 
 well pleased with Abel, but not -with him, Cain's brow darkened. 
 He was angry with God, and wild with envy toward Abel. And, 
 since he could not strike God, he watched his opportunity, one day 
 in the field, and slew his brother. 
 
 Thus, from being the fii"st little boy, Cain became the first 
 murderer the world has seen. And " the way of Cain " became a way of 
 weary wandering from God — the life of a " vagabond," with a brand 
 upon his brow, and a bad, accusing conscience in his breast. Oh, what 
 a terrible thing sin is. Beware of the beginnings of evil. Beware 
 of the first steps in '• the way of Cain " ! 
 
 53 
 
February 23 2)0rca9. 
 
 "A certain disciple named Tabitha . . . by interpretation Dorcas" {Acta \x. 36). 
 
 The life of Dorcas was a humble, but a very beautiful one. Her 
 story in the Bible is quite short. Yet there are several things 
 about her to be remembered. 
 
 1. Her name. She was called Dorcas, or " the gazelle " ; and she 
 was well named. The gazelle is wonderfully clear-sighted, and so 
 was she — quick to perceive, not the faults of others, but their wants. 
 The gazelle is noted for its nimbleness ; and so was she — always 
 ready to run with light foot on God's errands of mercy. The 
 gazelle is distinguished for its grace ; and so was she — for she shone 
 in the beauty of holiness and loving-kindness, whether or not she 
 had a handsome face. Unlike some other people, in the Bible and 
 out of it, she was worthy of her name. 
 
 2. Her school. We are told that she was a disciple. This means, 
 that she was a learner. But in what school ? In a school which 
 has an unseen Teacher — whom, having not seen, the scholars love ; 
 no fees — the only thing you have to pay being " attention ' " ; 
 exercises for the heart, rather than merely for the head ; and 
 scholars of all ages under training, from the youngest to the very 
 oldest. It is called the School of Christ. We are not told of what 
 age Dorcas was ; but I am sure she was in an advanced standard in 
 the school. Have you entered it yet ? Have you heard the Master 
 say, " Learn of Me ? Have you gone to Him with the prayer, 
 "Teach me, Lord"? 
 
 3. Her hohiy. It ia said that everybody is better to have some 
 hobby or other. That is true, if only it be as good a hobby as Dorcas 
 had. " She was full of good works, and alms deeds which she did." 
 She was always trying to do good to somebody. That was her 
 hobby. She was full of it ; her heart was in it. She bestowed 
 thought, and care, and labour for the poor ; and if she could not 
 give much, she could ply her needle for them, and take pains to find 
 out those deserving of relief. 
 
 4. Her history. That is soon summed up. Dorcas, though in a 
 quiet sphere, lived a life of remarkable usefulness ; and when she 
 died she was greatly missed. Probably nobody would have been 
 more surprised than herself, to have witnessed the scene of genuine 
 sorrow which followed on her death. But her history did not end 
 there. God raised up her life — so valuable was it in His sight, and 
 so much worth restoring. " And many believed on the Lord." Nor 
 has the history of Dorcas ended yet. Such a life never dies. She 
 lives still on earth in the " Dorcas Societies " which bear her name ; 
 and she lives on high, serving in His presence the Lord she loved 
 and served below. 
 
 54 
 
'Rea&g ! February 28 
 
 ** I am ready" (Bom. I. 15). 
 
 It is a good motto on one of the beautiful stained-glass windows of 
 Glasgow Catlifdral, the legend of an ancient Scottish family — 
 " Ready, aye Ready ! " That is a very suitable watchword for a 
 Christian. It is a motto to which Paul's life at least was true. He 
 could say, as few Christians can, " I am ready." 
 
 He was ready for service (Rom. i. 15). Wherever there was an 
 opening for the gospel, Paul was eager to enter in and possess the 
 land for Christ. He did not grudge any amount of time, and 
 trouble, and fatigue in the service of his master. He would under- 
 take any length of a journey — to Rome, or to Spain, or anywhere — for 
 the sake of the gospel cause. He did not merely stand by and 
 direct others ; but, in his eagerness, he put to his own hand, and 
 worked, seeking, as he had opportunity, to do good unto all men. 
 
 So should it be with us. No true Christian will count good 
 hard work for Christ, or the good of others, beneath him. It is told 
 that Washington was one day going round the encampment, when 
 he came upon a small group of soldiers, trying, with a cord and 
 pulley, to raise a great beam to a certain place. Strain themselves 
 as they might, they could not get it quite up to the desired level. 
 Their petty officer, a pompous little corporal, was standing by, 
 crying — " Heigh-ho, there she goes ! " but never putting out so 
 much as a linger to help them. Washington quietly stepped 
 forward, and, laying hold of the rope, gave the men such a lift with 
 their work that the beam was at once raised and adjusted to its 
 place. The corporal, rubbing his hands, asked the stranger in 
 civilian clothes, " to whom they might be indebted for this polite 
 assistance" 1 With a strange look on his face, and a tone in his voice 
 that brought confusion to the little man, Washington answered, as 
 he turned away — " Whenever help is needed again, send for me to 
 the quarters of the Commander-in-Chief. I shall be ready ! " So 
 we should be "ready to every good work" (Tit. iii. 1). 
 
 Paul was ready, too, for suffering or even for death, for Jesus' sake. 
 When others besought him to keep out of danger, he told them it 
 would " break his heart" not to witness for the Master wherever 
 duty called. " I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die for 
 the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts xxi. 13). It seemed strange, no 
 doubt, to many ; but he actually took pleasure in reproaches, 
 persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake. And when the time for 
 dying came, he was " ready to be offered." It was with him as with 
 John Knox, who, when they said to him, as he entered the dark 
 valley, " Hast thou hope ? " pointed upward, and so died. 
 
 55 
 
February 24 Zhc 3Loc5 fttiowing tbem tbat are Ibis. 
 
 " The Lord knmoeth them that are His" (2 Tim. ii. 19). 
 
 Does the shepherd know his sheep 1 Does the miser know his 
 gold ? Does the mother know the children of her love 1 Much 
 more does the Lord know them that are His. He knows that 
 they are His ; and He knows everything about them. Nobody 
 can set such a value on anything as Christ puts upon His ransomed 
 ones. He has done so much to make them His : every one of them 
 has cost Him so very much, that it is no wonder that He knows and 
 values each, and never lets any of them out of sight or out of hand. 
 He gave Himself for them. He bought them with His blood. And 
 He tells us how much He loves them. We have no measure for 
 such a love ; but what He says is — " As the Father hath loved Me, 
 so have I loved you" (John xv. 9). The love of Jesus for His 
 people, that is to say, is like the love of God the Father for His 
 only-begotten and well-beloved Son ! 
 
 Yes ; other people may make mistakes about who belong to 
 Christ and who do not. But the Lord Himself never does. It was 
 John Wesley, I think, who said — " When I get to heaven, I shall 
 be gi-eatly surprised at two things — at the presence of some whom I 
 did not expect to see there, and at the absence of some whom I had 
 confidently expected to meet in the fellowship above ; and the 
 greatest marvel of all will be, that such a sinner as I should ever 
 have been admitted there." No doubt there will be such surprises 
 to the servants at the last. But there will be no surprises of the 
 kind for Christ. " He knoweth them that are His." 
 
 There is a mark on each of them which tells to His eye that 
 they are His property. It is the brand or " seal " of the Holy 
 Spirit. Down at the wharf you may see a great deal of property, 
 lying huddled together and commingled in apparent confusion ; yet 
 in a little while it is cleared away and sent to its proper owners, 
 because on the different bales of goods the stamp was found which 
 told to whom it belonged. So, in this world, society is so mixed up 
 that to our eyes it is not always easy to say who are Christ's and 
 who are not. But He knows, and He has His eye all the time on 
 every soul that is sealed with His Spirit. All such \vill be gathered 
 safely home. There will be none of the Lord's precious property 
 {^missing in the great Day. 
 
 §^ 
 
UbC XorO'S SbOWitlfl tbat tbCg are 1l3lt5. February 25 
 
 "And, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" 
 (2 Tim. ii. 19). 
 
 It is a solemn, and may be a comforting thought, that the Lord 
 " knows them that are His." We may know it too, and should not 
 be content without knowing it about ourselves. Have I accepted 
 Jesus as mine ? Have I given myself to Him ? These are questions 
 which, in our own hearts, we ought surely to be able to answer ; 
 and to which we should be satisfied to give, in humble sincerity, 
 only one answer. 
 
 But if we do belong to Christ, we should not be content with 
 merely knowing it ourselves. We should live so as to show it 
 also to others. 
 
 Now, it is not merely by speaking that you will be able to do 
 this. There may be occasions when you will be called upon to let 
 it be known on whose side you are, by so many words ; and I hope 
 you will have courage and modesty to do this aright at such times, 
 *' in meekness and fear." But words alone will not count for much. 
 As an old Scotchwoman used to say, " the wind of your mouth costs 
 you little." Your character and your conduct, as well as your lips, 
 must speak. You are to be yourself " a living epistle," as Paul puts 
 it. You are to he a person on whom, as a living letter, the writing 
 of Christ — that is, the influence of the Holy Spii-it — shall be so 
 plainly seen as to be known and read of all men. You are to be 
 dissatisfied with yourself unless the marks of the Lord Jesus are so 
 plainly discerned upon you that even your enemies will have to 
 say — " That is one of the company of Christ. He has been with 
 Him : he is with Him. That is a Christian, and no mistake ! " 
 
 One thing which the world will rightly look for in you will be, 
 to see you turning your back upon sin. If you fall before tempta- 
 tion, you will be heartily sorry for it ; and you will really wish and 
 strive to be done with everything mean, and impure, and unworthj'. 
 The remembrance that you are Christ's, and that He is looking on, 
 will help you in this. When tempted to sin, by evil companions 
 or by your own evil heart, you will say, like yoiing Joseph, " ' How 
 can I ? ' If I were my own, I might. But I am not my own : I 
 am Christ's, And it pleases me most to do always those things that 
 please Him ! " 
 
 The hidden seal of the Spirit — that is the heavenward side, seen 
 by God. And this is the earthward side, seen by the world — " Let 
 everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." 
 
 57 
 
February 26 ©reatec tban Solomon. 
 
 " Bfhold, a greater than Solomon is here " (Matt. xii. 42). 
 
 There is a contrast dra\ni here between tlie great Solomon, the 
 magniticent monarch, and — Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth. And 
 the contrast is all in favour of the humble Nazarene. 
 
 Solomon was great in his dominion. Under him, the prosperity 
 of Israel reached its greatest height ; and, following upon the 
 conquests of his warlike father David, Solomon ruled a kingdom 
 that extended far beyond the borders of Palestine, Many foreign 
 tribes owned his sceptre. He ruled from sea to sea, and from the 
 river to the ends of the earth. But Jesus is greater still in His 
 dominion. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. 
 And the hosts of heaven own His sway. He is King of kings 
 and Lord of lords, doing His will among the armies of heaven 
 and among the inhabitants of earth. 
 
 Solomon was great in his wisdom. He was a man of wide 
 knowledge, of deep penetration, of wonderful practical sagacity. 
 He showed this early in his reign, and by and by his wisdom grew 
 so famous that people travelled long distances to hear him. The 
 Queen of Sheba went all the way from Arabia for this purpose ; and 
 she was so greatly impressed, that she counted the very servants 
 happy who stood continually before King Solomon and heard his 
 wisdom. But Jesus is wiser far. He knows all the secrets of earth 
 and heaven. He is "the Wisdom." That is one of His names. 
 His judgments are unsearchable. The depth of the riches both of 
 His knowledge and of His wisdom cannot be fathomed. And He 
 can do what Solomon never could : He is able to make others wise 
 unto salvation. 
 
 Solomon was great in his glory. The splendours of his Court, 
 the grandeur of the house that he had built, the number and the 
 apparel of his retainers were such that the Queen of the East, rich 
 as she herself was, felt herself completely overwhelmed by the 
 sight. " There was no more spirit in her." But all this was not 
 worthy of being named with the glory of King Jesus. To Him, in 
 His heavenly palace, myriads of angels and ransomed saints give 
 their united homage. " Thou art the King of Glory, Christ." 
 
 Solomon, alas ! was not great after all in character. The story 
 of his later life was one of miserable selfishness, and backsliding, 
 and disappointment. But Jesus was spotless in character, perfect 
 in jjurity, as rich in sympathy and self-giving love as He was great 
 in wisdom and in power. Truly a greater than Solomon is here 1 
 Shall we not seek Him ? 
 
 58 
 
Cbe fjope an£) tbc "Reason for ft. February 27 
 
 " A reason of the hope that is in you " (1 Pet. iii. 16). 
 
 What is the hope tliat is iu you 1 You have many hopes, far and 
 near, small and great. Some of you are looking forwiiid with 
 expectation to the Easter holidays. Some of you, taking a wider 
 sweep, are thinking and planning about what you are to be and to 
 do, when you are a man or a woman. But the hope that is in you, 
 your brightest and best hope, goes beyond all that, I trust : it is 
 the hope that you will get to heaven. 
 
 A youth was speaking with a Christian friend once about his 
 prospects. His friend asked him what he was to be. " A student," 
 he said. "What then?" "A lawyer." "What then?" " I shall 
 make speeches, and win fees, and with them a great name." " What 
 then?" "I hope to become a judge, and sit upon the Bench." 
 " What then ? " "In old age I shall retire, in honour, for the enjoy- 
 ment of a well-earned repose." "What then?" "Why, then I 
 suppose I shall die, like other people ; and I hope there will be 
 many to show respect at my funeral." " And what then ? " Ah, 
 here the young man paused. He had not thought of what was 
 coming after death ; and he had made no provision for it. If you 
 cherish a hope beyond the grave, you have, in that respect, a truer 
 view of life than tluit young man had ; for this life, at the longest, 
 is very short, and is only a preparation for a longer. 
 
 But, let me ask, what is the reason of the hope that is in you ? 
 This is a very important matter. If there is one man more to be 
 pitied than he who is in despair, and has no hope at all, it is the 
 man who is cherishing a false hope — a hope that is not resting upon 
 a sound and solid foundation. Your hope of reaching heaven is of 
 this sort, if it is resting on anything in yourself : on your good 
 character, and your determination to work your way thither. 
 There is only one good foundation for such a glorious hope. 
 
 A poor dying Bengalee was able to point to the right reason 
 for it. A missionary found him lying by the wayside, and at first 
 thought him to be a devotee upon pilgrimage, worn out with his 
 march. But, seeing him to be really dying, he bent over him with 
 the words — "Brother, what is your hope for eternity?" With a 
 look of delighted surprise he answered faintly, as he pointed to a 
 leaf of the Bengalee Testament by his side — " The blood of Jesus 
 Christ, His Son, cleauseth us from all sin ! " And, in a little 
 moment, the e^ul of that unknown believer had passed within the 
 heavenly gates. 
 
 59 
 
February 28 ©be Sin Of IfiCQlCCU 
 
 " Mow shall toe escape, if we neglect so great salvation t " (Heb. ii. 3). 
 
 If you were on a sinking ship, and a lifeboat were brouglit along- 
 side, wbat would be needed in order to your being drowned ? 
 Would it be necessary for you flatly to refuse to step into the boat, 
 or to laugh and mock at those who brought it near to you, for their 
 pains ? No. The only thing necessary to secure your destruction 
 would be, to "neglect" the opportunity of safety — to pay no 
 attention to those who invited you to secure it. 
 
 Or, if you had a garden with some flowers in it, and also some 
 strong bad weeds, what would be necessary in order to have your 
 garden completely spoiled ? Would it be needful for you to care 
 for and water the weeds, and to sow more weeds, along with them, 
 in different parts of the garden ? Not at all. By simply " neglect- 
 ing," paying no attention to the presence and the growth of the 
 weeds already there, you would secure the ruin of your garden. It 
 would in course of time, perhaps speedily, be completely overrun ; 
 and the flowers would hardly have a chance to grow in the dirty 
 soil. 
 
 Now, this sin of neglect — just failing to " pay attention " — is a 
 very common fault among you young people. It is a frequently 
 heard excuse — " Oh, I didn't mean to " ; or, " I just forgot " ; or, " I 
 wasn't thinking " ; or, " I was thinking about something else." 
 The habit of thoughtlessness may, however, lead to very serious 
 consequences ; and this is specially true in matters of the soul. 
 
 There is one thing above all others that you cannot afford to be 
 careless about ; and that is, " the great salvation." It is a great 
 thing, wrought out by a great Captain (verse 10), who suffered 
 much to secure it. And it is great, whether you consider the depth 
 of misery from which it rescues the sinner, or the height of glory to 
 which it brings him. Now, in order that your soul may be lost, 
 you have not to scoff at Christ, and to make a mock at the salva- 
 tion He brings. You have simply to neglect Him, and it. That 
 is all. 
 
 Go, rather, to Him and say—" I deserve punishment ; I thank 
 Thee for bearing it. I have done what is bad, and I am bad ; help 
 me to become better. I want to step into the lifeboat : I want to 
 have my heart cleared of weeds, and made a garden of the Lord. I 
 want to escape the doom of the wicked. I will not neglect so great 
 Balvatiou." 
 
 6o 
 
a3e DiKciCntI February 29 
 
 '* The hand of the diligent maketh rich" (Prov. x. 4), 
 
 The word "diligent" is derived from a Latin verb meaning "to 
 select," and then " to love." Tims it describes a person who liaa 
 made up his mind aljout the object he wishes to attain, and who 
 pursues that object with eager devotion. Now, the words of our 
 proverb are true of difl'erent kinds of riches. Wealth of the i^ocket, 
 wealth of the intellect, wealth of the heart — if any or all of these be 
 desired, they must be sought with diligence ; and diligence in 
 seeking any of them is sure in the longrun to have some measure 
 of success. 
 
 The fruits of diligence are often such as to be quite surprising 
 to idle people. An amusing story is told by the Roman historian 
 Pliny, of a man named Cressin, whose ground yielded such an 
 abundant crop, while the lands around were poor and barren, that 
 liis neighbours not only envied him, but accused him of using magic 
 arts for his own enrichment and their disadvantage. Cressin, in 
 pleading his case before the judges, pointed to his comely daughter 
 as his fellow-labourer, and said — " Come, see our implements of 
 husbandry ; and go with us to the fields, and behold how they have 
 been fenced in, tilled, manured, weeded, watered. In these things, 
 you will behold all the magic arts and charms which Cressin has 
 used." Not only was he acquitted by the judges, but his lazy and 
 silly accusers were put to shame. 
 
 It will not be the cleverest of you boys and girls who will 
 necessarily do best in your future life, but the most diligent. Those 
 who begin with fewest advantages sometimes score best in the end. 
 A queer, awkward-looking boy, with a squint eye and a hissing, 
 indistinct manner of speech, was brought into a school one day. 
 His clothes were poor, and he had considerably outgrown them. 
 The other boys at once made him a laughing-stock. But this did 
 not last for long. He turned out a capital scholar, and mockery 
 soon made way for envy. By and by, he became a professor, as the 
 reward of his diligence, while those who idly laughed were never 
 heard of. 
 
 Be sure to make a good choice of the kind of riches you are to 
 seek. Covet earnestly the best gifts. Be diligent to attain them ; 
 and ask God to bless and crown your efforts with success. 
 
 6i 
 
March 1 :emmanuel. 
 
 " Tkey shall call His name Emmanuel " (Matt. i. 23). 
 
 *' El " means God. It is part of a great many Bible names, some 
 of A\-hicli, sucli as Elijali, it begins, and others of wbich, sucli as 
 Samuel, it ends. "Emmanu-el" means, "Witb us, God." The 
 name is found, not only in Matthew's Gospel, but in the ninth 
 chapter of Isaiah. Some people think that it was the name given 
 by the prophet to one of his own sons. Names in those days meant 
 something ; and it is quite possible that Isaiah may have called his 
 little boy Emmanuel, to show his trust in Jehovah, and to keep 
 him in mind, in days of trouble, of God with us. But there was 
 not only present comfort but future hope in this word, for Isaiah 
 and the faithful in Israel. It pointed them forward ; and it had 
 its true fulfilment long centuries after in Bethlehem, when the 
 Holy Child was bom, who was at the same time — think of it ! — 
 the Eternal Son of God. 
 
 And is it not a comfort for Christ's people to know that this 
 is a name which is truly His in every age ? " Lo, / am with you 
 alway, even to the end of the world." When they are tossed on 
 the dangerous tempest still. He is with them in the boat. When 
 they are in sorrow. He is with them to comfort them. When they 
 have to go through the dark valley of death, even then they need 
 not fear, when they can say, '^ For Thou art with me." 
 
 Is Jesus your Emmanuel? Do you ask Him to be with you 
 every day, and all the day ? A godly man was seen starting from 
 his home one morning — then returning to his room — then setting 
 out again ; and being asked the reason, he replied, " After I got 
 out, I found Jesus was not with me. I could not go on without 
 Jesus ; so I went back to my closet to seek Him. Now He is with 
 me, and I can go." Can you not understand something of what 
 that man felt? It is the presence of Jesus that makes the day 
 bright, and the spirit strong. 
 
 te 
 
a lPU33lC for ^anS» March 2 
 
 " What shall I do then with Jesus t " (AEatt. xxvii, 22). 
 
 The speaker is Pilate, the rougli Roman governor. The person 
 spoken about is "Jesus" (Saviour), who is called "Christ" (or 
 Messiah, the Anointed). The question is — What is Pilate to do 
 with Jesus ? His judgment says one thing, and his personal inclina- 
 tion, to some extent, supports his judgment. But selfish interest 
 appears to say another thing. And so Pilate, though he evidently 
 knows what he ought to do, does the very opposite. To please the 
 Jews, he scourges Jesus, and gives Hini up to be crucified. And 
 then he washes his hands— as though that would make them clean ! 
 
 A great many people are like Pilate— perplexed about what 
 they are to do with Jesus. Some even who would like to forget Him 
 cannot get rid of Him, His name is always turning up. They are 
 constantly meeting Him, and being forced to meet this question — 
 " What shall I do then with Jesus ? " 
 
 If this is a question that you have not properly solved yet, I 
 slioidd like to help you to the right answer. There are four things 
 that you young people ought to do with Jesus, and which it should 
 be not less, but in some respects more, easy for you than for older 
 people to do. 
 
 You should trust Him. He is well worthy of your entire 
 confidence. You have not learned to distrust others so much yet as 
 you may by and by be constrained to do. But here, at anyrate, is 
 One who never disappoints. He is strong, and He is faithful. In 
 His arms you will be safe. 
 
 You shovdd love Him. Your young hearts are full of love. 
 The cold world has not chilled them with its coldness yet. You 
 love those who love you. And here is One Avho yearns over you 
 with pure affection. " He is kind above all others : Oh how He 
 loves." Will you not love Him in return ? 
 
 You should follow Him. You are fond of imitating others. It 
 is sometimes amusing, and sometimes sad, to see how apt young 
 people are to imitate those whom, rightly or wrongly, they admire. 
 Here is One whom you may safely imitate in everything. He has 
 left us an example, that we should follow in His steps. 
 
 You should serve Him. How happy you are, to be able to do a 
 service to your mother or your teacher ! If you would have a truly 
 blessed and worthy life, take the Prince of Wales's motto, and use it 
 in a Christian sense — Ich dien, "J serve — I serve Jesus, who ia 
 called Christ." 
 
 63 
 
March 3 % 2)angerous Xevit^. 
 
 *' But they made light of it " (Matt. xxii. 5). 
 
 Those of wlioin fhis is said put far too mucli weight on some 
 things, and far too little weight on others. They were so much 
 taken up with ordinarj^ daily concerns, that they despised the 
 invitation to the marriage of the King's Son. And so some of them 
 " went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise," 
 while the rest, annoyed at the repeated and urgent invitations of 
 the King's servants, actually turned u^Don them, and put them to 
 death. So little did they make of human life, so light did they 
 make of sin ! But when the King in wrath sent forth his armies 
 and destroyed them and their city, they had reason to view things 
 differently. 
 
 These are the two things which people often, most foolishly, 
 make light of still, to their own undoing. 
 
 They make light of the King's invitation. God has, at great cost, 
 prepared the gospel feast. He has sent forth His servants to announce 
 that all things are ready, and to give a free and hearty invitation to 
 sinners everywhere, to come and share the blessings offered to them 
 in Christ. But multitudes turn a deaf ear to the gospel message. 
 They consider the most ordinary affairs of life a far more practical 
 concern ; and if they do not turn upon God's messengers, and 
 entreat them spitefully, they at anyrate " go their ways," and spurn 
 the invitation which would have brought them truest hajppiness. 
 
 They make light also of sin. Apparently they forget what a 
 hateful thing it is in God's sight ; and what a heavy thing, too, it 
 must be, if it needed God's own Son to come that He might, even at 
 the cost of life, bear it, and bear it away in His own body on the 
 tree. And so they trifle with it, not remembering what a dark 
 blot it is upon their life, and what a terrible and growing power it 
 is within their hearts. 
 
 A gentleman in India had a cub tiger as his pet. It was always 
 with him, and was treated by him as a plaything. One day, as he 
 was lolling in his room, his frolicsome companion came and licked 
 his hand, which was hanging over the side of the arm-chair. It 
 licked and licked, till he felt a stinging sensation ; and, glancing 
 down, he discovered to his horror that the skin was broken and the 
 blood had come ! The flashing eyes of the tiger told him that the 
 brute nature in it had been thoroughly aroused. There was 
 nothing for it but to lay hold of his revolver with his other hand, 
 and shoot his dangerous playmate through the heart. Do not make 
 light of sin 1 
 
 64 
 
Ube ©rcat libBstclan. March 4 
 
 •' Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed " ( Jer. xvii. 14). 
 
 This is a prayer from a sinner to God, who is the sinner's only help. 
 There are different ways of addressing Him, and different sides on 
 whicli to lay hold of His help. Here He is approached as the Great 
 Physician, who can bring healing to the soul. I wonder if you have 
 ever felt your need to make this prayer your owru 
 
 We have here suggested, first, a disease which is incurable by man. 
 That word " incurable " is a terrible word ; and to be put into the 
 hospital for "incurables" is a very sad experience. There was 
 one disease in Bible times that was especially feared and loathed, 
 because of the desperate hold it took of the sufferers from it, and 
 because the skill of man could do so little for its relief. This was 
 leprosy. The poor leper was " a walking seijulchre." He has 
 also been called "a walking parable" ; because, as he lived apart, 
 with his head uncovered and his garments rent, and as he cried 
 when any would have approached him, "Unclean, unclean," he 
 reminded people of a yet worse and more incurable disease than 
 leprosy — the terrible disease of sin. 
 
 Dear young people, this is a disease we all suffer from ; for we 
 have all been born with it. I would not be long with any of you 
 without discovering " symptoms," plague spots, telling of the evil 
 within. That boy's bad temper, that girl's foolishness or selfishness, 
 these bad thoughts which come into the mind, these evil desires you 
 give way to, these impure or angry words you speak — what of 
 these? They tell others, and may warn yourself, of the terrible 
 disease that is in your heart. 
 
 But we are reminded, further, of a Physician who can cure what 
 to all others is incurable. This is Jesus, who saves His people from 
 their sins. 
 
 In a doctor, what would you like to have ? One ready to run 
 at your call ; one skilful to discover your trouble, and to apply the 
 remedy ; one kind and sympathetic with you, in your suffering ; 
 and yet, one strict in his treatment, to subdue and get rid of the 
 disease. Now, Jesus is all this. He is waiting to hear the sufferer's 
 call ; He knows what is in man, and the very cure man needs ; 
 He is full of compassion ; yet rigorous in dealing with this terrible 
 evil of sin (Matt. v. 29, 30). 
 
 What you, the patient, have to do is — to call in the Doctor ; to 
 trust Him, and have full confidence in His skill ; to take kindly to 
 Him, and not hinder His operations by alarm ; and to obey Him, 
 putting yourself entirely in His hands, and acting up to His 
 instructions. If in this spirit you cry to Jesus, "Heal me," then 
 \on shall be healed ; and " He ^^^ll be your praise." 
 
 (5) 65 
 
March 5 an BcbO Of JCSUS. 
 
 "Love one another" (1 John iii. 11, iii. 23, iv. 7, 11). 
 
 It is told of tlie Apostle John, who had been the youngest of the 
 disciples, and long outlived the rest of the Twelve, that when he was an 
 old man, and unable any longer to address the company of Christian 
 believers at Ephesus, he used to be carried into the midst of the 
 assembly of worshippers on the Lord's Day ; and the only words the 
 venerable saint uttered, with outstretched hands, were these — " Little 
 children, love one another." 
 
 You cannot but be struck with the frequency with which these 
 words occur in this letter of him who is called the Apostle of Love. 
 And what is the reason? It is just this, that there were certain 
 words of Jesus, spoken long before, which had sunk deep into the 
 memory and heart of John, and which find their echo here — " Love 
 one another." 
 
 In some of the mountain passes of Switzerland you come to a 
 point where your guide calls a halt ; and one of the natives, putting 
 a horn or a bugle to his lips, sounds forth a few clear, melodious notes. 
 You listen ; and you hear the same notes echoed and re-echoed with 
 wonderful distinctness among the successive peaks and valleys. 
 
 Or, to turn from nature to art, you have before you a phonograph, 
 A distinguished man, living hundreds of miles away, or perhaps dead 
 years ago, has spoken into the instrument. And, as you listen, the 
 words are permitted to escape again. They come forth exactly as 
 he spoke them. If you knew his voice in life, you can have no 
 difficulty in recognising it here. The words he uttered are repro- 
 duced, and in the very tone he used. You could almost fancy you 
 were listening to himself. 
 
 Even so it is here. Aged John is going back in thought to the 
 Upper Room at Jerusalem. " Love one another, as He gave us com- 
 mandment " (John xiii. 34), he says. And, as he repeats these words, 
 so distinctly engraven upon his memory and heart, we at once 
 recognise " the eleventh commandment," and seem to hear the very 
 cadence of the Master's voice. 
 
 66 
 
TBHoctbB llvlnfl, an& ©afntul D^fng. March e 
 
 " To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain " (Phil. i. 21). 
 
 Looking at you young people, two questions rise to the mind. First, 
 What is life to be to you ? You have life before you : of what sort 
 is it to be ? And second, there rises, unbidden, the other question, 
 What is death to be to you ? You have eternity before you : on 
 what sort of eternity is death to usher you 1 
 
 If you would live a worthy life, — then, as with the apostle, to 
 you to live should be Christ. What Paul meant by this was, not 
 only that in Christ he had the source of his true life, depending 
 upon Him, as the branch depends upon the vine, for life and nourish- 
 ment, but that the love of Christ was his ruling motive, and the 
 glory of Christ his great end. 
 
 Pierce your way into the Christian's heart, the heart of one like 
 Paul, and you will find enthroned a better than any earthly king; 
 love to whom is a purer impulse, and has been a more powerful and 
 blessed influence than love to any other — the love of Christ. 
 
 And with Paul, whether he was preaching in the synagogues, 
 discussing in the streets, or making his tents at Corinth — this was 
 his crowning aim, to subserve the glory of Christ. If a man is very 
 much bent on anything, we say it is " his very life." Of one, we 
 say that business is his very life ; of another, society, or pleasure ; 
 of another, politics ; of another, religion. What is your life to be ? 
 If it is to be worthy of you, it will be — Christ. 
 
 Then for you, as for the apostle, this word " to die" need have no 
 terrors, but may rather have attractions. For it will mean, more of 
 ' Christ. It will be, to depart and to be with Him ; and if life is good, 
 why, death is better. " To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise." 
 Will not that be gain ? What an exchange ! Death for life ; dark- 
 ness for light ; sickness for health ; poverty for wealth ; night for 
 day ; solitude for company ; chains for liberty ; toil for rest ; hunger 
 for satisfaction ; perpetual trouble for endless peace. 
 
 Who would not be like the apostle ? But, remember, if Christ 
 be not your life, then death will be, for you, not gain, but awful 
 loss. 
 
 67 
 
March? IRcinember tbc Sabbatb. 
 
 " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it hohj " (Ex. xx. 8). 
 
 You know wliat is meant by the Sabbatli day. It means the day of 
 rest. No work, no worry is expected on that day ; but quiet, and 
 calm, and peace. But I wonder if you know what is meant by 
 keeping the Sabbath " holy " ? It means keeping it for God. This 
 is the day which He intends you to set apart specially for Him, for 
 His worship and service. In its sacred hours you should think 
 much of God and heaven, and sing songs of praise to Jesus. 
 
 The other days are given us to work in. In them we go to school 
 or business, and do our best to get on in the world. But we need 
 also to think of the world to come : of heaven, and how we are to 
 get there. And every time the Sabbath comes round, it says' — 
 " Stop and think ! Stop and think ! " 
 
 Wliat a blessing the Sabbath is to us, even in our bodies and in 
 our minds ! It comes in like the winding up of a clock, and sends 
 many weary workers forward on their way with new vigour and hope. 
 And what a blessing it is especially to our souls, if it brings us near 
 to God, and leads us to taste true rest in Him ! Yet many people 
 go on with their worry and bustle, planning for gain and plunging 
 into worldly pleasure on the Lord's Day, without ever knowing 
 what a Sabbath really is. They are very foolish for their own 
 sakes, and they are at the same time dishonouring God. They have 
 only a Sunday at the most ; and the Sabbath does not bring them 
 true peace or real rest, because they disobey the command of God, 
 and refuse to keep it holy. 
 
 " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." How short our 
 memories often are, where religious things are concerned ! A 
 gentleman on his way to church was asked by a passer-by if he had 
 seen three men, as he came along, making for the country. " Yes," 
 he replied ; " and one of them has a blue coat, and they all have 
 short memories." " How do you know that ? " said the other, smiling. 
 " Because," said the gentleman gravely, " God has said ' Remember 
 the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,' and they have quite forgotten it." 
 It is a sin to have a short memory here, when God has specially 
 reminded us. 
 
 "Keep the Sabbath holy." That does not mean — Keep it unhappy, 
 with your face long, and the blinds down, and the house dark. 
 Rather — Keep it bright and cheerful and joyous : as the glad day when 
 the Saviour, who rose a conqueror on the first day of the week, is 
 ready to meet with you. " We will rejoice and be glad in it ! " 
 
 68 
 
a ^Beautiful 3B(oarapbl\ Maroli 3 
 
 ' 'A nd Enoch walked vnth God ; and he was not, for Ood took him " (Gen v. 24). 
 
 There have been very many biographies written since Enoch's 
 time. But there has never been a more striking and beautiful one 
 than his, though it is so very brief. In reading over the long list of 
 names here, about which so little that is good or noteworthy has to 
 be told, it comes over the heart like a breath of Paradise again, to 
 read — " And Enoch walked with God ; and he was not, for God 
 took him." 
 
 It was a long walk this of Enoch's — lasting some 365 years. 
 But it was not a tiresome one. For it was in the very best of com- 
 pany, and on terms of real friendship. It is not said of Enoch 
 merely that he walked " before God," as beneath His eye ; or " after 
 God," as seeking to follow in His steps ; but " with God," as you might 
 walk with your father, holding by his hand and looking up into his 
 face, telling him all that is in your heart, and hearing him speak to 
 you again. 
 
 " Can two walk together except they be agreed ? " No ; they may 
 drag on together, but not walk together in tliis sense. We 
 gather certainly from what is told of Enoch here, that there was 
 peace between him and God ; and not only peace, but sympathy, 
 and frank, loving intercourse. Is this true of you ? Has the enmity 
 been slain in your heart toward God and that which is good ? 
 Have you truly learned that God was in Christ, reconciling tlie 
 world unto Himself ? Are you among the reconciled ones, who 
 know the joy of friendship and communion with our Heavenly 
 Father day by day ? Then the rest of Enoch's biography will also 
 be true of you. God will one day take you to be with Himself for 
 ever, in the Father's house of many mansions. 
 
 " He was not, for God took him." One day Enoch was missed. 
 What had become of him ? Death was not so familiar then as it is 
 now. Jared, the father of Enoch, lived 962 years ; and Methuselah, 
 his son, 969 years ; so that, at 365, Enoch was still comparatively 
 young. And when he disappeared, people would not so readily 
 as we, think of death as the explanation. No ; and Enoch had 
 not died. God would somehow let it be known that he had 
 taken him to heaven by a brighter portal. And not only the men 
 of Enoch's time, but many since his day, have had their thoughts 
 and desires lifted upward by what is told of this friend of God. 
 whom He loved so much, and of whom it was true, that, when he 
 " was not " to the eyes of men, he had gone to be with God. 
 
 69 
 
March ®UC SubStttUte. 
 
 " Christ died for the ungodly " (Rom. v. 6). 
 
 You boys know wliat it is " to provide a substitute," or, another who 
 shall, on a certain occasion, fill your place and do your part. You 
 are expected to play in a football match ; the captain of the team is 
 counting upon you. If, through cold or other illness, you cannot be 
 present on the appointed day, you undertake to provide a substitute. 
 
 Now, in Christ Jesus we have the sinner's Substitute. As a poor 
 believing negro once expressed it, " He die : me no die." God's own 
 Son, though He knew no sin, consented to take the place of the 
 vilest sinners, and to be " made sin " — that is, to be regarded and 
 treated as if He were utterly sinful, as sin itself — for them. He 
 died in room of the ungodly. Our sin could not go unpunished ; 
 but He has borne sin's worst punishment, and has opened the gate 
 of Heaven to all believers. 
 
 The captain of a vessel running to the Cape of Good Hope was 
 suddenly taken Ul, and laid upon the bed of death. When the 
 mate entered his cabin for orders, he said to him — " I am dying ; you 
 must command the ship ; I shall never go on deck again. But oh ! 
 can you — can you help me to appear before God ? " The mate could 
 give him no comfort about such a matter. The second mate was 
 equally helpless, when called ; and so with others of the officers and 
 crew. At last the cabin-boy was summoned. His name was 
 WiUiam Smith ; and he was on his first voyage. It was with fear 
 and trembling he came into the captain's presence ; but, to his sur- 
 prise, it was not to get rebuke, but to give help he had been called. 
 " I've got a Bible which my mother gave me ; shall I fetch it ? " 
 "Yes, boy." "Where shall I read, captain?" "Where you used 
 to read to your mother ! " " Shall I read as she taught me ? " " By 
 aU means." 
 
 The boy proceeded — " But He was wounded for William's Smith's 
 transgressions ; He was bruised for William Smith's iniquities ; the 
 chastisement of William Smith's peace was laid upon Him ; and with 
 His stripes William Smith is healed." " Stop," said the captain ; 
 " put my name in, and read slowly." The boy did as he was told, and 
 soon John Davis, the dying captain, was rejoicing by faith in Christ, 
 his Substitute. Young reader, put your own name int 
 
 70 
 
5t comctb trom Bbope. March lO 
 
 " Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above" (J;is, i. 17). 
 
 When John Wesley was preaching at Doncaster, he told of a poor 
 Romanist woman, who, having broken her crucifix, went to her 
 priest in great distress, crying — " I have broken my crucifix ! I have 
 broken my crucifix I I have now nothing to trust in but the great 
 Gk)d 1 " Wesley added, " What a mercy she had a great God to trust 
 in I " And these simple words were so blessed to a Romanist hearer 
 in the audience, that he was led to put an undivided trust in the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 Our text reminds us, and the context suggests, that everything 
 good comes to us from God, and that nothing but what is good comes 
 to us from His gracious and bountiful hand. If we are His children, 
 then, even what is for the present imwelcome has love in it, when 
 He sends it. We often change, but He does not. He is not like 
 one of the heavenly bodies, such as the moon, liable to eclipse, or to 
 cast a shadow through turning. But He is the Father of lights, ever 
 full and serene in His shining. Clouds may come between Him and 
 us ; but they proceed, not from heaven, but from earth. For our 
 own sakes He may have to vary His treatment of us, in order to 
 our higher good. But " though His dispensations vary. His disposi- 
 tion toward His children does not change." Even when your Father 
 metes out chastisement to you. He loves you still ; and His heart is 
 never tenderer toward you than just at such a moment. 
 
 A little French boy, called Peter, was enabled to keep hold of 
 this truth, which his dying parent had taught him as they parted. 
 And whatever was sent to him, he was in the habit of saying, " It 
 Cometh from above." 
 
 So long as it was a case of receiving a sou or a franc or some 
 other gift, it sounded all right ; but sometimes his refrain had a re- 
 markable, though to others an unexpected, application. One windy 
 day, little Peter was knocked do^vn by a plank in the street. " It 
 Cometh from above," he said ; and the passers-by smiled. But not 
 far ahead, as he passed on, three men were killed by the fall of a roof, 
 at a spot which Peter had been prevented reaching just by the tumble 
 which had delayed him. He had many such experiences through 
 life, which led him to stick to his chosen motto, to abide in his trust 
 toward God in all circumstances, and to see his Heavenly Father's 
 hand in everything. He became a rich merchant ; and, when 
 prosperity flowed in, he still humbly said, " It cometh from above." 
 
 71 
 
March 11 B 0OO& "ffjeBnote* 
 
 " God is Love " (1 John iv. 8, 16). 
 
 It is very important that the song of your life should be set to a 
 good keynote. And the Apostle John supplies you with that. His 
 keynote is — Love. 
 
 This is the keynote to which his own character and life were set. 
 He was " the beloved disciple," and the most intensely loving of the 
 disciples. You must not think of him as a soft, weak man, but as a 
 strong man, of a soaring, powerful nature, like the eagle. And 
 whether his fervour showed itself in the proposal to bring down fire 
 on the heads of those who slighted his Master, or in the eager desire 
 for close, warm communion with Him on whose breast he leaned at 
 Supper, the supreme governing note to which his heart kept true 
 was the same — love to Christ I 
 
 Love is the keynote of John's teaching too. He became "the 
 Apostle of Love." His Gospel is the one which shows us most of the 
 heart of Christ. And if faith is Paul's distinctive keynote ; hope, 
 Peter's ; obedience, James's — love is the keynote, and the constant 
 refrain, of these letters by John. "God is Love." "Love is of 
 God." " He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God ; and God in 
 Him." " He that loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is Love." 
 
 It has been said of love, that in it you have the blending of all 
 the perfections of the divine nature ; and that, as the diamond is 
 white because you have all the coloiirs harmoniously united in it, so, 
 if you wish one expression for the nature of God, and wish to say in 
 a word what God is, it is here you must find it — God is Love. 
 
 Thus, if you would be like God, you are not to be so anxious to 
 be clever or to be powerful, as to be loving. It is here that true 
 kinship with Him comes out ; and " of all earthly music, that 
 which reaches farthest into heaven is the beating of a loving heart." 
 This is true, just because such music is not earthly music after all. 
 It is of heaven ; and its echoes reach back to heaven again. Boys 
 and girls are often far more taken up about who is to be counted 
 the cleverest, than about who is the most loving among them ; and 
 men and women are apt to be the same. But " in the next world 
 God will put the tape, not about men's heads, but about their hearts." 
 
 72 
 
jfaitbful tbouflb not jfamoii^ March 12 
 
 "And the lot fell upon Matthias" (Acts i. 26), 
 
 Op this Matthias, who, after the miserable death of Judas Iscariot, 
 " was numbered with the eleven apostles," we know comparatively 
 little. We do know that he was a steadfast follower of Jesus : he 
 was one of those whom Peter described as " men who have companied 
 with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us." 
 We also know that he was a man much esteemed among his brethren ; 
 he was one of two who stood so high in their regard that they had 
 no doubt about one or other of them being the best man to fill the 
 place left vacant by the Apostle Judas. And Matthias was, 
 accordingly, set apart by lot to the high office of the apostleship ; 
 for it was upon him, and not upon Justus, that the lot fell. 
 
 This is really all we know about the life of Matthias. Not a 
 syllable of his history afterwards is recorded ; there is no record on 
 earth of his good deeds, or of his subsequent service to the Christian 
 cause. Yet we have learned enough of him to be sure that he was 
 a good man and a true, and that, somewhere and in some way, he 
 would do all he could while he lived to promote the glory of Christ 
 and the good of men. 
 
 From the brief appearance of Matthias on the canvas of early 
 Church history, and his absolute disappearance again from view, we 
 may learn this lesson — that our great concern should be, to do our 
 part well in our place, wherever it may be, without caring whether 
 we and our work are much or at all heard of among men. It is often 
 the best sign of a man and of his work that they are little spoken 
 about. If there is good in either, the day of eternity will fully 
 declare it, and bring it to its proper issue. 
 
 It was a becoming spirit which Sir Henry Lawrence, one of the 
 great men of India, revealed in the choice of his epitaph, as he lay 
 a-dying. " I wish this," he said, " to be on my tombstone, ' Here 
 lies Henry Lawrence — who tried to do his duty.' " By " duty " we 
 mean what is due, to God and man. Seek ever to do yours, content, 
 if God sees it best, to be among "the unnamed forces of the 
 universe." No honest service, though it may seem unnoted, is 
 either lost or forgotten. 
 
 " Honour and shame from no condition rise, 
 Act well your part: there all the honour lies." 
 
 73 
 
March 13 fl ClouD Of Wiitneeece, 
 
 " We are compassed abo^U with so great a cloud of witnesses" (Heb. xii. 1). 
 
 The picture suggested here is of the runners in a racecourse, witli a 
 definite goal to be readied, and a crowd of interested spectators 
 looking on. The path of life, the way of God's commandments, is 
 the course. Heaven, not death, is the goal. For see 1 beyond the 
 dark porchway — within — the victors are being crowned. And the 
 picture is given that we may be induced to join in the race, if we 
 have not done so yet, and may be encouraged to hold on in it, if we 
 have already begun. 
 
 The chapter before this, the 11th of Hebrews, gives a glorious 
 muster-roll of saints and heroes of the olden time who have run 
 the race before us, and run it well. It is one of the most beautiful 
 chapters in the Bible ; and you ought to learn it oflf by heart. 
 
 Far up in the earliest reaches of time, you see Abel bending 
 heavenward — whither the murderous hand of Cain only hastened 
 him the sooner. Then Enoch, who in his common daily life walked 
 with God, till one day he was missed by his fellow-men, because God 
 had taken him to be with Himself for ever. Then Noah, whose 
 path led him through the deep. Then Abraham, whose road led 
 him to and beyond a far unknown country of promise, which 
 became to his seed for a possession. Then the rest of the patriarchs j 
 and Moses, whose course brought him through a desert land — with 
 many a doubling and weary wandering, ere, from the top of Pisgah, 
 he was ushered upon the true home of his desire. Then the whole 
 army of prophets and martyrs, of whom the world, which scorned 
 and persecuted them, was not worthy. 
 
 All these, and many besides, — a glorious company of veterans, 
 including some whom we ourselves have known, — are witnesses to 
 us that God is faithful who hath promised, and that, when the 
 heat and dust and weariness of the race are over, He will be the 
 rewarder of all them that diligently seek Him. And we may even 
 think of them, for our encouragement, as looking down upon us, in 
 loving interest, as the former pupils of your school do sometimes at 
 your contests, in the anxious hope that we shall run weU, 
 
 74 
 
IHOt BOUrs, but BOU. March 14 
 
 " I seek not yours, but i/ou " (2 Cor. xii. 14). 
 
 How true this was of Paul 1 Some of the Corinthians seem to have 
 been foolish enough to think that he was anxious to make a gain of 
 them. But this was far from being the case. With gifts like his, 
 and openings such as had been available for him, if gain had been 
 his object, he might have attained it in a much easier way than by 
 becoming a poor missionary of the Cross. Rather than be burden- 
 some to these Corinthians, Paul had worked as a tentmaker at 
 CorintL He could look them, and all to whom he preached the 
 gospel anywhere, honestly in the face, saying — " I seek not yours, 
 but you." 
 
 And how true this is of Paul's Master ! Jesus came, not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for 
 many." Though He was the Prince of Heaven, and had a right to 
 the very best that earth could furnish to Him, He often had not 
 where to lay His head. The foxes and the birds of the air were 
 richer in that respect than the homeless Wanderer. Yet there was 
 never a murmur on His lips. He went about, not continually 
 complaining, but continually doing good ; for what He was in quest 
 of was something else than bodily comfort for Himself. Even if 
 all the wealth of the world had been poured by men at His feet, 
 that would not have satisfied the heart of Christ, which was hunger- 
 ing for their salvation. His answer still would have been — " I seek 
 not yours, but you." 
 
 I have read of an Indian chief, who, under deep conviction of 
 sin, came to a missionary and offered him his much- valued belt, 
 that he might please God. The missionary shook his head ; and the 
 Indian went anxiously away. Soon he returned, and laid at the 
 missionary's feet his gun, and the booty he had taken in the field. 
 But still the answer was—" This is not the offering Christ will have 
 from you." Ere long he came back ; and this time he said, " I give 
 wigwam, wife, child, — everything I have, — to please God." But again 
 the missionary made reply — " With these the Lord Jesus will not be 
 satisfied." And thereupon the chief, bursting into tears, raised his 
 eyes heavenward, crying with deep emotion — " Then, Lord, take 
 poor Indian too ! " And he went joyfully back to his home, an 
 accepted man. 
 
 75 
 
March 15 /Dbsselt aiiD a:bB8elt 
 
 " Tliat which I see not, teach Thou me " (Job xxxiv. 32). 
 
 It was a good prayer, uttered by a servant of God, " Lord, sliew me 
 myself, and shew me Thyself." It was a prayer every boy and girl 
 migbt very well take and use. And these were the two things that 
 Job most needed to have shown clearly to him, when he said to 
 God, " That which I see not, teach Thou me." 
 
 1. Myself. Show me this more fully, Lord I Job was a good man, 
 but not so good as he thought he was. There was far more evil in 
 his heart than he knew about. When God afflicted him, he thought 
 he did not deserve at all to be chastised ; and so, pride and 
 rebellion rose within. But when God sent His light in, the evil 
 was revealed. 
 
 A room sometimes seems wonderfully clean. But, let a bright 
 sunbeam stream in through the side of the blind, and motes of dust 
 are seen floating everywhere. Water may sometimes look wonder- 
 fully pure. But if it is submitted to the microscope, it may be 
 full of loathsome insects. So when God's light shines in, and the 
 microscope of God's law is applied, there may be much that is evil 
 discovered in what seemed a comparatively pure heart and life. 
 When we are inclined to think too well of ourselves, God sometimes 
 has to bring us to see this. 
 
 2. Thyself. Lord, show me more of Thee 1 This is a prayer we 
 need constantly to use. For there is more, and ever more, in God 
 for us to know and to adore. His wisdom is imsearchable, and so 
 are the riches of His love. You can never exhaust this subject. It 
 will be always full of freshness, and interest, and comfort for you. 
 So Job found. Though he was sinful, far more so than he had 
 thought, God did not cast him oflf or refuse to speak with him, but 
 revealed tojhim His marvellous goodness. He showed Job that even 
 in trying him He had been showing His interest in him and love 
 for him. He had been seeking all the time to free him more 
 perfectly from sin, and to prepare him more fully for Himself. 
 May God so deal with us ! The sight of ourselves only might sink 
 us into despair. But the sight of Him, too, will bring us hope and 
 
 joy- 
 
 76 
 
JLbe ascet of ff rien&s. March le 
 
 "A friend of publicans and sinners" (Matt. xi. 19). 
 
 This was what we would call "a nickname" for Jesus at first. 
 But, like some other nicknames, it was more full of honour than of 
 shame ; and there was no name which Jesus Himself delighted 
 more in than this — the Sinner's Friend. He was both a Friend to 
 sinners and a Friend of sinners. He sought them ; and they drew 
 near and clung to Him, 
 
 You know already what a " friend " is, boys and girls, and you 
 know what you like to have in a friend. Here is the kind of 
 Friend Jesus was : — 
 
 1. A loving Friend, He was full of tenderness to the most 
 despised of outcasts. His heart yearned over them in love, and 
 their sorrows raude Him weep, 
 
 2. A true Friend, He was their Friend behind their backs as 
 well as to their faces. We often find Him standing up for them, 
 against those who treated them with unkindness and disdain. 
 
 3. A fast Friend. He was not ready to take offence, but long- 
 suffering and good ; and, though there was much in sinners to 
 offend Him, He was slow to turn His back upon them. 
 
 4. A candid Friend. He told sinners their faults openly, but in 
 a kindly, not a sneering way. It was to better, not to embitter 
 them. He spoke ; and they could not but feel that kind and faithful 
 were the wounds of such a Friend. 
 
 5. A helpful Friend. He was always ready to put forth His 
 hand to lift a burden off ; and He even died to free poor sinners 
 from their load of guilt. 
 
 Are you a sinner? Then this is the Friend for you. Take 
 everything to Him ; for He loves you, and is waiting to hear what- 
 ever you have to tell him. A child was overheard asking another 
 who had lost her mother — " What do you do without a mother to 
 tell all your troubles to ? " " Mother told me, before she died, to 
 whom to go," was the answer. " I go to the Lord Jesus. He was 
 my mother's Friend, and He is mine." Was it not well that the 
 little orphan could say this ? She had a Friend that sticketh closer 
 than the nearest and dearest of earth — a Friend that death could 
 never take away from her. 
 
 77 
 
Maroiii7 ^ore ©recious tban ©olc». 
 
 " The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver " 
 (Ps, cxix. 72). 
 
 You liave no doubt lieard of Jenny Lind, the Swedish nightingale, 
 as she was called. There have been many great singers in the 
 nineteenth century, but probably she excelled all others. When she 
 came over to London, in 1846, she captivated everybody, from the 
 Queen downwards, who were privileged to hear her. For three years 
 she continued to draw immense audiences, and her popularity, if 
 possible, only increased ; when, somewhat suddenly, in May 1849, 
 it was announced that she had appeared upon the stage for the last 
 time. 
 
 " Folly 1 " said the British public, " to retire, when she had the 
 ball of fortune so completely at her foot ! What madness to throw 
 away such a chance of making thousands of gold and silver, to say 
 nothing of adding constantly to her personal fame ! " But what 
 was her own explanation of iti You shall hear. A friend 
 found her one evening, soon after her retirement, sitting by the 
 seaside with a Bible in her lap, gazing wistfully across the sea at 
 the glories of the setting sun. In the course of conversation, the 
 friend ventured to ask her, what had led her to do what had taken 
 all England by surprise — to withdraw from public life at the very 
 moment when her popularity was at its height? The quiet but 
 decided answer came — "When every day the theatre made me 
 think less of this (laying her hand upon the open Bible), and nothing 
 at all of that (pointing to the going down of the sun), what else 
 could I do but give it up ? " 
 
 Here was a woman to whom God's word was " more to be 
 desired than gold, yea than much fine gold." The law of God's lips 
 was " better to her than thousands of gold and silver." What was 
 the applause of the multitude to her, in comparison with His 
 approval, and the joy of cultivating His acquaintanceship 1 Was 
 she not right, to count all things else but loss for the excellency of 
 the knowledge of Christ Jesus her Lord ? 
 
 Money can do a great deal ; but there are some things it cannot 
 do. It cannot satisfy the heart. It cannot bring true peace to the 
 life. It cannot prepare the soul for a blissful eternity. 
 
 A starving Arab, fainting upon the desert, saw, as he was just 
 sinking upon the sand, a wallet near by. He clutched eagerly at it, 
 thinking it was full of bread. But it was only a bag of gold. 
 
 78 
 
a lIOlOnDecfUl IReB. March 18 
 
 " ll'e love Him, beeavse He first loved us " (1 John iv. 19). 
 
 You know what a key is. It is an instrument to fit into a lock, in 
 order to get into a place to which, without it, you would have no 
 access. There is a cupboard, or a secret drawer, which you wish to 
 open. How are you to get in 1 You must find the key. If you do, 
 the rest is easy. 
 
 Now, our verse tells us of a key that God Himself has used to 
 good purpose, and which His people too are invited to use. It is 
 the Key of Love. Our hearts were shut and locked against God. 
 But He has opened them, and has obtained an entrance for Himself 
 through His divine irresistible love. He might have crushed and 
 shattered us by His power ; but how many a heart, like Lydia's, 
 has been opened by the love of God in Christ — and laid for ever 
 open afterwards to the sweet restoring influences of His grace ! But 
 for this, we would never have loved Him. We do love Him now, 
 because He first loved us, and made us feel His love. 
 
 "Why is it, Mary," asked one of a little girl, "that you are 
 always so happy ? " "I suppose," was the innocent reply, " I 
 suppose it is because I love everybody." There was a great deal of 
 truth and wisdom in that answer. Love to God and to everybody 
 is the key to true happiness. But our main point just now is, that 
 it is the key to real, Christ-like influence. 
 
 There was a lady with three cherished children of her own, who 
 once, in the kindness of her heart, took a poor little orphan girl into 
 her home to stay with them. The young stranger at first was very 
 shy, and could not be induced to come out of the comer of the room, 
 to play with the other children. Their mother, however, said that she 
 knew the secret of bringing her out. It was a word of four letters, 
 and she asked them to guess what it was. The first said D-o-l-lj 
 and brought her doll to the little orphan, but without eff'ect ; the 
 second tried offering her her mtiffy with a like result. But the third 
 went forward with a kind smile, and put her arms round the 
 orphan's neck and kissed her ; and, where everything else had failed, 
 love conquered. Try that key, young people, oftencr than you are 
 wont to do ! 
 
 79 
 
March 19 Complete ConfiOence in Jesus. 
 
 " They tvent and told Jesus" (Matt. xiv. 12). " When they returned, they 
 told Him all that they had done " (Luke ix. 10). 
 
 When tlie disciples had any special trouble weighing upon their 
 hearts, they went and told Jesus. Or when they had anything 
 noteworthy to relate, either about the difficulty or about the success 
 of their work, they went and told Jesus. They knew that in Him 
 they had a Friend of such perfect sympathy that they could come 
 to Him at any time and with everything. Whatever was of con- 
 cern to them was of moment to Him. He would not turn a deaf 
 ear to them, or bid them go away and not trouble Him. They 
 were sure of comfort, guidance, help from Jesus, as they needed it. 
 
 We, too, are invited to turn to the same Friend, with everything 
 and for everything. He will never be found so occupied with 
 other people as to have no time to listen to what we have to tell 
 Him. He will never be found so taken up with weightier concerns 
 as to have no thoughts to bestow on what is of concern to the very 
 smallest and humblest of His disciples. Nothing pleases Jesus 
 more than to know that His is such a place in your heart that He 
 is the One to whom you naturally turn, as the Friend in whom, 
 above all others, you can confide. 
 
 James Gilmour of Mongolia, the intrepid missionary, who went 
 alone into the heart of Asia, carrying the gospel to the wandering 
 half -savage tribes there, had himself a great, living trust in Jesus. 
 He wrote to his two boys in England — " Cheer up, my dear sonnies, 
 we shall see each other some day yet ! Tell all your troubles to 
 Jesus, and let Him be your Friend. Sometimes, when I am writing 
 a letter to you, and come to the foot of a page, I don't take blotting- 
 paper and blot it, but kneel down and pray while it is drying." 
 How well it was for these boys to be directed and commended to a 
 Friend who, even after father and mother had forsaken them in 
 death, would abide as their ever-present Help ! 
 
 Jesus invites your full confidence ; and He offers you His full 
 sympathy. Tell Him not only of your troubles, but of your joys. 
 Tell Him not only of your wishes, but of your resolves. Tell Him 
 not only of your successes, but of your failures ; aye, and of your 
 sins. His is an ear into which you may breathe what you could 
 tell in no other ear but His. Go day by day to Jesus, and tell Him 
 everything. 
 
 8o 
 
Seeking tbe Xost. March 26 
 
 *' The Son of Man is come, to seek and to save that which was lost " 
 (Luke xix. 10). 
 
 You must have sometimes seen a poor, lost child upon the street. 
 It is crying bitterly. A crowd begins to gather round, and kind 
 people ask it, " What is the matter ? " And they try to comfort it. 
 But all in vain ! The tears still flow, and the wail of distress 
 refuses to be hushed. For the little one is lost, and feels that it is 
 lost ; and the shop windows and the other sights that were such an 
 attraction a short while ago, as it wandered unthinkingly onward, 
 have altogether ceased to charm. It will not be comforted. 
 
 But suddenly the little face brightens ; the eyes glisten with 
 delight through their tears ; the yammering of sorrow is broken by 
 a short, eager cry of joy. What means this ? The child's restless 
 eye has found what its heart has been longing for; and in a 
 moment, radiant with delight, it is clasped in its mother's arms. 
 
 How sad to see upon the street a helpless little one, in distress 
 because it knows that it is lost ! But to me it is almost more 
 pitiful to see one lost without knowing or heeding it — going gaily 
 onward for a while, but sure to waken at last to the discovery that 
 it has lost its mother and its home. And are not some boys and 
 girls just like this with God. Ah, yes ! They are wandering from 
 Him who loves them with more than a mother's love ; and they do 
 not know their loss. But the time will come when they will miss 
 Him. Then they will seek Him, if haply they may find Him. And 
 shall they find Him ? Christ's answer for you to this question is — 
 " They that seek Me early shall find Me." And the Bible warning 
 is — " Seek ye the Lord while He may be found ; call ye upon Him 
 while He is near." 
 
 Our seeking, even after we had discovered that we were lost, 
 would be of little avail if that were all. But Jesus too, for whom 
 the heart of the lost but awakened sinner craves, is seeking, that He 
 may save just such as you are. The Good Shepherd, who laid down 
 His life for the sheep, but took it again, is not, you may be sure, 
 careless about the lambs. Oh what delight it would give Him to 
 bear you upon His shoulder rejoicing ! And the joy iu His lieari., 
 and in yours, would find an echo among the angels in heaven. 
 
 (6) 
 
Maroh21 IRO tllOte SCSi* 
 
 " And there was no more sea " (Rev. xxi, 1). 
 
 This is part of St. Jolm's inspired description of heaven. If you 
 ask " What is heaven?" the Bible answers shortly — " Where Jesus 
 is." That is heaven. But it is also, Where certaia other things 
 are not. And among these, this is one, " No more sea." 
 
 Now, I do not know if you would be quite disposed to include 
 this in your idea of heaven. You love the sea, with its rippling 
 waters and its pleasant breezes. You delight to go to the seaside 
 in the summer time, to sport upon the sands ; and you afterwards 
 carry a bright picture of it in your heart. 
 
 This prophecy certainly shows that the " new earth " must be 
 very different from this one ; for more than half the surface of this 
 old earth of ours is covered by the sea. And so important are the 
 uses of the sea, that, as things exist, we could not do without it. 
 It is the great purifier. Without the sea, into whose briny depths 
 so much of the world's filth is received in order to be cleansed, the 
 earth would be scourged with pestilence. It is also the great rain- 
 giver. It is from the sea that most of the moisture is drawn 
 upwards by the sun, to descend again in refreshing showers to water 
 the earth. And another of the many good uses of the sea is, that it 
 tempers the climate in different quarters of the globe, where with- 
 out it the land would be either baked with heat or frozen up with 
 perpetual cold. 
 
 But, in the new earth, such uses will be no longer needed. 
 There will be no impurity and no sickness there. The inhabitant 
 shall not say, " I am sick " : he will be in the enjoyment of perfect 
 health. There will be no drought ; for " the river of the water of 
 life " will irrigate the whole of that fair land. There will be the 
 warmth of comfort, but no scorching heat ; and " neither cauld nor 
 care, in the Land o' the Leal." 
 
 And then, three things, which, as you get older, you may learn 
 to think of when the sea is mentioned, will not be found in heaven. 
 Here a mother's heart is often yearning after her boy in a far-off 
 land ; but a great stretch of waters rolls between. Yonder the 
 members of God's family will be divided by no sea of separation. 
 Here we sadly read of the dangers of the deep — its shoals and reefs 
 and storms. Yonder, there will be no sea of peril. Here the 
 moaning, troubled sea, like a restless conscience, never is at peace. 
 But yonder there will be no sea of unrest. There will be perfect 
 union, safety, peace— in the world with "no more sea." 
 
 82 
 
tTbe 3Brigbtnc05 of tbe firmament. March 22 
 
 " \Vhe71 1 consider Thy heavens . . . What is man?" (Ps. viii. 3, 4). 
 
 You know what the " firmament " is, you young people. It is the 
 blue vault of heaven above us, mentioned, you remember, in the 
 first chapter of the Bible, where we are told of its being stretched 
 by God's own hand. 
 
 And you know what the stars are. A little girl once described 
 their appearance very prettily when she said, "They are gimlet 
 holes in the floor of heaven, to let some of the light shine through." 
 But I do not need to tell you that they are among the things which 
 " are not what they seem." They are not gimlet holes, but great 
 worlds, as you well know ; some of them vastly bigger than the 
 world we live in, though their distance from us makes them seem 
 80 very small. 
 
 You might profitably read all the verses you can find in the 
 Bible about the stars. What God says to Abraham, for example, 
 about them ; what David, the shepherd-king, who so often saw the 
 stars above his head at Bethlehem, says in the 8th Psalm that they 
 made him think about and wonder at, as he looked up at them at 
 night ; and what we are told in the Gospel about the wonderful 
 star which guided the wise men to the humble manger where the 
 Creator of all worlds lay as a little Babe. Then some of you may 
 be able to tell where it is that Jesus — "the Dayspring from on 
 high," as he is called in Luke — is foretold by a strange prophet in 
 the Old Testament, as " a star " that would one day " rise out of 
 Jacob." 
 
 There are many things that a look up at the starry sky on a 
 quiet night will suggest to the thoughtful heart. It will make you 
 admire the greatness of Him " who created these things, and calleth 
 them all by names." It will excite your wonder at the condescen- 
 sion of the great God, in stooping to visit man, even fallen and 
 sinful man, and in caring day by day for you. And it may also 
 suggest to you the glory that awaits those who are wise unto salva- 
 tion ; for they, as the Bible tells us (Dan. xii. 3), " shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament." When joxi look up next at the starry 
 canopy of heaven, let it remind you of the vault of God's great 
 spiritual temple. His purified and glorified Church ; and covet for 
 yourself a place in that bright sphere, which will be far more 
 gloriously beautiful than the resplendent dome of the sky. 
 
 83 
 
March 23 XLhC JBest ©UtDe. 
 
 " He leadeth me " (Ps. xxiii. 2). 
 
 Who is " He " 1 It is the Good Slieplierd, Jesus, who guides and 
 guards His sheep, and gives them all they need, not for safety only, 
 but for satisfying. 
 
 Who is the *' me " ? It is David ; but also every believer — every 
 true follower of Jesus, every sheep and every lamb in the Good 
 Shepherd's flock. 
 
 I hope the me here means you. Apart from the Saviour's leading, 
 you will wander far astray upon the barren moors, weary of heart 
 often, with none to restore your soul ; and without Him to bring 
 you thither, you can never possibly reach the one safe fold at last. 
 
 Can you say from the heart, " He leadeth me " ? Not merely, 
 " He leads His flock " ; or, " He is willing to lead me " ; but, " He 
 leads me " ; "I am under His leading " ? If you can, you are imder 
 the best of all guides ; and all the comfort which this wonderful 
 23rd Psalm is fitted to give is meant for you, just as much as 
 for him who was inspired to write it at the first. A wonderful 
 psalm indeed — generally the first that children learn beside the 
 mother's knee, and very often the last that the dying believer quotes, 
 as he enters the dark valley and gets beyond the hearing and help 
 of all other friends but One ! 
 
 " He leadeth me." This means, that there is a very close personal 
 tie between you and Jesus. He is not only the Shepherd of Israel, 
 but you can say of Him, " The Lord is my Shepherd." 
 
 " He leadeth me" This means that you are an object of par- 
 ticular interest to Him. He has a great flock ; but He has as much 
 loving care over you as if He had no other to lead and to provide for. 
 
 *' He leadeth me." This means that your life is continual progress 
 toward the goal of blessedness ; and it implies, that where He leads you 
 are ready to follow. How often you have used these words in re- 
 peating this old psalm ! I hope they do mean, every time you use 
 them, that you are one of those who listen to Christ's voice, love 
 His word, walk in His footsteps ; who desire to be near Him, to be 
 like Him, and at length with Him for ever. 
 
 84 
 
5n Cbrfst earlB, March 24 
 
 " Andronicus and Junia, who also tvere in Christ btfore me " (Rom. xvL 7). 
 
 Paul was not an envious man, at least after he became a Christian. 
 But there were some whom, even then, he felt disposed to envy. 
 Andronicus and Junia, mentioned here, were among them. They 
 were those who were " in Christ " before him. 
 
 "In Christ" meant for Paul, safety, joy, life ; "out of Christ," 
 danger, misery, death. To be " a man in Christ," or a real Christian, 
 meant to him the true and proper manhood. His great joy was, to 
 be in Christ. His chief regret as a Christian was, that he came so 
 late to be in Christ. The life he spent before that, he felt to have 
 been a comparatively wasted life. 
 
 And Paul's advice to you young people is — Come to Jesus early ! 
 Do not delay ; but come at once. If you put off, perhaps you may 
 never come at all. If you do come later, it will be a lifelong regret 
 that you did not come before. 
 
 Now, what is meant by being "in Christ" 1 There are two ways 
 in which we may look at this, as suggested by the Bible. The 
 believer is in Christ as Noah was in the Ark ; he is also in Christ 
 as the branch is in the Vine. How well it is for any of us to be in 
 Christ in both of these respects ! 
 
 You need to be in Christ as the Ark of safety. You are guilty 
 before God. You have sinned ; and you have a sinful heart. And 
 God has revealed His wrath from heaven against all unrighteous- 
 ness of men. Therefore, out of Christ you are exposed to the tem- 
 pest of divine indignation, which, like a flood, will sweep the im- 
 penitent transgressors to destruction. But in Christ there is safety 
 for you. Believe in Him ; commit yourself to Him. Step into the 
 Ark ; and God will shut you in, beyond the reach of the flood that 
 is to destroy the ungodly. 
 
 You need to abide in Christ as the True Vine. The life of your 
 soul comes from Him, and He must sustain it. Just as the branch 
 apart from the vine would be a poor withered worthless thing, so 
 would your soul speedily languish, and wither, and die, but for 
 Christ's life being imparted constantly to you. Without Him you 
 can do nothing. But " in Christ " you will be a living, fruit-bearing 
 branch. The fair blossoms and precious fruits of a real Christianity 
 will be seen in you ; and Christ's Father, and yours, will be glorified. 
 
 85 
 
March 25 B %C6eon ttom Catmel. 
 
 " How long halt ye between two opinions t" (1 Kings xviii. 21), 
 
 Such was the question addressed by Elijah to the waverers, in the 
 course of the great conflict between himself and the prophets of 
 Baal upon Mount Carmel. 
 
 It appears at first sight a strangely unequal contest. On the 
 one hand you see a great company, representing the Court religion, 
 and resting under the smile of the king, and of the fawning 
 courtiers who surround him. On the other hand you see a solitary 
 man, simple and uncouth in his attire, with no favour from outward 
 patron resting on him, but with the strength of faith in his heart, 
 and its resolution in his face, and with the favour of Jehovah resting 
 upon him. Unequally matched they are, in verity ; but not in 
 the sense in which they seem to be. Power in this conflict lies not 
 in numbers or in outward might, but in the force of truth and the 
 exercise of faith. It is the kind of contest to be decided, not by the 
 clash of arms, or the collision of serried hosts, but by an appeal to 
 an Unseen Power, real though invisible, who will make Himself 
 felt at the proper moment, and unmistakably. And it is a case in 
 which the one is right against the many ; the solitary combatant, 
 the victor. 
 
 " How long halt ye between two opinions ? " cried Elijah to the 
 swaying multitude, who were neither loyal to Jehovah nor much in 
 in love with Baal. Be one thing or another, he says : make up 
 your minds as to whom you ought to serve, and serve Him with all 
 your hearts. 
 
 The same question and appeal come to us to-day. Are you still, 
 young reader, halting between two opinions — like a bird " hopping 
 from branch to branch," as the word means — with your heart not at 
 rest yet in its allegiance, and the energies of your life not directed 
 deliberately and consistently to a worthy end ? This is surely most 
 unsatisfactory. It means weakness ; and " to be weak is miserable." 
 Ay, and it is sinful. For your mind ought to be made up. You 
 have been gifted with the power of choice. " God or the world, 
 Jehovah or Baal — whom shall I follow, whom shall I serve " ? 
 There is only one right choice possible. For your own sake as well 
 as God's, make it heartily and at once. To refuse to choose, re- 
 member, ia to make the wrong choice. Not to be for God is to be 
 against Him. 
 
 86 
 
trbe "MieC* March 26 
 
 " He that winnelh souls is xoise " (Prov. xi. 30). 
 
 What is meant by vxisdmi ? It is dilferent from knowledge. Many 
 a man knows a great deal who is far from being a wise man. Here 
 is the best general definition I have seen of wisdom — " Wisdom 
 consists in the choice of the best ends, and of the best means of 
 attaining them." A person who has a bad end in view, no matter 
 how clever he may be in reaching it, is not wise ; nor can he be 
 called wise who, having set before him a good object, attempts to 
 attain it by stupid or unworthy means. The end must be good, 
 and the means appropriate. 
 
 Now, our text points us to one kind of person whom it pro- 
 nounces without hesitation wise. Who is it 1 The person who has 
 set before him as his great end the winning of a great fortune, or of 
 a great name for himself ? No. Many of those who are doing that 
 are anything but wise, even though they may be very cleverly 
 succeeding in their work. But "he that winneth souls" is wise, 
 for he has set his heart upon an object that is well worthy of the 
 best and most constant endeavours of a consecrated life. And, 
 thank God, there are many who are wise in this sense to-day. You 
 will find them not only in our pulpits, but in the destitute slums of 
 our great cities, and in the far-off fields of heathendom. They are 
 men and women to whom God has revealed something of the mean- 
 ing of that terrible word lost — a lost soul ; and who, having been 
 made wise \uito salvation themselves, are bending all their energies 
 to the great end of winning souls, for the crown and kingdom of 
 the Lord Jesus. 
 
 It needs a wise man to win souls. This is another way of looking 
 at the text. We may read it, not only as a declaration that he is 
 wise who gives his life to the securing of so enduring and immortal 
 a treasure, but as an admonition, that he who would be successful 
 in such work must needs be wise, with a wisdom higher than that 
 of earth. Christ makes His disciples fishers of men ; He sets them 
 to the work, too, of shepherding souls. But what gracious tact the 
 fisher needs 1 What patient skill, the shepherd I This wisdom 
 cometh from above ; and it is to be had for the asking. If your 
 o\vn soul, once lost, has been won, may you not do something, by 
 kind word and Christlike deed, to win others to the Saviour. If 
 any feel his lack of wisdom, let him ask of God. Has not your 
 Heavenly Father promised to give the Holy Spirit to them that 
 ask Him ? 
 
 87 
 
March 27 UbC jfOOl. 
 
 "But God said wnto him, Thou fool I" (Luke xii. 20). 
 
 This is not a name to be bandied about ligbtly from one to anoLlier, 
 as boys and girls sometimes do. But it is a name which God very 
 solemnly applies to certain people. You have them mentioned in 
 the beginning of the 14th Psalm ; and you have, in this parable in the 
 12th chapter of Luke, a full-length portrait of a fool, drawn by the 
 divine hand of Christ Himself. From it we learn that the fool is — 
 
 1. One who ignores God. He lives upon God's bounty day by day. 
 He spends the time God has given him, he uses the faculties with 
 which God has endowed him, for purposes of his own. Yet all the 
 while he lives and plans and resolves and executes, without so 
 much as once consulting God. He lives as though there were no 
 divine Being to whom he is accountable. God is not in all his 
 thoughts ; or, if the thought of Him does steal in, he tries to 
 smother it, saying in his heart, " There is no God," and plunging all 
 the more eagerly into the absorbing pursuits of earth. Self is the 
 only God he will recognise. " And he said, This will I do : 7 will 
 pull down my barns, and build greater ; and there will I bestow all 
 my fruits and my goods. And / will say to my soul " — and so on. 
 It is all " I "— " I "— " I." But God said—" Fool ! " 
 
 2. One who excludes eternity. The fool may be far-sighted enough 
 so far as this world is concerned. He may be counted very shrewd 
 among his neighbours. His schemes for increasing his wealth and 
 power, and securing a continuance of his worldly pleasures, may be 
 very well laid and eminently successful. But he is very short- 
 sighted after all. For his horizon is bounded in by time. He 
 deliberately excludes eternity from view. He forecasts for himself 
 many years of earth, and lays up in his extended barns large 
 provision for long- continued ease and merriment. But eternity is 
 upon him before he is aware. He has grievously miscalculated. 
 He has been occupied only about the preface, and a poor preface he 
 has made of it. He has forgotten all about the volume that is to 
 follow, 
 
 3. One ivho despises the true riches. The fool may have plenty of 
 riches of a kind. But they are of the sort that can be gathered into 
 barns, and to which a match may be put for their destruction. 
 They cannot endure the fervent heat of the day of the Lord. The 
 fool has none of the enduring riches, the riches of the heart. He 
 has no treasure in heaven, which moth and rust and thief cannot 
 touch. He is like Bunyan's man with the muck-rake ; and, how- 
 ever many of the sticks and straws of earthly fortune he may 
 scrabble together, he writes himself down a fool, for he is oblivious 
 of the celestial crown. 
 
JOB an& 3BB. March 28 
 
 " When I have a convenient season, I icill call for thee " (Acts xxiv. 2.5). 
 
 The man who uttered these words to the Apostle Paul was called 
 Felix, " the Happy." But he was sadly misnamed. He and true 
 happiness were utter strangers. He had, indeed, been successful in 
 a sense. Beginning life as a slave, he had gained his freedom, and 
 won position, wealth, and Court favour. But he had continued to 
 be a slave in heart, — mean, self-seeking, cruel, lustful, — hated by 
 others, even when they flattered him, and inwardly despised by 
 himself. 
 
 He was, in short, a really bad man ; and no bad man is ever 
 truly happy. He might try to drown his senses in debauchery, and 
 smother his conscience in worldly mirth. But secretly he was ill 
 at ease. And we see him here, while the prisoner at his bar is 
 reasoning of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, 
 cowering and trembling in his presence, and anxious to get Paul 
 taken out of sight and hearing of him. If I were to ask you which 
 of the two was really Felix, " the Happy," you would not have 
 difficulty in answering the question. Not the exalted Roman 
 judge upon the bench, with outward fortune smiling on him, but 
 with hell within his heart; but the poor Hebrew prisoner at the 
 bar, whom he was to leave for years longer in his bonds, but who 
 had Jesus for his Friend ! 
 
 Yet Felix, too, might have shared the peace and heavenly joy 
 that Paul knew, had he only received the message the apostle 
 brought him " concerning the faith in Christ." He was unwilling, 
 however, to give up sin just yet. By and by he might yield his 
 heart to God ; but let him enjoy the pleasures of sin stiU for a 
 season. And so, he put off the proper settlement of his soul's afifairs 
 to a more convenient time, which never came. 
 
 The lesson from Felix for you is — Now is the accepted time ! 
 Beware of delay. There is no season so convenient as just now ! 
 
 A minister dreamed one day that he was listening to the lost 
 spirits in hell, devising how they might best ruin the souls of men. 
 One rose and said, " I wUl go and tell men that the Bible is all a 
 fable." Another said, " I will tell them that there is no God, no 
 heaven, no hell " — at which words a fiendish smile lit up their 
 faces. But it was agreed that men could not generally be got to 
 believe them. At last one rose and suggested, serpent-like — "No; 
 I will journey to the world of men, and tell them that there is 
 a God, that there is a Saviour, that there is a heaven — yes, and 
 a hell too ; but that there is no hiirry, and to-morrow will do." 
 And they sent him. What multitudes have believed that messenger, 
 to their own undoing I 
 
 89 
 
March 29 Cbtfst i$ TRiecn. 
 
 "He is not here : for He is risen, as He said" (Matt, xxviii. 6). 
 
 There is a church in Jerusalem, at this day, called the Church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre. It is a building into which a great many 
 marvels have been crowded, for the benefit of the sightseer, by the 
 sects that have possession of it. But there is one object in particular, 
 to look upon which multitudes of pilgrims travel from long distances 
 every year, namely, the little chapel in the centre of the big church, 
 which is supposed to mark the spot " where the Lord lay." It is 
 more than doubtful whether it is the real site of Joseph's emptied 
 tomb ; but it is touching to see the crowds of devotees flocking to 
 see it, and kissing the marble slab, as some of them do, which rests 
 upon a place to them so sacred. And certainly it is a great and 
 blessed truth, that somewhere in that neighbourhood, at anyrate, 
 the Son of God, who had died for our sins, rose again. Whether 
 we visit Jerusalem or not to see the place, and whether we observe 
 the date or not in an Easter celebration, we may well rejoice in the 
 rising again of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 The Eesurrection of Jesus is one of the best-attested facts, and, 
 taken in connection with His death, it is the most important fact in 
 history. If the Syrian stars still looked down upon a lonely grave, 
 from which He had never risen, our Christian hope would indeed 
 be vain. But Christ is risen. And the resurrection on the third 
 day meant — (1) That Jesus had triumphed over all His foes. It 
 seemed as if He had been beaten. The hopes of His disciples 
 appeared to have been buried with Him in the tomb. But He rose 
 a Conqueror, and wrested from the last enemy what had only seemed 
 his victory. 
 
 (2) That Jesus had secured salvation for His people. He had died 
 to purchase it ; and His resurrection meant, that God had accepted 
 the payment as a payment in full. He was now justified in appearing 
 before God as the sinner's Surety. He was raised again for our 
 justification ; and because He lives, we who believe in Him shall 
 live also. 
 
 (3) That Jesus had opened a pathway for us to heaven through the 
 grave. It is a dark portal, but it leads to a bright place. In His 
 rising He became " the first-fruits of them that slept." He is the 
 Forerunner of His people ; and them also who sleep in Jesus shall 
 God bring with Him. He has changed for believers what would 
 otherwise be only the graveyard, the place of death, into "the 
 cemetery "—the sleeping- place, from which there will be for them, 
 too, a bright resurrection morn. 
 
 90 
 
Cbe JBeat <3itU March 30 
 
 " Th* gift of God" (John iv. 10). 
 
 God is the great Giver ; and all the gifts He sends us are good and 
 perfect in their kind, however we may spoil them in their use. But 
 there is one Gift which far transcends them all. For it is the gift of 
 God, the gift of His Son, and of salvation in Him. 
 
 1. It is a gift — because freely given, as every real gift must 
 be. There was nothing compelling God to give us Jesus Christ ; 
 and nothing but His own wonderful love impelling Him to bring 
 salvation to us. "We had not deserved the boon ; we could not 
 work for it ; we could not purchase it. God gives. He does not sell, 
 His blessings. He is too rich and great for that. 
 
 "Would that I had some of these luscious grapes," thought a 
 poor woman, " for my dear sick one at home ! " She gave a modest 
 knock at the hothouse door. " May I buy some of those grapes," 
 she said, " for my poor fevered boy ? " " We don't sell grapes here ; 
 and so begone," said the gardener, as he shut the door. The woman 
 turned sadly away ; but the door was quietly opened again, and a 
 girl kindly asked her what she wanted. " I wished to buy some 
 grapes, miss, for my dying child ; but the man says they are not to 
 be sold." " No, you cannot buy them, my poor woman. My father 
 is too rich to sell his grapes ; but he is kind, and if I ask him he 
 may give you some." The young lady vanished, and in a few 
 minutes reappeared, with joy upon her face, and a mellow cluster 
 in her hand, which the mother, who could not purchase it, received 
 with tears of thankfulness as a free gift ! 
 
 2. It is the gift — because it is the greatest we could possibly 
 receive. It is the most precious in itself; and if we get it and 
 treasure it in our hearts, it will bring all other good things with it, 
 and make them ours for ever. No other gift in our possession is 
 worth half so much. It is of infinitely more value than all the 
 rest. 
 
 3. It is the gift of God — because only He could give it, and it is 
 the very greatest gift that even He could give. It ia as though a 
 king, not content with giving you — a beggar — food and raiment 
 and every kind of comfort, took the richest jewel from his crown, 
 or the signet from his finger, and gave it to you, as what he prized 
 most, and what would do you most good, in making sure to you all 
 other gifts. Nay, it is far more than that. There was no jewel in 
 the universe to compare w^ith God's Son. To part with Him was to 
 give up His very best possession. Yet He so loved us that " He 
 gave His only-begotten Son." Oh what love ! Oh what a Gift I 
 
 91 
 
March 31 zhc Z^blcs CumeD* 
 
 " But many that are first shall be last; and the last first " (Matt. xix. 30). 
 
 Just as in a race it is not always those wlio get the best start who 
 come in first at the goal, so is it often in life. It is not always 
 those who have most advantages that succeed best ; or those of most 
 promise who in the end of the day turn out the best. And what 
 is true of time is no doubt true in eternity. You remember Wesley's 
 saying, that in heaven he would have three things, he believed, to 
 wonder at. The greatest marvel would be, that he himself, so great 
 a sinner, had been admitted there ; but he would also be surprised 
 that some whom he confidently expected to be there were absent, 
 and that some were there whom he never had expected to see in 
 heaven. There will be a great " turning of the tables " in the next 
 world. Many who were first shall be last ; and the last first. 
 
 But, even on this earth how often we see this saying of the 
 Lord's fulfilled. We who are older, when we go back in memory 
 to our schooldays, can recall many illustrations of its trutL Some 
 whose start was vigorous and bright have fallen sadly behind in the 
 race, if they have not altogether dropped from sight. They are 
 struggling hopelessly behind others now whom once they counted 
 unpromising and dull. And these — though in temper and circum- 
 stances and prospects undoubtedly inferior then — are now far 
 ahead. Every township, every circle of friends, every class, almost 
 every family, illustrates the same thing ; and no doubt it will be 
 as true by and by of you and your mates as it has been of those 
 who have gone before you, that " many that are first shall be last ; 
 and the last first." 
 
 Some lives are like a day whose dawn is fair and bright — not a 
 cloud to dim the horizon, or a breath to tell of coming storm. But 
 too soon the fogs begin to gather, and ere long fair heaven is shut 
 from view, and the dingy earth is shrouded in its clammy covering. 
 Other lives have a less promising dawn. There are threatening 
 clouds floating here and there, and an unpleasant drizzle which 
 seems to say the storm is at hand. But the sun's genial rays break 
 through ; and lo ! Nature seems to revel in the near companionship 
 of earth and sky. 
 
 May your path be that of the shining light ! Cast in your lot 
 heartily with Christ. Allied in love, duty, destiny with Him, you 
 will begin, continue, and finish well. 
 
 92 
 
ttcue flouragc. Apru i 
 
 " The Lord stood with vie" (2 Tim. iv. 17). 
 
 Theue have been many brave ClirisLians. Lutlier, for instance, was 
 a brave man. On his way into Worms he said to his anxious 
 friends, who were fearing for his safety — " I shall go ; though there 
 were as many devils as there are tiles upon the roof-tops, it would 
 not keep me back." And having declared his beliefs in presence 
 of his most powerful enemies, he said, " Here I take my stand ; I can- 
 not otherwise ; so help me, God ! " Knox, too, was a brave man ; 
 80 brave that it was truly spoken over his grave, " Here lies the man 
 that never feared the face of man." And there have been other 
 Christians ready to face anything for the sake of their Redeemer. 
 But there has never been a braver Christian than the Apostle Paul. 
 One is almost inclined to think, that if he had been among " the 
 Twelve," he would not have forsaken Christ and fled. 
 
 Wliat was the secret of Paul's courage ? It did not lie in him- 
 self. No doubt he was, by nature, a man of firm mould. But that 
 is not the explanation of his marvellous fortitude. Here it is — 
 " The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." It was this that 
 made him calm, where others would have trembled. There was 
 One standing by him, whom others could not see, but who was far 
 more real to him than the great Emperor Nero was — " the Lord " — 
 the King of kings — the Lord Jesus Christ. He endures, as seeing 
 Him who is invisible. Looking to the past, he can say with thank- 
 fulness, " I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." Looking to 
 the future, he can add with confidence, " The Lord shall deliver 
 me." 
 
 How inspiring has been this example of Paul the aged, — a 
 prisoner at Rome, forsaken by his friends, lied against by hia 
 enemies, about to confront a second time the most cruel of despots ; 
 yet full of thankfulness and invincible resolve ! Another early 
 Christian, Chrysostom, the "golden-mouthed," had caught a like 
 spirit when he said to them that threatened him — " Banish me 1 
 The earth is my Father's house. You cannot banish me. Slay me 1 
 Nay ; my life is ' hid with Christ in God,' where you cannot touch 
 it. Take my treasures ? I have none that you know of, or can 
 take ; my treasure is in heaven. Drive me from men, where I shall 
 have no friend left ? Nay, for I have a Friend from whom nought 
 can sever me ! " Thus does the courage which is added to faith over- 
 come the world. 
 
 93 
 
April 2 ju tbe /sornino. 
 
 " Cause me to hear Thy loving-kindness in (he morning " (Ps. cxliii. 8). 
 
 This is part of a beautiful prayer uttered by the Psalmist, which he 
 sums up, at the 11th verse, in one word — " Quicken me, Lord, for 
 Thy name's sake." Make me " quick " — alive — to hear, to see, to do 
 the right. 
 
 It is a prayer which he offers in the morning ; and it is a prayer 
 suitable for you to offer in the morning too. You may offer it 
 this morning, and the day will be the better for it ; for if you come 
 to God in the freshness of the dawn, you will have your recompense 
 in the hours that follow. You may well offer it in the morning of 
 your life, and all the life will be the better for it. When, amid 
 the heavy responsibilities that may await you in maturer years, you 
 are bearing the burden and the heat of the sun, there still will 
 linger on your spirit some of the dewy freshness of the early con- 
 secrated life, made "quick" by God's own Spirit to hear and see 
 and do. 
 
 " Cause me to hear TJiy loving -kindness in the morning." How 
 deaf men often are to the voice of God, just because it is a still 
 small voice, in comparison with the noisy voices of earth that 
 claim our ear. In the morning of the day and of the life you have 
 a favourable opportunity of listening to it, before the world's din 
 has confused and deafened you. It is too good a chance, young 
 friend, to throw away. The voice of God is a voice of loving-kind- 
 ness, the music of which, if you catch it early, will be ever welcome 
 afterward to your well-accustomed ear, and will bring strengthening 
 and consolation, in many a weary hour, perchance, on the bustling 
 thoroughfares of after-life. 
 
 " Cause me to knoto the way wherein I should walk " will have its 
 answer too. Under the clear morning sky, as you lift your soul to 
 God, He will give you light, and set your footsteps in a way of 
 peace, from which, even when the smoky mists of earth have 
 descended. He will not suffer you to wander. His Spirit, who is 
 good, will lead you upwards to " the land of plainness " — the high, 
 level pasture-land for flocks to lie down in. And at evening time it 
 will still be light. 
 
 " Teach me to do Thy will." Made quick to hear, and alert to 
 know, you will be also made expert to do God's will. " Learn young, 
 learn fair." Practical obedience to the loved One who is unseen, if 
 you learn it in the morning, will be the habit and the delight of a 
 devoted life on earth, and the preparation for an eternity of blissful 
 service before the Throne. 
 
 94 
 
ttbe "Mearness of Cbrtst April 3 
 
 " The Lord is at hand" (PhiL iv 5). 
 
 Though Jesus is not now on earth in His oodily presence, He is not 
 far away from His people, but very near. He is true to His own 
 word of promise — "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the 
 world." 
 
 He is within seeing distance of us. He knows our downsitting 
 and our uprising, and is acquainted with all our ways. He 
 sees us well enough to count our steps (Job xxxi. 4). He notes the 
 changing expression on our faces ; and, more than this, He looks 
 into the heart, and can read off all the thoughts and desires that 
 may be hidden there. What a comfort for Christ's people it is that, 
 when they are in perplexity or danger, they are still under His eye. 
 
 He is within speaking distance. He can make His voice heard 
 by us ; and He does it, not in the loud accents of Sinai, which 
 struck terror to the heart, but in the still small voice of His Spirit, 
 which, " soft as the breath of even," speaks within the breast. It is 
 well for us ever to remember, that He is near enough to speak to us. 
 And it would be well if our desire and request were oftener that of 
 little Samuel — " Speak, Lord : Thy servant hearetL" 
 
 He is within hearing distance. Not only can He make His voice 
 reach us, but He is so near that even our feeble voice can reach 
 Him. You have not to move from the spot where you are sitting 
 or standing now, in order to get near enough for Christ to hear you. 
 Speak to Him where you are, and He will listen, and take in well 
 your meaning. Even a poor dying child of His, too weak to speak to 
 anyone else, can gain His ear. For He even heareth the desire of the 
 humble (Ps. x. 17). 
 
 And He is within helping distance. A friend may be standing 
 on the shore, within seeing, speaking, hearing distance of a loved one 
 struggling in the water, and yet not be within helping distance ; 
 and he might have the pain of seeing that loved one, though so near, 
 go down to deatL But it is not so with the Lord in whom we 
 trust. He is at hand ; and when we are ready to sink, and the 
 cry goes forth, " Lord, save me," He stretches out to us, as He did 
 to Simon Peter on the stormy waters. His strong right hand of help. 
 He says, " Fear not : I will uphold thee with the right hand of My 
 righteousness." And, grasping that strong but tender hand, we are 
 comforted. 
 
 95 
 
April 4 (5oJ) IbearsI 
 
 '• And the Lord hearlcened and heard" (Mai. iii, 16). 
 
 Some time ago I was in a curious place — the great underground 
 quarry or cavern at Syracuse, called " the ear of Dionysius." It was 
 here that the tyrant used to keep his captives confined. The 
 peculiarity of the cavern is the echo, which makes the slightest 
 whisper below distinctly audible, it is said, away up in a chamber 
 near the roof. The crafty king used to sit concealed, we are told, in 
 the dark recesses of this chamber, that he might hear what the 
 prisoners below were whispering to each other about himself. And 
 then he would drag them forth to punishment. 
 
 It is well for us to bear in mind that there is another — a King 
 unseen— listening to all we say, and taking note, not only of what 
 we do, but even of our secret thoughts. He is not, however, a cold 
 and crafty and cruel King like Dionysius, but a King of infinite 
 love and grace as well as knowledge. Those who wilfully despise 
 Him will find how terrible a thing His vengeance is. None will 
 be able to stand before it. He will strike through kings in the day 
 of His wrath. But He knoweth the way of the righteous. The 
 Lord is mindful of His own. And if you are among those who fear 
 Him, and think upon His name, you are among those He loves and 
 cherishes, as jewels which to Him are beyond all price. 
 
 If you love Christ, who first loved you, and are showing day by 
 day that you truly desire to please Him, then you may be sure that 
 the Father Himself loves you. And you are to think of God as 
 One who is watching you continually, not with the malice of a 
 tyrant, but with the interest and afi'ection of a Heavenly Father. 
 His heart is toward you for good — His ear is quick to catch every 
 word of truth and kindness that you speak — His eye is keen to 
 discover in your breast right feelings toward Himself. How it 
 should encourage us in what is good, and keep us back from what is 
 evil, to know that God is near us, within hearing distance in what- 
 ever company we maybe ! Has He got nothing to write yet in His 
 book of remembrance about any of us, that we shall be glad to hear 
 read off in the day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed ? 
 
 96 
 
trahiiif} tbc Cciisua. April 6 
 
 " Tlie Lord shall count, when He writclh up the people, This was horn there " 
 (Ps. Ixxxvii. (!), 
 
 Once every ten years in our country the Census is taken. A great 
 staff of clerks is employed in every town and district, to call at 
 every house, and take down the name, and age, and birthplace of 
 every man, and woman, and cliild who has slept overnight in each 
 dwelling. This is done, tliat the Sovereign and Parliament may 
 know how many in the Three Kingdoms are the subjects of the 
 Crown. 
 
 Now, in the text, Jehovah, the King of Israel, is by a bold image 
 represented as taking the Census of His true people. He does not 
 require a great army of special secretaries and accountants to help 
 Him. But He Himself knows, and notes exactly, who those are that 
 belong to the spiritual Zion, and are citizens of the Heavenly 
 Jerusalem. Some of them are to be found in most unlikely places. 
 In Rahab— that is, in Eg3'pt— in Baliylon, in Ethiopia— among the 
 descendants even of cursed Ham — God has a seed to serve Him, who 
 shall be counted to the Lord for a generation. So says this old 
 psalm. And, as we know from the New Testament, there were 
 saints of Christ even in Cesar's household (Phil. iv. 22), where the 
 atmosphere was most hostile to Christian piety. But wherever they 
 may be, whether recognised by men or not, God sees and values them 
 all. His most distant and most hidden ones are written in His 
 book, as surely and as gladly as those born in the confines of 
 Palestine. 
 
 By God's taking note of your name, is meant His taking full 
 account of your spiritual history. " This is a true child of Zion : he 
 was born into My kingdom there ! " Can that be said of you 1 
 Have you Zion's King enthroned in your young heart ? He is a 
 crucified King ; and the crown upon His head, when He was here on 
 earth, was a crown of thorns. But He is now a glorified King ; and 
 the crown He wears on high is a diadem, in which the jewels are 
 the souls of His redeemed. Is your soul to be among them ? Can 
 the Lord, looking abroad upon the world, say of you — "That is 
 one of Mine ? " Or must He pass you over, saying — " That one is of 
 the heathen still ! " Where were you born ? Have you one birth- 
 place, or two 1 " Once bom, twice die ; twice born, once die." 
 How much depends upon being born into the spiritual Zion 1 
 
 (7) 97 
 
Aprue B Capital Bjerctse. 
 
 " Herein do I exercise myself, to have a conscience void of offence " (Acts xxiv.l6). 
 
 You are all fond of exercise, you young people. The spring-time is 
 now here, and you are finding an outlet for your youthful energies in 
 different sorts of outdoor games. Even when the weather is bad you 
 show, as the old folks sometimes know to their cost, that indoors, if 
 not outside, such an outlet mnst be found. Healthy life and 
 healthful activity always go together. 
 
 Now, the text speaks of a kind of exercise which everybody 
 whose soul is healthy engages in, and which everyone who would 
 like his soul to become more healthful still will not omit. It is, 
 moreover, a sort of exercise with which the change of seasons does 
 not interfere. You may and ought to have it in winter as well as 
 in summer — in the house as well as in the playground — in the 
 school, in the church, in the street, and wherever you may be. Like 
 Paul, you ought to exercise yourself to have a conscience void of 
 offence. 
 
 What is " conscience " ? Every smallest child knows something 
 of what it is, though the oldest of us would take a long time to 
 explain what it is. It is the strange, mysterious "something," 
 which says within the breast " right ! " or "wrong ! " to the different 
 thoughts we think, words we speak, and acts we do. It is the voice 
 of God within the heart. The word " con-science " means " know- 
 ledge with " another — namely, with God, who knows us through 
 and through. 
 
 What is an " offended conscience " ? It is a conscience offended 
 or " hurt " because we have not taken its counsel, but have stifled 
 its voice, and have been content, in wounding it, to displease and 
 grieve God, for whom it speaks. Oh, seek to have your conscience 
 "void of offence," both in what you do and what you are, 
 toward God and toward man. 
 
 Pray and strive that your conscience may be kept tender and 
 pure. And if at any time it should be wounded and defiled, be 
 thankful not to feel happy till you have gone down upon your 
 knees and obtained forgiveness of God for Jesus' sake, who can 
 alone " give the guilty conscience peace, and wash away the stain." 
 A hurt conscience is bad. But there is a worse thing than that— a 
 conscience first neglected, then stifled, then seared and dead. A 
 conscience that cannot be offended any more I It is a terrible 
 possession. God save us from it ! 
 
 98 
 
JLbc ifear tbat casts out ffcar. April 7 
 
 'Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him" (Ps. Ixxxv. 9). 
 
 The wise man has said that " the foar of man bringeth a snare, but 
 Avhoso piittoth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." How often has 
 this truth been illustrated upon both its sides ! The Israelites, when 
 near to Canaan, on hearing,' the report of the spies about the giants, 
 feared them so much that they were ensnared into forty years of 
 wandering in the wilderness ; and, with the exception of Caleb and 
 Joshua, the whole of the faithless generation lost the Promised Land. 
 The Hebrew youths in Babylon, on the other hand, feared God so 
 much, with the fear both of reverence and of trust, that they could 
 brave the worst threats of Nebuchadnezzar ; and in the fiery furnace 
 they were safe, — for One "like the Son of God " was with them, and 
 brought them out unto great honour. Simon Peter illustrated in 
 himself the fear which bringeth a snare, when he followed Christ 
 afar off, and ended by denying his Lord, in weakness and shame. 
 He afterwards illustrated in himself the boldness of a well-grounded 
 confidence in Christ, when, along with John, he defied the Sanhedrim 
 to browbeat him into silence about his Lord : "and they took know- 
 ledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." 
 
 Look, too, at the Apostle Paul. However strange it may seem, 
 it was fear that was the secret of his consistent courage. His fear 
 of God cast out all other fear. The one thing he was afraid of was 
 — that he should even seem to doubt or deny Christ. He would 
 dare anything to be delivered from that evil. Can you understand 
 something of his feelings ? You should be far more afraid, boys and 
 girls, of doing what is wrong, than of suffering what is wrong. If 
 others call you names at school, or overreach you, or tell lies about 
 j-ou, just bear in mind what a good man said — " I expect to suffer a 
 thousand ills, but none so great as to do unjustly." 
 
 A boy was playing with two others in a woodshed, now a good 
 many years ago, when suddenly, checking his merriment, he said, 
 " Oh, I forgot something this morning." They saw him retire, heed- 
 less whether they laughed or no, to a corner of the shed, where he 
 knelt down, and reverently repeated his morning prayer. Then he 
 came back with a bright face, and joined his comrades at their play 
 again. Years passed. That brave boy became a gallant captain, and 
 fought and fell for his country in the storming of Sebastopol. Best 
 of all, he was a good soldier of Jesus Christ — never ashamed to owni 
 bis Lord, and true to His colours to the last. Fearing God, he knew 
 no other fear ; and even in death he was " preserved unto the 
 heavenly Kingdom." 
 
 99 
 
April 8 21 Diettor at tbc Door. 
 
 " B:hold, I stand at the door, and knock" (Rev. iii. 20). 
 
 Here we have a shut door, and somebody knocking at it. It is a 
 door that has been long shut, as you can see from the weeds, and the 
 moss, and the ivy that have clustered all about it. I wonder if He 
 that is knocking at it will manage to get in ? 
 
 The door, dear young friend, is the door of your heart. The 
 door — the front door. There is a back door, and there are side 
 doors, which are oiDen enough, and through which strange visitors 
 sometimes get, that do your heart no good. But this is the front 
 door, which, with some of you, has never been opened yet at all ; 
 and, remember. He who is knocking won^t go in at any hut the front 
 door. 
 
 Let us ask, concerning this Visitor — (1) WTio knocks? and 
 (2) J'Fhy does He knock ? 
 
 (1) He who knocks is a Pilgrim, in a long robe of purity, woven 
 throughoiit, without a seam, or flaw, or stain. If you look at His 
 sandalled feet, you will see nail-prints on them, as if they had been 
 scarred and bleeding. And see, what is that upon His head ? It is a 
 crown — but a crown of thorns ; for He is a King. A King — and He 
 won't go in at any but the front door. Who, then, is He ? He is 
 the Son of God, who became also the Son of Man. He is the King 
 of Grace ; He is the King of Glory. This being He who knocks — 
 will you not fling wide the door ? 
 
 (2) Why does He knock ? That is the second question ; and it 
 is an important one. When anyone taps, you first naturally ask, 
 " Who's there ? " and then you next inquire, " JVhat are you want- 
 ing V Perhaps sometimes, if your mother is out, you are not very 
 sure about opening the door ; and you try to peep through the key- 
 hole first, or out at one of the windows, to see who the visitor is, 
 and guess what his errand may be. 
 
 A Protestant minister, some time ago, in the south of Ireland, 
 heard a knocking at his door, late one Sabbath night. The district 
 was " disturbed " ; so he cautiously asked first, before he drew the 
 bolt, who knocked, and why ? " We are friends ; and we knock to 
 get in." He was suspicious, and refused. A bullet then whistled 
 in past his ear; and, with a curse, his strange moonlight "friends" 
 went upon their way. But you need not have any fear this time. 
 This is not One to do you harm. He comes to be your real Friend. 
 This is what He asks. " If any will open, I will sup with him, and 
 he with Me." The King begs for admittance, because He wishes 
 " to be friends" with you. What an honour ! Wliat a joy ! He will 
 share whatever you may have to give to Him ; and He has much to 
 give to you. Won't you let Him in ? 
 
 lOO 
 
a TOlise iprager, April 9 
 
 "Increase mir/ailh" (Luke xvii. 6). 
 
 Ip we have learned to tnist God at all, this is a wise and should be 
 a natural prayer. Now — 
 
 (1) JVTiTj should we seek to have our faith increased ? In the 
 first place, because want of faith dishonours God. Think how your 
 father would be grieved, if he saw you did not trust him. And do 
 not dishonour and grieve your Heavenly Father, who is so worthy 
 to be trusted, by giving Him no more than a luTrlf-hearted confidence. 
 In the second place, seek more faith, because little faith means little 
 strength, little comfort, little success in the Christian life. Here, 
 as always, the honour of God and our own good are bound up close 
 together, and cannot be disjoined. 
 
 (2) How are we to seek faith's increase? We are to do it by 
 doing what the disciples did, by praying for it. By this I do not, of 
 course, mean that you are merely to use these words, — " Increase my 
 faith," — but that you are to pray them, really and with all the heart. 
 If you do this, day by day, there are two things you will be in earnest 
 about daily — to know God better, and to practise faith more. For 
 thus it is that faith will find increase. 
 
 " Acquaint thyself with God," the Bible says. It is because you 
 do not know, or because you forget who and what God is, that you 
 lack confidence in Him. A lady was once taught this truth in a 
 very simple but striking way by her husband. They were on board 
 a vessel in mid-ocean, when so terrible a storm arose that anxiety 
 showed itself even on the sailors' faces. The lady was frantic with 
 alarm. Her husband, who was a soldier, suddenly drew his sword, 
 and pointed it at her heart. She looked uj) inquiringly, but showed 
 no fear of the glittering blade. "You do not shrink before my 
 sword ? " " Nay, why should I ? Is it not in the hands of one who 
 loves me 1 " " You trust me, beloved," he answered ; "and will you not 
 trust Him, who holds the sea in the hollow of His hand, and with- 
 out whose kntjwledge not a hair of your head can perish 1 " Christ 
 invites our full confidence : " It is I; be not afraid." Seek to know 
 God better, that you may trust Him more. 
 
 And remember to exercise the faith you have — to put it in practice 
 day by day. Confidence grows with use. I remember being taught, 
 when a boy, to swim. At first it needed some courage to go down 
 into the water at the master's bidding ; but he had tied about my 
 waist a life-preserver, and was ready, besides, to come at any moment 
 to my rescue. One trial brought some confidence, and each success 
 f ul trial made me less and less afraid to sink. Put faith in practice ; 
 and, with exercise, both strength and courage along with it will grow. 
 Praying thus, you shall have an answer to the prayer — "Lord, 
 increase my faith." 
 
 lOI 
 
Apruio a Covetous ^an. 
 
 " As the Lord Uveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him " 
 
 (2 Kings V. 20). 
 
 These are the words of Gehazi, the servant of the prophet Elisha. 
 He is sorry that his master has not used his oj^portunity better, in 
 the way of securing a reward at the hands of Naaman, who, in 
 gratitude for his cure, was so willing to bestow his gifts. And he is 
 determined that, for his part, he will not allow so good a chance 
 to slip. So he runs after the Syrian captain, and is successful 
 beyond his expectation. He gets two talents of silver through his 
 lying story, instead of one ; and soon he has his treasure safe in 
 " the tower," or hiding-place. How he can gloat over it there ! 
 But Elisha meets him soon, with a searching glance and the search- 
 ing question — " Whence, Gehazi ? " And as the guilty culprit 
 goes trembling from the prophet's presence, " a leper white as snow," 
 he learns, in bitterness of soul, that it is possible to buy a " success " 
 like his too dear ! 
 
 He was an instance of a very respectable man, living in the best 
 of company, ruined by a very respectable sin. Gehazi was the 
 companion of the prophet of Jehovah ; He had picked up religious 
 phrases ; He was spending his life outwardly in religious service. 
 But all the while he was really an atheist and idolater; and covetous- 
 ness, like a canker, was at work within his heart. " Get all you 
 can, and look out for more," says the world : "honestly, if possible, 
 but anyhow get it." " Take heed, and hcicare of covetousness," says 
 Jesus. And again and again He enforces this lesson. Why 1 Fur 
 these among other reasons — 
 
 (1) Covetousness is so deceitful. All sin is ; but this 
 sin is specially so. It cloaks itself under fair names and 
 respectable disguises. It calls itself "i^rudence," or "shrewdness," 
 or "making tlie most of life." It leads a man on and on 
 by degrees, thinking that he is making money his servant. 
 But lo ! the gold has become his master. It is his idol. He is 
 found bowing to the molten calf. 
 
 (2) Covetousness is so unscrupulous. When it has fairly taken 
 possession of a man, there is hardly anything he will not do to gain 
 his object. Covetousness has led many besides Gehazi to lying and 
 forgery. It has led manj'- besides Judas to treachery and betrayal. 
 There is no sin, from the pettiest meanness to the cruellest murder, 
 to which it has not successfully tempted men. 
 
 (3) Covetousness is so destructive. It is often destructive of the 
 peace and well-being of others. But it is especially destructive of 
 the covetous man himself. Gehazi "went out from Elisha's 
 presence " — a filthy leper, separated from the society of the noble, 
 and good, and generous — a leper both in body and in soul. So is it 
 always. The covetous man is a miserable, shrivelled, wretched, 
 outcast soul. The covetous, the Bible tells us, " shall not inherit 
 the kingdom of God " (1 Cor. vi. 10). 
 
TKUbo bas TKHoiiT April 11 
 
 •* Thai I may win Christ " (riiil. iii. 8). 
 
 What a world this is for competition 1 People on all sides, and in 
 every sphere of life, are pushing and pressing to get in before their 
 neighbours, and to win more than others do. You know something 
 of this already in your schooldays : in your classes, at your matches, 
 and otherwise. And you may be quite sure that, when you go out 
 into the bigger school of the world, you will not find your com- 
 petitors fewer or less keen. 
 
 Here is a man whose great ambition is to get into Parliament. 
 "With what assiduity he sets himself to " nurse liis constituency " — 
 to win the favour and confidence, that is, of those who have votes 
 to give him. Wliat a number of speeches he is ready to make, into 
 everyone of which ho throws all the wit at his command. What 
 an interest he takes in all the charities of the neighbourhood ; and 
 what a willing ear he lends to the whims and grievances of in- 
 dividuals — if they happen to have a vote. He is "hail fellow, 
 well met," with persons whom, in other circumstances, perhaps he 
 would not touch with his linger-tips. He becomes all things to 
 all men, and is sometimes found becoming everything by turns, if 
 only he may win the coveted "seat." He counts as a sheer loss, 
 time and strength which he may have to expend on other objects. 
 
 Here is another man, whose crowning desire is to amass a colossal 
 fortune. Nothing short of seven figures will satisfy him : he must 
 be a millionaire. And so he schemes by day, and even dreams by 
 night, about the one thing. His eye is ever on the market, and on 
 the state of the Funds. AVith mingled caution and daring he carries 
 on his operations. You may get him to speak of other things, but 
 his interest in them is only on the surface. If they cannot be re- 
 duced to pounds, shillings, and pence, he counts thought and energy 
 bestowed upon them nothing but loss, except in so far as they afford 
 him recreation for the further and more ardent pursuit of money. 
 
 And here is Paul. He, too, has an object on which his heart is 
 set, and to the attainment of which he gives the undivided energies 
 of his life — "that I may win Christ." More of Christ — more of 
 Christ — this for him is the supreme gain, compared with which all 
 other gain is loss. 
 
 JVko 1ms won ? Is it the man of the world, or is it the man of 
 God ? Ask each of them a hundred years after this ; nay, ask them 
 even now ! And if for answer you get the true secret of their hearts, 
 I know well what the conclusion you reach will be. 
 
 There are earthly ambitions which you may rightly cherish in 
 their place. But see that you keep them there. The desire to 
 excel is not a wrong thing ; but it must be rightly directed and 
 wisely governed. One kind of gain you may seek witlKnit re- 
 straint ; for, no matter how much you win, nobody else will be the 
 poorer for it — "that you may win Christ." The man who is iu 
 Christ, like Christ, and at length with Christ for ever, is the only 
 man who will at last be counted, by himself or others, to have truly 
 won. 
 
 103 
 
Apru 12 ©rovvtb anD tbe Secret of ft. 
 
 "I mil be as the deto : and he shall grmo " (Hos. xiv. 5, 6). 
 
 There is nothing that you are more anxious for, than that you 
 should grow. You look forward to the time when you shall have 
 reached full-grown manhood or womanhood with eager hope ; and 
 many are the plans you lay, as to what you are to be and to do 
 when that time comes. 
 
 Now, it is a great pleasure to those who love you young people, 
 to notice that you are growing. You do not know how lovingly 
 your fathers and mothers have watched over your development, 
 from your earliest days. Especially does a wise parental love 
 delight in any evidence that you are growing in goodness as well as 
 in height. It would set before you no lower ideal than that of the 
 apostle — " till we come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of 
 the stature of the fulness of Christ." 
 
 Our passage from Hosea teaches us very beautifully two 
 things — the nature of spiritual growth, and the secret of it. 
 
 " He shall grow as the lily." This may remind you of the tender 
 beauty and fragrance which should characterise the Christian life 
 in its development. Everything coarse or indelicate is out of 
 keeping with it. It should be like the refined and modest lily. 
 
 " He shall cast forth his roots like Lebanon." This suggests that, 
 though the Christian character is tender, and in the highest sense 
 delicate, it is at the same time strong. Refinement is not weak- 
 ness. To the tenderness of the modest lily there should be united 
 the strength of the cedar of Lebanon. " And his beauty shall be 
 as the olive tree." This is a beauty of constant freshness and fruit- 
 fulness. The olive is evergreen. It finds a place to grow where 
 the lily might be blighted, and where there would not be room 
 enough for the cedar ; and though its appearance does not greatly 
 attract the eye, it is covered with berries, and is marvellously 
 fruitful. 
 
 But how shall your growth be like this — fair as the lily, strong 
 as the cedar, fruitful as the olive tree 1 
 
 Here is the secret of such growth — " / will he as the dew unto 
 Israel." Of course there must be life first, before there can be 
 growth. But Israel, as here spoken of, has returned in penitence 
 to God, and has entered upon the new life. And what is needed 
 then is, that God's Spirit should continue His gracious influence 
 day by day — silent, copious, refreshing like the dew — seeking in 
 about the roots of the life— and giving every leaf and petal a daily 
 renewed baptism of holy vigour. May that be your experience ! 
 Then you shall grow — as trees of the Lord's own planting, that He 
 may be glorified. 
 
 104 
 
strange ipcrversitg. April 13 
 
 " Te will not come unto Me, that ye might have life " (John v. 40). 
 
 How often in the course of a day you say, " I will," or, " I will 
 not," without thinking that this power of yours, which we call 
 "will," is the greatest power which man can wield. If you 
 examine human history, you will find much that the will of man 
 has been able to accomplish. But the most marvellous thing about 
 the human will is, that (no doubt with the divine consent) it has 
 been able to assert itself against God. 
 
 One of the saddest sayings of Jesus is His lament over lost 
 Jerusalem — " How often would I have gathered you, as a hen 
 gathers her chickens under her wings ; but ye would not." How 
 strange this is ; but also how true ! The Saviour is stretching out 
 His arms of love. Would you not expect men thankfully to run 
 into them, that they might find safety, and peace, and satisfying ? 
 You would ; yet they do not run. They rather observe lying 
 vanities ; and so they forsake their own mercies, Jesus calls ; but 
 they turn their backs on Him. He invites the weary and heavy 
 laden to cast their burdens at His feet ; but they seem to prefer to 
 carry their loads themselves. He invites dying men to come to 
 Him that they may have life — real life, life that will last eternally, 
 and will in every respect be worthy of the name of life — life at its 
 fullest, most happy, most useful, and best. But they will not come. 
 
 How slow people are to accept the invitation of the loving 
 Jesus ! This may be explained on various grounds. Many do not 
 feel their want ; and, thinking they can do without the water of 
 life yet awhile, refuse to be indebted for it, and try in their o^\^l 
 strength to go their way. Others think the news too good to be 
 true, — like the crowds who passed the man on London Bridge, as 
 he held out real sovereigns for a whole day, offering them at a 
 shilling, -without selling a single one 1 
 
 In Norway, a few years ago, I had a simple illustration of how 
 different people treat the gospel. We came upon a group of chil- 
 dren in a remote place one day, and held out to them — what you 
 are more familiar with— some "sweeties." One, a bigger boy, 
 evidently " didn't want them," and looked half insulted. A little 
 girl would fain have come, but " didn't think we meant it," and 
 held back, doubting. Another came frankly forward, and showed 
 a disposition to come " for more." A fourth— and this is the one 
 to imitate — came and shook hands (which means " thank you ! " in 
 that country), and then brought her little brother, that he too might 
 have a share. Here you have the true spirit of the gospel — " Come 
 and take 1 " And — " Let him that heareth say, * Come.' " 
 
 105 
 
April 14 TRUorh awag. 
 
 "I must work while it is day : the night cometh" (John ix. 4). 
 
 Jesus is tlie speaker here. He says that He lias been sent into the 
 world to work, and tliat He knows He must work hard, for He has 
 only a short time to work in. You know who sent him ? It v/as 
 God the Father. And what the work was ? The salvation of men. 
 You know how busy He was ? He went about, we are told, con- 
 tinually doing good ; and, even when a boy, He spoke the deep, 
 earnest words which Mary must have wondered over as she laid 
 them up in her heart — " I must be about My Father's business." 
 You know how short His life on earth was too ? Not more than 
 three and thirty years — and yet how much, in doing and suffering, 
 He accomplished in it ! And oh, how much brighter the world 
 has ever since been, because of His presence in it ! 
 
 But now, dear young people, what has this verse to say to you ? 
 It ought, in the first place, to make you love Jesus very much, for 
 all He has done and been for us ; and also love His Father very 
 much, because He so loved the world as to send to it the Saviour. 
 And then it should make you ask, how you are to be like Jesus, in 
 finding some good work to do to-day, and doing it with all your 
 might. 
 
 You are not expected to know much about labour yet. But 
 you do know the difference between work and idleness ; and you 
 have already learned, I daresay, that there is truth in the saying, 
 that the unhappiest of people is he who " can find nothing to do." 
 The truant from school is never really happy, nor the truant from 
 duty either. The mere idler does not deserve to be, and he is not, 
 happy. And though busy people rightly long for, and really enjoy, 
 a holiday sometimes, the greatest of English poets is right when he 
 says — 
 
 "If all the year were playing holiLlays, 
 To sport would bo as tedious as to work." 
 
 Of this you may be quite sure, that in this world there will be 
 plenty always for you to do, if you have an open eye, a ready hand, 
 and a willing heart. The advice of a veteran servant of God to a 
 young friend is worth remembering—" Do all the good you can— in 
 all the ways you can— to all the people you can— and just as long 
 as you can." 
 
 io6 
 
Kour ©arOcn aiiD /Bbtne. Apru 15 
 
 " Mine o?wi vineyard have I not kept " (Song of Sol. 1. 6). 
 
 Each of us, even the youngest, has a garden, or vineyard, which we 
 are to dress and keep for God : some sphere of duty which we are 
 to fill, as in His sight and for His glory. 
 
 It is said of some, that their " eyes are in the ends of the earth." 
 They are taken up greatly about things that are far away from them, 
 and about which they have no direct responsibility ; but they do 
 not take half enough interest in matters of practical duty, which lie 
 close to their own hand. A little boy, whose clothes were rent, and 
 who had holes in his stockings, was asked by a companion why his 
 mother did not mend them for him. " Oh," he replied, " my mother 
 is so much occupied in sewing for the heathen that she has no time 
 to mend my clothes ! " That mother acted very foolishly. It is, 
 indeed, a good thing to take an interest in the heathen, and to do 
 all we can to help them. Our sj'mpathies cannot be too wide. But 
 we are not to neglect the duty that lies nearest to us, on the plea 
 that we want to help some good cause tliat lies beyond. 
 
 To say that you were giving a hand in the keeping of some other 
 great garden, will be a poor excuse for allowing the little garden to 
 run to waste which God gave specially to you to keep. There is 
 some sphere of life awaiting every one of you, in which there will 
 be room enough to honour God. May you not have to make, at the 
 last, the sorrowful confession— "Mine own vineyard have I not 
 kept"! 
 
 It is told of a great philosopher, that he was always boasting 
 about his garden, and of the delight he had in it. Some of his 
 admirers thought that they would like to see it. When they went, 
 they found that it was just a little patch of ground ; and they said 
 — " Is this your famous garden 1 " " Yes," he replied. " It is not 
 very long, you see ; and it is not very broad. But — it is wondrous 
 high ! " And, so saying, he looked up to the sky, with such a look 
 of thankfulness and joy upon his face. It was the place where he 
 was wont to commune with the Highest. 
 
 So, in our garden, wherever and whatever it may be, we may hold 
 communication with high heaven. And if only we realise that 
 Christ is looking down ujjou us in loving interest, it wiU encourage 
 us, in joy as well as fidelity, to keep it for Him. 
 
 107 
 
Apruie Zbc 1bea&. 
 
 " The Head of the body, tlie Church" (Col, i. 18). 
 
 The head is not only the noblest and most beautiful and interesting, 
 but the most necessary part of the human frame ; and the Church 
 without Christ would be a body without a head. Now — 
 
 1. The head is the centre of life. All the nerves connect with the 
 brain ; and if the head is struck off, the body dies. So is it with 
 the Church, Christ is " our life " ; and because He lives, we live 
 also. As Mr. Spurgeon says : " You cannot drown a man while his 
 head is above water ; therefore, though he feel below water, he is 
 not drowned, if his head is above the stream. So you cannot destroy 
 the Church while the Head is alive." It seemed once as if the Head 
 had been removed. But it was not so ; for Jesus rose the third day 
 from the grave, in the power of an endless life. 
 
 2. The head provides for all the body. The eyes are there, and 
 the ears — ready to see and hear everything that is either of advan- 
 tage or of danger to the whole. And not only so : it is the head 
 that thinks, that remembers the past, and plans for the future. So 
 is it with Christ. His eyes are upon His people. His ears are open 
 to their cry. His thoiights are busy for their good. For He is 
 their Head ; and as such He can never be taken by surprise, or 
 found without resource. For God hath put all things under His 
 feet, and given Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, 
 which is His body. 
 
 And then (3) it is the head that governs. At the bidding of the 
 
 head the feet walk ; the hands do useful work ; the tongue speaks ; 
 
 the eyes turn to see ; the ears are attentive to listen. All obey the 
 
 head, which governs. So Christ is the Head of the Church ; and 
 
 being the centre of life, and providing as He does for the entire 
 
 body. He has the right to govern. But alas ! just as we sometimes 
 
 see in the human body some members beyond control, refusing to 
 
 obey the head ; and some paralysed, and no more able to obey it 
 
 than if they were dead — so do we see, sometimes, in the Church. 
 
 Is not that very sad ? May we all be true, living members of Christ's 
 
 body ! May we all be thankful to be provided for by Him ! And 
 
 may we all be ready to oley Him at all times, as our wise and 
 
 gracious Head ! 
 
 io8 
 
H IRicb UCflacg. April 17 
 
 "Peace I leave with you, My 2)cace I give unto you" (John xiv, 27). 
 
 It would be a great delight, as well as surprise, if somebody came 
 to one of you young people and said, some fine day, " You are no 
 longer to be poor and little thought of, but to be rich, and hon- 
 oured, and great. For a powerful friend, whom you have not even 
 seen, has made you his heir, and given you a great estate ; and now 
 you are to live in a fine house, and to keep a carriage, and to have 
 plenty of servants, and everything at your command that the world 
 can furnish, to make you happy." 
 
 You would be inclined to say, " Ah, it is too good news to be 
 true. I have not any rich friend like that ; and even if I had, it 
 is not likely that he would care so much for me. If I am ever to 
 be rich, it will be a long time after this, and as the result of a 
 whole lifetime of hard, unceasing labour." 
 
 Yet something like what I have mentioned has occurred to 
 people before now, A poor man in a town I know was suddenly 
 left a large fortune, by a relative who had long lived abroad. He 
 stopped working, that he might " live upon his money," and be a 
 great man, and order people about. But money is a poor thing to 
 live upon, and he could not order himself aright. His time began 
 to hang heavy upon his hands. He used his wealth just to pamper 
 himself ; and the selfish became a weary life, which sank at last 
 into a drunkard's grave. The rich inheritance, you see, made that 
 man only the poorer : instead of being a blessing, it proved to him 
 a curse. 
 
 Now you need not expect that you will hear some day that you 
 have come into a large fortune in that way ; and you are not to jiut 
 on the wishing-cap, in the hope that the fairies may come and tell 
 you of it. But Jesus speaks here of a far richer legacy than any 
 the world could offer you — " My peace." If this were extended to 
 you in one hand, and all the world's wealth in the other, it would 
 be your wisdom to accept this— His own peace. And how may it 
 be yours ? He tells you. " Ye believe in God," He says ; " believe 
 also in Me." The secret of peace is trust. The secret of perfect 
 peace is perfect trust in Jesus. 
 
 109 
 
Apruis 3Bcohcn Cisterns. 
 
 " They have heioed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, tliat can hold no water " 
 (Jer. ii. 13). 
 
 Suppose you were thirsty, and had your choice — either to go to a 
 clear, bubbling spring near by to quench your thirst, or to get a 
 draught from a cistern not far off, if it should turn out to have 
 water in it — to which, do you think, would you turn ? " To the 
 spring, of course," I hear you reply. What a stupid thing it would 
 be in anyone to hesitate for a moment about that ! Who does not 
 know that spring water is far more refreshing than cistern water at 
 its best ? 
 
 Yet there are a great many people committing that very blunder ; 
 which is, in their case, more than a blunder, since it is, at the same 
 time, a sin. They are forsaking God, the living fountain ; and 
 turning by preference to man-made cisterns instead. This they do 
 because they want to be independent, if they can, of God. They 
 flatter themselves that they have no need of Him, and can find a 
 better way than His to slake their thirst and satisfy their hearts. 
 
 But it is a terrible mistake, as well as a cruel slight on God, thus 
 to forsake Him. For those who follow lying vanities forsake their 
 own mercies. What can the cistern at the best do ? It can only 
 hold a limited supply at the most ; and if it holds it long, it will 
 become brackish and impure. But even the little that the earthly 
 cisterns will hold cannot be counted on for long ; because the 
 cisterns are cracked and leaky, so that the water will speedily filter 
 away, in spite of the best efforts to retain it. 
 
 The cisterns of pleasure, of wealth, of gaiety, of fame, of fashion 
 can bring no abiding refreshment to man's heart. The cisterns of 
 music and of art will not do it. All who drink of these waters 
 will thirst again. If we have been learning already what it is to 
 thirst again, may none of us know what it is to thirst for ever — except 
 with that thirst which is not a torment, but a joy, because the satis- 
 fying Fountain always is at hand. 
 
 There is One who calls, as He did on the last, the great, day of the 
 Feast, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." 
 You know His name ? 
 
 " Christ ! lie is the fountain, 
 The deep, sweet well of love." 
 
 And with such a living Spring — clear, free, inexhaustible — to drink 
 at, who in his senses would turn to a cistern — a broken cistern ! 
 
21 XC56011 tlOill /IftOUnt TRcpblDim. AprU 19 
 
 " ' Jehovah-nissi,' the Lord my Banner" (Ex. xvii. 15). 
 
 The children of Israel were braced to duty at Rcphidim. They 
 had perhaps come to expect everything to be done for them l)y Cod, 
 who had led them safely through the sea, and had given them 
 manna and quails from heaven, and water out of the flinty rock. 
 But now God permits the Amalekites to fall upon them ; and they 
 have to fight for their lives. 
 
 We, too, have our Amalekites, within and without, to contend 
 with, from "generation to generation." And it is sometimes well, 
 still, for God's people to be roused from a fretful and listless 
 humour, to face the stern necessity of conflict, and to grasp a truer 
 conception of the arduous, but high and noble. Christian calling. 
 
 The lesson taught to Israel and us at Mount Rephidim is, that on 
 the way to the Promised Land we have both to strxujgle and to pray. 
 Both. We are not to pray without fighting, for God does not pro- 
 mise to do for us what we can do for ourselves. Nor are we to 
 struggle without praying, for that will niean sure defeat, because it 
 will moan fighting in our own strength, which, apart from God, is 
 utter weakness. 
 
 A schoolgirl asked her companion how she was always able to say 
 her lessons so well, and got the answer — " I always pray that I may 
 say them well." Next day, the unsuccessful scholar came, after 
 class, to her companion in great chagrin. She had done worse than 
 ever, though she had prayed for success, and she charged the other 
 with deceiving her. *' But did you learn well, as well as pray ? " 
 No ; she had not thought of doing that. "I understood," she said, 
 " that if I prayed it would be enough." We can all see how foolish 
 this was. Yet how many Christians fail just because, while they 
 profess to pray, they put forth no hearty eff'ort in the direction 
 which their prayer professes to seek. 
 
 On the other hand, our efl'ort apart from prayer will not achieve 
 the victory. When the hands of Moses hung down, Israel wavered 
 in the fight. What we have persevcringly to do is, to hold up the 
 rod of God (which for us means the divine promise grasped by faith, 
 and pleaded in the name of Christ), while we use the means at our 
 disposal ; and the God of battles will give the victory. " Prayer 
 and pains," as Dr. Chalmers use to say, "will accomjilish anything." 
 And what an encouragement it is, that we have with us in our 
 prayers a Divine Intercessor who never wearies, and before us in 
 our conflicts a Joshua who never knew defeat ! 
 
 Ill 
 
Apru 20 30rin0ino us to <5o^. 
 
 " lie thai hath the Son hath life " (1 John v. 12). " In whom we have 
 boldness and access with confidence " (Epli. iii. 12). 
 
 Have you heard tlie storj'- of the little Englisli boy wlio was looking 
 wistfully in at tlie gates of the royal palace one day, and longing 
 for just a peep within the mansion, when a soldier upon guard 
 stepped forward, and, learning what he wished, laughed at his 
 impertinence, and with rough words drove him away ? As the 
 child was sadly taking his departure a young gentleman who had 
 witnessed the scene came forward smilingly, and said, " Come with 
 me, my little man, and I will show you all." 
 
 There was something so reassuring in liis look and manner that 
 the boy felt he could trust him, and trust himself to him. Nor 
 was his confidence misplaced. The dreadful soldier did not point 
 his bayonet at him, did not speak or even frown, but only touched 
 his cap with the military salute as the two passed within. The 
 gentleman, with much apparent zest, led his young companion 
 through the grounds, into the hothouses, and among the beautiful 
 gardens, until at length they entered the great mansion itself. 
 
 There was a lady there, whom the gentleman called " mother," 
 and who smiled as he laughingly explained to her about the 
 youthful visitor. And then he kindly led the boy back to the gate ; 
 and, as they parted, said that he hoped he would now be satisfied, 
 for he had not only seen the grounds and the palace, but the Queen 
 of all England ! 
 
 Was it not kind in that prince to do so much for a forlorn and 
 friendless child ? But God's Son, the Prince of Life, does more for 
 you and me. He opens the way into the Father's house, and the 
 righteous guards at the gate do not deny an entrance, when we 
 " have the Son." He takes us within the palace, and He shows us 
 all. But He does more than this. He introduces us to the King ; 
 and as He calls Him " Father," He calls Him ours as well — " My 
 Father and your Father, My home and your home." He gives us a 
 blood-bought right not only to enter Heaven, but to dwell for ever 
 there. He that hath the Son, hath life. In Him we may have 
 "boldness and access with confidence." 
 
 112 
 
aScbolDiiiiJ anO Q;rBiiio /IRcn. April 21 
 
 "His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men" (Ps. xi. 4). 
 
 When I was young, tliere was a portrait upon a wall in my fatlier's 
 house whose eyes seemed to follow me. No matter to what corner 
 of the room I went, those eyes appeared to look down upon me, 
 and to read my heart. 
 
 Now what was true, or what I felt to be true, of that picture, la 
 certainly true of God. His eyes are in every place, lieholding the 
 evil and the good. We cannot go anywhere, do anything, or even 
 think any thought — but God sees it. • 
 
 This consideration might well deter us from evil. A man set 
 forth once upon a stealing expedition, taking his son with him. 
 What he wanted to steal was his neighbour's corn. They reached 
 the place ; he had his bag all ready to receive the precious grain ; 
 and he looked round to see that no one was looking on. His son, 
 seeing him look this way and that way — north, south, east, and 
 west — said, " You have forgotten to look in one direction, father." 
 " Where ? " inquired the man excitedly. " You have forgotten to 
 look up, father," said his son. And the two went home again, 
 without the corn. 
 
 Two boys were passing through an orchard. They were sorely 
 tempted with the fruit. At last one said, " Let us have some of 
 those apples." " Nay," said the other, " for that would be stealing." 
 " Oh," was the reply, " but they belong to Widow Jones ; and she is 
 from home, and doesn't count." " But God counts," said the other ; 
 and the apples remained U7itasted. 
 
 But the same consideration may well be to God's children a great 
 encouragement. When Lafayette was in prison, what he felt most 
 irksome and hard to bear was, the knowledge that there was an eye 
 always peering in upon him through a hole in the door of his cell. 
 But what a comfort it is for those who have God for their Father, to 
 know that His eye is always upon them for good. When a little 
 girl was hearing ghost stories in a dark room, and was asked if she 
 h'as not afraid, she replied — " No ; God sees me." And when any 
 of you young people have to bear pain ; or, in trying circumstances, 
 to speak the truth ; or to suffer reproach ; or to work hard, without 
 much on earth perhaps to cheer you — oh, what an encouragement 
 there wiU be for you in the thought—" God sees me, I must be 
 about my Father's business." 
 
 (8) 113 
 
Apru 22 Sowing auD IRcaping. 
 
 " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap " (Gal. vi. 7). 
 
 What -would you think of a man who sowed rj^e and expected to 
 reap wheat, or who sowed barley and hoped by and by to reap 
 beans ? You would think such a man very foolish — almost fit 
 for a lunatic asylum. Yet that is just what a great many people 
 are doing. Take care lest you be found among them. They are 
 going on sowing, with the greatest comi:»osure, tares ; and apparently 
 they expect, either that it will not bear a crop, or that it will 
 somehow grow up wheat. They freely scatter evil thoughts, desires, 
 deeds ; and they are under the delusion that they will not reap the 
 appropriate result. 
 
 This verse reminds us of three important trutlis — 
 
 1. We are all solving. Perhaps you have seen the husbandman 
 setting forth into the field, with his seed-bin strapped before him, 
 f I'om wliich, with both hands earnestly, he scatters far and wide into 
 the furrows the living germs of pearly grain ? Now, you are just 
 like him. You are always sowing seed of some sort, good or bad. 
 To cease to sow, j'ou must cease to act, to speak, to think. You 
 must needs cease, in that case, to be what you are. 
 
 2. All who sow shall reap. This is not true in outward and 
 ordinary husbandry. The farmer sometimes, after all his activity 
 and patience, has little or no crop for his pains, because of a 
 nipping frost or some other blight which has come upon his field 
 before the time of harvest. But moral seeds — by which we mean 
 thoughts, words, deeds, of various sorts — always bear fruit. What 
 you are sowing in youth will certainly bring you a harvest in later 
 life. From what we sow in time, we shall reap in eternity. 
 
 3. All who reap shall have a harvest like their solving. Not 
 to speak of results outside of us from the influences we scatter 
 among others, we should think seriously here of the effect of our 
 sowing upon ourselves, in our own characters and lives. This is 
 seen in the growth of habit, to which there is both a dark and a 
 bright side. Every time you do a wrong act or indulge a wrong 
 feeling, the power of evil is strengthened within you. It is easier 
 to do wrong again ; and you are a worse boy or girl than before. 
 But the ojiposite is no less true. Every time you do an unselfish, 
 generous thing, or speak a brave, true word, or cherish a pure and 
 lofty desire, you become the better for it, and your character the 
 nobler. Eemembering that you are building your character for 
 eternity, pray that God's Spirit may ever dwell within you, and 
 make you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. 
 
 114 
 
Cbrltjt's :fiJrotbcio aiiD Sietcre. AprU23 
 
 " Whosoever shall do the will of My Fatlwr, the same is My brolhir and sister " 
 (Malt. xii. GO). 
 
 In some households the family likeness is very strong. When I see 
 a boy or a girl on the street sometimes, I can at once say — " There 
 is a son, or a daughter, of So-and-so." The features of the face — the 
 eyes, the nose, the mouth, the brow, the chin — reveal their 
 parentage ; or perhaps it is, at first, their style of wallcing, or 
 something of that kind, that suggests who they are. 
 
 Now, in God's household the family likeness is well marked. 
 Jesus, the Elder Brother in the family, tells us here how we are to 
 know who they are that belong to it. He says, " Those that do the 
 will of My Father in Heaven are My brothers and sisters." If you 
 see a man or a Avoman, a boy or a girl, with the love of God in their 
 hearts, and who are showing their love for Him by keeping His 
 commandments, then you are safe to say, " That is a brother, or a 
 sister, of Christ ! " Such are far nearer to Him than if they had 
 been merely born into the sajue family in Nazareth. Jesus did not 
 siJurn the ties which bound Him to those who were of His own iiesh 
 and blood in the earthly home. But He plainly showed, more than 
 once, that the nearest and dearest of kindred to Him were those 
 whose hearts had been given to God, and who loved to do the 
 Heavenly Father's will. I hope you are among these? If you 
 are — 
 
 How close this brings you to God! When Jesus says, not merely 
 " My servants," or " My friends," but " My brothers," what a tender 
 attachment, what frank and intimate fellowship this implies ! " My 
 brothers" — " My sisters" — this means oneness of nature as well as 
 of name — one Father, one Inheritance, one Home. 
 
 How great a family circle is yours ! People sometimes speak 
 proudly of their " connections," and seem to despise those who have 
 not the inestimable privilege of belonging to them. But the 
 Christian need envy no man his pedigree. For he belongs to the 
 seed-royal of Heaven, and the children of God of every nation are 
 his spiritual kindred. 
 
 How aliding is your fa/mily joy! It is the blessedness of a 
 deathless fellowship. Families on earth get broken up and 
 separated. Your brothers and sisters in the earthly home may be 
 sundered far enough from one another yet, by stormy seas, or by 
 the stream of death. But if you and they are members of God's 
 family, the time of separation will be only for a little season. The 
 brothers and sisters of Christ are all to be gathered into a safe, 
 bright home, from which there wiU be no more going out, and into 
 which no sorrow will intrude. " He that doeth the wiU of Gkid 
 abideth for ever." 
 
 IIS 
 
AprU24 Zbc Mag ot %itc^ 
 
 '• Thou wilt shmo me the path of life " (Ps. xvi. 11). 
 
 You have sometimes, when, walking in the country, come to a point 
 where two ways parted, and you were not sure which of the two to 
 take. It was of importance for you to take the proper road, so as to 
 reach your destination ; and how glad you were when a man who 
 knew the country-side well appeared, just in time to point you on 
 the right way. 
 
 Now, something very like that happens to you young people, 
 before you have travelled far upon life's journey. You come 
 to the parting of the ways ; and everything, under God, depends 
 upon which of the paths you follow. How well it is for you that 
 there is One near who can show you the good way, the right way, 
 for you to walk in I Turning to Jesus, you are invited to say witli 
 every confidence — "Thou wilt show me the path of life." And 
 He will not only point you to it, but lead you in it, for His 
 name's sake. 
 
 The path of life — Why does the way to heaven get this name in 
 the Bible 1 Not only because it leads to life — the region of life — 
 the home of the living God, but because it is trodden by the living, 
 and strengthens and gladdens the life of those who walk in it. 
 
 See it stretching out before you, young reader, from where you 
 stand this day ! It is a narrow and rough-looking path — not very 
 attractive, at first at least. There are few flowers to be seen upon 
 its borders ; and only an occasional resting-place beside it. It 
 seems, moreover, always to ascend the mountain to the right ; and 
 comparatively few appear to choose that for their way. But do 
 you not notice that the travellers who are in it go onward with 
 more heart as they advance ? See how their faces are brightening, 
 and their eyes gleaming with fresh hope even in old age, as they 
 grasp the pilgrim stafl" of promise and press upward in God's name. 
 For it is the path of life. Life thrives in it, and it leads to the 
 fulness of life and peace in the everlasting habitations of the 
 blessed. 
 
 To enter upon it you must yield yourself to Christ. And as 
 an act of self-surrender ushers you upon the way, a course of self- 
 denial is implied in walking in it. But neither here nor hereafter 
 will you have reason to regret entering upon it and keeping in it. 
 The air upon the steeps of holiness is bracing air ; and the rest 
 upon the mountain-top, within the Heavenly Zion, will be all the 
 sweeter from the remembrance of the upward struggle thither. 
 
 IIO 
 
Cbc L'>atb of ©eatb. AprU25 
 
 " Tlie nay of the wicked scduceth them" (Prov. xH. 23). 
 
 The path spoken of here is just the opposite of the one we were 
 speaking about yesterday. It is a way which seduces people — that 
 is, leads them wrong, alluring them off the proper track, and on to 
 ruin. It is the way, not of life, but of death. 
 
 It is a broad and easy way this — very attractive-looking, at least 
 at first. It descends by a pleasant, gradual slope through the rich 
 valley to the left, as you stand at the parting of the ways. The 
 sides of it are bedecked with sweet flowers of pleasure ; the birds 
 carol over it songs of delight ; and it seems, in its earlier reaches at 
 anyrate, to be thronged by very jovial company. 
 
 But do you not notice that the travellers in it appear to grow 
 more feeble as they advance ? The eye which sparkled at first gets 
 heavier, the expression spiritless and unsatisfied. The limbs begin 
 to totter ; and though at intervals the voice of merriment is heard, 
 it sounds forced, unreal, hollow, more and more, — until, as they enter 
 among the brooding shadows, it echoes back upon the choking air 
 more like a wail of anguish than a shout of mirth. 
 
 For this is the way of death. True life cannot be enjoyed in it. 
 And though it is a broad and easy-looking way, it leads to a dismal 
 place, from which there is no retreat, where no sweet flowers of hope 
 can grow, and where sin's promises, which the travellers carried in 
 their hands, are all completely blighted, never to bloom again. It 
 is the way of death ! 
 
 How are you to get into it? There is no need to ask that 
 question ; but rather to ask, How are you to make sure to get out of 
 it 1 It is the easiest thing in the world to wander down the broad 
 road. You have just to go with the crowd, and to make no effort 
 to resist the natural inclination of your own heart. There is no 
 gateway at all into the way of death, or it is so wide that you may 
 never know of its existence. But what you should be in earnest 
 about, what Christ bids you strive to do, is — to get out of the broad 
 road by entering in at the strait but open gate, — the wicket-gate of 
 faith in Christ — into the narrow, but plain, and safe, and happy way 
 of life. 
 
 117 
 
April 26 /n^artgi* Stcpben. 
 
 " Thy martyr Slcjjhen " (Acts xxii. 20). 
 
 Stephen was a brave man, and a good servant of Jesus Christ — one 
 of the bravest and best. And this was the brightest title he could 
 possibly have won — far better than an earthly princedom — " Martyr 
 Stephen." It just means witiisss Stephen ; and though I do not 
 expect you will ever be called to witness in the same way exactly 
 as he did, you should remember that all who belong to Christ 
 are expected to be witnesses for Him. 
 
 1. Stephen worked for Jesus. He was one of the seven first 
 deacons appointed in the Church ; and in that capacity he " served 
 tables," and divided out portions for the poor. It was humble 
 enough work for a man with the powers that Stephen afterwards 
 manifested. But he did it faithfully and well ; and in so doing 
 he was witnessing for Christ. He was showing the power that the 
 love of Jesus had over him, and manifesting a love like His for 
 God's poor and "little ones." There is no duty too insignificant 
 to glorify Christ, if it is undertaken in a great spirit and done 
 "for His sake." 
 
 " A servant, with this clause, 
 Makes drudgery divine : 
 Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws 
 Makes this and the action fine." 
 
 2. Stephen spoke for Jesus. It is not given to everybody to be a 
 great preacher, and to witness publicly with the tongue for the 
 Saviour. But tliis honour was put upon Stephen ; and he used the 
 opportunities given to him with eagerness and fidelity. He was 
 enaliled to do much in the early days on behalf of the freedom of 
 the gospel. The longest sermon, I daresaj'', in the Book of Acts, is 
 Stephen's sermon to a very unsympathetic audience — the Jewish 
 Sanhedrim. But they did not sleep under it. It was so faithful 
 and rousing a discourse that they gnashed upon him with their 
 teeth. 
 
 3. Stephen suffered for Jesus. Yes, he suffered willingly, for- 
 givingly, even unto the death ; and it is specially this witnessing, 
 by suffering and death, that has brought him his glorious distinction 
 as the first martyr of the Christian Church. What was the secret 
 of his strength all through — of his humility — his courage — his 
 patience ? He had the example of Jesus before him ; and that 
 example did much doubtless to inspire him, even as his own example 
 was to have a profound effect on the young man Saul, who beheld 
 his martyrdom, and held the clothes of his murderers. But he had 
 not only the example of Jesus before him, but the Spirit of Jesus 
 within him ; and this is what we need, if we are to do, or speak, or 
 bear anything aright as witnesses for Him. It is an echo from the 
 Cross of Calvary we hear in the expiring words of Stephen — " Lord, 
 lay not this sin to their charge ! " And with the peace of God in 
 his heart, even while they battered him with stones, the noble 
 witness fell asleep. 
 
 Il8 
 
a OOOD GolMcr. April 27 
 
 "A good soldier of Jesus Christ " (2 Tim. ii. 3). 
 
 I HOPE you have enlisted in ChrisL'a army, and that it is your 
 ambition to l>e not only a soldier, but a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 
 What are the qualities of such an one 1 
 
 1. LoyalUj to our Leader, and enthusiasm for His cause. The 
 success of our British arms in days gone by has been greatly helped 
 by the esteem of our men for their commanders, and their thorough- 
 hearted loyalty. You remember how, in one of Wellington's great 
 battles, a portion of the army was yielding before the foe. But 
 at the critical moment the general rode forward into the midst 
 of his faltering batta,lions. " There's the Duke ! God bless him ! " 
 cried one of the men, with enthusiasm. " I'd rather see his face 
 than a whole brigade." The news spread ; the troops took courage ; 
 and the tide of battle turned. Surely we have a Leader in Jesus 
 Christ toward whom we should manifest a like devotion ; and 
 a cause that is worthy of our warmest enthusiasm. Ours is a Leader 
 who never knew defeat ; ours, with Him, a noble struggle on 
 behalf of all that is pure, and peaceable, and worthy on God's earth. 
 
 2. Obedience is another characteristic which should always go 
 along with enthusiasm. A band full of zeal, but ignorant of 
 discipline, would be a mob, not an army worthy of the name. Our 
 o^vn Covenanters sometimes found this to their cost. The once 
 victorious cry — " Christ's Cro^vn and Covenant " — did not marshal 
 them to victory, when disorder and disaffection crept into their 
 ranks. Where before they had swept all before them, they now fell 
 like grain before the sickle of the enemy. Prompt, unquestioning 
 obedience is the soldier's part toward a wise and trusty Leader. 
 He does not know, as the Commander does, the plan of the campaign. 
 He has but to do his part, and so contribute to the success of all. 
 
 " His not to reason why, 
 His not to make reply, 
 His but to do — or die." 
 
 3. Courage, too, will often be needed in the line of obedience ; 
 and the Christian is especially the soldier who, putting on the 
 whole armour of God, and looking to his invincible Leader, may be 
 expected to manifest this quality. It will show itself not only in a 
 brilliant dash in the field, but in the fortitude which can endure 
 hardness as well as brave danger, — like our gallant men in the 
 Crimea, who could bear the weary waiting in the trenches, though 
 they felt it a harder thing than to face the cannon's mouth. In 
 •presence of mind, also, true courage will be revealed ; for the good 
 soldier will not be flustered and made useless by every emergency. 
 He is alert, and has his powers in hand, and can rise to the occasion 
 — quick of expedient and ready of resource. And, like every truly 
 brave soul, he will be full of genuine chivalry. He does not con- 
 found valour with bluster, or self-assertiveness with dignity. He is 
 gentle to the weak, unselfish, and courteous to all. In this, as in 
 other particulars, the best soldier of Jesus Christ is he through 
 whom most clearly the Spirit of his great Commander shines. 
 
 119 
 
April 28 Gooi> Company. 
 
 " Re that walketh loith wise men shall he wise: hut a companion of fools shaU 
 
 he destroyed " (Prov. xiii. 20). 
 
 Boy or man, girl or woman — all are known by the company they 
 keep. Tell me of what sort your chosen companions are, and I 
 will tell you of what sort you yourself are, or very soon will be. 
 
 The text shows us the kind of companions to choose, and the 
 kind to avoid ; and it also reminds us of the influence that our 
 friendships, of whatever sort they be, are sure to have upon us. 
 Some of us who are older, looking back upon our life, find traces 
 of early companionship upon us still ; and so, by and by, it will 
 be with you. And, remember, there is another side to this. You 
 are making your companions either better or worse, by all that you 
 do and say and are, when you are with them. Seek, then, that you 
 may both find real friends for yourself and be a real friend to 
 them. 
 
 As to the influence companions have upon us, plenty of illustra- 
 tions might be given, both from the Bible and from common life 
 around us. Don't you think David was a better man for his friend- 
 ship with the pure and nobly unselfish Jonathan ? And was not 
 Rehoboam, on the other hand, ruined by the "bad set" among 
 whom he fell ? 
 
 Many in our churches are thanking God for what true friendship 
 has been to them, and made them. Many in our jails are cursing 
 their own past, and will give you as the explanation of their evil 
 plight — "bad company." A judge, in passing sentence upon a 
 young man, once said — " Had I listened in early life to certain of 
 my companions instead of to God, I would have been before now, 
 instead of a judge upon the king's bench, a prisoner standing at the 
 bar." How true is it that "evil communications corrupt good 
 manners." 
 
 Be it yours, dear reader, to say with one of old, " I am a 
 companion of all them that fear Thee." That will assuredly tell 
 for good upon your character day by day. Above all, may you 
 walk daily with Him who is the best of Friends. His, to the heart 
 that is laid oj)en to it in faith and love, is the most telling, as well 
 as most gracious, of all influences. Others will take knowledge 
 concerning you, that you have been, and are, with Jesus. 
 
 120 
 
a miec Servant. Apru 29 
 
 " Who, then, isaimse servant f" (Matt. xxiv. 45). 
 
 It is possible to be a servant, and yet not a wise one. If yoii are a 
 follower of Christ at all, you are also a servant of His. And if you 
 are a servant at all, surely it should be your ambition to fill your 
 place and do your work as worthily as possible. 
 
 If it be asked what constitutes a wise servant, I would answer 
 that these four things, at anyrate, are true of such an one : — 
 
 1. He takes an intelligent interest in his work. He is not a mere 
 "hand," but a being gifted with a head and with a heart, and capable 
 of using these. He is one who knows what he is about — who per- 
 ceives what he is expected to accomplish— and who can take a 
 sympathetic interest in the scheme to which his own bit of work is 
 meant, along with that of others, to contribute. 
 
 2. He has the good sense to stick to his own post. It belongs to the 
 Master to give to every man his service and liis burden ; and, 
 having had his work assigned to him, he does it with a will, and with 
 all his might. Interest in others, and sympathy with them, cannot 
 divert him away from the fulfilment of personal duty. Still less 
 will he allow himself to envy others, or to meddle with them 
 needlessly in their work. But, having got an answer to the prayer 
 — " Lord, what ■\vilt Thou have me to do ? " he does it, in the same 
 sincere and humble spirit with which he asked to be guided to it. 
 
 3. He not only knoics the end he is to seek, but the right means for 
 attaining it. The wise servant is not shiftless, or without ideas. 
 He has a sense of fitness, and he is a man of resource. He knows 
 how to do the right thing, and to do it at the proper time, and in 
 the most suitable way. This is an important part of liis outfit for 
 the practical service of the great Christian cause, which often needs 
 not only a sharp eye but a delicate hand. 
 
 4. He lives in the remembrance that all his work must come under 
 the Master's eye. He is one who looks for the coming of his Lord ; 
 and he does all his work in view of that event, as something which 
 may occur at any moment. Nay, he conducts himself as if his 
 Master were already and always present. He lives, and labours, 
 " as ever in his great Taskmaster's eye." Tliis is the truest prud- 
 ence. " Blessed is that servant whom his Master, when He cometh, 
 shall find so doing." 
 
 121 
 
AprU30 trusting tbe iDUOt. 
 
 "I will trust, and not be a/raid " (Isa. xii. 2). 
 
 In one of his beautiful short pieces, Tennyson speaks of " meeting 
 his Pilot face to face," and of his confidence that He will guide him 
 safely to the haven. 
 
 What a blessed thing it is for those who are Christ's, to know 
 that He is with them in the ship, and to be assured that He will 
 guide them in safety through all the varying experiences of the 
 voyage of life, till they cast anchor in the haven of everlasting peace ! 
 
 If you have Jesus with you in the ship, you may well say to 
 your soul, " I will trust, and not be afraid." For He is worthy of 
 your complete confidence, at all times and in all circumstances. In 
 fair weather and in foul, in calm and in storm, on the still bosom 
 of the lake or in the rushing cataract of diflBculty and danger. He 
 is equally worthy of your full reliance, and will not be pleased if 
 you withhold it from Him. 
 
 You are sailing smoothly, let us say, upon the calm, broad bosom 
 of one of the great American lakes ; and you never dream of question- 
 ing your pilot's skill. All is going well. You sun yourself upon the 
 deck ; you amuse yourself with your book, or in conversation with 
 your fellow-passengers ; and, as you pass from port to port along 
 the border of the lake, you view the scenery with interest, and 
 have no disquieting thought of danger. 
 
 But by and by the point is reached where the lake disgorges 
 into the river, and the rapids are approached ; and as you see the 
 whirling, eddying waters, and feel the tremor of the vessel, as it 
 seems, like a plaything, to be tossed by the seething torrent under- 
 neath — you cry out in alarm, and begin to more than question the 
 skill of the pilot to bring you safely through peril so imminent and 
 strange. 
 
 He smiles at your fears, as he grasps the helm with well-accus- 
 tomed hand. He pities your disquiet, and is ready to make every 
 allowance for your inexperience. But he is hardly gratified by 
 your lack of confidence in his practised skill 1 You should have 
 trusted him in the rapids as well as on the gently rippling waters. 
 
 Even so, for the honour of your Heavenly Pilot, as well as for 
 your own comfort and well-being, " Trust in Him at all times." 
 
 122 
 
21 ipCrfCCt %il\C\\C66, May 1 
 
 " The Image of the Invisible Ood " (Col. i. 15), 
 
 If you had an unseen friend, one away in anotlier land, whom you 
 Jiad never set eyes ujjon, but who, you knew, was interested in you, 
 and bent upon your good, — you would be very anxious to know all 
 about him, would you not ? If anybody came from that land who 
 had knoAvn him, you would be eager in your questions — " What is 
 he like ? " " What kind of man is he ? " " Wliat do peojile think of 
 him there ? " You would be glad to see a picture of him ; and, 
 gazing at his image, you would feel that you knew him better than 
 before. And especially if there came his son, whom people who 
 knew them both spoke of as "just his father's image '' — with "his 
 very looks and ways " — why, in that living picture you would hav e 
 the best possible idea of what j^our unseen friend was like. 
 
 So it is, dear young people, with God and you. You have not 
 seen Him. He is " the Invisible God," No eye hath seen Him at any 
 time. But you have beautiful accounts of His character and ways, 
 and many proofs of the love that is in His heart for you. And, best 
 of all, you have, in Jesus, One to look to who is " His Father's very 
 Image." He can say — so like are the two to one another ! — " He 
 that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." 
 
 Look then to Jesus ! And, aa you see Him, pure and holy, 
 scorning and scathing everything that is mean, abhorring every- 
 thing that is vile, despising and detesting sin, but loving the 
 sinner's soul, and melting in tenderness over the lost — there, dear 
 young reader, there you behold " the Image of the Invisible God." 
 
 May the eight and the love of Jesus purify your heart from 
 every contrary evil affection and desire. May it be yours to say, in 
 answer to the enticements of sin — 
 
 " I have heard the voice of Jesua, 
 Tell me not of aught beside : 
 I have seen the face of Jesus. 
 All my soul is satisfied." 
 
 It is one of M'Cheyne's sayings, that " it is not so much great 
 talents that God blesses, as great likeness to Jesus." How earnestly, 
 then, should each of us seek to be, in character and life, "an image 
 of the Image of the Invisible God 1 " 
 
 1^3 
 
May 2 B S3eaut(ful mem. 
 
 " As the doves to their windows " (Isa. Ix. S 
 
 What the prophet sees here is to him a very delightful and 
 beautiful vision. The Zion of the Holy One of Israel has become a 
 universal attraction. The sea is studded with ships, bearing down 
 toward it from every quarter, with their throngs of eager voyagers 
 and their rich freights of abundant merchandise. The land, too, is 
 covered with caravansaries trooping to the same cherished centre — 
 multitudes of camels and dromedaries from Midian and Ephah and 
 Slieba, with their gold and frankincense ; and the shepherd-princes 
 of Kedar and Nebaioth leading their willing flocks to the ministry 
 of the House of the Lord. And the city, whose walls are Salvation 
 and her gates Praise, is open continually, to receive the thronging 
 worshippers. Its gates are not shut, day or night ; and still they 
 crowd into the Holy City as the place of rest and joy, like doves 
 flying to their windows. 
 
 Now, do we see anything going on in our own time which 
 suggests to us the fulfilment of this beautiful vision ? 
 
 On a Sabbath morning I have seen, on the crowded streets of a 
 Christian city, and, still more suggestively, on the crowded roads of 
 a quiet country-side, something that reminded me of what Isaiah 
 saw. Look at all these people — these eager, sharpened, but often 
 weary-faced dwellers in the city, or these devout and placid-looking 
 country-folk, making their way to their accustomed place of 
 worship ; and what do you see ? Have you not there some out- 
 ward token, at anyrate, of a desire — in many a case sincere and 
 deep — for the rest which the dove has in returning to her home? 
 
 But, to realise the picture, this outward flocking to the house of 
 God must not be all, thankful as we are to see it in a land which 
 has been favoured, as ours so long has been, with the ordinances of 
 the gospel. There must be the flocking of souls to Christ. Not in 
 an outward sanctuary, but in the secret place of the Most High, in 
 the sanctuary of true heart-fellowship with God, must rest be 
 found. And, thank God, Christ's own vision of the future is 
 having its fulfilment. He who was lifted up is drawing men of 
 every clime and kindred to Himself, that in Him they may find 
 rest unto their souls. 
 
 And then, on the heavenward side, how bright and glorious is 
 the fulfilment of the prophet's vision 1 From north, south, east, 
 £ind west the seeking travellers come ; and from whatever quarter 
 they come, they find gates open to receive them within the New 
 Jerusalem. There they sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and 
 Jacob, and rejoice in the union and fellowship of the heavenly feast. 
 But " to be with Christ " is what makes it heaven, the true place of 
 rest, the true home of the soul. Would this mean Home for you "i 
 
 124 
 
ZbC StiCC of Cblbt. May 3 
 
 " TJie light of the knowledge of the glory of Ood in the face of Jesus Christ " 
 (2 Cor. iv. 6). 
 
 Do you not sometimes wish that you could have seen His face as 
 He walked this earth of ours in Palestine ? The face of Christ ! 
 What calm peacefulness must have rested on it — what clear intelli- 
 gence must have beamed from it — what holy anger sometimes 
 Hashed across it — what sacred sorrow sometimes pained it — what 
 wistfulness of divine love must have looked from tnose eyes, as He 
 went about our world constantly seeking that lie might save 
 the lost. 
 
 Some have fancied that the face of Jesus was singularly devoid 
 of attraction, and have even been foolish enough to imagine 
 (founding on Isa. lii. 14) that it was actually repulsive. I agree 
 rather with those who love to think of it as a countenance of 
 heavenly beauty, because of the soul which shone through the 
 features, — a face on which was mirrored in some way every heavenly 
 grace. And I do not wonder if you sometimes sing, with special 
 earnestness, the verse which says — 
 
 •' I wish ill at His hands had been placed on my head, 
 Tliat His arm had been throwTi about nie, 
 And that I might have seen His kind look, when He said, 
 'Let the little ones come unto Me'!" 
 
 Such a look of Him you cannot have on earth. We have not 
 even a portrait of Him, to tell us what He was like as the Man 
 Christ Jesus. Some of the greatest painters of the world have tried 
 to put on canvas their ideal of His face. But none of them 
 completely satisfies the heart. There is always something wanting, 
 something which disappoints. Perhaps it is better so. If we had 
 possessed a true likeness of Jesus, people would have been prone to 
 worship it. And even such a sight of Him as men had on earth 
 might not have done much for us. Many looked into His face, but 
 were not illumined by it j for they looked with darkened minds and 
 blinded hearts. 
 
 But we may hy faith discern something of the glory of God, as it 
 is seen in the face of Christ. If we direct to Him the look of trust 
 and adoring love, the light of His countenance will fall upon us. 
 And even if that light searches us, and so humbles us, in revealing 
 more plainly to us by contrast our own sinfulness, the sight of 
 the Saviour's face will make us glad. For we shall see in it, not 
 only a beautiful face, but a face full of compassion ; and while we 
 adore the beauty of holiness that is in it, we shall realise the better 
 what the Psalmist meant by " the help of His countenance." 
 
 I2S 
 
May 4 Cauflbt In tbc /iRcsbcs. 
 
 " They hunt every man his brother with a net " (Mic. vii. 2). 
 
 It is a terrible picture wliicli the prophet here giA^es of the state of 
 society in his time. " There is none upright among men : they all 
 lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net." 
 Those of whom this could be said were children not of God, but of 
 the devil ; and they were busy doing devil's work. 
 
 Among the ancients, as you know, there were frequent contests 
 between gladiators in the arena ; and not infrequently the victory 
 lay with the combatant who seemed least likely to carry the day — 
 namely, with the " retiarius," as he was called, the man who was 
 armed only with a net in his hand, and a small sword hanging by 
 his side. 
 
 Here is how such a scene has been described : — " The two com- 
 batants are seen entering the campus at the diflerent sides. How 
 unevenly matched they are ! That slim figure, all unguarded, with 
 nothing in his hand save only a net which he bears at the end of a 
 long pole — he can be no fit antagonist for yonder hero, who clanks 
 into the arena in his shining armour, mailed cap-d-pie, and wielding 
 haughtily his sword and buckler. But wait ! See how nimbly he 
 with the net eludes the champion's eager onslaught. Time after 
 time he does it. And now, when the warrior is getting weary, 
 forth goes the net ! It has caught on a point of his armour — it is 
 entangled on a spike of his helmet — he strives — he writhes— to tear, 
 to cut it away. In vain ! Worse and worse grows the entangle- 
 ment. Those meshes will not asunder. He is helpless ; he is 
 ensnared — a slave ! " 
 
 Ah, young reader, beware of the man with the net. There are 
 many enemies of our souls lying in wait to deceive and to destroy. 
 Above all, there is the arch-foe Satan, ready, if he can, to entangle 
 you in the meshes of evil habit, that he may lead you captive at his 
 will. Confident in themselves and in their proud defences, the young 
 make bold sometimes to despise this foe. They dare him to do his 
 worst. They even tempt him, mayhap, to the contest. But lo ! a 
 mesh of his net lays hold on them, at one point or another ; then 
 another mesh ; unconscious or unheeding, they go on, until the 
 snare is all about them, and they are found lying helpless (and, it 
 may be, what is worse, even willing) victims ! What hope can 
 there be for such, any more ? There is hope for them only in One 
 — in Him who is the great Deliverer, and who came to destroy the 
 works of the devil. 
 
 126 
 
Cbri6r6 ipropCVtg. May 5 
 
 " Ye belong to Christ " (Mark ix. 41). 
 
 This is as good a description as any of what it means to be a 
 Christian. A Chi-istian is "one who belongs to Christ." And there 
 are various senses in which — besides the right which creation im- 
 plies — the Christian may be said to belong to his Heavenly Master. 
 
 1. He belongs to Christ by purchase. The Christian is one of 
 " the redeemed." Do you know what this means ? Ha person had 
 fallen into debt, and lost his projjerty, and with it the rights of 
 citizenship, and another came and paid his debts for him, and re- 
 stored him to his place, — that other might be said to have redeemed 
 his rights for him — bought them back again. Or if a person had com- 
 mitted a crime, and had been cast into prison, or, as in some 
 countries, sold into slavery, and another came and bore the penalt}', 
 that the imprisoned or enslaved one might go free — that would be 
 redeeming him — buying him back from prison and from bondage. 
 Now this is what Jesus has done for His people. Their debts were 
 so heavy that they could never have paid them. But He has pur- 
 chased forgiveness for them. They were guilty, sold under sin, 
 condemned to a miserable servitude. But He came and bought 
 them— not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with 
 His precious blood. Therefore they are " not their own, but bought 
 with a price." He who redeemed them is their Owner and Lord. 
 They belong by purchase and of right to their Redeemer — Christ. 
 But, further, 
 
 2. The Christian belongs to his Master by consent. It is not 
 merely something done for him or outside of him, but something 
 wrought in his heart, which furnishes the secret and explanation of 
 his life. The love that bought the Christian has done more than 
 pay a price for him : it has wrought a conquest in him. And, 
 though the door lies open, he will not sally forth. In Christ's 
 ownership of him, he sees not only Christ's right, but his own joy 
 and privilege. For that which constrains him is the love of Christ ; 
 and the law of Christ is for him the law of liberty. " The symbol 
 of redemption," said Rudolph, the first of the Hapsburg line, mean- 
 ing by that the Cross, " the symbol of redemption is as good as a 
 sceptre " ; and with that he laid hold of a cross, for want of a 
 sceptre, at his coronation. "The Cross," says the Christian, "is 
 better than any sceptre. The Cross of Calvary has done more than 
 all the sceptres in the world could have done. It has subdued, and 
 won, and bound to Christ multitudes of rebellious, lost souls— and 
 mine among the rest." 
 
 127 
 
May 6 ztc Cbaractet ot ^saac. 
 
 " And Abraham cabled the name of his son, Isaac " (Gen, xxi. 3). 
 
 The name of Isaac means " laughter." When he was born, the 
 hearts of Abraham and Sarah were filled with joy, and their mouths 
 with singing ; and he continued to be, as every boy and girl should 
 seek to be, a bright and gladdening influence within their home, A 
 good and happy child is like a sunbeam of light in the dwelling. 
 Isaac was a good son. We never hear of him causing pain to either 
 his father or his mother by anything he did. In him they had a 
 loving, dutiful child. So his name was, in a true sense, his proper 
 name. 
 
 The character of Isaac was full of gentleness and modesty. He 
 was fond of quietness and meditation. He was not so brilliant a 
 man as either his father Abraham or his son Jacob. But, if not 
 brilliant, he was brave ; and he showed this by being able to lear a 
 great deal without a murmur. For you must remember that it is 
 not only those who cut a brilliant figure in the eyes of the world 
 who are to be respected for their valour. A poor sick woman on a 
 bed of pain may be every whit as brave as a proud soldier on a 
 battlefield. Though Isaac was gentle, you must not think of him 
 as weak. He was one of those who, as in his contest with the 
 Philistines (ch. xxvi. 17-23), can conquer through patience, which 
 is often a harder and nobler thing than to strike a blow. 
 
 We cannot all be brilliant, but we may all be virtuous ; and 
 there is something for us all to learn in Isaac's modest goodness. 
 Some of the noblest lives are those least noticed by the world ; and 
 his was to be counted among them. In a great emergency of his 
 life, before he was quite grown up, he showed himself capable of a 
 heroic self-sacrifice. And throughout his unconspicuous career he 
 proved himself a true-hearted man— a man of faith and godly fear. 
 There is for such as Isaac an important place and use in God's 
 kingdom. It is not only the great and clever in the world's eyes 
 who may lead a noble life. Let us learn the beauty and the glory 
 of any life that is spent for God, and yielded heartily up to Him. 
 
 "Be good, dear youth, and let who will be clever; 
 Do noble things, though lowly, all day long : 
 And so make life, death, and that vast for ever 
 One grand, sweet song." 
 
 128 
 
Crue 6ratituOc. May 7 
 
 '.' What shall I render V (Ps. cxvi. 12). 
 
 In a certain church in Rome there is a bell which is tolled at 
 intervals every day, all the year round, by the appointment, and at 
 the expense, of a man long since dead. I was told that the arrange- 
 ment was begun in this wise. The man in question had been 
 visiting the Catacombs, — the underground labyrinth of passages and 
 chambers which, in ancient days, furnished a burial-place for the 
 dead, and sometimes a secret refuge from the living, — when, to his 
 horror, he found that he was separated from the rest of the party, 
 and had completely lost his way I Soon the light he had in his 
 hand became exhausted ; and if his search for the way out was 
 hopeless before, it was doubly hopeless now, in the dreary darkness. 
 On and on he groped for many weary hours, till, worn with hujiger 
 and fatigue, he lay down in the stony path to rest — or perchance 
 to die. He slept ; but ere long he awoke again, to pursue his 
 frenzied search — in vain ! At length, just as he was sinking into 
 absolute despair, he he^rd a sound. He listened : it was the 
 muffled and distant tolling of a bell. All his soul for the time was 
 in his ears. He followed where the sound seemed to lead ; and 
 soon, to his unspeakable relief, he reached the entrance to the 
 Catacombs, and was rejoicing in the light of heaven again. What 
 had saved him was the ringing of the church-bell ; and in gratitude 
 for his deliverance he set apart a sum of money as an endowment, 
 that the bell might be rung several times a day to all generations, 
 for the guidance of any poor, bewildered travellers who might be 
 lost in the Catacombs near by. 
 
 Now, that man showed a becoming spirit ; and though he 
 might perhaps have found a more useful avenue for it, we respect 
 his gratitude. If the sound of the gospel has been blessed to our 
 salvation, and has led us out of the dark and dreary labyrinth of 
 sin into the glorious light of God— ought not we, too, to find some 
 way of expressing our thankfulness 1 Should we not be anxious 
 that other poor wanderers, now lost and in despair, should hear the 
 joyful sound and hail the joyful light ? He is indeed an ungrateful 
 and unworthy Christian who is not often asking himself — "What 
 shall I render 1" What is there that I can do or give, to show my 
 thankfulness to God, and my desire that others may be blessed ? 
 
 (9) 129 
 
May 6 1R Ucijson trom Sfnaf. 
 
 " / the Lord thy God am a jealous God " (Ex. xx. 5), 
 
 If you look at a map of the Eed Sea, you will notice that it divides 
 at ihe north end into two horns, between which there is a peninsula 
 or neck of land. In the centre of that peninsula there is a cluster 
 of mountain heights, largely of granite formation, one of which, 
 still called the Jebel M^isa, or mountain of Moses, is believed to be 
 Mount Sinai. 
 
 The district is very bare and lonely ; but once it was peopled by 
 the great pilgrim-nation of the Hebrews, who encamped here for 
 about eleven months, on their way to the Promised Land. And, 
 sternly impressive as Jebel MAsa still appears, it was once the scene 
 of terrors such as the most imaginative of travellers to the spot 
 cannot possibly realise. For here it was that He who is the God of 
 nature and the Lord of man "came down upon the top of the 
 mount in fire " ; and, amid the smoke and tempest, and the quaking 
 of the earth, made known to the awe-struck children of Israel His 
 holy law. So terrible was the sight that even the heroic Moses 
 said, " I do exceedingly fear and quake." 
 
 Perhaps your conscience has sometimes made you feel, in some 
 small measure at least, like these Israelites when they perceived 
 how near God was, and how unfit they were to stand in His 
 immediate presence. It is told of a poor Hottentot girl, called 
 Jejana, that the first time she was in church she heard the minister 
 preach from the words — " I know thy works." And, in her 
 ignorance, supposing the preacher to be God, she attempted to hide 
 from him behind a pillar. All her false words and evil deeds 
 seemed to rush to her remembrance, when she fancied herself 
 standing in the immediate presence of God. That was Sinai 
 speaking to her, and saying, " I am a jealous God." 
 
 The law of Sinai — the Ten Commandments, which you have no 
 doubt learned by heart — sums up for us what God requires of us as 
 His moral creatures, cajmble of knowing right from wrong, and 
 liound to do the right when we know it. These commandments 
 endure from age to age. They have been likened to Sinai itself, as 
 the granite foundation on which the whole Avorld of men, all human 
 society, must rest — duty to God and duty to our neighbour. They 
 may also be compared to a spotless mirror, into which we are called 
 to look, that we may see -wdiat sort of persons we really are. Alas, 
 how many flaws such a look reveals in character and life ! No 
 wonder that we are fain to hide our faces from God, and to ask — 
 " Whither shall we flee from His pure presence ? " But while God 
 is jealous about His glory l:)eing given to another, and is angry when 
 the love and obedience due to Him are not rendered by us— His 
 jealousy is the other side of His love. He willeth not that any 
 should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And for tlie 
 penitent there is acceptance with Him, through a better Mediator 
 than Moses was at Sinai. 
 
 130 
 
©rlcving our ascst jTrfcnJ). May 9 
 
 " Oricve not the Holy Spint of Ood" (Eph. iv. 30). 
 
 Kever forget that the Third Person in the Godhead, the Holy 
 Spirit, is a Person ; and One who is interested in your highest good. 
 This is just as true of Him as it is of tlie Father and of the Son, 
 though we often fail to take it in, or are unmindful of it. When 
 we speak of the Holy Spirit, we should speak not of " it," but of 
 " Him." For He lives, and loves us. He is not indilferent to our 
 character and conduct. We can cause Him grief ; or we can give 
 Him joy. 
 
 When Jesus was leaving His disciples, and aliout to go from 
 earth. He promised to send them Another Comforter — namely, the 
 Holy Ghost. When He came they would not be like ori^hans, 
 withoiit anyone to care for them. For He would console them ; 
 He would give them light, and In-ing them peace ; He would guide 
 them into all truth ; He would be their constant Helper, cheering 
 them in duty, supporting them in trial, aiding them in every holy 
 purpose and good endeavour. And that promise Jesus has fulfilled, 
 not only for His first disciples, but for all His followers. How 
 good a Friend He has sent to us, in sending to us the Holy Spirit, 
 we may know when He says, in all love and sincerity, " It is well 
 for you that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter will 
 not come imto you ; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." 
 
 Now, if the Holy Spirit is so good a Friend to us, must it not be 
 very wrong to grieve Him ? and would it not be very hurtful to 
 ourselves to grieve Him away 1 
 
 You understand what is meant by grievimj a person, — such as 
 your fatlier who loves you. It means wounding him to the heart ; 
 and it is just because he loves you that you are able to do that. 
 You can annoy and anger another, even an enemy ; but it takes one 
 to love you Ijefore you can grieve him. And oh, dear young people, 
 just because the Holy Spirit loves you dearly, you can grieve Him 
 easily and sorely. If you want to know what grieves Him, just 
 ask — " What would grieve Jesus 1 " For their hearts beat together, 
 and whatever grieves Jesus grieves the Spirit too. Not only gross 
 outAA-ard sins, but evil thoughts, bad words, bitter feelings grieve 
 Him, because He loves you, and desires to see and to make you holy. 
 
 I knew a young man once who not only grieved, but grieved 
 away his best earthly friend — his kind and tender-hearted father. 
 lie fell into habits of intemperance, and though everything was 
 tried to reclaim him, and to encourage him in the good way, he con- 
 tinued to be a perfect heart-break to his parents ; and at length, as 
 the old man sorrowfully told me, they had actually to change; their 
 address from time to time, and conceal it from their own son. His 
 father proAaded him Avith the bare necessities of life, till he died. 
 But he could not possibly " dwell Avith him." He had grieved his 
 parents aAvay. That Avas sad. But it is unspeakably more sad to 
 grieve aAvay, or to quench, the Holy Spirit 1 
 
 131 
 
May 10 for Cbrisrs Safte. 
 
 " God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Eph, iv. 32). " I take jileasure 
 in distresses for Christ's sake" (2 Cor. xii. 10). 
 
 This is a beautiful motto fur the Christian life — "For Christ's 
 sake." There are two ways in which we may regard the words, as 
 suggested by these two texts. 
 
 (1) For Christ's sake sums up for us all that the Bible has to tell 
 us of the mercy of God to sinners. There are a great many things 
 mentioned in the Old Testament that God is ready to do " for His 
 name's sake " — to spare, guide, forgive, sanctify. And there are 
 many things God is asked, in the Psalms and elsewhere, to do " for 
 His mercies' sake " to them who seek Him, Now, all this we learn, 
 in the New Testament, to connect with the person, and work, and 
 name of His dear Son. Here all the rays of divine light converge 
 as in a focus ; and Jesus Himself says — " Whatsoever ye shall ask 
 the Father in My name, He will give it you." 
 
 Here, then, we have our great argument with God — "for Christ's 
 sake." Surely we may rejoice to plead it. Not — because of 
 fifty, thirty, twenty, ten good days in a year, or good deeds in a life, 
 receive and bless me ; but, " for Christ's sake " ! That is a plea which 
 never fails. Do not merely repeat it, as a thing of rote, at the end of 
 your prayers, but use it every day. It is like a bank cheque left for 
 you to fill in ; and, with His signature at it, it will never be dis- 
 honoured at the bank of heavenly giace. 
 
 (2) For Clirist's sake sums up for us something else, however, — 
 namely, all that the Christian life should be, and will be, in so far as it 
 is true to its ideal. It is a life lived " for Christ's sake." Here is the 
 key to much in it which the world, on its own maxims, cannot 
 understand. So was it with Paul. " For Christ's sake " he was 
 willing to serve, to suffer, and to die. And he was seen to 
 " take pleasure " for His sake in what was altogether un- 
 welcome to ordinary men — in infirmities, reproaches, distresses, and 
 the like. And so should it be with us. But alas ! how very 
 little there often is in the character and life of those who bear the 
 name of Christ which the world cannot perfectly comprehend. 
 
 Hence we have here God's great argument loith us — " for Christ's 
 sake " — as He sends us forth to duty. Think of what Christ has 
 been, and done, and suffered for you ; and whenever, in the path of 
 obedience, you are called to be, or do, or suffer anything for Him, 
 let the watchword " for Christ's sake " ring in your ears, and plead 
 with you to be worthy of Him and of yourselves. " All this for 
 thee ; what hast thou done for Me ? " 
 
 132 
 
Mbat SbC COUlD. Mayll 
 
 " She hath done what she could" (Malt. xiv. 8). 
 
 This was high praise, given by Jesus to the woman who brought the 
 alabaster box of ointment and poured it on His head. It was not a 
 very great thing she did. But the deed proceeded from a great 
 heart, a heart very full of love to Jesus ; and such kind deeds never 
 die. The fragrance of that ointment has filled not the room only, 
 but the world ; for, wherever the gospel is preached, and in 
 whatever language, — in India, Africa, China, and the far-off islands 
 of the sea, — it is gratefully told, by the Lord's own appointment, 
 what that poor woman did out of love for Him. 
 
 The question is, not how big a thing you are able to do, Init 
 what is the motive of it — out of how much love do you do it % 
 
 It is told of a powerful king, that he resolved to build a mighty 
 church or temple to God ; and so anxious was he to have full 
 credit for it, that he strictly enjoined all his subjects that they 
 were to have no part whatever in bearing the cost of it. Everything 
 done by anybody towards the erection of it was to be paid from 
 the king's own treasury. A great staff of workmen were emijloyed, 
 under the direction of the most skilful architect in the realm ; and, 
 by and by, the large and beautiful pile was finished, and all the 
 work paid for. Then the king had a ceremony at the opening of it ; 
 and the assembly saw, printed up on one of the walls in shining 
 letters—" Erected to the Glory of God by the King." 
 
 When night came, the king dreamt a dream that troubled him. 
 He fancied that his own name was blotted from this inscription, 
 and that the name of a poor widow, who lived near the palace gate, 
 was blazoned in its stead. For two succeeding nights he dreamt the 
 same thing ; and, summoning the trembling woman before him, he 
 sternly asked her—" Have you taken any part in the building of 
 this temple, contrary to the king's command?" "None, your 
 majesty." "Think again," the king said: "None whatever?" 
 " None, king, unless it be that, out of pity for God's creatures, I 
 sometimes gave a wisp of hay to the poor horses struggling past 
 my door with their heavy loads," The mystery was solved ; and 
 the king, conscience-stricken, had his own name removed, and the 
 poor woman's printed in its stead. He had done a big thing for his 
 o^vn glory ; she, a little thing for the glory of God, and the good of 
 some of His creatures. She had done " what she could." 
 
 J 33 
 
May 12 XLbc jfatbet ibimselt 
 
 " The Father iriinself loveth you " (John xvi, 27). 
 
 We cannot be too thankful for tlie love of God the Son. But we 
 must not fall into the mistake that some people commit — of making 
 little of the love of God the Father. This is the last thing that 
 Jesus would like any of us to do. He says, " He that hath seen 
 Me, hath seen the Father." So that, if we see love in Him, we may 
 be sure that there is love in the heart of the Father toward us also. 
 God so loved the world that He gave His only -begotten Son. " The 
 Father Himself loveth you." 
 
 It is strange what perverted notions people often have about the 
 divine love. There are some who do not feel quite sure about the 
 love even of the Son of God Himself, who died for sinners ; and 
 they turn to the Virgin Mary, asking her to plead with her Son on 
 their behalf. I remember seeing in Sicily, upon the walla of a 
 church, a picture which made me sad. It represented a poor man, 
 in the horrors of death, stretching out his hands in agony for help. 
 At the top of the picture there was a representation of Christ, 
 looking away with something very like indifference upon His face. 
 But Ijetween Him and the dying man was the Virgin Mary, with 
 pity on her face, pleading for the sufferer who had sought her help. 
 
 What a shame, you say, to represent a woman as more com- 
 passionate than the Saviour, and to direct the faith of the poor 
 Roman Catholics to the Virgin, rather than to the Son of God ! Yes ; 
 but we Protestants must not make a similar mistake, in represent- 
 ing God the Son only as pitiful, and God the Father as harsh and 
 severe. Another continental picture will illiistrate what I mean. 
 It pictures God the Father showering down His arrows, ^vith a 
 vengeful countenance, upon the miserable sinners on earth, but His 
 own Son interposing between, and catching the arrows in His own 
 body, before they can reach their earthly victims. 
 
 To set God the Father thus in contrast with God the Son is not 
 only an error, but a sin. Both are equally righteous, and both are 
 equally loving. Neither of them could allow sin to go unpunished. 
 But the love of both is equally seen in the sacrifice of Calvary. 
 " The Father Himself loveth you." 
 
XoolUng up. May 13 
 
 "Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven" (John xvii. 1). 
 
 When Jesus was addressing His Father, Ho lifted up His eyes to 
 heaven. Where heaven exactly is we do not know. There is some 
 part of the universe where the throne of the Almighty God and 
 King is set, in the midst of the heavenly palace. It is far beyond 
 the sky that we can see. But it is natural for us, when we think of 
 heaven, — as, we see, it was for Jesus Himself, — to look up. Heaven 
 for Him was, where His Father was. And heaven for us is, where 
 He is with the Father, 
 
 It is a great encouragement and help for us, day by day, to be 
 permitted to look up. The troubles of earth, the loads we have to 
 carry, do not seem so great or so wearisome when we look up. And 
 if we have a good desire in our hearts, we are encouraged to hope 
 for its fulfilment when we look up. Because, not only are there 
 bright and glorious things above, which God has invited us to set 
 our hearts upon, but Christ is there, "at God's right hand," And, 
 since He is there, in the place of power, we know that the good 
 things God bids us seek will be bestowed on us by Him, 
 
 You remember how Stephen, in the hour of his agony, looking up, 
 saw Jesus " standing on the right hand of God," as if He had risen 
 from His throne, in eager interest, to look down ui^on His suffering 
 martyr. And when the servant's eyes met the Master's, he was 
 strengthened. You are not likely to have to suffer martyrdom. 
 But you will have your diflSculties and dangers to go through, May 
 you have faith to see Jesus looking down u^jon you with the eye of 
 interest and love ! 
 
 A boy applying for a place upon a ship was asked, " Can you 
 climb 1 " Soon after leaving land he was required, in a storm, to 
 prove his poM-ers by going to the top of the mast. As he rose higher 
 and higher on the rigging, his head grew dizzy, and, looking down 
 at the waves, he cried in terror, " I shall fall ! " " Look up ! " shouted 
 the captain ; and he did, soon reaching the mast head. Keep you 
 looking up, not into the empty blue, but into the face of Christ ; and 
 it will be your safety, your comfort, and your strength. 
 
May 14 B 3frce salvation. 
 
 " What shall 1 do that I may inherit eternal life ? " (Mark x. 17). 
 
 The question put to Jesus by this young man seems to have been 
 perfectly sincere. He wished to know what he had to do in order 
 to earn eternal life, and he fancied that he was ready to do any- 
 thing that might be necessary in order to secure it. Taking him even 
 on his own ground, Jesus, in revealing to him more than he had 
 known of his own heart, showed him how unable he was to earn a 
 place in heaven. When it became a question between God and 
 gold, he turned his back sorrowfully upon Christ. And Christ, too, 
 was sorry to see him go away. 
 
 The young man was, however, on quite a wrong track. The 
 Bible order is not. Do in order to receive ; but, Receive, and then do 
 whatever gratitude may dictate. Salvation is a free gift ; and if it 
 is to be yours, you must be humble enough to take it for nothing. 
 You can neither pay for it nor work for it. You have only to 
 receive it. 
 
 How slow people are to believe in the generosity of God ! This 
 is so cold and selfish a world that " Nothing for nothing " is a common 
 proverb ; and " Salvation for nothing " means to many that salva- 
 tion either can't be worth the having, or that, if it is a great boon, it 
 simply can't be true that it is to be had without paying for it, 
 
 " Herrings for nothing ! Herrings for nothing ! " cried a Christian 
 man for hours on the streets of London one day, as he passed along 
 with a well-stored barrow. Many refused to heed him ; some 
 smiled and passed on, thinking he was weak ; some stopped long 
 enough to fling a jibe at him and his advertising trick : not a 
 single one had simple faith enough to take him at his word. Yet he 
 was neither silly nor insincere. He was quietly putting the 
 passers-by to the test. He was quite prepared to give the 
 fish for nothing to any who sought them. But the freeness of the 
 offer was so like God's way that men did not believe it ; and even 
 the inhabitants of the poorest streets, to whom the herrings would 
 have been a boon, allowed the opportunity to slip. 
 
 That was a small matter, you say ? Yes ; but it is not a small 
 matter to neglect in like manner the great salvation. When God 
 says — " Without money and without price," He means it. You are 
 not to wait till, by your good deeds, or your patient suflferings, or 
 your pious feelings, you can earn salvation. You are simply to take 
 Him at His word, and to hold out the hand of emptiness, that you 
 may receive it. 
 
 136 
 
Ibow "to be In a /DbajorltB. May 15 
 
 " There he vwre with us tluin with him . . . with us is the Lord our Ood " 
 (2 Chron. xxxii. 7, 8). 
 
 These were among tlie comfortable words with which good Kiug 
 Hezekiah strengthened the hearts of the men of Jerusalem, when 
 the great Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against the city to 
 destroy it. Nor was his confidence misplaced. Since the Lord 
 of Hosts was with them, Hezekiah and his people were more than 
 all they who could be against them. And the victory lay, not with 
 the proud Assyrian king and his mighty men of valour, but 
 wilh the poor Hebrew people, whom they had despised. 
 
 And here we may still learn how to be in a majority, as regards 
 true power and genuine success. Some people are so anxious to be 
 always on the winning side that they will follow the multitude in 
 whatever direction it may go. But the first question with us should 
 be, " What is rifjht ? Which is the side that Christ would take ? " If 
 we are enabled to settle that, and to take our stand along with Him, 
 then we are sure to be on the winning side at last. For He must 
 reign, until He hath put all His enemies under His feet. If the 
 Lord of Hosts is with us, the victory is secure. If you are in the 
 right, then you are on the side of Christ ; and if you are on the side 
 of Christ, all will come right at last. 
 
 It is told of a little boy that he came to his father with a very 
 earnest face one day, and asked — " Father, is Satan bigger than I 
 am 1 " " Yes, my boy." " Is he bigger than you, father ? " the little 
 fellow continued. " Oh, yes," was the answer ; " Satan is bigger 
 than your father." The boy looked surprised and disappointed ; 
 but, after thinking for a moment, he further asked, " Is he bigger 
 than Jesus 1 " " No, my boy," said the father ; " Jesus is bigger than 
 he is." And the little fellow, with a smile of relief and satisfaction, 
 said — "Tlien I am not afraid of him." 
 
 Christ's followers are sometimes apt to be discouraged when 
 they think of the odds that are against them in their struggle with 
 error, sin, and wrong. But it is foolish and even sinful for them 
 to be down-hearted. When Antigonus, the great commander, came 
 in sight of the enemy's fleet, the pilot cried — " Alas ! we are out- 
 numbered." " What ? " said the conqueror ; " but how many do you 
 count me for ? " And he swept the sea. Even so, Christ may well 
 ask His dispirited followers — "Against how many do you value 
 Me ? " If the Captain of Salvation is on our side, He will make us 
 more than conquerors. 
 
 137 
 
May 16 ^wo Xovcl^ Sifters. 
 
 "Mary and her sister Martha " (John xi. 1). 
 
 In the Bible there is quite a number of pairs of names, the 
 mention of either of which is sure to suggest the other. Such are 
 Cain and Abel, Moses and Aaron, Jonathan and David, Peter and John, 
 Barnabas and Paul, and many others which will readily occur to you. 
 And so it is with Martha and Mar}'. The name of the one sister at 
 once suggests the other, and the mention of either summons up the 
 peaceful home in Bethany to which the Lord used to resort, and on 
 which our minds still love to dwell. 
 
 1. The sistei's were very different, as often happens in the same 
 family among those who gather by the same hearth, and are 
 brought up amid the same surroundings ; but Jesus loved them both. 
 " Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister " (verse 5). What a blessing 
 it is that He does not love only persons of one particular type ! 
 Our hearts are narrow. We might have had such a distinct 
 preference for either Mary or Martha that there would have been 
 no place, or hardly any place, left in our affection for the other. 
 But people of all sorts of natural disposition are the objects of 
 Christ's love. You may be very different from your brother or 
 your sister ; and yet, as with Mary and Martha, the heart of Jesus 
 is big enough to love you both. 
 
 2. The sisters were very different ; but both loved Jesus. This is 
 a very remarkable thing about our Lord, that He draws and keeps 
 the affection, the deepest and most constant love, of persons who in 
 many, and perhaps in most, other things, are qviite different from 
 one another. Is not this a blessing ? It would have been a sad 
 world for many of us, if the drawing power of Jesus had been 
 capable of reaching only one class of minds and hearts. Let us be 
 very thankful when we have reason to believe that someone else, no 
 matter how different otherwise from us, really loves Jesus ; and for 
 His sake let us love such too. 
 
 3. The sisters were very different ; but we should learn from both. 
 Mary showed her love for Jesus by sitting at His feet, and drinking 
 in His spirit, as she listened to His voice and enjoyed heart-fellow- 
 ship with Him. Martha showed her love by bustling actively 
 through the house, and seeking to give her very best service to her 
 Lord. We should learn from Mary to sit often at Christ's feet, 
 that we may learn of Him, and enjoy communion with Him. We 
 should learn from Martha to seek to serve our Master and His cause 
 where, and as, and how He may direct us. That would be indeed 
 a lovely Christian character that combined in itself the outstanding 
 qualities of both the gracious sisters of Bethany ! 
 
 138 
 
Zbc proper StaiiOacD. May 17 
 
 " Lord, what ivilt Thou have vie to do ? " (Acts ix. 6). 
 
 It is said that men measured their cloth in England long ago by a 
 yard measure of their own, so that there was great diversity in 
 diderent places, and even in the shoi)S of the same town. But King 
 Edward I., seeing this, took a stick and measured with it his own 
 arm, which became thenceforward a fixed standard for the yard. 
 This was a great boon. Before, all was uncertainty ; but now there 
 was something to go by, and a yard meant really a yard. 
 
 Now, if we Christians wish to go by the proper standard, we 
 must take it from the King. We read of a time in Israelitish 
 history when " there was no king in Israel, but every man did that 
 which was right in his own eyes." This, of course, meant anarchy 
 and confusion. But if such a state of things prevails to any extent 
 among us, it is not because there is no King, or because He has left 
 us in any sort of douljt as to the rule by which we ought to live. 
 Christ's will is to be our standard ; and if at any time we are per- 
 plexed about how we are to apply it, we are to go to Him with our 
 diliicully — "Lord what wilt Than have me to do?" 
 
 There are many people content to live by a false standard — 
 which means for them, in the longrun, a misshapen character and 
 a distorted life. 
 
 1. Some set before them no higher standard than their own 
 indinalion. They follow their own sweet will. But though it may 
 be sweet for a time, such find it bitter in the end. Our own wishes 
 are no safe guide to follow. The prodigal son wished to lie " lord 
 of himself '' ; and it proved a " heritage of woe." The self-willed 
 man is sure, sooner or later, to come to grief, 
 
 2. Some set before them no higher standard than public opinion, 
 and tJie general practice of those around them. "What will others 
 expect of me 1 " they ask : and " What are others wont to do ? " If 
 they can gain the praise of men they are content ; and if they do 
 like So-and-so, they think they do very well. They may even lay 
 claim to a false humility, on the score that they " don't set up to be 
 1 letter than their neighbours." 
 
 3. The one true and safe standard to live by is the will of Christ, 
 as revealed in the book of His Word and the book of your own 
 Conscience. Accept His will heartily as yours. Then, and not 
 till then, will it be safe for you to follow your own inclination. 
 Seek to raise public opinion, not slavishly to bow before it. You 
 are to seek to be better than the best of your neiglibours ; for you 
 are to seek to be like Clirist — and the best of them come far short 
 of Him. But it will fill you, not with conceit, but with deep 
 humility, to be ever asking — " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do 'i " 
 
 139 
 
May 18 Ipleasiiifl 0OD. 
 
 " Without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb. xi. 6). 
 
 There is notking that displeases an honest, thoroughly trustworthy 
 person more than to know that he or she is not being trusted. This 
 is a slight upon the character, and it cuts such to the heart. So is 
 it with God. You may profess anything you choose, and do any- 
 thing else you like ; but if you are not trusting Him, you cannot 
 be pleasing Him. 
 
 On the other hand, there is nothing that gratifies a trustworthy 
 person so much as to enjoy entire confidence. And so it is with 
 God. By faith it is possible to please Him. And if this is possible, 
 surely you would like to do it — to please God. 
 
 What, then, is faith ? It is just taking God at His word, and 
 trusting Him, trusting yourself to Him. People sometimes mystify 
 themselves about the meaning of " faith." But God, in His Word, 
 has made its meaning as plain as language can make it. 
 
 Not only the tongue which expresses faith by words, but the hand, 
 the foot, the ear, and the eye are referred to, that we may the 
 better understand what faith means. We " lay hold " on God, or 
 " touch " at least the hem of Christ's garment, by faith. We " come " 
 to Him in obedience to the urgent gospel invitation. We give 
 response by the ear to His call, " Hear, and your soul shall live." 
 And one of the simplest expressions for faith is, " looking " to Jesus 
 (Isa. xlv. 22), as the dying Israelites looked to the brazen serpent 
 that was lifted up. 
 
 A little boy lay dying ; and when he seemed afraid, his brother 
 told him to trust in Jesus. He asked what that meant — what he 
 was to do ? " Pray to Him," he answered. " I'm too weak ; I'm not 
 able to pray." "Then," said his brother, "just you hold up your 
 hand — Jesus will sea it, and hiow lohat it means" Up went the thin, 
 wasted little hand. And that was faith ! Jesus knew what it 
 meant. 
 
 140 
 
tlbc "Mamc above ercrg H^anic. May 19 
 
 " Thou sholf rail Uis name Jesus" (Matt. i. 21), 
 
 This was a common name among the Jews, its Old Testament form 
 being Joishuii, who is called *' Jesus " in the Book of Acts. 
 
 But it was an uncommon name in Him who was called "Jesus of 
 Nazareth." When He took it up it liecame the name above every 
 name, at which every knee will yet require to bow. It was given 
 to Him, as Matthew tells us, not because it was a family name, but 
 because of its meaning — " He shall save His people from their sins." 
 And His whole life, b\it especially His death on Calvary, showed 
 how worthy He was of this precious name of Jesus, — as the Saviour 
 who came to deliver us, not only from punishment and misery, but 
 from our sins — to save us frona had hearts. 
 
 It is told of a famous general that he used to take his boy in 
 his arms and speak to him about Jesus. The little fellow was 
 greatly pleased ; the " old, old Story " seemed always new to him. 
 One day his father said to him, "Would my little son like to go to 
 heaven?" "Yes, father," was the answer. "But how can you go 
 to heaven ? Your heart is full of sin," the father said. " All are 
 sinners, papa," the boy answered, deep in thought. " But only the 
 pure in heart are to see God ; and how can my little boy hope 
 to be among them 1 " The child's face grew for a little while un- 
 speakably sad. Perhaps he was for the first time realising his own 
 sinfulness. But, after a few moments, with full heart and tearful 
 eye he sobbed forth, as he laid his head upon his father's breast, 
 these words of penitence and hope, " Papa, Jesus can save me ! " 
 
 Tliat little boy was right ; and not only his father, but Jesus 
 Himself was glad to hear him so speak. He is the "Mighty to 
 save." Can you call Him, "Jesus, my Saviour?" 
 
 " He did not come to judge the world ; He did not come to blame ; 
 He did not only come to seek, — it was to save He came ; 
 And when we call Him Saviour, then we call Hira by His name." 
 
 141 
 
May 20 B iRoble B(m in %itc. 
 
 " Who went about doing good" (Acts x. 38). 
 
 The following toucliiiig entry was found in tlie small pocket-Look 
 of the late Emperor Frederick of German3^ It was pencilled by liim 
 as lie rode in state throiigli London, on Queen Victoria's Jubilee 
 Day: — "The ambulance arrangements — the drinking -troughs for 
 horses and dogs — the cabmen's shelters in streets of London." These, 
 and not the pageants, were the sights that day for "Frederick the 
 Noble." Tlie welfare of liis people lay ever on his heart ; and l)ecause 
 he had a great pity for the poor, ay and for the dumb creation, his 
 ruling passion found, even on a day like that, its opportunities. 
 
 As that Pi'ince loved and sought to serve his country, the Christian 
 should love, and seek how best to serve, the kingdom of his Lord. 
 In constant thoughtfulness and devotion on its behalf, he should 
 look higher for his pattern than to any earthly model — even to Him 
 who, though He was the Lord of all, became the servant of all, and 
 ever "went about doing good." 
 
 How true as well as beautiful a description this is of the life of 
 our Redeemer upon earth ! He was unwearied in His endeavours 
 to do good to others — healing the sick, comforting the sad, guiding 
 the perplexed, bringing hope to the despairing and peace to the sin- 
 troubled heart. Unwearied ! No, not alwa}'s ; but even when 
 wearied in the work, He never wearied of it. Look at Him by the 
 well of Samaria, where, " being wearied with His journey. He sate 
 thus on the well." His heart so yearns over the lost that even these 
 tired moments are not given to repose, but to the seeking and saving 
 of a poor wandering soul. 
 
 Wlierever Jesus went He carried blessing in His train. Every 
 company He mingled with, every person He sj)oke to, was, or might 
 have been, the better for meeting with Him. In our own place and 
 measure, the same should be true of us, if we are Christ's. This 
 at anyrate should be our desire — to be in the world even as He was 
 in the world. There are those of whom it is sadly true, as the sum- 
 ming up of their biography — " They went about doing evil." Let 
 your life rather be a reproduction, as close as grace ^\'ill enable you 
 to make it, of the life of Jesus. As you have opportunity— and 
 remember that you are not only to accept, but to seek for oppor- 
 tunities — do good unto all men. 
 
 142 
 
Soinctbfno to be sure about. May 21 
 
 " Be sure your sin will find you out " (Num. xxxii. 23). 
 
 Sin may be liirklen for a wliile from man's sight. But all tilings 
 are " naked and open " to the eyes of God ; and a day is coming 
 ■which will declare every secret thing, whether it be good or bad. 
 
 Every now and again society is startled by the discovery of 
 some crime, coolly planned and carefully concealed, to which some 
 very little thing gave an unexpected clue. Some drops of blood on 
 the pavement led to the tracking of a robber in Edinburgh, who 
 had cut his finger in breaking through the window of a house he 
 had plundered. A shoe, fitting a shoe-print at a certain place, has 
 sometimes helped to the conviction of a murderer. A finger on the 
 sealing-wax, when compared with the lines upon the finger of a 
 high and trusted official on an American railway, led to the discovery 
 that it was he who had opened certain bags, and taken from them 
 valuable papers ; and this in spite of the fact that he had carefully 
 sealed the bags, and taken means to direct suspicion to other people. 
 Thus, even on earth there are many significant reminders that sin is 
 sure to find men out. And these are but hints of the complete and 
 universal disclosure to be made by and by. 
 
 (1) You should pray that you may have as little the desire as the 
 poicer to hide anything from God. When the search was being made 
 for the Achan in the camp, — as the circle was narrowed, from the 
 tribe of Judah to the clan of the Zarhites, to the house of Zabdi, to 
 the family of Carmi, till at length the wretched, guilty, tremlding 
 man was pointed out by God's unerring finger, and dragged into 
 the light, — how happy were those Israelites, amid the growing 
 interest and excitement, who felt, on that searching day, that they 
 had nothing to hide from God's eye ! May there be no concealment 
 between you and your Heavenly Father ! 
 
 (2) And instead of waiting for your sin to find you out, — vainly 
 hoping, like Judas at the Last Supper, that you may somehow 
 escape among the crowd, — you should rather find out your sin, 
 and go with it to Him who died upon the Cross to take our sins 
 away. We must all appear, and everything about us shall apjjear, 
 at the Judgment Seat of Christ. How well for us if we then see 
 in our Judge our Savioitr, from whose li^^s we have heard long 
 before the words of free and full forgiveness ! Frankly confess, and 
 He will freely pardon. " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and 
 just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
 
 M3 
 
May 22 B ifcec ipar^oii. 
 
 " Ue xoill abundanfly 2}anIon" (Isa. Iv. 7). 
 
 Joe was a deserter. There was no denying that. He had been in the 
 Queen's service, but had left his regiment in a hurry. And though 
 he had imagined that nobody in London knew of his history, he 
 was horrified one day to hear one of the fellow-clerks in his office 
 hiss into his ear — " I know your secret, young man ; it's Avorth your 
 Avhile to make it worth my while to keep silence ; for you're a craven, 
 cowardly deserter." Let me briefly tell you the rest of his story, 
 as I found it, at much greater length, in a paper which came into 
 my hands the other day. 
 
 Joe was miserable. He went about through life with a load 
 upon his heart which nothing could throw off. 
 
 But the Queen's jubilee year arrived ; and one day, in a jwst 
 office, a placard caught his eye which seemed to be of little interest 
 to others, but at once arrested Joe. It was a proclamation by the 
 Queen, " for extending pardons to soldiers who may have de.'^crted 
 from our Land Forces." With beating heart he drew near and read 
 its terms. It declared that all men who had been absent through 
 desertion for more than five years would not Ije called upon to join 
 again for service, but would be granted protecting certificates, if 
 they reported themselves within two months. The warning was added 
 — " Every offender who shall not avail himself of the penalty we 
 now graciously offer shall be held amenable to all pains and 
 penalties provided under the Army Act.— Given at our Court at 
 Windsor, the 17th day of June 1887, in the fiftieth year of our 
 reign." 
 
 For a time Joe could not bring himself to believe that such good 
 news was true. He feared to run himself into a trap. He could 
 not get the offer out of his head, but put off for several wretched 
 weeks without doing anything to avail himself of its terms. At 
 last he grew so excited that he felt he must do something to test 
 the matter. And so one day he wrote a letter to the commanding 
 officer, full of explanations and excuses, about the regiment " having 
 been ordered abroad when he was ill," and the like ; but craving 
 the Queen's protecting certificate. 
 
 Nervously he waited the answer, which was a curt note, saying 
 that "the commanding officer had nothing to do with his case : his 
 business was solely with deserters." It ended in Joe, after a sore 
 struggle with himself, having to put aside his unbelief. " I'll trust 
 the proclamation," he cried ; " and if the Queen won't pardon me, it's 
 all up." AVith what tremor he opened the next reply — " On Her 
 Majesty's Service " ; and with what thankfulness he read out his 
 certificate for a free i:)ardon. 
 
 Does any deserter from the service of Christ the King read this ? 
 Let him not foolishly seek to evade justice. But let him avail him- 
 self of the proffered amnesty. " Let him return unto the Lord,- and 
 He will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for He will abun- 
 dantly pardon." 
 
 144 
 
Sobn tbe JiSclovcO. May 23 
 
 " The disciple whom Jesus loved" (John xxi. 20). 
 
 This is the name ihe writer of the Fourth Gospel gives to himself. 
 Perhaps he adopted it from some of the other disciples or early- 
 believers, who spoke of him so. And we may be sure that there 
 was no descrii)tiou of liim that John — for we know that it was he — 
 would glory in so much as this — "the disciple whum Jesus loved." 
 He was the discii)le who was honoured by the closest intimacy with 
 Jesus. To him Jesus revealed most of His heart ; and we get the 
 benefit of that in John's Gospel, which, more than any of the others, 
 discloses to us the heart of Christ. It was he to whom the i^lace of 
 greatest nearness was given in the Upper Room, where he leaned 
 upon the Saviour's breast at supper. And it was to him that the 
 Lord, when He was hanging on the Cross of Calvary, committed 
 her who was the dearest to Him on earth — his mother. To whom 
 could He entrust her so fittingly as to the loving John ? " He saith 
 unto him, Behold thy mother ! " How truly this disciple must 
 have been a brother to Jesus, when He could speak of him so at 
 such a moment, and confide to him such a charge ! 
 
 John was the youngest of the disciples ; and on that account you 
 may take a special interest in him. But he lived to be a very old 
 man, and he was privileged to suffer much for Christ in Patmos. 
 God gave him a wonderful reward at that time, in the sight He 
 gave him into heaven ; and a yet greater reward when afterwards 
 — through martyrdom, it is believed — He summoned him into 
 heaven itself. 
 
 You remember the story of aged John at Ephesus being carried 
 among the congregation, over whom he could now only repeat the 
 words — " Little children, love one another " ? By that time he was 
 mildness, and gentleness, and lovingness itself. And it is in that 
 light we are wont to regard liim. But there are two things I want 
 you to notice. 
 
 Two boys especially may learn a lesson from John. The first is, 
 the boy who is struggling to overcome a bad temper. John was not 
 always so loving and lovable as, through grace, he became. He was 
 naturally fiery and revengeful (Luke ix. 54), and there was at one 
 time a selfishness in his ambition (Mark x. 35), which was the 
 reverse of amiable. But the more he was with Jesus, the better ho 
 was enabled to overcome evil, in himself and others, with good. 
 The second is, the boy who thinks that love means %ccakness. This is 
 a great mistake. John could, to the end, hate and denounce every- 
 thing false and mean with the greatest force. His was not the 
 mildness of mere softness. " If we say we have fellow.ship with 
 Him and walk in darkness, we lie." " He that hateth his brother is 
 a murderer." " He that committeth sin is of the devil." John did 
 not mince matters. He called a spade a spade. Fellowship with 
 his Master only made his love a purer and stronger love, and his 
 hatred a purer and stronger hatred, 
 (lo) 145 
 
May 24 zbe mew Ibeact, 
 
 •' A new heart also I will give you " (Ezelc. xxxvi. 26). 
 
 This is a very remarkable promise. There may, as it has been 
 suggested, be an allusion in the words to the hope cherished by at 
 least one ancient nation, the Egyptians, with whom Israel had 
 much to do. The Egyptians, as you know, used to preserve 
 the bodies of their dead by embalming them as mummies. 
 In doing this, they had to take out the heart and other organs ; 
 and in their place they put what are called " amulets," — small stone 
 tablets, with some words of hope on them, pointing to the day 
 when the body would be revived again. For the Egyptians believed 
 in the resurrection, and expected that the heart of stone, for instance, 
 would be taken away, and a heart of flesh put in its place once 
 more. 
 
 God here promises to Israel that He will do this for them in a 
 spiritual sense. He will remove the hard, rebellious, stony heart 
 from their breast, and give them, instead of it, the soft, submissive, 
 loving heart, — the possession of which will lead to the life of true 
 obedience and real happiness. You young people are fond of 
 getting new things — new clothes, new books, new playthings. 
 See that you do not miss this best of all new things — the new heart. 
 Ask God for it. He only can give it. But He is willing, as well 
 as able. Take Him at His word. 
 
 A little girl was trying, in an awkward waste corner of ground, 
 to make a garden for herself. She used the hoe and rake diligently, 
 but made little way. The tools always struck on something. She 
 spread some earth, and planted a few roots as best she might. But 
 a single night of rain swept away the soil, and with it most of her 
 labour. When the gardener came, he smiled ; and, in spite of her 
 entreaties, he took his big pick-axe, and struck right into the heart 
 of her little plot, scattering the roots on every side. She thought 
 that her garden was for ever ruined now. But soon he removed 
 the great stone from beneath, and smoothed the soil again, and 
 planted the roots anew, and promised her more, that she might 
 dress and keep them in her little garden. 
 
 That is just what God has to do for us, if we are to have fair 
 flowers blooming in the garden of the soul. The hard and stony 
 heart has to be broken and taken away ; and He has to give us the 
 new heart, and to put the right spirit within us. 
 
 146 
 
Doneet TKnorrt. May 26 
 
 " Wilhin and without" (Ex. xxv. 11). 
 
 This is part of the description of the ark, which was ordered to be 
 made according to the pattern shown to Moses on the Mount — 
 "And thou shalt overUxy it with pure gold, within and without 
 shalt thou overlay it." 
 
 The work God asks from His servants is thorough work. Some 
 people nowadays would have said — " Why overlay the ark within, 
 as well as without, with gold ? What a waste of money and of 
 trouble, since nobody will see the inside ! " But not so God. The 
 ark of His Covenant was not to have a mere outside veneer of gold ; 
 it was to be as well finished within as it was without. 
 
 There is a lesson here for us, as regards the commonest tasks we 
 do from day to day. They ought to be conscientiously performed ; 
 they should be done as well as we can possibly do thorn. One of 
 the great complaints of our time is, that so much of the work that 
 is done is hurried and shoddy work. Houses are built to look well, 
 rather than to last ; the woodwork soon shows ugly seams, if the 
 walls themselves do not begin to crack. Drains are badly laid ; 
 some careless workman omits a tile here and there, or does not join 
 the i^ipes proi^erly. He says, " What does it matter ? It is under- 
 ground, and nobody will see." But fever breaks out, and perhaps a 
 whole family sickens and dies in consequence. And this kind of 
 thing is done in many dift'erent professions and walks of life. 
 Remember you that God condemns it. He says — " within and 
 without." 
 
 It is told of the great sculptor Phidias, that a visitor to his 
 studio remarked with surprise one day — " Wliy do you polish that 
 statue so carefully on the back ? Nobody will see it." He paused 
 for a moment, and answered seriously — " The gods will see it." 
 Here was one great secret of his pre-eminence. He did his work as 
 in the sight of God, and for eternity, Ma:iy a professing Christian 
 might learn from that heathen artist how to do his work. 
 
 And do not let us forget the lesson there is for us here, regarding 
 our character as well as our work. We are not to be content •with a 
 mere appearance of goodness. It is a very false and misleading 
 counsel given by one of Shakespeare's characters — "Assume a 
 virtue, if you have it not." This is the very thing the Pharisees 
 did, whose hypocrisy Christ scorned and scathed. Not only the 
 outside of the cup and the platter should be clean, but the inside 
 too. We may deceive men, at least for a time ; but God looks into 
 the heart. And His demand as regards goodness is—" within and 
 without." 
 
 147 
 
May 26 CtossiiiG tbe 5orJ)an. 
 
 " Ye fuire not passed this loay heretofore " (Josh. iii. 4). 
 
 The river Jordan had to be crossed by the ckildreu of Israel, coming, 
 as they did, from Moab. They might, perhaps, have waded the fords 
 at certain places, or have gone over upon rafts. But God led them 
 across on dry land. Just as, with Moses at their head, and with the 
 cloudy pillar betokening God's presence, they had crossed the Eed 
 Sea on foot, — so now, with Joshua at their head, and with the ark of 
 the Covenant among them, as the symbol of the Lord's presence, 
 they passed over the river in safety and in comfort. It was an 
 unwonted way for them to travel ; but He would show them where 
 to go. What they had to do was, to " sanctify themselves " — to give 
 themselves anew to God, as a people holy unto Him — and just to 
 follow trustfully where their captain, Joshua, led. Whenever the 
 feet of the priests touched the river-brink, the waters stood up in a 
 heap, like a wall, instead of flowing on. Then the priests carried 
 the ark into the midst of the river-bed, and stood there. And 
 though perhaps some of the boys and girls, and grown-up people 
 too, may have been rather afraid, when they looked up at the great 
 wall of water, "all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until 
 all the jaeople were passed clean over Jordan." 
 
 Now, by "Jordan" we sometimes mean another stream which 
 has to be crossed — the river of death ; and, from the experience of the 
 Israelites, we may gather some lessons about the crossing of that 
 river too. 
 
 1. It will be an unaceiLstomed path. The way of death is for us 
 an untrodden way ; therefore a path for faith in Him, who leads the 
 blind by a way that they have not known. 
 
 2. A path on which the Lord of the Covenant goes before us. Jesus 
 has Himself stepped into the river of death ; but its waters did not 
 prevail against Him. " Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory ! " 
 
 3. A path to he prepared for by holiness. " Sanctify yourselves." 
 Without holiness no man sliall see the Lord or enter into His rest. 
 Those to whom He says, " I will be a Father unto you," are ex- 
 pected to put away from them all fdthiness of flesh and spirit. 
 
 4. A path of safety for all God's children. Jesus is a greater Captain 
 of Salvation than Joshua ; and He is also the Great High Priest. If 
 He is with i;s in Jordan, He will stay the waters ; and even Mr. 
 Fearing will pass over dry-shod to the large inheritance beyond, in 
 the Better Land. 
 
 148 
 
TKlcigbcO in (Bo&'s JBalancefi. May 27 
 
 " Thnu art weighed in the balances, and found wanting" (Dan. v. 27). 
 
 This was part of the handwriting upon the wall which filled King 
 Belshazzar with such dismay, as he sat feasting with his gay 
 courtiers in the palace at Babylon. It told him that, though men 
 held him in high honour, and though lie had everything that 
 earthlj' rank and riclies could provide, his life was, according to a 
 truer test, a sorry failure. For, weighed in God's balances, he was 
 found wanting. And swift sentence, as we know, followed on the 
 divine condemnation. 
 
 The balances of God are wonderful things. 
 
 1. How great they are ! Nothing is so big that He cannot take 
 and weigh it. He has " weighed the mountains in scales, and the 
 hills in a balance " ; and He " takes up the isles " — such an island 
 as this Great Britain of ours — " as a very little thing." The whole 
 of the world of matter has been created by Him, and He can handle 
 it with the greatest ease. No person, either, is so great that he can 
 avoid being put into the balances of God. The kings and mighty 
 ones of earth, however great they are in their own sight, and in the 
 sight of other men, have their exact weight taken by God. Even 
 the nations are counted as the small dust of the balance, so little 
 does it weary Hivii to hold the scales ! And no individual, therefore, 
 
 - will seem very heavy to God. The question is, as to whether his 
 weight is what it might be, and what God has a right to expect it 
 to be. This will certainly be clear to Him. For 
 
 2. How minute God's balances are ! As nothing is too big to be 
 weighed in them, so nothing is too small to be weighed in them. 
 He that weighs the mountains knows also the weight of 
 a single grain of sand or of a dust-mote in the air. And, more 
 wonderful still, "the Lord weigheth the spirits" (Prov. xvi. 2), 
 and "by Him actions are weighed" (1 Sam. ii. 3). God not only 
 weighs bodies, but spirits : actions as well as things. 
 
 There is in the Bank a machine for weighing gold ; and when a 
 sovereign or half sovereign is at all lighter than it should be, it 
 throws it on one side. With far more accuracy than any machine, 
 our Maker and Judge weighs our spirits and our actions. May He 
 not have to throw any of v.s aside with the word — " Tckel ; Thou 
 art weighed in the balances, and found wanting " ! 
 
 149 
 
May 28 IRebUfteJ) Dg 311 "BSS 
 
 " The dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the 
 projjhet" {2 Fet. ii. 16). 
 
 This is said of Balaam, wlio was " rebuked for liis iniquity " by one 
 of the lower creatures, in his foolish eagerness to secure " the wages 
 of unrighteousness." 
 
 It was a very humbling thing this — for a man to be rebuked by 
 an ass. When Balaam was determined to get his gold, and to take 
 his own way rather than God's, a warning was given to him, even 
 through the beast he rode. God opened the eyes of his ass to see 
 an angel in the way with a drawn sword. Balaam beat her when 
 she swerved aside. Soon they came to a narrow place, where the 
 angel blocked the way. The poor ass fell down ; and when 
 Balaam mercilessly smote her with his staflf, the Lord, who before 
 had opened her eyes, now opened her mouth to reason with him 
 about his sin. She reminded him that she had always been 
 obedient to his will, when it was right and possible : why was he 
 so cruel and reckless now? How humiliating to be rebuked by 
 such a toiigue ! 
 
 The words might have made Balaam ask — "Have I been as 
 obedient to the will of Him who is over me ? Have I done my 
 part, as man, as well as this poor creature has done an ass's part ? " 
 It was a miracle, the speaking of the ass ; but many of the lower 
 creatures, as men call them, and ought to have the right to call 
 them, are a rebuke to men. 
 
 Some time ago, in Edinburgh, a blind man (blind it would 
 seem, in every sense) might have been seen on the Mound, in the 
 neighbourhood of Princes Street, with a dog which he was holding 
 by a string. The dog was pulling toward home. The owner 
 was pulling and stumbling in another direction. The man was 
 drunk ! It is an unkindness the animals do not deserve, to call 
 such a being as he a "dog" or an "ass." 
 
 God says : " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's 
 crib ; but Israel doth not know. My people doth not consider." 
 Surely, if we consider, there can be only one answer to the 
 question — Ought not a man to be better than an ass ? 
 
 ISO 
 
Zbc jElevcntb Commandment. May 29 
 
 "A ncic commandment T give untoyou, That ye love one another" [3 o\\\\ xiii.34). 
 
 It is told of a high dignitary of the Church of England that on one 
 occasion, when travelling in the North of Ireland, he lost his way. 
 Night came on ; and, as the region was a lonely one, it was with 
 dilficulty that he found his way at last to a cottage inhabited by a 
 solitary woman. He knocked for admittance ; but she was afraid 
 to let an utter stranger in at such an hour. After listening to the 
 traveller's story, the good woman thought she would test his Bible 
 knowledge, if not his character, by putting the (]^uestion — " How 
 many commandments are there ? " " Eleven," was the jirompt reply, 
 which made the woman wonder, and made her also thankful that 
 she had not too hastily opened the door. But she was quickly 
 reassured when the stranger continued — " Eleven ; for Jesus said, 
 ' A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.' " 
 Acting on this commandment, she then undid the bolt, and let the 
 stranger in. 
 
 The spirit of love is one of the plainest marks of a true Christian. 
 If any one's heart is destitute of love to others, he has reason to fear 
 that he has not been born of God ; because the Bible tells us that 
 "love to the brethren" is found in those who are truly God's 
 children, and that it is vain for one to say that he loves God unless 
 he shows a loving spirit to his brother also. 
 
 Do everything you can, then, to promote the spirit of true love 
 everywhere. Some children were startled by their father telling 
 them one day — " I want to bring two bears into the nursery." " Oh, 
 father, how dreadful ! " the children cried. " Not at all," the father 
 answered ; "the one is hear and the other is forbear, and you would 
 all be much the happier for their presence." 
 
 "As I have loved you," Jesus says. When can we love one 
 another as He has loved us ! But we might love one another more 
 than we do, and so call forth and strengthen one another's love. 
 For "kind words wake kind echoes." 
 
 151 
 
May 30 SbaOows. 
 
 " Till the day hreal; and the shadoivsjlee aivay " (Song of Sol. ii. 17). 
 
 A " sliadow" is so me thing wliich can exist only where there is luore 
 or less of darkness. It is called, in the dictionary, " a faint appear- 
 ance," or " something only in appearance." The time is coming 
 when, in God's light, W3 shall see light. Then the shadows will 
 flee away. But in the meantime we must reckon with them in our 
 life on earth. 
 
 (1) Some people are saddened by shadows. You have sometimes 
 passed from the bright sunshine into a thick wood, or under some 
 heavy cliflf, where the sun was hid from view ; and, in spite of 
 yourself, your spirits fell. For the time, you had come under a 
 shadow. So is it often in life. People in the midst of prosperity 
 and joy are suddenly called to share a different experience. A 
 bank breaks, and their money is lost. Disease lays hold of them, 
 and they are laid upon a bed of weariness and pain. Or death 
 takes from them some loved one. There may be blessing mingled 
 for them with the pain, even in experiences like these. But they 
 are, at anyrate, shadows. They bring some measure of darkness 
 and chill upon the life. And those upon whom they fall are 
 saddened by them, until God's own light appears. 
 
 (2) Some peoj)le are frightened by shadows. There are persons 
 silly enough to be alarmed at "ghosts." I read lately of a man 
 who was scared, almost to distraction, by what turned out to be 
 nothing more nor less than the shadow cast by a lense like that of 
 a magic lantern. There is one shadow, dreadful enough to the 
 Christless, which even believers sometimes greatly fear, though they 
 need not. It is the shadow under which they have to pass in the 
 Valley which we call Death. Yet a shadow, though it may fright, 
 cannot hurt. And very often God's children who feared death 
 most beforehand, pass through the shadow with least alarm, and 
 over the river almost dry-shod. 
 
 (3) And, worst of all, some people are in p'^irsitit of shadows. 
 You may have noticed a kitten doing this — chasing a shadow upon 
 the floor ; and you have laughed. But what is amusing in a kitten 
 may be the opposite in a being with an immortal soul. And yet 
 many people are chasing after riches, rank, fame, gaiety, with all 
 their might ; which are mere shadows in comparison vdfh the 
 heavenly realities they forget to seek. Edmund Burke said : 
 " What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue ! " He was 
 wrong in the first part. We are not shadows : we shall endure for 
 ever. But what flimsy shadows (as ixnsubstantial as an air bubble) 
 we often chase ! 
 
 152 
 
after maiig Da^s. May 3i 
 
 " Thou shall find it after many days" (Eccles. xi. 1). 
 
 The farmer casts the seed into the furrows, iu the faith that it is 
 not lost, but will be moro than found again, after many days. The 
 man of business scatters hia capital in various trade enterprises in 
 the same belief — that by and by he will get his own, with interest. 
 What this text from Kcclosiastes urges is, that we arc to be no less 
 free-handed and trustful in our gifts and efforts in order to the good 
 of others. There may be an allusion to the scattering of the seed 
 "upon the waters" in such a country as Egypt, where the furrows 
 are Hooded by the Nile. At anyrate, the lesson is plain. What the 
 preacher counsels is — to sow the seed of good deeds and generous 
 endeavours with liberal liand, even in circumstances so seeming 
 adverse as to leave little apparent ground for hope ; and sooner or 
 later, he says, a blessed result will come. 
 
 There is a special encouragement here for the servants of Christ. 
 The striking instances in which the text has been verified in their 
 experience would till whole volumes. 
 
 A minister dropped two tracts near a group of young women, who 
 were standing beside a schoolhouse in the country, as he was driving 
 past one day. Some time after, he was conversing with a young 
 person about her spiritual state, and found that she was rejoicing in 
 the Saviour. She traced her religious impressions to a tract dropped 
 by a traveller, which he recognised as one of his own, A while 
 after, he was called to the deathl:)ed of another woman. She was 
 awaiting the solemn change in great composvire, because a saving 
 change had been wrought in her heart some time before. She 
 proved to be the cousin of the other young woman ; and to her the 
 other tract had been blessed. She had kept it as a treasure ; and 
 when she drew it from beneath the pillow and showed it tx) the 
 minister, he saw his own pencil marks upon it. 
 
 A French soldier, bound for the Crimea, was offered a New 
 Testament by a good man who was distributing books among the 
 troops. He sneeringly said to his companion, " Oh, this will do to 
 light my pipe with" ; and the gentleman felt rather sorry he 
 had given his last copy of the Testament to such a man. Nearly 
 two years later, he stopped for a night at a roadside inn in the south 
 of France. The landlady's eldest son had just died, and she was 
 speaking warmly of his goodness and of his happy deathl)ed. 
 "And, sir," she said, "all his happiness was got from a little book 
 given to him some time ago." She showed the little book afterwards 
 to the guest, who recognised it as the French Testament he had given 
 to the soldier so long before. The first few pages were torn out, 
 probably for the lighting of his pipe. But on the fly-leaf these 
 words were written — " Given to me at Toulon, on — : first despised, 
 then read, and finally blessed to the saving of my soul." 
 
 153 
 
June 1 XLbC %C630\\Q Ot tbC TRaillDOW. 
 
 " The bow shall be seen in the cloud) and I will remember My covenant" 
 (Gen. ix. 14, 15). 
 
 You have seen a beautiful rainbow sjianiiing the sky after or amidst 
 a shower. Could anything be more lovely 1 What a splendid arch ! 
 And how these rich and varied colours — "all the colours of the 
 rainbow " — melt into one another ! It is a picture that could be 
 painted only by the hand of God. Yes ; but have you ever thought 
 of the rainbow's meaning ? For it has a meaning, given to it by God 
 Himself. 
 
 The Flood has ceased. Noah has offered his sacrifice, — in token 
 of his unworthiness, his thankfulness, his desire that the Avorld, now 
 getting a fresh start, might be devoted to God ; his confidence, too, 
 that the Lord's mercy would be continued from generation to 
 generation. The sacrifice has been accepted ; and God has given 
 His promise that He will not repeat the judgment He had sent, but 
 will maintain the revolving seasons in their course. 
 
 And then came in the rainbow, which God calls " the token of a 
 covenant between Me and the earth." It is as if a king pardoned 
 you for some offence, and took you out of prison, and gave you a 
 signet-ring, and said, " Now, I am not to imprison you again. You 
 have a free pardon. Every time you look at that ring you may 
 feel yourself secure of this." Even so, God, pointing Noah and us 
 all to the bow in the cloud, said, " Look at that ; every time you 
 see the rainbow, remember My promise. Every time you see it you 
 may be sure that I too see it, and that I shall not forget or be untrue 
 to what I have spoken." 
 
 Let us not merely admire the rainbow, then, but regard it as a 
 radiant token of the merciful covenant God lias made with the earth. 
 And let it remind us that there are other covenants (cf. Ex. xii. 
 13 ; Heb. xii. 24) into which God has graciously entered with man, 
 the appropriate token of which is the blood of the Innocent, which 
 has been shed in the room of the guilty. 
 
 There is always a bow in the cloud for God's people. However 
 dark the sky, God gives them a token for good. 
 
 God is always true to His promises. There has never been a 
 Flood again. None of Israel's first-born were destroyed in Egypt. 
 None who have believed in Jesus were ever lost. 
 
 God looks upon the bow ; and so should we. He says, " I will 
 look upon it, that I may remember." He does not need to be 
 reminded, but He speaks in language we can understand, to comfort 
 and reassure our hearts. Let us, too, look upon the bow, that we 
 may remember, and assure our hearts before Him. 
 
 From the Throne of Judgment at last, there proceed "lightnings 
 and thunderings and voices." But the face of Him who sits upon 
 the Throne is brighter than the sun ; and round about the Throne 
 a beauteous rainbow encircles His people (Rev. iv. 3.)— fit sign of 
 the perpetual safety and peace of all who dwell beneath it. 
 
6oD'0 asanisbeo btouflbt JBach. June 2 
 
 " Yet doth He devise means, thai His honished be not expelled from Him " 
 (2gani. xiv. 11). 
 
 It would be a dreadful thing, would it not, if you were to be banished 
 from home and country ? There are persons who have had that sad 
 experience. Tliey have been sent off to Botany Bay, or elsewliere, 
 and never allowed to set foot again on the soil of their native land. 
 But the worst of all banishment — did we but realise it — is banish- 
 ment from God. That is what Sin has brought ; and oh, it is a 
 dreadful thing for a human soul to be shut out from Him who is 
 Love, in whose presence is the fulness of joy, apart from whose 
 favour no true peace or happiness can possibly be found. 
 
 Now, God might justly and reasonably have kept us sinners for 
 ever far away from Him. He might have said, " They shall never 
 darken the threshold of My Palace Home ; they shall never speak 
 with Me, or look upon My face for ever." But He does not tlius 
 put an absolute gulf between Himself and us. " Yet doth He devise 
 means, that His banished be not outcast from Him." He has made 
 a complete reconciliation possible ; and He gives us the heartiest 
 invitation, to leave the life of banishment, and come back to Him. 
 David's reconciliation with Absalom was at first only a partial thing. 
 He allowed him to return to Jerusalem ; but he kept him for years 
 without seeing the king's face. But with God it is not so. Not 
 only is the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem laid open to His banished 
 ones ; but He is willing to take them, if they are sorry for their sin, 
 and sighing for His love, to His very heart again. 
 
 You know how the way back lias been prepared. There was a 
 great gulf between man and God, which had to be filled on the 
 heavenward road, before any of earth's children could be led home 
 to the Father. How was it to be done ? 
 
 It is one of the suggestive stories of ancient Rome, that a great 
 chasm appeared long ago in the Roman Forum, which, according to 
 the soothsayers, could only be filled by throwing into it Rome's 
 greatest treasure. Mettus Curtius, a nolile youth, heard of this. 
 He mounted his steed in full armour ; and, declaring that Rome 
 had no greater treasure than a gallant citizen, rode forward and 
 leaped into the gulf — upon which, the tradition runs, the earth closed 
 over him. 
 
 Into the dark, impassable abyss of condemnation, wrought 
 through sin, God's own Son, the Captain of Salvation, leapt, in the 
 ardour of more than a patriot's love. And now there is a highway 
 and a way, by which His ransomed may be brought back with 
 singing. 
 
 ISS 
 
June 3 C^be J6£(lc Ibomc. 
 
 "To he absent from the body, and to be pi-eseyit with the Lord" (2 Cor. v. 8). 
 
 Some of you young people have perhaps lived away from horae, at 
 boarding-scliool. No matter how kind your teachers have been, or 
 how comfortable they have made you in your place of sojourn, 
 your thoughts have often wandered back to the old fireside and 
 the loved family circle ; and as the time ajjproached for the vacation, 
 you have taken your almanac and scored oflf each day as it has 
 passed, with unconcealed thankfulness, so eager was your delight in 
 the prospect of " getting home." That may help you to understand 
 faintly what Paul felt when he spoke, as here, about being willing, 
 and more than willing, to be absent from the body, and " at home with 
 the Lord." He has much to be thankful for on earth, he acknow- 
 ledges ; and he would not shun duty, or get away from school a 
 day sooner than the proper time. But a strong desire does come 
 over his heart now and then, for which home-sickness is the most 
 exj)ressive name. 
 
 Home — what is home ? " Where mother is," said a child, with a 
 love-gleam in his eye ; and that meant home for him, for it was for 
 him the centre of affection and the place of rest — " where mother 
 i.s." Home — what was home to the Apostle Paul ? " Where Christ 
 is " — that was home to him. " To depart and to be with Christ, 
 which is far better." 
 
 *' Heaven our home " — why can we speak of heaven so ? Because 
 Jesus is there, and has taught us Himself so to think and speak of 
 it. He calls it the Father's house of many mansions, where He 
 Himself has gone to prepare a place for each of His disciples. 
 Every one of them will find that he has been expected, and that 
 everything is ready to receive him, to full comfort and a joy 
 that is iinspeakable and full of glory. What love Jesus has for His 
 people ! It is He that opens the gate of heaven to them, having 
 prepared for their life of blessedness through His death of shame. 
 And what confidence He has in their love for Him ! He takes it 
 for granted that He can hold out no brighter prospect to them than 
 this—" that where I am, there ye may be also." And rightly so ; 
 for " where Jesus is " is heaven to His people, and heaven is home. 
 It is not so much the pearly gates and streets of gold they think of, 
 as to be " for ever M'ith the Lord." 
 
 156 
 
TLbe ITWO Suns. June 4 
 
 " He maketh Uis sun to rise on the evil and on t/ie good" (Matt. v. 45). 
 " The Lord Ood is a Sun" (Ps. Ixxxiv. 11). 
 
 How very good God is to everybody ! The Lord is good to all and 
 His tender mercies are over all His works. The very commonness 
 of God's gifts, instead of making ns more grateful for them, some- 
 times leads us to make light (jf them, and to take them as a thing of 
 course. But if the sun some morning were to come under a total 
 eclipse, and to remain so all day, it might make us ajipreciate more 
 fully the great and constant beneficence of God, " who maketh His 
 sun to rise upon the evil and upon the good." And so with many 
 another blessing. Only an interruption in the bestowal of it would 
 be needed, to awaken us very emphatically to a sense of its im- 
 portance. 
 
 But now, there is a wrong etfect of another kind that the 
 general goodness of God, in the bestowal of His common mercies, has 
 on some. It not only makes them thankless toward Him, but in- 
 dilferent and careless as to what sort of pei'sons they themselves are. 
 God is a Being unseen ; and they manage, wdth wonderful ease, to 
 forget about Him and their obligations to Him. They come to 
 regard the universe as a great machine, swayed by self-acting laws ; 
 and they A'ainly imagine that, since the sun rises upon the evil and 
 the good, and the rain falls upon the just and the unjust, it really 
 does not matter what sort of people we are. But this is a great 
 mistake. Fur all these common mercies, and the effect they have 
 had upon us, we must yet give an account. And, besides, the man 
 who is receiving these in the spirit just described, is forgetful of 
 the far richer blessings which God is willing to gi\'e him, and 
 ^vllich others, alongside of him, day by day are receiving at His 
 hand. 
 
 " You are a saint, and I am a sinner," said a careless scoffer to a 
 Christian once ; " but what advantage have you in life over the like 
 of me ? Does not the God you profess to serve make the sun to rise 
 upon us both alike, as your own Bible tells you 1 " " Yes," replied 
 the other quietly ; " but He makes two suns to shine on me — the 
 one on my body, and the other on my soul." The right effect of 
 God's common goodness is, to lead us to repentance, because we are 
 so unworthy of the least of His mercies ; and to lead us upward in 
 faith and love toward Himself, that we may be made sharers in those 
 better blessings, those best gifts, which He asks us most to covet 
 and which He loves most to bestow. 
 
 157 
 
Junes B ffcarless Confidence. 
 
 " The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" (Ps. xxvii. 1). 
 
 You must often have been struck with the number of times the 
 word "faith" occurs in the New Testament. I wonder if you 
 have asked yourself what it means, and whether j^ou yourself have 
 any of it, or as much of it as you ought to have. 
 
 " Faith," said a little girl in a Sunday school, " means taking 
 God at His word," This was a beautiful answer. Faith is just this 
 — believing whatever God has said, and acting u'pon the belief. 
 
 You may have heard the story of the common soldier who sprang 
 from the ranks and seized the bridle of Napoleon's runaway horse. 
 " Thank you, Captain," said the Emperor ; and the man, making his 
 salute, returned — but not to his place among the privates any more. 
 " What is that fellow doing among the officers 1 " some said. But 
 he replied — " Fellow ! Captain, if you please." And when they 
 would have laughed him to scorn, his simple answer, with a dignified 
 motion of the hand toward the monarch, was, " He said it." That 
 was faith ; and it was not misplaced, for that very day the appoint- 
 ment was confirmed. Do we believe our God as that man believed 
 his Emperor ? 
 
 It must be noted, however, that by " faith," in the Bible sense, is 
 meant more than merely taking God's word on trust. It means 
 trusting ourselves to God — " lippening ourselves " to Him, to use an 
 old Scotch word, which was a favourite with Dr. Chalmers. It 
 means depending upon Him for everything— for protection and pro- 
 vision every day, as well as for eternal salvation through His Son, 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 You have seen a little boy let himself drop from a high wall into 
 his big brother's arms. You have read of the young Highlander 
 who was willing to go down the face of the cliff to the eagle's nest, 
 " if father held the rope." You have heard of the poor children who 
 comforted their mother with the words — " God always hears, mother, 
 when it comes to the scrapings of the barrel." Ask yourself. Have I 
 the faith which trusts self and everything to God ? If you have it 
 not, you are in that proportion weak, and when the hour of trial 
 comes you will discover this. But if you have it, the Lord will 
 prove, in time of darkness, your light and your salvation ; and, with 
 the Psalmist, you may sing, in the confidence of victory, " Whom 
 shall I fear ? Of what shall I be afraid ? " 
 
 158 
 
"BClbO t0 fJlng 1 June Q 
 
 ''Kiu'j" (Matt. ii. 1, 2). 
 
 In these two verses you lia\'e two very different kings mentioned 
 — King Herod and King Jesus. The one, a wicked, untrue, 
 selfish tyrant ; the other, a holy, just, and gracious Governor. I do 
 not need to ask j'ou which seevied the more powerful of 
 the two. It was not the Babe in the manger, but the monarch 
 on the throne. Yet that Babe was King of the whole earth, 
 though the world knew Him not — King of kings and Lord of 
 lords ; and of His government, unlike poor Herod's, there would 
 be no end. 
 
 Have you ever seen a king? H not, you may have been in 
 Edinburgh Castle, and have seen the regalia, or " royal things " — 
 the throne, the crown, the sceptre. Well, King Jesus has all these. 
 He has two thrones — heaven and the believer's heart. He has hvo 
 crowns — the crown of thorns and the crown of glory. He has tioo 
 scejitres — or rather one sceptre with two ends — truth and grace. 
 
 And as our own monarch is said to have three kingdoms. King 
 Jesus has three far greater kingdoms subject to His sway. They 
 are the kingdom of nature, the kingdom of grace, and the kingdom of 
 glory. I wonder if you can answer this question — Who is the one 
 man we read of in Scripture as having been a subject of each 
 of those three kingdoms in the course of a single day ? See 
 Luke xxiii. 43. 
 
 But then there is a much more important question for you to be 
 able to answer aright, and it is this — Have I taken Christ to be my 
 King ? Am I one of His true and loyal sulijects ? 
 
 It is related of the King of Prussia, that, passing through a 
 pretty country village once, he stopped to visit the village school. 
 Taking up an orange, he said to the children, " To what kingdom 
 does this belong ? " " To the vegetable kingdom," answered a little 
 girl. "And this?" continued the king, holding out a gold coin 
 which he had taken from his pocket. " To the mineral kingdom," 
 was the answer. " And to what kingdom do I belong ? " he said, 
 expecting that the little girl would straightway answer, ^vith her 
 former promptitude, " To the animal kingdom." But, after a pause 
 and many blushes, she replied, " To God's kingdom, sire." Where- 
 upon the king, greatly moved, with a tear in his eye, and much 
 solemnity in his tone, responded, " God grant, my child, that I may 
 be counted worthy of that kingdom ! " 
 
 »59 
 
June 7 a %ivi]\Q mag. 
 
 " A new and living way " (Heb. x. 20). 
 
 The Moliammedans have a strange parody of what is meant by " a 
 living way " in one of their ceremonials, which it was my lot to 
 witness a number of years ago at Cairo. It was called the " Doseh," 
 and it was certainly a sad token of the essential cruelty and folly of 
 Moslem superstition. The birthday of Mohammed was in course of 
 celebration ; and on this, the great day of the feast, a welcome was 
 given to a sheikh sujiposed to be descended from him, by preparing 
 for him and his sacred white horse a living way to tread upon. A 
 I^avement of flesh and blood it was, with three Saadiyeh dervishes, 
 wedged in, to the yard ; and there, for a considerable time, the poor 
 wretched men lay, with their faces downwards, till the great man 
 arrived, and rode over their prostrate bodies ! 
 
 The very horse, a noble animal, seemed to know something of 
 what pity meant, and vainly tried to pass tenderly over ; but the holy 
 rider was all unmoved, as, with long beard and prodigious turban, 
 he kept swaying his body listlessly to and fro, and looking for all 
 the world as though he were drunk — with something else than 
 religious transport. The dervishes try to maintain that nobody is 
 hurt by the terrible ordeal. All who are able spring, accordingly, 
 to their feet, whenever the horse is past, and the others are carried, 
 as hastily as may be, out of the public sight. In many cases, 
 however, the injury would not hide. Some yelled vigorously with 
 pain ; others, with fractured spines, perhaps, had their limbs 
 stretched rigid, and were to all appearance dead. Alas ! poor 
 people, that they should expect in this way to commend themselves 
 to Allah, and enrich their Paradise ! 
 
 The living way to which the Bible introduces us is of a different 
 kind. It, too, is a way of agony, and tears, and blood, but not for us 
 Avho now are invited into it. It is a way which has been prepared 
 for sinners, even the chief, to walk in — a way besprinkled with the 
 atoning blood of God's own Son— and it leads them onward, without 
 let or hindrance to those who by faith enter and advance upon it, 
 into the Holiest of all. The way is ever new or fresh ; for the 
 marks of consecration on it never are effaced. And it is a living 
 way, both because it leads to the enjoyment of life in its fulness, 
 and because the very walking in it promotes the life of those who 
 go in it on the road to God. Thank God that we live in a land, not 
 of dark superstition, l.iut of gospel light and liberty— where the 
 Dayspring from on high has visited us, to guide our feet into this 
 way of peace 1 
 
 l6o 
 
a Ittew Song. June 8 
 
 "And lie hath put a new song in my mouth" (Ps. xl. 3). 
 
 Glancing down the newspaper coliunns, I sometimes see advertised 
 — A New Song. And the publisher pronounces it "a distinct 
 success," and "sure to be a favourite." One wonders with how 
 many it will really become a favourite, and how long its success will 
 last. Perhaps there will not be very many, after all, who will take 
 the trouble to learn it ; and, even if it is popular for a time, there 
 may be nobody singing it before the year is out. 
 
 But it is otherwise with the song that is mentioned in our verse. 
 The marvel about it is, that it is a very old song now, and yet that 
 it is always new. Many, many centuries have passed since it was 
 first rehearsed on earth, and first sung in perfection in the courts 
 of heaven. For it is the song that Abel was honoured first to sing 
 there — the song of a soul that has been redeemed by Christ, and 
 must needs pour forth its gratitude to Him. And since the day 
 when its keynote first was struck, and the angels listened to it first 
 as something new in heaven, there have been multitudes whose 
 hearts and voices have been given to the singing of it j and yet it 
 is a song that never tires. 
 
 One thing that keeps it always new is just this — that there are 
 constantly fresh voices added to the choir who sing it in earth and 
 heaven. They are those whose hearts the Lord has touched ; and, 
 as their thankfulness wells forth in spiritual melody, the song is 
 delightsome and new to them. Nor does it seem to pall or to grow 
 old with use in the singing of it ; for its theme, even praise to our 
 God, has in it a perennial freshness, and those who dwell upon the 
 redeeming love of God find ever new matter for their song. 
 
 To the Lord, too, the song is always new. He never wearies of 
 the singing of it. Every ransomed sinner, whose feet have been 
 taken from the miry clay and set upon the rock, has a fresh experi- 
 ence of his own to tell, in his own peculiar cadence, which adds an 
 element to the richness of the harmony that the ear of the Redeemer 
 does not fail to catch. The ever-enlarging living flood of melody 
 is grateful to the Lord, whose love has awakened it, and whose sacri- 
 fice it celebrates. To Him it always is the new song — sweeter far 
 than even the songs of the angels who never fell, and who, in the 
 long ages before man was made, joyfully sang from a pure heart 
 their Creator's praise. 
 
 (II) i6i 
 
June 9 ^be aion, Bet tbe Xamb. 
 
 " The Lion of the Tribe of Judah ... a Larrib as it hud leeii slain" 
 (Rev. V. 5, 6). 
 
 The lion and tlie lamb are two very different animals. The noble 
 lion is the strong, majestic, fierce king of tbe forest. Tbe bumble 
 lamb is tbe tenderest, most submissive, and kindliest of creatures. 
 But botb names are given to Cbrist, as showing different sides of 
 His character. 
 
 He is the Lion of Judah — the Mighty Conqueror, who can sweep 
 before Him all His foes. In presence of sin and hypocrisy, He burns 
 with righteous indignation. If you would see how fierce He can be, 
 read, for example, the 23rd of Matthew — " Woe unto you, scribes and 
 Pharisees, hypocrites ! ... Ye fools, and blind ! ... Ye serpents, 
 ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell 1 " 
 In reading such passages, one is reminded of the prophetic psalm, 
 which speaks of the coming King, of irresistible might, who is to 
 break His enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like 
 a potter's vessel. And the wisdom appears of not paltering with 
 sin and rebellion, but of giving in an iinfeigued submission, "lest 
 He be angry, and we perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled 
 but a little."" 
 
 But Christ is also a Lamb. In that same 23rd chapter of Matthew, 
 how tenderly He weeps over lost Jerusalem ! How gentle He is ! "He 
 is led as a lamb to the slaughter." How pure and innocent He is ! 
 " A Lamb without blemish and without spot." And how precious 
 He is ! He is " the Lamb of God." What does that name tell us ? 
 It reminds us of God's fondness for Him. A father takes his 
 son into his arms, and fondly says, " My lamb " ; and that is what 
 God the Father says of the well-beloved Son. But the name also 
 tells us, that Jesus is the Lamb of sacrifice, which God provided 
 and accepted for our sin. God has, in Him, provided Himself 
 a Lamb, as Abraham said He would, to take away the sin of the 
 world. 
 
 And now, young people, do you know what is the most terrible 
 thing in the Bible? It is "the wrath of the Lamh" (Rev. vi. 16). I 
 pray that you may not encounter it. And if you can sing from the 
 heart, as you have often sung in words — 
 
 "I lay my sins on Jesus, 
 The spotless Lamb of God," 
 
 you never shall. Ah ! what a terrible thing, even to hear the 
 anguished cry of others, echoed back from the mountains and rocks, 
 " Fall on lis, and hide us from tbe face of Him that sitteth upon the 
 throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb ; for the great day of His 
 wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand ? " 
 
 162 
 
•Rot uncertain, tbougb unftnown. June lo 
 
 " It doth not yet appear what we shall he : but we knmo " (1 John iii. 2). 
 
 Here is a tiny rill, trickling down its mossy bed upon the hillside. 
 It is swelling a little in volume ; it is leaping now from crag to crag ; 
 it is seeking its way somewhere. Where is it going? Wliat is to 
 become of it ? What is it to be 1 You will have to trace it far upon 
 its future course before you can, as a matter of experience, give an 
 answer to that question. 
 
 Here is a tender shoot, just appearing above the ground. If you 
 penetrate below the surface a little way, you will see the seed from 
 which it sprang. Bending down, you can detect a fresh green leaf 
 or two. Whereunto is the plant to grow ? Is there to be a glory 
 yet of foliage, fruit, and llower ? To answer that, you will have to 
 wait awhile. " First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in 
 the ear." It doth not yet appear what it shall be. 
 
 Here is the foundation of some structure laid. As you pass along 
 the road, it has caught your eye. It promises to be a noteworthy 
 edifice. You can fancy that you see it rising in majesty and grace — 
 a very poem wrought in stone. But you have not the details of 
 masonry before you ; nor has the architect made you the confidant 
 of his design. You see the foundation. You have a glimmering 
 that a great plan is afoot, and will be wrought out in due time. 
 But to see what it shall be, you must wait. 
 
 Here is a statue, which a noted artist has permitted you to look 
 at in his studio. It is not very long since he blocked it out. His 
 work, he tells you, is only in the rough. As you look over his 
 shoulder and admire his deft and patient use of hammer and chisel, 
 you begin to see the features taking shape a little. You think you 
 can discern some outline now of what may be a noble form. But 
 the artist carries his own ideal meanwhile in his brain. Stroke by 
 stroke he will work it out ; touch by touch it will reveal itself. 
 But it doth not yet appear what it shall be. 
 
 And here is a Christian. His future is not all mapped plainly 
 out before us either. It is a future full of promise, bright with 
 hope, and big with safe anticipation of large coming good. But the 
 I'ill is only at the opening of its course ; the shoot just recently 
 sprung above the gi-ound ; the foundation of the building little 
 more than laid ; the rough-hewing only of the statue done. The 
 Christian was but lately born again. Yet, since he is a Christian, 
 a child of God, we knoiv, without being able to foresee every step in 
 the process, that he shall at length be like Him, — the Redeemer and 
 Elder Brother, — the attainment of whose likeness will alone satisfy 
 the heart. 
 
 163 
 
June 11 Ibonour to anJ) ftom 6o&. 
 
 "Them that honour vie, I will honour" (1 Sam. ii. 30). 
 
 Eli honoured his sons before God. He was more mindful of their 
 will than of Jehovah's ; so he let them " have their own way," 
 instead of teaching them to bow to the authority of God. And both 
 he and his sons had their reward. They passed to an early and 
 dishonoured grave ; and their father died a broken-hearted old 
 man. He had a high position in Israel, and might have exercised a 
 noble influence on Israelitish history. But he is "lightly esteemed" ; 
 and, though in some respects an amiable character, Eli can never 
 be counted among the heroes of Old Testament story. How difi"erent 
 from Samuel ! He honoured God throughout a long and faithful 
 life ; and God greatly honoured him. There is no name, excepting that 
 of Moses, in the Old Testament that comes in still for equal honour. 
 
 Is it your desire, then, to honour God ? How is it possible for us 
 to do this ? It seems strange to think that One so great and mighty 
 should speak of being honoured by the like of us. And yet so it is. 
 We may either honour or dishonour God, in our hearts and in our lives. 
 
 "We honour God by cherishing right thoughts about Him, and 
 right feelings toward Him. You must never think meanly of God. 
 You must not live as though there were some things He did not 
 know, or as if He might be prepared to wink at sin; but you 
 should seek to have high and holy thoughts of Him, and to rever- 
 ence and love His name. 
 
 We honour God, also, by letting others see, in our conduct from 
 day to day, that it is our supreme desire to please Him. It is not 
 enough to worship God in our hearts. We should pay to Him 
 the homage of our lives. We should make it plain that it is He, 
 and not the world, that is our God ; and that it is His will, and not 
 the will of men, that we are most anxious to consult and to obey. 
 
 A Scotch boy called Jamie, who had determined to go to sea, gave 
 the promise to his mother that every night and morning he would 
 kneel down and pray to God. On the voyage out to India all 
 went well, because there were some godly sailors on board. But on 
 the way home some new hands were employed ; and one of these, a 
 wicked sailor, seeing Jamie kneel, ran forward and gave him a sound 
 blow on the ear, exclaiming, " None of that here, sir ! " A friendly 
 seaman, indignant at this, challenged the bully to a fight, and fairly 
 thrashed him. The next night Jamie thought he would make no 
 disturbance, but would quietly say his prayers in his hammock ; 
 and, with that purpose, he crept into bed. But no sooner had he 
 lain down than his friendly protector taught him a lesson he never 
 forgot. Coming forward, he dragged him out on the floor, exclaim- 
 ing, " Kneel down at once, sir ! Am I going to fight for you, 
 and you not say your prayers, you young rascal?" 
 
 Years passed. Jamie continued consistently to honour God, both 
 in heart and life. And by and by, when the Atlantic cable was laid, 
 the commander of the Great Eastern, which carried it, was no other 
 than he. Only, by the grace of Her Majesty the Queen, his name was 
 changed. He was no longer Jamie, but Sir James Anderson, Knight. 
 
 Even in this life you will not be a loser by honouring God. 
 
 164 
 
®n ©fegab's "fcefflbt June 12 
 
 "And Moses vjent up to the vumntain qf Nebo, to the top of Pisgah " 
 (Dent, xxxiv. 1). 
 
 By Pisgah is probably to be understood the whole of the range of 
 high lands on the east of the lower Jordan ; and this range 
 apparently reached its height, or head, in the Mount Nebo. The 
 latter it has not been found easy to identify ; and opinion is still 
 divided as to which of the points on the mountain-wall of Moab 
 oi^posite Jericho it was, on which Moses took farewell of earth and 
 entered upon immortality. Thus it is not only true that " No man 
 knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day," but even the summit on 
 which his grave lies cannot apparently be quite determined now. 
 But God knows where He put the dust of His great servant Moses to 
 rest ; and though the precise spot has been screened from the 
 possibility of idolatrous worship on the part of the Hebrew people, 
 INIount Nebo — somewhere in these Pisgah Highlands beyond Jordan 
 — must always have tender and suggestive associations for the 
 Christian, no less than for the Jewish heart. 
 
 Pisgah makes us think, among other things, of — 
 
 1. The God-kept graves of all believers. It is true of all of them, as 
 of Moses, that their death is precious in God's sight. The timing of 
 it, and the arranging of all its circumstances, are in His hand. 
 Their grave, too, is in His keeping. Their very dust to Him is dear. 
 " God knows every grave — the little child's few inches of sod, and 
 the old man's last resting-place, and the sweet mother's, without 
 whom the world would have been a waste. It is enough. These 
 regions are not in our keeping, except in some cases as to their 
 surfaces. The kev is in heaven ; and as to the time when the door 
 will open, we know not : enough to know where the key is, and to 
 know that it cannot be lost." 
 
 2. The outlook beyond. There is a noble painting, which some of 
 you may have seen, of Moses sweeping, with his keen, undimmed eye, 
 the earthly land of promise he was not to enter. Who knows what 
 great prophetic thoughts then stirred his soul, or what a panorama 
 of events as well as scenes was laid open to his spiritual vision ? 
 One thing we may be sure of, that no distrust or gloom would settle 
 on his spirit. Earth, with its one unsatisfied desire, was now beneath 
 his feet. And as his eye dimmed in death and his natural force 
 abated, the eye of his soul took in more clearly the Pisgah view of 
 the Heavenly Land, fairer than the land of Palestine. The Spirit of 
 God made Nebo the Mount of Transfiguration for his spirit, and 
 gently ushered him into the august but joyous presence, where faith 
 at len^h received the recompense of the reward. Call that not death, 
 but life and rest. The eternal God was his refuge ; and underneath, 
 the everlasting arms. 
 
 What a comfort for many a saint in his last hours on earth it 
 has been, to have a Pisgah view of the far-oflf land, and, what is even 
 better, a sight of the King in His beauty who will bring him safely 
 thither, though Jordan lies between. For while the man of God 
 led Israel only to the borders of the earthly Canaan, the God-Man 
 leads His people in, to full and everlasting possession. 
 
 i6s 
 
June 13 B Stern ©pponent, get a IReal Jrien^. 
 
 " Mercy and Irulh are met together ; righteousness and peace Imve kissed" 
 (Ps. Ixxxv. 10). 
 
 It is told of a judge tliat he liad brought before him, as a culprit at 
 the bar one day, the son of his dearest friend. The offence with 
 wlaich he was charged was a very serious one ; and as the judge 
 thought of the youth's dead father, his heart bled when he looked 
 upon him. But justice demanded either imprisonment or a very 
 heavy money penalty for such a crime ; and those in the court who 
 knew of the lad's parentage were thrilled when they heard the 
 severity of the sentence which was meted out. They pitied the lad 
 as, in grief and despair, he buried his face in his hands ; and some 
 of them thought, " How harsh a judge, to impose so severe a penalty 
 on his old friend's wayward son ! " 
 
 But their feelings altogether changed when, the trial being over, 
 they saw the judge lay aside his ermine and descend from the 
 bench to where the young man stood, before he could be taken to 
 Ms cell, and heard him address the culprit thus — " Young man, it 
 is my part, as judge, not to make or alter, but to administer the 
 law ; and I could not in justice have pronounced on you a milder 
 sentence. Bat, for your father's sake, I desire that you should 
 have a fresh opportunity in life. You shall not therefore go to 
 l^rison. I myself will pay your fine." He thereupon wrote out a 
 cheque for the amount, which the prisoner could not himself other- 
 wise, by any possibility, have found ; and the young man went 
 free. 
 
 That was a beautiful instance of mercy and truth meeting 
 together, of righteousness and peace embracing one another. Should 
 it not make us think, and think lovingly, of God ? He cannot allow 
 sin to go unpunished. Were the righteousness of God to be in the 
 least departed from in His government of the world, the universe 
 would go to wreck and ruin. But He will never deny Himself : 
 He will stand true to the law, whose sentence of wrath is revealed 
 from heaven against all unrighteousness of men. God's justice is 
 inflexible. 
 
 But there is a great pity in His heart. Think not, I pray you, 
 hard thoughts of God. See Him, in the person of His Son, leave 
 the throne of glory, to take His place beside the sinner — nay, 
 to suffer and even to die in the sinner's room ! Truth must have 
 its way ; but so will mercy. And in the Cross of Calvary the 
 claims of both are fully met. They seemed to be irreconcilable 
 foes ; but they vs-^ere not so. And now you find them conspiring for 
 the well-being, full and everlasting, of the repentant and forgiven 
 sinner. But for this, he never coidd have known true peace. But 
 the peace which is kissed by righteousness is a peace which abides 
 and satisfies for ever. 
 
 i66 
 
^ uGlaK of J66cape. June 14 
 
 " Ood itriU, with the temptation, also make a v;ay la escape " (1 Cor. x. 13). 
 
 It is a terrible thing to be hemmed in by enemies, mthout having 
 a way of escape. Some time ago, when Britain was at war with 
 the Matebele tribe in Africa, the saviiges were put to rout by our 
 soldiers, who pressed on, in the hope of capturing King Lobengula, 
 and so putting a speedy end to the cami)aign. A liandful of 
 brave men, headed by a gallant young leader. Major Wilson,. pushed 
 ahead of the rest of the British forces ; and, crossing a river by a 
 ford, they camped for the night in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 the fleeing Matelwles. It was expected tliat they would be supported 
 next day oy additions to their force. But a terrible storm came on ; 
 the river was soon in heavy flood ; the rest of the army knew the 
 danger the little band were in, but could not help them ; and Major 
 Wilson and his companions could not retrace tlieir steps, so as to 
 rejoin the main body of the English troops. Then the savages, 
 discovering how few they were, and that they were hemmed in 
 between them and the swollen river, came do'mi upon them in over- 
 whelming numbers, and put every one of them to death. How 
 terrible must have been the feelings of even these brave follows 
 when they looked before, and behind, and on every side, and saw 
 no way of escape ! 
 
 Now, we are beset in this world with spiritual foes. Difficulties 
 and temptations sometimes seem to hem us completely in ; our 
 breasts are exposed to the poisoned spear, and the only alternative 
 may seem a leap back into the dreary swollen river of despair. But 
 God invites us to trust in Him, and to seek in Him our refuge. If, 
 when we are tempted, we cry to Him, then, perhaps in the very 
 moment when we are most hardly pressed. He will make a way to 
 escape. 
 
 Have you ever seen a house on fire ? It is a terrible sight. Away 
 up on the highest storey yonder there is a mother sleei^ing with her 
 child. The names have taken hold, long before she is awakened. But 
 at length she is aroused to her danger. She clasps her infant to her 
 breast, and makes for the stairway. To her horror, she finds it 
 already enveloped in the belching flames. As she stands for a 
 moment, bewildered at the prospect of almost certain death, hesi- 
 tating to commit herself and the one she loves better than herself 
 to the crackling staircase, a fireman rushes in, and, seizing her by 
 the arm, cries, " Come with me ! " And soon he is conducting her, 
 with her babe in his strong arms, down the ladder which has been 
 slung up to the window ; and she is thanking God, who, ynth. the 
 danger and alarm, has made "a way to escape." 
 
 167 
 
June 15 ®ut jfitst Ibome. 
 
 "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden" 
 (Gen. ii. 15). 
 
 The beginning of the Bible story brings out, very strikingly, God's 
 wonderful goodness to man — tbe last and greatest of His works, tbe 
 crown of creation, — into whom He had breathed His own " breath 
 of life," a higher life than any of the other creatures knew. 
 
 1. He gave him a beautiful home. The whole earth might be 
 called man's dwelling-place. But, besides that great Estate, he had 
 a spot which he could call his Home. Its name was Eden — a very 
 Paradise of beauty — watered by fine streams, adorned by charming 
 trees and shrubs bearing all kind of delicious fruit, and enlivened 
 by all sorts of beautiful and playful birds and beasts. 
 
 2. Ho. gaiv&hxra. 'plenty of pleasant worh. God did not mean man to 
 be idle. He gave him something to do. Otherwise he might have 
 tired even of Eden, as you yourselves may know — for what active 
 boy or girl would be content to snooze life away in a perpetually 
 idle holiday ? God put man into Eden " to dress it and keep it," 
 just as He gives every one of us some sphere of duty to fill, some 
 garden or other to keep for Him. 
 
 3. He gave him the place of power. One of man's Godlike qualities 
 was, that he was able to rule ; and he was made "Lord of Creation." 
 He had the naming of the beasts, and the right to govern them. 
 But man was expected to rule in kindness ; and, in being allowed 
 to govern, he was taught to obey. To do wrong to God's creatures, 
 we should still remember, is to displease Him. 
 
 4. He gave him the happiest of company. You can easily see how 
 lonely it would have been for Adam, to have lived always by him- 
 self, even in the fairest Paradise, with nobody to talk to, and none 
 to share with him his joy. You know something, I hope, about the 
 value of a real companion and friend. And so God gave him " an 
 helpmeet," one taken from his side, to live thenceforth by his side, 
 his equal. Now Adam fully knew what " sj^mpathy " is : it was 
 the first wedding of true hearts. 
 
 And so our first parents lived on together, each counting the 
 other "the better part," and both dwelling in mutual love and joy- 
 ful converse about God, as well as in peaceful enjoyment of the 
 beauties of the earth. For God Himself was better to them than 
 all His gifts ; and the best thing He gave them has yet to be men- 
 tioned — fellowship with Himself, "walking in the garden in the 
 cool of the day." How bright a place was man's first home ! 
 
 i68 
 
IblOlng from (5o5. June 16 
 
 "Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord Qod " 
 (Gen. hi. 8). 
 
 That is, they tried to hide themselves. But they could not. The 
 trees of the garden could not screen them from Ilia eight. They 
 could not get beyond the reach of His voice — that voice which 
 before was sweetest music, but which sounded to them in their 
 hiding-place like the knell of doom. 
 
 What a contrast between to-day and yesterday 1 TTien all was 
 bright and fair ; not a cloud upon the sky. Adam and Eve re- 
 joicing in the love they bore to one another, and to God, the Giver 
 of all good. Now everything is changed. A small cloud has 
 appeared, no bigger at first than a man's hand ; and ere long the 
 sky is darkened, and gloom has settled on man's life, and joy has 
 gone out of his heart. 
 
 Wliat did it all ? Why, it was Sin that did it. The tempter 
 had been at his unholy work ; and man had yielded. The step was 
 no doubt prepared for, but it seemed sudden enough when it came ; 
 and man had " fallen " from his holy and happy place, as utterly 
 and helplessly as a traveller, by one wrong step, may fall over a 
 precipice into a dark and dismal morass below, from which he is 
 quite unable to extricate himself. 
 
 Sin often, as at the first, is made to look attractive ; but it is the 
 blackest of all things. It looks very small and simple often ; but 
 it is the strongest of all powers, save only one — the grace of God. 
 A little sin brings a world of woe. That is a lesson which our first 
 parents learned, and which some of their descendants are learning 
 every day. 
 
 Just as a single drop of poison in a cup may make its contents 
 deadly, so man's first act of disobedience, instead of adding anything 
 to his happiness, poisoned the cup of joy which had been so sweet 
 and full. Ah, how much a single false step has cost the world 1 
 And how much a single wilful step may cost some of you boys and 
 girls yet ! 
 
 From the outskirts of Eden, the voice still echoes down to us — 
 Beware of temptation ! A youth was cii.ce tempted by some com- 
 panions, when his father was away from home, to go to a place 
 which his father had forbidden him to visit. " Your father will 
 never know," they said. "But I would know," he quietly, but 
 firmly answered, "and I could never look my father in the face again." 
 
 169 
 
June 17 0\xx %ii3t Ibome. 
 
 " Through the gates into tlie City" (Rev. xxii. 14). 
 
 The City — of what sort is it, the Heavenly Jerusalem ? 
 
 (1) It is an abiding City. So the earthly Jerusalem seemed to be. 
 Its patriots gloried in its strength, and proudly dreamt that, like 
 its surrounding hills, it would abide for ever. Yet the hour of 
 trial came, and its enemies razed it to the ground. But this is a 
 City which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It 
 has a wall great and high ; on its twelve encompassing courses of 
 stones, precious and durable, are the names of the twelve apostles ; 
 and they all rest on the everlasting Rock. 
 
 (2) It is a/air City. So the old Jerusalem, and not without reason, 
 was deemed — " beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth," 
 as it seemed to the pious Jew. But this is a City lovelier far than 
 Oriental imagination could conceive. Its glory is not that of domes 
 and minarets, glistering in the Eastern sun ; but it is radiant with 
 the beauty of God Himself. The Lamb is the light thereof. 
 
 (3) It is a holy City. So the Jerusalem of earth was called. It was 
 the centre of Israel's worship, the place of God's holy habitation ; 
 and the Hebrew exile, even when far away, felt his bosom glow as 
 with a sacred fire, as he turned in thought to the sacred temple. 
 Yet the reality which corresponded to his vision was at times grim 
 and dark enough, with its scenes of squalor, vice, and wretchedness. 
 But the Jerusalem above is pure " as a bride adorned for her hus- 
 band." It is a holy City ; for it is the City of the Holy God ; and a 
 City for holy men. 
 
 (4) It is a happy City. So the earthly Zion was supposed to be. It 
 was named " Jerusalem," the vision of peace. But alas ! for it peace 
 was but a vision. How often, through the passions of its inhabitants 
 and the assaiilts of its foes, were its streets seen running with blood, 
 and seething with iniquity. But the sound of strife is never heard 
 on the streets of this Jerusalem ; the wail of sorrow never rises from 
 its homes ; the j)inch of poverty burdens no heart ; the blight of 
 impurity or drunkenness rests upon no life there ; deceit, envy, 
 backbiting, the rivalries of selfishness — black shadows of the earth 
 — have passed away. Purity, plenty, peace reign — imity of lan- 
 guage, thought, and feeling — concord of the heart. 
 
 (5) It is a commodious City. So the old Jerusalem was held to be. 
 Thither the tribes went up ; and millions of pilgrims f oimd place 
 sometimes, we are told, within and around the walls, at the feasts 
 when the nation assembled to give thanks unto the name of the 
 Lord. But into this City is poured, from every side, a troop of 
 pilgrim-worshippers whom no man can number, out of all nations 
 and kindreds ; and there is room for all. Foursquare it stands with 
 three gates on every side, ready to receive the countless travellers 
 whom the King is gathering in from north, south, east, and west ; 
 and yet there is room. It is a commodious City ; with many man- 
 sions — with room for all and a suitable abode for each. But, re- 
 member, there is an entrance through the gates only for those who 
 *' have washed their robes," and who do the King's commandments. 
 
 170 
 
Xa3arus of aQetbang. June 18 
 
 " Our frknd Lazarus" {.Toliii xi. 11). 
 
 What a multitude of people this "our " includes ! Every believing 
 reader of the gosjiel story, every true friend of Jesus, feels that he 
 has a friend in Lazarus, and a kind of personal share in the sorrow 
 and the joy of the home circle in Bethany. There are few better- 
 knoA\'n names in the Bible than that of Lazarus ; and though there 
 is not very much recorded of him, we seem to know him well. 
 
 (1) His position was just that of a humble villager. He dwelt 
 in a small hamlet, over the shoulder of Olivet, not far from Jeru- 
 salem ; and probably few in the great capital knew so much as his 
 name, until Jesus made it for ever illustrious. He was, all the same, 
 a member of one of the noblest families of earth. They were not 
 rich, indeed ; they did not even keep a servant. But theirs was the 
 true nobility of kind hearts, which are " more than coronets," and of 
 simple faith, which is better than the most ancient blood. It was a 
 loving family circle, that of Bethany, with room in it always for 
 Jesus ; and if Martha and Mary and Lazarus were alive, what 
 Christian would not rather visit their humble dwelling, than the 
 richest palace in the world ? 
 
 (2) His character is clearly set before us, in at least two important 
 particulars. He was a good brother, and had greatly endeared himself 
 to those who knew him best. Oh, how his sisters loved and missed 
 him ! Do those who see most of us love us best, and will they 
 greatly miss us when we are gone ? And then Lazarus was a friend 
 of Chrid. The Lord loved him, and he loved the Lord. Between 
 him and the Saviour there was the bond of a true affection. " Now 
 Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus," and the sorrow of 
 their hearts in the hour of bereavement was also His. Behold how 
 He loved him — " Jesus wept " ! 
 
 (3) His history was for the most part an uneventful one. It was 
 not usually a life of much incident or variety, the life at Bethany. 
 But at length one day Lazarus fell sick ; and that mortal illness 
 brought him into everlasting fame. For, amid circumstances which 
 you well remember, the "strong Son of God, immortal Love," 
 even while grief filled His eyes with tears, spoke the word of power 
 which raised Lazarus from the dead. His death thus became a means 
 of blessing to others : " liy reason of him, many of the Jews went 
 away and believed on Jesus." 
 
 Of the after history of Lazarus, nothing certain is known. He 
 has not told the world any of the secrets of the unseen world, which 
 he had visited for four days. As Tennyson says of him, " something 
 sealed the lips of that evangelist." But perhaps, driven from the 
 neighbourhood of Jerusalem by the hostility of the chief priests, he 
 may have done a better thing — preached the gospel of his Lord, 
 The tradition is, that he went to Cyprus, where I was shown, some 
 years ago, his reputed grave — the " last resting-place " for his dust, 
 in view of the general resurrection. How interesting to think that 
 it may have been the preaching of Lazarus that spread the gD.spel 
 in Cyprus, and won to Jesus, among others, Barnabas, the friend and 
 comrade of the Apostle I'aul. 
 
 171 
 
June 19 Dot* 
 
 " That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly" (Ps. i. 1). 
 
 The little word not is a very important word here ; and it is a very- 
 important word for many a life. The great difference between 
 different classes of persons in this world ues just here — in the use 
 they make of this small word. Some say not to God ; others say 
 7iot to sin. Some say not to others, but forget to say it to them- 
 selves. 
 
 In this first psalm you find suggested two very different characters, 
 whose course of life and whose end are set in the strongest contrast. 
 
 The one is a man, or a youth, who begins by walking in the counsel 
 of the ungodly. He crosses their path oftener than he need do, or 
 should do ; and he even consults with them sometimes, and has their 
 maxims lodged within his mind. By and by we find him standing 
 in the way of sinners. Their evil spell is more upon him now. He has 
 less power, and less desire, to break away from them. He has got 
 into their way, and he is standing in it. And at length we see him 
 sitting in the seat of the scornful ; quite at home among those who 
 not only are bad in their counsels and ways themselves, but who 
 make a mock at religion, and scoff at what is good. 
 
 The other is one who begins by saying no to others, and to himself, 
 when he is tempted to evil ; and, since he refuses to walk in the 
 counsel of the ungodly, we do not find him standing in the way of 
 sinners, or sitting in the seat of the scornful. For he knows a truer 
 delight than theirs. He has found the secret of true happiness. 
 His heart is God's ; and his constant aim, therefore, is to do, and not 
 to do, whatever God's law requires. Not only happiness, — a thing of 
 " hap," — but blessedness is his. 
 
 Have you then learned to say no when you are tempted to do evil ? 
 " When sinners entice thee, consent thou not." It may be hard to 
 take a stand for what is right, in the midst of your companions, 
 sometimes. But God will strengthen you, and God will reward you. 
 Kemember the three Hebrew youths : how, in the most trying cir- 
 cumstances, they braved the wrath of King Nebuchadnezzar — " Be it 
 known unto thee, King, that we will oiot serve thy gods, nor 
 worship the golden image which thou hast set up." God did not allow 
 them to be losers in the end because of their loyalty to Him. They 
 were afterwards promoted to high honour ; but their highest honour 
 was, that they had taught all Babylon a lesson in the reality and 
 strength of religious principle. Theirs were not lives like the 
 chaff driven before the wind, but like the fruitful tree by the living 
 stream. 
 
 172 
 
JSUt* June 20 
 
 " A mighty man in valov/r : but he was a leper " (2 Kings v. 1). 
 
 "No vian stood with me . . . but (R.V.) the Lord stood with me" 
 
 (2 Tim. iv. 16, 17). 
 
 Herb we have another very important little word — "but." You 
 see, on the one hand, how important it was in the life of Naaman ; 
 and, on the other, how important it was in the experience of the 
 Apostle Paul 
 
 This little word "but" suggests, that there is always (1) some 
 great drawback in the most successful worldly life. Naaman was captain 
 of the victorious host of Syria. He was a great man with his master 
 — the right-hand man of the king. He was honoured by the people, 
 too, because of liis past achievements. And he was a mighty man of 
 valour — not only a paper leader, but a hero in the field, accustomed 
 to lead his troops to victory or death. Who would not envy 
 Naaman — the king's favourite, the people's hero, the army's idol, the 
 man of sterling virtue, the leader born not made? "But, but — 
 he was a leper." Ah, who would envy him now 1 Who would take 
 the gorgeous trappings, along with the leprous skin beneath ? Who 
 would choose the varied honours, with the sickness gnawing at the 
 heart ? The victories, with the constant sense of defeat from an 
 enemy that could not be shaken off ? How that one " but " must 
 have dashed all the pleasure of the great captain's life, and made the 
 best that the world had to offer him seem an unreal and lleeting 
 shadow ! 
 
 So, in every worldly life there is some jarring note that mars the 
 music ; some fly that spoils the fragrance of the ointment ; some- 
 thing or other in disposition or fortune, or surroundings, that makes 
 full satisfaction here impossible. Haman has his Mordecai at the 
 gate ; Ahab has his Naboth's vineyard, which he must get, to square 
 his royal property ; in the fullest earthly cup there is a " but " — a 
 dash of bitter in the sweet. 
 
 But we are further reminded by this little word of (2) one great 
 advantage in every godly life, however tried. Over against the trials 
 there is set what is called a " compensation " — something put into 
 the other scale — which makes the trials light. This is, the presence 
 and sympathy of Christ. Paul had often occasion to feel this, after 
 he became a Christian ; and he felt it to the end. Near the close 
 of his life, when he is old and the time of his departure is at hand, 
 he has to tell how, when he was brought before the bloody Nero, all 
 men forsook him. " But" he adds, " the Lord stood with me, and 
 strengthened me ; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." 
 This " but " made all the difference. It made the absence of others 
 of comparatively little moment. And what Paul felt, many a tried 
 believer has felt before and since his day. 
 
 173 
 
June 21 UaBins {past. 
 
 " So is he that layeth up treasure for hiniself" (Luke xii. 21). 
 
 The lesson here turns on the little word "so." There are other 
 important " so's " in the Bible. " Let your light so shine before men," 
 " So run that ye may obtain." And especially that unfathomable 
 "so" in John iii. 16 — "God so loved the world." 
 
 To understand the " so " in the text, you need to read the story 
 that goes before, of the rich but poor man, who lived only for him- 
 self, and made such a miserable failure of his life. He was what is 
 counted a shrewd man ; but he did not look very far ahead. He 
 dwelt on his estate as if it were his home, his true abiding-place, 
 and he made his plans for many years. But what he lived in was 
 only the house of his pilgrimage. He was but a guest at a wayside 
 inn. And in his plans he was counting without his Host. For God 
 suddenly called him away, and of all the goods he had laid past he 
 could carry nothing with him. His selfishness defeated itself. When 
 death came, it stripped him of all that he had counted precious. 
 
 Hence the "so" means, that whoever is worldly and selfish — 
 whether it is money or not that his heart is most set upon — is just 
 like that foolish man. He is not shrewd — he is not wise in the real 
 sense. However eager he has been in laying past, he has not been 
 laying past the true and abiding riches. 
 
 Jesus again and again insists that what one is, is far more 
 important than what one has. It is not the girl with most dolls or 
 the finest dresses, it is not the boy with the most toj)s and kites and 
 marbles and pocket-money, that is to be most admired and envied ; 
 but it is the girl or the boy with the most pure, and true, and 
 loving nature — the boy or the girl with the richest heart. 
 
 Seek, then, that your heart may be made rich. Lay claim by 
 faith to the unsearchable riches of Christ. He will give you, not 
 only pardon, and peace, and joy, but those inward graces of 
 character, by the blessing of His Spirit, which will be a kind of 
 riches that you will carry with j^ou into the next world, when death 
 summons you to enter upon the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 
 174 
 
♦* abba/' jfatber, June 22 
 
 " Ye have receiveil the Sjnrii qf Adoption, wheixby we cry, *Ahba' Father " 
 (Rom. viii. 15). 
 
 You young people have your own ideas about God. Sometimes you 
 think of Him as a great Being, who made the world, and governs it ; 
 and who lives high above us, in a heavenly palace, with angels and 
 archangels to sing His praise. But sometimes you think of Him — 
 and does it not bring you comfort ? — as " our Heavenly Father." 
 
 This is a beautiful name for God. It is a name which Jesus 
 taught us. How often He spoke about God as His Father 1 Did 
 you ever notice that the first recorded sayings of Jesus makes 
 mention of His Heavenly Father (Luke ii. 49), and that His last 
 saying upon the Cross (Luke xxiii. 46) makes mention of Him too ? 
 And not at the beginning only, and at the end, but all through His 
 life, the thought of His Father was constantly in His mind. "The 
 Father," He said, " is always with Me." 
 
 You, as well as Jesus, are permitted to use this name in speaking 
 about God. And you are allowed to use it in speaking to God. He 
 loves to hear j-ou saying to Him, day \>j day — " Abba," Father. 
 
 But, remember, in order to use it aright you will need the right 
 spirit — what the Bible calls " the Spirit of Adoption." You know 
 what is meant by a person "adopting" a child? It means, taking 
 a child into the family, and treating it as a member of it. But how 
 sad when, after this is done, the child does not show the proper 
 spirit, and has to be turned away again ! 
 
 A lady once adopted a child in this way, a little outcast whom 
 she washed, and dressed, and fed, and was prepared in every way to 
 treat as her own daughter. But the little one had been already so 
 steeped in evil, and was so utterly bad as well as ungrateful, that 
 the lady felt constrained to part with her. She would be kind to 
 her still, and pay for her board and education, but she could not 
 have her in her home and call her "my child." 
 
 But when God adopts. He gives the Spirit of Adoption, to fit us 
 for a place in His family. May that be seen in you — the same 
 mind which was in Christ Jesus ! For " the Spirit of Adoption " 
 just means " the Spirit of Christ." 
 
 175 
 
June 23 OtOOftlng UlltO 5C6U9. 
 
 "Looking unto Jesus, (he author anOj finisher of faith" (Heb. xii. 2). 
 
 A DROWNING man may be said to be saved the moment he steps into 
 the lifeboat. But it is also true that he is saved only as he continues 
 in the lifeboat. So a single look at the Crucified One may be truly 
 said to bring salvation. But it is no less true that, in order to be 
 saved, we must keep looking unto Jesus. 
 
 The Christian life, in the passage where the text occurs, is re- 
 garded as a race, in which " staying-power " is needed ; and the 
 secret of having and manifesting this is here indicated — "looking unto 
 Jesus." What chiefly gives encouragement and strength to the 
 runners is, not the fact that others are running with them, and that 
 there is a great cloud of witnesses, but the privilege they have of 
 looking continually in the face of Christ — who, having traversed the 
 path before them, amid discouragements far greater than any they 
 have to meet, is standing at the goal, with His face beaming on them 
 in loving interest, and His arms stretched out over them in blessing. 
 It is as we keep looking to Him, and have His Spirit imparted to 
 us, that we shall make genuine and steady progress, and at length 
 obtain the prize. Here, then, is a suitable life-motto for you young 
 people who have already given the first look of saving faith to the 
 Lord Jesus. Continue as you have begun. Be thankful that He 
 has led you to begin the race at all. Be yet more thankful that He 
 is able and willing to enable you to finish it with victory. He is 
 not only the beginner, but the perfecter of faith. Keep " looking 
 unto Jesus." 
 
 Surely He may expect you to continue giving Him the look of 
 confidence. There is nothing which one who is thoroughly trust- 
 worthy values more than to be thoroughly and always trusted. Do 
 not hurt Jesus, and injure yourself, by denying Him the tribute of 
 your full and constant trust. 
 
 And surely you will not disappoint Him, as He looks to see in 
 your face the answering look, the habitual look of loving aspiration. 
 " Like Thee, Lord, and with Thee — that is what I fain would be ! " 
 If Jesus sees this longing in your face, as you turn it, and keep it 
 turned towards Himself, He will know how to lead you onward 
 to its fulfilment. Join in the ringing watchword, "Excelsior" — 
 Higher, ever Higher, — Upward unto Him ! But, whether in the 
 valley or upon the height, — in moments of discouragement as well 
 as of exultation, — this gentler voice will be your main support — 
 "Looking unto Jesus." 
 
 176 
 
flaileD to tbe Doorpost, June 24 
 
 "I l<yi'e my Master ; I will not go out free" (Ex. xxi. D). 
 
 The case supposed is that of a Hebrew who has fallen into debt, or 
 committed some offence unworthy of a freeman. According to the 
 law, he has forfeited the rights of free citizenshii) ; and he may, in 
 such circumstances, be sold to a brother Israelite, and have laliour 
 exacted from him in i)ayment of the debt, or in expiation of his 
 crime. But his servitude is not always to last. The trumpet of 
 Jubilee, if it sounds, will proclaim bis freedom ; and, in any case, 
 he must be allowed, when the seventh year comes, " to go out free 
 for nothing." Only, if he has formed such an attachment, mean- 
 while, to the household of which he has been, during these years, 
 a humble member, and is unwilling to go out, he may still secure 
 a place in it, by freely giving up his freedom. His master, in that 
 case, will take an awl, and bore his ear through against the doorpost, 
 in token that he is never to be parted from the home circle within. 
 For him, henceforth, there will be no more going out. He will 
 serve his master for ever, but as a freeman at heart — less a bondman 
 than a son. 
 
 Now, no doubt it would require a very strong inducement to 
 bring a man thus to lay his freedom at another's feet. A ser\'ant 
 would not readily enter into such a permanent agreement with any 
 earthly master. But, in the case supposed, the sufficient motive is 
 not wanting. So thoroughly engaged are the affections of the servant, 
 that, so far from shrinking from a life-engagement, he wovdd feel it 
 the sorest of all compulsion for him to have to go away. 
 
 It is the power within the heart that makes all the difference. 
 You remember the story of the sirens, who used to lure passing 
 mariners to destruction with their beauty and their music. One 
 distinguished voyager, Ulysses, managed to pass them undestroyed, 
 by putting wax into the ears of his sailors, and tying himself with 
 thongs to the mast. But another band of voyagers sailed bravely 
 past the sirens, all unmoved by their most tempting strains. These 
 were the Argonauts ; and the secret of it was, that they had Orpheus 
 with his lute on board, so that they had ears for none beside. 
 
 May you have Jesus with you in the ship ! Then the sirens of 
 carnal pleasure will not allure you to death with their most tempt- 
 ing strains. Christ's love, with its sweet constraint, will break the 
 ■world's spell. As His voice keeps speaking to the heart, you will 
 say to the world's temptations — "I will not go out free." 
 
 (12) 177 
 
j\me 25 WeaUness in Sttengtb. 
 
 " Then shall I be weak, and be as another man " (Judg. xvi. 7). 
 
 Samson's boyhood was apparently a bright one. He was born into 
 a pious home : the one thing wanting for the complete happiness 
 of which seemed to have been given, when this little boy was sent 
 by God to Manoah and his wife. Before, there was no nursery in 
 their dwelling : the laugh and prattle of childhood was not heard 
 within its walls. This, if to any, was a great trial to an Israelitish 
 woman, who, if she had a child, might hope to be the ancestress, if 
 not the mother, of the Promised Seed. But the boy's coming shed 
 such a brightness within their home that his parents called him 
 Samson, " The Sunny One." And now, Manoah feels that his own 
 name — " My Eewarder, the Lord " — is more fitting than ever ; for 
 God has been very kind. It is with pious thankfulness that they 
 observe the growth of the child, and the evidence that he gives in 
 youth that the Spirit of the Lord is stirring within his breast. 
 For a time there is illustrated in him the secret of true progress — 
 " The child grew, and the Lord blessed him." 
 
 But Samson the young man out in the world is not the same as 
 Samson the child nestling under the pious parents' roof. He soon 
 shows, in the matter of his marriage and otherwise, a self-will and 
 selfishness that portend mischief. His is, indeed, " a strange, event- 
 ful history." He proves himself to be the most curious compound 
 of strength and weakness. Though, as a Nazarite, he is separated 
 from the world, there is in him much of the earth, earthy ; and, all 
 through his life, we seem to see two powers striving for the mastery 
 — the power of the Spirit and that of the flesh. Is it not the same 
 with every one of us ? May there not be a battle carried forward in 
 some boy or girl's breast (cf . Rom. vii. 21-25) which is rSore important 
 for him or her than a Waterloo ? 
 
 As we follow Samson's feats of prowess, we cannot but admire 
 the unfailing courage and cheerfulness that shone through him, eA'en 
 when he was left to fight his battle single-handed. So long as the 
 Lord was with him, he found that " one could chase a thousand " ; 
 and the news of his early exploits made hope dawn again in the 
 nation's breast. But he was not, alas ! to be the Deliverer of Israel. 
 Samson is a sad disappointment after all. Though enormously 
 strong in body, he is not strong in mind, and has not a fixed and 
 lofty purpose in his heart. He is full of whims ; and, even when 
 assailing the Philistines, he attacks them less as a patriot than as a 
 man who wants to avenge some personal slight. And then, when 
 the great giant sinks into the lap of Delilah, and trifles with his vow, 
 and the Lord is departed from him, the secret of his weakness is 
 speedily discovered by his foes. He becomes an easy prey, and is 
 soon a blind slave grinding in the prison-house — a wreck, a splendid 
 failure 1 A great soul is better than a strong body. As Isaac Watts 
 sang — 
 
 " Were I so tall as reach the Pole, 
 Or grasp the ocean in my span, 
 I must be measured by my soul ; 
 The mind's the standard of the man." 
 178 
 
Strengtb in IClcahnces. June 26 
 
 " Strengthen mc, 1 pray thee, only this once, Ood" (Judg. xvi. 28). 
 
 Samson's strenglli, as we noted yesterday, made liim only a splendid 
 failure. He Avas not careful to use his gifts for the glory of God, 
 but squandered tliem on selfish uses. He could not say no to him- 
 self. He yielded to his besetting sin — a snare of the flesh. He 
 sought it again and again, like the silly moth attracted by the 
 flame ; and he was sadly scorched by it at last. He grieved away 
 the Spirit ; and though he Avas insensible for a time (verse 20) of the 
 evil change that had come over him, we soon see what sin made him, 
 and what sin makes the strongest and proudest of men, when it has 
 its way — a blind slave grinding in a prison-house ! 
 
 But now the bottom of " the down-grade " has been reached for 
 Samson. He begins to rise again : and at last (verse 30) he is a 
 genuine hero. There had all along been good in him, with much 
 alloy. As the gold must be tried in the fire, so his heart had to l^e 
 purged with pain. Sweet are the uses of adversity. He gets 
 nearer to God in the prison than he has been in days that seemed 
 more prosperous. His hair begins to grow again, and with it his 
 spirit of devotion, his courage, his might. The Philistines, looking 
 at their blind captive, make sport of him on a great feast-day to 
 Dagon, their " fish god." But they can look only on the outward 
 ajjpearance : they do not read what is passing in the heart. 
 
 In that crowded heathen temple, Samson feels, amid their 
 revelry, that it has come at last to a direct and public trial between 
 the religion of Israel and of Philistia. He is a different Samson — 
 poor, blind, groping man ! — from what he once was. Yes, a different, 
 but a better Samson. For, in penitence he has found pardon ; 
 through affliction he has been purged of pride ; and in his weak- 
 ness he is to find true strength. See ! his lips move — not in defiance 
 of his enemies, or in helpless scorn, but in prayer. Then, with his 
 hands on the jullars of the house, he bows himself with all his 
 might. The answer comes. The temple is a ruin ; and Samson 
 has fallen with his foes. But he has died for God's honour. The 
 pride of Philistia is laid low. The Nazarite has risen at last to the 
 full meaning of his vow. Given over utterly to God, Samson in 
 death has triumphed by the power of prayer. 
 
 May we not see in Samson's death a faint picture of another ? 
 Of the people there were none with him ; but in his death he 
 accomplished, by his self-surrender, what in his life he could not 
 have achieved. So was it with Jesus. He trod the winepress alone ; 
 but, in His sacrifice of Himself in the room of His people. He 
 glorified God, vanquished our foes, and wrought our complete 
 deliverance. What a friend we have in Jesus 1 " He gives us rest 
 by His sorrow, and life by His death." 
 
 279 
 
June 27 Cbrist's jfcast anJ) asaiiner. 
 
 "lie brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me loas Love" 
 (Song of Sol. ii. 4). 
 
 The feast Christ gives His people is a better feast titan the world's 
 feast at its best. Is has more satisfying fare — food which satisfies 
 the hunger of the heart ; and the peace which He gives His people 
 is a peace which the world cannot give and cannot take away. 
 
 It is told of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, that one of his 
 courtiers, Damocles by name, having spoken in a flattering and 
 envious way of the happiness of kings, he prepared a rich feast, 
 and set Damocles in the seat of honour at the royal board. For a 
 time, the sycophant counted himself supremely happy. Amid the 
 IDalatial furnishings, and in the enjoyment of the costly viands, he 
 felt " as happy as a king." But, chancing to look up, he saw what 
 put a sudden end to all his mirth. For lo ! there hung right above 
 his head a keen and glittering sword, suspended by a single horse- 
 hair ! And he learned from this practical device on the part of 
 Dionysius, how insecure is the tenure of mere earthly happiness, and 
 how foolish it is to envy the luxury of earthly princes. 
 
 But at the banquet of Christ there is no such element of 
 insecurity and danger. His beloved, on looking up, sees not a 
 naked drawn sword, but a banner. And on its rich folds there is a 
 legend inwrought, which is full both of comfort and of inspiration. 
 It consists of a single word —Love. 
 
 Now, young reader, if you have a place beneath Christ's banner, 
 it means, first of all, that you have been conquered by Love. Your 
 heart has been subdued by the love expressed on Calvary. The 
 Cross has conquered. Christ has won your heart. You are not an 
 unwilling captive, dragged at His chariot wheel ; but He has made 
 you willing, in the day of His power, to abide under His banner as 
 a trophy of His grace. 
 
 And then it means that you are now a soldier of Love. Christ's 
 banner is also yours. Your presence beneath it implies, not only 
 that you desire to love all who are beneath it already, but to win by 
 love,"to the allegiance of your Heavenly King, those who as yet are 
 among His enemies. " My love to you ! " — " My love to you ! " was all 
 that a missionary, landing uj^on a barbarous island in the South Seas, 
 was able to say, in their strange language, to the natives drawn up 
 in line, with their clubs and sj)ears, to receive him. But his face 
 told them that he meant it ; and the few words were enough. The 
 clubs and spears were set aside ; and soon the missionary and the 
 savages were the best of friends. There is no weapon to compare 
 with Love. 
 
 i8o 
 
Bvcre ©ne from Dis place. June 28 
 
 "Men shall worship Him, every one from his place" (Zeph. ii. 11). 
 
 Have you ever heard of the Dancing Dervishes ? It was my good 
 fortune to see them once in Constantinople, and to witness their 
 strange and interesting religious service. It consisted in a remark- 
 able dance, long sustained, with the most extraordinary ease and 
 regularity — each of the Dervishes, with arms outspread, and head 
 leaning on his shoulder, spinning round as on his own axis, and at 
 the same time moving round the hall, and through among his com- 
 panion-worshippers, in a series of twinings so rapidly and dexter- 
 ously carried through as to be almost difficult for the eye to follow. 
 There were no collisions : every man kept in his place toward his 
 neighbours. And why ? Because they were each and all keeping 
 in right relation toward an imaginary central sun. Their worship 
 was, I believe, an earthly imitation of the praise which is silently 
 rendered to God by the serene[and steady motions of the weU-balanced 
 planets of the sky. 
 
 It is a great New Testament privilege, to be permitted to worship 
 God " every one from his place." Neither in Jerusalem now, nor 
 in Mount Gerizim, are men specially called to pay their homage 
 to the Most High ; but wherever the Father is worshipped in spirit 
 and in truth, the worship is acceptable to Him. Let us see to it, 
 then, that we daily worship Him from our place, and serve Him in 
 our place with true and loving heart. 
 
 There is a lesson for Christians from the poor superstitious 
 Dervishes of whom I have spoken. If our service is to be beautiful, 
 and harmonious, and effective — and, if we are to sustain becoming 
 and helpful relations to each other in it — it must be by each one of 
 us seeing to it that we are, and that we keep, in due relation to 
 Him who is our Central Sun. 
 
 Then will our worship and service be on earth "as it is in heaven." 
 Not only, as in the material heavens, where all the planets move in 
 their appointed courses, and — though "there is no speech nor 
 language, and their voice is not heard" — sing the Great Creator's 
 praise ; but as in the holy Heaven, beyond them and unseen to 
 mortal view, where ransomed sinners, in the company of unfallen 
 angel.-j, serve Christ, and see His face, and have His name written 
 upon their foreheads ! There is no dead uniformity there, any 
 more than there is on earth. There are many posts on high, and 
 servants differently qualified to fill them. '"Each in his office 
 waits " ; and there is perfect harmony among themselves, because 
 they are all the while waiting upon Him. 
 
 i8i 
 
June 29 1bolg Bitget. 
 
 " And the Lord said, I mil destroy man" (Gen. vi. 7). 
 
 After Abel's death, a little brother, Seth, was born to fill his place 
 on earth. And so, we read, the world went on : good people and 
 bad people both increasing. There were manj'- wandering, like Cain, 
 from God— forgetting, despising, hating Him. There were others 
 who " called upon the name of the Lord " — trusting Him, and seek- 
 ing to serve Him. The two kinds appear for a time to have kept 
 apart. But by and by they got mingled together ; and the taint of 
 wickedness got more and more clearly the upper hand. There were 
 plenty of great men in the world — " giants," mighty in stature, very 
 strong, and clever, and famous — " men of renown." But good men, 
 of the type of Enoch, more precious than great ones, were exceeding 
 scarce ; and, for one obeying God's Spirit, there were multitudes 
 serving sin. 
 
 And the Lord, who has no pleasure in greatness apart from good- 
 ness, was " grieved at His heart " by the wickedness of men. He 
 grew weary of striving by His Spirit in their hearts ; and so bad did 
 the world at last become, that God determined to destroy it. But 
 you will observe of what sort was this wrath of God, which so 
 deservedly went forth against sin. It was not the anger which is 
 sometimes seen in men, and was seen, for example, in Cain. It was 
 not a blind fury like that of an enraged wild beast, only bent on 
 sweeping all before it. No; it was a hokj anger, which did 
 not forget the difference between good and bad. " In the midst of 
 wrath, God remembered mercy." In righteous indignation, mingled 
 with sorrow, Jehovah said — "I will destroy man, whom I have 
 created." " But," it is added, — one of many important " buts " in 
 the Bible — " But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." And 
 God gave him directions for the building of the Ark to the saving 
 of his house. 
 
 Should we not be taught by this early passage in the history of 
 our human race, God is slow to wrath ; but what an awful thing 
 God's anger is, when it is stirred? It brings death. The most 
 dreadful of all wrath is the wrath of the Lamb. And what a fear- 
 ful thing it is, when the Spirit of the Lord ceases to strive with men, 
 when conscience even is hushed and stifled, and they are left to the 
 doom of sin ! How blessed and safe a tiling it is, on the other hand, 
 to " walk with God," like Noah ; and how condescending it is in God 
 to invite us to walk not only after Him or before Him, but with 
 Him, as His friends and children ! And how can we be thankful 
 enough that there is an Ark of Safety for our souls provided by God 
 Himself 1 You have not to toil long years in making it ; but simply 
 to step into it and be safe. Commit yourself to Jesus. Come thou 
 into the Ark I 
 
 l82 
 
XTbinK of ©tbew. June 30 
 
 " Look every man also on the things of others " (Phil, ii. 4). 
 
 There is nothing more contrary to the spirit of the gospel than the 
 sin of selfishness ; and there is no duty more plainly taught in the 
 Bible, than the duty to consider others and to seek their good. It 
 is very certain that, by what we are and what we do, we are either 
 helping or hindering others day by day ; and, of the responsibility 
 which thus is ours and which cannot be shaken off, we should bethink 
 us oftener and more earnestly than we do. 
 
 The ancients had a parable to illustrate the truth that no man 
 can do evil without others suffering too ; and it was intended to 
 teach how very thoughtless, as well as selfish, evil-doers often are. 
 A vessel — so the story ran — put out to sea with a passenger on 
 board who was found cutting a hole beneath his berth, through the 
 ship's side. The others remonstrated with him — " What doest thou, 
 miserable man ? " But, continuing at his perilous freak, he coolly 
 answered — " ^Vhat matters it to you ? The hole I have made 
 lies under my own berth." This man had evident reason to be 
 taught, that none of us Uveth to himself. So is it with many others. 
 It is sometimes said, as a judgment of charity upon a wrong-doer 
 — " He is his own worst enemy." But none can be an enemy to 
 himself without being an injury to a great many besides. It was 
 a lifelong grief to John Newton, after his conversion, that, in his 
 unregenerate days, he had by his example and influence led so many 
 others astray. The thought of a young midshipman of the Harwich, 
 in particular, lay heavy on his heart. Ne^vton's example had led him 
 into sin ; but when, changed himself, Newton afterwards tried to 
 reclaim him, it was in vain. The midshipman at length threw 
 himself into a malignant fever through his misdeeds, and died a 
 miserable death, without a symptom of hope in God. 
 
 But there is a brighter side to the truth we are now considering 
 Every true, honourable character, every good and honest piece of 
 work, is telling and shall tell for good, in quarters and in circum- 
 stances little thought of at the time. The old smith who wrought 
 with such pains and thoroughness at the big chain in his grimy shoi"», 
 was laughed at — as we read — by the smart ones who looked in, for 
 his excessive trouble. But he would not scamp his work, and the last 
 link was forged as carefully as the first. When, long years after, 
 the storm-tossed ship was drifting on the rocks, and anchor after 
 anchor was lost, till at last the great sheet-anchor with the heavy 
 old chain was flung out, and they breathlessly watched to see if it 
 would abide the strain — there was no derision, but deep thankf id- 
 ness in the breasts of crew and passengers, when they saw that the 
 anchor held, and kept the vessel riding safe through the storm. The 
 old smith might be gone ; but the good he had done li\'ed after liim. 
 His plain but honest work liad been the means of saving the lives 
 of others. 
 
 183 
 
Juiyi XLbc (5o& Of (bopc. 
 
 " The God of ITajjefll you with all joy and i)eace in believing" (Rom. xv. 13). 
 
 Is not this a beautiful name for God — " tlie God of Hope ! " He has 
 many precious names in the Bible ; but this is one for young people, 
 like you, very specially to treasure — " the God of Hope." 
 
 Why is God spoken of so ? For different reasons, I think. For 
 one thing, it was God alone who could have cherished hope for 
 fallen man, when sin entered Eden and wrought his ruin. All was 
 dark in that terrible hour for man, and there seemed to be nothing 
 left for him but despair. But, just then, like a wedge of golden 
 sunshine in a black and cloudy sky, God's word of promise came. 
 He spoke to our first parents of the coming Deliverer : spoke to 
 them a word of hope, which lifted them from despair and utter 
 desolation. And all down the Old Testament centuries, Jehovah 
 was still the God of Hope, pointing His chosen people forward to a 
 greater blessedness than they yet had known, which was to be 
 ushered in by the Coming One. 
 
 And now we especially see, in " our Lord Jesus, who is our 
 Hope " (1 Tim. i. 1), how worthy God is of this bright and inspiring 
 name. It is in God's own Son, who came in the fulness of time, 
 that the fondest expectations awakened by that first gospel in Eden, 
 and all the gospel promises which succeeded it, have been realised. 
 It would be still a dark, despairing world, and a black outlook, if no 
 Saviour had visited our earth ; but He whose Son was sent to 
 redeem us is indeed the God of Hope. 
 
 And are you not prepared, from your own experience, to give 
 God this beautiful name ? Has He not by His Spirit awakened 
 bright hopes within your breast ? Is it not He who keeps the best 
 hope alive there, even when the cloudy weather threatens utterly 
 to overshadow you ? What is your most glorious hope, which 
 stretches out beyond the attainment, or the missing, of all other 
 objects, however dear 1 Is it not this — that you will one day have 
 an entrance into heaven, and be made fit to enter there 1 And, 
 when sin and failure oppress you, and your heart is ready to sink 
 within you, what keeps you from giving up even the aspiration 
 after better things ? What nerves you to press onward and upward 
 again, in the narrow way, in the patient energy of reawakened 
 hope ? What but this, that you have the God of Hope to fall back 
 upon, who, having begun His good work in you, will not leave the 
 work half done ! 
 
 184 
 
"WflorFi for iBvct^^bot)^, July 2 
 
 " What loilt Thou have vie to do V (Acts ix. 6). 
 
 If you belong to Christ, j'ou may depend upon it that He has 
 something for you to do. You are perhaps inclined to ask, " What 
 is there for me, for one so young, to do for Him ? " It is a good 
 question. It is the very question that Saul asked Jesus, when he 
 met Him on tho Damascus road ; and it is a question which the 
 Master loves to hear from anyone, if only it is honestly asked. 
 
 If you really want to do some good in Christ's name this week, 
 or this very day, you have only to look about and try. This is an 
 advice which a teacher, as he tells, once gave to his class with good 
 result. The boys smiled as though they did not believe that they 
 could be useful. But he got them to promise that they would try ; 
 and they agreed to tell him the following Sabbath how they had 
 succeeded. They parted ; and when the teacher met with them 
 next, each of the five had a smile upon his face, which showed that 
 he had something to tell. 
 
 " I thought of going to the well in the morning," one said, " to 
 save my mother trouble ; and she looked so pleased, I mean to keep 
 on carrying the pitcher every morning." " And I," said another, 
 " thought of a poor old woman, too blind to read, and I now go 
 every day, and read to her a chapter from the Bible." " And I," 
 said the next, " was going along, wondering how I could be of any 
 use, when a gentleman asked me to hold his horse. I did it ; and 
 here is the sixpence he gave to me. I have brought it for the 
 missionary box." " And I," said the next, " saw a little fellow 
 crying bitterly because he had lost some pennies, and, when I found 
 them for him in the gutter, he dried his tears and ran off quite 
 happy on his message." " I knew mother was very sick and tired 
 one day," said the last, "and baby was very cross. So I asked 
 mother to put him in my go-cart, and gave him a grand ride in the 
 garden. And how much cheerier mother looked, when I carried 
 him in again ! " 
 
 All these five scholars found it possible, you see, to make the 
 world somewhat brighter for their presence. " I would have run 
 His errands for Him" — was the answer of a little fellow who, 
 having expressed the wish that he had been on earth while Jesus 
 lived, was asked the reason. That was the answer of a loving heart. 
 But if you feel like him, you must remember that Jesus still lives, 
 and has still some errands for you. 
 
 185 
 
Julys a IRicb ^nbecltance. 
 
 " God hath given to us eternal life " (1 John v. 11). 
 
 This is a great inheritance. It is a priceless possession — eternal life. 
 
 You know something of what life means, though you cannot 
 explain it. You know it as the opposite of death ; and what death 
 is, at least in the shadow of it, some of you have sadly learned to 
 know, beside the coffin of a loved father or mother, or little brother 
 or sister. Now, life eternal is a life that never ends. But it is far 
 more than this, the inheritance of which we speak. It is a life of 
 perfect peace, and purity, and blessedness ; untouched by sorrow, or 
 want, or care ; in that beautiful city which has no need of the sun, 
 because Christ the Lamb is there, and the glory of God shines in it. 
 
 Eead, in the two last chajjters of the Bible, the description of 
 the blessed unending life in God's bright home, and say — Would 
 you like to be a sharer in that inheritance ? Or rather, let me ask 
 — Has it not been secured to you already ? 
 
 The Apostle John says that is already his, though he has not 
 entered on the full enjoyment of it ; and he names others with 
 himself, saying, " God hath given to us eternal life." Who are the 
 us here ? They are God's children. And who are God's children 1 
 Those who believe in Jesus as their Saviour. In the first verse of 
 this chapter we read — "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the 
 Christ is born of God." Have you believed in Him — trusted Him 
 as your Saviour ? Then God has given to you " a place among the 
 children " ; and, since Christ is yours, all things are yours in Him. 
 
 But if you count yourself a child of God, I hope there is some 
 likeness of your Heavenly Father and the Divine Elder Brother 
 appearing in you. It is told of the Roman censors, that they were 
 so shocked by the dissipated son of the great general Af ricanus, and 
 the contrast he presented to his dead father, that they refused to 
 allow him to wear a ring with his father's likeness engraved upon 
 it. " One so unlike the father's person," they said, " Avas not worthy 
 to wear the father's picture." We may be sure of this, that one 
 unlike the Heavenly Father could not possibly enjoy Heaven's 
 happiness, and that it is only those who are like Christ, through 
 grace, that shall be joint-heirs with Him for ever, 
 
 1 86 
 
Ube ISsneteu July 4 
 
 '* The Master is come, and callelhfor thee " (John xi. 28). 
 
 This is one of the most endearing names of Clirist, though at first 
 sight you might not think so. There is no name which in itself 
 has less sweetness in it, and }'et there is no name which falls more 
 sweetly on Christian ears than this — " the I\Iaster." At no time, to 
 those who truly know and love Him, is there anything of harshness 
 in it. " The Master is come, and calleth for tliee," it was said to 
 Mary, sitting in almost prostrate grief about her brother. And as 
 soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him — not in 
 obedience to a harsh necessity, which disturbed the sacredness of 
 sorrow, but as lovingly drawn to the feet of Him who was indeed 
 " the Master " — sin's Master, death's Master, hell's Master, but first 
 to Mary the Master of her heart. " The Master ! " There was to 
 the Bethany sisters no sweeter name for Christ ; and if only we 
 can put as much love into the name, there will be no sweeter name 
 to us. 
 
 Now, young people, the Master has come and called for you. 
 Have you gone to Him at His call, and yielded up yourself to Him 
 as His disciple, for whom it is the greatest privilege to be taught 
 and ruled by Him ? 
 
 The name " Master" makes you think of just these two things — 
 teaching and rulincj. To you who are at school, " the master " means 
 your teacher. To many of those about you, who are older, the 
 master means the person whom they serve. I hope that you all love 
 your teacher just now, and try to learn as much as you can from 
 him ; and that, when you boys go out into the world for situations, 
 you will find a good master, whom you will obey with pleasure. 
 But what I am specially anxious for is, that you would take Jesus, 
 now and for ever, as your Master in both senses, — to teach you and 
 to govern you, — and that you would seek to learn from Him as 
 much as you possibly can, and to obey Him always. 
 
 Happy are they who enter young the school and service of 
 Christ ! Happy are tliey who early give their hearts to Him, and 
 grow up to be, like Mnason, " old disciples " in His school, becoming 
 grey in the service of their Lord ! 
 
 187 
 
July 5 a "Wllalft on ©llvet 
 
 " Tha mount called the Mount of Olives " (Luke xix. 29), 
 
 If you were to visit Jerusalem, I am very sure that one of the first 
 things you would like to do would be, to climb the Mount of Olives. 
 In the city itself, many so-called " holy places " are exhibited to the 
 traveller which have really little or no connection with Bible history ; 
 and we know that the streets on which Jesus walked are buried 
 many feet beneath the level of the modern streets. But on the 
 Mount of Olives you feel that you are on sure ground. From its 
 slopes you look on the same landscape on which Jesus often looked ; 
 and, standing there, your mind and heart are filled with thoughts 
 of Him. What are some of the things the Mount of Olives makes 
 us think of? 
 
 (1) The Eedeemer's lorayers. For here it was that He so often 
 found a mountain sanctuary, a quiet retreat out of the bustle of the 
 noisy neighbouring city, where He might pour out His heart in the 
 presence of His Father. On one occasion we are told (John vii. 53 
 and viii. 1) that — after a day of preaching to the people, and of dis- 
 cussion with their rulers in Jerusalem — " every man went unto his 
 own house : Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives." He had no 
 home of His own to go to ; but He sought a home-shelter on the 
 hillside, where He could hold strengthening communion with the 
 Unseen. And though, no doubt. He might have found a lodging 
 that night in the city, or a welcome at Bethany at anyrate near by, 
 He preferred, as often, to sjjend the night in prayer for the world 
 He came to save. 
 
 (2) The Redeemer's tears. The Gospels tell us of two occasions 
 only, apart from Gethsemane (Heb. v. 7), in which tears fell from 
 the Saviour's eyes. Once, when He shed those tears of brotherly 
 sympathy with the bereaved at the grave of Lazarus ; and the other 
 time, when He shed tears of divine compassion over doomed Jeru- 
 salem. As we look across the valley of Jehoshaphat to the city, from 
 the path leading toward it over the shoulder of Olivet, we recall 
 the significant scene when, amid the hosannas of the multitude, 
 " Jesus beheld the city, and wept over it." And it gives us solemn 
 thoughts of the Redeemer's tears over lost souls. 
 
 (3) The Redeemer's agony and glory. Both of these are associated 
 in our minds with Olivet. In the garden at its base — the place 
 called Gethsemane — " He began to be sorrowful " with a sorrow that 
 we can never measure, so that His sweat was, as it were, great drops 
 of blood falling down to the ground ; He found there a refuge in 
 prayer, and, in resignation, won the victory. And it was from the 
 slope of Olivet overlooking Bethany (Luke xxiv. 50), that He 
 ascended to the right hand of the Father. What a depth the Son 
 of God had stooped to, in His agony for siuners ! What a height 
 He has risen to now, in entering again on the excellent glory above ! 
 But as we stand on Olivet we may remember that He is still the 
 same Jesus who, when His disciples saw Him last, was stretching out 
 His hands over them in heavenly benediction ; and that, according 
 to His promise, He will come again to receive them to Himself. 
 
 l88 
 
^be Secret of a ibapps Ibome July 6 
 
 "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord " (Josh. xxiv. 15). 
 
 This was a uoble resolve on the part of Joshua ; and wo know how 
 true and valiant a servant of the Lord he hunself was. In the 
 choice he here avows, and the determination he announces, his 
 family are included with himself ; and one wonders in how far they 
 stood faithful to the resolution of their noble father. In so far as 
 the example and influence of the head of the household could 
 influence the members, we may be very sure that Joshua's would be 
 a God-fearing family and a pious home. But his hope and ambition 
 for his household could only, after all, be realised through each 
 separate memlier of the family making the father's choice and 
 resolve his own. That Joshua's home might be all that he wished it 
 to be, it was needful that each of his children should yield his own 
 heart and devote his own life to his father's God. 
 
 So is it still. It is not enough for any of my young readers to 
 know that his or her parents are true Christians, and to reckon 
 that all will be well because they are serving God. Religion has to 
 be, in every case, a personal matter — an aifair of the individual 
 heart. It is a very possible thing for your father and motlier to go 
 to heaven, and you to be left without. But what a blessed thing it 
 is Avhen an entire household, parents and children together, are " one 
 in Christ " ! What a joy to a Christian father it is to be able to say, 
 from what he sees and knows of his bojs and girls — speaking for 
 them as well as for himself — " As for me and my hoxise, we will 
 serve the Lord." 
 
 Whom have you chosen, then, to serve ? Young as you are, God 
 has already, by His Spirit, been calling you to decision. See that 
 your choice is the right one. Seek first the Kingdom of God and 
 His righteousness ; and you will have every reason, both in this life 
 and the next, to be satisfied with the choice that you have made. 
 A London gentleman who did quaint things, took a curious way 
 once of impressing this truth upon his servants. He called them in, 
 one by one, and asked them to choose between a Bible and a five- 
 pound note. The groom said he could not read well, and he would 
 take the money. The gardener said he had trouble at home, and 
 the five pounds would be very useful. The cook, with visions of a 
 new dress, made the same choice. At last the errand-boy was 
 called, and he said — " I remember how my dear mother used to say, 
 ' Thy Word is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.' 
 I'll take the Bible, sir ! " " God bless you, my boy ! " said his kind 
 master. " You will never have reason to regret your choice 1 May 
 God add to you riches, and honour, and long life ! " And as the 
 boy took the Bible reverently in his hand, he found, in the place 
 where it opened, a five-pound note between the leaves. This was a 
 first, though unlooked-for, lesson to him, that sooner or later it will 
 appear that God will not suffer them to be losers who have made 
 Him their choice. 
 
 189 
 
July 7 a •Ibar& Xife. 
 
 " The loay of transgressors is hard" (Prov. xiii. 15). 
 
 On the evening of 14tli February 1894, tlie body of a man was 
 found on the railway near Redhill, in England, and in the pocket 
 of his coat the following pathetic communication : — " My name is 
 
 Robert , of , Essex. I am now about to finish a revolting, 
 
 cruel, and wicked existence by an act of my own. I have broken 
 every law of God and man, and can only hope that my memory will 
 rot in the minds of all who once knew me. Drink has brought me 
 to this fearful end. I am dying hopeless, friendless, penniless, and 
 an outcast. And it might have been so different." 
 
 Yet that poor fellow was once, no doubt, some fond mother's 
 pride. As she treasured him in her arms as a babe, or watched his 
 growth in early youth, she little thought where his jmth was yet to 
 lead him. " And it might have been so different ! " Different 
 indeed it might and would have been, had he chosen the good way, 
 and walked therein. But the way of transgressors — how often have 
 we seen it ! — is hard. 
 
 A life such as is pictured in the above melancholy lines is some- 
 times called a fast life. And so it is. For it quickly runs its 
 course ; and, however jovial it may appear for a little while, its 
 gaiety becomes more and more forced and unreal : there is all the 
 while a sickness at its heart ; and the end of these things is death. 
 
 Such a life is certainly, also, a hard life. There is a good deal 
 of hardship endured on earth, often, by the well-behaved and well- 
 deserving. But hardship, in such cases, may be turned into a 
 blessing, as part of the discipline whereby they are being prepared 
 for a noble destiny. The worst of all hardship is that which the 
 sinner inflicts upon himself ; and the bitterest element of the cup 
 of misery he has to drink is this — "And it might have been so 
 different ! " 
 
 The narrow way of life, though it may seem steep and difficult 
 at first, is found, by those who walk in it, the way of true pleasant- 
 ness and peace. It is the way of transgressors that turns out — 
 however broad and easy it appears at the beginning — terribly, 
 unspeakably, hard. 
 
 190 
 
Salvation bg (Brace. Julys 
 
 " Not of works, lest any man should boast " (Epli. ii. 9). 
 
 It is a very natural, and a very coiunioii inquiry — " What good thing 
 shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life ?" There is something in 
 the human heart which leads people, even when they have been 
 lirought to feel their need of salvation, to ask, what good thing 
 they may themselves do in order to deserve it. 
 
 Some time ago, I was in Rome ; and, among other objects of 
 interest, I saw there a famous staircase. It is called Pilate's Stair- 
 case, because of a tradition that it was once the staircase of the Judg- 
 ment Hall of Pilate in Jersualem — the staircase on which Jesus 
 descended, when the Roman governor, looking upon Him, said — 
 " Behold the man ! " When I saw it, there were a number of poor 
 devotees struggling up the staircase upon their knees, without 
 venturing to touch the steps with their hands ; and on each step 
 they were muttering a prayer. WTiat was the meaning of this ? It 
 just meant, that, by this act of penance, they hoped to commend 
 themselves to God, and to do something thereby to earn eternal life. 
 
 Yet this was the very staircase upon which, as he climbed it, 
 divine light visited the soul of Martin Luther. As he was 
 laboriously making his way up the Scala Santa, uttering an 
 incantation on each step, he seemed to hear a voice sounding in his 
 ear — " The just shall live by faith." Rising to his feet, he made his 
 way back to Germany. It was no human voice that had spoken in 
 his ear, but the voice of the living Spirit of the li\dng God. And 
 soon he was proclaiming in trumpet tones, which compelled the 
 attention of Germany and of the world, the grand central doctrine 
 of the Reformation — justification by faith alone. 
 
 " Not of works, lest any man should boast." You would like, no 
 doubt, to have a share in the merit of your salvation. But it must 
 be all of grace. You must accept salvation as God's free gift, 
 purchased with the precioiis blood of His well-beloved Son. " Not 
 of works, lest any man should boast." 
 
 191 
 
July 9 jfaltbful in Xittle anD Iti /iftucb. 
 
 " Who is a faithful servant ? " (Matt. xxiv. 45). 
 
 It is a pleasant sight, to see a good servant in tlie employment of a 
 good master, whom he has served so long and faithfully that his 
 master feels and knows that he can be trusted -with anything. One 
 such rises now before my mind's eye, though he is dead long ago. 
 He had been fifty years in the employment of the same firm. His 
 employers, at the end of that time, gave him a Jubilee celebration, 
 with a crown-piece for every year of service ; so that a witty minister 
 who was present said — " Queen Victoria has one crown ; but John 
 has fifty crowns ! " 
 
 " Who then is a faitlif ul servant ? " I would answer — 
 
 1. He is one whose heart is wholly in his Master's work. It is a 
 rule which knows no exceptions, that where a servant's heart is 
 divided, he is found faulty. If anyone is trying to serve both God 
 and Mammon — Christ and the world — he will be doing his best for 
 neither. And, certainly, siicli an one is not a faithful servant in the 
 sight of God. He expects His people to serve Him with the whole 
 heart. 
 
 2. He is o?ie who is as careful of his Master's interests as if they were 
 his own. This, indeed, follows from what has been said already. 
 If there is the single heart, and that entirely yielded to the Lord, 
 there will be the single eye as well, to the advancement of the 
 Master's plan. I like to hear a workman speak, not of " their con- 
 cern," but of " our concern " — not of " their firm," but of " our firm " ; 
 and to see him working for his emj^loyers as eagerly as if he were 
 "on his own account." And so shovdd it be with the Christian. 
 There should be no thought of " mine " as against " thine " between 
 him and his Lord. 
 
 3. He is one who is observant of details of duty. He is not content 
 to do well on the whole, but is bent on doing wholly well. And so 
 he is attentive to little things. Society everwyhere is suffering from 
 negligence about matters of detail ; and so is the Christian Church. 
 The faithful servant is one who not merely is "interested in 
 everything that is good " ; but who is so interested in his o^vn 
 particular piece of work that he is resolved to do it, at anyrate, 
 thoroughly well. The little sins, little failings, little errors, little 
 opportunities, little duties are not overlooked by "the faithful 
 servant." 
 
 3. He is especially one in whom the fear of God is mingled with 
 regard for man. A servant-girl was asked what difference her con- 
 version had made in her character and conduct. Her reply was — 
 " I always sweep below the mats now, sir." Nobody likes, even in 
 the petty affairs of life, to have to do with people whom we can trust 
 no farther than we can see them. But when a person lives "in 
 singleness of heart, fearing God," he can be trusted, in things great 
 or small. In the Church, or out in the world, such an one may be 
 safely relied upon as "a faithful servant."' 
 
 192 
 
acQualntancc \v(tb <3oJ). July lo 
 
 "Acquaint now thyself icith Ilim, and be at peace" (Job xxii. 21). 
 
 Peace is a boon which all men crave ; and here we are taught the 
 true way of attaining it. 
 
 The very word peace is pleasant to our ears ; and at tliis season 
 of the year the eye loves to rest upon the quiet scenes of nature, 
 such as some of you will be visiting in the holidays. The summer 
 landscape, with its waving fields, and its cattle browsing on the 
 sunny mead, near the tranquil homestead, over which the smoke 
 wreathes lazily to heaven ; or the still evening scene, by the peace- 
 ful hamlet, near the river or the lake, on whose gently rippling 
 waters dances the fair moon's silvery sheen — which of us does not 
 love to dwell upon scenes like these, just because they speak to the 
 heart as well as the eye, as visions of peace ? 
 
 But what men long for is, a deeper peace than any which Nature 
 has to offer : a peace which can only be found in God. 
 
 The conscience is ill at ease because of sin, which is the great 
 disturber in God's universe. The heart is troubled with doubts and 
 questionings for which earth has no s;itisfying answer. The life is 
 vexed with petty cares and trivial annoyances, from whicli, even if 
 heavy trial be absent, a haven of retreat is sighed for. And he who 
 longs for a refuge, and asks where peace of conscience, heart, and life 
 is to be found — must find his answer here — " Acquaint thyself with 
 God." Not in a place, but in a Person : a living, loving One, into 
 whose ear we may pour our penitence, and our trouble, and our 
 inner conflict — to whom we may bring our petty vexations, as well 
 as our weightier burdens — in such an One as God must we seek 
 relief. And if only we are riglitly aci^uainted with God, we shall 
 be comforted in drawing near to Him, just as your little burdened 
 heart was often comforted in early childhood, and perhaps since 
 then, as you foimd a refuge in your mother's lap. 
 
 The knowledge of God which brings peace, is that knowledge 
 of Himself to which His Spirit leads us, through what He has been 
 graciously pleased to reveal in His Word, and especially in the 
 person and work of Him who could say, " He tliat hatli seen Me 
 hath seen the Father." And it is not a mere laying-hold with the 
 head of certain truths about Him. It is the kind of actiuaintance 
 which can only be obtained by living with a person — walking with 
 Him, a.s Enoch walked with God, and holding daily personal con- 
 verse with Him. To this acquaintanceship with Him, God in Christ 
 most lovingly invites you. You are guilty ; but He is the guilty 
 sinner's Peace. You are perplexed ; but He is made of God unto 
 us wisdom, and you may commit your way tranquilly to Him. You 
 are perturbed and vexed in spirit. Draw near, John-like, to Jesus, 
 and pillow your head u])()n His breast ; and the peace of God which 
 
 J asses understanding will fill your soul. AVhat a Friend avc have in 
 esus ! 
 
 (13) 193 
 
July 11 B Hie in tbe IRigbt 1ban5. 
 
 " He cannot deliver his soul, nor say, ' Is there not a lie in my right hand. ' " 
 (Isa. xliv, 20). 
 
 This is the sad position of the idolater, as lie is described in this 
 chapter. Though he has taken a bit of the very wood with which 
 he has cooked his dinner, and made an idol of it, before which he has 
 fallen down in worship, crying, " Deliver me, for thou art my god," 
 and though the stock of a tree can certainly bring him no 
 sympathy or succour, he goes on in his delusion. He is far too much 
 debased, and too utterly blinded by his idolatry, to arouse himself 
 to the perception that his heart has been deceived, and that what 
 he has been mainly resting upon is nothing better than a sham. If 
 divine light, the knowledge of the true God, do not visit him, he 
 will go dowTi to death " with a lie in his right hand." 
 
 So is it stiU with multitudes. There are comparatively few who 
 are, like Ananias and Sapphira, smitten down by death in the very 
 act of uttering falsehood. But how many there are who pass into 
 the unseen world, leaning, not upon the strong and infallible support 
 of the divine promise, but upon some frail earthly reed, which will 
 not bear their weight at all amid the dark and deep defiles of the 
 Valley of Death, but will fail them in the hour when they need it 
 most, and pierce them to the heart 1 
 
 How different is the experience of those who advance to meet 
 the shadows with the truth of God in their right hand — knowing 
 that they have that to lean all their weight upon which will 
 infinitely more than bear, in any emergency, whatever strain they 
 may require to put upon it ! 
 
 So was it, very literally, with a young missionary, named Cottei-, 
 who set off with other three Englishmen, in 1890, to carry the gospel 
 to the poor heathen in the heart of Africa. Hardly had they landed 
 on the African coast when young Cotter fell sick and died ; and 
 they buried him with something in his right hand that he counted 
 very precious. What do you think it was 1 It was a little bit of 
 paper merely, containing the message he had gone out to Africa to tell 
 to the poor benighted people there : " The blood of Jesus Christ, His 
 Son, cleanseth us from all sin." On his deathbed, far away, he kept 
 that little slip of paper in his hand ; and, when death approached, 
 he asked that it might never be taken from him. And so, we are 
 told, it still lies in that dead hand in that distant land ! He died 
 with the truth in his hand, and, still better, in his heart, in the 
 strength of which death may be met without danger and without 
 fear — that in Jesus Christ, God's Son, we have an all-sufficient 
 Saviour. 
 
 194 
 
HOVlllG /IRUCb. July 12 
 
 "She loved miich : bul to wlwm little is forgiven, the same loveth little " 
 (Luke vii. 47.) 
 
 There is one thing which Jesns does look for in those whom He has 
 blessed ; and that is, the love of a grateful heart. It is indeed true 
 that what He has done for us was not done for a recompense. 
 Nothing is more certain than that the love and sacrifice of Jesus 
 never can be recompensed by mortal man. But " the coin of the 
 heart," as the Irishman called his gratitude, will surely be freely 
 given to Ilim by those who are partakers of His benefits. This He 
 hiis shown us that He values ; and He more than hints that, where 
 there is no desire to express it to Him, the reason must just be, that 
 His l)lessing has not been really sought and accepted at all. 
 
 Tlu' woman in this touching Gospel story did not earn forgiveness 
 by her loving words and deeds ; but by these she showed that she 
 had been consciously forgiven much, and felt deeply thankful for 
 the blessing she had received from Jesus in her soul. The formal, 
 cold-hearted Pharisee, again, too plainly showed that he did not 
 feel that he had anj'thing to be thankful for to Jesus. The truth 
 was, that he had not seen himself to be a sinner yet, and that the 
 last thing he would have thought of in his pride was, to come with 
 his sin to the Nazarene and ask forgiveness at His hands. The Lord 
 brings all of us to a searching touchstone when He asks, " Lovest 
 thou Me ? " 
 
 The mate of an Atlantic liner thus describes the thankfulness of 
 a passenger who had fallen overboard on a rougli but moonlit 
 night, and whose life the mate and two sailors had saved at the 
 peril of their own. Drawn helpless into the boat, and at length 
 brought in safety to the deck, the poor man was too exhausted to be 
 able either to walk or to speak. " He clasped our feet, and began to 
 kiss them. We disengaged ourselves from his embrace. He then 
 crawled after us, and, as we stepped back to avoid him, he followed 
 us — looking up at one moment with smiles and tears ; and then, 
 patting our wet footprints with his hand, he kissed them with eager 
 fondness. I never saw such a scene in my life. During the rest of 
 the voyage he showed the deepest gratitude, and, when he reached 
 the port, loaded us with jn-esents." 
 
 "Was not this very like the woman who washed the feet of Jesus 
 with her tears, and found a ready towel in her flowing hair, and 
 who kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment ? Who 
 would not be grateful to a sailor who rescued him from drowning ? 
 Who would not be grateful to a Saviour who has saved his soul from 
 death 1 
 
 195 
 
July 13 SaD ignorance. 
 
 " TJum knewest not the time of thy visitation " (Luke xix. 44). 
 
 The case of the Jews was surely a very sad one. They professed to 
 be looking for the Messiah, and some of them at least were eagerly 
 longing for Him. Yet, when Christ came, they did not receive Him. 
 They were looking for Him of whom the prophets spake. And, lo, 
 He was among them. But they knew it not. 
 
 There is a story of an old Irishwoman, told by James Gilmour 
 the missionary, which illustrates what sometimes happens still under 
 the gospel. The poor old body was grieving her heart out because 
 her son in America had not sent her money for the payment of her 
 debts. Yet, all the while, there was the post-office order in her hand, 
 which his letter had enclosed ! To her, it seemed a valueless piece 
 of paper. She did not appreciate its worth, though it was more than 
 she needed for the purpose on which her heart was so much set ! 
 
 An anxious sinner sometimes goes on sighing for deliverance, 
 crying out for a Saviour, when all the while the Saviour is just at 
 hand, and the promissory-note is his, if he will use it — " Believe in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." And sometimes 
 an anxious-minded saint allows his peace to be needlessly disturbed 
 by sad forebodings, and his heart oppressed by unnecessary burdens, 
 through failing to appreciate the literal truth of the assurance — 
 " The Lord will provide " ; and to obey in all circumstances the 
 invitation — " Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain 
 thee . . . Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for j^ou ! " 
 
 You may, perhaps, have heard the story of the vessel which had 
 wandered out of her course so long and far, that the supply of water 
 was quite exhausted. The crew were in great distress. Coming in 
 sight of another ship, they signalled her. On getting within hailing 
 distance, they told their trouble. Back came the answer, in trumpet 
 tones of wonderful cheer — " You are in the mouth of the Amazon. 
 Dip and drink I " Down went the buckets into what had seemed to 
 them the briny deej) ; and up came the welcome supply of fresh 
 river- water, to slake their burning thirst. They had been well-nigh 
 perishing for lack of what was all around them, and was freely 
 theirs for the taldng ! Even so, there are souls dying of thirst 
 while the water of life is within their offer, and within their reach, 
 if they will but "stoop, and drink, and live." 
 
 196 
 
ZTbe Uogagc of Xffc. Juiyi4 
 
 " Concerning faith have made shipwreck" (1 Tim, i. 19). 
 
 In early life yoii are at tlie outset of a voyage on a great ocean. 
 How long the voyage is to last you cannot tell, or how stormy the 
 weather you have to encounter may be. But I hope you do know 
 what port you are making for, and that you have taken right 
 precaution, and made duo provision, for reaching it in God's good 
 time? 
 
 The port of everlasting safety and unspeakable blessedness is 
 Heaven. Everybody starts with some vague expectation of getting 
 there. But multitudes never arrive at that haven, because they 
 have not a proper pilot on board their vessel j they do not sail by 
 the proper chart ; they do not have in store the necessary provision 
 for their souls' life ; and they are not minded to attend to the ship's 
 duties, which are so incumbent on those who are to make a safe and 
 successful voyage. 
 
 It is terribly possilile to make shipwreck of the life. Be not 
 high minded, but fear. There are many rudderless wrecks, broken 
 and dismantled, floating keel upward on the ocean of society, and 
 which, though they started on the voyage in gay security, are now 
 the sport of wind and tide. God save you from such a doom ! May 
 He in mercy grant, that under no stress of stormy weather — on no 
 reef of subtle temptation, or quicksand of unsettling doubt — through 
 no leak of evil habit — by no sub-current of bad influence, you may 
 suffer shipwreck ! There is a little prayer, which the fishermen of 
 Brittany are said to utter as they launch out into the deep, which is 
 very suitable for you to use — " Keep me, my God ; my boat is small, 
 and the ocean wide." 
 
 See that you have Christ with you in the ship. Trust Him as 
 your Pilot, and obey Him as your Captain. Be thankful to be 
 always guided in accordance with the dictates of God's Word — that 
 true chart which never misleads. Do not forget the prayer — " Keep 
 me ; my boat is small, and the ocean wide." And, wlule you pray, 
 use under Christ's direction all the means appointed for safety. 
 Then, even in the darkest night, God will cheer you with a star of 
 hope ; and whatever experience you have to go through in the 
 interval, your vessel will not fail to reach the harbour. You will 
 come in, not as a dismantled hulk, but with sails set and colours 
 fljing ; and an abundant entrance will be administered to you 
 within the Heavenly Kingdom. 
 
 197 
 
July 15 Mcconxim Stac0. 
 
 " As the stars fiyr ever and ever" (Dan. xii. 3). 
 
 People often seek to be "stars" among men — to get credit for 
 brilliance, to sliine among others, for tliis or that which they have 
 been or done. Thus, one man gets to be reckoned a great soldier, 
 and he becomes a " star " ; a great singer, and he is a " star " ; a great 
 orator, and they call him a " star." You boys sometimes wonder, 
 " Wliat shall I be ? " and you hope to be and to do great things some 
 day. You girls, too, have your own quieter ambitions. You also 
 hope to " shine." 
 
 But, remember, the brightest earthly lustre fades. Its brilliancy 
 dies away, and is soon lost sight of, if not quite forgotten. " Seek 
 not great things for thyself." Do not covet honour from men, but 
 that which cometh from God only. Aspire to a place among His 
 stars. Then your light will never go out in darkness. You will 
 shine in enduring splendour. 
 
 It is those " who turn many to righteousness " who are to shine 
 " as the stars for ever and ever." And do you not think that this 
 is the kind of achievement most deserving of everlasting honour ? Is 
 not this the noblest kind of life — if we have found the true wisdom 
 and righteousness ourselves, to seek that others may be led to Jesus 
 too ? The Lord charges the disciples, so to shine that they may 
 glorify our Father who is in heaven. To shine merely for the sake 
 of shining, or in order to self-glorification, is a poor thing. But it is 
 a great thing, to shine so that others may be helped, and the name 
 of Jesus glorified. 
 
 In the sky, at night, there are some stars that shine more 
 brightly than others. One star differs from another star in glory. 
 So, there are some saints who shall be more radiant in heaven than 
 others — who shall reflect, that is, more of the glory of Christ, than 
 others who have merely obtained, through grace, a place in the bright 
 land for themselves. They shall be singled out for honour — not 
 because they were great, or wise, or mighty in the world's esteem, but 
 becaiise they were wise in the sight of God, and earnest in leading 
 wandered ones to Him. Good Matthew Henry said: "I would 
 rather win one soul for Christ than mountains of gold and silver for 
 myself." And, doubtless, he is "a bright particular star" in the 
 heavenly firmament. Are you to be another? 
 
 198 
 
B %C6$on fi'om /Cbount /iRoriab. Jvdy 16 
 
 " By faith Abraham, irhcn he was tried, offered up Isaac" (Ileb. xi. 17). 
 
 Isaac was a type of Jesus. It is a great thing to be able to say of 
 him, but it is true, that his name, more than ahnost any other 
 name in the Old Testa jnent, makes us think of Jesus. This is the 
 case, not merely because there was in Isaac so much of the meekness 
 and gentleness of Christ, but because, in being offered on Mount 
 Moriah, he points us so directly to " the Lamb of God, wliich taketh 
 away the sin of the world." 
 
 It is a beautiful story. You remember how God "tempted," 
 that is tried, Abraham in the tendcrest place — put him to the proof, 
 by asking him to part with what was dearest to him — " his son, his 
 only son Isaac, whom he loved." Abraham was asked, not only to 
 give him up, but to put him to death with his own hand, in sacrifice 
 to God. Then you remember how he rose up early in the morning 
 and journeyed for three long sad days with his darling son ; and 
 how, as they climbed the slopes of Moriah, Lsaac innocently put 
 a question whicli must have stabbed his father to the heart, and got 
 an answer back the full meaning of which Abraham himself did 
 not know — " God will provide Himself a Lamb." Then, how the 
 altar was made, and the wood set in order, and Isaac (though a 
 big lad and well able to resist) laid and willingly bound upon the 
 altar ; and how, just as Abraham was about to plunge the knife 
 into the heart of his son, God stayed his hand, and told him rather 
 to offer a ram, which he would see caught in the thicket near by, in 
 the stead of his son. 
 
 What a touching tale ! It should make us wonder at the faith 
 and obedience of Father Abraham, and ask, whether we would be 
 willing to give up what is dearest to us at at God's bidding, assured 
 that He would make it turn out for the best ? It should make us 
 also admire Isaac's submission, in freely yielding himself to death, 
 because God asked it and his father said it would be right, though 
 neither of them could understand it. But it should especially make 
 us adore the love of God, who, though He spared Abraham's son, did 
 not spare His own. His only-begotten Son, but " delivered Him up 
 for us all " ; and the love of that Son Himself, our Saviour, Jesus, 
 who loved us and gave Himself for us, and died for our sins on the 
 cruel cross of Calvary. 
 
 199 
 
July 17 Xiviiifl to C>iupose» 
 
 " Let us not be weai-y in well-doing" (Gal. vi. 9). 
 
 I HOPE you are living to purpose, and to a good purpose. An 
 aimless life is not a life worthy of an immortal being ; and the 
 proper aim for such an one is, to live so as best to promote the glory 
 of God and the good of men. 
 
 No doubt one who has this great end before his eyes will have 
 a good deal to dishearten him from time to time. But he must be 
 true to his purpose, and never suffer his energies to flag ; for 
 perseverance will certainly, by God's blessing, have its reward. 
 
 There is a French proverb — " One may go far after he is tired " ; 
 and an old English one, which we used to wTite in our copy-books 
 at school — "Patience and perseverance surmount all obstacles." 
 
 A little boy, after a suow-storm, was trying to cut a path 
 through a great bank of snow that stood before his grandmother's 
 door. He had only a little shovel and a little strength. But he 
 gave a good and brave answer to the passer-by who cried — " How 
 do you expect to get through that great drift ? " The little fellow, 
 without slacking his work, replied — " By keeping at it." 
 
 These words of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton are well worthy of 
 being learned off by heart : " The longer I live, the more I am 
 certain that the great difference between men, between the feeble 
 and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy — 
 invincible determination — a purpose once fixed, and then death or 
 victory. That quality will do anything that can be done in this 
 world ; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will 
 make a two-legged creature a man without it." 
 
 There is great truth in these words ; and whatever you are to 
 be, you should remember and act upon them. Do not forget them 
 in the religious life. God invites you there to be of good courage 
 and of strong determination. He does not promise harvests to the 
 idler, or to the fitful and half-hearted. But He does assure those 
 who trust in Christ, and seek in His strength to do their duty, that 
 the harvest will come. " In due season we shall reap, if we faint 
 not." 
 
 200 
 
Zbc IWa^arene. July i8 
 
 " He shuU he called a Nazarene " (Matt. ii. 23). 
 
 This name was no doubt given to Jesus in contempt, and it became 
 a nickname afterwards for His followers, who were scornfully called 
 " the sect of the Nazarenes." But, so far as Jesus was concerned, 
 the name brought Him no dishonour — rather the reverse. 
 
 Nazareth, it is true, was a very humble place. There is no 
 mention of it in the Old Testament, and there were no great events 
 in its history. But it was just like our lowly Saviour to be counted 
 among the obscure villagers there. He not only stooped to earth, 
 but became a member of the subject Jewish race ; and not a citizen 
 of the great Jerusalem, but a Galilean countryman, and a dweller 
 in one of the smallest and most despised towns in Galilee. And even 
 in Nazareth He was not a child in one of the rich families in it, but 
 was knovTi in the place as " the carpenter's son," working for daily 
 bread in the shop of " His father Joseph." 
 
 Nazareth, moreover, was a very wicked place. Perhaps this is 
 what Nathanael refers to when he says, " Can any good thing come 
 out of Nazareth ? " The people there seem to have been specially 
 hardened. It was in itself a quiet nook, up among the hills ; but 
 it was close upon the great caravan route between Egypt and Syria, 
 and it is thought that many bad people may have stopped there, 
 and corrupted the morals of the town. Yet it was this bad place 
 that was honoured, for nearly thirty years, by the presence in it of 
 the one perfectly pure and holy life which the world has seen outside 
 of Eden. 
 
 For you, young people, the name " Nazarene " must have special 
 interest, because it makes us think of our Saviour's early days. 
 May you be like the holy child Jesus, who " waxed strong in spirit, 
 filled with wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon Him." How 
 happy would your homes as well as your own lives be, if you were 
 as pure, and loving, and diligent, and obedient as He was, who, 
 though the Son of God, was not ashamed to be " called a Nazarene." 
 
 20I 
 
Juiyid :as %lQbt6 in tbe MorI5. 
 
 "Among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Phil. ii. 15). 
 
 A poor fislierman was out in liis little boat one night, and was 
 overtaken by a storm. The darkness deepened. He was driven 
 near the shore — so near that the great beetling cliffs could be dimly- 
 seen almost hanging over him. But he dared not make for shore ; 
 for there was only one safe but narrow pathway to the land on all 
 that coast, and he could not find it for the darkness. Suddenly, as 
 he drifted on, his eye caught sight of a light upon the shore. He 
 turned the prow landward, and pulled with all his might. Soon he 
 was in the place of shelter. And, as he thankfully moored his boat 
 and clambered up the beach, he found that the light had come from 
 his own cottage window, where his loving child had set a lamp, 
 trembling for her father tossed upon the sea. 
 
 Was he thankful for his safety? Yes. As the great rough 
 fisherman clasped his motherless daughter to his breast, he lifted 
 his heart in praise to God, who had put it into her heart to guide 
 him on that dark night "into the way of peace." But he did 
 more. His gratitude was not spent in words. He vowed, and kept 
 true to his resolve, that every dark flight there would shine from his 
 humble dwelling a light for those at sea. 
 
 This is the true spirit of the gospel. That is a poor soul who is 
 careful only for himself. As we have opportunity, we should seek 
 to do good to all men. If we have ourselves received the true light 
 of the gospel, we should transmit it to others. What a blessed 
 thing, to turn even one sinner from the error of his way, and to 
 save one soul from death I 
 
 The apostle here reminds believers in Christ, that they ought 
 to shine for Christ. This is a sin-darkened world ; and each of 
 them should be like the lighthouse, sending a bright gleam outward 
 upon the gloomy waters. There are two ways in which they are to 
 shine as lights in the world. The first is— by what they are, by 
 their character : as " blameless and harmless, the sons of God, 
 without rebuke." The second is— by what they do and speak : 
 "holding forth the word of life." Even you boys and girls can 
 commend the gospel, if the same mind is seen in you as was also in 
 Christ Jesus. You may not be called to speak much for Jesus ; but 
 a humble, loving, obedient, self-giving spirit, like His own, will 
 epeak better for Him than many words. 
 
 202 
 
B ti^aiiGOin fov mnii^>. July 20 
 
 " 1 luxve found a ransom" (Jol) xxxiii. 21). 
 
 The word " ransom " is just finotlier form of the word redemption ; 
 and it literally means, "a buying back" — vory often in order to 
 release from captivity. 
 
 Every now and again we read in the newspapers of the brigands 
 in Sicily, or in Greece, laying hold of some ricli citizen, and carrying 
 him off to their mountain fastnesses, where they keep him in 
 concealment, and refuse to give him up, except on the payment of 
 a large sum of money. It might be possible to overpower the 
 brigands by superior force ; but they usually threaten that, if this 
 is attempted, their captive will certainly be put to death. And 
 very often the friends of the latter are glad to make terms, by 
 paying doA\Ti the sum demanded for their friend's release. This 
 money, which is the price of his liberty, is called a " ransom." 
 
 Now, in order to deliver the soids of men from the captivity of 
 sin, a great redemption-price was needed. All the money in the 
 world would not suffice to set even one soul free. But God is able 
 to say — " I have found a Rtinsom." Surely this should be welcome 
 news to the captive and oppressed — " There la a prospect of liberty 
 for you ; for a Ransom has been found ! " 
 
 You know what the ransom-price has been — the life of God's 
 own Son I This was the very purpose for which He came to earth — 
 " not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a 
 ransom for many." We were held in righteous bondage, under 
 the condemning law ; but Jesus has borne the penalty for us, 
 that we might be set free. He was sent, and gladly came, that even 
 through His blood He might set at liberty them that were bound. 
 
 You have heard of Joan of Arc, the peasant-maiden of the 
 Vosges, in France, whose pious and imtriotic enthusiasm aroused her 
 countrymen to beat back the invading English foe. It is told of 
 her that, when asked what reward she would have for the 
 remarkable service she had rendered, at the peril of her life, to her 
 country, she sought nothing for herself, but asked, " that tlie 
 inhabitants of her native village of Domremy should be relieved of 
 all their taxes." And accordinglj-, for hundreds of years afterwards, 
 the taxes of the villages there were cancelled in the Government 
 books, for the sake of Joan, the Maid of Orleans. But what is this 
 compared to the benefits secured to His people for ever, by Hira 
 who gave His life as the price of their redemption ! There is 
 everlasting joy upon the heads of " the ransomed of the Lord." 
 
July 21 ®UC DtttB. 
 
 " We have done that which teas our duty to do " (Luke xvii. 10). 
 
 " Duty " means that wliicli is due from us to God and man — that 
 which we are bound to do, or to refrain from doing, if we would be 
 worthy of ourselves and of the place we fill in this world of God's. 
 
 Jesus here teaches His disciples, that when, in any particular 
 case, they have given obedience to their Master's will, it is nothing 
 to be specially proud of, because this was their duty, and nothing 
 more. It is a bad sign of anyone if he is disposed to boast in such 
 a case, or to imagine that he has established any sort of claim upon 
 God. But it is a good characteristic of anyone, to be found ever 
 anxious to do his duty, while humbly conscious that, at the best, he 
 is but an unprofitable servant of the Lord. 
 
 A man once excused himself to his superior, who was reproving 
 him for repeated misconduct, by saying, that " at anyrate he never 
 misbehaved when he was on duty." "On duty?" was the answer ; 
 " and when may a man, and a professing Christian man, be said to 
 be off duty ? " It is a profound mistake for anyone, whatever his 
 sphere may be, to suppose that he can divest himself of duty at 
 certain times and in certain places, just as a policeman may throw 
 off his uniform. Particular diities may be discharged, and then we 
 are done with them. But duty always abides — what is due from us 
 to God and man ; and it is as vain for us to try, as it is wrong for 
 us to wish, to rid ourselves of that. 
 
 We should seek to cherish a large and lofty conception of what 
 duty means ; and, accepting implicitly the teaching of conscience 
 and the Bible upon the point, we should strive to do our duty well. 
 For us, duty may be summed up in this — obeying in all things the 
 will of Christ. 
 
 There have been many inspiring examples of devotion, not only 
 among the confessors and martyrs of the Church, but among men 
 who have served God and country in different departments of life. 
 We are all familiar with Nelson's signal to the Fleet at Trafalgar — 
 " England expects that every man will do his duty." Wellington, 
 too, had a saying — " There is little in this life worth living for ; 
 but we can all of us go straight forward and do our duty." And 
 that was a worthy spirit manifested by the Connecticut Senator last 
 century, during a total eclispe of the sun which impressed manj^ in 
 the House with the belief that the Day of Judgment was at hand. 
 It was moved that the Legislative Council should adjourn. " I 
 move, rather," said Colonel Davenport, "that candles be brought. 
 Either the Day of Judgment is come, or it is not. If it is not, there 
 is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my 
 duty." 
 
 204 
 
©00 "dnDcrstanDs 13ou. July 22 
 
 " Thou undersiandest my thought c^far off'" {Vs. cxxxix, 2). 
 
 Some peojile comiilaiu that they are always being misunderstood. 
 But none has reason to make this complaint against God. He 
 understands our very thoughts afar off. He looks, not upon the 
 outward appearance, which is often a poor thing to judge by, but 
 upon the lieart ; and He can read and thorougluy interpret every- 
 thing which is transjjiring there. 
 
 This is a truth of great comfort to God's children. It is said of 
 Him in one of the psalms, that He "hears the desires" of the 
 humble ; as though His ear were so acute and so attentive that He 
 hears even desires as they pass through the heart, without their 
 being put into language by His needy children. When Moses held 
 up the rod of God upon Mount Kephidim, sujjported by the hands 
 of Aaron and Hur, it did not need words to tell God what he 
 meant. He could interpret his meaning well. That was a mute 
 but eloquent appeal to the Gtid of battles, to give the victory to 
 Israel over their wily and malignant foes. 
 
 And so none of us need be discouraged if we feel ourselves 
 unable to express to God our meaning as we would, when we draw 
 near to Him in prayer. He can interpret our desires, and meet all 
 our wants. For He is our Father, our Heavenly Father, with 
 infinite love in His heart, and infinite wealth at His command. 
 He loves to be asked for blessings by His children : " for this will 
 I be inquired of," He says, " by the house of Israel, to do it for 
 them." And He delights to show that, where others may fail to 
 apprehend their meaning, He understands them, and takes in fully 
 all they have to tell. 
 
 This comforting truth has been beautifully brought out in these 
 lines, which ajipeared once in the Spectator : — 
 
 " I pray so ill, I am ashamed to pray; 
 And marvel oft, — Can He who reigns on high 
 Give heed to my poor inarticulate cry, 
 Who, stammering, would my childish wants convey, 
 Yet know not what to wis!), nor how to say? 
 They seem such little selfish things that I 
 Most care to ask of God's great Majesty. 
 And, sighing thus, I went upon my way. 
 
 " Then, in a friend's house came his little boy 
 And prattled to me, full of eager joy. 
 But I, to construe baby-tongue unskilled, 
 Tlie father's face with questioning glances soannc-l. 
 Then, smiling on his child with eyes love-filkd, 
 The father said, ' iJut / can understand ! ' " 
 
 205 
 
July 23 B /iRan of iproflvess. 
 
 " A man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus " (John iii. 1). 
 
 It was seldom indeed that a man of the Pharisees could be called a 
 man of progress ; but Nicodemus certainly was one. Not " a man 
 of progress" in the smug, modern sense, which often points to a 
 progress really backward — but a man of progress which was true, 
 inward, manifest, and heavenward. 
 
 The history of Nicodemus is a very interesting one. We have 
 only three glimpses of him, all afforded to us in the Gospel of John ; 
 but they enable us to discern very clearly the course he took ; and 
 they mark very distinctly three stages on his upward way. We 
 see in him — 
 
 1. An eager learner (John iii. 1), at the feet of the Best of Teachers. 
 One dark night, at the close of a busy day, when Jesus has gone 
 into retirement, a knock comes to the door, which bespeaks a late, if 
 not a stealthy visitor — a knock, an ajDpeal comes, too, to the 
 Saviour's heart, for this is a genuine seeker after Him. It is 
 Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a man of rank, one of the great 
 ones of the city. And he is welcome to Jesus, not because he is all 
 this, but because he is a man — "a man of the Pharisees" — with 
 deep questions rising in his breast, which only the Christ of God 
 can answer. Immediately the two are closeted together in frank, 
 earnest, confiding converse ; and Nicodemus is taught the two most 
 important of all lessons — the need of salvation, and the way of 
 salvation : " Ye must be born again " — " the Son of Man must be 
 lifted up." Next we behold — 
 
 2. A brave, though a naturally shrinking man (John vii. 50). 
 Jesus, in parting wil.h Nicodemus, had said to him, as he passed out 
 into the concealing shadows of the night, " He that doeth truth 
 cometh to the light." Time passed, and the day arrived when 
 Nicodemus, " he that came to Jesus by night," felt that he could no 
 longer be a true man and hide himself in the darkness. It is a 
 meeting of the Sanhedrim, and his brother Pharisees are scoffing at 
 Jesus, and deriding the officers whom they had vainly sent to take 
 him — "Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the 
 Pharisees believed on Him 1 " It is a direct challenge, whose full 
 force is felt in a quarter they are not thinking of. And Nicodemus 
 gets courage to put in at least a word for Jesus, which Ijrings him 
 under the suspicion of his fellows, but shows in what direction his 
 heart is turned. And then, at last, when the time of trial comes, 
 and Jesus has actually been crucified, Nicodemus comes forth as — 
 
 3. A true friend and open confessor of his Lord (John xix. 39). In 
 a way that cannot be mistaken, he avows his attachment to the 
 Saviour. Others, who were with Jesus in the daytime, — the day 
 of prosperity and gladness, — have forsaken Him and fled. But this 
 once timid inquirer stands forward in the hour of extremity, with 
 Joseph of Arimathea, to give the King of his heart a royal burial. 
 The Cross has conquered. The perfect love of Christ has wrought 
 in Nicodemus the perfected love which casts out fear. If he was 
 once a coward, he is now a hero. And if it be not such an one as 
 this, who is " the; man of progress " ? 
 
 2o6 
 
ISiOWnt ^ton. July 24 
 
 " Ve are come unto Mount Zion" (Ueb. xii. 22). 
 
 Bt Mount Zion, geographically, is meant the highest of the eleva- 
 tions on which tlie city of Jerusalem stood ; that, namely, to the 
 soutli, on wliich the towers and palaces of what was distinctively 
 called the City of David rose. It was a name, however, which 
 came to include a good deal more than it did at first. By Zion, by 
 and by, was understood the whole city ; and the Churcli, whose 
 centre was in Jerusalem. And, as we shall see, it has now a yet 
 wider meaning. 
 
 If we trace the use of the name from tlae commencement, we 
 find that Zion was originally — 
 
 1. A heathen fortress. It was a stronghold that had long been 
 held against all comers by the Jebusites. And when David, the 
 newly-api^ointed King of all Israel, standing at the head of his 
 great army, turned to his men, and said — " Ye are come unto Mount 
 Zion. Who among you will conquer it for me 1 " he was confronting 
 them, as he and they well knew, with the sternest piece of work 
 they had to do in the whole of Palestine. But the doughty captain 
 Joab led the attack, and wrested " the Castle of Zion " from the 
 proud and scoffing men of Jebus. So the heathen stronghold be- 
 came the seat of David's government, and the resting-place of the 
 Ark of God. Then Zion was — 
 
 2. A religious centre for Israel, and all the world. In the 87th Psalm, 
 for example, it is represented as the spiritual cajntal or metropolis 
 of the whole earth. In other psalms, the Holy Hill of Zion, where 
 God dwells, is spoken of with an almost adoring affection. For 
 there it was that the Sliecliinah of the divine glory I'ested ; and the 
 pious Jew said of this sacred mount — " the joy of the whole earth is 
 Mount Zion." How much more true is this of the Church of Christ, 
 which we sometimes sjjeak of still as the Zion of our God ! Con- 
 quered from among the heathen, the Church is the abode of Christ ; 
 and as the glory of His presence and influence shines forth from 
 her, she is the joy of every land. And thus, Zion is — 
 
 3. A name for the glorified Church in Heaven. All the brightest 
 hopes that pious Israel could connect with the name of Zion, have 
 their ample fulfilment above. It must have been an impressive scene 
 when the pilgrim hosts, having pressed on from strength to strenglli 
 (as the 84th Psalm describes them), appeared at length before God in 
 Zion, and joined heart and voice, with the multitude of fellow- 
 worshippers from all parts of Palestine, in the praises of the 
 sanctuary. But St. John in the Revelation (ch. xiv. 1) discloses to 
 the eye of faith a more glorious scene by far, when, as he looked, 
 " lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion," surrounded by the throng 
 of the redeemed, who sang a new song before the Throne. 
 
 There Zion has in it no trace of the old heathen fortress. It is 
 the citadel of perfect safety, and purity, and peace, for the ransomed 
 of the Lord. And on that holy hill of Zion the Holy One of Israel 
 ehall for ever dwell among them. Will you be there, and I ? 
 
 207 
 
July 25 Iprlsoncrs of Ibope. 
 
 " Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope" (Zech. ix. VA). 
 
 It is related of King Richard of England that, on the way to the 
 Holy Land, he was thrown into an unknown dungeon. His friends 
 were anxious to discover him, but for a time could find no trace. 
 But a favourite minstrel hit upon a device which had the desired 
 result. He wandered from place to place, playing an air familiar 
 to his royal master, until at length, one day, as he stood without a 
 prison, his music had an answer from the king within. Then help 
 was brought ; and thus was King Richard restored to his kingdom 
 and his throne in peace. 
 
 Even so are those who, under the gospel, are longing for a 
 Deliverer from the bondage of sin, " prisoners of hope." They are 
 not consigned to despair. They are invited to be of good courage. 
 They are called to listen for the voice of Him who has been 
 anointed, and sent, to set at liberty them that are bruised. 
 
 And, when Jesus comes and speaks to such, and wins for Himself 
 a divine response within them, not only does His voice sound to 
 them like the sweetest music. It opens for them the prison doors, 
 and it awakens within them a new life of hope, and energy, and 
 high resolve. It brings them out of the prison, and into the 
 stronghold, where, no longer prisoners but willing subjects of the 
 Captain of Salvation, they are changed into soldiers of hope, 
 honoured to strive beneath the banner of their King for the 
 deliverance of others whom Satan has enthralled. 
 
 Have you yet heard the voice of Jesus, who says to the prisoners, 
 " Come forth," and to them who are in darkness, " Show your- 
 selves"? Did not the first notes of His voice, which you truly 
 heard and recognised, stir within your breast the beginnings of a 
 new and blessed experience ? And, if you have obeyed as well as 
 heard His call, and come forth at His bidding to the freedom 
 wherewith He makes His people free, — shall it not be yours, as a 
 prisoner of hope who has tasted the sweets of a Christ-given liberty, 
 to quit you valiantly beneath the Saviour's standard, as a soldier of 
 hope for the emancipation of the world ? 
 
 208 
 
CtB (t (OC K0UV9Clf ! July 26 
 
 " 1 have trusted also in the Lord" (Ps. xxvi. 1). 
 
 "Will the raft bear?" "Yes; I am sure it will. But try it for 
 yourself 1 " 
 
 You have gone down to the seashore, let us suppose, with your 
 father, in the summer time. He takes you out with him among 
 the rocks, while the tide is hack, until you reach a ledge to which 
 a raft is tied. He tells you what it is, and that it is possible to 
 float upon it with safety, because he has been upon it, and knows 
 how well it bears. You quite accept what he says ; for you have 
 never known your father to tell you what is false. But the subject 
 gives you little concern ; and you are soon far more interested in 
 gathering your weeds and shells, while he sits down and is buried 
 in his book. 
 
 Suddenly your father is startled by a cry from you — a wild cry 
 of alarm. He looks up, and sees, not that you are hurt, but that 
 the tide, unobserved by you both, has risen and cut you off from 
 the land. It still is rising, and threatens wholly to submerge the 
 shelving promontory on which you stand. But your father does 
 not share your panic. For he knows that there is help at hand. 
 He points you to the raft; he leads you to it; he bids you step 
 aboard, and he will bring you in safety to the shore. You hesitate 
 for a moment as you survey its timbers, but only for a moment. 
 A single glance at your surroundings, and you step upon it — and, 
 in that step, even if it be a trembling one, what was merely belief 
 before has passed into personal trust. You have now committed 
 yourself to the raft ; and your trust grows more calm and radiant 
 as it bears you, under your loving father's guidance, nearer and 
 nearer to the land. Now you know that it will bear, not because 
 you have been told so merely, but because you yourself have 
 proved it. 
 
 Can you say — " I have trusted also in the Lord " ? There is a 
 mighty difference between believing about Christ with the head and 
 trusting in Him with the heart. The gospel summons you, if you 
 have not done so, to step into the Lifeboat — to try it for yourself. 
 Then you will assuredly find, that it will bear you safely onward, 
 amid the storms of this sin-troubled world, to the haven of ever- 
 lasting peace. 
 
 (14) 209 
 
July 27 Zbc Gveat XcvcUec. 
 
 " TIuj pomp is brought down to the grave" (Isa. xiv. 11). 
 
 Death is no resj)ecter of persons. He will not, to suit tlie proudest 
 earthly monarcli, stay liis approacli, for millions of money, by so 
 much as one moment of time. Death comes with equal foot to the 
 palace of the rich and the hovel of the poor ; and, though one may 
 be buried in an oaken coffin and another in a pauper's shell, the 
 humiliation of death and dissolution is in its main features the 
 common lot of all. 
 
 I remember" standing near the pyramids of Sakkara, on the site 
 of the once great city of Memphis, which, in accordance with Bible 
 prediction, is now little more than a graveyard and a name. All 
 around were the traces of ancient tombs : some of them places 
 where kings and other mighty dead were laid, others places of 
 humbler sepulture. In the excavations which were then going on, 
 at every turn of the spade, as I stood at the grave-mouth, bones and 
 other relics of the long-de]Darted were disclosed to view. Whose 
 skull was that 1 A king's ? Perhajjs. Whose thigh-bone, this ? 
 A labourer's? It may have been. What matters it? These 
 thousands of years agone, that was a king's — this, a labourer's. 
 Where are they now ? These were a man's. That is the important 
 thing. Let the bones crumble ; let the dust mingle. The great 
 and solemn consideration is, that when these bodies were com- 
 mitted to the earth it meant that, for the immortal beings to whom 
 they had belonged, the earthly term of life had closed, and a new 
 phase of life begun. 
 
 That death is the great leveller of worldly distinctions is 
 quaintly taught, through an old ceremony, at the burial of 
 members of the Imperial House of Austria, in the Capuchin 
 Chapel at Vienna. The master of ceremonies knocks with his 
 official staff at the door, and, in answer to the question, "Who is 
 there?" replies — "His Majesty the Emperor." "I know him not," 
 answers a voice from within. The knock is repeated, and so is the 
 inquiry — " Who is there ? " " It is the Emperor." " I do not know 
 him," is still the firm rej)ly. Another knock is given ; and this 
 time, in answer to the demand, "Who is there?" the master of 
 ceremonies gives the meek rejoinder, " Our brother Francis." And 
 then the chapel door is oj)ened, and the body, without sjpecial mark 
 of distinction, is committed to the tomb. 
 
ffiUal OLovc. July 28 
 
 " Honour thy father and mother ; which is the first commandment ivith 
 2nomise" (Ej)li. vi. 2). 
 
 It has been remarked tliat among Eastern races the mother, if her 
 liusband died, became subject to her son, but that in the Bible the 
 eon is enjoined to honour his mother no less than his father. This 
 is surely as it ought to be. A true mother is one of the richest 
 blessings given by God ; and both father and mother are to be 
 honoured by us, if we Avould do His will, be worthy of ourselves, 
 and promote our true advantage. A youth whose great ambition 
 it is to cut as early and corajjlctely " loose from leading-strings " as 
 possible, that he may become "lord of himself, that heritage of 
 woe," may think himself very manly. But he is not likely, along 
 such a line, to come to much good ; and, unless his spirit changes, 
 he is likely to continue something less than man. 
 
 It is a good sign of a boy to show a loving deference to the 
 wishes of his parents, even where these run counter to his own 
 desires ; and God will not permit him to be a loser thereby. A 
 notable instance of this was George Washington, who afterwards 
 became one of the great men of history. It was his eager ambition 
 to go to sea as a midshi2)man, and his mother had at last reluctantly 
 agreed that he should go. He was of course delighted at the 
 prospect. But when the morning of his departure came, and his 
 trunk had been lifted by the servant to the door, he went in to bid 
 farewell to his mother, and found her in a state of distress, which, 
 with all her efforts, she could not conceal. His resolve was at once 
 taken. " Bring back my trunk," he cried to the servant ; " I will 
 not go away. It cannot please me to break my mother's heart." 
 "George," exclaimed his mother, when she heard this, "God has 
 promised to bless those who honour their parents ; and I believe 
 He will bless you." We all know how amply, in his case, the 
 promise was fulfilled. 
 
 The great example here, as in all else, is the Lord Jesus Him- 
 self. It is a short but beautiful account of His early life which 
 is given by Luke — that He Avent down with Joseph and His mother 
 to Nazareth, and "was subject unto them" ; increasing in wisdom, 
 and stature, and favour all the time. The boy is father to the man. 
 Seek to be, in youth, like Him — 
 
 "A Sou that never did amiss, 
 That never shamed a mother's kiss, 
 Nor crossed her fondest i^rayer " ; 
 
 and, in manhood, you will not fail of the divine reward. 
 
 211 
 
July 29 mot nuicb Zimc. 
 
 " Brethren, the time is short " (1 Cor. vii. 29). 
 
 To you young people, the time you have in store seems very long. 
 But to us who are older, the time we have to look back upon seems 
 very short ; and each j^ear appears to speed more quickly by than 
 that which went before it. We are all accustomed to look at the 
 past, and at the future, with diflferent ends of the telescope. We 
 see the past as with the small end of the glass next to it, which 
 belittles what we see. We view the future as with the telescope's 
 great end, which magnifies the prospect. But we may believe that 
 the Bible is right when, having regard to the whole of a lifetime 
 upon earth, it impartially declares — "the time is short." 
 
 In the museum at Berlin, you see the cradle and the death-chair 
 of Frederick the Great standing side by side. It is to teach the 
 lesson that life's day is brief, and that the cradle and the grave are 
 separated by no great interval. But it also teaches, that it is possible 
 to accomplish much in the time that lies between ; and it enforces 
 the lesson, that every one of us should seek to make the most of 
 life's opportunities while they last. 
 
 " I have only one candle," said a poor seamstress in a London 
 garret, to an idle visitor one night, " and it will soon be done. I 
 must make the most of it, to finish the work I have in hand." We 
 have only one life on earth, and it will soon be done. Let us see 
 to it that its days and hours are well occupied, in doing the 
 work of Him that sent us — in finishing the work He has given us 
 to do. 
 
 If this is the spirit in which we live and strive, in the strength 
 and for the glory of God, we shall not have lived in vain. We can- 
 not tell whether your life on earth is to be, comparatively speaking, 
 a long or a short one. There are small graves, as well as large in the 
 cemetery. But, in such a case, a broken column will be no meet 
 emblem of j^our life. You will have lived much, if not long. And, 
 short as time is, it will have been a worthy prelude to the great 
 eternity. 
 
 212 
 
dbe ®nlg JGegottcn. July so 
 
 " Ee gave His only-begotten Son " {Johu iii. IC). 
 
 If you have only one of anything, dear young people, you know how 
 much you prize it. If you had only one piece or money, you would 
 be loath to part with it ; and you remember the man with the one 
 ewe lamb, how sorry ho was to give it up. But God gave up for 
 sinners a priceless treasure, which money could never buy. He 
 gave for them a Lamb which was His only one — His only -begotten 
 Son. Should it not melt the hardest heart to think — " God had 
 only one Son, His well-beloved, and He gave Him up to die for 
 me 1 " There is a word in this verse so short and simple that the 
 youngest of you have learned it long ago; but here it has a 
 meaning which the oldest of us can never fathom. It is the little 
 word " so." 
 
 Think of that word " so " ; and the longer you think of it, the 
 more you will wonder at it. Nor will it only surprise you : it will 
 also rebuke you. The thought that God so loved you will lead you 
 to ask — How much have I loved God? He has given His only- 
 begotten Son for me. What is there that I hold precious that I 
 have ever given for Him ? 
 
 It is told of Zinzendorf— and the story, though familar, is worth 
 repeating — that, when a yovmg man, he saw in a country inn a 
 picture which greatly affected him. It was a representation of the 
 Crucifixion : in itself a poor enough daub ; but underneath it were 
 the words—" All this for thee. What hast thou done for Me 1 " 
 From that moment the thought of God's love to him in Christ 
 filled his soul as never before. He became a prince among mis- 
 sionaries — the leader of the noble band of Moravian brethren. 
 Perhaps some boy among my readers may, in thinking of God's love, 
 resolve to become a missionary too ; and even his mother may not 
 grudge him to the work of spreading the gospel among the 
 heathen, when she remembers that " God gave His only-begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life." 
 
 213 
 
July 31 Constant ©rotectioiu 
 
 " The Lord is thy Keeper" (Ps. cxxi. 5). 
 
 Every man, it is said, is immortal till Ids work is done. And no 
 doubt it is true, that none die until God's time comes. But the 
 Bible teaches us, that the Lord's own people are under His special 
 protection. " He knows the way of the righteous," through looking 
 constantly upon them, and following, with the peculiar interest of 
 love, their track in life ; and though they are not warranted to dis- 
 pense with any available means of self-preservation in the midst of 
 danger, the Lord often shows, in an unmistakable way, how truly 
 He is their Keeper. 
 
 " Twine them about the hill, Lord, and cast the lap of Thy 
 cloak over puir Saunders and these puir things ! " cried the leader 
 of a little band of exhausted Covenanters, fleeing from the persecuting 
 troopers, but almost ready to sink from utter weariness upon the 
 mountain-side. Hardly had he prayed when the mist rose about 
 the hill, and wrapped the fugitives as within the cloak he cried for. 
 Their enemies grew bewildered, and, while they vainly sought to 
 find them, an order came which took the troopers on another errand, 
 in a wholly dilfcrunt ij[uarter. 
 
 Similarly, in Eeformation times in Germany, a worthy man 
 sutt'ered persecution, because he preached the gosj^el ; but God 
 marvellously protected him. Learning that his life was in danger, 
 he left his own house, and lived in an attic in another part of the 
 town. The soldiers searched a whole fortnight for him, but in vain. 
 The remarkable thing was, that every day during this fortnight a 
 hen came and laid an egg close by the spot where he was concealed, 
 and that, on the very day the soldiers left the town, the hen ceased 
 to come ! 
 
 We are not to court unnecessary difficulty, or to run into need- 
 less danger, and then to expect God to shield and help us. But, 
 when we are in the path of duty. He is surety for our defence. By 
 night as well as by day, in our going out and coming in, we are 
 beneath His unslumbering watchfulness. What a comprehensive 
 promise this is — " He will preserve thee from all evil." He can 
 change what would otherwise be a mischief into a good, and make 
 even death itself, if need be, " ours." 
 
 How complete is the security of him who has Omnipotence for 
 his defence, and can find a refuge in the secret place of the Most 
 High! 
 
 214 
 
H 1bapp\^ IbOllOag. August l 
 
 "And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing" 
 (Zecb. viii. 5). 
 
 This is part of the prophet's description of restored Jerusalem. It is 
 to be a hx)ly city, for the Lord is to dwell in the midst of it (verse 3), 
 and to make His presence felt. Yet it is to be a happy city — a true 
 Jerusalem (" vision of peace "), healthful and tranquil, where people 
 live long enough to be very old ; but where, by tlicir side, the 
 young generation of boys and girls is to be seen growing up, in all 
 the brightness and buoyancy of early youth. 
 
 It is a great mistake, which some peoijle make, to sujjpose that 
 religion brings gloom. It is really the want of true religion that is 
 at the root of all the gloom and sorrow in the world. In the New 
 Jerusalem the presence of Jehovah, and the presence of the old 
 people — the good old men and women whom neither war nor disease 
 has been permitted to cut off — do not jDrevent the boys and girls 
 from having a good time. No ; they know that God loves to see 
 them happy, and so do all who are like Him. And so we find them 
 playing upon the streets, which is a very natiu-al and beautiful 
 touch in the picture of that bright and glorious home. You see the 
 old and the young side by side — enjoying God's presence and God's 
 peace together. It is a pleasant sight : an old age, sedate but serene 
 and joyous, encircled with the innocent merriment of gladsome 
 youth, not rudely boisterous, though unrestrained in hapj)iuess — 
 the secret of joy for both being, the knowledge that the Heavenly 
 Father is near, and is looking on with interest and love. 
 
 May your playtime be full of a gladness such as this. Let it be 
 no mere " vacation," a time when you vacate the school, and are set 
 free from work. But let it be a " holiday " in the best sense — a 
 time in which you realise something of the holy presence and favour 
 of God, as One who loves you and seeks your good. Then it will 
 be a season, not only of rest for the body, but of " recreation " for 
 the sjnrit, such as only the true children of God can enjoy who are 
 born of the Spirit, and have the Spirit of Adoption in their hearts. 
 
 And then, if you thus are kept near to God all tlie time, whetlicr 
 at work or at play, old age, if you are spared to see it, will be still 
 a time of happiness and peace. Even as an old man, leaning on a 
 staff " for multitude of days," you will in your heart know some- 
 thing of the joy of a perpetual youth, in the presence of the Eternal 
 Fallier, to whom even then you will be but as a child. 
 
 215 
 
August 2 atcavlng our /iRarft. 
 
 " For David thy father's sake " (1 Kings xi. 12). "Jerohoam, the son of 
 Nehat, who made Israel to sin " (2 Kings xiii. 2). 
 
 Both of these phrases are a frequent refrain in the record of 
 Israelitish history. Long after David and Jeroboam were dead 
 their influence was being felt. Each of them, in his day, had left 
 his mark — the one for good, the other for evil — upon society ; and 
 the effects were seen not only in their own time, but afterwards. 
 
 You would like to leave your mark, wouldn't you ? Some young 
 folks seek a very transient immortality by carving their names on 
 wooden benches in the Park, or upon the wall of some famous build- 
 ing of public interest and resort. Boys have been known to endanger 
 their lives, in the attempt to have their names cut higher than those 
 of their comrades, upon the^face of a steep and dangerous cliS". And 
 a more laudable ambition has been, to get the name engraved, in 
 golden letters, on the board of honour for the Duxes in the school to 
 which they have belonged. But what I want you now to observe 
 is this, that, whether for good or for evil, every one of you is sure to 
 make, and to leave, his mark somehow. It may be only a little 
 splash that the stone makes ; but it goes circling over the pond. 
 And our life may not make any great noise, but it will have its 
 influence all the same. God's eye may be able to detect the circles 
 of movement we have set agoing, for good or evil, long after we 
 ourselves have left this earth. 
 
 It is told of a Japanese workman, that, more than sixty years ago, 
 he determined to make his mark by doing something for his country. 
 He had no wealth, and no conspicuous talent. But " where there's 
 a will, there's a way." Round the town of Tokio, in which he lived, 
 there was a great unsheltered common, on which the sun beat 
 scorchingly in summer, to the great discomfort of weary wayfarers. 
 He determined to provide a shade for these, though he himself might 
 not live to enjoy it. And so he did. Day by day he planted j^ine 
 cones all round the city, in his leisure time. And now the city is 
 noted for the beauty of the trees around it, and the tired traveller 
 finds rest beneath their shade. 
 
 Thomas Carlyle is right in counting among the heroic souls all 
 that ever did a piece of honest work in their day and their degree — 
 "all the men that ever cut a thistle, drained a puddle out of England, 
 contrived a wise scheme in England, did or said a true and valiant 
 thing in England." May it thus be yours, in some true way, how- 
 ever humble, to make your mark ! 
 
 2l6 
 
TOlbO will misa BOU 7 August 3 
 
 "And he d^artcd ■without bcivg desired" (2 Chron. xxi. 20). 
 
 Could you imagine a more miserable epitaph? How would you 
 like a sentence like this to be put upon your tombstone, or, worse 
 still, to be recorded of you in God's own book ? Tlie words are 
 spoken of a young king, Jehoram. He was the son of a good man 
 and monarch, good King Jehoshaphat ; and he had enjoyed splendid 
 opportunities. But he made such a poor use of these, and showed 
 himself so unlovable, that nobody seems to have missed him or 
 mourned for him when he was gone. " He departed without being 
 desired." His country, and even his own relatives, seem, with too 
 much reason, to have been positively glad to be rid of him. 
 
 It should be your desire and aim to live so as to be missed. Not 
 that the mere fact of being missed is the thing you are to live for ; 
 but because, if you are not missed by somebody when you are gone, 
 it will very plainly show that you have not lived as you should 
 have done. 
 
 You do not require to fill a prominent sphere in order to be 
 greatly missed. Some of those whose loss is most sincerely lamented, 
 and whose place it is most difficult to fill,' have occupied a lowly 
 enough place. But they have so lived as to make a real blank for 
 others, when they were taken. Their friends have felt the world 
 poorer by their removal from it ; and someone has even felt, 
 perhaps, as if most of the sunshine had gone from life along with 
 them, beneath the horizon. 
 
 How deeply mourned, as well as loudly lamented, a humble, 
 loving woman like Dorcas was I She achieved a nobler immortality 
 than that of the great ones of her time. The most practised and 
 numerous band of hired mourners could not have " got up " a scene 
 of gi'ief like that which followed on her death. " Here is the coat," 
 said one, " on my little boy, which Dorcas brought him ou his last 
 birthday as a glad surprise." " These garments which you see on 
 me and my two girls," another poor widow would answer, " were 
 given to us, oh so quietly and kindly, by Dorcas, at the sad, sad 
 time when their father died." And another and another would 
 tell what a friend they had lost in her, and show that, in speaking 
 of her gifts, they were thinking far more of herself. How much 
 better to be the hmnble woman, who was loved and missed, than 
 the lofty prince, who "departed without being desired." 
 
 217 
 
August 4 B (True ©bcMence. 
 
 '^Ifye will obey My voice indeed, ye shall be a treasure unto Me" 
 (Ex. xix. 5). 
 
 Some people, like ancient Israel, are very ready to promise obedience 
 to God, but very prone to forget the promise wben the temptation to 
 disobedience comes. Yet the path of obedience is the way of real 
 happiness as well as of safety ; and God shows the value He sets 
 upon the " obedient indeed," by declaring such to be a treasure unto 
 Him. Just as a fond mother sometimes says of her little girl, 
 " Mary is a good child ; and so obedient. She is a perfect treasure " 
 — God sajs of those disposed in heart to render to Him a proper 
 obedience, " They are a peculiar treasure." 
 
 Now, wherein does a proper obedience consist ? 
 
 (1) In doing the very thing demanded at the time hy God. It is not 
 enough that the thing you do is not in itself a bad but a good thing ; 
 but are you doing the thing God bids you ? When Saul was offering 
 a rich oblation to God, he was told that "to obey is better than sacrifice." 
 Mr. Spurgeon, in illustrating this to some soldiers, said — " Suj)pose 
 one of you gets an order to keep guard at such and such a door. All 
 of a sudden, he thinks to himself, ' I am very fond of our commander, 
 and I should like to do something for him.' He puts his musket 
 against the wall, and sets oif to procure a bunch of flowers. He is 
 missed from his post. When he comes back, he says, ' Here is the 
 bunch of flowers I went to get.' But I hear his olficer say, 'To 
 oljey is better than that ; we cannot allow you to run off at every 
 whim of yours, and neglect your duty.' And he would be taught 
 proper military discipline." 
 
 (2) In doing all things commanded you hy God. We are not to 
 pick and choose, and do only some agreeable things, leaving others 
 undone. " Obedient in all things " must be our motto : both in 
 what we are to do and to refrain from doing — in the face, it may be, 
 of strong contrary inducement. It may sometimes have to be " the 
 obedience of faith," as with a girl in a pul )lic school in New York, 
 during a i^anic caused by an alarm of fire. There was a terrible 
 rush to the doors and ^vindows. Many of her companions were 
 hurt; one, who jumped from a window, was killed. But she was 
 safe ; for, though her cheek was pale, and her lip quivering, she had 
 kept her place. When order was restored, she gave this explanation 
 — " My father is a fireman, and he told me that, if ever there was an 
 alarm of fire in the school, I must just sit still." 
 
 Other characteristics of a true obedience might be named. But 
 do not, at anyrate, forget these tv.o — to do the thing, and all things, 
 commanded you of God. 
 
 2l8 
 
5C»ol9 in tbc Ibeart, August 5 
 
 "Little children, keep yourselves from idols " (1 John v. 21). 
 
 Have you ever seen a heathen idol ? If not, perhaps you may see 
 one some day at a missionary meeting ; or some of you may go out 
 to India or Cliina i'or yourselves yet, and there you will see idols in 
 abundance. How sad it is to think, that men and woman are foolisli 
 enough to bow down to sticks and stones and ugly images, and 
 worship them as gods ! Are you nut thankful that you know better 
 than to do that ? And are you nut glad to be able iu do something, 
 through the missionary box, toward teaching the poor heathen 
 children about "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has 
 sent." 
 
 But it is not only heathen people who have been known to 
 worship idols. The Bible tells us that even the children of Israel, 
 to whom God had made Himself known, and for whom He had done 
 so much, were guilty of this folly. Moses has been called up to the 
 mountain-top ; and, day after day, the people look for him, but he 
 does not return. They are impatient, and anxious to push on from 
 Sinai. At last they persuade themselves that he will not come back 
 at all ; and, in their folly, they think that they will do without " this 
 Moses," aucl make a god of their own to wursliip and follow. Aaron, 
 in his weakness, humours them. Tlieir earrings and golden ornaments 
 are freely given ; and soon they are dancing round a golden calf, 
 before which they offer sacrifices, and hold a merry " religious " feast. 
 Aliis I what better were they than the Egyptians, whom they used 
 to see worshipi>ing the reeking ox! "They — made — a calf — in 
 lloreb" (Ps. cvi. 19). Every word in this phrase of the Psjilmist, if 
 you pause over it, will bring out more terribly their folly and 
 sin. 
 
 But, coming nearer home, it is certain that many boys and girls 
 need the Bible warning — " Keep yourselves from idols ! " You may 
 be under no temptation to bow before a calf of gold ; but what if you 
 worship money, or what money can purchase, in your heart ? Dress, 
 praise of others, a toy — anything or anybody that is loved more than 
 God is an idol. These idols of the heart are very alluring ; and their 
 worship is all the more ensnaring, that it can be so secretly and 
 respectably carried on. But we should earnestly seek to be idol- 
 breakers to our own hearts. They are intended to be temples only 
 for the living God ; and this should be our sincere and earnest 
 prayer — 
 
 "The dearest idol I have known, 
 
 Whate'er that idol be, 
 Help me to tear it from Thy throne 
 
 And worship only Thee." 
 
 219 
 
August 6 B %C8So\x from /iRount lbor. 
 
 "And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments . . . and Aaron died, there " 
 (Num. XX. 28). 
 
 The Jebel-Nebi-Harllm, " the mountain of the Prophet Aaron," as 
 it is called, stands close by the rock-city of Petra, on the border of 
 the land of Edom. There is little room for doubt that it is the 
 Mount Hor where Aaron died, during the encampment of Israel ai, 
 Kadesh. 
 
 It must have been a solemn day in the experience of Israel when, 
 at the command of Jehovah, Moses, Aaron, and Eleazar climbed 
 this mountain " in the eyes of all the congregation," and only Moses 
 and Eleazar came down again. Strange, sad thoughts must have 
 filled their hearts when they saw that Aaron was missing, and the 
 news went round that the High Priest was dead. 
 
 He who for forty years had transacted for them with Jehovah, 
 whose entrance within the Holy Place they had witnessed with awe, 
 whose lips so often had spoken over them the words of blessing, 
 was dead. They would see his face no more ; they would never 
 hear again the accents of his voice. If you have known what it is 
 to lose a venerable minister, who bajDtized you perhaps, and has 
 taught you from childhood, and prayed over you, and been to you 
 like a father, you may understand a little of how Israel felt that 
 day. How much of the comfort and peace of life, as they had 
 known it, must have seemed to be dead and buried with Aaron in 
 the grave. And must there not have stirred within them a longing 
 for One who would have an unchangeable priesthood ? 
 
 The event at Hor had its lessons, too, for us. As Scripture 
 enables us to see the venerable High Priest stripped of his official 
 robes, before he passes from this world, it may well remind us of 
 two things : — 
 
 1. That the time is coming when we shall all be stripped of mere 
 earthly distinctions. The robes of position, honour, dignity, in the 
 world and in the Church, will be taken off us ; and, as we came naked 
 into the world, we shall not be able to carry any of these things 
 with us into the presence of Him before whom we must all appear for 
 judgment. And — 
 
 2. That our only hope for acceptance, in that day, is in the 
 sacrifice and intercession of that great High Priest, of whom Aaron was 
 only the imperfect type. He, too, has had his anointing, for He 
 is God's Christ. He, too, has His robe of beauty. His girdle. His 
 breastplate, and His crown. Above all. His one offering is a sacrifice 
 in which we may for ever trust. Could Aaron's voice reach you 
 from the top of Hor across the centuries, what would be his dying 
 message, think you, as they strip him of his robes, and he sinks in 
 death into the everlasting arms of God ? What but this — " Behold 
 the Priest and Lamb of God ! " May it be yours and mine to say, 
 with Augustine — " I rest in the Man who has no successor " ! 
 
 220 
 
36ible HuDttiOll. August *7 
 
 " All Ihrsc things shall he added unlo ynu" (Matt. vi. 33). 
 
 If yoii were to purchase something in a grocer's shop, the man from 
 whom you bouglit it wouhl not lay any great stress on the 
 paper needed to tie up your parcel, and would never think of charg- 
 ing you for the string wrapped around it. Even so, according to an 
 old Avriter, is it with " these things " which men are so anxious 
 about securing. They are, in God's sight, "no more than the paper 
 and pack-thread," which are thrown into the bargain, for the man 
 who makes Christ and the great Salvation his own. They are hardly 
 worth reckoning, in comparison with the Infinite Possession which 
 such can claim ; and, certainly, God will not grudge, to any such, 
 any gift whatever which will ha for their true good. If only we 
 seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things 
 shall be added unto us. 
 
 The trouble is, that so many people, in their seeking, begin at 
 the wrong end. They make " these things " — the paj^er and pack- 
 thrcvd — their principal olyect, as if these were their chief good. 
 And so bent are they on acquiring the inferior blessings, that they 
 have apparently no thought or caring at all for the highest blessing 
 of all. This is very sad. A poor man in a lunatic asylum kept on 
 continually crying — "Oh, what a fool I've been ! Oh, what a fool I've 
 been 1 " It is to be feared that this will be the weary refrain of 
 many a worldly heart throughout eternity. 
 
 You have heard of the Disruption of the Scottish Church in 
 1843. The smoke of battle has now disappeared ; and we can all 
 admire the action of the noble ministers, who gave up their churches 
 and manses and glebes, rather than wound their consciences, or do 
 anything which they counted disloyalty to the " Crown rights " of 
 the Redeemer. One of these Disruption Fathers tells, that after his 
 family had been sent away from the manse, and the last cart of 
 furniture was nearly ready to go, he entered his dismantled study 
 for the last time. " On looking around me," he narrates, " with 
 feelings which I shall not attempt to describe, I saw lying on the 
 mantelpiece one of the little printed tickets which I was in the 
 habit of using in the Sal)bath school. Impressed with the idea that 
 the texts it contained might be charged with a message suited to the 
 solemn occasion, I lifted it, and read the following verses : — ' But 
 seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness ; and all 
 these things shall be added unto you ' (Matt. vi. 33). ' But my God 
 shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ 
 Jesus' (Phil. iv. 19). The words came on my heart like a voice from 
 heaven." How many besides these " Disrui>tion Worthies " have had 
 the fulfilment of the promise of our text I 
 
 221 
 
August 8 21 [fiSountiful "ffjavvcst, 
 
 " In due season lue shall reaj^, ^/ we faint not" (Gal. vi. 9), 
 
 It is a beautiful siglit, at this season of the year, to see the reapers 
 gatlicring in the harvest. There is nothing you enjoy more than to 
 visit the harvest-field, or to sit upon the top of the cart that is bring- 
 ing home the sheaves. And it is indeed a time for thankfulness, 
 when, through man's labour and God's favour, there is a bountiful 
 harvest gathered in. 
 
 The lesson I want you to learn to-day is, that M'hile it is only 
 God who can give the increase. He does not give harvests to the 
 idler. We must not weary in well-doing, or be sparing of our efforts, 
 if we wish to reap a worthy and bountiful crop. As Dr. Chalmers 
 used to put it, 'prayer should be accompanied by pains. Tliese two 
 together will accomplish almost anything. 
 
 Two husbandmen went forth to sow their several fields. But 
 the one, observing the wind and the gathering storm, bethought 
 him — " My family is large, and my store of seed is small. I must 
 hold it mostly in my granary ; for I dare sow but a little of it in 
 this cloudy weather. It may be that God will prosper the little 
 that I sow ; and, in another season, I shall sow the more, if brighter 
 days be given." So saying, he sprinkled a few niggard handfuls, 
 and gat him home again to his wife and hungry children. The 
 months rolled by, aiid autumn brought him but a sparse return ; 
 and, ere another season had come round, that husbandman was 
 dead. 
 
 His neighbour, too, went forth to sow, and carried with him all 
 his store, save only what was needed for the frugal but sufficient 
 support of his well-appointed household. He was a man of high 
 hopes and generous endeavours j and in his heart there was a great 
 living trust toward God. He, too, saw the wind and the gathering 
 storm ; but he feared it not, and said — " I must work while it is 
 to-day, and look to God, who gives to all without upbraiding." And 
 so, with faithful heart and liberal hand, he cast his seed into the dark 
 furrows, and dressed the soil with all needed diligence. Then, 
 when the time for resting came, he waited with long patience for 
 the early and the latter rain. And when the time for reaping came, 
 there was a glad home-bringing of the sheaves; and the poorer 
 neighbours freely shared the goodly gleanings. 
 
 Which of these two professing servants of Christ are you to be 1 
 The last, I hope : who prayed and trusted, but laboured too. Let 
 your labours, like his, be themselves unspoken prayers; and God 
 will give a divinely bountiful response. 
 
 222 
 
Guit>C& Witb CJO^'iJ J£BC. August 9 
 
 " / will guide thee with Mine eye" (Ps. xxxii. 8). 
 
 Two nieml)crs of a family may be so clin'crcnt in disjiosition, that 
 the same fatlier may require to control and guide them in very 
 different -ways. One lioy may have to be taken by tlie collar and 
 dragged to duty, or kcjit back from evil. Another needs no more than 
 a look from his parent. He sees the glance of his father's eye. And 
 that look is enough. He at once springs to his feet, to do the thing 
 he sees his father wLslies to be done ; or, without a moment's hesitation, 
 he puts from him what he perceives his father wishes him to set 
 aside. 
 
 Now, this last is the sort of obedience our Heavenly Father looks 
 for in His children. He docs not like what has been called " rope- 
 end obedience." The kind of control and guidance He enjoys having 
 His children under, is the guidance of the eye. He has no pleasure 
 in the punishment of offenders. To speak after the manner of men, 
 it is a sore thing to the heart of God to have to mete out sore 
 chastisement, or what looks like harsh treatment, to any member of 
 His family. He would much rather draw us than drive us. Instead 
 of dragging us as with a halter, He greatly prefers to lead us with a 
 glance of His loving eye. 
 
 And surely, if this is more agreeable to God, it should be the 
 welcome course for us. A look from God should be enough. When 
 a mule needs to be torn and dragged by what is a really kind and 
 wise master, before, it will obey his Avill, we may find some excuse 
 for it, because it is of " no imderstanding." But its mulishness is 
 really hurtful to itself, as well as displeasing to its owner. And, 
 certainly, " mulishness " in a boy or a girl is a very unworthy, as 
 well as hurtful, trait of character. 
 
 Pray that you may clearly discern the loving ej'e of God looking 
 down upon you every day, and that you may be kejjt sensitive to 
 His will, — reading at a glance what He desires of you, and at once 
 obeying every look He gives. This is the only way to he really 
 hcqypy. If you are skulking from your Father's sight, you and true 
 happiness must needs be strangers. It is the true saferjuard also 
 against temptation, to live ever as beneath God's eye. "Johnny," 
 said a customer, with a wink, to a draper's assistant one day, " you 
 must give me good measure. Your master is not in, you know ! " 
 But Johnny was a Christian youth. And, looking straight in the 
 man's face, he answered solemnly — " My Master is always in." 
 
 223 
 
August 10 ©neslmus of Colossc. 
 
 " / beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I Iiave begotten in my bonds^' 
 (Philem. 10). 
 
 The story of this Onesimus is a deeply iutercsting and a very 
 suggestive one. He had formerly been a servant in a family at 
 Colosse, in Asia Minor. It was a Christian family, for his master 
 Philemon was one whom Paul could address as " our dearly beloved 
 and fellow-labourer," referring also to " the Church in his house." 
 But such a pious household was not, at that time, to the liking of 
 young Onesimus. Possibly he was dishonest (verse 18), and felt both 
 rebuked and bored by the atmosphere he had to breathe there. At 
 anyrate, he got somehow discontented with his surroundings ; and, 
 anxious possibly to see the world, he makes off one day, gets into 
 a coasting vessel, probably at Smyrna, and makes his way to Eome. 
 
 But now, in the sequel, observe — 
 
 1. The wonderful 'providence of God. Here was this poor slave- 
 boy, adrift in the great, seething capital of the Empire. It would not 
 have been wonderful if he had sunk into sin, or at anyrate into utter 
 oblivion, — remembered even by his old master only as an ingrate, 
 who had ill-requited all the kindness shown to him, and had 
 proved himself unworthy of the comforts of such a home as he had 
 left. But God's eye is upon Onesimus. There is perhaps only one 
 man in Rome who knew him in earlier days. It is Paul, the 
 preacher, whom he has seen at his master's table, but who is now a 
 prisoner in the capital. And, under the superintending providence 
 of God, Onesimus meets with that man again. 
 
 2. The power of true religion in the heart is now illustrated in 
 Onesimus. Paul speaks of him as a genuine convert, a changed man 
 in every way, through the blessing of God upon his dealing with 
 him. He speaks of him affectionately, as his son in the gospel, and 
 tells his master that, if in time past he had been unprofitable, he 
 is now certain to be a profitable servant. Onesimus has evidently 
 confessed his misdoings ; he is willing to go back to Philemon, and 
 do what he can to make amends for the past. And Paul can now 
 trust him with his letter to the Colossians too. 
 
 3. TTie love of true Christianity is beautifully exhibited, also — is it 
 not? — in the attitude of Paul to Onesimus. We see the apostle 
 stretching out a hand even to the wretched runaway. It might 
 have been easy to drive him away from all good influence, into the 
 dark haunts of vice and wretchedness in the great city. But Paul 
 meets him, with something of the love of Him who came to seek and 
 to save the lost. He extends the same love to Onesimus the slave, 
 when he becomes a Christian, as he had cherished for Philemon the 
 master. He counts and calls him "a brother beloved " (verse 16), 
 and he confidently expects that Philemon will do the same. 
 
 224 
 
IClas it bg Gbancc? August ii 
 
 ' Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz " (Ruth ii. 3). 
 
 Ruth went away that morning, hardly knowing whither she went. 
 It mattered little, she tlioiight, if only her feet carried her where the 
 gleaning privilege might not be denied her. But she went forth in 
 the spirit of one acknowledging God in everything. And so "her 
 hap was " to light on the very best field in all the world for her. It 
 hapjiened — by what people call accident — to be the field of Boaz, 
 the kinsman of Naomi. And this "accident" was to change the 
 whole current of her life. Not only so ; but her " happening " on 
 that field was to affect not her own future only, but, through 
 David, the dynasty of Israel's throne, and, through Jesus, the 
 destiny of all the world. 
 
 But was it, then, an accident ? Yes, in the sense that she 
 may hardly have been aware of wliat instinct or impulse it was that 
 seemed to lead her thither. But not in the sense of happening 
 by " mere chance." For it was the God of Pro\idence that was 
 guiding her feet that day, by a way she knew not, to a field of plenty, 
 to a home of peace, and to a notable place in the world's history. 
 
 A blind man on one of the bridges in London was reading 
 aloud from an embossed Bible, in the hearing of a few persons who 
 had, in curiosity, gathered round him. A gentleman who happened 
 to be passing stopped for a moment to listen ; and, just at that 
 moment, the poor man lost his place, and, in trying to find it again 
 with his finger, kept on repeating the last clause he had read 
 from the fourth chapter of the Acts — " None other name, none other 
 name." Some others smiled at his embarrassment ; but the gentle- 
 man went away in deepest thought. He had been vainly trying to 
 find peace of conscience and of heart apart from Jesus. These words 
 exactly fitted his state of mind that day. They kept ringing in his 
 ears, as the true answer to his soul's inquiries — " None other name ! 
 None other name ! " And ere long he found the rest he sought, iu 
 the only Saviour. Was that " mere chance " ? 
 
 You often hardly know why you choose a certain road rather 
 than another — why you speak a certain word at a particular time, 
 and are silent at another. You forget how it was, exactly, that you 
 came to make the acquaintance of someone, who has largely influenced 
 you since first you met. But God knows all these things ; and 
 while you act freely, you act beneath His providence. He can give 
 the right balance even to feelings and purposes within the heart. 
 Do not believe that anything comes to you by "mere chance." 
 Acknowledge God in all your ways, and He will direct you in the 
 right path. He makes all things work together for good to them 
 who love Him. 
 
 05) 225 
 
Aiigusti2 zbc 3Bra3cn Serpent. 
 
 "Every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live" (Num. xxl. 8). 
 
 We know that when a boy or a girl is out of temper, everything 
 seems to be out of joint. They are apt to be dissatisfied with food, 
 books, clothes, companions— everything. So was it with the Israelites 
 in the wilderness ; and so peevish and discontented were they, that 
 God sent fiery serpents which bit the people, so that many of them 
 died. Oh, what a dreadful scene it was — multitudes writhing in 
 death throughout the camp — helpless, hopeless, with nothing in the 
 desert there to stop the plague or check the poison in their blood — 
 turning their glazed eyes wistfully to heaven — in vain ! 
 
 Misery is sure to follow upon sin. It is well when sorrow for 
 sin follows upon misery : then the hour of forgiveness and rescue 
 is not far away. The stricken Hebrews did the best thing possible, 
 indeed the only thing to bring them help, when they turned to God. 
 And, in answer to their cry and that of Moses, the Lord graciously 
 offered them a cure. 
 
 At the divine bidding, Moses stood in the midst of the camp, 
 and lifted high upon a pole, that every one might see it, a brazen 
 image of the venomous brood which had done such deadly mischief 
 among the people. And, as Jehovah's herald, he cried in trumpet 
 tones — " Look to this, and you will live ! " And " it came to pass 
 that, if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent 
 of brass he lived." 
 
 And thus the plague was stayed. If they were foolish enough 
 to refuse to look, they quickly died. But don't you think that most 
 of the miserable sufferers would be only too glad to turn even the 
 eye almost closed in death to where God told them — if haply even 
 for them there might be hope ? And if they looked, they lived I 
 
 Now, is not sin a terrible scorpion, poisoning the life-blood ? 
 Unbelief, presumption, ingratitude, rebellion, were unseen serpents 
 that had wrought much spiritual havoc in the Israelitish camp 
 before the fiery serpents came. Are there any hidden snakes of this 
 kind in your bosom ? 
 
 Not only some, but all of us are stricken. You are suffering 
 from the serpent's bite. And none of us can cure himself. None 
 of us can cure his neighbour. Even a Moses could only point us 
 to the Lord's Salvation. There is help only in God. But there is 
 help in Him. 
 
 " Look, and live " is still God's call. As the brazen serpent was 
 raised upon the pole, so Christ, the Son of Man, " made sin for us," 
 in "the likeness of sinful flesh," has been lifted up upon the cross, 
 that He might draw our eyes and hearts to Himself. " There is life 
 for a look at the Crucified One." 
 
 226 
 
Q;berefore# August i3 
 
 " Te sliall keep the Sabbath, there/ore" (Ex. xxxi. 14), 
 
 " Therefore." Why ? Because he who does not keep the Sabbath 
 is both a fool and a thief, and will by and by discover that he is no 
 better than a slave. These are strong names ; but the Bible shows 
 us that they are true. 
 
 1. The Sabbath-breaker is a fool. According to Scripture, the 
 fool is one who says in his heart — " No God " ; and who tries to 
 persuade himself that there is " no eternity." Now the Sabbath is 
 gi\'en to us that we may be wise unto salvation, that we may get 
 near to God, and be made ready for a future life. It is one of God's 
 three best gifts for men, which are these — His Son, His Book, His 
 Day. If you despise the Sabbath, then, and are taken up onlj^ \vith 
 the sticks and straws of earth, forgetful of the heavenly cro^\^l — the 
 Bible's name for you is a short but emphatic one — " a fool." 
 
 2. The Sabbath-breaker is a thief. Although God has given us 
 this day, He has given it to us for a particular purpose. It is "holy 
 to Him." It is " a rest of deep rest, holy to the Lord." He has 
 appointed it for our good, but also for His glory. It is still the 
 Lord's Day. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath ; and we liave 
 no right to put it to any use of which He does not approve. Now, 
 if anything isgiven you for a special purpose by your kind father 
 or mother, you would think very meanly of yourself if you went 
 away and applied it to something quite different from what they 
 had intended. If you received a sixpence, for instance, to give to 
 a poor starving woman and her family, or to put into the missionary 
 box, and if you went off to the confectioner's and spent it on your 
 own shortlived pleasure, your conscience would surely speak. And 
 for those who misapply the Lord's Day so, it is not too strong a 
 name, the name of thief. 
 
 3. The Sabbath-breaker is a slave. He may think himself very 
 free and very clever. But all the time he is bound in the fetters 
 of a miserable earthliness. He only is free on the Sabbath who is 
 free to rise in soul toward God. It is said that if the mules in a 
 coal mine are kept constantly below, and are not brought into the 
 sunlight at least once a week, they grow quite blind. So it is with 
 those who are buried in the world's engagements constantly, and get 
 no Sabbath uplook toward heaven. They are poor slaves ; like the 
 blind mules in a coal mine. Philip Henry used to meet his children 
 on the Sabbath morning with the words, " The Lord is risen ! " And 
 they answered, " The Lord is risen indeed ! " So should the Sabbath 
 be in all our homes — a day of sacred joy and liberty with Christ. 
 
 227 
 
August 14 IRctrlbutfon. 
 
 " The wicked is snared in the work of his oion hands " (Ps. ix. 16). 
 
 By retribution is meant what, in popular phrase, is called 
 "being paid back in your own coin."' Perhaps it is a token that 
 there is a great deal of malice in the world, that the word, which 
 literally means merely a "paying-back," is never used now to 
 express reward, but only punishment. 
 
 There are a great many instances, in history, of people being 
 " paid back in their own coin " — evil which they had planned for 
 others recoiling on their own heads. A malicious attempt to injure 
 others is very often like the Australian boomerang — a weapon 
 which, flung violently to a considerable distance, has a way of 
 bounding back to the spot from which it was thrown. Or it is like 
 a gun which explodes in the hands of him who fires it, and blows 
 his own head away. 
 
 If we turn to the Bible, we see the wicked Prime Minister 
 Haman strung up on the gallows which he had craftily prepared for 
 the innocent Mordecai. Something very like that occurred at the 
 time of the great French Revolution. The Queen, Marie Antoinette, 
 as you know, was cruelly put to death by the guillotine. But what 
 happened less than a year after ? It is recorded that " everyone 
 implicated in her untimely end, her accusers, the judges, the jury, 
 the prosecutors, the witnesses, all — everyone at least whose fate is 
 known — perished by the same instrument as their innocent victim." 
 Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth. "The Lord is 
 known by the judgment that He executeth." 
 
 You doubtless remember the story of Ralph the Rover, who, 
 hoping for plunder, cut away the bell from the Inchcape Rock, 
 to which the Aberbrothock monks had attached it, to warn unwary 
 mariners away from the sunken reef. Some time after, the pirate, 
 as Southey vividly describes him, struck during a storm on that 
 very rock, and perished, amid curses of self-reproach and wild 
 despair. And, indeed, you may often see in the newspapers of the 
 day, illustrations of the very same thing. Not long ago, a miscreant 
 was making for one of the public buildings in London with a bomb ; 
 but, before he reached it, the dynamite exploded in his pocket and 
 shattered him in pieces. 
 
 There is an eternal fulfilment of the same law of " retribution " 
 on the wicked and impenitent too awful to think of. Their darling 
 sins and unclean appetites are made the whips to torment them. 
 They are "sunk down in the pit that they made." 
 
 228 
 
aSlblC ^UltfpKcatfom August 15 
 
 " There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth " (Prov. xi. 24). 
 
 This is the Bihle rule of multiplication— Give, in order to get ; 
 scatter, if you would accumulate. 
 
 Nature itself enforces the lusson here. Tliere are two ways in 
 which you might try to increase your heap of corn. You might 
 keep it carefully hoarded in the granary, and be always on the 
 outlook for additional liandfuls, here and there, which you might 
 add to it. But that would be a very slow way of increasing it. It 
 would be a long time before, with all your scraping, you would see 
 very much difference on your pile ; and, very possibly, by that time 
 it might be fusty and half useless with age and damp. The other 
 way would be, to take your corn-heap out to the field prepared to 
 receive it, and boldly and generously to scatter the precious grain 
 over the dark upturned furrows. This faith and freehandedness 
 will not, by God's blessing, go without its reward. Every seed, by 
 the harvest-time, will have multiplied itself many times. Your 
 granary will be filled to overflowing ; and, if this process were re- 
 peated another year, it would need other barns to hold the increase. 
 
 Now, what is true of seed is true of other things besides. It is 
 true, for instance, of money, when wisely scattered, that this is the 
 best way to multiply it. Wisely scattered, I say ; for, of course, 
 nobody would expect a crop from seed cast among rocks or upon the 
 sand, and nobody need expect a return from money squandered 
 without sense anywhere. 13ut everybody knows, that to lay out 
 money well is a far more effectual way of increasing it than to 
 hoard it up in the proverbial old- wife's stocking. And it has been 
 proved in the experience of many, that, even vnih. regard to earthly 
 increase, one of the best possible ways to secure it is, to " lend it to 
 the Lord." 
 
 But the text holds good of higher things than money — it is true 
 of light, and warmth, and music, and joy, and love. A candle is no 
 poorer by lighting other candles, or the gas jets round the room ; 
 but the room is vastly the brighter for it. A warm coal grows 
 warmer and more glowing, by communicating its warmth to those 
 around it. The music in your heart is richer, if you sing and give 
 others the benefit of it. Your o^vn joy is intensified, if you bring 
 others to share it with you. Your love grows in degree and quality 
 — it becomes liker to Christ's own — as, in a spirit of sacrifice, it 
 expends itself on others. But the music, the joy, the love vrill die, 
 if J ou attempt to hoard them for yourself. The selfish policy wiU 
 be found in the end to be the most unkind even to self. 
 
 229 
 
August 16 Cbcist tbe propbet 
 
 ' ' A Propliet : Ilim shall ye liear in all things " (Acts iii. 22). 
 
 By "a prophet" you generally understand "one wlao foretells tlie 
 future." And Jesus was this, as truly as Isaiah or Daniel, or any of 
 the rest. He was often speaking, for instance, of His coming death, 
 and of what was to follow on it, so that men had afterwards, and 
 still have, to own His miracles of knowledge as well as of power. 
 
 But " prophet " means more than a " foreteller " : it means " one 
 who speaks for another." In this sense, it is used of Aaron. God 
 says to Moses, you remember, when he has been complaining of his 
 stammering tongue, " And Aaron, thy brother, shall be thy prophet." 
 That is, " Aaron shall speak for thee." And so, Jesus is the great 
 Prophet, who speaks to men for God. 
 
 Now, you know what, as Prophet, He tells. He tells us what 
 God, in whose bosom He dwelt from eternity, is. He tells us, also, 
 how different we are from God, and from what God would have us 
 to be. But He likewise shows us the way to the Father — the way 
 back into a yet brighter home than Eden, by an approach at which 
 no stern cherubs stand, with flaming sword, to bar the way, but only 
 the gentle messengers of Light and Truth, to lead us and bring us 
 near to God. 
 
 You also know how Christ, as our Prophet, teaches us. He does 
 it, in His Word and by His Spirit. You and I do not see Him 
 going about in our midst, as He did among the men of Jerusalem and 
 Galilee ; and we do not hear Him with the bodily ear. But we 
 have His message of salvation in the written Word ; and He is 
 Himself present with us by the Holy Spirit, who was promised 
 to lead us into all truth. 
 
 What Christ as our Prophet, then, has a right to expect is, 
 that we carefully read and think about all that the Bible tells us of 
 Him, and of the way of life and peace ; and that we earnestly pray 
 for His Holy Spirit, not only to open the Scriptures to us, but to 
 open our hearts to receive the Word. We are to hear Christ "in all 
 things, whatsoever He shall say unto us" — not taking only what 
 is welcome to us in His teaching, but hearing and acting upon it all. 
 If Moses or Elijah were to appear again upon the earth, or if an 
 angel were to speak to you, it is difficult for you to imagine yourself 
 despising him. But what if any boy or girl is doing a more daring 
 and foolish thing than this ? If God in these last days has spoken 
 to us by His Son, how shall we escape if we neglect so great 
 salvation ? 
 
 230 
 
©ne of 0oO'6 ^Forgct-mcsnotu. August i7 
 
 " Fear not ; thou art Mine : I will be with thee " (Isa, xliii. 1, 2). 
 
 A GOOD Christian lady of my acquaintance called the "Fear nots" 
 of the Bible " God's forget-me-nots." You will find quite a number 
 of these, if j'ou look through the pages of Scripture for them. This 
 is one of them, and one of the most precious. He who said to 
 Abraham, " Fear not " : and to Hagar, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, 
 and to the Hebrew people at the Red Sea, and to Gideon, and to 
 many more : says here to His Israel, " Fear not." And He gives two 
 reasons — first, that they belong to Him, as His redeemed, whom He 
 has bought and greatly values ; and, second, that He is present with 
 them to keep them safe. " Thou art Mine ; I will be with thee." 
 
 How like this is to the " Fear not " of the Good Shepherd to His 
 " little flock." He valued them so much that He gave His life for 
 the sheep. His hold on them is so sure that He can say : " None 
 shall be able to pluck you out of My hand." And, whatever may lie 
 before them, He gives them cheer : " Fear not ; little flock, it is ^ly 
 Father's good-pleasure to give you the kingdom." And when, at 
 length. His bodily presence is about to be withdrawn, He leaves 
 with His Church this word of strong consolation, in giving them the 
 commission to win the world for Him — " Lo, I am with you all the 
 days, even unto the end of the world." 
 
 This is a promise, you will observe, intended not only for the 
 Church as a whole, but for every believer in it — even the youngest 
 and feeblest. Perhaps some of you are as yet like Nelson when he 
 was a boy. One asked him if he knew what fear was, and he said, 
 *' What like a creature is it ? I have never seen it." Some of you 
 may not know what fear is yet ; and I would be the last to darken 
 your young hearts needlessly with it. But others of you know too 
 well, I daresay, what fear means ; or, at anyrate, you yet may 
 know, and it will be well for you, when called to enter the dark 
 cave of adversity, to know where to lay hold of a precious candle- 
 light of promise such as this — " Fear not : I will be with thee." 
 
 Give yourself wholly into Christ's keeping ; and then, knowing 
 that you are His and that He is with you, you will have as much 
 right as any to carry in yoiir bosom, for your comfort, the Forget-me- 
 not of God. 
 
 231 
 
August IS xove in anger. 
 
 " And Moses' anger waxed hot" (Ex, xxxii. 19). 
 
 Israel at tliis time have sinned a great sin, in circumstances of 
 great aggravation. God, who has given them the manna, and the 
 quails, and the clear springing water, has also defended them 
 against their enemies, the Amalekites. And at this very Sinai, 
 where they are encamped. He has further shown His interest in 
 them by declaring to them His will, and entering into covenant 
 with them ; while the people, on their part, have answered together, 
 "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." Yet it was here 
 — where they had been apparently so impressed that they could 
 never possiblj^ forget what they had seen, heard, and promised — 
 it was here that they fell into the grievous and miserable sin of 
 worshipping the golden calf. 
 
 Need we wonder that we hear next of a stem punishment ? God 
 tells Moses that it is time to go down among the people, because 
 " they have turned aside quickly," after all their fair promises of 
 obedience, so that God proposes to sweep them away. Moses puts 
 in an earnest word that they may be spared, but hastens down 
 the mountain-side. "Wlien he comes in sight of the camp, he is 
 himself filled with such horror that he dashes from him the tables 
 of the law — springs into the camp — seizes the idol, and burns it — 
 grinds the molten mass to powder — and, scattering the dust of 
 it uj^on the water, makes the idolaters drink their god. Nor is 
 this all. The sons of Levi, at his bidding, go through the camp 
 sword in hand, and do not stop the work of vengeance till three 
 thousand of the worst of the idolaters are stretched dead upon the 
 ground. " This from Moses, who had put in a plea for the people on 
 the top of the mount ! Is he not very hard-hearted since coming 
 down?" Do not judge until you see what follows! 
 
 We now hear the accents of an agonising prayer. It is from the 
 lips of Moses, who has returned to the Lord to plead that Israel 
 even yet may not be cast off. He does not hide their sin from 
 themselves (verse 30), and he does not try to hide it from God. But 
 his heart, which had been filled with righteous indignation, is 
 overflowing with the sorrow of disappointed and outraged love. 
 And, though he does not know very well what to say, he bursts 
 into the cry — " Yet now, if Thou will forgive their sin " — and then 
 he stops ; but he begins again — " And if not, blot me, I pray Thee, 
 out of the book which Thou hast written ! " 
 
 Ah, who will speak of harshness in Moses now, when we see his 
 heart melted thus in the presence of God ? Do j^ou not know that 
 anger — the anger of parent or of teacher — is often only the other 
 side of love ? The love of Moses here makes one think of Paul's 
 (Kom. ix. 3). Nay, it is wonderfully like a yet greater love than 
 any other — the love of God for sinful men. 
 
 232 
 
3Dlble Subtraction. August 19 
 
 " Whosoever hath not, from hivi skull be taken even that which lie seemeth 
 to have" (Luke viii. 18). 
 
 You know wliy the blacksmith's arm is so brawny and muscular ? 
 Because he is constantly using it. If you don't use your muscles, 
 your arm will grow limp and flabby, and even the little strength 
 you had to begin with will disappear. I know a man who lay down 
 in bed, thinking himself very feeble, though the doctors considered 
 that he was al)le to go about ; and he lay so many months and 
 years in bed that he actually lost the power to rise. So, too, in the 
 Kentucky Cave, which I once visited, there are fishes in the under- 
 ground river that have no eyes, or which, at anyrate, cannot see. 
 AVhat is the reason of this ? Just this, that, in the darkness there, 
 the fishes found no use for eyesight, and hence did not use their 
 eyes, — the consequence being, that, in course of time, the power to 
 see vanished, so that the little fishes there are bom blind. 
 
 This is a rule that holds good in the moral sphere as well. 
 When God gives us any special opportunity, if we do not take 
 advantage of it, it will be taken from us ; if He bestows any par- 
 ticular gift upon us, that gift, if unused, will vanish. 
 
 Bible subtraction applies to (1) Good impressions. The immediate 
 reference in the text is to hearing God's Word. If we make a good 
 use of the light we receive, we are assured that we shall have more 
 light. But if we put the light under a shade, or if we do not 
 accept God's message as for ourselves, but hand it on to somebody 
 else, we shall get no lasting benefit from it. The good impression 
 which it may for a moment have made upon us will vanish. It 
 may leave us even more unenlightened, and careless, and frivolous 
 than we were before. (2) G-racious opportunities. If we do not 
 employ these as we should, they are very likely to be taken from us 
 altogether. There are i^laces that once had the gospel preached to 
 them that are now in heathen darkness. The candlestick of most 
 of the Seven Churches of Asia has been taken away. The Church 
 of Rome, which had so promising a beginning in Paul's day, is now 
 a centre of dark superstition and idolatry. There are lands of 
 Europe which did not use the Lord's Day as God intended ; and 
 now they cannot be said to have a Sabbath at all. Wliere it is not 
 given to toilsome labour, it is a day of restless gaiety. (3) Spiritual 
 faculties. These, not employed, are like the bodily faculties : they 
 sink into decay. The eye of the soul, if not used, ceases to see. 
 The energies of mind and heart, if not devoted earnestly to worthy 
 ends, shrivel up and vanish. A man I know had the musical 
 faculty in his youth. He was taught, when a boy, to play the piano. 
 But he was too lazy to keep himself in practice. And now he can 
 hardly play at all. Beware lest not only the music, but the useful- 
 ness of your life, come thus under the Bible law of subtraction, 
 through your not exercising the spiritual faculties with which God 
 has endowed you. Let us have a care, lest God take from us even 
 that which we seem to have. 
 
 233 
 
August 20 IHoab's Secinoii. 
 
 " Xoah, ajyreacher of righteousness" (2 Pet. ii. 5). 
 
 By the time Noah's Ark was ready, he was a very old man — 600 
 years of age. His grandfather, Methuselah, was not long dead, 
 however ; and his life w-ent back to the time of father Adam. Thus 
 Noah knew well all the past history of the human family ; for what 
 his grandfather could not tell him of his own knowledge, he could 
 report as having heard it from Adam. And of one thing Noah was 
 c^uite sure, namely, that no Flood such as God had foretold had ever 
 occurred before, in the days of mortal flesh. Yet he did not sagely 
 shake his head, and say it was impossible, and do nothing. He was 
 a truly wise old man, and did not set up his own experience against 
 God's Word. He believed, and obeyed ; and, unmoved by the 
 scoffers, he went on preparing his Ark for the saving of his house. 
 
 For about 120 years the work went on ; and the world was as 
 merry and as heedless in its wickedness as ever. If people thought 
 of Noah and his Ark at all, in their constant round of gaiety- 
 eating, and drinking, and marrying, as though to-morrow would be 
 only more abundant than to-day — it would be to laugh at the old 
 man's craze, and to make fun of his queer, lumbering, useless piece 
 of work. Some of them may have helped at the making of it for 
 day's wages, and have laughed all the same. But there is an old 
 proverb which says, " Let Mm laugh that wins." 
 
 Meanwhile, Noah went on preaching to them. This is the point 
 I wish you specially to note to-day. I do not mean that he made 
 sermons. Perhaps he did speak out in words God's warning, as 
 something for them, as well as for him. But, at anyrate, he was " a 
 preacher of righteousness"; and his 120 years' patient work, in 
 obedience to God's hint, was a noble sermon. It showed his deep 
 sense of the righteousness of God, and his earnest desire to be saved 
 in the day of trial. So far as his neighbours were concerned, Noah's 
 preaching went for nothing ; but he had delivered his soul of their 
 blood (Ezek. iii. 19). And it turned out, as it has often done, that 
 the one was right, and the many were wrong. The Flood came, and 
 destroyed them all ; but Noah and his house were safe. 
 
 Now, remember this. Every boy and girl of you is also preaching 
 every day in life and conduct. Is it truth or error, wisdom or folly, 
 holiness or wickedness you preach ? 
 
 234 
 
Zbc Secret of Safety* August 21 
 
 " Preserve me, God : for in Thee do I put my trust" (Vs. xvi. 1). 
 
 A SHIP was sailing to the West Indies, when she encountered one of 
 the worst of Atlantic storms. A gentleman, who managed to hold 
 a place on the deck, though the vessel was being tossed like a play- 
 thing on the surge, witnessed an incident which he never afterwards 
 forgot. The mate, looking up, saw that, to the danger of all on 
 board, the rigging on the top of the mainmast had got out of proper 
 gear. Calling a boy from the forecastle, he cried, " Climb to the 
 royals, and right that rigging ! " It was a summons that might have 
 tried a more experienced nerve ; and the boy was not unconscious 
 of the peril. He bolted back to the forecastle, and disappeared for 
 a minute or two. But it was not to try to shun his dangerous task, 
 for he was speedily on the deck again ; and, without the least 
 apparent hesitation, he climbed the mast, adjusted the rigging, not- 
 withstanding the terrible pitching of the vessel, and then came down 
 again, rewarded by the consciousness that he had done his duty. 
 
 At this point, the gentleman stepped forward to him, and asked 
 why he had taken time to go doAvn below, when the mate ordered 
 him to go quickly up. " I thought," was the answer, " that it would 
 do no harm to stay long enough to ask God to take care of me ; and 
 that was what I did for a minute down below." " Who told you to 
 do that?" inquired the gentleman. "My mother; she said it 
 would be no lost time to pray to God." "I thought," continued 
 the gentleman, *' that I saw something in your pocket ? " " Yes, 
 my Bible, sir ; if tossed into the sea, I wanted to have my Bible 
 with me. But I felt no fear, since I could pray to God." 
 
 Now, that boy had learned the true secret of safety, which the 
 Psalmist also knew. He had put himself into God's hands, and 
 thus he felt that he was safe whatever might betide. We are not, 
 of course, to court unnecessary danger, to run needless risks, and 
 then expect God to take care of us. That is presumption, which 
 the Bible often rebukes, and Providence often punishes. But when, 
 at the call of duty, we have to meet difficulty and to face danger, 
 this is a suitable prayer for us : it is a prayer of faith, which puts 
 God, so to speak, upon His honour, and which He wiU not disregard 
 — " Preserve me, Lord : for in Thee have I found refuge." 
 
 235 
 
August 22 Cbrlst tbe iprlest. 
 
 " A great High Priest, passed into the heavens" . . . " Not an High Priest 
 ivho cannot be totiched" (Heb. iv. 14, 15). 
 
 In Jesus we liave not only a Prophet, but a Priest ; and we require 
 tliis in Ilim, if He is to be our Saviour. For not only do we, in 
 our blindness and ignorance, need One to speak to us from God ; 
 but, in our guilt, we need One to speak to God from us, — One wbo, 
 having made a sufficient sacrifice, can plead with God on our behalf, 
 and secure our acceptance with Him. When " God drove out the 
 man," there was no way back to Paradise but one way — the blood- 
 besprinkled way. And that is the way which Jesus, as our Priest, 
 has prepared and opened for us. 
 
 In the Old Testament, the High Priest went into the Holy of 
 Holies to plead for Israel. But was this all he did ? No. It would 
 have been of no use for him to plead, unless he had first offered 
 sacrifice, and carried the blood of the lamb or bullock with Him 
 into the Holy Place. For this was his argument ; and, in making 
 such an ofi'ering first, he was obeying the divine requirement. 
 
 Even so, when Jesus, our great High Priest, passed into the 
 heavens. His going there to plead that sinners might be pardoned, 
 and cleansed, and received to glory too, would have availed nothing, 
 if He had not first made that offering to which all the sacrifices of 
 the Old Testament had pointed forward — the offering of Himself, 
 iipon the tree of Calvary. This had to be His argument — His own 
 precious blood shed in the sinner's room ! And this plea He can and 
 does present within the veil ; for He was Lamb as well as Priest ; 
 and it is as the Lamb that once was slain that He has gone " to 
 appear in the presence of God for us." 
 
 It is related in Greek story, that an offender against the State, 
 having been tried, was sentenced to death. All that he himself 
 could say, or that the advocates could urge on his behalf, could not 
 save him. But, just as the dread sentence was about to be executed, 
 his brother, Amyntas, stepped forward, and, without saying anything, 
 held up before the judges the withered stump of the arm he had 
 lost, in the successful defence of his country in a moment of greatest 
 peril. And, touched by the remembrance of the service and sacrifice 
 of Amyntas, they spared his guilty brother /or Ms sake. 
 
 Our Saviour and Brother can deliver us from condemnation 
 when no other can, and secure all needed blessing for us, as, with 
 perfect sympathy, He pleads our cause on high. He ever liveth to 
 intercede ; and, even apart from spoken utterance, how must His 
 very appearance before God for us, with the marks of Calvary still 
 upon Him, appeal to the Father's heart ! 
 
 236 
 
Submit ! August 23 
 
 " Submit yoitrselves, therefore, to God" (Jas. iv. 7). 
 
 To submit ourselves to God, in the sense intended here, implies that 
 we have first been enabled to conquer ourselves. For there arc two 
 ways of submitting. You may yield to your father, for instance, 
 because he is stronger than you, and can comjiel you to obey. Or 
 you may yield to his wishes because you know he is wiser than you, 
 and because you are sure that he loves you, and that, though your 
 foolish heart may be half inclined to rebel, it is right for you to 
 submit. Now, God can exact submission by force from all the 
 creatures He has made. But what He desires is, the willing sur- 
 render of a heart that loves Him, and is prepared to trust Him, 
 even where it cannot understand the wisdom or the love of His 
 requirements. 
 
 It is a great thing to be able to say to God from the heart — . 
 " Not my will, but Thine be done ! " It is far from being easy 
 always to say it, as young people, when they gain any real acquaint- 
 ance with their own hearts, soon come to know. 
 
 A little girl who was wont, very glibly and blithely, to repeat 
 the Lord's Prayer at her mother's knee, faltered one night in the 
 middle of it, and broke down, amid sobs and tears. The petition 
 she had stuck at was — " Thy will be done on earth, as it is in 
 heaven." And the explanation soon came — " O, mamma, I can't say 
 that, since God took away my pet canary to-day ! " As people grow 
 older, they have their pet canaries too, and other treasures, which 
 the Heavenly Father sometimes sees meet to take from them. Then 
 is the time to bow submissively before Him, and to seek really to 
 count His choice for us the best. 
 
 It is only through prayer that the spirit of ready submission and 
 cheerful patience can be made ours. But it will be given in answer 
 to sincere and humble prayer. This was beautifully illustrated in 
 another little girl of whom I have read. Some rude boys were 
 flinging stones on the street, and one of them struck her in the eye. 
 She Avas carried home, and the surgeon sent for. He said she must 
 submit to a serious operation. Her father comforted her upon his 
 knee, and asked if she was ready, " Not quite, father," she answered ; 
 " I wish to pray to God first." And here was her simple prayer — 
 " God, forgive the boy who hurt me, and help me to bear the pain 
 well ; and may Jesus be with me. Amen." She immediately added 
 — " Father, I'm ready now." And so courageously, and even cheer- 
 fully, did she bear what she had to pass through, that the grace of 
 God was manifested in her to all around. 
 
 237 
 
August 24 Dulgar Jfractlons. 
 
 " After these things do the Oentiltz seek " (Matt. vi. o2). 
 
 Wht fractions are called vulgar, I do not altogether understand. 
 Vulgar means, originally, " belonging to the people" (Latin, Vulgus, 
 as you boys know). Then it means common ; and from that it has 
 come to mean contemptible, — though it would be a great mistake to 
 suppose that everything which is common is to be despised. 
 
 Perhaps fractions were first called vulgar, by some high and 
 mighty people who professed to think them " not worth bothering 
 about." And then it may have become fashionable to speak of them 
 like that, and to show a contempt for them. 
 
 This contempt may be carried too far. Dr. Chalmers used rightly 
 to dwell upon the value and the power of littles. A penny is only 
 a fraction of a shilling, and a yet smaller fraction of a pound. But 
 that great man, in putting his Sustentation Scheme, as he called it, 
 into operation for the support of the Scottish ministers, did not 
 forget that pennies, if gathered frequently and regularly enough, 
 will soon amount to a good deal ; and that it only needs a sufficient 
 number of such fractions to make a great many shillings and even 
 pounds. 
 
 On the other hand, it is possible to deal too much in fractions. 
 Some people seem never to get beyond them. In their giving, they 
 delight in fractions. They won't give a pound, if they can get off 
 with a shilling, however good and needy the cause may be ; and 
 perhaps, instead of the shilling, they will bestow a penny, or even a 
 halfpenny — their only regret being that they have not a farthing 
 handy for the purpose. This is mean. From the very poor, the 
 widow's mite is of great acceptance with God. But the widow's 
 mite from those who are not widows, is an insult in His sight. 
 
 It is, however, to those who, in their getting, are content to be 
 always dealing with vulgar fractions, that our text points. There 
 are people whose great concern and constant thought is — " What 
 shall we eati What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be 
 clothed?" These, says Christ, are very far from being the chief 
 thing to live for and care about. After these the Gentiles seek. 
 But one who has the Bible in his hand, and lives under gospel 
 light, should be better than a heathen. 
 
 What would you think of one whose devotion to the gathering 
 up of pence and halfpence was such that he quite overlooked or 
 refused to receive a pearl of great price ? What do you think of one 
 whose heart is absorbingly given to the mere vulgar fractions of 
 existence ? Is he not well represented by Bunyan's picture of the 
 Miserable Man with the Muck-rake, who is so intent on scraping 
 together the straws, and small sticks, and dust of the floor, that he 
 neither looks up, nor regards Him who stands over his head, with a 
 celestial crown, which He proffers him for his muck-rake ? Alas, how 
 true it is that " earthly things, when they are with power upon 
 men's minds, quite carry their hearts away from God " ! Well may 
 we say, with Christiana, "Oh, deliver mefrom this muck-rake ! " 
 
 238 
 
Cbrlst tbe iprlnce. August 25 
 
 ' The Prince of Life" (Acts iii. 15) ..." -d Prince and a Saviour " (Acts v. 31). 
 
 Samuel was a propliet and a priest. David was a prophet (Acts 
 ii. 30) and a prince. Melcliizedek was a priest and a prince. But 
 Jesus is all the three. 
 
 We are ignorant : Jesus is our Prophet ; we should hear Him. 
 We are guilty : Jesus is our Priest ; we should trust Him. We are 
 enthralled: Jesus is our Prince ; we should follow and ohey Him, that 
 we may bo free. He is our Prophet, Priest, and Prince-Redeemer. 
 
 There are two vieAvs that we may take of the princedom of Christ 
 Jesus. He is Lord of the Universe, with a crown of glory on His 
 head, with a rod of strength in His hand, and seated upon a throne 
 of majesty. But He is also the Lord of His people's hearts, the King 
 of saints : on His brow, a crown of thorns ; in His hand, the sceptre 
 of His grace ; and the throne He sits upon, the Mercy Seat. Under 
 the one aspect. He is a Potentate with unlimited control, with all 
 power in His arm to crush His enemies beneath His feet, and to 
 show them what is meant when it is said that " the Lord is a man of 
 war." Viewed on the other side. He is the Prince of Peace, who sub- 
 dues, by His gentle Spirit, the tumult in His people's breasts, and leads 
 them on to victory — over themselves and all their spiritual foes. 
 
 Now, remember, if you are calling Jesus your Saviour, you ought 
 constantly to be owning Him as your Prince. You must not suffer 
 rebels to rise up against Him in your own heart. Unbelief and 
 disloyalty must be cast out ; self-will, and rebellion, and pride, and 
 discontent must be put down ; you must seek that every thought, 
 and feeling, and desire, and purpose within you may be brought 
 into captivity and willing submission to the law of Christ. Thus, 
 fighting the good fight in your own heart and life, and warring the 
 good warfare in the great campaign beyond, in which Jesus invites 
 every true follower of His to have a share, you will be made "more 
 than conqueror through Him that loved you." 
 
 When Martin Luther listened to Christ the Prophet, speaking to 
 him in the old Bible which he found in the monastery at Erfurt, he 
 was led to Christ as his only Priest. Then, when Satan said to him, 
 " Thou art a great sinner, Martin ; therefore thou art lost," he could 
 answer, " Nay, not lost, for the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, 
 who is a great High Priest, cleanseth from all sin." And, hearing 
 Christ as his Prophet, and trusting Him as His Priest, he had 
 courage imparted to obey Him implicitly and fearlessly, as the 
 Prince of his heart and life. He was ready to meet as many devils 
 in Worms as there were tiles upon the house-top, when he went there 
 at his Master's bidding. " Poor monk, poor monk," said the gallant 
 old warrior Freundsberg, "thou art going to make a greater stand 
 than I in the bloodiest of our battles." But Luther quailed not, 
 For Christ was his Prince, and Rome's hierarchs were as nothing in 
 comparison with Him. " Here I stand," he firmly said j " I cannot 
 otherwise ; so help me God." 
 
 And the man who had so wholly yielded himself to the authority 
 and care of his unseen Lord, was the instrument of subduing 
 nations to the acknowledging of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 239 
 
August 26 Cbrist our Surety?. 
 
 "Be surety for Thy servant for good" (Ps. c.xix. 122). 
 
 By a " surety " is meant one who becomes bound for another — one 
 who undertakes, in certain circumstances to do, or to give, or to 
 bear something in another's stead. It is a common enough thing, 
 for instance, for a man to put his name to a document, declaring 
 that if, at a certain date, his friend is not able to pay a certain debt, 
 he will meet the claims of his creditors for him. In that case, he 
 becomes " security " for his friend, — a position not to be rashly 
 entered upon, since, as Solomon reminds us, the surety often has 
 to "smart for it," and is sometimes involved in ruin, without 
 really helping him for whom he stands. 
 
 There is a touching instance in the Old Testament of one 
 brother becoming security for another, by yielding himself up to 
 prison in his stead. I refer, of course, to Judah, who, in pleading 
 with his aged father to allow Benjamin to go down with the rest of 
 his brethren to Egypt, said — " Send the lad with me : I will he 
 surety for Mm." When Joseph, in assumed sternness, was for 
 detaining Benjamin as a bond-servant, because of the cup that had 
 been found in his sack, Judah pleaded most earnestly with him 
 to be allowed to suffer in his stead — "For thy servant became 
 surety for the lad unto my father, saying, ' If I bring him not unto 
 thee, then shall I bear the blame unto my father for ever.' Now, 
 therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a 
 bondman to my lord ; and let the lad go up with his brethren." 
 
 This was nobly said, and nobly done ; and Judah was here 
 unconsciously foreshadowing Jesus, the Elder Brother and Divine 
 Surety for His people. Dear young reader, have you found in Him 
 your Surety % He is called, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " the 
 Surety of a better Covenant " : a Covenant better than any other, 
 both because of the greatness of the blessings it provides, and because 
 of the absolute security that they shall be bestowed on all who, by 
 trusting in Jesus, come within the Covenant. 
 
 The following lines, written upon a bank-note, convey their own 
 lesson, and are worth remembering : — 
 
 " This piece of paper iu your hand 
 Declares to you, that on demand 
 You twenty shillings shall receive. 
 This simple promise you helieve ; 
 It puts your mind as much at rest, 
 As if the silver you possessed. 
 
 " So Christ who died, but now doth live, 
 Doth unto you this promise give, 
 That, if you on His name believe, 
 You shall eternal life receive. 
 Upon the first you calmly rest. 
 Which is the surest, and the best? 
 The bank may break ; Heaven never can. 
 'Tis safer trusting God than man," 
 
 240 
 
iPbCCbC. August 2i 
 
 " I commend xinto you Pha-he, our sister, a servant of the Church " 
 (Rom. xvi, 1). 
 
 This is the ouly mention we have of Phoebe ; but the little that 
 Paul tells of her gives us a good deal of insight into her character. 
 It would be well if every girl were in certain respects like Phoebe. 
 
 The apostle calls her (1) " on,r sister.'^ How his sister ? 
 Because she was God's child ; and so Paul and she had the same 
 Father, and the same Elder Brother, and were brother and sister to 
 one another, and to all the brothers and sisters of Jesus. And who 
 are these ? Jesus Himself has told us — " Whoso doeth the will of 
 My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother and sister." 
 And wliat is His will ? Again the Bible answers — " This is His 
 commandment : that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and love 
 one another." It is a great family of whom this is true — part of it 
 on earth, and part in heaven ; and it is always being added to. Are 
 we among those who trust in Jesus, and love one another ? Then 
 Phoebe is " our sister " too. 
 
 Paul next describes her as (2) "a servant of the Church at 
 Cenchrea." Perhaps you need to revise your geogra])hy to be able 
 to tell where that place was 1 It was the port of Corinth, on the 
 Saronic Gulf. Paul had formerly visited the to^vn; and, by the 
 time he wrote this letter, there was a church or congregation there, 
 in which Phoebe had shown herself abundantly useful. Some think 
 she was a deaconess ; perhaps she was a Christian nurse, or what we 
 would call a Bible-woman. Anyway, she found plenty of good to 
 do— for she was "a succourer of many," relieving them in distress, 
 soothing them in anxiety, bringing hope and joy to those around 
 her, by telling them about Jesus and His love. 
 
 (3) " A succourer of many, and of myself also," Paul continues. He 
 acknowledges the help and encouragement he himself had received 
 from Phoebe. How often the weak in this world have to support 
 and help the strong ! You remember jEsop's story of the mouse 
 bringing deliverance to the lion ? Phoebe, especially in those days, 
 might be looked down upon, as " only a woman." Yet we see how 
 she had succoured the great strong-minded Apostle of the Gentiles, 
 and how thankful he is for it. No wonder he commends her to the 
 Christians in Rome, showing a beautiful confidence both in Plioebe 
 and in the strength of the bond which, uniting them to Jesus, would 
 join them to her, and make them interested in her. " That ye 
 receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and assist her in whatso- 
 ever business she hath need of you." 
 
 Now, if any little girl has love to Jesus in her heart, she will 
 find some way of serving His cause. You may do much to brighten 
 the world around you, and benefit people bigger, and in some 
 respects wiser, and stronger, and more influential, than yourself. 
 Will you not try 1 
 
 (i6) 241 
 
Augustas B Mitness to be telicb upon. 
 
 " God is my witness" (Rom. i. 9). 
 
 If you are making a very solemn statement, or a very important 
 claim, it is a great matter to be able to appeal to someone else, as 
 a thoroughly reliable witness on your behalf. And such is the 
 Witness to whom the believer can appeal. 
 
 A witness is just "one who wots," or knows; and who tells 
 what he knows. The Greek word for it is "martyr," a name now 
 commonly reserved for those who not only give their testimony, 
 but seal it ^\ith their blood — men like Stephen, and James, and 
 Antipas, and multitudes of others whose names the world has for- 
 gotten, but who loved Jesus so much that they were ready to die 
 for Him. And, though "martyr" simply means witness, it may 
 remind us that every witness ought to be " of martyr stuff " — ready 
 to die rather than sacrifice the truth. 
 
 Now, when Paul makes certain declarations about himself, and 
 when John (1 John v. 11), and Paul, and others come forward and 
 lay claim to the rich inheritance of eternal life — the question at 
 once arises, " Where is the proof ? What is your evidence ? " And 
 it is well for these claimants that they are able to answer, " We have 
 the best of all evidence. If we receive the witness of men, the 
 witness of God is greater ; and God is our Witness. To Him we 
 make appeal." 
 
 But you have not heard God speak ? No ; but He has borne 
 witness on our behalf ; and what He has said is written down where 
 all may read it. What a witness tells is called his "evidence"; 
 and when this is noted down, it is called the " record " in the case. 
 And so, what the Divine Witness has said has been put on record ; 
 and " this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and 
 this life is in His Son." 
 
 Need I tell you where this record is to be found ? It is in the 
 Bible, in God's own book, where He reveals the provision He has 
 made for us, and tells of the good He has laid up in store for them 
 that love Him. In the Bible, which is both God's word and man's 
 word, you have God speaking to us, through a great variety of holy 
 men, in the Old Testament and in the New, whom He chose, and 
 fitted, to make His declarations. Above all, you have One to whom 
 God Himself points, as a nobler Witness still — One who came, not 
 only to tell of eternal life, but to bestow it. " This is My beloved 
 Son : hear ye Him." And, if ye listen, what do you hear Him say ? 
 •' Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and be- 
 lieveth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life." It is already 
 His secure possession. 
 
 242 
 
"Wo Difference, August 29 
 
 " F'or there is no diference; for all have sinned " (Rom. iii. 2-^). 
 
 The Duke of Wellington deservedly stood high in the regard of his 
 nation, and in the admiration of the world. But, though a man of 
 a lofty spirit and unhending Avill in presence of his fellow-men, he 
 manifested a becoming humility before God. Thus, one Sunday, 
 when he had remained behind to take the Sacrament at the parish 
 church which he attended, he administered a memorable rebuke to 
 some who seemed to forget that God is no respecter of persons. 
 
 A poor old man, who had passed up the other aisle, reached the 
 communion table at the same time as the duke, and knelt close by 
 his side, to receive the bread and wine from the minister's hand, 
 according to the custom of the Church of England, Some of those 
 near by seemed to think this an impropriety; and one of them 
 actually came forward and tapped the poor man on the shoulder, 
 motioning him to move farther away, or to wait till the duke had 
 first received the Sacrament. But the great commander at once 
 took in the situation. He grasjied the hand of his humble neigh- 
 bour, to keej) him where he was, and said, with subdued but 
 emphatic reverence, " Do not move : Ave are all equal here," 
 
 By that action, the duke showed that he had appreciated, better 
 than some of those around him, Paul's meaning when he says, 
 " There is no difference." There are differences between men and 
 men, to whose importance, in their own place, he, with the apostle, 
 was very fully alive. But when it was a question of appearing 
 before God for acceptance and spiritual blessing, Wellington rightly 
 recognised that the place approj^riate for him was just the place 
 appropriate to the lowliest sinner. 
 
 It is a sad delusion for any to suppose that, Ijecause they belong 
 to a particular nation, their persons will be accepted of God. The 
 Jews were very prone to imagine this, and received many a rebuke 
 for it, through St. Paul and others. And it is an equally foolish and 
 hurtful snare, when any of us thinks that, because he belongs to 
 a respectable church-going family, and can point to a good outward 
 life, he may, on these and kindred grounds, lay claim to the divine 
 favour, and expect an entrance into heaven. Nay ; for all have 
 sinned, and all are guilty before God. And though there is a 
 difference between people, in character as well as condition, and 
 will be a difference in future awards to the guilty, some having 
 "few stripes" in comparison with others, there is no difference 
 as regards a rigliteousness that can commend us to God. There is 
 only one way of salvation, for Jew and Gentile, high and low, rich 
 and poor. There is only one way into heaven — the way of faith, 
 which leads by the Cross of Calvary. 
 
 2-) 3 
 
August 30 XLbc SprinftlcD :fi5loo&. 
 
 " When I see the blood, I toill pass over you" (Ex. xii. 13). 
 
 It was a terrible j)iece of news that Moses had to tell both Pharaoh 
 and his o\^ti countrymen in Egypt, when he announced to them 
 that, on a certain night, the destroying angel was to pass througli 
 the land, and that, before morning, the air would be filled with the 
 wailing cry of multitudes, mourning for a first-born. Even to the 
 Israelites it was solemn news, fitted to fill every man, and woman, 
 and child among them with strange thoughts — " The messenger of 
 death is to go from door to door to-night ! " 
 
 But, in the case of the Israelites, there went along with the 
 tidings a blessed promise of safety. Moses told them, in God's name, 
 that their homes would be j^erfectly safe, if they did a very simple 
 thing that He commanded them. " Take a spotless male lamb," he 
 said, "of a year old, in every family, and slay it. Then take some of 
 the blood, and sprinkle it on the lintel and the side-posts of your 
 door, and you will be quite safe to hold a feast within, on the slain 
 lamb. The destroying angel, when he sees the blood, will 2>(iss over 
 your houses, and your eldest-born will be spared." 
 
 The Israelites did as they were told ; and they, as well as the 
 Egyptians, found that God is true. For though there was a great 
 cry throughout Egypt next morning — every father and mother 
 wailing, " Alas, my eldest son is dead ! " and every boy and girl 
 crying, " Oh, my eldest brother is gone ! " there was nothing but 
 " the melody of joy and health " among the Israelites. Death had 
 not entered their homes. They were ready to start on their journey 
 to Canaan — and the Egyptians were as ready to send them — before 
 the day had fairly dawned. 
 
 And then, year after year, by God's appointment, a feast was 
 held by Israel, called the Passover feast, to recall the ever-memor- 
 able night when the destroying angel passed over the homes of 
 the Israelites, while the houses of the Egyptians were entered by 
 death and sorrow. The feast at the same time pointed forward to 
 the greater deliverance upon Calvary — through Jesus, the Lamb of 
 God, slain for His people's sins. 
 
 How perfectly safe God can keep His own amid surrounding 
 danger ! And how very simple the way of salvation is — so simple 
 that people sometimes make a mock at it. " Believe in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." " But what good," say some, 
 " will believing do ? " Heed them not ; but listen to the voice of 
 God ! If an Israelitish father, that awful night, had said, " What 
 good will it do to sprinkle a little blood upon our door-post ? " he 
 would have regretted it in the morning. And a sinner who despises 
 God's way of salvation will regret it in eternity. 
 
 244 
 
^Balance, August 3i 
 
 " What shall it profit t" (Mark viii. 3G). 
 
 In every well-regulated business of considerable size there is a 
 certain time in the year which is called " the balance-time." The 
 books are then carefully examined, and the results of the past trans- 
 actions computed, in order that the balance may be taken between 
 the profit and the loss. It is called the " balance " (from a French 
 word meaning " two scales "), because the gains and the losses are, 
 so to speak, put into opposite scales, and weighed against each other, 
 and then the outcome of the comparison is put down on " the 
 balance-sheet." 
 
 Now, it is very important that this j)rocess should be gone through 
 systematically from time to time. A man who stumbles on without 
 it, " does not know where he stands " ; and his business cannot be 
 expected to come to any good. And, of course, it is important that 
 the balance should be truthfully and accurately taken ; otherwise, 
 the balance-sheet will be quite erroneous and misleading. Some 
 years ago, the country was startled by the discovery that the directors 
 of a great public bank had allowed its affairs to get into hopeless 
 confusion. They had been bringing out balance-sheets, year by 
 year, which showed a considerable profit. But the balance-sheets had 
 been " cooked," as it was called. The losses had not been all put 
 in ; the figures had been altered to suit a purpose : so it was easy 
 to bring out on paper an apparent gain — while, all the time, it was 
 a case of utter ruin, not only for the directors themselves, but for 
 the homes of thousands besides. 
 
 The case suggested by the question of Jesus in the text, is that 
 of a man who imagines he has been doing well for himself, but who, 
 at balance-time, has his eyes opened, and gets a terrible shock. He 
 has had some gains of a sort, on which his heart has been gloating. 
 But he has effected one terrible loss, of which, till now, he has thought 
 little or nothing. For he has squandered his life in securing these 
 petty gains : he has lost Ms own soul. And what compensation would 
 he have for such loss, even if he had acquired all the world besides ] 
 
 The soul — your soul — how unspeakable is its value, in the eyes 
 of Christ ! Have yov. been taught at all its worth 1 Perhaps you 
 have been treating it as thoughtlessly as a boy did a stone, which 
 a passing traveller saw him fling, with some other stones, for amuse- 
 ment, at a settler's door in South Africa one day. The stranger 
 picked it up, — when " something made his heart beat fast. It was 
 a diamond. The child was playing -with it as a common stone ; the 
 peasant's foot had spurned it ; the cart-wheel had crushed it — till 
 the man who knew saw it, and recognised its value" {Imago Christi). 
 And this incident, it is said, led on to the discovery of a whole 
 diamond-field. 
 
 May you value most what Jesus sets the highest price upon 1 
 May you never know the sinking of heart that man must feel who, 
 striking his balaive in eternity's clear light, is aroused to the 
 discovery, that, with all his getting, he has been an immeasurable 
 loser — because he has lost his own soul. 
 
 245 
 
September 1 Spiritual ipbotograpbg, 
 
 " Changed into the same image " (2 Cor. iii. 18). 
 
 The great aim of the Christian is, to become like to Christ. What 
 he most desires, or ought most to desire, is, that Christ's likeness 
 should be reproduced in himself. 
 
 Now, in this verse we are told how this is to be brought about. 
 Two things are needful. The one is, that you should keep looking 
 to Jesus, in faith and love, " with open face." The other thing is, 
 that "the Lord, the Spirit," should exert His gracious influence 
 upon you all the while from above. "We all, with open face, 
 beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into 
 the same image, from glory to glory, even as hy the Spirit of the 
 Lord." 
 
 This is what I have called spiritual photography. Some of you 
 who have a camera, or who have a friend that owns one, will know 
 what I mean. 
 
 Suppose you turn your camera, at noonday, to a beautiful land- 
 scape, — no matter what other steps you had taken in order to the 
 result, if you forgot to uncover the eye of the camera you could 
 hope for no picture on your glass. 
 
 Suppose, on the other hand, you turn your camera to the land- 
 scape, before the sunrise. You may have prepared the plates with 
 every care ; you may have burnished carefully the lenses ; you may 
 have uncovered them, in full view of the scene you wished to 
 reproduce. But although you have kept the camera looking long 
 with open face, I see no picture on the plate. And why 1 Because 
 the sun is not shining in the heavens ; and the twinkling starlights 
 mock your purpose with their feebleness. 
 
 You must both keep looking unto Jesus, and pray for the 
 gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, if you would have the fair 
 image of the Saviour reproduced upon the tablet of your heart. 
 
 246 
 
ZbC XiVlno ailD XlfC=fltV»lng One. September 2 
 
 " The first Adam, a living soul : the last Adam, a quickening Spirit " 
 (1 Cor. XV. 45). 
 
 The name Adam means " Man " ; and the two most important of all 
 tlie men who have ever lived are these two — the " first Adam," of 
 Eden, and the " last Adam," of Betlilehem and Calvary. But, as the 
 text shows, the second of these is far nobler than the first. 
 
 Taking the first Adam at his best, he was a "living soul." And 
 that means much ; for it means, that he was able to know, and love, 
 and have fellowship with God. But, alas ! he fell, and became a 
 dead soul. So, then, there was needed the second Man, who shoidd 
 be not only a living soul, but a life-giving Spirit. And this the 
 Saviour was. 
 
 Even before He became man at all, life proceeded from Him ; 
 for He was the Creator (see John i. 3) who breathed into Adam's 
 nostrils the breath of life. And the same life-giving power was 
 continually shown by " the Lord from heaven " when he dwelt as 
 man upon the eartL It was seen in raising the dead body from the 
 grasp of death, and even of the grave. It shone forth by the 
 couch of the daughter of Jairus, when, at a word. He restored the 
 damsel to her stricken father's side ; at Nain, too, when Jesus said 
 to the dead youth upon the bier, "Young man, I say unto thee, 
 arise," and brought joy again to his mother's bleeding heart ; and, 
 again, at the grave of Lazarus, when, at the voice of Jesus, the dead 
 man came forth, with the grave-clothes on him, from the corruption 
 of the tomb. But especially was it shown then, and has been often 
 shown since, in His power to quicken (that is, to make qidck or 
 alive) the dead soul. 
 
 Ah, young friend, what is a dead soul ? I will tell you. It is 
 a soul that never hears, or sees, or speaks to God — that never tastes 
 the preciousness of His truth, or knows the comfort of His good 
 Spirit — a soul that is quite dead to God. Such an one is beyond all 
 human help, as much as the body which lies mouldering in the 
 grave. But Christ can say even to a soul like that, " Arise from the 
 dead ! " and, immediately, it is filled with a new life. Before, it 
 was dead in trespasses and sins ; but now, new thoughts, new 
 feelings, new desires, new purposes, give constant proof that the 
 living and life-giving One has breathed into it the breatli of a new, 
 and fruitful, and abiding life. 
 
 247 
 
September 3 iRot ilsbamcD to iprag. 
 
 " Daniel kneeled vpon his knees, three times a day, and prayed as he did 
 afwetime " (Dan, vi. 10). 
 
 The command of King Darius had only served to put Daniel upon 
 his mettle. No earthly power would he allowed to come in hetween 
 him and God. He would rather face the den of lions than he 
 untrue to his religious convictions, or turn his back upon the sacred 
 privilege of holding fellowship with God in prayer. Nor would he 
 even seem to fall in with the tyrannical decree, by conducting his 
 devotions henceforth in secrecy. Let the consequences be what they 
 might, Daniel went into his house, and, the windows being ajDen in 
 his chamber toward Jerusalem, kneeled down, and praj^ed, and gave 
 thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. 
 
 The counsel given by the head of an ancient school to his 
 followers was — " Think, on every occasion, I am a philosopher." He 
 meant by that to fill them with a high conception of what was 
 expected of them, as those who had been under training such as his, 
 and to inspire them to meet the demands of life, at all times and 
 in all circumstances, in a way worthy of themselves. How much 
 more ennobling and strengthening a consideration ought it ever to be, 
 to the follower of Christ, " I am a Christian ; let me seek to live 
 worthily of the name I bear, and of the profession it implies." 
 
 Now, there is nothing more characteristic of a true Christian 
 than this — that he is one who prays. It was the mark of a new life 
 in Saul of Tarsus, when it could be said of him — "Behold, he 
 prayeth." No doubt he had often " said his prayers " before ; but 
 that was the first time he had really prayed out of a humble and 
 contrite heart. 
 
 What you are to seek is, sincerity in prayer, and courarje to pray. 
 You are not merely to mutter over a certain form of words every 
 day, but to give true expression to the desire of your heart. And, 
 wherever you may go, you are not to be ashamed to go down uj^on 
 your knees, morning and evening, to pour out your heart in suppli- 
 cation before God. You may not find this easy in the midst of 
 careless companions, as I well know from the remembrance of early 
 experience in a boarding-house. Pillows and shoes, and jibes more 
 hard to bear, may be flung at you. But never mind. If you per- 
 severe, j'our example will tell for good ; and you will be respected, 
 even by those who at first had tried to laugh you to scorn. And jow. 
 yourself will be strengthened through prayer. " These men kneel 
 for mercy," said King Edward to De Bohun, as the Scots, before 
 joining battle, bowed themselves in prayer. "Yes, sire," was the 
 answer, " but not from you ! " And, by God's blessing on their 
 arms, they drove the strong invader from the land. 
 
 2^8 
 
(Bfring up for (BoD. September 4 
 
 *'Make me iJiereo/a Utile cake first" (1 Kings xvii. 13), 
 
 It is told of Richard Cecil, the well-known minister of the Church 
 of England, that he put his little daughter's confidence in him to a 
 severe test one day, She was playing with some beads, and was greatly 
 delighted with them, when, to her dismay, her father suddenly said 
 — " You have some pretty beads there. I wish you to throw them 
 behind the fire." The tears started into the little maiden's eyes ; 
 but, after looking earnestly at him, she nerved herself for the sore 
 sacrifice, and, with heaving breast, dashed the beads into the fire. 
 Some days after, her father brought home far larger beads and 
 finer toys, and set them before her as her own. The child's tears 
 this time were tears of joy. " These, my daughter," said he, " are 
 yours, because you trusted me. Your obedience has brought you 
 this treasure. My desire, in what I asked, was to teach you the 
 meaning of faith. Put the same confidence in God. Whether you 
 imderstand Him or not, have faith in Him, that He means your 
 good." 
 
 It was something very Like this that God did with Abraham, 
 when He asked him, without giving explanation of His purpose, to 
 give up his only son. And it was something very like this, too, 
 when the "prophet Elijah, the representative of the God of Israel, 
 asked the poor widow of Zarepliath, who had only a handful 
 of meal altogether, and was just on the brink of starvation, to 
 make a cake for him first, and then to think of herself and her son. 
 He accompanied the request, it is true, with a rich promise of larger 
 good. But it was no small test of the widow's faith and generosity. 
 Nature, no doubt, bade her hold by what she could see and handle, 
 as a means of subsistence, however slight, for herself and her little 
 one. What faith called her to was, to give this up, without any 
 outward guarantee that he would be able to make it more. 
 
 Faith triumphed. She did not argiie — " Let me see you increase 
 the meal and oil beforehand, and then I'll commit myself to you." 
 She did not wait to see, before she would trust. She trusted, that 
 she might see. And faith had its reward. " There is that scattereth 
 and yet increaseth." In yielding up a day's bread to God, she got 
 daily bread from Him. " The barrel of meal wasted not, neither 
 did the cruse of oil fail." None is ever a loser from taking God at 
 His word, and putting himself and his personal interests entirely at 
 God's disposal. The promise of Christ is — " There is no man that 
 hath left house, or brethren ... or lands for My sake and the 
 Gospel's, but he shall receive an himdredfold now in this time 
 , . , and in the world to come eternal life." 
 
 249 
 
September 5 ZbC BtonemCIlt. 
 
 " We joy in God, through our Lm-d Jes^is Christ, by lohomwe have now 
 received the atonement" (Rom. v. 11). 
 
 The Greek word here for " atonement " means change or exchange. 
 Our English -word explains it very well. Atonement (or " at-one- 
 ment ") signifies reconciliation, the bringing together as one of those 
 who had been at variance. It indicates the change, from distance 
 and hostility to nearness and friendship, between us and God ; and 
 it implies, on the part of the reconciled sinner, the exchange of the 
 cold, hard, estranged heart, for a heart filled with confidence, love, 
 and joy. And, as our verse reminds us, all this is brought about 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Peace, and has brought 
 us nigh by His blood. 
 
 The word Atonement sends us back to the Old Testament time, 
 and especially to the observance of the Great Day of Atonement, 
 which occurred in the early autumn, five days before the Feast of 
 Tabernacles began. It was appointed in order to bear in upon the 
 hearts of the people, before they entered upon the season of feasting 
 and thankfulness, a deep sense of their own sinfulness and un- 
 worthiness in the sight of the Holy God ; and, at the same time, to 
 prepare them for the time of rejoicing, by bringing vividly before 
 their minds the truth, that there is forgiveness with God and 
 plenteous redemption. 
 
 You will find the celebration described in the 16th chapter of 
 Leviticus. It was a day on which no manner of work was to be done ; 
 on which the entire congregation were to fast and humble themselves 
 before God ; and especially a day on which certain offerings were 
 to be made by the High Priest — of which the most interesting and 
 suggestive was the offering of two goats for the sins of the people. 
 
 After the High Priest had offered a bullock for his own sins, 
 he brought the two goats before the door of the tabernacle, and drew 
 lots upon them — the one " for Jehovah," and the other " for Azazel " 
 (which means " complete sending away "). The first goat was slain, 
 and its blood sprinkled before the Mercy Seat ; the other, after the 
 people's sins had been confessed over its head, was sent away by a fit 
 man to the wilderness, or, as it is called, "the land of forgetfulness." 
 
 What a beautiful twofold type we have of Jesus here, as One 
 who died, yet lives — as One who bare our sins in His own body on 
 the tree, and bare away His people's sins to the land of forgetful- 
 ness, as far as the east is distant from the west ! What wonder that 
 Christians "joy in God" through such a Saviour! The modern 
 Jew, alas ! has no preparation for joy in the celebration of the Day 
 of Atonement, which takes place about this time of year. And 
 why ? Just because he has found no real atonement yet. Even the 
 old types have been done away. Certain passages of Scripture are 
 read, and there are many prayers and lamentations. But the Jews 
 have now no temple, altar, priest, or sacrifice j and their own peni- 
 tence and fasting, and reconciliation among themselves, are their 
 only atonement. Will you not pray that they may be led to look on 
 Him Avhom they have pierced ; that they may mourn because of 
 Him, and have their mourning turned to sacred joy ? 
 
 250 
 
XLbC UallCS of acbor. September 6 
 
 " I will give her the Valley of Achorjor a door of ho2^e " (Hos. ii. 15). 
 
 Thb Valley of Achor, or " Trouble," once witnessed a terrible scene. 
 God had just been teaching Israel that, if they were true to Him, 
 there was no blessing too great for Him to give thcin. In the fall 
 of Jericho, He had shown them how easy it would be for Him to 
 make them more than conquerors. But now He has to give Israel 
 a different lesson. He has to burn into their hearts a sense of His 
 abhorrence of sin, and to teach them that, if faith and obedience bring 
 strength and triumph, sin and disloyalty bring wejxknoss and defeat. 
 
 Little Ai with its few inhabitants, to the dismay of Joshua, puts 
 Israel's army to rout. What could be the reason ? God lets him 
 into the secret. Israel has sinned. And both the brave commander 
 and all his host have to be unmistakably taught, first of all, that 
 sin brings weakness. This is a lesson for us still. Every time_ you 
 willingly sin, your soul is the weaker for it, in presence of the 
 enemy. ' Nor is the accompanying lesson to be forgotten by _ us, 
 which God at this time engraved upon the memory of His ancient 
 people — that sin briiujs trouble. Not only does it, sooner or later, 
 bring misery to the sinner, but it often brings distress to all 
 connected with him. 
 
 And what God now tells Joshua is something for us, too, to lay 
 to heart. He tells him, that, if he wishes the trouble to be removed, 
 he rrnist search out its cause, and j)ut away " the accursed thing " from 
 the midst of Israel. He also shows Joshua how to set about this : 
 and the leader, himself so true-hearted, rises to obey. 
 
 You remember the result. The -wretched Achan — " the troubler," 
 as he was well called — is found out. Joshua gives him the opportunity 
 to confess ; and, with faltering voice, he acknowledges that, in an 
 evil hour, he had stolen of the spoil of Jericho, in defiance of God's 
 command, a fine robe, and 200 shekels of silver, and a fifty-shekel 
 wedge of gold, and buried them below his tent. Miserable man ! 
 What pleasures had these stolen treasures brought him, even when 
 they seemed to be hidden safely in the earth? And now the 
 sentence goes forth that Achan must die. He has occasioned the 
 death of thirty-six Israelites ; and, as his family have shared his guilt 
 (at least it is likely they must have known of the hidden spoil), 
 they too sufl'er with him. And in their death an awfully memoralile 
 lesson is given to all Israel, that, if they are to prosper, they must 
 be a true-hearted and holy people to Jehovah. 
 
 Then, when the "accursed thing" has been put away, and 
 sentence executed upon the evil-doers, a new era of victory begins 
 for Israel. The Valley of Achor is itself made a door of hope, and 
 the scene of judgment becomes " a place for flocks to lie down in." 
 May God, in His great mercy, change the Valley of Trouble-through- 
 sin, into a Door of Hope for us. May He lead us to search out, 
 confess, and put away our sin. And though we are guilty and 
 deserve to die, may He point our faith to Him who is the sinner's 
 Hope — that Saviour who has died that even the guiltiest sinner 
 might have life through His name. 
 
September 7 Zbm\ktn\nC66» 
 
 " And be ye thankful " (Col. iii. 15). 
 
 We should be thankful to anyone who has shown us any kindness ; 
 and we should find some way of expressing our thankfulness. 
 
 (1) We have much to be thankful for to those who have gone before 
 us. Perhaps you young people are more forgetful of this than you 
 ought to be. A poor old man was planting young apple-trees one day, 
 when a passer-by, rather roughly, addressed him — "Why do you 
 plant trees, who cannot hope to eat the fruit of them ? " Eesting 
 for a moment upon his spade, he answered, with a grateful gleam 
 in his age-dimmed eye — "Someone planted trees for me before I 
 was born, and I have eaten the fruit. I now plant for others, that 
 the memorial of my gratitude may exist when I am dead and gone." 
 
 (2) We have much to be thankful for to many who still are with us. 
 I am afraid that young people, like others, are often least grateful 
 to the very persons to whom they owe the most. You are ready to 
 make much of a chance gift from a comparative stranger, who, 
 sharing the bounty of your father's house, perhaps gives you a 
 shilling or a book at parting ; and it is right that you appreciate 
 such passing kindness. But how often and how much you are 
 receiving from your father himself, without once saying " Thank 
 you " for it ; and how often, even when you use the words, there is 
 little of the feeling of gratitude within the heart ! Be thankful to 
 the loving ones who are with you, — father, mother, brother, sister, 
 teacher, — and show your thankfulness while you have them near. 
 They may not look for gratitude ; but, if you have not cherished 
 and expressed it, it may be to your regret after they are gone. 
 
 (3) We have much, especially, to be thankful for to God. The 
 kindness of the best of other friends is only a little rill from the 
 great full fountain of the loving-kindness of our Heavenly Father. 
 Let us be thankful to Him for our common mercies. Their common- 
 ness often hides from us their value ; and we take them as a thing 
 of course. It should rather increase our thankfulness ; as we are 
 sometimes taught, when food, or water, or sleep is even for a short 
 time denied to us. Let us, above all, be thankful to Him for the 
 great gift of salvation through His Son. "Oh, sir, every drop of my 
 blood thanks you, for you have had mercy on every drop of it ! 
 Wherever you go, I will be yours." So cried a condemned criminal, 
 as he threw himself at the feet of Dr. Doddridge, who had obtained 
 a pardon for him. Should not we show a like gratitude to Christ 1 
 " Be ye thankful." Let your whole life, as the word means, be a 
 song or a feast of gratitude to Him. 
 
 252 
 
QuartUS, a 3BrOtbCr, September 8 
 
 "Jira^ttis, the chamberlain, saluteth you, and Qtuirtui, abroiher" {Worn. xvi. 23). 
 
 The name Quartus does not tell us inucli about its possessor : it 
 simply means, " the Fourth." But there is another part of his name 
 we can supply, " the Christian." For this is how he comes to be 
 spoken of here as " a brother." This letter is addressed " to all that be 
 in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints." And, though (Quartus 
 was a Eoman, that was not the closest bond uniting him to those to 
 whom the epistle was addressed. He was not only a brother 
 Roman : he was a brother Christian — one of the great family of 
 God, named in Him of whom the whole family both in heaven and 
 earth is named. 
 
 " A brother." Precious name ! It is used of Jesus, who is " the 
 Brother born for adversity," whose sympathy, in time of trial, has 
 sweetened many a bitter cup. Used also by Jesus, who calls His 
 disciples not servants only, or even friends alone, but brethren — 
 " My brothers " — and is willing to admit them to all the intimacy of 
 loving fellowship wliich that tender name suggests. And what a 
 precious name this was to Paul. Never, never would he let go the 
 sweet memory of the time it was first applied to himself, when 
 Ananias put his hand upon him (Oh that touch of sympathy !) and 
 said — " Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee 
 in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest 
 receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Have you sought and found a place in the great Christian 
 brotherhood who believe in Jesus, and are seeking to do the 
 Heavenly Father's will ? Then, this unknown Roman, Quartus, 
 may be claimed by you, as well as by Paul, as a brother in Christ. 
 And the spirit of brotherhood that was in him, — and that is in him 
 still, purer and warmer than before, — salutes you, :oo, down the 
 centuries. 
 
 When Quartus sent his friendly message to the Christians away 
 in Rome, he little thought that this would perpetuate his name on 
 earth to all generations. Yet so it is. It is this, and nothing but 
 this, that introduces him to every Christian who reads the New 
 Testament from age to age. Learn from him to cultivate the spirit 
 of kindliness toward all, which looks for no reward but answering 
 love. And also learn, that every pure, and generous, and loving 
 thought as well as deed, every Christlike desire, is noted down by God. 
 
 253 
 
September 9 ^bc Zeet ot jFattbfuliiess. 
 
 " Ve shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die " (Gen. iii. 3). 
 
 It ought to liave been very easy for our first parents, one might 
 think, to obey this command of God, It was a little thing to ask of 
 them, since they had their full freedom in the rest of the garden, not 
 to take the fruit of one particular tree, which God did not wish 
 them to touch. But the Tempter came in between them and their 
 best Friend. He threw into their minds doubt about God's threat 
 of punishment ; and he played upon their ambition, and tried to stir 
 pride in their hearts, and jealousy. " God didn't really mean it, 
 when He said they would die. He knew better : He knew that, if 
 they ate of that tree, they would be as wise as Himself." And so 
 the power of resistance gave way. Eve's eye rested on the fruit, till 
 she put out her hand to pluck ; and then she ate, and gave to Adam 
 with her, and he did eat. 
 
 This is the sad story of the Fall ; and there are some practical 
 lessons which we should learn from it. 
 
 (1) The importance of little things. It was a little test, not to eat 
 of the fruit of a single tree. But how attractive the forbidden often 
 is ! He that is faithful in little is faithful also in much ; and he 
 that is faithless about a little thing cannot be trusted about a great. 
 It is as possible to commit a big sin with a knot of sugar or a marble, 
 as with a bank-note or a box of diamonds. 
 
 (2) Beware, therefore, of the Tempter^s voice. When enticed to do 
 wrong, say no at once. " He that hesitates is lost." If you stand 
 talking with the Tempter, if you argue with him, if you even quietly 
 listen, he will be more than a match for you. Oppose the beginnings 
 of temptation within the heart. *' Resist the devil, and he will flee 
 from you " — cunning and strong though he is. But how may you 
 resist him with success ? Take the other half of the advice (Jas. 
 iv. 7, 8) — " Draw nigh to God ; and He will draw nigh to you." 
 
 (3) Guard very specially against sins of the eye. What a wonderful 
 thing the eye is ! How much of our knowledge, how much of our 
 delight, comes to us through it. But how often a course of deep, 
 black sin begins with the eye. Evil curiosity sometimes leads to 
 wrong knowledge and wicked delight. As at the first, the lust of 
 the eye still often excites the lust of the flesh and the pride of life — 
 bad desires and unholy ambition. And what God meant to instruct 
 and gladden us is made an instrument of sin. 
 
 Thank God that the Second Adam stood (Matt. iv. 1-11), where 
 the first Adam fell ; and that all of us who believe in Him shall be 
 " more than conquerors " too. 
 
 254 
 
Come Wttb us ! September 10 
 
 " Co7ne thou with lis, and we will do thcc good ; for the Lord hath spoken good 
 concerning Isi'acl" (Num. x. 29). 
 
 A GENTLEMAN, sitting in a summer-liouse, observed an <ant running 
 across the table. He placed a small lump of loaf-sugar in its way ; 
 and, as he expected, it soon found it out, and l)cgan to enjoy it. 
 But, greatly to his surprise, it almost inuncdiately disappeared 
 down the side of the rustic table— only, however, to return with 
 some hundreds of its companions, which it had apparently wished 
 to share its delight ! 
 
 The ant acted, you may say, from instinct. If so, it was a 
 beautiful instinct, which it would be well to see reproduced in 
 every Christian. Those who have tasted of the joy of salvation, 
 and have learned something of the preciousness of Christ, should 
 desire to bring others, also, to taste and see that the Lord is good. 
 
 It was in this spirit that Moses gave his loving and urgent 
 invitation to Hobab, to join the onward march of Israel to the 
 Promised Land. Moses felt how good a thing it was, to be allied with 
 Jehovah and His people ; and he wished his young relative — for 
 Hobab was his brother-in-law — to share the blessing. It would be 
 good for him, he tells Hobab, to cast in his lot with Israel. He 
 will be in the midst of good surroundings, by joining them — " we 
 will do thee good." And he will have a share in a bright future by 
 so doing, and be a jmrtaker in a rich inheritance ; " for the Lord 
 hath spoken good concerning Israel." Moreover, he tells him, he will 
 not only get good, but do good, by joining the Israelitish camp. 
 Moses acts upon the young man's ambition, while touching on his 
 self-interest. He reminds him how useful his knowledge of the 
 desert may be to the pilgrim people — " Thou shalt be to ua instead 
 of eyes." 
 
 Young reader, have you obej^ed the personal urgent invitation 
 of Christ's Church to identify yourself with the cause of the great 
 Captain of Salvation and His people ? If not, do it noxv ! The 
 Christian society, with all its faults, is the best you will find on the 
 sin-stricken earth. As a whole, it is the most intelligent, kindly, 
 sympathetic, hopeful, healthful, and truly progressive fellowship on 
 earth. And it will afford you full scope for the outlay of your 
 noblest powers of head and heart. You will both get good and do 
 good by joining the host of the Lord. Need I add — does not your 
 ovra heart tell you — that if you yourself do belong to the company 
 of Christ, it should be your cherished desire and earnest endeavour 
 to bring as many others as you can, to share the joy and advantage 
 of the same blessed fellowship ? 
 
 255 
 
September 11 jfire ftom iTDeav^n. 
 
 " The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from 
 heaven" [Gen, xix. 24). 
 
 There is something beautiful even yet about the Dead Sea, as you 
 descend upon it from the Judean heights, and see it embosomed at the 
 foot of the mountains of Moab, and shimmering, as I saw it some 
 years ago, in the glowing light of the Eastern sun. But, as you 
 draw nearer, your mind is more filled with the weirdness than with 
 the beauty of the scene ; for the surroundings of the lake are bleak 
 and barren ; the water is salt and briny, with no fish in it and no 
 birds singing blythely over it ; and, above all, the thought is ever 
 present, that in its depths a secret lies hidden — the site of the Cities 
 of the Plain. For here was witnessed one of the most terrible 
 events the world has ever seen — the destruction by fire and brim- 
 stone, for their wickedness, of Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 
 If you read and ponder the Bible story, you will find in it the 
 following, among other, imioressive lessons : — 
 
 1. The wages of sin is death. So God has said, and proved. Death 
 overtook the men of Sodom. Through sin they incurred death in 
 every sense — the death which consists in the separation of the soul 
 from the body, and the w^orse deatli, that consists in the separation 
 of the soul from God. 
 
 2. TJie most glaring sin of these cities was their impurity. The 
 plain at that time was very fertile, and the neighbourhood exceed- 
 ing fair. But it is not luhere men live that makes true well-being. 
 The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were, moreover, very rich, and 
 their cities full of luxury. But it is not what men have that makes 
 success. They were vile, bad people ; and it was according to what 
 they were that God judged them. Abhor that which is evil ; shun 
 evil-doers. When sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Come out 
 and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing. Flee from the 
 City of Destruction, if you would not share its doom. 
 
 3. God has many instruments for His purposes, whether of mercy 
 or of judgment. Before, He had used a Flood ; now He uses fire. 
 " The waters of the sea obey Him." He also makes " the flaming 
 fire His minister." How many useful ends water is accomplishing 
 in the world, and how much service fire has done for the earth. 
 Let us admire the wisdom and majesty of Him who so has used 
 such servants. 
 
 4. The sinner, in his security, is often taken unaivares. Perhaps the 
 men of Sodom were presuming on God's promise, that there would 
 never be a Flood again, and thought that they might be as wicked as 
 they chose. But death may come in many ways. A man escapes 
 cholera, and is careless — he is struck down by lightning. Another 
 escapes shipwreck, and is careless — he is run over by a cab, or a 
 fever enters his home, and he dies. The men of Sodom were safe 
 from a Flood ; but they were overtaken in the fire, like the heed- 
 lessly wicked men of Pompeii long after. The only real security 
 for the sinner is in Christ. 
 
 256 
 
2lt once ! September 12 
 
 " Andslraiyklioai/ thet/ forsook their nets, andfolloioed Ilim" (Mark i. 18). 
 
 The word "straightway " is a very favourite one with Mark. You 
 will find several instances of its occurrence in this same cliapter, 
 and quite a number more throughout tlie rest of tliis most brief, but 
 most grapliic, of the Gospels. 
 
 It is a good word for you boys and girls to lay to heart, witli 
 reference to your own religious life and duty. 
 
 If you have not obeyed Christ's call to follow Him, be like these 
 Galilean fishermen, and do it straifj/duny ! You remember the 
 familiar hymn, " Come to the Saviour, make no delay." If you put 
 o(T obeying the loving Saviour's invitation, you may never come at 
 all. How dreadful that Avould be ! And if you do come later in 
 life, as no doul)t you think you may do, it will assuredly be a sore 
 regret with you, that you did not come to Him strauj/Uicay, — when 
 first He called you, through His word and by the tender appeal of 
 His Spirit within your heart. 
 
 An old man l^esouglit a child to give his young heart to Christ, 
 though he himself did not profess to be a Christian. And when 
 the child asked him why he did not himself seek God, the old man 
 mournfully answered, " I would, child ; but my heart is hard, my 
 heart is hard ! " Too many there are who look back regretfully to 
 early imjiressions that have vanished, to drawings of the Divine 
 Spirit which they successfully resisted in their youth ; and there is 
 a deep sadness in their hearts as they sigh over " what might have 
 been." May you not live to share that experience, but obey Christ's 
 call at once. 
 
 And not less for those who have given themselves to Christ, is 
 there a valuable, lifelong admonition in this word, utraightway. If 
 the Master bids us do anything, it is right to obey Him promptly, 
 without staying to raise difficulties or ask unnecessary questions. 
 This is the course of safety as well as of happiness. 
 
 A pointsman in Prussia, as he went forward to " switch " an 
 approaching train to another track, in order to prevent a collision 
 Avith a train that was coming up in the oj^posite direction, saw his 
 little son playing on the line, just before the advancing engine. 
 "What was he to clo ? To spring forward and rescue his child might 
 cost hundreds of other lives. He could not neglect his duty. So, 
 with bounding heart, he called to the boy, " Lie down ! " and, as he 
 turned the ti'ain on its proper track, he saw that his boy had at 
 once obeyed. Oh the feelings of that parent, as the heavy train 
 thundered over the prostrate child ! But what was his thankful 
 relief, when the last carriage had passed, to raise to his bosom not a 
 mangled corpse, but his living son, all safe and sound ! He had 
 obeyed straightway ; and this was the secret of his .safety. If he 
 had stayed to answer and to discuss, it would have meant disaster 
 and death. And, more than earthly parent or master, does Christ 
 deserve of us a prompt obedience. We should gladly render that 
 to Him, both for His sake and our own. 
 
 (17) 257 
 
September 13 GOUUtlllfl CUt Steps. 
 
 "Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?" (Joh xxxi. 4). 
 
 Did you ever try to count your own steps ? If you did, I am very 
 sure that you soon found it rather a wearisome business, and that, 
 before ver_y long, you gave it up. After a while, you may have tried 
 it again — but ■with a like result. Yet it is true of God, as Job 
 reminds us hero, that God has been doing always, Avliat we have 
 taken the trouble to do only once or twice in our lifetime. He has 
 been " counting all our steps." 
 
 Does not this give us, (1) in the first place, a remarkable view of 
 the constant and minute interest that God talccs in every child of earth ? 
 None of them ever gets so lost in the crowd, that His eye does not 
 follow him. None of them ever takes a single step that He does 
 not take note of, and record. Who but God could take such a warm 
 and abiding interest in men, — caring as He does to do for them what 
 they do not care to do even for themselves ? 
 
 Is there not here (2) cjreat comfort for God's oivn children ? They 
 are the objects of His special care. He knoweth the Avay that each 
 of them takes, every step of it. And He is not only looking down 
 upon them, but He is near at hand to give them His guidance and 
 His aid. You have difficult heights to climb ? He will cheer you 
 on. You have waters of trial to pass through ? He will have 
 stepping-stones ready for you in the midst of the stream, that you 
 may pass safely over. For He counts all your steps. 
 
 But should we not be reminded also (3) of our responsibility to 
 God ? It is not without a jxirpose that He counts our steps, and 
 not without a reason that He regards them as worth counting. We 
 shall have to speak with Him yet about them all. You cannot 
 easily remember all the stejss you have taken, even for a single week 
 past. Not only is it impossible for you to count them now, Init you 
 can hardly recall the directions eA'cn in which they led j'ou, and all 
 the different spots you visited. But God will help yoii to remember 
 them, not for a week only, but for a lifetime ; for He has counted 
 every right step and every wrong step, — every step taken Avith glad 
 alacrity in obedience to His will, and every slow and sullen or rash 
 and -ndlful step in obedience to His call. Let us be very willing, 
 then, to be ever led by Him, that there may be few sinful and wrong 
 steps to grieve ns, when in His presence we review and recount the 
 past, 
 
 258 
 
^bC XorO TRCffjnCtb. September 14 
 
 " The Lord rcigneth, let the earth rejoice" (Ps, xcvii. 1). 
 
 Even some good Christian people .seem to read this, " The devil 
 reigneth, let the cartli be sad." And they hang their heads mourn- 
 fully and in despair, as though the world were hopelessly and 
 irreclaimably given over to the sway of the great enemy of God and 
 man. Now, no doubt there are many evils abroad, the sight of 
 which is fitted to fill the hearts of God's children with sorrow. 
 There is too much evidence everywhere of the baneful influence of 
 the great U-surj-ier. But God is not detlironed by the devil, and 
 never shall be. The Lord reigneth ; the victory lies Avith Him ; 
 therefore let the earth be glad. 
 
 It is well for each of us, who is a child of God, to remember for 
 our personal comfort, amid the difficulties we have to meet and the 
 perils we have to jiass through, that He who is seated upon Heaven's 
 throne is our Father, and that He will take care of us. We may 
 often be helpless enough, and feel ourselves at our wits' end. But 
 He is never taken at an unawares. The Lord will provide. 
 
 Some jieople are, in spite of themselves, almost paralysed with 
 afl'right in the jiresence of any danger. And, when there is no real 
 danger, they may imagine that there is ; and this for them will bo 
 just as bad as if it were really there. They fancy that everything is 
 going Avrong, that there are rocks ahead on which they are sure to 
 founder in wreck and ruin ; and they are miserable. 
 
 If anybody should be brave in presence of real dangers, and 
 ashamed to cower before imaginary ones, the child of God should be. 
 A little boy was at sea with his father, who was a skipper, when a 
 terrible tempest arose. Almost every other face was pale with fear ; 
 but the little fellow looked as unconcerned as if he had been sitting 
 by the hearth at home. When they spoke to him of the danger of 
 the ship going down, and asked him if he were not afraid, he said — 
 " No ! father's at the helm." AYhat that boy said, with such confidence 
 in his earthly parent, the Christian has far better ground for saying 
 about his Heavenly Father. The storm-clouds may gather, and the 
 tempest begin to roar, and the vessel of his life may seem to be the 
 plaything of wind and tide. But the Lord reigneth. " Father's at 
 the helm ! " 
 
 259 
 
September 15 TRoDbittc; (BoD. 
 
 " Will a man rob God ?" (Mai. iii. 8). 
 
 He must be a very bad man Avho would do tliafc, you say. I never 
 rob anybody ; and certainly God is tlie very last being tliat I Avould 
 attempt to rob ! 
 
 Not so fast, young reader ! It is very possible not oxily for a 
 man, and a particularly bad man, to rob God, but for a youth of 
 good enough general repute to do the same. You rob another, not 
 merely when you slip your hand into his pocket, or break into liis 
 house in order to carry off what belongs to him, but when, in any 
 way, you keep from him, or deprive him of, what is his due. 
 
 Now, the love of your heart and the devotion of your life are 
 God's due ; so tliat, when these are withheld from Plim, you are 
 robbing God. If your father and mother have bestowed their 
 affection, and lavished their gifts upon you from your earliest days, 
 and if you, when you grow up, show yourself quite indifferent to 
 them — will you not be robbing them ? Yes ; far more seriously 
 than if a thief were to steal in, and to abstract the valuables from 
 your father's desk or your mother's wardrobe ! In not requiting 
 their love with an answering love, you will be robbing them of 
 much of their proper joy. But what is the love of an earthly 
 parent compared with the love of the Heavenly Father, who created 
 us, and sent His Son to redeem us % And is it not a cruel shame 
 for any of us to rob Him of the reverence, and love, and service 
 which are His due 1 
 
 It was to robbing God of the tithes, of the money-offerings that 
 belonged to Him, that Malachi referred when he told the Israelites 
 — " Ye have robbed God." And, even in this respect, the youngest 
 of us cannot be too careful to deal honestly and honourably Avith 
 God. A mother gave her boy two bright pennies one day. He was 
 asked what he meant to do with them. " I am to buy something 
 with one of them, and to j)ut the other in the missionary box," he 
 said. At his play afterwards, he lost one of the pennies. " Whicli 
 of the two have you lost, dear ? " said his parent. " The missionary 
 l^enny, mother ! " he replied very promptly. 
 
 Not only that little boy, but older people too, arc often Avell 
 content to let God's cause have a very secondary place, in comjiarison 
 with self. In the disposal of our time, means, energy, let us beware 
 of the sin and folly of attempting to rob God. We ourselves, in. 
 robbing Him, will be the greatest losers. 
 
 260 
 
CbrfSt tbe IROCft. September 16 
 
 " TlMt Rock was Christ " (1 Cor. x. 4), 
 
 The Sa\ iour is a Jlock for His people — because — 
 
 (1) lie is the sure Foundation. On Uim the Chiucli of God i.s 
 built (Matt. xvi. 18). As the beautiful hyjuu says — 
 
 " The Cliurcir.s one foundation 
 Is Jesus Cliri.st, lier Lord." 
 
 And on Ilini every secure life, every safe hope, must rest. "Other 
 foundation can no man lay " that is worth calling a foundation ; for 
 all else is "shifting sand," and you have only to turn to !Matt. vii. 
 27, to see how a building resting upon that will meet the storm. 
 
 (2) He is the safe Refuge. To dwell high \ip in "the clefts of 
 the rocks," is to be safe from the assaults of the prowling enemies 
 beneath. The birds securely nestle there. And the Lord is the 
 Hock and Fortress of His people. Flee to the Stronghold, ye jirisoner.-i 
 of hope. Cry, — " Hide me, my Saviour, hide " ; and He will 
 hide you, till all calamities are overpast. 
 
 (2) He is the Shadow or shelter of His people. In the hour of 
 strength and joy, indeed. He is the sunshine of their life. But, in 
 the varying experiences of life. He can meet them and be to them 
 everything they need. And so, in the time of weariness, He is a 
 shelter for them from the world's hot glare— like the shadow of a 
 spreading tree for the tired pilgrim, or of " a great Rock in a weary 
 land." 
 
 ('!) He is — and this is what the text chiefly points to —f/tc 7ic/"?-Co7i- 
 ing of His people. Like the rock which Moses, at God's bidding, 
 smote, and from which water flowed, to slake the burning thirst of 
 the desert travellers to Canaan, Christ, stricken by divine appoint- 
 ment upon Calvary, is the Smitten liocJc, — from whom there Hows 
 the living water, which, in the soul of Him who drinks of it, rises 
 up to life eternal. 
 
 Here are words you know well. \Vlien you sing them next, 
 think of their meaning and make them a prayer: — 
 
 "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
 Let mc liide myself in Thee; 
 Let the water and the blood 
 From Thy riven side which llowed 
 Be of sin the double cure, 
 Cleanse mc from its guilt and power." 
 
 261 
 
September 17 zbc ^estiiiion^ Of tbc Dust. 
 
 " Shake of the very dust from your feet, for a testimony against them " 
 (Luke ix, 5), 
 
 The people of the East are wont to express a great deal by their 
 gestures. Very often they say by some significant action "what we 
 would utter in words ; and even so humljle a tiling as the dust can 
 be made, in various ways, an eloquent symbol by a demonstrative 
 Oriental. 
 
 When Joshua and the elders of Israel, after the defeat of Ai, 
 put dust upon their heads in the j^resence of Jehovah, it was in 
 witness of their humiliation. It meant, that they cast themselves, 
 in shame, and weakness, and unworthiness, upon His mercy and 
 help. When Shimei, in cursing David, " cast dust " ; and when 
 the Jews, seething around Paul, as he sjjoke to them from the Castle 
 stairs in Jerusalem about God's message of mercy to the Gentiles, 
 threw dust into the air, — it was not a mere meaningless outburst of 
 senseless rage. Shimei wished David, and the Jews wished Paul, 
 to understand, that this was what he would be reduced to if the 
 spirit of vengeance he had excited had its way. David and liis 
 ro3-al hopes, Paul and his grand missionary projects, would be 
 ground to powder, and be no better than a handful of dust cast 
 into the air ! 
 
 But the shaking of the dust from the clothes or from the feet, 
 was perhaps the most striking symbol employed in this connection. 
 Paul did it, again and again (Acts xiii. 51, xviii. 6) ; and, as we see, it 
 was a practice which, in certain circumstances, had the sanction of 
 our Lord Himself. 
 
 What did it mean ? The Jews, when they returned to the Holy 
 Land from heathen countries, were wont to shake off the dust from 
 their feet at the frontier, in token of their severance from all share 
 in the idolatries and defilements of the Gentile world. And, no 
 doubt, when the disciples of Jesus shook the dubt from their feet, as 
 they quitted a city that had refused to receive them as messengers of 
 peace, it meant that they left the inhabitants to themselves, and 
 could have no fellowship with them. But it meant more. It signi- 
 ficantly said, " Your blood is upon j-our own head. We have come 
 to you with the Gospel of grace ; but you have rejected it. Beware, 
 lest this very dust which we shake from our feet should be pre- 
 served by God, in witness of our visit, as a testimony against you in 
 the judgment to come." 
 
 A striking instance of the testimony of the dust occurred some 
 time ago in Germany. A box of treasure was found to have been 
 opened and emj^tied on the railway, and then filled with rubbish. 
 Who had done it 1 Some sand sticking to the box was scrutinised 
 by an expert man of science with his microscope. He pronounced 
 it a sort of sand which was to be found only at one particular station 
 on the line. This led to the discovery and punishment of the 
 plunderer. AVhen he took the box from the train and set it down in 
 a quiet corner to open it, he little thought that the dust under his 
 feet would give testimony against him ! 
 
 262 
 
BOUblCsniillDtDllCSS. September 18 
 
 " Tlie double-jniiulcd man is unstable in all his icai/s " (Jas. i. 8). 
 " Unstable as water, thou s/uill not excel " (Gen. xlix. 1). 
 
 What is inoniit by "uustahle"? You have soeii a jiDor (liuiikard 
 going along the street. What a miserable, weak, tutlerin" creature 
 he is — going first to one side, and then to the other, and ready to 
 fall at every step ! Such an one is not to be lauglied at, l)ut to 
 1)6 pitied and i)rayed for. Well, that is a case of l)eing unstable. 
 And lleubeu was that, not because he was a drunkard, luiL because 
 he was a double-minded man. His father had cherished high hopes 
 concerning him. He was " his first-born, his might, the beginning of 
 his strength, the excellency of dignity, and tlie excellency of power." 
 Yet Reul)en became a sad disappointment to his father. For, 
 though he was kindly, and in some sense promising, he was earthly 
 and self-indulgent. His heart was only half given to what was 
 right. Therefore, he did not come to any real good ; but he early 
 fell into grievous sin, and came luider a dark cloud which never 
 lifted from his life. 
 
 Now there are many double-minded, and therefore unstable, 
 people to be found, besides Reuben. Their heart is divided, so that 
 they arc found faulty. They are half given to God, and half 
 devoted to the world — half given to holiness, and half yielded to 
 lust and sinful pleasure. They look as if they had two minds, 
 pvUling in different directions. 
 
 About such peo2)le, it is safe to say several things. 
 
 1. They are unrdiahh. That is, j'ou cannot depend on them, or 
 know when you really have them. They seem to be good among 
 the good. But they are careless among the careless ; and, perhaps, if 
 j'ou met with them among scoffers even, you might find them in 
 the scorner's chair. They are like the fabled chameleon, which was 
 said to take on changing colours, — red, brown, blue, yellow, — just 
 according to its surroundings. 
 
 2. They are unhaiyyij. Sin is never happy. Half -hear ted ncss is 
 never happy. An unstalde, double-minded man, when he is trying 
 to serve God, is thinking about how much of the woidd's good he is 
 missing. When he is serving the world, he is \ineasy lest his soul 
 be lost, and is troubled by the thought of what he may l)e missing 
 for eternity. In trying to get, in a wrong wa}', the good of Ijotli 
 •worlds, he is getting the good of neither. 
 
 3. They are undistinguished. Reuben himself did not excel. 
 Neither did his tril)e. No great deed, no great name, of prophet or 
 warrior, is associated with the tribe of Reuben. The double-minded 
 man lacks a high ambition, and does not, in a settled, persistent way, 
 give himself to any one pursuit. Like Penelope witli her web, he is 
 apt to undo with one hand what he has wrought with the other, 
 and, having said a thing one moment, to unsay it the next. He has 
 not the characteristics which make for distinction and genuine success. 
 
 Beware, then, of double-mindedness. Do not be found among 
 the Reubens. Ask God to give you understanding, that you may 
 know His law ; and let it be your consistent resolve, God helping 
 you, to keep it with the whole heart. 
 
 263 
 
September 19 Cbl'tSt Witb US in tbC Sbip. 
 
 " Whi/ are ye fearful, yc of little faith V (Matt. viii. 26), 
 
 The storm ou tlic lake was torrilile. Tlie fierce wind, rusliiug 
 down the narrow defiles that border on tlie Sea of Galilee, liad 
 laslied the waves into such sudden and awful fury, that even 
 exi^erienced sailors like Simon Peter, and the sons of Zehedee, and 
 their brethren, were in great alarm. The ship was covered with 
 the waves, and it seemed that any moment might be their la.sc. 
 But there was One who, all the while, was tranquilly asleep, wiili 
 His head resting on the wooden settle of the boat for a pillow. 
 This was their Master, the wearied Son of Man, who was also the 
 Son of God. And when, in their aftriglit, they rouse Him from 
 His slumber with the cry, "Lord, save us ; we perish," He rebukes 
 the winds and the sea, so that, forthwith, there is a great calm. 
 And, at the same time, He gives a gentle relmke to His disciples 
 for their lack of faith and of the courage that faith imparts. 
 
 The meaning of it was, that they should have known that, since 
 He was with them, they were safe. It is told of Ctesar, that, 
 being on one occasion in a boat when a furious storm arose that 
 completely unnerved the ferryman, he confidently addressed him 
 thus — " Fear not, boatman ; you carry Cffisar and his fortunes." 
 That man of proud, im2:)erial spirit was so convinced of the imjiort- 
 ance of the place he had to fill and the work he had to do, that 
 he could not imagine the gods allowing him and his fortunes to 
 perish at such a time ; and he sought to impart his own confidence 
 to the boatman too. Such an assurance might not, in his case, 
 have proved well founded. But, if we are in the shij) that carries 
 Jesus and the interests of His Kingdom, Ave are safe. If He be with 
 us as our Saviour, we cannot jjerish. We may well trust, and not 
 be afraid. ' 
 
 There is a saying, that "every man is innuortal till his work 
 is done " ; and we may be sure that Christ will keep His servants safe 
 at the post of duty till His end through them is accomplished. 
 If they can serve Him better by giving up life for Him, even in 
 that case all will be well for them, and they may be at peace. 
 When Queen Elizabeth, in a fit of rage, threatened to cast Mendoza, 
 the ambassador of Philip ii. of Spain, into prison, he boldly replied, 
 "I have a master who will protect me as his subject, not to sj^eak of 
 my being his ambassador." And, with a better confidence, Samuel 
 Rutherford, who suft'ered much from the enemies of the good cause, 
 said, " I lay my head to rest ui^on the bosom of Omnipotence." 
 
 264 
 
Xovdlfl bach again, September 20 
 
 " Efcausc Ih- first loved us " (1 John iv. 1!)). 
 
 A LiTTi.i: girl, tired ui" iiL'lliiig and iilayiiig with liei' dull wliile 
 lior motliev was Imsy writing, ran, tliu moment tliu letters were 
 linislied, and, nestling dose to her mother's heart, exclaimed — "I'm 
 so glad ; I wanted to love you so much, mamma." " But you and 
 Dolly were having a happy time together ?" " Yes," said the child, 
 " but I got tired of loving hct\ because she never loves me back." 
 "Tliat is why you love me, then, darling?" "One u-Jiy, nranima ; 
 but not the fir.st or best." "And what is that?" "Because you 
 loved me, wJien I was too Utile to love you hacJc." 
 
 Even so, the Christian may well love God, v/hn, when wc 
 were sinners, in rebellion and enmity against Him, — not only too 
 little, but too wicked to love Him, — loved us, and gave His Son 
 to die for us. If He had not loved us, we would never have loved 
 Ilim. When love wells up in our heart toward Jesus, it is just 
 seeking to rise to its source again. 
 
 An eminent servant of Christ has said, that " of all the things 
 that will surprise us in the other world, this perhaps will surprise 
 lis most, that we Christians did not love Christ more before we 
 died." Should we not remember more constantly how Christ is 
 thirsting for our love ? Sliould wc not think oftener of His beauty, 
 that we may desire Him ? Should we not remind ourselves moi'o 
 frequently of the great love wherewiih He luitli loved us, even 
 W'hen we were dead in sins? 
 
 " Why do you make so much ado about Christ, man ? " said a 
 careless English traveller to a North American Indian convert, 
 who had been speaking warmly of the name of Jesus : " What has 
 this Christ done for you?" The Indian did not speak, but picked 
 up a crawling worm, which he laid upon a bare spot of ground, 
 and hemmed it in with a small circle of moss and withered Iciivcs. 
 He then put a lighted juatch to the leaves and moss, and soon 
 the flame rose in scorching power. The worm, in agony, sought 
 escape in vain, and then coiled itself np, to die despairingly in 
 the centre of the circle. At that moment, the Indian put forth his 
 hand, and took the worm, and laid it tenderly on his bosom. And 
 then he spoke — " Stranger, you see that worm. I was that helpless 
 creature, on the brink of everlasting fire. But Jesus rescued me. 
 He took me, a poor sinful worm, and brought me near to His 
 loving heart. Can you wonder that I so love Him, and like to 
 speak about Him, who has loved mc so, and is my precious 
 Saviour ? " 
 
 265 
 
September 21 Jj^oUC "fflamC, Sir t 
 
 " What is thy name ? " (Gen. xxxii. 27). 
 
 This is one of tlie first things yon wish to know ahont a new 
 acquaintance. If a hidy conies on a visit to tlie house, bringing 
 her son or daughter with her, and you and the young visitor are 
 left to play together, it is a very natural question for you to put— 
 "What is your name?" Perhaps, also, you go on to ask — "What 
 name do you like to Ije called ? " — and, " What is your full name ? " 
 The ordinarxj name may be different from the ijct name, and both 
 very different from the full name. 
 
 A well-known American writer, who died so recently as the 
 autunni of 1894, — Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, — has said, among 
 other witty things, that when John and Thomas speak together 
 there are really six persons conversing ; because there is John's John, 
 Thomas's John, and the real John, — and thei'e is Thomas's Tliomas, 
 John's Thomas, and the real Thomas. lie lueaus to bring out that 
 our opinion of ourselves, the world's view of us, and God's judgment 
 upon us, may be, and usuallj^ are, very diflerent from one another. 
 
 Now, in asking for your name to-day, I would ask — 
 
 (1) What is the name others give theel The answer to this, if 
 you are able to give it, will bring into view the impression you 
 have left of yourself on the minds of those around you. Dejiend 
 upon it, they have formed some picture of you in their minds. 
 Your young companions are very quick to notice traits of character, 
 and to read the meaning of this and that other bit of conduct. And 
 when your name — Bertie, or Charlie, or Mary, or Lottie So-and-so — 
 is mentioned, it not only suggests to others your face and outward 
 form, but the thought of what sort of boy or girl you are — true or 
 deceitful, brave or cowardly, generous or selfish. 
 
 (2) "\Vhat is thy name for thyself 1 In other words, wliat kind of 
 a character do you give yourself ? No doubt it is in some respects 
 different from tlie picture others have of you. We know things 
 about oui'selves that others cannot know. There may be good 
 motives in our hearts which they do not give us credit for. On 
 the other hand, we may have evil motives sometimes, and bad 
 thoughts and feelings, which they do not suspect. The picture we 
 have of oi;rselves ought to be truer than the jiicture formed of us by 
 the world. But — - 
 
 (3) What is GotVs name for thee 1 This is the decisive question — 
 when He mentions our name, what does it mean ? God's judgment 
 of us and description of us are absolutely correct. This is a picture 
 true to life, as regards both light and shade. Others may think too 
 well or too ill of us. We are very likely to flatter and to think too 
 well of ourselves. But God does not flatter, and He never makes 
 mistakes. He does not merelj^ think or imagine, but He knows. 
 And He will give each of us openly our name— not our common 
 name, or our pet name, but our full and proper name — in the Day 
 of Judgment. Should we not all ask Him to make us really, in 
 heart and life, what He would have us to be ? Then we shall not 
 be ashamed before Christ at His coming, and when we have to 
 appear, and everything about us to appear, at His judgment seat. 
 
Sgrnpatbg. September 22 
 
 " Bear ye one another's burdens, and sofuljd the law of Christ " (Gal. vi. 2). 
 
 By syuimtliy we mean, siiircriuj^ along with oLlier,-^, feeling for 
 them aucl with them — putting ourselves in their idace, st) far as we 
 can, that we may uiulerstana lunv they feel, and tliat we Jiiay do 
 something to lighten their hunlen for them. Some peojile are horn 
 with far more of this cjuality in them than others. They have a 
 rich, sympathetic nature to begin with. But all of us may do much 
 to cultivate the spirit of sympathy in ourselves ; and we ought to 
 do it. If we do not, then, though we may he upright and ex- 
 emplary persons in some other respects, we are not fulfilling the 
 law of Christ, or walking after Christ's example. The whole story 
 of our Saviour's life on earth is an inspiring exhibition of his 
 sympathy. 
 
 " It isn't your child ; don't fret yourself " — cried a heartless man 
 to a woman, who had in agony called U]>on him to stop a runaway 
 liorse, that was making straight, with a luml)eriug cart, to the spot 
 where a little child was lying. "No," she gasped, "l>ut it's some- 
 body's child." For she had a mother's heart ; and, in these words, 
 there spoke out the spirit of sympathy, which puts itself in another's 
 place. 
 
 Even a kind word spuken in season from a loving heart, how 
 good it is ! It may change the trickling tear of disappointment 
 into one of gratitude. It may change vexation into joy. It may 
 ea.se the crushing load on the sorrowful spirit. It may soothe away 
 temjjestuous anger. It may bring hope again to the desjjairing. 
 Let not the fit and needed word, then, remain unspoken ! 
 
 But true sympathy will by no means confine itself to words 
 alone. It will be ready, when occasion ret|uires, to express itself 
 in deeds as well. If you see a lad laboriously toiling up a stec]) 
 ascent with a big load upon a barrow, which he is hardly able to 
 push along, your .sympathy won't do him much good if you merely 
 s;iy — "Poor lad ! how he is sweating with his burden — I am really 
 sorry for him ! " But if you go forward, and add your strength to 
 liis, and make the barrow spin along till it reaches the top, he will 
 thank you for your .sympathy then. 
 
 Two gentlemen were discussing, in presence of some others, the 
 .sad circumstiinces of a distressed family, who, through bereavement, 
 liad fallen into straits. One of them did most of the talking, and 
 was very profuse in his expressions of pity for the sufferers. Tlie 
 other was a man of few words, but of a truly kind heart. So, 
 when the other had finished, he quietly .said — " It is a sad ca.se. I 
 sympathise £10. How much do you sympathise?" The talker, 
 though the richer of the two, was silent now. He could only 
 mutter something about " considering it " ; and hi.s considering 
 never came to anything practical. It did nothing to lighten his 
 own purse, or his poor neighbour's burden. I do not need to tell 
 you which of these two kmds of svmpathv " fulfilled the law of 
 Christ." 
 
 267 
 
September 23 SelMbelp. 
 
 "Every man shall bear his own burden" (Gal. vi. 5). 
 
 You renieniljer Addison's allegory about tlie Mountain of Miseries. 
 All men Avlio thought themselves more burdened than their 
 neighbours were invited to come and cast down their loads in a 
 lieaji, from which each might then select some other burden in 
 place of his own. From east, west, north, and south they gathered, 
 piling np all sorts of afflictions, till the Mountain of Miseries rose 
 high up to heaven. Then each, with eagerness, chose what he 
 thought a desirable exchange for his own trouble ; and off he went 
 with it to his home. But ere one short month was past, he was 
 groaning, and moaning, and worrying, and sighing, to get Ijack his 
 old load again. It was, however, too late ; and each man of the 
 malcontent multitude Avas left in bitterness to realise, that it was 
 worse with him at the latter end than at the beginning. 
 
 The lesson is, — bear any burden you cannot be rid of, in brave 
 contentment ! It is a miserable thing, to be alwa3^s contrasting our 
 own lot with that of otliers, Avhom we may suppose to be better oft' 
 1 ban ourselves. We were speaking yesterday about symjjathy ; and 
 it is often of great importance for us to get it as well as to give it. 
 But we are not to go whining for sympathy about burdens which 
 God means us to carry, and which society has a right to expect us 
 patiently, if not cheerfully, to carry, in the strength which He 
 imparts. "Every man shall bear his own burden." 
 
 You do not know much yet of the burdens of life. In time 
 enough, you will know more al:)0ut them. But there is one burden 
 ■which the youngest is required to carry, and which no other can 
 really carry for you, — the burden of your own personal dut^^ 
 
 " I wish I had some good friends to help me on in life," yawned 
 an idle youth, stretching himself on the sofa, and looking up at the 
 roof. " Good friends ? Why, you have ten," was the answer. " I 
 wish I had even half as many," he said; "any I do have are too 
 poor to help me." " Count your fingers, my boy," his mentor 
 retorted. And as the lad looked at his big strong hands, he felt 
 a bit ashamed of himself. 
 
 Self-IIelp is the name of a very good book, by Samuel Smiles, 
 which you ought to read. Self-heliD is a very good principle, to 
 carry with you and act upon through life. As Aaron appointed to 
 each of the Levites his service and his burden, so God gives to ever}'- 
 one of us our work to do ; and He expects tis to do it. He is no 
 harsh, unreasonable Master, demanding of us bricks without jirovid- 
 ing us with straw. He furnishes us with talents and opportunities, 
 and He teaches us, in the honest discharge of personal duty, how 
 true it is, that " God helps those that help themselves." 
 
 268 
 
Support. September 24 
 
 " Cast thy burden on the Lord, (aid lie slwXl sustain thcc " (Ps. Iv. 22). 
 
 The spirit of independence, as we saw yesterday, is a coniniendaUle 
 spirit. "We are not to lean npon others, and expect tlicni to lift and 
 bear a burden M-liich we ouglit, and are able, to carry for ourselves. 
 It is M-oll to buckle bravely to life's tasks, and to feel that, if 
 diniculties meet us, they are there to be surmounted. A courageous, 
 tjclf-reliant spirit has often wrought wonders in tlie world. 
 
 But independence of spirit may sometimes be carried too far. 
 It may be carried too far towards our fellow-men. We have no 
 right to refuse the syjni)athy and aid of others, where these are 
 needed, and will enable us better to fulfil the end of life. And 
 independence is certainly not to be admired, Init blamed, when it 
 is exercised by a frail mortal towards God. In that case, it is only 
 another name for unbelief and sinful pride. 
 
 Sooner or later, the most haughty and self-reliant are l)rought 
 to feel that they cannot possiljly be indejiendent of IJod ; and what 
 puts strength and comfort into the Cliristiau's heart is just this — 
 that he does dejiend ujion God, and that, in depending upon Him, 
 lie depends njion One whose sympathy and resources can never fail. 
 He hath said, " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." There- 
 fore we may boldly say, " The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear." 
 
 Now, notice what is the picture suggested by the text. It is 
 that of a little child, struggling along tlie road with a load in its 
 arms, small in itself but heavy for it. The child is weary, and 
 almost ready to sink upon the ground. But it meets its father, and 
 cries to him for helji. And the strong man not only takes the 
 burden, but lifts the little one, load and all, in his arms, and 
 carries it in his bosom. 
 
 " He will sustain thee," the promise says. When the sympathis- 
 ing Jesus calls to the labouring and heavy-laden ones, " Come unto 
 Me, and I Mill give you rest," He expresses His readiness to carry 
 them and their burdens too. 
 
 It is told of a traveller that, having asked and obtained a "lift" 
 from a man who was driving past, he still clung to the burden he 
 liad been carrying on his shoulder along the dusty road. The kind 
 friend, observing this, suggested that he should lay the bundle in 
 the bottom of the cart. But he answered — " Oh, sir, it was very 
 good of you to take me up like this ; but it would be too much to 
 expect you to carry my burden too." This was plainly absurd ; 
 but not more so than the conduct of some Christians, who have 
 given themselves to the Sa"\'iour to carry, yet vainly think they must 
 needs go on supporting their burden themselves. 
 
 269 
 
September 25 SOU, IRcmembcr ! 
 
 " / will remember" (Ps. Ixxvii. 11). 
 
 Memory is a wonderful gift. Without it, life would be scarce 
 worth liviug ; for all knowledge, virtue, progress of every kind 
 would then be impossible. A person utterly devoid of memory 
 would be reduced, in some respects, lower than an idiot, or than the 
 beasts which perish. It is by the help of memory and its hold ujion 
 the past that we even know who we ourselves are ; and, if it were 
 taken away, we would cease to be able to think. 
 
 The poAvers of memory are of two kinds. There is, first, the 
 power which keeps things in our minds, stored up somewhere, in 
 spite of ourselves. And then there is the special power we have of 
 recollecting, calling to mind by an act of will, the things of the 
 past which it is desirable for us to recall. 
 
 All of us have the first of these powers of memory, far more 
 fully than we are ourselves aware. There is an immense amount of 
 good and of evil from the past laid up in store within us ; so that 
 we are sometimes startled, by words, or events, or scenes coming up 
 to us again which appeared, for long years, to have passed into 
 oblivion. It makes one stand in awe, to think hoAV much may be 
 written upon the tablets of memory that God may yet make us read 
 off, to ourselves if not to others — " Son, remember ! " 
 
 A servant-girl, in fever, surprised the doctor and others by 
 constantly repeating long passages of what proved to be very good 
 Hebrew. On inquiry being made, it turned out that in early years 
 she had been in the service of an old pastor, a man of much learning, 
 who had a habit of pacing i;p and down, in his room and in the 
 lobby, repeating passages of Hebrew aloud. These, without her 
 knowing it, had been imprinted on the girl's memory. So, too, a 
 -man, saved from drowning after a wreck, seemed to hear, as he was 
 sinking into death, words sjioken by his mother thirty years beforcj 
 and not recollected by him for twenty years at least — " Johnny, did 
 you take your poor sister's grapes 1 " 
 
 Let us pray and strive that our memories may have as few blots 
 upon them as possible, so that there may be little to bring the blush 
 of shame to our cheek when God, in the liglit of eternity, brings 
 from our memory's storehouse all that it contains. And let us hear 
 Him, even now, saying to us, " Son, remember ! " that, remembering 
 Him, and His words, and His works, in the days of youth, there 
 may be comfort laid up in store for us against the dying hour. The 
 storinfi power of memory is specially keen and active in early years. 
 See that you use it wisely and well. Fill the treasure-house, not 
 with rubbish, still less Avith filth, but with real treasure. Occupy 
 the mind, not with what you may vainly wish afterwards to forget, 
 but with what you will be glad to remember for e"\'er ! ' 
 
 270 
 
mbnt like Is tbC Ifniit? September 26 
 
 " Jji/ their fruits ye shall know them " (Matt vii. 20). 
 
 If you saw grapes growing on a Ijrancli, you would not suppose it 
 belonged to a thorn-lmsh. Or if, on the other hand, you saw thistles 
 growing, you wi>uld never imagine that they sj)rang from a fig-tree. 
 By the fruit you may easily determine the kind and character of 
 the plant which brings it forth. 
 
 Jesus is warning His disciples that this is a test which must be 
 apjdied, not only to plants, but to people. There may be a great 
 dwU of i)rofession, but no good outcome from it in the life — as with 
 the leafy fig-tree to Avhicn Jesus came for fruit and found none. 
 And tliere may 'be fair talk al)out God and religion, while the 
 character and life are positively bad. "By their fruits ye shall 
 know them." 
 
 " Harry is a good boy, I think, and you should make a 
 companion of him more," said the Sabl)ath-school superintendent 
 to his son ; "he is regular at school, and seems to know and like 
 his lessons well." But Tom hung his head, and said nothing. At 
 last it came out that " the best of the fellows didn't think much of 
 Harry." For, though he might repeat his lessons well enough, he 
 didn't live up to them a bit. He was by no means very truthful, 
 and his language was not very clean. In short, his religion, such 
 as it was, he kejit for the Sunday, and showed nothing of Christ's 
 si)irit day by day. When he knew this of Harrj^, Tom's father was 
 not anxious that he should make a companion of him. 
 
 It is not merely saying, but doinr/ and being, that our Lord laj's 
 stress upon. If we say that we are trusting Christ and following 
 llim, let us see that we do it. If we profess to be sorry for our sin, 
 let us bring forth fruits meet for repentance. 
 
 You know the hymn — "Lo, He comes, with clouds descending " ; 
 and perhaps that other hymn — " The God of Abraham i)raise " ? 
 Well, the author of these, Thomas Olivers by name, was at one time 
 a very bad, dishonest man. His character was such that there could 
 be no mistaking his badness. The evil tree brought forth evil 
 fruit. But divine grace took possession of his heart, and he became 
 a changed man. Providentially, about that very time, some 
 
 ! property was left to him ; and what did he do ? " He bought a 
 lorse," we are told, " visited every person whom he had defrauded, 
 paid every farthing he owed, with interest, and asked pardon of all 
 whom he had wronged." He took a long journey to pay a sixpence ; 
 and he had to sell horse and saddle and bridle before he could pay the 
 last of his debts. Thus when the nature of the tree was changed, 
 the fruit too was changed ; and, from the different kind of fruit, 
 people could see how very real and deep the change had been. 
 
 271 
 
September 27 xcD to Destruction. 
 
 " Taken ccqylirc hy the devil at his will" (2 Tim. ii. 26). 
 
 There are many on tlie road to clcstruction, wliom Satan is not 
 driving, but leading tliere. No doubt there are also those whom, 
 having oljtained comjolete mastery over them, he is openly hurrying 
 onward to the pit. But in the case of multitudes he works by 
 guile. His purpose is.Vconcealed under the guise of friendlines.s"; 
 and so he lares them to their death. 
 
 That quaint old preacher, Eowland Hill, began his sermon one 
 day thus — " My friends, the other day I was going down the street, 
 and I saw a drove of pigs following a man. This aroused my 
 curiosity ; so I watched them, till, to my surprise, he led them ricfht 
 into the slaughter-house. I said to the man, ' My frien<l, how clid 
 you manage to induce these pigs to follow you here V The answer 
 was, *I had a basket of beans under my arm, and I dropjied a few 
 as I came aloug, and so they followed me.' So has Satan a basket of 
 beans under his arm ; and what miiltitudes he induces to follow 
 him to the slaughter-house ! " 
 
 There is great truth in that illustration ; and though it is fitted 
 to make one smile, it conveys a solemn lesson, which it will be well 
 for you who are entering upon your life-course to keep in mind. 
 
 Satan is sure to be trying to lure you onward with his beans. 
 He cannot drive you, as yet, successfully, with the knotted cords and 
 sharp whips of confirmed evil habit. But He will try to secure his 
 purpose, in another and more subtle way. He Avill stre^v before 
 you attractive temptations, in the hope that you may thus he induced 
 to follow where he leads. 
 
 He has difi^erent kinds of beans, which he suits to the different 
 tastes of his intended captives. Very many are taken Avith the 
 bean of worldly pleasure. Through indulging, by strong drink and 
 otherwise, their bodily appetites, they are led step by step to ruin. 
 The bea7i of worldly wealth is another great attraction, in exchange 
 for which multitudes are induced to turn their l)acks on the 
 unsearchable riches of Christ. The bean of worldly greatness hecoiaeB, 
 to others, the absorbing object of interest and pursuit. If tliej^ can 
 but rise higher in the scale of society, and take rank with the men 
 of great reputed learning and widely-acknowledged power, they are 
 pleased — at least for the time. Their ambition does not rise to the 
 higher things which are at God's right hand. 
 
 May Christ, who came to deliver men from the snare of the 
 dcAal, preserve you from the wiles of the great enemy ! May the 
 Divine Spirit ojien your eyes, and turn you from darkness to light, 
 and from the power of Satan unto God ! May loftier interests than 
 those of earth have such a hold upon your hearts, that the pleasures, 
 riches, prizes of time shall have no more than their proper place in 
 your esteem ! May the attractions of Christ, and the fruits of 
 holiness, far outweigh with you the devil's beans ! 
 
 272 
 
tCbC jf ln&ill^ of MoSeS. S^lptembei' 28 
 
 " And, behold, the babe icej)t " (Ex. ii. G). 
 
 Tins is one of many remarkable instances in the Bible, and in 
 general history, of the iinporttmce of little things. 
 
 The tender mother has done her best for her babe. She saw that 
 he Mas "a goodly child." What mother does not think this of her 
 little one 'i But she had special reason to think it in this case. 
 And, for three anxious months, she has succeeded in hiding him 
 from the Egyptian tyrant. Miriam and little Aaron have been 
 growing fonder and fonder of the dear baby ; and home would 
 hardly seem home to them now without him. lie dare not l>e longer 
 kept, however; else he may be discovered and rudely killed, and 
 the family punished. So tlie mother resolves that she will put him 
 into the Nile, — as the king had ordered, — but, in a basket of bulrushes 
 that will keep the water out. And all that her anxious heart can 
 now do is, to hope and pray that his life, somehow yet, may be 
 preserved. 
 
 Next, we see the loving sister Miriam, standing afar off, watching 
 the basket that contained their treasure. She is a bright, musical, 
 (juick-witted girl ; but she must have been sad enough that day, as 
 she looked and longed for the safety of her little brother. Perhaps 
 some of you young ])eople have an older sister like Miriam ? If so, 
 you should be thankful to God for her. And now, there is an eager 
 look on the girl's face. She seems to be " all eyes." Why is this 1 
 Somebody is coming to the riverside. It is no other than the 
 daughter of King Pharaoh, with her maids of honour, coming down 
 to bathe. And straight on they go, just to where the little ark of 
 bulrushes lies. How Miriam's heart beats, as she watches what is 
 to become of her brother ! How she longs to rush forward, and tell 
 the i>rincess that he is the best baby in the world, and beseech her 
 to protect him ! But, for his sake and her own, she dare not. 
 Mother and sister can do little for him now. 
 
 But the babe is in God's protecting hand. Sjjying the basket, 
 the kind-hearted princess asks it to be brought, that they may see 
 what is in it. Imagine her astonishment, when, on opening it, she 
 sees — a little baby boy ! And not only sees him, but hears him too ! 
 For, j list at the right moment, "the babe wept"; and the infant's 
 cry goes to the great lady's hejirt. She is a woman as well as a 
 princess ; and, though she sees that the child is of the despised 
 Hebrew race, she has not the heart to throw him into the river. 
 
 We know the rest : how Moses became an adopted prince, with 
 his own mother for a nurse, and grew iij) to be the deliverer of 
 Israel and one of the greatest men the world has seen. Let us 
 learn from the story, what a blessing is mother-love, and how much 
 a loving and active little gii'l may do as a comfort to her mother and 
 a blessing to those younger than herself. Let us especially admire 
 the wonderful preserving care of God, who had little Moses in His 
 own everlasting arms, and turned such a little thing as a baby's cry 
 into an influence largely felt, not upon two nations oidy, but upon 
 the history of the world for all time. 
 (i8) 273 
 
September 29 % CheCtM (BiveC. 
 
 "Freely ye have received ; freely give " (Matt. x. 8). 
 
 God Himself is a free and bountiful Giver. He giveth to all 
 liberally, and iipbraidetli not. If He dealt out His gifts in pro- 
 portion to our juerit, or our thankfulness, we sliould V)e poor indeed. 
 Or, if He uttered a rebuke for every time that even His own 
 children receive precious gifts thanklessly at His hand, the air 
 would be ever full of reproaches. He is never weary of giving, and 
 He grudges no gift, however great, for the benefit of any of His 
 needy people. 
 
 That is a beautiful declaration by St. Paul in Philippians — " My 
 God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by 
 Christ Jesiis." He will give, as a King. You are not to limit j-our 
 requests or expectations by what you know that you deserve, but to 
 extend them in accordance with what you know that He is able and 
 willing to l)estow. Alexander the Great once told a needy 
 philosopher at his Court, that he would receive from the royal 
 treasurer whatever he might ask. He forthwith gave an order for 
 £10,000. The treasurer Avas taken aback at the largeness of the 
 demand, and declined at first to pay it. But the king said — "By 
 all means let the money be paid. It pleases me to know, from the 
 largeness of his request, how high an estimate the philosopher has, 
 not only of my Avealth, but of my disposition to give." So we 
 should honour God, and benefit ourselves, bj- large requests at the 
 throne of grace. 
 
 But do not let us forget that there is another side to this. God 
 desires to bring us into sympathy with Himself, in this matter of 
 giving. Jesus meant it, when He said, " It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive" — the only words of His, sjioken during His earthly 
 ministry, which are recorded not in either of the Four Gospels, 
 but in another book of the New Testament. He Himself knew this 
 blessedness well ; for He gave Himself for us ; and, though He was 
 rich, yet for our sakes He became poor. And He wishes us to 
 share this blessedness too. When tliere is in us the disposition 
 to share it, He draws us near His heart. He loveth a cheerful giver. 
 
 It is told of John Wesley, that his liberality knew no limit 
 except an empty pocket. When his own simple wants were 
 provided for, all the rest was bestowed on others. When he had 
 £30 a year, he lived on £28, and gave away £2. Eeceiving £60 
 the next year, he still lived on £28, and gave away £32. Having 
 £90 the third year, he gave away £62 ; and so on. It is believed 
 that in fifty years he gave away more than £30,000. He was 
 indeed, as the word means, " a hilarious giver." There may not be 
 many in a position to give away so large a proportion of their 
 income as Wesley did. But you should early begin to give in a 
 systematic way to the cause of Christ ; and you should seek to give, 
 not only honestly luxt cheerfully, a due projiortion of your means 
 to religious and charitable objects. What that due proportion is, 
 we .should consider in the light not only of God's j)rovidential 
 goodness, but of the cross of Calvary. 
 
 274 
 
dfitle Spohcn. September 30 
 
 " yi iOOrd fitly spoken w like apples of gold in pictures of silver" 
 (Prov. XXV. 11). 
 
 That is, it is something very beautiful and appropriate, — like one 
 of those exquisite works of art, lirought to tlie jmlace of Solomon, 
 by the matililvss arti.sts of Jliraiii, Kiiii; of Tyre. 
 
 Tile u.sii \ve make of the <,'ift of speech is a matter of far greater 
 importiuce than we sometimes are a)>t to n'lnemlier. The word 
 "conversation" in the Bible — as, for instance, when St. Peter 
 speaks of "a good conversation" alongside of "a good conscience" — 
 me-aus much more than it now means Avith us. It comes from the 
 Latin versari, to go \ip and down; and "conversation" originally 
 meant the whole of one's going out and in among his fellows — in 
 short, all his moral conduct. That it is now restricted in meaning 
 to the use we make of our tongues, just shows how very imjiortant 
 this is, as regards the character we manifest and the iutiuence we 
 exert among others. 
 
 Boys and girls, like older people, need to be reminded of this ; 
 fijr sins of the lips are, I am afraid, very prevalent among the 
 young. You cannot be too earnest in shunning bad habits of 
 speech, and in cultivating good ones. 
 
 There are some words, I need hardly tell you, which are not fit 
 to be spoken by you at all. Untrue words, impure words, profane 
 words, are degrading to him who utters them, and very hurtful 
 often to others as well as himself. And the habit of profane 
 .swearing, which some boys seem to think is manly, is not only a 
 wicked, but a senseless habit. It does not even ap2)ear to bring any 
 good result along with it. As an old writer says, " The profane 
 swearer bites the bare, barbed hook of the Avrath of God." He is 
 like a senseless, silly fish devouring a hook Avithout any bait on it. 
 
 But even words that are good in themselves, and fit to be 
 spoken, are not always fitly spoken. You may say a true thing in 
 a very harsh, unfeeling ^valJ. You may speak a work of commen<la- 
 tion in such a tone as shows you do not really mean it, and that 
 your heart does not go along with it. You may say, at the wron" 
 time, something which, if said in other circumstances, would have 
 done great good, but which, as spoken by you, does only harm. 
 
 Oh what wisdom we need from a1)ove, to speak always the right 
 word, at the right time, and in the right spirit ! We ought to seek 
 it from God. May He imprint the law of truth, and tact, and 
 Christian kindness on our lips, that, whether we are called to praise 
 or to blame, to rebuke the erring, or to comfort the sad and cheer 
 the weary, ours may be words fitly spoken ! Then, if the right 
 habit is formed in us, and if Jesus has His jn-oper place in our 
 hearts, the fit word will sometimes be fitly spoken l)y us, when we 
 are hardly conscious of its special fitness. The Syrian maid's loving 
 heart led her to speak a very blessed word for the great Naaman ; 
 and your words too may be used for noble jiurposes by God. A 
 word fitly spoken, how good it is ! " The good, the joy which it 
 may bring, eternity shall tell." 
 
 275 
 
October 1 a mclcome to fbe IRina. 
 
 " Lift up your heads, ye gates ; and tlie King of Glwy shall come ut " 
 (Ps. xxiv. 7). 
 
 Who is the King of Glory ? He is not David, or any earthly 
 monarch, hut Jesus Christ, the Son of the livdng God. He is the 
 Lord of Hosts, who rules among the armies of heaven, and does His 
 ■will among the inhahitants of earth. He is the King of Grace, 
 whose crowning glory it is, to obtain an entrance for Himself into 
 rebellious human hearts long closed and barred against Him, and to 
 set up there His throne. 
 
 No doubt David was a glorious king. Victory had attended his 
 arms wherever he went. The old fortress of Jebus itself, which 
 liad stood out so long, had yielded before him. And now, amid 
 songs of triumphant thankfulness, he was bringing up to Jerusalem, 
 its lasting aljode, the Ark of the Covenant. It Avas a day of deep 
 religious and patriotic feeling ; and no doubt the warrior-king 
 bulked largely in the minds of a devoted people as they bade him 
 welcome to his future capital. But in his psalm, — jji'epared for the 
 occasion, and sung, as Josephus the Jewish historian tells, by 
 answering choirs that day, — the earthly monarch points his subjects 
 away beyond himself to the Heavenly King, who stood behind him 
 and above him. He cries to the old gates of the hoary, fortressed 
 city to open — not to let him in merely, but that Greater One, of 
 whose presence and blessing the Ark would be the symbol. 
 
 Christ is the King of Glory. When He came to earth. He was 
 born a humble babe in Bethlehem, and wrought for His day's bread 
 in the carpenter's shop in Nazareth. But He was a Prince, a King, 
 though found in lowly guise. He was the brightness of His Father's 
 glory ; and ever and anon His lieavenly dignity shone through. 
 Wherever He entered, He brought the true glory with Him, before 
 which, if men had had eyes to see, the glory of the Herods, and even 
 of the Cscsars, would have paled into nothingness. And what a 
 record of glory lies behind Him now, after all these centuries ! He 
 seemed a victim on the cross and in the grave. But He rose a 
 glorious conqueror : a Saviour and a Prince. Conquests ? Yes ; 
 how countless have been His bloodless victories, all down the ages — 
 how many are the hearts He has subdued by love, that He might 
 establish in them His reign of peace for ever ! 
 
 This is the King you are called to welcome. Will you not obey 
 the summons to let Him in ? Bid Him forthwith enter your holiest 
 of all. Throw wide the everlasting doors of your never-dying soul. 
 And the King of Grace and Glory will come in. 
 
 276 
 
Settling accounts Wltb (50D. October 2 
 
 " Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore " 
 (Eccles. viii. 11). 
 
 Therefore, what 1 Is the evil-doer thankful because the execution 
 of the pcutence is delayed ? Does he become penitent, .and sue for 
 mercy from God ? Not always so, by any means, kiomctimcs, 
 because a resjiite is given, the sinner is emboldened. His heart 
 becomes oid}' the harder. He thinks that sentence, though it has 
 been pronounced, will not be executed at all. And so he goes on 
 in sin. 
 
 This is very wrong, and foolish, and dangerous. God has 
 declared that sin shall not go iTUpunished ; and we may be quite 
 sure that He will keep His word. He does not smite down the evil- 
 doer at once with the bolt of judgment. But noljody should con- 
 clude from this tliat the transgressor will escaj^e. What God intends 
 by delaying punishment is, to give the sinner the opportunity of 
 turning from his wickedness, that he may live. Along with delay 
 He sends him the message of the gospel, which offers a free forgive- 
 ness to those who seek it in Christ. But if any despise God's mercy 
 and presume upon His long-suffering, so that his heart is fully set in 
 him to do evil, such an one may depend upon it that he will yet 
 have to settle accounts with God. 
 
 There is a saying, that — 
 
 "Though the mills of God griml slowly, they grlml exceeding small; 
 Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all." 
 
 It is a great mistake to suppose that because He is not in a hurry 
 to wreak His vengeance on His adversaries, He is indifferent about 
 their sin. He is long-suffering and slow to anger, hut He will by no 
 means clear the guilty. 
 
 An irreligious farmer in one of the Western States of America, 
 •who gloried in his irreligion, wrote a letter to a local weekly news- 
 paper in such terms as these : — " Sir, — I have been trying an experi- 
 ment with a field of mine. I ploughed it on Sunday. I planted it 
 on Sunday. I dressed it only on Sunday. I reaped it on Sunday. 
 I carted the crop home on Sunday to my barn. And now, Mr. Editor, 
 what is the result 1 1 have more bushels to the acre in that field 
 than any of my neighbours have had this October ! " He expected 
 some applause from the editor, who did not perhaps himself profess 
 to be a specially religious man. But underneath the letter, on eagerly 
 opening his paper, he found jirinted this short but significant sentence 
 — " God does not always settle His accounts in October." 
 
 2/7 
 
October 3 TRespcct unto tbc Xowlg. 
 
 " Tliough the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly " (Ps, cxxxviii. 6). 
 
 This verse more literally runs, " The Lord is high — He looks upon 
 the lowl3\" So that some -would prefer to translate it, not " thoufih " 
 but "becmise the Lord is high. He hath respect unto the lowly." 
 That is, it is just a part of His greatness, that He has such regard 
 for those -who are humble in estate and ]uiml)le in character. 
 
 AVe find in Nature, that the glory of God is revealed in two 
 difterent directions. You have the marvels disclosed by the 
 telescojje — the countless stars in the heavens — a multitude of 
 worlds, many of them far greater than ours ; and, looking upon 
 tliese j-ou say, " What a great God it must be who has created these, 
 who put and keeps them in their place, and sustains all this vast 
 universe!" Yes, but you also have the marvels disclosed by the 
 microscope, revealing the minute perfection of the Creator's skill 
 and i>roviding care ; and, when thus you scrutinise the tiji of a 
 butterfly's wing, or even a grain of sajid taken from the seashore, 
 you will be far more ready even than before to exclaim in wonder, 
 " How unspeakably great a Being God must be, to hold these 
 immense worlds under His control, and at the same time to give so 
 exquisite a finish to the smallest atoms His universe contains ! " 
 
 It was this argument of the microscope that Dr. Chalmers turned 
 against those who reasoned, from the magnitude of God's works, 
 that it was absurd to think that He would give much thought 
 to a little world like ours, and actually send His Son to die for 
 sinners here. Chalmers rightly insisted that it is one of the most 
 wonderful things al)out God, that while His mind grasps without 
 effort the whole of Nature, " He has an attentive eye fastened on 
 the very humblest of its objects, and ponders every thought of my 
 heart, and notices every footsteji of my goings, and treasures up in 
 His remembrance every turn and movement of my history." 
 
 Whatever others may do, God does not despise little things or 
 little people. He has resjoect unto the lowly. The proud He 
 knows afar off. They are, as it Avere, at a distance from Him, and 
 are ke])t at a distance. But with those of a humble, contrite heart, 
 God will dwell. Remember, then, that to get near to God we must 
 be lowly in this inner sense. Be our outward circumstances high 
 or humble, we must be lowly in heart. You might learn these 
 beautiful lines of the poet Montgomery — 
 
 " The Inrd that soars on highest wing 
 Builds on the ground her lowly nest ; 
 And she that doth most sweetly sing, 
 Sings in the shade when all things rest ; 
 In lark and nightingale wc see 
 Wliat honour hath humility. 
 
 " The saint that wears heaven's brightest crov.-n 
 In deepest adoration bends ; 
 The weight of glory bows him down 
 The most when most his sonl ascends ; 
 Nearest the Throne itself must be 
 The footstool of humility." 
 278 
 
©n tbe TRHav> to ©rcatftcss. October 4 
 
 " I am small and despised; yet do not I forget Thy precepts" (Ps. cxix. 141). 
 
 The great philosopher Isaac Newton compared himself to a boy 
 who had gathered a few shells only, on the sliore of the great ocean 
 of truth. There was in him the spirit of genuine luunility which 
 always accomimnies true gre;itness. And so the Psalmist here makes 
 a very lowly estimate ot himself. " I am small and despised," he 
 says. 
 
 But he adds a " yet " which shows that he is on the way to real 
 greatness — " Yet do not I forget Thy precepts." The words breathe 
 humility, but they also breathe amljition. He says in elFect, "I 
 know that I am not of much account yet ; but, though others may 
 look down upon me, I am loolcing up to God. And, walking in the 
 way of His commandments, I am very sure that something will be 
 made of me yet by Ilim." 
 
 Now, the greatest men have always been the huml)lest men. 
 If you think yourself great already, be very certain that you are not 
 so, and are not likely soon to l)e. But you are not forbiddt'n, but 
 rather encouraged, to aim at being great. Nobody has a riglit to 
 despise you. You have no right to despise yo\uself. You should 
 rather seek to improve yourself, in the way that God apjirovcs. . 
 
 Who knows what may become of some of you young people yet 1 
 Nobody Avould have reverenced the baljy in the ark of bulrushes on 
 the Nile. Yet he became one of earth's greatest men. Boy, girl, 
 with an immortal soul — what may you not become ? President 
 Garfield — who rose from " Log Calnn to White House "—has left 
 this among other memorable sayings — "I feel a profounder reverence 
 for a boy than for a man. I never meet a ragged boy in the street, 
 without feeling that I owe him a salute ; for I know not what 
 possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat." 
 
 Seek, then, the true greatness. And, if you would attain it, 
 be careful to seek it in the right way, by remembering God's 
 precepts, and shaping your life so as to please Him. The world 
 sometimes seeks greatness in another way ; and it may be possiljle to 
 ]iush a way to wealth, position, and power, while ignoring the laws 
 of God. But the rich man may be a poor soul ; the strong usurper, 
 a cowardly caitiff ; the man of high degree, low-bred in his tastes, 
 and sordid in his aims. It is only by keeping the divine precepts 
 that you become good — that is, like God — that is, truly gi-eat. 
 
 The mighty Persian conqueror ordered to be written on his 
 tomb — " I am Cyrus, who brought empire to the Persians ; do not 
 envy me, I beseech thee, this little piece of ground."' Death reives 
 away all eartldy splendour. But eminence in goodness is the 
 imperishable, as well as real, greatness. It is not what a man has, 
 but what a man is, that lasts. 
 
 79 
 
October 5 XLbc Cbi'tstlaii's Dctitagc. 
 
 " All things are yo7trs" (1 Cor. iii. 21). 
 
 Very often in the neAvi«papers there is an advertisement headed, 
 " Heirs Wanted," which goes on to tell that somebodj'- has died, 
 leaving a certain property, and that whoever is connected by kinship 
 with the late OAvner may, with advantage, apply to such and such 
 a lawyer, who will give due attention to his claim. 
 
 Not many years ago, there was a remarkable case of disputed 
 inheritance in England. A gentleman and his wife had both died, 
 leaving a very large estate. Their only son had gone to sea many 
 years before, and was believed to be dead. But, after some time, a 
 man appeared upon the scene, saying, " I am the long-lost heir. I 
 have been away in the Australian bush, and did not hear for a 
 while of my parents' death. But now I am come back to claim my 
 estate." 
 
 The case became known all over the world as " the Tichborne 
 Case,''" and the man himself as " the Claimant." He liad a very eager 
 as well as clever advocate. He could apparently recall many things 
 belonging to his boyhood in the ancestral home. There were marks 
 of a peculiar kind upon his body, that seemed to confirm what he 
 declared ; and he bore undoubted resemblance in some of his 
 features to the missing man. Numbers of people, too, came forward 
 to swear that this was certainly he. But, after very careful sifting, 
 the judge concluded that the man was an impostor, and that those 
 who spoke for him were either false or mistaken. And, instead of 
 becoming a gentleman at ease, and luxuriating on the Tichborne 
 estate, as he had hoped, he M'as sent to disgrace and toil in Newgate 
 prison. 
 
 But if you are Christ's, and Christ is yours, none can disjjute 
 your title to the Christian's heritage, which is a far richer one than 
 any earthly property. " All things are yoiirs." The ministers of 
 Christ, — Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, — with their varied gifts, are 
 yours. The world of outward beauty and titness — the world of 
 changeful social exjDerience — is yours. Life, not physical or menial 
 merely, but spiritual — a life of the soul, from God and unto God — is 
 yours. Ay, and death is yours, — not the deatli of others only, as 
 made yours for admonition concerning the unseen, but your death, 
 — made yours, however stern his armour and seeming rough his 
 grasp, as a herald to usher you to the land of reunions, at your 
 Father's time, the land of rest, the land of the full and fadeless 
 inheritance. Things present, sweet or bitter, are yours, working 
 together for your good. And, best of all, things to come are yours 
 — the unbroken ^jresence of Jesus, the regained society of loved 
 ones, the perfection of holiness, the fulfilment of every worthy desire 
 and heavenly ambition. "Eye hath not seen, nor car heard, nor 
 have entered into the heart of man, the tilings which God hath 
 prepared for them that love Him." 
 
 28o 
 
Cbrf0t tbe Sun. October 6 
 
 " The Sun nf Righleoiisness" (Mai. iv. 2), 
 
 The Lord Jesus is like tlie sun, in at least four things that readily 
 suggest themselves. 
 
 (1) The sun is the source of light to a dark ■world. And so is 
 Christ. As the rising of the sun in the morning chases away the 
 gloom of night, so the coming of the Saviour hrings light to the sin- 
 darkened souls of men. He is called " tlie bright and morninf) Stiir," 
 which tells that day is near ; but He is also the Sun of lliglitcous- 
 ness, whose shining gives tlie day. And so He says of Himself, 
 " I am the Light of the world." 
 
 (2) The sun is the source of heat, and thus the strengthener of 
 healthful growing life. And so is Christ. It would be a cold as 
 well as a dark, dark world without Him. And without His beams 
 to shine on it, the soul cannot thrive or even live. It >vould be 
 like some poor consumptive peojile, traces of whose cottages I saw 
 inside the great Kentucky Cave. They were taken there that they 
 might have air of the same heat all the year over, in the hojie that 
 they would be cured. But, instead of that, they pined and died, 
 longing for the sun. Tlicre is warmth and healing under the 
 SaA'iour's wings. 
 
 (3) The sun is far, yd near. That golden ball which you see 
 daily mounting the sky is ninety-one million miles away. Yet, 
 though far away, it is beside you every day ; for its rays lighten 
 your path and warm your heart and bring health to your 
 countenance. And so it is with Christ. He is far away, yet near. 
 He is in Heaven with his Father ; yet He is with you. If you are 
 one of His disciples, you feel His influence every day, according to 
 His promise to be with His people " all the days," even to the end 
 of the Avorld. 
 
 And lastly (4) the sun is alv:ays shining ; and so is Christ, 
 whether we see Him or no. Clouds sometimes hide the sun ; men's 
 eyes are sometimes closed that they cannot see him ; the motion of 
 the earth carries them round to a point where, strain their eyes as 
 they may, they cannot see him — and that is what we call night. 
 But the sun is shining on all the same, bright as ever. And depend 
 upon it, if at any time Jesus seems to cease to shine, it is because 
 your own eyes are shut to Him ; or because some earth-born cloud 
 has hidden Him from your view ; or because the whirl of the world 
 has carried you away from Him, to a point from which you cannot 
 expect to see Him. Still, whether you see Him or not, He always 
 shines. 
 
 lie sure, then, to do two things — live in the sunshine, and seek to 
 refect the radiance of Him who says of Himself, " I am the Light of 
 the world," but who also says to His true disciples, " Ye are the 
 world's light." 
 
 281 
 
October 7 ^be H\ew Tlcstnmewt ipaseover. 
 
 " Uliat mean ye by this service?" (Ex. xii. 26). 
 
 That is a question -wliicli -was often put by the boys and girls of 
 Israel, -when tliey Avere gathered by tlieiy parents to celebrate the 
 Passover. " What does it all mean ? " God expected them to ask 
 this question, and told His people to be ready to answer it. He loves 
 the hearts and minds of the young to be exercised about sacred 
 things, and eager to get information concerning them. 
 
 Now, as you have looked on Avonderingly at the solemn celebra- 
 tion by your father and mother, and perhaps by your older brother 
 or sister, of the New Testament Feast, which corresponds to the Pass- 
 over, — I mean, of course the Lord's Supper, — this same question has, 
 no doubt, often arisen in your heart — " What does it all mean "i " It 
 would take a long time fully to answer this inquiry. But Ave mean 
 by it, at anyrate, these four things — 
 
 (1) That there is a c/reat Event we want to keep in mind. It is the 
 greatest event in earthly history. If Bannockburn or Waterloo is 
 thought Avorth remembering, if in America the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence is considered Avorth commemorating every year, this is an 
 event far more important and deserving to be celebrated. It is the 
 death of God's oaa'u Son on the Cross of Calvary, in the room of 
 guilty men. The Passo\'er called to mind a great deliverance 
 Avrought in Egypt. But this is an infinitely greater one. We Avho sit 
 at the Lord's Supper mean to say, " I am guilty, and deserved to 
 die, but Christ Jesus died for me." Our Feast is the " Eucharist," 
 or Feast of ThanksgiA'ing, as Ave call to mind that saAdng sacrifice. 
 
 (2) That there is a beloved Friend we want to keep ever near. The 
 Saviour, Avho died for us, is not dead, but lives. What He gathers us 
 round is " a Table, not a Tomb." He rose from the dead the third 
 day ; and, though in His bcxlily i:)rerfence He has gone to heaven. He 
 is spiritually present with His people alAA'ay. Although unseen. He is 
 really Avith us at the Feast ; so that it is our " Communion," in Avhich 
 Ave draw close to the Friend of Sinners as the Best of Friends, and 
 have felloAvship with Him and His other guests. 
 
 (3) That there is an honoured Captain to v)hom we would keep true. 
 At the Lord's Table Ave take the " Sacrament," or oath of loyalty, to 
 Christ as our King, Avhile Ave seek strength from Himself to fulfil 
 it. If the soldiers of great earthly commanders, like Csesar and 
 Napoleon, Avere proud to SAvear allegiance to them, should not we 
 rejoice to serve under the banner of the bra\'est of all leaders — the 
 Captain of Sah'ation Avho never kneAV defeat? And thus in the 
 Feast Ave consecrate ourseh'es to Him, and a'ow to be true and faith- 
 ful, even unto death. 
 
 (4) That there is a blessed Hope we wish to keep ever bright. That 
 hope is the brightest of all hopes to the Christian — "till He come." 
 The Lord Ave love has gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us. 
 But He has promised to come again to receiA^e us to Himself, that 
 Avhere He is there Ave may be also. The ordinance of the Lord's 
 Supper is His love-token to us, to remind us that He is not forget- 
 ting us, and to fix our thoughts and hearts upon His gracious promise, 
 which is our hope — " So shall avc ever be Avith the Lord," 
 
 c82 
 
•none lihC (30&. October 8 
 
 " Who is like unto Thee, Lord?" (Ex. xv. 11). 
 
 This is part of the trinniplial snug of ^firiaiu by tlu! llol S<m, Avhcre 
 Israel's expL-rii'iioo liad lirouglit out Imw much Jehovah was to 
 Israel — how He had to be everything to thein. Assuredly there is 
 none like God ; and He is able and willing to be to us, still, all 
 that He was to His ancient ])eople. 
 
 (1) CJod is His people's Guide. It was He who really led Israel, 
 though He did it l)y the hand of I\Ioscs and Aaron ; and He never 
 led them once astray. It seemed as if He had lieen an unwise Ciuide, 
 in directing Israel'to Ije brought between the mountains and the 
 sea (verse 2), where Pharaoh might hem them completely in. God's 
 dealings are not always for the time easy to exi)lain. But He never 
 leads any wrong. In Him, His people have the Best of Guides. 
 
 (2) God is llis peojjle's Commander. He spoke to Israel with a 
 tone of authority, and insisted on their taking His way, not their own. 
 The hearts of the Hebrews Avere failing them for fear. And little 
 wonder ! A hostile band is coming u]j the valley behind, COO 
 deadly charioteers, the flower of Egypt's lighting men— pressing 
 on to take their till of vengeance. In front, the cold sea 
 r.iges, and licks the shore, as though eager to swallow them up. 
 The stern mountains frown on them at the side, forbidding all 
 a))proach to their bare, rocky heights. But God gives, through 
 Moses, the word of command— Go forivard ; and it was "theirs but 
 to do, or die." Unquestioning ol)edience is still our part when He 
 commands, whatever be the seeming hazard it involves. For we 
 are sure to find that — 
 
 (3) God is His people's Shield. It is very wrong to run need- 
 lessly into danger. But when God sends any of His people on a 
 ]H>riious road, He can protect them. The se;i, instead of overflowing 
 the Israelites, stood up like a wall of waters on either side, and 
 made a pathway for their feet. And another strange thing was, 
 that the pillar of cloud now came in behind the Israelites, — that is, 
 between them and their pursuing foes ; and that, while for God's 
 people it was bright and helpful, it became dark and hindersonie, 
 on the other side, to their enemies. God's look (which brings 
 heaven or hell to the soul) troul.)led the Egyptians. And then — 
 
 (4) God is His people's Song. When IMoses and the people, safe 
 across the sea, looked back on the way by which God had led them, 
 and saw Avhat destruction He had wrought on their fierce enemies, 
 their hearts were so thankful that they could not Init sing praise. 
 And often since, Go<Vs people have l)een constrained, like them, to 
 join heart and voice in a song of gratitude and hope. So may it l>e 
 with you ! No matter what odds are against you, if God is on your 
 side you are certain to conquer in the end. Cost what it may, be 
 sure ito obey Him, and you will not have to regret it. Go forward 
 at Christ's call aiid in Christ name ; and, when you reach the Better 
 Land, you will join in a better song than that of Moses — the Song of 
 the Lamb. 
 
 283 
 
October B Selflsb Cbolcc, and wbat came of it. 
 
 " Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan" (Gen. xiii. 11). 
 
 Lot was the nephew of Abraham. Like his uncle, he was a re- 
 ligious man — to some extent. But he was -worldly and selfish in 
 spirit. And he showed that, in this early choice. You remember 
 the circumstances. Al)raham had taken Lot with him from Egypt 
 into Canaan. Both of them had flocks, and herds, and tents ; and 
 for a time the two companies Avere aide to live comfortably and 
 peaceably alongside of one another. But as the flocks increased, 
 and there was greater diflTiculty in finding water and pasture for so 
 many together, strife broke out among the herdsmen ; and both 
 Abraham and Lot saw that it would he wise to separate. So the 
 former said to his nephew — " The whole land is before you ; choose 
 you which part you will take, and I and my herds will go in 
 another direction." And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the 
 plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, " as the 
 garden of the Lord." His eves glistened ; and he said, with a wave 
 of the hand, " I'll take thatl " 
 
 He thought he had made a capital choice ; and so to all api^car- 
 ance he had. He had picked out the very best, leaving his uncle 
 to shift for himself. But don't you think it would have been more 
 seemly, if the young man, instead of being so very clever, had asked 
 the older one to choose first ? There was in his heart, hoAvever, no 
 thought of gratitude, or courtesy even, toward the generous Abraham. 
 He was only bent on grasping all he could ; and, instead of politely 
 saying, " After you, uncle ! " he rushed at what seemed the prize, 
 crying, " That, then, will be mine ! " 
 
 But it never j^ays in the longrun to be selfish. Many a one has 
 learned this, to his cost ; as Lot now learned it. His choice led 
 him into very bad company. There were disadvantages about it 
 which he had little dreamt of ; and, in the end, he was a case of a 
 man "saved, yet so as by fire." 
 
 By going into Sodom, Lot lost his self-respect ; for he was vexed 
 with the filthy conversation of the wicked, and vexed with himself 
 for having gone among them. He lost his earthly nil — the property 
 he had loved so dearly. Unlike Noah, who had all his family with 
 him in the Ark, when the fiery trial came he lost several members 
 of his family, who stayed behind with their mocking husbands. 
 Having led his wife under the fascination of Sodom, he lost his wife, 
 who, looking back as they iled from the doomed city, became a 
 pillar of salt. In short, though we may hope that he was saved for 
 eternity (2 Pet. ii. 7, 8), he made shipivreck of the jjrescnt life through 
 his selfishness. He who had started in life so high in hope and 
 with a prospect so fair, became in his old age a poor, stripped, bare, 
 disgraced, broken-hearted man. 
 
 284 
 
30iU "toanDS ! October 10 
 
 " Ltt as go into the house of the Lord" (Ps. cxxli. 1). 
 
 What a power companionship is, among you young people, as well 
 as among those who are ohler ! Tliese words, " Let us " do this or 
 that, — "Let us "go to such and such a jilaco, — liavc often liad .in 
 iucidculable inilueuce for good or evil, as spoken in anotlier's ear liy 
 the lips of some youthful companion. Be sure that you use well 
 the leverage that friendship gives you over the hearts and lives of 
 others. For tlie way in which you use it, you will have to answer 
 one day to God. This is an additional reason for seeking to do the 
 right thing, and to go to the right place ourselves — that, by our 
 example and inlhience, we may take others along with us. 
 
 The " house of the Lord " in the highest sense is Heaven. How 
 often you have repeated the words, in the close of the 23rd Psalm — 
 " And I shall dwell in tlie house of the Lord for ever." I hope you 
 ore to dwell there for ever. And would it not greatly increase j'our 
 happiness, not only to see some of your loved companions there, but 
 to know that you had led or encouraged them on the road thither? 
 11" this is your desire, I trust you will sliow them, that you love the 
 house of the Lord on earth ; and that you will join liands with 
 some young comrade, who may perhaps have little otherwise in his 
 surroundings to incline him in that direction, in order that you 
 may bring him, with yourself, under the gracious inlluences of the 
 sanctuary. 
 
 " Come with me to our Sabbath school : I am sure you will like 
 my teacher," said a boy one day to another in America. The " let 
 us go " had its effect. The new scholar was not very well dressed, 
 but he was made heartily welcome ; and, though at hrst he was not 
 very well behaved, he became in the end a good student of his 
 Bible. For he was none other than D. L. Moody — afterwards so 
 greatly blessed as an evangelist on V)(jth sides of the Atlantic. The 
 boy did a good work, whose " let us go " led to the Sabbath school 
 and the Church one Avho was honoured afterwards to lead so many 
 souls to the only Saviour. 
 
 "Won't you come with me to church to-night?" said an old 
 woman to a youth, whom she saw standing idly on the street one 
 Sabbath evening. He was one of a rough set of boys, who had 
 agreed to meet that night, as was their wont, for frivolous amuse- 
 ment. His companions had not turned up at the ajtpointed time, 
 and in his vexation he sjiid — " Yes, I will go." He went ; and the 
 truth as it is in Jesus laid hold of his heart. He became a true 
 Christian, and his fame was afterwards in all the Churches, as John 
 Williams, the great missionary to the South Seas, who accomplished 
 so much both for Christianity and for civilisation among the 
 savage islanders there. A word fitly spoken, — at the right time 
 and in the right spirit, — how good it is. May your " let us go " be 
 such a word ! 
 
 ■?8i 
 
October 11 "OClbat is sour Ubrfce? 
 
 "And I said unto them, Give me my price" (Zech. xl. 12). 
 
 The jn'opliet Zecliariali here puts the people to the i^roof, by getting 
 out of them Avhat they thought he as a propliet Avas wortli. They 
 weighed liiiii out thirty ])icces of silver, the common price of a slave. 
 He s]ieaks of it, ironically, as "a goodly price that I was prized at 
 of them" ; and he casts the thirty pieces of silver to the potter in the 
 house of the Lord. He takes the liberty of disagreeing with them in 
 their estimate of his worth. And he is right. Yet thirty pieces 
 of silver was all that the wretched Judas got, when he sold his 
 Divine Master — the price of a slave. It, too, went to the jwtter ; for 
 v.-hen Judas, in remorse, flung his thirty jjieces at the feet of the 
 rulers, they Ijought \\\t\\ them "aj^otter's field to bury strangers in." 
 But was it not a paltiy jjrice to put upon the Son of God ? 
 
 Sir Robert Walpole said of his contemporaries in Parliament, 
 " You see with what zeal those gentlemen oppose me ; yet I know 
 the price of every man in this House excepting only three." And it 
 is a common remark with the cynical, that " every man has his 
 price,"— by which they mean that, if only you bid high enough, you 
 can buy them, and get them to do what yo\i will. This is not true. 
 There are men mIio are what Danton claimed to be at the French 
 Revolution — "men beyond price "—men who cannot be bought by 
 unworthy inducements, however great. 
 
 It is certain, however, that many people hold themselves far too 
 cheap. They " sell themselves for nought." They give themselves 
 away for next to nothing. At the time, they may imagine they 
 are doing well. But, sooner or later, they awaken to the discovery 
 of how poor a bargain they have made. 
 
 As two friends were riding past a beautiful park, one of tliem 
 asked the other, " How much do you suppose this estate is worth ? " 
 The answer was — " I do not know how much it is worth, but I 
 know what it cost its late owner." " How much, then % " " His 
 soul," said the other solemnly : "he died a wretched death, and 
 declared on his deathbed that all his misery was due to his love of 
 money, which had often tempted him into fraud aixd other sin." 
 
 That poor proprietor — poor indeed I — had surely put far too 
 little value on himself. He had sold himself for nouglxt. You 
 should learn from Christ, you may learn in the Christian, the value 
 to be set on an immortal soul. " Bought with a price " ? Yes, but 
 such a price — " the precious Wood of Christ ! " If you are Christ's, 
 that is your price ; and you dare not, you will not, hold yourself 
 cheap enough to be knocked down for any poor bid the world can 
 offer for you. 
 
 a86 
 
Simon Ipetei'. October 12 
 
 '• Thou art Simon : Ihou shall he called Cephas " (John i. 42). 
 
 Yoc roinomlior the scene. Andrew had made the great discovery: 
 he had " found tlie Clirist." He had yone with the news to the man 
 he loved l)e.st, liis brother Simon. And so the Saviour and tlie 
 warm-hearted fi.sliernian of CJalihie are liere, for the lirst time, face 
 to face ; and tliese are tlie words Jesus lirst i^peaks to liiin, memor- 
 able ever after — "Thou art Simon : thou .slialt Ije called Cephas" — 
 or Peter, the Rock. 
 
 (1) " Simon " means one (hat hears or obeys, lie who bore it had 
 l)een well named in this case by his parents. For he was q\iick to 
 hear, and also swift to act. He was only too ready, sometimes, to 
 obey his passing impulse. But, happily, Jesus claimed his heart ; 
 and' "Simon" came to mean, in him, one that hears Jesus and follows 
 Him. He still heiird other voices, and .sometimes obeyed them to 
 his sorrow — as when he yielded to the taunt of the thoughtless maid 
 in the porch of the Judgment Hall. Yet, in the main he was Christ's 
 "Simon" — Christ's hearer, disciple, follower ; and from the moment 
 when he <'ame under the Saviour's inllueuce, he entered on a pre- 
 paration for a better name. 
 
 (2) "Cephas," or "Peter," means the Ituch. This new name which, 
 in their first meeting, Jesus tells Simon is yet to be his, must often 
 have sounded in his ears like a rebuke. For a long time, there was 
 little of the Rock-Man about him. "While none of the disciijles was 
 more warm-hearted, none seemed so little steadfast as he. But it was 
 also a name which he felt he must try to live up to ; and the time 
 came when he was the worthy wearer of it. We know, from his 
 after history, what a pillar Simon Peter became in the early Christian 
 Church. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost made a 
 dift'erent man of him. How loyally and unflinchingly he who had 
 before denied his Master stood forth in His name, and braved all 
 opposition for His sake. At length he died a martyr's deiith, — being 
 crucified, it is said, with his head downward, — and received the 
 martyr's crown. 
 
 Young reader, " thou art Simon." You are worthy of the first 
 name of the son of Jona ; for you are very ready to hear, and very 
 quick to catch impressions, and to act upon them. May you be a 
 constant hearer and follower of Jesus — giving your heart to Him, 
 cleaving to Him as your Saviour, and confessing Him as your Lord. 
 May you, like Simon, have God's Spirit bestowed upon you, to make 
 you strong, and brave, and true, and worthy of your new name of 
 Christian. And at length, when the nevv nature is perfectly fitted 
 to the new name, you will have the reward which is nientioned in 
 Rev. ii. 17, and which Simon Petei', we are very sure, is enjoying 
 in heavenly places with Christ. 
 
 287 
 
October IS 1Rca5B for Bltber. 
 
 " Whether wc Ike, Ihcrefwe, or die, we are the Lord's " (Rom. xiv. 8). 
 
 "Ready for Either" is the appropriate motto under the seal of 
 the Baptist Missionary Union. It rejDresents an ox standing between 
 a plough and an altar ; and the idea suggested is, that the members 
 of the missionary band are prepared, just as Christ may appoint, 
 either for service or for sacrifice. 
 
 Tliis is a good motto for every ChrLstian, Avhether he is a 
 missionary to the heathen or not. For every Christian should 
 remember that he is, in a true sense, a missionary — a man with a 
 mission, which Christ has committed to him, and expects him to 
 fulfil. What strength and true nobility it gives to any life, to be 
 able to say — " Whether I live, I live unto the Lord ; and whether 
 I die, I die unto the Lord." Whoever is prejtared, like Paul, to say 
 this, is, in the best sense, " ready for anything." 
 
 The great question for each of us here is — and you cannot have 
 it too early decided in the right way — " Am I the Lord's ? " Have I 
 taken Him to be mine— my Saviour, my Master 1 And have I given 
 myself into His hand, that He may keep and govern me ? If I liave 
 not, then I am not ready either for worthy living, or for peaceful 
 dying. But if I have, then I may be well content to leave all my 
 future in His hand. Whether I am to have a long term of service 
 on earth or not, let it be spent heartily for the Lord I love. And 
 then death to me will mean not separation from Him, but falling 
 asleep in His everlasting arms. In either case, He shall be glorified, 
 and I unspeakably blessed. 
 
 You remember the simple lines which Rowland Hill used so 
 often to repeat — 
 
 "And when I'm to die, 'Receive me !' I'll cry, 
 For Jesus has loved me, I cannot tell why. 
 But this I can find, We two are so joined, 
 He'll not be in glory, And leave me behind." 
 
 The death of the Christian has been likened to the vacation morning, 
 when children, long absent from their parents, go_ home. It is a 
 time not for mourning on their account, but for joy and thanks- 
 giving. " School is out ; it is time to go home." But they do not 
 go home to idleness. Death sets them free for larger service. 
 " There's another poor fellow got his discharge," said one soldier to 
 another, of a comrade who had died. " Not that," said the other : 
 •' only transferred." " Transferred where ? " " To the other depart- 
 ment." "What for?" "For duty." "What duty?" "I can't 
 tell that : it depends on what he is fit for." This we do know, that 
 those who have lived for Christ here, and died in Him, will live 
 still, and far better, for Him yonder. 
 
 288 
 
t^caMll(J. October 14 
 
 " Give attendance to reading " (1 Tim. iv. 13). 
 
 In this age of many books and of free libraries, tlierc is a great deal 
 of reading done. Uiit perhaps there never was more need for the 
 apostolic counsel — " Give attendance to reading." 
 
 There are some people, fond, in a sense, of reading, who seenr 
 just to read whatever conies in their way. They are what arc called 
 " great readers," or " voracious readers." But they cannot be called 
 wise readers; and what they read does not come to very much after 
 all, for thev do not " give attendance " to what and when and how 
 they should read. 
 
 Tlie taste for reading is one Avhich it will be well worth your 
 while to cultivate. Those who have it are introduced into a world 
 of which those who have it not remain ignorant, though it is lying 
 all around them. Persons who have books at their command, but 
 do not love reading, are not aware of how much they miss. They 
 are shutting themselves out from one of the most refined and 
 elevating of pleasures ; and they are depriving theiiLselves of what 
 might be a great source of comfort and uplifting in seasons of 
 distress or intirmit}', when the active pursuits of life have perforce 
 to be set aside. It is to degrade reading to make it only a means of 
 killing time ; but he who truly loves it will find in it far more 
 than this — a means of filling up time to rich ad^'antage — a means of 
 becoming wiser and stronger and lietter, through living contact 
 with the wisest and strongest and best who have lived before us. 
 
 The choice of what we read is of supreme importance in this 
 connection. There are those whose one rule it is to read everything 
 new. It is a great pleasiire to read some new books. But perliaps 
 the critic was right who said — " I suspect that nine times out of ten 
 it is more profitable to read an old book over again than to read a 
 new one for the first time." 
 
 There is one Old Book — old, yet ever new and up to date — 
 which you must not neglect to read, whatever else you may neglect. 
 It is called the Bible. It is the book to make you wise imto 
 salvation ; and even as literature there is nothing any wliere to beat 
 it or to compare with it. Have you ever read the Bible right 
 through 1 It is told of Mrs. Booth in her biography that she read 
 it from cover to cover eight times before she was twelve years of 
 age. You read little fragments of it. But it would be well for you 
 to read it right through. This, at a moderate pace, can be done in 
 about fifty hours ; so that, by giving to it one hour per day, you 
 could easily read the Bible in less than a couple of months. 
 
 Give attendance to reading the "Word of God. So will you lay 
 up a rich store of enlightenment and consolation for coming days. 
 
 (19) 289 
 
October 15 1bOW 0OD tTemptS. 
 
 " God did tempt Abraham " (Gen. xxii. 1). 
 
 It is said in tlie first chapter of the Epistle of James, that God does 
 not tempt any man. And yet here we are distinctly told that God 
 tempted Abraham. How do yon explain this ? It is clear that 
 there must be some explanation ; for the Word of God does not 
 contradict itself. 
 
 When it is said that God does not tempt any man, it is meant 
 that He does not, like Satan, allure anybody to sin. He abhors sin ; 
 and it is the very last thing God Avould do, to tempt anybody to it. 
 It is impossible, indeed, to think of God as the author of sin ; for 
 that would mean His ceasing to be God. 
 
 But God did tempt Abraham in the sense of testing him, trying 
 his faith, putting him and it to the proof. This He often does with 
 His people still. Very often He appoints something for them to do 
 or to bear, which sorely tries them. But this is not because He 
 wishes them harm, or because He does not love them. Far from it. 
 It is often those, like Abraham and Job and others, whom He loves 
 best, and in whom He has most confidence, that He puts in this 
 way most severely to the test. And He does it, not in order that 
 they may fall, but that they may come out from the trial more 
 manifestly His, and all the stronger and purer for having been 
 subjected to it. 
 
 God tests faith for at least two reasons : to i^rovc it, and to 
 improve it. 
 
 Satan says — " Religion is a sham. There is no such thing as real 
 faith. A man like Job, for instance, is religious just because it 
 pays. He does not serve God for nothing." God answers — " Satan, 
 I will prove that you lie. I will permit Job, in providence, to be 
 submitted to the sorest of trials. You will see that there is such a 
 thing as real faith in the world, and that to test it is only to purify 
 and strengthen it." And so, when Alnvaham and Job and such as 
 they are " tempted," in this sense, God is glorified thereby'. 
 
 A ladj', who had become possessed of a beautifully wrought ring, 
 took it to a jeweller to learn its value. He said the only way to 
 be quite sure that it was genuine, and to ascertain its proper worth, 
 would be to put it into a strong acid, which would no doubt injure 
 it, if it were only an imitation, but whicli, if it were genuine, would 
 not do it any harm. The lady hesitated. It would be such a pity 
 to destroy the beautiful workmanship ! And yet, if, as she believed, 
 the ring was genuine, she would prize it all the more after it had 
 been thoroughly tested. Into the acid the ring was dropped ; and, 
 after a few anxious minutes, its owner received it back, looking 
 only the brighter for the ordeal. The tried ring was far more 
 precious to her than before. And, though Christ does not need 
 to get information about any of us in this way, we can readily 
 imderstand that tried followers who have stood the test arc among 
 the most precious of His treasures. 
 
 290 
 
aOCWarC Of WrOllfl aSefltnntlliJS ! October 10 
 
 " The beginning of the sin" (Mic. i. 13). 
 
 It was a wise advice wliich the old miller gave to the A'oiing one, 
 who told him that the water w;is leaking llimugh his mill-dam, but 
 that the hole was only "a very little one." " 1 would try lo fancy 
 it a very hig one," said his ex])eriena'd friend ; "for it will soon be 
 l>ig enough, if it is n<tt attended to." And so it i)roved ; for, the 
 young miller having despi.sed this advice, the water, before hmg, 
 had broken the mill-dam completely down. 
 
 You cannot be too much u])on your guard against the beginnings 
 of sin. It may be e<a.sy to stoj) a little hole when it is no bigger than 
 your hand — as the boy in Holland did, when he bravely held his 
 hand, for an entire night, upon a hole which he .saw in the "dyke," 
 rather than allow the country to be Hooded by the tide. But it 
 will not be e;isy to hold back the angry rush of waters, when the 
 breach has been fairly made. It may be easy to .stamp out a spark 
 with your foot, so long as it is only a spark. But if you allow it 
 to catch hold and burst into a Hame, not all the fire-engines in the 
 city may be able to e.\tingui.sh it until an amount of damage h;is 
 been done that cannot be retrieved. 
 
 That dishonest criminal, whose character is now so completely 
 broken down that nobody ciin trust him, and who has to hn com- 
 mitted to the penitentiary or the jail, did not become a notorious 
 blackguard all at once. He allowed his integrity of character to be 
 s;il)ped away by small, hidden dishonesties, which prepared for the 
 thorough breakdown of which everybody reads in the newspa])er.s. 
 And so with the wretched murderer e.vecuted the other day. Had 
 he })ut out the spark of evil passion long ago, it would never have 
 grown and strengthened to tlie furious tiame, which imi)elled him 
 to tiike away another's life, and so brought him to the scalfold. 
 
 " Why ivill you not lie persuaded to l)reak off those habits of 
 drink?" .said a friend to a man who, in bitterest agony, had Hung 
 himself despairingly at his feet one day. "Impossible," he cried ; 
 *' I would give everything I have to be able to do it, but the raging 
 fire within demands another drinl; and another, and ancjther, and 
 another ; and so it must go on till death. Oh, it is ho])eless, lioi)e- 
 less ! " Yet his friend remendjered him as a noble youth with the 
 brightest of pro.spects opening out before him. "When, a few weeks 
 later, he died miseraldy in an almshouse, he added only one more 
 to the long roll of the victims of e;irly indulgence. 
 
 Rememljer the old Latin i)roverb — " Ohsta 2'»'iiiciims," Jiei^ht the 
 beginnings ; or the modern English one — " He that crushes the egg 
 need not fear the flight of the bird." 
 
 291 
 
October 17 tTbe jfolls Of jSartblg (BrceO, 
 
 "i^or Jfc brought nothing inlo this world) and it is certain we ca'ri carnj 
 notkinfj oi(t" (1 Tim. vi. 7). 
 
 Nothing poorer, 80 far as eavtlily possessions are coucenied, could 
 be imagined tlian a new-l)om baliy, unless it be a dead man whose 
 body has been laid aside for burial. The one has his swaddling 
 clothes given to him, and the other is provided with a shroud. But 
 both, in themselves, are utterly destitute of worldly good. Yet the 
 true wealth does not lie in outward things. That is what the 
 apostle is urging here. The life of the soul is the great thing. 
 Every baby that is born is an immortal being, and every person, old 
 or young, who dies, enters upon an endless life beyond, of weal or 
 Avoe, though no longer seen to mortal view. Therefore do not let 
 us make too mi;ch, Paul says, of the mere good things of time. 
 Having food and raiment, let i;s be therewith content ; and let us 
 follow after the higher possessions that will abide with us for ever- — 
 righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 
 
 The Bible here, as elsewhere, gives a true account of human life, 
 and offers wise and sound advice as to how to make the most of life. 
 It was in the use of this text that a colporteur in Ireland com- 
 mended the New Testament to a crowd of Roman Catholics so much, 
 that quite a number of copies were purchased for use both in Ireland 
 and in America. 
 
 He said it was a good book and a true ; and by way of giving 
 them a specimen, he read this verse — "We brought nothing into 
 this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." " Deed and 
 that's true, anyway," said one of the l)ystanders, with whom most of 
 the others concurred. One of them, however, bent upon his joke, 
 struck in — " Sure, then, and it's not always true ; for there was 
 Biddy Malone, who had a half sovereign that she wanted to keep her 
 folks from c[uarrelling over when she was gone — so she swallowed 
 it just before she died ! " The crowd laughed ; but the first man 
 earnestly retorted — " Ay, but what about her sowl ? " 
 
 Yes ; that is the great question. It is a matter for thankfulness 
 if we have what the Shorter Catechism calls " a competent portion " 
 of the good things of this life. To be rich in earthly jaossessions is 
 not by any means always a thing to be desired ; and there is a way 
 of winning them that is the opjiosite of real gain. But godliness 
 with contentment is great gain. And what we should covet is the 
 unsearchable riches, the imjDerishable wealth, of those that "win 
 Christ" — who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor,, 
 that we through His poverty might be made rich. 
 
Cbriet tbC Cnitb. October 18 
 
 ^' A Teacher soil from God" {J ohn iii. 2). . , . " I am the Truth" 
 (Jnlm xiv. (].) 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ is a Teaclicr. He is not only, a.s Nicodcnnis 
 called Him, a Teacher sent of God, but a Tea<'her who is God. And 
 since He is so divinely ^vise, jjatient, and kind in His training of us, 
 \ve should ever seek to lie humble, enf^er, and diligent learners in 
 His school. You should make every "Teach nic," that you iind in 
 the Bible, ,a prayer. Go \vith it to Jesus, s.vying, " Teach me to 
 l)ray — Teach me to do Thy ^vill — Teach jue Thy ways, O Lord"; 
 and He will make you wise unto salvation. 
 
 Then, Jesus is the Truth. This he calls Himself : and again and 
 again the term true is applied to Him by others. Especially in St. 
 John's Gospel you may Iind quite a number of instances. And if 
 you look at these yoii will see that He is called "true" for tAvo 
 reasons — both for what He says, and for what He is. 
 
 Jesus is the " true and faithful Witness," who never speaks false. 
 An xintrue word has never once fallen from His lijis, and never 
 shall. You may rely on all His statements. You may trust all 
 His promises. He will fulfil to His servants every good word 
 in which He has caused any of them to hope. And then. He is 
 "the true Light," "the true Bread," " the true Vine," because He 
 is so real, so genuine, and never disappoints. The things you see 
 and handle, and taste, dear young peoi)le, are not by any means 
 the only real tilings. Rather are they, by comparison, the shadows. 
 It is Jesus who is the True Light, to lead ; the True Bread, to 
 satisfy ; the True Vine, union to Avhoin gives real life. Pray that 
 He may be yours. 
 
 Since Jesus is so true, how should you regard and treat Him ? 
 You are to l)elieve Him, for He never deceives. You are to believe 
 in Him, for He never disappoints. And, taking Him as youv 
 Teacher and Examjile, you are not only to speak the Truth always, 
 but to he ever true like Him — refusing to be unread, and to act a 
 part. 
 
 "What is truth'?" was asked of a deaf and dumb boy one day. 
 He drew on his slate a straight line ; and for falsehood a crooked 
 line. It was a signiiicant answer. You must l)eware of crooked 
 ways and crooked character, if you would please, and be worthy of 
 that Master who is the Truth. 
 
 There is an expression in one of Paul's Epistles, which was the 
 chosen motto of om- of my Ivlinlmrgh professors, — that remarkable 
 man, John Stuart Blackie,— and which, I think, you might A-ery 
 well take as a niotto for your life. You will find it in Ephesiana 
 iv. 16 — "Speaking the truth, in love." It means, more liteivally, as 
 the margin has it, " being sincere, in love." Or, as Professor Blackie 
 used to translate it, to show that more than speaking the truth was 
 meant — " Truihinrj it, in love." 
 
 293 
 
October 19 XCSSOllS frOlU JBaDCl. 
 
 " The Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and scaMer 
 them abroad " (Gen, xi. 9). 
 
 Perhaps you sometimes tliink tliat it would Le very nice if every- 
 body spoke the same language still ; for then you would not have 
 to learn French or German at school, and you could travel anywhere 
 M'ithout having to " get up " a foreign language. There is a man in 
 Eurojje wlio is trying this very thing — to have a language adopted 
 by everybody, which he calls " Volapuk." But I do not think he 
 will succeed. Though your grammar and spelling seem hard, I 
 think you would all like English better than Volapuk ! 
 
 At anyrate, God found it desirable to scatter men and divide 
 their tongues ; and this is how it came about. Clubbing together 
 on the plain of Shinar, they began to feel the strength of numbers, 
 and they were filled with pride. Their crowning desire was to 
 make themselves a great name. " Let us build us a city and a 
 tower," they said, " Mdiof-e top may reach unto heaven." This was 
 the form their pride took. God M'as not in all their thoughts, and 
 they did not consult Him about their plans. Some think they 
 meant to scale to heaven ; some think they wanted to make a shelter 
 in case there should be another Flood ; some think the tower was 
 meant to be an idol's temple. Tlie last supposition is probably 
 right. And the idol was self. 
 
 But God was looking on (verse 5), and though He was not con- 
 sidted. He had a word to say to their plans. He had a " Let us" — 
 a resolve — in ojiposition to theirs, and He broke all their plans in 
 pieces. He scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 
 This He did very simply. He confounded their language, so that 
 they might not understand one another's speech. One man asked 
 for plaster, and liis neighbour brought a barrowful of bricks. 
 Another needed a hammei", and was sujiplied with a hod of 
 plaster, or a trowel. They began to get confused, and then vexed 
 with each other, and angry. The tower l;)ecame a tower of " Babel," or 
 confusion. The tie lietween them was broken, and by mutual 
 consent they scattered in families and tribes over the earth. 
 
 Let us remember that God looks at all our work, and everything 
 depends on the result of His inspection (1 Cor. iii. 13). See that 
 you have an object in life which He can approve, and take your plan 
 from Him. Then there will be a place for your life-work in His great 
 scheme of service. Otherwise, if self-glory is your object, your life 
 will be a failure : if earthly fortune or fame be your tower, it will 
 come to nought. For, no matter how many j'ou have with }ou, this 
 will not make a wrong tiling right. All the world Avere united at 
 Babel ; but then, God was against them. 
 
 Let us not forget that in divine judgment there is often mercy. 
 It was well for the world that men Avere scattered over the earth ; 
 as it was well in the Early Church when jjcrsecution sent mission- 
 aries everywhere from Judea. As Babel scattered men, so Calvary 
 gathers them. And, as Avas seen at Pentecost, when the Gospel is 
 preached in every tongue, men of every tribe will learn the one 
 Song, and speak the one language of the Spirit. 
 
 294 
 
StagtUG tbC ff lOOD. October 20 
 
 " When the enemy sJuiU come in like a flood" (Tsa. lix. 19), 
 
 What shall liapi)eu then ? Will it he all over with God's people ? 
 No. For then "the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard 
 against him." And that, as the margin reminds us, " will put him 
 to flight." 
 
 No other standard hut the Lord's would do it. When a flood 
 comes in, it makes man feel ^'erv powerless. Every now and again 
 we read of deluges of rain swelling tlie rivers in America and 
 elsewhere, and whole valleys being swei)t by the torrent — men, and 
 cattle, and houses, and stacks, and everything being carried by the 
 flood to destruction. At such a time, how hopeless a thing it would 
 be for the greatest general to jilant his standard down, and say that 
 this would stay the onward rush of waters. Why, the standard, the 
 general, and his soldiers too would have to yield Ijefore it. 
 
 We read in old British history of a king, Canute by name, saying 
 to the waves, in presence of his courtiers, " Stop ! " But the waves 
 rolled in as before. It needs the King of all the earth to say, 
 " Thus far and no farther ! " if the tide is to be driven back. 
 
 You remember how, in the days of Noah, the rain continued to 
 pour day after day, and night after night, and it seemed as if it 
 never would stop. It rained continuously for forty days and forty 
 nights. But at God's time it ceased. Just so long as He willed it, 
 the waters prevailed ; and when He willed it, they Ijegan to abate. 
 At His bidding, "a wind passed over the earth, and the waters 
 assuaged, and the rain was restrained" (Gen. viii. 1, 2). 
 
 And what God did in Noah's days, and can do still, in nature, 
 He is able to do in the society of men. It is an unspeakable comfort 
 to know that "the Lord sitteth upon the flood, the Lord sitteth 
 King for ever." The supreme control is in the hand of the infinitely 
 wise and holy One. It may sometimes seem as though influences 
 hostile to the cause of truth, and purity, and temperance would 
 altogether prevail. The Church of God has been in circumstances 
 which appesired to threaten utter defeat, if not destruction. But 
 when the floods have lifted uj) their voice, as in Reformation and 
 Covenanting days, it has been found that the voice of God, thougli 
 by comparison a still small voice, was mightier than the noise of 
 many waters. 
 
 If ever you have to encounter a flood of trial or of temptation 
 that threatens to carry you away, may you find a refuge in God. 
 If He is your hiding-place, " surely the floods of gre;it waters shall 
 not come nigh you." The standard of His Spirit will bid the tern-, 
 pest back. He will compass you about with songs of deliverance, 
 
 295 
 
October 21 Selt*inaDe ffkcn. 
 
 " Fashioninff yourselves" ( 1 Pet. i. 14). 
 
 After wliat "fasliion" is your life, I wonder, to be framed ? This 
 is a A'ery important ffuestion, — the most important of all questions 
 that concern your future, on earth and after■\^'ards. 
 
 The word "fashion" means literally shcqoe or malce, from the 
 Latin Avord (as you boys know) meaning " to make." It is often 
 used of the cut of a person's clothes, which are said to be " in the 
 fashion," or otherwise, according as they conform, or do not conform, 
 to the shape or style that is prevalent and pojiular at any par- 
 ticular time. And there are people whose great ambition it is to 
 be always " fashionablj' dressed," and to keep in line, in other 
 respects, with the customs and requirements of "fashionable 
 society." 
 
 Here we are reminded that there is sometliing far more important 
 than the clothes we wear, and the outward style we keep up. The 
 question of fashion is a much more serious one than manj^ " fashion- 
 able peojjle " imagine. It cuts immensely deeper than the shape of 
 one's garments. It has to do with tlie cut, not of our clothes onlj^, 
 but of our character — with the shaj)ing of ourselves. 
 
 Persons who have risen in the world, Avho have fought their way 
 up from a humble to a prominent position, are often spoken of as 
 "self-made men." Such are sometimes foolishly ashamed of the 
 fact that they have "risen," and do not Avish it to be knoAvn or 
 rememljered that the point from Avhich they started Avas such a 
 loAvly one. Others of them are foolishly boastful about it, like a 
 vulgar rich man, Avho said in a very impressive style to those he 
 met — " I am a self-made man, sir ! " and got as a quiet ansAver once — 
 " iSo I should ha\'e thought, sir — and rather a j^oor job you have 
 made of it ! " Others of them Avear their honour modestly — for it 
 is an honour to have come to the front through personal meiit and 
 noble effort— and are not anxious either to conceal or to boast about 
 the circiunstauces of their early life. Such Avere Lincoln, Living- 
 stone, and Garfield, and scores of others that could be mentioned, 
 to AAdiom there has been accorded universal admiration Avithout 
 their asking for it. 
 
 But the great thing my young readers are to learn from the 
 text before us is, that in a A'ei'y real sense you are all to be self- 
 made men or Avomen. You are to be going on forming habits, 
 good or Imd, and shaping your character day by day. See that you 
 "fasliion yourselves " in a Avorthy Avay. It is a great thing to have 
 a good model to go by in making anything. In constructing a ship 
 or an engine, the artificer Avoukl be foolish if he chose an inferior 
 model Avheu he might have the best. Now, rememl)er this — you 
 haA'e the best of all models for character and life in the Lord Jesus 
 Clirist, who has "left us an example that we should follow in His 
 steps." He has left us, too, the promise and the gift of His Holy 
 Spirit, to help us so to Avalk as avc have Him for an example. 
 
 296 
 
ConfCSSfnn CbriSt. October 22 
 
 " ]yhosoevcr, therefore, shall confess Me lcf<rc men, him will I confess" 
 (Malt. X. 32). 
 
 If Chri.'^t has really the confidence and love of our lieartc, we onght 
 not .surely to be a.^hanied or afraid to let this be known. In religion, 
 as in other matters, the brave course is the best course. Many 
 reasons might be given why we should be ready, whatever our 
 circumstances may be, to acknowledge our Saviour. We have time 
 to speak now of only two. 
 
 1. It is due to Clirist. If lie is not a.shamcd to call us Ijrethrcji, 
 it is the A'ery last thing we should l)e, to be ashamed to call Him 
 Saviour. 
 
 Suppose you fell into the river or the sea one day, and a man 
 you did not know, and uj'on whom you had no claim, sprang into 
 the water and saved your life at the risk of his own : would you 
 not be very grateful to him — so grateful that you could not but 
 make mention of his name and his nolde deed to others? You 
 v.-ould think very meanly of yourself if you were to sneak away 
 from the sjiot, and to Ijury the rememlirance of what you owed to 
 your delivei'or as a secret in your own breast. But those whom 
 Christ has saved have far greater reason for gratitude to Him, and 
 open ackno\\ledgment of Him, than in the case suj)posed. He not 
 only risked His life, but gave His life for their salvation. And so 
 far from having any claim upon Him, they were His enemies, and 
 deserved only to lie left to tlieir destruction. If Christ has brought 
 you life through His death, and joy through His sorrow, it is the 
 least you can do to acknowledge it. 
 
 2. It is due to yourself. A brave, open acknowledgment of the 
 Saviour will lie good for your own soul. Not only in view of 
 eternity, but in view of time, and of your progress in the divine 
 life, it will be well for you frankly and without delay to avow 
 your Saviour. Secret discijileshii) cannot ex]iect to thrive. It 
 hides in the shadow, it lives in the darkness, when it ought to be 
 out in the open light of God's reconciled countenance. Shrinking 
 from the duty of confession, it misses the beneiit of it. 
 
 It was a Avise as well as a Ijrave course taken by a United States 
 lawyer, when he was converted from scepticism to the Christian 
 faith. The A'ery evening of the day when he found Christ, he 
 surprised his wife, on arriving home, by announcing, " I must set 
 up my family altar. Let us go into the drawing-room and pray 
 together." There was a company present, including a number of 
 lawyers; and his wife, though a good woman, suggested, in a moment 
 of weakness, that perhaps they had " better have prayers by them- 
 selves in the kitchen." " No," he answered ; " it is the first time I 
 have invited the Lord to my house, and I do not propose to invite 
 Him to the kitchen." He fortlnvilh explained to the guests the 
 change that had been wrought in him ; and added — " While I ofl'er 
 my first family prayer, you can remain if you will. I leave it to 
 your choice." They all remained, and did not think the less of 
 their host, who afterwards became Judge M'Lean, the Chief-Justice 
 of the United States. 
 
 297 
 
October 23 J3e fiitltul! 
 
 " And be ye tender-hearted " (Eph. iv. 32). " Be pitiful " (1 Pet. iii. 8). 
 
 The word translated " tender-hearted " in Epliesians is the same 
 word which is rendered "pitiful" in 1st Peter. These two great 
 apostles, Paul and Peter, express to ns, in an important particular, 
 the mind of God, when they urge, with one voice — " Be kind." 
 
 This is a charge which young people, as well as old, greatly need 
 to have sounded in their ears. 
 
 (1) Be kind to one another. It is a mistake to suppose that it is 
 manly to be rude and selfish. A boy who delights in bullying those 
 who are smaller or weaker than himself, or in taking advantage of 
 the good-nature of those who are unwilling to retaliate, is a coward 
 at heart. Every real man is a (jentle-n\a.\\ however much strength 
 he may have in alliance with his gentleness. A boy who bullies, 
 or a girl who pinches and vexes a companion, and takes pleasure in 
 seeing others in pain or in discomfort, has great need of this 
 apostolic counsel — "Be kind to one another." It is just as easy to 
 be kind as to be unkind ; and it is really far more pleasant. What 
 Shakespeare says of mercy is true of what we call " kindness " too. 
 It is twice blessed. Therefore, next time you are tempted to play 
 a saucy trick on a companion or to do him some injury, try to do 
 him some good and give him a pleasant surprise instead. And 
 how happy you yourself will feel ! 
 
 (2) Be kind even to your enemies. This is what Christ tells us 
 to be. This is what He Himself was. It was when we were 
 enemies that Christ died for us. And this is the true way to get 
 the better of a foe. This secures the real victory. " Oh, master, 
 do buy him ! " pleaded a favourite slave with respect to a tottering 
 old negro whom they saw in the market. His master rather un- 
 willingly consented. When the old man was brought home he 
 who had got his wish took him to his own cabin and treated him 
 there as tenderly as if he had been his son. "Why is this?" it 
 was asked : " Is he j'our father ? " " No." " Your brother 1 " 
 " No." " Your friend ? " " No ; he is my enemy. It was he who 
 long ago stole me from my native village and sold me into slavery ; 
 and now, as the good Lord bade me, I am heajiing coals of fire upon 
 his head." 
 
 (3) Be hind to the dumb creatures. Remember that they are 
 God's, and that He is angry with those who in any wise abuse them. 
 There is a Society for preventing cruelty to animals, such as horses 
 and dogs and cats ; and it is doing much good. It would do yet 
 more good, if every boy and girl in the country were to join a great 
 league of pity, and to practise all through life the law of kindness 
 toward what we call the lower creatures, both great and small. It 
 is in early youth that dispositions of heart as well as habits of mind 
 are fostered for good or evil. Diocletian, who afterwards became 
 the great persecutor of the early Christians, found in childhood his 
 favourite pastime in torturing flies. Have no kinship with the 
 like of him. But be kind not only to your domestic pets, but to 
 the birds and the bees and the butterflies. Rebuke heartlessness 
 everywhere. " Be pitiful ! " 
 
 298 
 
aSC Courteous ! October 24 
 
 " Be courteous : not retula-ing evil for evil " (1 Pet. iii. 8, 9). 
 
 Religion has to do with the little things of life ns well as with 
 the great. In teaching us to ])ro\i(le for the interests of eternity, 
 the Bible is not forgetful of tlie happiness of the present life, or 
 of the small details of duty which tend to promote it. The Book 
 which charges us to " liee from the wrath to come," and to " lay 
 hold ujion eternal life," also addresses to us this admonition — "Be 
 courteous." We are hereby reminded that the delicacies of the 
 Christian character are of much importance in the sight of Gnd. 
 
 " Courtesy," from its derivation, makes us think of Court life, 
 nnd the manners of the Court. But courtliness and courteousness 
 are not by any means the same. The difference is nianife.st, and 
 cuts deep. Oiie may lie courtlij, while the heart is all the time 
 unkind and insincere ; but one cannot be truly courteous unless he 
 is giving exjjression by look and act to a goodwill that is really 
 witliin his heart. Courtliness may be merely an alfair of outward 
 deportment. Courtesy is an alfair at the sjime time of the .s])irit 
 within. A person Avho merely puts on " company manners " now 
 and then, is not a truly courteous person, but only a poor imitator 
 for the time of a virtue he does not possess. 
 
 Courtesy has been described as "benevolence in trifles." It is 
 not easy to define it ; and this is perhaps as good a description as 
 any. It consists in carrying kindness and the desire to please 
 witliin the l)reast, and giving natural and suiUxble expression to 
 it habitually, cspccialb/ in little thinr/s. There are ])eoi)le who would 
 do a big, kind thing for a neighbour when he was hard pushed, 
 because their hearts are really kind. But at ordinary times they 
 are rude and careless in their Ijehaviour to others ; and so, through 
 not being cmirteous, they fail to sweeten society as they might do, 
 and sometiu\es, in thoughtlessness, cause pain where they could 
 just as easily have given jileasure instead. 
 
 The want of courtesy has been sometimes very aptly rebuke<l. 
 " Do you i)ermit a negro to be more of a gentleman than yourself ? " 
 said President Jefferson to his grandson, who did not return a 
 negro's bow. " No, gentlemen," said General Robert Lee, to some 
 soldiers in a tramcar, "if there was no .seat for the intirm old 
 woman, there can be none for me." They had left the old woman 
 standing, Init had sprung to their feet to give the General a place. 
 His words did not make them very comfortable — especially the 
 ollicers among them ; and scon there was plenty of room in that car. 
 
 Courtesy, on the other hand, has often been strikingly rewarde<l 
 when it was not looking for any recomjiense. Two l)oys, a rich 
 and a poor, were going to a merchant's otlice to apply for a situa- 
 tion. A ragged little girl lia])i)ened to fall on the icy pavement, 
 and lost her jjennies. The first boy only laughed : he was the 
 gentleman's son, too ! The other went to the girl's help, found 
 one of her ])ennie.s, replaced the other from his own scanty store, 
 and so dried her tears. The merchant had seen it all from his 
 ivindow ; and it was the poor ])oy who secured the situation, though 
 his only testimonial was his courtesy. 
 
 299' 
 
October 25 Soil a;iinotb8, 
 
 " This charge I commit un(o thee, son Timothy" (1 Tim. i. 18). 
 
 TiiroTHY is one of those Bihle cliaracters concerning whom we are 
 not told a great deal, hwt whom, nevertheless, we seem to know very 
 well. In Paul's tM'O letters, as Avell as in the Book of Acts, we 
 have glimpses of him, which enable ns to form a toleraljly clear 
 conception of his history and of his character. 
 
 Timothy was a Highlander. I do not mean to say that he 
 lielonged to Celtic Scotland ; but he was born in the uplands of 
 Lycaonia, — away up among the hilly districts, which the Apostle of 
 the Gentiles visited in his missionary journeys, not less willingly 
 than the seaboard towns in Asia Minor. And it would have been 
 worth Paul's wliile to j^enetrate to Lj'stra, if it had resulted in 
 nothing else than the gaining of this one Highland lad of Asia 
 Minor as a convert to Jesus Christ. For Timothy became a great 
 soldier in the Christian army ; and in the second generation of the 
 Church, after Paul himself Avas gone, he had to till a notable place. 
 
 We cannot give any full account of Timothy's career. But 
 there are several things which we do know for certain about him. 
 
 1. He was a good child. It was perhaj^s easier for him to be 
 this, than for some. He came of a good stock. His grandmother 
 Lois was a godly woman ; and so was his mother Eunice. The 
 latter was a Jewess, who became a Christian. And though 
 Timothy's father was a Greek, he was perhaps well affected to 
 Christianity, and at an}'rate he allowed Christian influences to bo 
 very freely exercised on young Timothy's heart. The lioy, in our 
 earliest glimpse of him, is seen sitting at the feet of his grandmother, 
 or in his mother's lap, reverently listening to what they have to 
 tell him, 
 
 2. He was a good scholar. I do not know whether or not he waa 
 what is called a very learned man, though it is said he afterwards 
 became a bishoi?, or overseer of several churches. But very early 
 in life he became very wise ; for he Avas made "wise unto salva- 
 tion." And what led to this was his early instruction in the 
 Scriptures within his pious home. He Avas Paul's " son in the faith," 
 so that the apostle Avas probably the immediate means of his con- 
 version. But Lois and Eunice prepared the AA'ay. They set the 
 tinder for the diAnne spark. And it Avas then and for cv^er Avell for 
 Timothv that there was one book at anyrate Avhich he had learned 
 Avell— his Bible (2 Tim. i. 5, iii. 14, 15). 
 
 3. He was a good man and a good minister. Timothy AA'as both. 
 He could not Avell ha the one Avithout the other. None can l)e a 
 good minister Avithout being first a good man. And none is a good 
 man Avithout being in some true sense a good " minister " — a servant 
 or helper, that is, of the good cause. Timothy Avas " avcII reported of 
 by the brethren" (Acts xvi. 2). When he grcAV up, it Avas seen that 
 grace reigned in his heart. The child Avas father to the man. And 
 he not only ministered to Paul, " serving Avitli him as a son in the 
 gospel," but he Avas Avhat you should seek to be, in Avhatever sphere 
 of life God may place you, " a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 
 
ll^Ot b(^^e^l, or tai a\Va\J. October 26 
 
 "/< IS nol hidden from tlicc, neither is it far off" (Dent. xxx. 11). 
 
 Thk wiir.l (it" litV i.s Hut a sociTt, liiddi'ii thing, wliiili few cuii dis- 
 cover and nndcr.-staiid. Tlie way of litV is not a path diHi<:idt of 
 access and far away, so that few can rctach it. Salvation is a secret 
 revealed : it is a blessing near at hand. You have not to get one to 
 clinilj to heaven to bring it down to you. You have not to cross 
 the ocean in order to make it yours. Salvation is here, just wlicre 
 you stand. It may be yours, as you read this sentence, just for the 
 taking. The river of life which jiroceeds from the Throne of (J od 
 and of tiie Lamb has this peculiarity, that it always will be found 
 Uowing just by the side of any poor sinner who is thirsting for it. 
 
 You may have heard the story of a vessel, which, tliroudi a 
 defect in tlie compass, or .something of that kind, had wandered far 
 out of its course, till the water-supply on board became completely 
 exhausted. The ci'ew and passengers were in the greatest distress. 
 They were under the awful tortures of unalleviated thirst ; and as 
 they looked abroad upon the wide ocean, and .saw no help for them 
 at all, they were ready to sink into despair. " Water, water every- 
 where, but not a drop to drink ! " It was becoming alnuxst 
 maddening. But at length they descried another vessel on the 
 horizon. As she came nearer, they signalled her. At close 
 quarters, their captain .shouted across through the .«])eaking-trumpet 
 — " Give lis water ; we are dying of thirst." Back came the 
 unlooked-for but welcome answer — " You are in the mouth of tlie 
 Amazon. Dip and drink ! " Oh, how quickly the pails Aveut 
 down ; and up came the delightful sujjply of fresh river-water to 
 .slake their burning thirst ! 
 
 Even .so, there are souls in this world dying for thirst, while 
 the water of life is within their offer and within their reach. Has 
 some young reader been thinking of salvation as a thing to be 
 waited for a long time, as something far away, which he cannot lioiie 
 to secure till he is much older and wiser than at present;? Jesus sa) s 
 to such, " It may be yours now, for the taking. The water of life 
 is at your side. Stoop down, and drink, and \\\q. ! " 
 
 God's own children, too, should rememlier that the provision they 
 have in Christ, is a supply that will not fail, and that the help He 
 promises them is near and available. There is a story told by James 
 Gilmour, suggestive of what sometimes happens under the gosjjel. 
 A poor old Irishwoman was grieving ber heart out because her sou 
 wa.s not sendin" her money to i)ay her rent. What was his letter to 
 lier from abroad without that? She was in the gr&xtest anxiety and 
 sorrow. Yet all the while there was a i)Ost-otiice order in her hand, 
 which the letter enclosed, more than enough for all her need ! To 
 her it was a valueless piece of paper, because .she did not recogni.se 
 its worth. Yet it only wanted her signature or her mark to bring 
 the very boon .she was most anxious for. Just so, we have in 
 the promise of Christ an order which only needs our idling up to 
 secure for us all needed Ijlessing. It is not hidden or far aM'ay. 
 *'If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." 
 
 301 
 
October 27 Jn tbe Mcong Slot. 
 
 " Ulierefm-e do ye spend money for that u-hich is not bread ?" (Isa. Iv. 2). 
 
 The picture presented in the opening of this familiar and beautiful 
 .55th chapter of Isaiah is a very suggestive one. We see a 
 great crowd of people eagerly seeking after good, but seeking it in 
 vain liecause they are not looking for it in the right ({uarter. They 
 are thirsty, but they arc turning to wells without water to quench 
 their thirst. They are hungry, l)ut they are spending money for 
 wdiat is not bread — no more real bread than a sawdust biscuit is, 
 whatever appearances may say. They are eager to have their hearts 
 satisfied, but they are expending their hibour on that which satisfieth 
 not. 
 
 A sorrowful picture, is it nut? It is true to life, liowever. 
 There are multitudes of people all around lis who are just doing 
 this very thing — foolishly seeking for true good where they cannot 
 possibly find it. But there is one point of light in the picture, 
 suggestive of hope for these weary toilers. And it is this — that 
 above the crowd there stands One of infinite majt'sty, but of 
 infinite loving-kindness too, who calls to all who are willing to hear 
 llim, to come to Him and He will freely give them what they else- 
 where seek in vain. Are they thirsty and wear}' ? He will give 
 them wine and milk for the asking. Are they hungry ? They are 
 M'elcome to eat from His stores that which is good ; and He is quite 
 fure that none who obey His invitation will have reason to be dis- 
 appointed. It is Jesus, I need hardly say, who thus calls : He v\'ho 
 stood on the last, the great day, of the feast, and cried, " If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." If you come to Him, He 
 Avill give you the Living Water : He will feed j'our soul with the 
 True Bread. 
 
 Young reader, it is quite natural and right for you to seek for 
 what will satisfy your heart, and to seek it with all the energy and 
 diligence of which you are ca])able. But take care not to make the 
 fatal blunder of seeking it in the wrong direction. There is many 
 an active life that is quite missjient, just because it is so miserably 
 misdirected. 
 
 A little boy of my acquaintance had a great disajipointment one 
 day lately. You know " the i)enny in the slot " machines that are 
 set up at railway stations and elsewhere, which give out in exchange 
 for your coin a biscuit, a stick of chocolate, or something of that sort ? 
 Well, this boy was persuaded by a bigger one to put his penny into 
 A\diat looked like a slot one daJ^ But it was really only the slit for 
 a broad latch-key in the lock of a gate. And so, though the child 
 looked eagerly, he got no return for his penny. The elder boy 
 laughed at his disa])pointment. But it was no laughing matter for 
 the little fellow. It cost him, I rather think, some bitter tears. 
 How many are like him— spending their means and their labour on 
 that A\'hich brings no satisfaction in return. They are putting their 
 penny into the wrong slot ! 
 
 302 
 
XC Content ! October 28 
 
 " Bf coulcnt wi'Ui such things as ye have " (IIul). xiii. 5). 
 
 This apostolic counsel is not meant to encourage indolence or to 
 check worthy anihition. But what it is aimed against is, the 
 covetous spirit whicli is so l)ent on getting more of this world's gc^oil 
 that it cannot enjoy what it already has. 
 
 Tlie story is told of lienjaniin Franklin, that, seeing a child look- 
 ing at a plate of apples as if he wanted them, he handed him the 
 biggest and rosiest of the lot. But lie evidently wanted more, 
 Anotlier was offered him ; and now lioth the hoy's hands were filled. 
 But still he gazed at the dish. Franklin hanch-d him a third ajjjde, 
 which he eagerly received. But he was not al>le io hold so many 
 treasures, ana all the tliree a])i)Ies rolled upon the floor. The child 
 lay down and wept. " There," said the American Solomon, " is a 
 little man, who has more wealth than he can enjoy." 
 
 A man who has but a little, with the spirit of contentment, is in 
 reality far richer than the man who is nominally the possessor of a 
 great deal of earthly good, but is filled with a spirit of covetousness 
 and unrest. He is not only himself happier, but he will ])robably 
 do more for society with his compai-ative poverty than the other 
 with his abounding wealth. It has been sjircastically said of the 
 covetous man, that he is of service much in the same way as the pig 
 is— after he is dead. "The pig when alive does not carry like the 
 liorse, or give milk like the cow, or watch tlie house like the dog ; 
 but when he is dead, he will cut up well. And so is it," savs an old 
 writer, " with the covetous rich man." It is after he is dead that 
 ])eoi>le get some good out of him. But what of him, then? He 
 knew little or nothing of true comfort or heart's ease on earth. And 
 what of his happiness, when not only that on which his greedy 
 heart was set has been snatched from his sight, but even that which 
 he seemed to have has been taken from his grasp ! When the 
 manna was greedily sought in greater quantity, and selfishly kejjt 
 for longer time, than God desired it to be, it turned to worms. And 
 there are others besides the ancient Israelites who have found this, to 
 their cost. 
 
 Godliness with contentment is great gain. The well-known 
 Matthew Henry, whose commentaries are perhaps on your fathei's 
 bookshelves, had little of this world's good, but that little he used 
 well. His heart was set on higher things, and with his worldly 
 
 {lortion he was content. One night, on going to preach, he was met 
 n* four men and robbed of all that was in his purse — some ten or 
 eleven shillings. Among his reflections afterwards, in his diary, 
 were these : — " (1) What reason have I to be thankful to God who 
 have travelled so much and yet was never robbed before ! (2) What 
 a deal of evil the love of money is the root of, that four men 
 would venture their lives and souls for about half a crown a-piece ! 
 (3) See the vanity of worldly wealth : how soon we may be strii)ped 
 of it! How loose, therefore, we should sit to it ! " 
 
October 29 Zbc iplacc Of Safety, 
 
 " J/y hmid" ..." Ml/ Father's hand" (John x. 2S, 29). 
 
 It is as if Jesus were anxious here to make t]ie assui\ancc of safety for 
 His people doubly sure. He first says, "They sliall never perish, 
 neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." And then He 
 adds, "And no man is al)le to pluck them out of My Father's hand. 
 I and My Father are one." If you have accepted Jesus as your 
 Saviour, and are following Him as your Shepherd-King, how safe 
 you are ! He and His fatlier are at one about securing you from 
 destruction. It is as though Jesus said — "My hand is about you, as 
 I might clasp in the hollow of it a precious jewel, refusing to let it 
 go. And the Father's hand is about i\Iy hand : so that you have 
 a twofold omnipotence for your defence. Who, then, can do 3011 
 hurt ? " 
 
 Satan tries hard to snatch or lure the sheep of Christ away to 
 their destruction. He does His best to wrest the jewels of Jesus 
 from His hand. But he cannot succeed. No member of Christ's 
 ilock — not even the smallest lamb in it — will be amissing from the 
 fold at last. None of the jewels of Clirist — not even the tiniest of 
 all His gems — will be awanting from His diadem in the day when 
 He makes up His jewels. If Satan had only human power to reckon 
 with, he would laugh at such defence, and your soul would not be 
 safe from his malice for a single day. But when it is a case of over- 
 coming the omnipotence of the Almighty Father and the Saviour - 
 Son, the great enemy is completely baffled. He has the will to 
 destroy Christ's people, but he utterly lacks the power to do it. 
 
 Is it not a great comfort that our safety depends, not u^Don our- 
 selves, but upon Jesus ? If it Avere only the hold that your fcelile 
 hand or mine could take and keep of Him that kept us safe, alas for 
 our security ! Satan would not take long to shake us loose. But, 
 it is Christ's hold of us, and not our hold of Him, that is the seci'et 
 of our preservation. If He holds us in " the right hand of His 
 righteousness," — that hand so strong as well as tender, — none c<in 
 pluck us thence. 
 
 A story is told of two little girls, whom we shall call IMary and 
 Nellie, which very prettily illustrates this great truth. They had 
 been singing in a corner of the nurserj', while their mother was 
 writing ; and after giving some snatches of the hymn, " Safe in the 
 arms of Jesus," Nellie was heard to say — " Sister, how do you know 
 you are safe?" "Because I am holding Jesus with both my hands 
 tight ! " answered Mary. " Ah ! that's not safe," said the younger 
 sister : "suppose Satan came along and cut your two hands off!" 
 Mary looked perplexed for a minute ; but the anxiety soon lifted 
 from her face as she joyfully exclaimed — " Oh, I forgot ! I forgot ! 
 Jesus is holding me with His two hands. Satan can't cut them off ; 
 and so I am safe ! " 
 
 304 
 
XClbfcb ITWflicjbt ? October 30 
 
 " The night ixfar spent : the day is at hand " (Rom. xiii. 12). 
 
 There are two sorts of twilight. There is the evening twilight, 
 with its deepening shadows, as the sun goes down beneath the 
 western horizon. And there is the twilight of the dawTi, as the 
 first rays of the rising sun are shooting above the eastern horizon — 
 struggling with the darkness of the night, and overcoming it. If 
 you were walking along a road you had never traversed before in 
 the twilight, it would matter a great deal for your comfort, and 
 ]ierhaps even for your safetj', which of the two twilights it was that 
 enveloped you. The evening twilight would mean for you quickly 
 darkening night. The morning twilight would mean the speedy 
 dawn of blessed day, when }ou Avould rejoice in the sunshine, and 
 see all things clearly as you pursued your onward way. 
 
 Now, there are two ways of looking at the swift flight of the 
 earthly life, and the nearer and nearer aj)proach of death, which is 
 to bring so great a change of one kind or another to every one 
 of us. 
 
 " The (lay is far spent: the night is at hand" — so says the worldly 
 heart, if it can be brought to reflect at all upon the matter, and to 
 spejik out its thoughts. The man who is living without God and 
 without hope in the world, even when he seems most gay, is 
 haunted by an uncomfortable feeliu" that every year as it flits by 
 is bringing him nearer to what he dreads. The thought is forced 
 in upon him sometimes — " Life is short ; death is coming ; what 
 light I have will soon go out in darkness ; the gloomy shadow is 
 creeping nearer and nearer to enshroud me ; it is verging toward 
 twilight already ; ere long I shall be under the total eclipse of 
 everlasting night." 
 
 "The flight is far spent: the day is at hand" — so says the man 
 of faith, in prospect of death and the endless life on which it is to 
 usher him. Here he is often in darkness. But yonder is the light ! 
 Here he is sometimes in sorrow and in gloom — groping if haply he 
 may find the way. But yonder is gladness and good cheer ! And 
 though now for a season, if need be, he is in darkness and in 
 heaviness, he is even now a child of the light and of the day. The 
 valley through which he is meantime being led is begloomed with 
 sin and sorrow. But he is to be brought out by and by into ever- 
 hvsting day. Have not some rays at least of the Sun of Ilighteousness 
 already reached his soul, to lead and cheer him on 1 The night ia 
 far spent. It is twilight now; but the morning, not the evening, 
 twilight. The da^\'n is near. The dayspring has arisen. The Sun 
 Himself will soon ajipear. Then all sadness and checrlessness will 
 be over. Joy cometh in the morning. 
 
 (20) 305 
 
October 31 3BreaD from Ibcaven. 
 
 " I will rain bread frcmi heaven for you" (Ex. xvi. 4). 
 
 When the hungry Israelites went out, the morning after Moses 
 told them God wioiild send them bread, they saw the whole ground 
 covered Avith a small round thing, that looked like hoar-frost upon 
 the ground. And in their astonishment they cried, "Man-na,' 
 TVhat can this he? And so the manna got its name. 
 
 How very good it was in God to open the windoA\'s of heaven 
 and pour out clay by day so much blessing on these poor travellers ! 
 The supply did not once fail them during all the forty years they 
 had to travel in the wilderness ; and for many long generations 
 after Israel were in Canaan a pot full of the manna was kept within 
 the ark of the Congregation, to remind the people of how kind and 
 faithful God had been to their fathers upon their desert march. 
 
 Now, I wonder how you would have liked to bo depending, as 
 these children of Israel were, on the shower of manna, morning by 
 morning, for your food ? When you look into your mother's well- 
 stocked pantry, perhaps you are thankful that your case is different ; 
 and you think that even if the storeroom were to get empty, your 
 father has only to send an order down the street to some of the 
 shops to have" it filled again. Yet your case and that of the 
 Israelites are not so very different after all. Learn from their 
 experience, that — 
 
 (1) Daily hreacl comes from God. It is He who has given you 
 your father to work for your support, and your kind mother to plan 
 for your good, and "to get ends to meet" at home. It is He who 
 made the seed spring, and who Avatered the crop, and sent the sun- 
 shine, and gave the harvest. And, moreover, it is He who not only 
 gives you the food, but gives hunger to eat it and enjoy it. The 
 commmmess of our "common mercies" should make us all the 
 more grateful to Him. 
 
 (2) TFe should he very tlianTcfxil if v:e have enough, though we may 
 not be what men call rich. The Israelites were taught by God not 
 to be grasping. Everyone was welcome to gather as much as he 
 and his family could eat. But if any man was greedy and tried to 
 hoard up the manna, it bred worms and stank. It is a wise prayer 
 in the Book of Proverbs, " Give me neither poverty nor riches ; feed 
 me with food convenient for me." 
 
 (3) Daily bread is needed for the soul. And God gives that too. 
 Jesus says, " I am the Bread of Life." Do you know what it is to 
 hunger in soul for Jesus, and to have your heart strengthened by 
 feeding daily upon Him who is the true Bread from heaven? 
 Remember that just as the Israelites had to seek and gather the 
 manna day by day, j-ou must seek Jesus daily in prayer, if your 
 soul is to be fed and your heart satisfied. 
 
 306 
 
ZhC HXiXC ViCSt, Novembor 1 
 
 "Daily" (Rs. Ixi. 8 ; Luke ix. 23). 
 
 This word " daily " is a very imiiortant word, in more aspects of it 
 than cue. Considering our continual dependence upon God, how 
 important it is that we should receive daily hread from Him. 
 Considering our continual responsibility to God, how important it 
 is that -we should remember our daily duty toward Him. Our life 
 ought to he a life of daily faith and daily obedience. 
 
 It is this latter point which is emphasised in the two verses chosen 
 for to-day. In the first of them (Ps. Ixi. 8), the Psalmist declares 
 his anxiety that he may "daily perform his vows," as one who is to 
 ring praise to God's name for ever. In the second (L\ike ix. 2.3), 
 Christ reminds those who would be His disciples, that in coming 
 after Him they must be prepared to " take up their cross daily," and 
 follow Him. 
 
 It is the daily life that is the true test of character. It is not 
 what people say when they are in certain circumstances and surround- 
 ings. It is not what peo2)lc appear in i)articular places, such as the 
 church or the Sabbath school, on special occasions. But it is what 
 people are in the ordinary run of daily life, Avhen they are off their 
 guard, amid their customary e-ver^-day surroundings, that reveals 
 their real character. 
 
 " But you should hear his language on the week day ! " So said a 
 member of a Sunday-school class to his teacher, who had been 
 l)raising one of the other boys and j)ointing to him as a model, for 
 good behaviour in the class, and for always knowing his lesson Avell. 
 " But you should hear his language on the week day ! " With 
 surprise and pain the teacher looked right in the face of his " model 
 scholar." Guilt and confusion Avere written there. But the 
 teacher's look of grief spoke rebuke more eloquently than words. 
 And, by the blessing of God, such a change was Avrought in the boy's 
 heart tliat none of his companions could point the linger at him any 
 longer and say — " Oh, he is one thing on the Sunday and a very 
 different thing on the week day. You should hear and see what he 
 is from day to day I " 
 
 If the Sabbath is made to us what God designed it to be, and if 
 what we learn when in the Sunday school, and otherwise, has its 
 due effect upon us, our whole week will be the better for having the 
 Lord's Day, with its sacred influences, at its beginning. We must not 
 shrink from the application to us of Christ's own test — " By their 
 fruits ye shall know them." And we should seek so to live, that 
 any day that is taken as a fair sample of the rest, may be a day in 
 which Ave are found " doing justly, loving mercy, and walking 
 humbly with our God." Day by day may we magnify Him, even 
 fis we hope to praise Him for ever and ever. 
 
 " The trivial roiintl, the common task, 
 Will furnish all we ought to ask, — 
 Room to deny ourselves, a road 
 To bring us daily nearer God.'' 
 
 307 
 
November 2 SbOCS Ot Scrmons. 
 
 "And ilieij xoere judged every man according to their works " (Rev. xx, 13). 
 
 Hiram Goltt ■was a shoemaker, yet a saint, and an eccentric mau 
 withal. The j'oung niinistei", lately set over the congregation, came 
 in to see him one day, and to have a talk with him abont the 
 things of God. But he dropped, to begin with, a remark which 
 Hiram did not like, about being " glad that a man can l)e in a 
 humble occupation and yet be a godly man." " Don't call this 
 occupation ' humble,' " said the shoemaker, looking up. And then 
 he went on — "I believe the making of that shoe is just as holy a 
 thing as the making of a sermon. When I come to stand before the 
 Throne of God, He will say, 'What kind of shoes did you make 
 down on earth ? ' and He might pick out this very pair, in order to 
 let me look at them in the blazing light of the Great White Throne. 
 And He will say to you, ' What kind of sermons did you make ? ' 
 and you will have to show Him one of your sermons. Now, if I 
 make better shoes than you make sermons, what then about 'a 
 humble place ' ? " 
 
 The yoimg minister had not meant to hurt old Hiram's feelings ; 
 but the lesson taught by the good shoemaker was a useful one. What- 
 ever your earthly place and calling may be, see to it, as the chief 
 thing, that you " therein abide with God." It is not so much the sort 
 of work you are engaged in, as the spirit in which you do it, that 
 should be your great concern. There is, no doubt, a sense in Avhich 
 it is the most honourable of all callings to be a minister of the 
 gospel, an ambassador for Christ. But it is quite as jwssible to glorify 
 (jod by the shoemaker's "last," as in the pulpit. All honest work is 
 honourable work, and every spliere in which suchjwork may be done 
 gives room enough for seiwiug and glorifying Christ. 
 
 " A servant with this clause 
 Makes drudgery divine : 
 Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, 
 Makes this and the action fine." 
 
 It is important for Christians, as for other people, to rememlier 
 that every man is to be judged according to his works, or, as the 
 Bible elsewhere puts it, " according to that he hath done, whether it 
 be good or l)ad." No doubt all true believers will be saved, for 
 Christ's sake, from death and hell. But some will be " saved so as 
 by lire " : th.e results of their life will be so poor and unworthy, 
 that they will be burned up. Others, though perhaps their jilace 
 on earth was a very lowly oiic, will ha^'c achieved, out of Christian 
 love, a work that v/ill abide for ever. And, having through grace 
 done well here, they will be ready for a higher place and service 
 yonder. May it be our great desire and endeavour, as it was with 
 St. Paul, that when we come to " receive the things done in the 
 body," we may l:)e " accepted of the Lord." 
 
 ".c8 
 
Zbc Utavcn an^ tbe E)ovc. November 3 
 
 " lie xenl/udh a raven : aho he sent forth a docc " {(.Ion. viii. 7, J^). 
 
 You liave had a sea voyage perhaps. At fir.st you liked it ; l>ut l>y 
 and by you grew tired of looking at the w;iter day hy day, and 
 wished for land. If you had been with Noah in the Ark, — though 
 you might have found great amusement among the animals for a 
 while,— I rather think you would have felt the same. At length 
 you would liave grown rpiite weary, and sighed — " Oh for a sight of 
 dry land again ! " 
 
 This seems to have been Noah's own feeling l)y and by : still 
 more strongly, i)erliaps, his ehildreu's. For the voyage lasted — that 
 is, they were in the Ark — more than a year in all. God was not 
 forgetting Noah. He remembered him and his, and even all the 
 cattle with him (verse 1) ; and when His time, the right time, came. 
 He was to lead them forth again, to enjoy the beauty of the fresh, 
 green earth. But we do not wonder that, when Noah saw the 
 waters abating, he thought he would test the state of the earth by 
 sending out two messengers, to sec what prospect there was of 
 release again. 
 
 The tirst messenger was a raven ; the second, a d&ve. Their 
 experience seemed to be different. Away the raven sped from the 
 window of the Ark, and never came back again. It soon forgot all 
 about Noah's kindness, and the comfortable shelter he had given ; 
 and, coarse bird that it was, it found plenty of carrion iloating on 
 the waters, and so was satisfied. The dove too winged its way 
 from the window, for it was glad to try its wings again after so long 
 a stay. But it soon came back ; for it found no rest for the sole of 
 its foot, and was fain to get within the familiar home again. 
 
 Seven days later, Noah again sent forth the dove, and l)ack it 
 fluttered to his breast again at eventide, bearing in its mouth an 
 olive leaf — meet emblem of God's peace. It was not till seven days 
 more that the dove coidd be got to stay away. And then it was thf»t 
 Noah found the earth was dry — the dove heralding his way where 
 he too might go in safety and in peace. 
 
 Now this is a beautiful little history. Aiul xcJuU may these two 
 messeiiyers remind us off Two souls, I think. The raven, of a 
 soul content to wander, and fdling itself with the gross pleasures of 
 the world. The dove, of a soul that cannot have joy away from its 
 home in God — like the Psalmist when he said, " Return unto thy 
 Rest, my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee " 
 (Ps. cxvi. 7). Is your soul like the raven, or like the dove ? 
 
 309 
 
November 4 'jQc TRCVCtCWt f 
 
 " And Qod smole Uzzah : and there he died hy the arh of God" (2 Sam, vi. 7). 
 
 To understand tins incident, you must remeniber what the Ark was, 
 and how God expected it to be regarded and handled. It was a box 
 of Shittim wood, oveidaid within and without with pure gokl, and 
 ornamented round the rim of the lid with an ornament or crown of 
 gold. The lid itself was of j^ure gold, and was called the Mercy- 
 Seat. On tlie centre of the Mercy-Seat the glory of God rested ; 
 and at either end of it stood two angels or cherubims in gold, with 
 outstretched wings, looking down uj^on the Mercy-Seat, as if desir- 
 ing to look into (1 Pet. i. 12) the wonders which the Ark contained. 
 
 And what was inside the Ark? There wei'e the two Tables of 
 Stone, on which Jehovah had inscrilied with His own finger the 
 terms of His Covenant with Israel : what we are accustomed to call 
 the Ten Commandments. There was a Eoll of the Laius of Israel, on 
 sheepskin, with an outline of the national history under the leader- 
 ship of Moses (Deut. xxxi. 24-26). There was the Rod of Aaron, 
 Avhose blossoming had indicated Jehovah's choice of the tribe of 
 Levi, and the house of Aaron, for the sacred functions of the priest- 
 hood. And there was the Pot of Manna — a golden pot containing 
 some of the food from heaven with which Jehovah had fed His 
 people during their forty years' wandering in the wilderness. 
 
 Thus, you see, the box called the Ark was a very sacred object 
 because of what it contained, and especially because it was wont to 
 be the Throne on which the glory of God rested, in token of His 
 presence among His people. Only once a year — on the great Day of 
 Atonement — was anyone allowed to enter the Holy Place, and look 
 upon the Ark. This was the High Priest ; and even he could only 
 venture in, as representing the people, with the sprinkling of the 
 blood of the atoning sacrifice. When the Ark had to be removed, 
 the High Priest was ordered carefully to cover it from common view ; 
 and the Levites had to carry it, by means of gold-covered staves, upon 
 their shoulders. 
 
 Now, in all this, God was teaching His people reverence in 
 dealing with Him and the sacred things of religion. But what 
 haj^pened in the case of Uzzah 1 The Ark was being conveyed, not 
 by Levites, but in a jolting cart. And when the carter put forth 
 his hand to steady it, — evidently doing so in a heedless spirit, as if it 
 had been just some common old box he was handling, — God smote 
 liim, and there he died by the Ark of God ! 
 
 There is an important lesson here for all time, and not least for our 
 own time, and for the young people living in it — Be reverent I 
 Reverence God. Do not take His name in vain ; grieve when you 
 liear others profane it. Approach with reverence the Mercy-Beat, 
 Whether it be in God's house or in your own room that you seek it, 
 see that you come devoutly there. Deal reverently with the Bible. 
 If the ancient law was so sacred to Israel, what should the Bible be 
 to us. See that you give due reverence to all objects and persons, 
 of whom God expects this of you. He is gi'ieved with irreverence. 
 He is angry with it. In some way or other He will punish it. 
 
 310 
 
tTbC "Glnspcahable (Bift. November 5 
 
 " Thanks be unto Ood/or Ills unspeakable Gift" (2 Cor. ix. 15). 
 
 " God so loved the world that He aive His only-be"otton Sou, that 
 whosoever belicveth in Him should not perish, l)ut have everlastiu" 
 life." That is what the gospel tells us about the Gift of God. And 
 Paul, as he thiidcs of the exceeding preciousness of this Gift, both 
 in itself and because of all the otlier blessings it brings with it, 
 exclaims, "Thanks lie unto God for His unspeakable Gift." His 
 heart is full to overllowiug about it. He wishes to thank God very 
 much. But he feels that he cannot as he would. Tliis is a gift the 
 worth of which never can be told. 
 
 It is a gift unspeakable, whether you think (1) of what it cost 
 God to give it, or (2) of wliat good it ])rings to us who receive it. 
 
 (1) It cost God more than tongue can tell, to give up His Son — 
 His only Son — to die. And yet for us He did it. God could have 
 made and given away a star or two quite easily. He coidd have 
 made a new world for man to live in by a word. But to make new 
 men, with their hearts made new, for living in His world. He had 
 to give up His Son. Yet He did it. It was an unspeakable Gift. 
 
 (2) The good this Gift brings to those who receive it tongue 
 can never tell. It brings eternal life, with peace that jiasseth 
 understanding, and joy unutterable. Paul tried to speak his sense 
 of its worth, and could nut. ]\Iyriads have tried it on earth ; hosts 
 are trying it in heaven, and will try it for ever. But they never 
 will succeed. Yet they still will ever try ; for that is their chief 
 delight, and it pleases God to hear the Saviour's praise. And it is 
 good for us, lioth here and hereafter, to try : though the more we try, 
 the more heartily we are led to confess that even when we, and others 
 with us — ■ 
 
 '•Join all the glorious names 
 Of %visdom, love, and power, 
 That ever mortals knew, 
 
 That ever angels bore — 
 All are too mean to speak Uis worth, 
 Too mean to set our Saviour forth." 
 
 Do you ever txy to tell others how much you think of Christ ? 
 Do you ever try at least to tell it to God 1 Or is your heart, while 
 thankful for some of your other blessings, cold at the thought of 
 the Gift Unspeakable i Perhaps you have little sympathy with 
 Paul in his fervent ejaculation of thanksgiving'? Perhaps you 
 cannot at all account for his enthusiasm, or understand his speech- 
 lessness here? Perhaps you could soon tell out all the value you 
 really set upon Christ ] Surely this is both strange and sad. " He 
 that forgets his friend," says Bunyan, "is ungrateful to him; he 
 that forgets his Saviour is unmerciful to himself." To make light 
 of the Unspeakable Gift is hurtful to the soul. It is grievous also 
 to God. If your brother saved you from death at the risk of his 
 own life, Avould it not grieve your father to see you thinking more 
 of some toys and trinkets he had given you than of such a brother ? 
 Ah, do not thus grieve God ; but by lips and life give daily thanks 
 to Him for His " Uu.speakable Gift'." 
 
November 6 Cuisiiiij tbc ©eaf, anO G:r!i)ping tbc Minb. 
 
 " Thou shall not airse the dec/, or init a st\imUinghlock iefore the blind" 
 (Lev. xix. 14). 
 
 God hates meanness ; and He will punish it. In giving this charge, 
 through Moses, He adds — "but shalt fear thy God : I am the Lord." 
 That is to say, mean things, which may escape detection by others, 
 are seen by Me ; and you will have to reckon with Me about them. 
 
 It is a sorry thing to think, how mean people can sometimes be. 
 There were evidently plenty of mean peoijle in the days of Moses ; 
 and there are plenty of them still. Just think of God having to 
 make a law, and to issue a warning, against cursing the deaf and 
 tripping the blind ! It is very humbling that it should have been 
 necessary, and that something of the same kind should be necessary 
 still. 
 
 If you saw a person hurling bad language at another, and wishing 
 him all sorts of evil, and were told, " Oh, he ventures to do that, only 
 because he knows that other person is deaf," you would at once say, 
 What a cowardly and mean thing it is to act like that ! Or if you 
 saw a thoughtless or malicious person deliberately laying a stumbling- 
 block in the way of another, knowing that he was blind and was 
 almost sure to fall over it and be injured, your indignation would be 
 aroused. You would, if possible, remove the obstacle before it had 
 done mischief ; and you would take the earliest ojiportunity of talk- 
 ing with him who laid it there, and giving him " a bit of your mind ! " 
 
 Well, but there are a great many people doing that very sort of 
 thing, only in a different way ; and society does not seem to mind it 
 much, or to put on them any serious mark of its displeasure. There 
 are those who are constantly saying cruel, malicious things about 
 others behind their backs, which they would not dare to say in their 
 hearing. That is just as mean a thing as it would be to curse the 
 deaf ! There are those who are, in mischief, or sometimes from 
 selfish motives, laying traps for others to fall into — doing it so 
 cunningly that they do not jserceive the snare, or know who has set 
 it. That is just as mean as to set a stumblingblock for the blind ! 
 
 Do not take advantage of anybody meanh' ! Do not treat even a 
 dumlj creature — one of the lower animals — unhandsomely, as )'ou 
 would not venture to do it if it could speak and expostulate with 
 you ! " Thou shalt fear thy God : I am the Lord." Many things 
 that escape human observation, and do not come under man's 
 reproach, are seen and noted and will be jjunished by God. Jacob 
 could successfully deceive his blind old father Isaac ; but God had 
 something to say to him, and he sorely suffered afterwards through 
 the deceit of his own children. Haman could cleverly plot in seci'et 
 against poor Mordecai ; but just as he had his gallows ready, he was 
 himself hanged upon it. Ahab could take a heartless advantage of 
 the humble but high-minded and honourable Naboth ; but the dogs 
 afterwards licked his blood in the plot of ground he dishonestly 
 acquired. Modern history is full of similar cases of retribution. 
 Ever live as beneath the all-seeing eye. Verily there is a God that 
 judge th in the earth. And it is with Him, above all others, that we 
 have to do. 
 
 312 
 
Bu npsettillfl Sill. November 7 
 
 " Look not ihuu upon (he wine when it is red" (Prov, xxiii. 31). 
 
 One of the greatest evils of our time, if not the greatest, is the sin 
 of drunkeiniess. And one of tlic most ]:»roinising features f)f our 
 time is the amount of interest that is homg t^iken in this suhject, 
 with a view to reduce, if not to extirpate, the curse. Shrewd heads 
 and loving hearts, both in the Church and in the Parliament, are 
 devising }>lans with that blessed end in A-iew ; and every lover of 
 his race must wish good-speed to every wise and honest ellort toward 
 rescuing society from the blight which drunkenness has brought 
 upon so many lives and so many homes. But the great hope for the 
 future lies ■with you young ])eo])le. Whether you belong to a 
 Temperance Society or not, the nation looks to you as its mighty 
 Band of Hope, — not only because you have hope springing up in 
 your young hearts, and with it high resolve, but because you are 
 our country's hope, to whose character and inllueuce, under God, it 
 looks for better days. 
 
 There has been a great improvement as respects the drinking 
 usages of our land, even since some of us remember, who are not 
 yet very old. And it will fall to you, beginning with yourselves, 
 to promote yet further, by example and effort, the cause of true 
 sobriety in your owii day and generation. May God give you all 
 the wisdom, and firmness, and patience of love which will be needed 
 for the hastening of the day^which seems yet, alas ! so far away — 
 when there shall not l)e any longer such a being as a drunkard 
 known in all our borders ! 
 
 The heading to this day's talk is taken from a quaint prayer which 
 a Negro once offered in a small meeting^ of coloured brethren. " Lord, 
 deliver us from evil," he said, "and especially preserve \is from 
 npsettin' sin ! " " Brudder," remonstrated one of his comrades after- 
 wards, "you ain't got dat ar word. It's ^csettin', not i(2)settin' 
 sin." " Brudder," was the swift rejoinder, " if dat's so, it's so ; but 
 I was speakiu' ob de sin ob 'toxication ; and if that ain't an npsettin' 
 sin, I annuo what am ! " 
 
 That Negro was right. Drunkenness is the besetting sin of 
 imdtitudes. But it is also, by pre-eminence, the upsetting sin. It 
 upsets everything. Not only does it overturn, in a literal sense, and 
 lay low the poor drunkard himself — who ought never to be an object 
 of derisive merriment, but rather of profound compassion, whenever 
 he may stagger across your way. But it upsets family happiness. 
 It upsets character. It ujisets the worthy plans of life. It upsets 
 and renders vain noble ambitions, which might have had a glorious 
 issue in eternity. Beware of the deceitfulness of all sin, but 
 especially of this sin, which has destroved so many, who were of the 
 very flower, as regards qualities of Loth head and heart, of the 
 families and circles to which they belonged. " Wine is a mocker, 
 strong drink is raging ; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not 
 wise. 
 
 313 
 
Novembers IROt Mortb tbC CatlDIC. 
 
 " Ye looked for mueh, and, lo, it came to little" (Hag. i. 9). 
 
 We have liere a powerful description of a laborious Init unsatis- 
 factory life. "Ye have sown much, and bring in little." Yours 
 lias not been an idle life. By no means ; it has Ijeen full of activities 
 of a kind. Yoii have worked, and worried yourself even to 
 weariness. But what is the outcome of all your labour? "You 
 l)ring in little." The harvest out-turn only mocks the sowing. 
 "Ye eat, and drink, but yc have not enough." Yours has not been 
 a life without enjoyments of their kind. But the world's chosen 
 joys could not satisfy your heart. Over all its fountains you 
 have found it written, " He that drinketh of this water shall thirst 
 again." Always " to he blessed," you have gras2:)ed the liower, to find 
 that in the act you have shed its Ijloom. " Ye clothe you, but there 
 is none warm." Your life has Ijeen anything l)ut bare in the 
 ordinary sense. You have been quite surrounded perliaps with 
 what are called " the comforts of life." But somehow they have not 
 l^een able to dispel the chill upon your heart. " He earneth wages, 
 to put it in a bag with holes." Your labour has not gone Avithout 
 recompense altogether. You have got your wages, such as thej' 
 were. But anything you have earned has been far more easily spent. 
 You do not feel yourself one whit the better for it. You are as 
 poor to-day, as one •\\'ho has slipped his money through a hole in the 
 bag in which he sought to treasure it. 
 
 The above, dear young reader, is a correct description of many a 
 life. It is not such a life, I am sure, as you would like yours to be. 
 It can hardly Ije called a life worth living. The game, as the 
 proverb puts it, is not worth the candle. 
 
 " Fifty years," wrote one who was high in station, and they 
 found the writing among his papers after he was gone — "Fifty 
 years I have possessed riches, honours, pleasures, friends : in short, 
 everything that man can desire in this world. I have reckoned up 
 the days in which I could say I was happy ; and they amount to 
 fourteen ! " Something wrong about such a life ! What could it 
 be ? Just this, — that it is not a life which has sought God as its 
 portion, and His glory as its end. And He has " blown upon it " 
 with a breath that has withered it. 
 
 Let yours be a diligent life. Labour as earnestly as one who 
 seeks for hidden treasure. But see to it that you are working in the 
 proper mine — where the true treasure really lies ! All is not gold that 
 glitters. " What can you give for that 1 " said a countryman, laying 
 the contents of his bag upon the taljle of a gold merchant. 
 " Nothing ! " " What ! " he exclaimed, " do you not deal in gold ?" 
 "Yes," said the merchant; "but that is not gold." It was only 
 some yellow cjuartz the man had brought. He had spent his labour 
 for nought and in vain. Let it not be found so with your life, when 
 its results are laid out, and their value computed at the last ! 
 
 314 
 
ZbC ^(n^ful^C6S of (B0^. November 
 
 "Fear not, for Ood hath heard the voice of the lad where he is" (Gen. xxi. 17). 
 
 When the great traveller, Mungo Park, was lying prostrate one day 
 in the desert, overcome with weariness and thirst and on the point 
 of despair, his eye c;uight sight of a little iluweret. Elsewheru it 
 might have gone unnoticed, but the sight of it there l)rouglit him 
 hope. "Little llowor," he said, "does God take care of thee here, 
 and shall my Heavenly Father forget His child 1 " Nerved by the 
 thought that God was near, he pushed on till the oasis was reached 
 at hist. 
 
 Tlic circumstances of Ishmael and his mother were very similar. 
 They were out in the desert — sad, lonely, apparently forsaken, 
 almost in despair. But God was looking on them, and He l^ronght 
 relief. Poor young Ishmael is footsore and hungry— for their little 
 stock of iirovisions has run out — and ho is so ])arched with thirst 
 that he cannot walk another step. His is indeed an evil case. But 
 there are still two things on his side. The one is, a mother's love ; 
 and the other is, the divine compassion. 
 
 Mother-love — what a wonderful thing that is I Surely it is a 
 fragrant floweret strayed from Eden. How it grows and flourishes in 
 the most imlikely places, this tender, holy afl'ection. It was not less 
 genuine and beautiful in the l)reast of Hagar the bondwoman, than in 
 that of Sarah the jirincess. She had ai)parently tried to carry Ishmael 
 for a while ; but he was too big and heavy for that ; and when her 
 strength failed, there M-as nothing for it but to cast him under one 
 of the shruljs. " And the water was spent in the bottle." It wrung 
 her very soul to hear his moans and see his agony. Alas, for the 
 poor distracted mother, sitting over against her gasping, dying lioy ! 
 The world might despise him, but he was everything to her. He 
 had been the hero of all her brightest drecvms. The only time an 
 angel had spoken to her, it was to tell about his mighty future. But 
 there he lay dying. A mother's love had done its best, its all, 
 in vain ! 
 
 Divine coinjxission — that is more tliau mother - love. Hagar's 
 anguish touched something akin to it in the great heart of God ; and 
 though her resources were exhausted. His were not. Unlikely as it 
 might seem, " God heard the voice of the lad." And a tender 
 imjuiry reaches the ear of the poor, bewildered, broken-hearted 
 bondwoman, whose heart was so tender, though her skin was so 
 black — "What aileth thee, Hagar?" Her eyes are opened, and she 
 sees a well of water near. Oh, how gladly she runs and fills the 
 bottle, and puts it to the lips of her dear, dying boy ! And so 
 Ishmael revived, and Hagar lived to be proud of him, as a true son 
 of the desert — rude and wild, perhaps, but undoubtedly great and 
 strong, able to hold his o^\^l with everybody against him, and him 
 against all. " Man's extremity is God's opportunity." You are sure 
 to lie taught sonie time your own helplessness. May you be taught 
 with it the infinite helpfulness of God ! 
 
 315 
 
Novembor 10 OoD XtVCS. 
 
 " Tlie Lord lireth, and blessed he my Roch" (Ps. xviii. 4C). 
 
 A LITTLE girl, wliose iiiotliev was sunk iu grief, crept up to lior 
 side, and startled lier by tlic sudden and auxiuus inquiry, " Is God 
 dead, mother?" It was tlie very message the widow needed. Her 
 child's question had an elfect the innocent prattler had not intended. 
 The mother felt her faithlessness rebuked. She dried her tears. 
 She lifted up her heart to the Heavenly Father iu fervent prayer ; 
 and though her grief was still great and her burden heavy, she 
 found new strength to face the world with, from the timely 
 remembrance that " God lives." 
 
 So was it once with no less a man than Lutlier. He was a man 
 of heroic mould, as everybody knows, and was bold as a lion when 
 confronted by the enemies of the truth. But even he had occasional 
 fits of de2)ression and weakness, from which he found it impossible 
 to rouse himself. The gentle Melancthon was sometimes of great 
 service to him on such occasions. And so was his loving wife, 
 Catherine von Bora. Luther himself tells how successfully, by a 
 quaint device, she stirred him once from his fit of melancholy, 
 
 " At one time I was sorely vexed by my own sinfulness, by the 
 wickedness of the world, and by the dangers that Ijeset the Church. 
 One morning, seeing my wife dressed in mourning, I asked the reason. 
 ' Do you not know,' she said, ' God in heaven is dead ? ' ' What 
 nonsense, Katie,' I exclaimed. ' How can God die ? He is 
 immortal, and will live through all eternity.' ' Is that really true ? ' 
 she asked. ' Of course : how can you doubt it ? As surely as there 
 is a God in heaven, so sure is it that He can never die.' ' And yet,' 
 she said quietly, ' you are so hopeless and discouraged ! ' Then I 
 observed what a wise woman my wife was, and mastered my 
 sadness." 
 
 YVe, too, may have our trials and our seasons of darkness and 
 discouragement. At such times let us remind ourselves that God 
 lives. Tliose who have in Him their Heavenly Father never need 
 despair. Whoever may be taken from us, He never can. " When 
 my father and my mother forsake me, then the LordAvill take me up." 
 He has said, " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." And here 
 is firm footing, though all else may seem like shifting sand. Blessed 
 be my Rock ! In Him there is a refuge and safety for me. In the 
 secret place of the Most High my soul can find l}oth security and 
 comfort, such as the young brood find under their mother's sheltering 
 wing. "He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His 
 wings shalt thou trust." So that you may well exclaim with David, 
 " Let the God of my salvation be exalted ! " 
 
 316 
 
IbCIVCJllfi 2lnnour. November H 
 
 ' ]Vherf/ore, take unto you the whole armour of Ood " (Epli. vi. 13). 
 
 Thr Christian life on earth means hattle. It involves constant 
 conflict. Hence the figure of war, and the conij)arison of the 
 Christian to a soldier, is familiar in the writings of the Apostle 
 Paul, who was himself an experienced olHcer in the ranks. 
 
 Here we have a " call to arms," which teaches us that — 
 
 (1) Armour is needed. It is not for drill merely, or for show 
 on tlie i>arade-ground ; else the apostle Avould be the last to nrge 
 ns to encumber ourselves with it. No ; but he recognises that we 
 are in an enemy's country, where every Christian, however peace- 
 loving, has to be a soldier. And since life is real, life is earnest, 
 Paul summons the believer to prej'are himself for the fight. 
 
 (2) Tlie armour of God is needed. Not what another man may 
 invent and recommend, Init what God Himself provides, is required 
 for protection and victory in such a conflict. For the enemies Ave 
 have to contend against are not merely wicked men, but princi- 
 palities and powers, " wicked spirits in heavenly places," with the 
 devil at their head with all his wiles. And what would human 
 armour be against foes like these ? 
 
 (.3) The whole armour of God is needed ; Avhat one of our hymns 
 literally translates, " the panoply of God." This includes both 
 defensive armour and weapons of attack. And no part of the 
 ]ianoply which God has jirovided can with safety be omitted by us. 
 With foes so wary, no single jioint of advantage must Ije given ; 
 for if but one spot is left unguarded, they are sure to discover the 
 place of weakness, and to operate effectually there. 
 
 It is told of Achilles, the great Greek warrior, that to make 
 his body invulnerable his mother dipped him, when a child, in the 
 Lethe stream. The heel In' which she held him was the one i)art 
 of his body not bathed in the preserving flood. Years passed ; and 
 the brave Achilles was a hero in the strife, and seemed invincible. 
 But his enemy, Paris, fired an arrow one day which shot himji/s< 
 there, in the unprotected heel, to the mighty warrior's undoing. 
 
 Let us then give good heed to the apostolic warning, to put on 
 the u-hole armour of God : the girdle, the breastplate, the sandals, 
 the helmet, for the i)rotection of the body, the feet, the head. 
 And in our hands let there be the shield of a living trust in a 
 living and omnipotent Saviour, and the sharp swurd Ashose l)lade 
 cannot be broken, and v.-ith which Satan was i)ut to flight by the 
 Christ Himself— "the Sword of the Spirit, which is the "Word of 
 God." If this heavenly armour be not only admired b\it really 
 put on by us, and worn and wielded in a sjtirit of cdustant ])rayer- 
 fulness, we shall be more than con(j[uerors, through Him who loved 
 lis, and Avho loves us still. 
 
 5'7 
 
November 12 ©iVitlfl tO (50J). 
 
 *' Of Thine ovm have we given Thee " (1 Chron. xxix. 14). 
 
 These are the words of King David, on a notable occasion towards 
 the close of his reign. To the old King's challenge, " Who then is 
 willing to Jill his hand this day unto the Lord 1 " so large and 
 willing a response has been given toward the future building of the 
 Temple, that David's heart is made right glad. But, while rejoicing 
 in his people's liberality, he turns to Jeliovah and gives Him the 
 praise : blessing Him for both the power and the willingness to 
 give. And he humbly acknowledges, on behalf of himself and the 
 people — " Of Thine own have we given Thee." 
 
 There is a sense in wliich none can give anything to God, 
 because all that we have is His already. Nothing which we call 
 ours can be called our ovm in relation to God — excepting only sin. 
 Everything good, everything v.diich has gone to the enrichment of 
 our life, has been bestowed by Him ; and we are really stewards 
 rather than o■\^^lers of all we hold. 
 
 Yet there is a true sense in which we may ])0. said to give to 
 Him. Suppose a father grants a son a certain allowance, to carry 
 him through college, or to pay his expenses on a business tour, 
 leaving something over for personal enjoyment. If that son denies 
 himself in certain particulars, that he may have the gratification of 
 l)ringing his father home a gift — will the father be likely to flout 
 the offering of love, as "not really a gift at all," since the power to 
 offer it was bestov.-ed by himself ? Surely not. And if earthly 
 fathers know how to receive and appreciate the gifts of their 
 children, though they may be small things in themselves, how much 
 more graciously and tenderly will our Heavenly Father ai:>preciate 
 whatever we bring to Him out of a loving heart ? 
 
 David may here teach us at least two things about giving. The 
 first is, tliat it is a duty to be discharged " with an upright heart." 
 It is to be honourably clone. We must never deal meanly with 
 God, as those do who secretly ask — " How little can I afford to give ? " 
 and who fall back on all sorts of petty devices for saving their 
 pockets. The second thing is, that giving to God is a privilege to 
 be welcomed with a joyful heart. The people, with their king, 
 offered willingly. Giving was for them not a harsh or eA^en a 
 prosaic duty merely, but a joy. All their heart went with it. It 
 was to them not a tax, but a privilege. 
 
 "Freely ye have received; freely give." Yoii have sometimes 
 felt very happy in giving something to father or mother. Do you 
 ever claim the happiness of giving to One who deserves of you 
 even more than they ? Act upon these two counsels about giving 
 to God, and you will never regret it : — (1) Begin early. You have 
 not much to give 1 But God greatly values even a little gift, if it 
 is the token of a great love. (2) Continue to give " as the Lord shall 
 prosper you." As you grow richer, enlarge your gifts. Beware of a 
 growing purse and a contracting heart. 
 
 318 
 
Our /nbarcblng OrDers, November 13 
 
 " Go ye into all the world, and jM-ench the gospel to every creature " 
 (Mark xvi. 15). 
 
 If our countiy were engaged iu a great foreign war, every loyal 
 and intelligent citizen would take some personal interest in the 
 progi-ess of the British arms ahi'oad. And if. you knew some of the 
 soldiers or officers personally, you would be very likely to take up 
 your newspaper with some eagerness, to inform yourself tabout their 
 movements and about the course of the campaign. 
 
 Now the Church of Christ has a great foreign enterprise on 
 hand — a war not intended to destroy men's lives, but to save them. 
 The soldiers are the missionaries — men and women who have gone 
 forth with the Word of God in their hands and something of Christ's 
 OAvn love within their hearts, to win the world for Him. This is 
 a great campaign, in which you should take a lively interest ; and 
 one good way of stirring yourself up to do this, will be to take 
 every opportunity of getting to know the soldiers, the missionaries, 
 for yourself, and of hearing what they have to tell, when they come 
 home "on furlough," about the successes or disappointments of the 
 war. 
 
 Nor are you only to take a general kind of interest in the matter, 
 as a bystander and onlooker might. But you must remember that 
 the work of foreign missions is one in which you are called to have 
 a personal share. The Lord of the Church, the Captain of our 
 salvation, looks to you to do whatever you can, by your prayers, by 
 your gifts, — it may be by the gift of yourself, — to carry forward 
 this great cause to victory. Who knows but some of my young 
 readers may yet have their names inscribed on what is, in some 
 respects, the noblest roll on earth — the roll of the great missionaries 
 of the Cross ? 
 
 There are those who try to laugh at foreign mission work, calling 
 it a failure and a waste of men and means. Some of them have 
 lived abroad, and they pretend to be very sagacious on the subject, 
 though they probably have seen nothing of the work, and have 
 never taken the trouble to cross the street to enter a missionary 
 college or school or church. 
 
 But facts are against them. Much has been accomplished 
 through foreign missions ; and more has been prej^ared for. And 
 whatever lie the difficulties of the work and the sneers of its 
 opponents, what the Church has to go by is the word of command 
 issued by her great Commander. Here is His claim — "All jiower 
 is given unto Me in heaven and on earth." Here is His commission 
 — " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
 creature." Here His is consolation — " Lo, I am with you always." 
 Hear Him, whatever others say. If you hear a professing Christian 
 at any time running down foreign missions, say to him, as the Duke 
 of Wellington, in similar circumstances, said— "What are your 
 niarcliing orders, sir ? AVhat are your marching orders ? " 
 
 319 
 
November 14 ^SaD COlHS, 
 
 ' ' Reprobate silver shall men call them " (Jer. vi. 30). 
 
 This is said of the wicked ; and it is true of them, " because the 
 Lord hath rejected them." They are like the dross merely, which 
 the refiner has sej^arated from the precious metal. Or they are like 
 false counterfeit coins, which are refused, because they have not 
 the genuine ring about them. 
 
 In the Bank of England, there is a delicately-balanced scale 
 for recei^dng sovereigns, and testing Avhether they are of the proper 
 weight or not. Down the sovereigns are dropped upon it by a 
 machine, in a continuous stream, and every one of them is imjjar- 
 tially dealt with by the scale. If it is of standard weight, it is 
 passed into one Ijox ; if it is of light weight, it is retained in another 
 Ijox upon tlie other side. That instrument may make us think of 
 the test which God applies to every human soul. Far more 
 unerringly than any machine which man could devise. He who is 
 the Judge of all the earth pronounces upon the life and character of 
 each of us, and deals with us accordingly. The Apostle Paul, in 
 view of this, calls upon lis to examine ourselves, to prove our own 
 selves ; not to wait till the Judgment Day for testing and for judg- 
 ment, lest in that great day, when too late to make a better of it, 
 we should be found reprobate (2 Cor. xiii. 5). 
 
 It is not only the weight of coins, but the quality of them, that is 
 of importance ; and the banks have their own ways of testing this 
 also. Besides the scientific methods of " assaying " or trying the 
 precious metals, there is the popular way of testing coins by striking 
 them on the table or the counter, to see what sort of sound they give 
 out. Anybody who has travelled in Spain knows well about the 
 apj)lication of this test. You cannot buy an article in a shop 
 there without the shopkeeper, in the most matter-of-fact way, taking 
 the coins you oft'er him by way of j^ayment and testing them upon 
 liis counter before he will receive them. If you are not very wary 
 in accepting your change from him and others, it is more than 
 likely that you will have quite a collection of " reprobate " coins to 
 carry away with you, when you leave the Peninsula. But God can 
 never be left with false coins upon His hands : He unerringly 
 detects and rejects them. 
 
 That was a clcA-er device by which Constantinc, when he came 
 to the throne, sifted the characters of those about him. Finding a 
 number of professing Christians in office, he issued a decree recpxiring 
 all such to renounce their faith or to resign their positions. Many of 
 them valued conscience more than place ; but some Avere base 
 enough to renounce Christianity, in obedience to what they supposed 
 to be the imperial will. Constantine, however, retained the first in 
 office, and dismissed these others. He knew thcj were not to be 
 trusted. They were not genuine men, but "roiirobate silver," 
 
Swifter tban tbC ^TClCflrapb. November 18 
 
 " So I prayed to the Gotl of Iicaven" (Nch. ii. 4). 
 
 The |irayer of which Ncheniiah here speaks was offered in very 
 peculiar circumstances, and must liavo been a very brief one. Ho 
 was stivnding in the i)resenee of King Artaxerxes as the King's cup- 
 bearer ; and it was between the putting uf a (juestion to him by the 
 King and las answering it tliat he sent his prayer up to the God of 
 heaven and got His answer back. "Was not that swifter than the 
 telegraph ? 
 
 You remember the circumstances. Nehemiah was in deep 
 distress at the news that had reached him about the condition of 
 Jerusalem and the remnant of his people there. For days he had 
 been weeping and fasting and praying over it ; and his grief liad 
 begun to tell on his countenance. The King at length had noticed 
 it, and had asked the reason for it in a tone that had struck terror 
 to Nehemiah 's heart. " Then was I very sore afraid." For a cuj)- 
 bc;irer to go into the royal presence with a woe-begone face was a 
 serious offence, which might lead to sore punishment, or even death. 
 But Nehemiah manages to stammer out an explanation, which was 
 intended as his apology too. And the King is not only appeased, 
 but, moved to sympathy, asks, " For ^^■hat dost thou make request?" 
 So I prayed to the God of heaven. 
 
 Nehemiah had a rec[uest to make to Artaxerxes. But before 
 stating it, he wisely took counsel with the King of kings, and by an 
 11 Inward desire besought God that his words might be well chosen 
 words, and might have the effect he yearned for on the mighty 
 despot's heart. And so, when Nehemiah immediately stilted his 
 wish and plan to Artaxerxes, his prayer w^as answered — " And the 
 King granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me." 
 The way by heaven was really the shortest way to reach and move 
 the consent of the King in whose very presence lie was standing, and 
 who was looking to him for an immediate answer ! 
 
 Do you ever pray short prayers to God ? Prayer is not to be 
 hurried over in ordinary circumstances. But there are times when 
 a brief word may be all that is either needful or possible ; and it is 
 a great thing to know that God " hears the desire of the humble." 
 We are not heard for our much speaking. There may be more 
 prayer compressed into a word or two than in long drawn-out 
 repetitions that have little or no heart in them. Even on the street 
 and among a crowd you may send up a petition to heaven in a 
 moment and get an answer back. 
 
 " How do you know your kite is there ? " asked a gentleman at 
 a little boy who, on a foggy day, was sitting on a doorstep with a 
 string in his hand that stretched upward till it seemed lost in the 
 sky. "Because I feel it pull," he replied. There is communica- 
 tion between God and us. "We know that He hears us. And we 
 know it, not only because we feel it, but because we get answers 
 back, on the invisible telegraph between our souls and heaven. 
 
 (2l) 321 
 
November 16 SF)C Qlvue \Din^. 
 
 " / am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman " (Joliu xv. 1). 
 
 By the true Vine and its branches, as this chapter explains, is 
 meant Jesus and all the hearts that are united to Him by faith. 
 Have you ever seen a vine ? In this country they are generally to 
 be found in hothouses. But in Palestine they grow outside. 
 Perhaps a fair vine trellis overhung the window of the very room 
 where Jesus and His disciples sat. And certainly the Vine of which 
 He sjDoke is not a hothouse tree, but one which is planted out in the 
 world, and which has sent its boughs unto the sea and its branches 
 unto the river, spreading its growth in every land. 
 
 Much care is needed with a vine if there is to be much fruit. 
 A gardener will tell yon that every separate branch has to be fed, 
 guided, pruned, watered, and shone upon, if it is to contribute 
 its share to the vintage. 
 
 (1) It has to he fed. So there must be a free flow of sap from 
 stem to branch. If you were to tie a string very tight round any 
 branch, it would be most injurious, and the gardener would at once 
 remove it. 
 
 (2) It has to be guided, else it will go in wrong directions, 
 and perhaps get hurtfuUy intertwined with the other branches. So 
 the gardener is careful to train each branch on its proper trellis, that 
 both it and the others may have a fair chance of growth. 
 
 (3) It has to be pruned, else its growth may run to wood, and 
 though it may have great apj)eai'ance of leaf and fruit, there will be 
 but sour and crabbed grapes. So the gardener is careful to "weed" 
 the branches, and with his sharp knife to cut the superfluous wood 
 away. 
 
 (4) It has to be cleansed, else the dust and the vermin will soon 
 spoil its fair appearance, and leave little hope of fruit. So the 
 gardener takes his syringe and plentifully besprinkles it with water 
 in due season. 
 
 (5) It has to be shone ^ii)on, else it will be at most a poor sickly 
 thing, with a life scarce worth calling life. So the gardener attends 
 to "the exposure," and sees to it that none of the branches are 
 without the ojiportunity of abundant sunshine. 
 
 Dear young reader, may you be a true branch engrafted by faith 
 into the True Vine. Let no bond of unbelief or evil habit interfere 
 ^vith the free flow of His grace into your sdul. Pray God to guide 
 the growth of your young life aright. Be content that He should 
 curb your pride and naughtiness, even if need be by the kind though 
 keenly-cutting knife. Ask for daily cleansing from the defilement 
 of the world and the vermin of evil thoughts which prey upon the 
 soul. And, sprinkled by Him with clean water, let it be yours 
 never to hide from the Sun. Then will you not only have life, but 
 have it more abundantly. Instead of being a withered branch, fit 
 only for the burning, you will bear much fruit ; and the Divine 
 Husbandman, the Father, will be glorified. 
 
 323 
 
CrO00ing tbC "KiVCf. Noveml>er 17 
 
 " When thou passesl through the waters, I am with thee" (Isa. xliii, 2). 
 
 God's children have often to go through deei) waters of afllictiou 
 on their journey to the Better Land. Sometimes they come to a 
 stream so deep and dark that tlicy do not know how they are ever 
 to get over it. But if God does not In-ing tliem to a bridge, He 
 finds for them a ford ; and even if the waters are so great as to 
 threaten to carry them away, He takes them by the hand, or, if 
 need be, carries them tlirough. 
 
 Tliere is one river, described as "Death's cold, sullen stream," 
 over which each of us must one day pass, and, so far as earthly 
 friends are concerned, must pass alone. That is a stream over 
 which no bridge has been thrown, or can be throwTi, by nian. To 
 try to cross it on any frail structure of baseless hope that man 
 might rear would mean most certain doom. Nay, we cannot bridge 
 it ; we must needs " pass through." And the friends who love us 
 most can only comfort us, at farthest, down to the river-brink. 
 
 A great many people are sadly afraid of that river. Even 
 children of God are sometimes unable to shake off the burden of 
 dread at the prospect of having to cross it. But it is wonderful 
 how, when death actually comes, dying grace is given to such, 
 and all their tremors disappear. God's "fear not" brings blessed 
 comfort to the soul, just when it most is needed. 
 
 So was it with Christian, you remember, in the Pilgrim^ 
 Progress. As he and Hopefid were crossing the river, Christian 
 began to despond, and then to sink ; and Hopeful " had much ado 
 to keep his brother's head above water." But Christian suddenly 
 caught a glimpse of Jesus, and heard Him speak. And then he 
 found footing, and the rest of the way was shallow ; and thus they 
 got over to the glorious welcome of the Celestial City. 
 
 So was it too with that true-hearted but tremulous pilgrim, Mr. 
 Fearing, in the second part of the Progress. We read that "when 
 he was come at the river where there was no bridge, there again 
 he was in a heavj' case." But what was the result? Something 
 " very remarkable," as Bunyan calls it, yet by no means uncormnon. 
 " The water of that river was lower at this time than ever I saw 
 it in all my life ; so he went over at last, not much above wet-shod." 
 
 " There are our loved ones in their rest ; 
 They've crossed Time's river, — now no more 
 They heed the bubbles on ita breast, 
 Nor feel the storms that sweep its shore. 
 But there pure love can live, can last, 
 They look for us their home to share ; 
 Wlien we, in turn, away have passed, 
 What joyful greetings wait us there, 
 Across the river ! " 
 
 323 
 
November 18 Siii'S SJittcr 3frnif* 
 
 " So he drove out the man" (Gen. iii. 24). 
 
 There is sometliiug, dear young people, wliicli follows siu as closely 
 as your shadow follows you, and that is misery. We find this 
 illustrated very plainly in the case of our first parents. Satan had 
 persuaded them of the advantages that ■would come to them from 
 the little act of disobedience to God which he recommended. But 
 their dream of larger good was quickly broken. The fruit seemed 
 very sweet for the moment ; but it soon turned to ashes. They 
 knew evil now, indeed ; but, alas, it almost seemed as if they never 
 would know good again. 
 
 Sin brought with it (1) shame. Adam and Eve forthwith felt 
 that they were creatures that needed to be covered from sight. 
 They could not bear to be seen now by one another, for innocence 
 was gone. Much less could they bear to be seen by God. With 
 shame came also (2) fear. Before, they had known only the fear 
 of trustful reverence, such as you have toward your father ; and 
 when the Lord God used to come to Paradise, their delight had 
 been to run to meet Him. But conscience makes a coward of the 
 sinner. For the fear of the cliild, they have now the fear of the 
 criminal or the slave. And, see ! they flee to hide themselves 
 from Him whose coming used to be their joy. And they justly 
 fear, for sin has brought with it (3) curse. Called from their leafy 
 covert, guilty and trembling, into the presence of Jehovah, the 
 wretched pair learn that God's threats are true, and that punish- 
 ment must follow sin. Faltering excuses are vain. Not only 
 is the serpent cursed, but man's life is blighted. The very ground 
 is cursed for his sake. Adam and his wife, and all who come of 
 them, are to be acquainted now with pain and toil and death. 
 And, last but not least, sin brings with it (4) banishment. "So 
 He drove out the man." What a terrible word that is, and what 
 a sad day ! Sad, because of the outcast place, and toilsome, guilty 
 life they were driven to. Sad, because it was He who drove them 
 out — He, their Father, their Best Friend, the sweetness of whose 
 love they had known, and from whom even a harsh word would 
 once have seemed heart-breaking to them. Drove them out — that 
 was what He did now ; and they knew in their hearts that He 
 could do nothing less. 
 
 What wretchedness sin brings with it ! It is the worst of 
 blunders, as well as a crime. The life of banishment from God 
 is a dreary, desolate life. And there is this additional element 
 of misery, that man driven from Paradise cannot find his own way 
 back again. The ways seems hopelessly and for ever barred to his 
 api^roach. But God amid wrath remembers mercy. He gives a 
 gospel promise, as one ray of light amid the gloom. The sword 
 of justice bars the entrance to the earthly Eden. But it is a sceptre 
 of grace which is stretched from the Mercy Seat, and invites us to 
 enter the better Paradise. 
 
 324 
 
■Reepltlfl BOUr ITcmper. November 19 
 
 •' .1 soft ansioer turneth away wrath" (Prov. xv. 1). 
 
 A MissiONAHY in Jamaica was expounding in a Sunday school the 
 text, " Blessed are tlie meek, for they shall inherit the earth." He 
 put tlie question, "Who are the meek?" and a little black hoy 
 answered very well, " Those who give soft answers to rough words." 
 
 It is said in the Book of Proverbs, that he who ruleth his spirit 
 is better than he who taketh a city ; and one important element 
 in ruling your spirit is to "keep your temper" well. There are 
 very wrong notions abroad about temper. It is sometimes said 
 of a person, " That is a man with a great deal of temper," or, " That 
 is a verv strong-tempered woman," when the very opposite is the 
 truth. )PoT what is "temper"? You will find, if you think of 
 its meaning, or consult the dictionary, that it is ability "to mix 
 propei'ly," "to moderate," "to soften.'' It is the person who has 
 his emotions well in hand, and not the one whose anger is uncon- 
 trolled, that should be called a person with a strong temper. And 
 so a boy or a gix'l who is ready to Uy into a passion over every trifle, 
 instead of being a " high-temperea " boy or girl, should be pitied 
 for having a poor temper, a feeble power of self-control. 
 
 Wo should not only seek to curb our own angry feelings, but 
 try to enable others to do the same. There are people who are 
 afflicted with a very excitable and irascible nature. They are like 
 one of the "geysers" I have heard of in Iceland, which is said to 
 send forth boiling water whenever a clod of earth or even a bunch 
 of grass is thrown at it. The very least provocation calls forth a 
 Hood of hot, scalding, angry feeling. We should not play upon 
 this weakness, but rather help those afflicted with it to overcome it. 
 
 " A soft answer turneth away wrath." This was often illustrated 
 in Bible times. You remember how eft'ectually Gideon by his soft 
 answer turned away the anger of the fierce men of Ephraim, when 
 " they did chide with him sharply " for not giving them a chance 
 of joining him in the victory over Midian ? And how Abigail by 
 her soft words calmed down the wrath of David, when he had vowed 
 to destroy not only the churlish Nabal, but all the males of his 
 house ? It was a notable instance of " keeping the temper," too, 
 when Paul answered quietly to the rude interrujjtion of Festus, " I 
 am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth 
 and soberness." 
 
 The person who "loses his temper" in a dispute is, in nine 
 cases out of ten, the one who is in the wrong and is getting the 
 worst of it. Victory lies with him who rules his spirit. The well- 
 known missionary Francis Xavier, a man of great zeal and warmth 
 of nature, was addressing a Japanese crowd, wlieu one of his hearers 
 came forward professedly to whisjier something in his ear. When 
 Xavier bent down his head to listen, the man spat in his face. But 
 the missionary, wiping his face calmly with his handkerchief, went 
 on with his address, and earned not the contempt but the admira- 
 tion of the crowd thereby. It was only one of many similar victories 
 won by the followers of Him who " when He was reviled, reviled 
 not again." Would you not like to win some such victories too ? 
 
November 20 ZO Wbat Iputpose ? 
 
 "To U'luU purjwsct" (Jer. vi. 20, and Matt. xxvi. 8), 
 
 In the first case (Jer. vi. 20), it is God who puts the question, 
 concerning some who tried to j^ass themselves off as very religious 
 people, though in reality their hearts were far away from God. 
 They brought incense from Sheba, and sweet cane from a far 
 country, and they tried to make their sacrifices fragrant. But they 
 were all the time living in sin. They did not hearken to God's 
 law, but rejected it. Therefore He says of their worship — To what - 
 purpose is it ? " Your burnt-off"erings are not acceptable, nor your 
 sacrifices sweet unto me." 
 
 In the other case (Matt. xxvi. 8), the question is put by human 
 lips, concerning an act of true devotion to Christ, which to some of 
 the onlookers seemed a very foolish piece of useless extravagance. 
 It was Judas, as John's Gospel tells, who gave utterance to the 
 expostulation about Mary's deed of love, when she anointed the 
 feet of Jesus with her costly spikenard, so that the house and the 
 world were filled with the odour of the ointment. But there were 
 others besides him, some of the true-hearted yet mistaken disciples, 
 in whose hearts the question was rising up — " To what purpose is 
 this waste ? " And He who read Mary's heart, and who knew His 
 own future too, told them that, whatever they might be disposed 
 to think, Mary's offering was not useless extravagance. " She hath 
 wrought a good work on Me," He said ; " for in that she hath poured 
 this ointment on My body, she did it for My burial." 
 
 Thus in the one instance we have men who thought well of 
 themselves, and were regarded by others perhaps as religious people, 
 bringing their rich offerings from afar ; yet God says of them, " To 
 what purpose ? " In the other case we find a humble, grateful soul, 
 thinking nothing of herself but everything of her Saviour, bringing 
 her alabaster box of very precio^is ointment to pour it on His head. 
 And though others, in a strain of superior virtue, exclaim, " To what 
 purpose ?" — she is accepted of the Lord. 
 
 He that searches the heart knows exactly to what purpose we 
 are living, and to what end every single action of our lives is really 
 directed. Let us all see to it that we are living (1) to a purpose. 
 An aimless, drifting life is an unworthy, ignoble life. (2) To a 
 good purpose. If this be not so, we are debasing ourselves and 
 squandering oiir opportunities ; and the greater our success along 
 that line, the worse will our failure be. (3) To the best purpose : to 
 tlie glory of God and the good of men. A noble aim, patiently and 
 jiersistently followed, is the secret of true worthiness in any life. 
 No matter what niche of honour we may fill, it will be no place of real 
 honour for us, if we are not laying out our energies and ojiportunities 
 for Christ. There was a valuable lesson, rather grimly taught, by 
 that most jiurposef ul man Oliver Cromwell, upon seeing twelve silver 
 images perched round the walls of a certain church. Being in- 
 formed that they represented the twelve apostles, he exclaimed — 
 " Take them down and melt them into the coinage of the realm, 
 that, like their Master, they may go about in society doing good " ! 
 
 326 
 
"Cdatcr from tbe TROCft. November 21 
 
 "Smite the rock, and thne shnU come water out of it " (Ex. xvii. 6). 
 
 Do yoii ever thank God for the water you drink ? Perhaps you 
 thank Ilim for your food, and ask Ilis blessing witli it. But water 
 is such a very " common " blessing in our country, that we take it as 
 a thing of course, and hardly ever think of it as a gift from God. 
 Yet if it were withheld from you for two days or so, you would 
 value it more than almost anything else ; and if it were kept from 
 you much longer than that, you woidd lose your senses and go 
 (juite mad. 
 
 Extreme thirst is even more hard to bear than severe hunger. 
 So many a poor traveller in the desert has found, and many a shiji- 
 wrecked sailor on a raft. If all tlie gold in the world were offered 
 to such in one hand and a cup of cold water in the other, they 
 would, 'R'ithout a moment's hesitation, choose the water. Kemember 
 this, next time you are thirsty and " get a drink " from the well ! 
 
 The Israelites were terrible grumblers, and they behaved very 
 badly to Moses at this time under the torture of thirst. They had 
 not learned the lesson of faith yet, but in the hour of need could 
 only grumble, and threaten, and sink into despair. But we must 
 not be too hard on these parched travellers either, remembering the 
 extremity of anguish they were under. You recollect that, when 
 Jesus was on the Cross, the one thing, so far as bodily suffering was 
 concerned, which called from Him an expression of distress was, not 
 the pain of the thorns or of the nail-points, but this — " I thirst." 
 And God had pity on the Israelites. For He is a kind Father ; and 
 He told Moses that as He had supplied them with plenty of food, 
 He would enable him to give them plenty of water too. 
 
 What a scene followed on the smiting of the rock by Moses, at 
 the bidding of Jehovah ! Murillo, the great Spanish j^ainter, has 
 tried to picture it in what is deemed one of the greatest paintings 
 in the world. You see the great rock with the limpid, living stream 
 gushing from it, and Moses standing by, looking up in thankfidness 
 to heaven, Avhile the people, with eager faces, are stooping to drink, 
 and to fill all manner of jars with the precious water. There are 
 old men and women, and fathers and mothers, and fainting hojs 
 and girls, and even little children holding out their arms to get a 
 share. 
 
 Are not these thirsty Israelites, travelling to Canaan, a picture of 
 you and me as i)ilgrims upon earth ? This world cannot satisfy our 
 .soul's thirst. Like the Psalmist David, we thirst "for God, the 
 living God." His presence. His favour. His Sivlvation, His love is 
 what we long for, and must have, if our souls are to be satisfied. 
 And have we not in the Smitten Rock a picture of Christ (1 Cor. 
 X. 4) ? From Him, as stricken upon Calvary, there flows the stream 
 of life. In the frecness with which the water was given to the 
 people at Horeb, you may behold the freeness of gospel lilessing. 
 All kinds of people have flocked to the gospel fountain — and not in 
 vain. Are you thirsty ? Then come and take. The offer is free 
 to all. No price is asked. " Let him that is athirst, come ! " 
 
 3V 
 
November 22 B Quccit wbo l05t atiD Ficpt bct Crovvn. 
 
 "But the Queen Vashti refused" (Esth. i. 12). 
 
 You remember the story of the fair young Queen, who was the 
 darling of the great King Ahasuerus, till one day she lost her 
 cro-mi by refusing to do what she believed to be Avrong. It was 
 nearing the end of a seven days' feast at Shushan the palace ; and 
 the King's heart was merry with wine. He was proud of the beauty 
 of Queen Vashti ; and he suddenly bethought him that it would 
 add zest to the entertainment, if he sent for her and displayed her 
 charms to the assembled princes. Now, to stand unveiled in the 
 presence of men was counted a deep dishonour by pure women in the 
 East. And " the Queen Vashti refused to come." Therefore, she lost 
 her earthly crown. But she kept a better — the crown of her virtue 
 and raodestj', and self-respect. 
 
 There are various lessons for us from this story. 
 
 1. Hoio fickle is the favour of the world ! King Ahasuerus no doubt 
 had professed great love for Vashti. But he was selfish and 
 whimsical in his affection for her. She was little more to him than 
 a mere toy, to be played with at his pleasure. And so when she 
 crossed his wishes his pride was hurt ; and he cast her aside like 
 an old shoe. How different it is with another King — one Jesus ! 
 If you are His, if your soul is married to Him by faith, if you have 
 committed yourself to His care and keeping, nothing shall be able 
 to separate you from His love. Get His favour, and let the world, if 
 need be, go ! 
 
 " Earthly friends may fall and leave us, 
 This day soothe, the next day grieve us, 
 But this Friend will ne'er deceive us : 
 how He loves ! " 
 
 2. Hoio well it is to keep the conscience clean ! Vashti went down 
 to the grave a poorer woman, after the incident that evening in 
 Shushan, with no crown upon her head. But she had a better right 
 than before to hold her head erect ; for she had shown herself pre- 
 pared to give up everything, rather than have her conscience 
 wounded and defiled. She might have said in her humble retire- 
 ment afterwards, what a general A\'ho had fought a good fight but 
 had been defeated wrote home as his despatch — "All is lost but 
 honour." We may learn from her to suff"er anything rather than 
 sacrifice honour and self-respect. Be true to God and conscience, 
 no matter what it may seem to cost. If a prize at school or in after 
 life can be obtained, if a j^ost at school or in the world can be 
 kept, only at the expense of honour — do not pay for it so dear a 
 price ! Remember Vashti. Be like Sidney when he was told 
 that by denying his handwriting he could save his life. "When 
 God so places me," lie said, " that I must either tell a lie or lose 
 my life. He gives me a plain indication of duty." Vashti was not 
 really a loser by what she did, and her resolute conduct was over- 
 ruled by God for good. It was indirectly through her courage that 
 Esther l^ecame Queen ; and she through Ilsther became the deliverer 
 of the whole Jewish people. 
 
 328 
 
%eb at Cbrfsrs CbarfOt TKflbcel. November 23 
 
 " To the one (he sawur of death unto death; to the other tht savour o/ h'/e 
 unto life" (2 Cor. ii. M-16). 
 
 The picture sn.cigosted in tlicse versos is one wliich the inhabitants 
 of a Roman Colony like Corinth would readily appreciate. The 
 •words would bring vividly before them a .'^cene they might have 
 witnessed in Rome, or which they had often read of at least in the 
 annals of their nation's history. 
 
 A victorious general has just returned from a foreign war ; and 
 the Senate has awarded him a triumphal entry to the city. In a 
 chariot drawn by four horses, he is piussing in State along the Via 
 Sacra to the Capitol, there to offer sacrifices to the gods. The whole 
 population are in holiday attire, and crowd the sides of the pathway 
 or follow the army, chanting songs of victory. Behind the general 
 march his victorious troops, with their military standards at their 
 head. In front of him are led the prisoners of war. And on either 
 side of him, as the procession moves along, the incense-bearers 
 scatter fragrance on his path. Incense likewise smokes on every 
 altar, and every image is adorned with garlands. 
 
 When the procession, headed by the Senate, reaches the foot of the 
 Capitoline Hill, those of the captives who have been condemned to 
 death are singled forth to meet their doom. To them, as we can 
 well understand, the mirth of the day is melancholy, and the music 
 of the trumpeters a dirge. The incense of the waving censers has 
 no sweet fragrance for them. They know its significance all too 
 well. In their nostrils its savour is " a savour unto death." 
 
 With the captives who are bein" spared how different ! Tliey, 
 too, have perhaps been dreading death. But in clemency their 
 lives are given to them : they are saved from the fate they feared. 
 And there is music for them in the songs of jubilation that rend the 
 air. There is fragrance for them in the incense which is being 
 scattered — and which some of them may have been appointed to 
 scatter — round the chariot in its onMard path. Its savour is for 
 them "a savour unto life." 
 
 Paul here rejoices that God always " leads him in triumph (E. V.) 
 in Christ." He is a willing captive in the train of the triumphal 
 progress of the great Captain of Salvation. He is a prisoner of 
 nope. Yes ; and he is privileged to be an incense-bearer, scattering 
 altroad on every side the knowledge of the name and the love of the 
 Redeemer. But this is for him a thought of much solemnity, that 
 those who hear the gospel will be cither a great deal l)ettcr or a 
 great deal worse for it. Christ must reign. He reigns over the 
 willing hearts of those who accept the message of salvation. He 
 will crush beneath His feet those who despise and reject it, and 
 thereby deejien their own condemnation. If not a savour of life, 
 the gospel will be to them the savour of death unto death. 
 
 329 
 
November 24 B /iftcmbet ot tbe Brfstoctacg. 
 
 " But let him that glwieth glory in this " (Jer. ix. 23, 24). 
 
 It is counted a great distinction to belong to the aristocracy — whom 
 the dictionary, I see, defines as " the nobility or chief persons in a 
 State." But there is more than one type of aristocracy. Four kinds 
 are mentioned by Jeremiah here ; and of the four he singles out one, 
 as that to which it is of by far the greatest consequence to belong. 
 If you belong to it, he says, you may well glory ; but not 
 otherwise. 
 
 (1) First there is the aristocracy of learning. Now it is a great 
 thing to be learned and wise ; yet it is not a thing to be gloried in. 
 The man is foolish who, because he knoAvs a little more than his 
 neighbour, yields to the temptation to intellectual pride. Why, a 
 pin-point driven in upon his brain any day might reduce him to the 
 level of the veriest driveller. He may have in his hand a few shells 
 more than others have gathered upon the shore of the great ocean of 
 truth. But what are they, where the ocean is so wide ! Moreover, 
 ■when we think how little mere wisdom in the worldly sense can do 
 for a man's character, leaving it possible for him to be " the greatest, 
 wisest, meanest of mankind," we must seek for something better than 
 this to glory in. 
 
 (2) Then there is the aristocracy of poioer. Now it is something 
 to be in any true sense a mighty man. Power is a great endow- 
 ment. The heart of man naturally coA^ets it, and in so doing 
 suggests the jjlace of dominion in which God set him at the first. But 
 there is might — aiid might. And even the power of a Napoleon, resting 
 upon force, — through which he had at one time all Europe prostrate 
 at his feet, — was a poor thing to glory in ; as he had often to confess 
 to himself, with bowed head and bitter heart, while he gazed 
 despondently across the sea from the rocky prison he was never 
 more to leave. Let not the mighty man glory in his might ! 
 
 (3) Then there is the aristocracy of wealth. Now, riches justly 
 acquired and generously used may be a great boon. But sought as 
 an end, and valued as the chief good, they will l)e a curse rather 
 than a blessing, as they have been to many a wealth-blighted, 
 shrivelled soul. Be he never so rich, the rich man had better not 
 glory in his riches. For even if they do not take -wings to them- 
 selves and flee away, the day will assuredly come when he Avill be 
 compelled to feel that mere riches are a sorry portion to glory in. 
 
 (4) There remains one more — the aristocracy of faith. Seek a 
 l^lace among fhein, urges Jeremiah in the name of God. Wisdom — 
 power— wealth — what can they do for us, after all, in the great 
 moments of existence ? With guilt behind us, sin Avithin us, sorrow 
 hanging over us, eternity before us, we need more than these as 
 children of immortality. " Let him that glorietli glory in this — that 
 he u.nderstande h and knoweth Me." The soul can safely make its 
 boast only in od. To be able to say of Him — " I know Him ; 
 He is mine," is something to glory in. He that glorietli, let him 
 glory in the Lord ! 
 
Sttrrtng up tbe Best. November 25 
 
 " As an eagle slirreth up her nest . , , so (he Lord " (Deut. xx.xii. 11, 12). 
 
 These words occur in the remarkable " .s\van song " or farewell ode of 
 JIosos, tlic man of God. He lias been recalling the doilings of 
 Jehovah toward His people, and pointing them to the noble end He 
 has in view for them in all His discipline. And, with a sudden 
 bold flight of poetic fancy, suggested perhaps l^y the lordly career of 
 an eagle swoo])ing overhead as he spoKc, toward the dark neighbour- 
 ing range of Nebo, the prophet exclaims — "As an eagle stirreth up 
 her nest, iluttereth over her young, spreadcth abroad her wings, 
 taketh them, beareth them on her Avings, so the Lord." 
 
 Here we have a beautiful picture of the way in which the Lord 
 kindly and patiently educates His people for a higher life. Look at 
 the scene described ! 
 
 The eagle's fledglings have all along enjoyed her tenderest 
 solicitude. The bird of prey, stem and pitiless as she may seem to 
 others, is only gentleness to them. The fierceness of her swoop as 
 she descends upon her \T[ctims is changed into the placidity of 
 all'ection as she glides down upon her young brood, to feed and 
 cherish them. For is she not their mother, \uio has brooded them 
 into life, nestled them in comfort, met all their opening and ex- 
 ] landing wants, even at the cost of stint and hardship to herself. 
 They have early come to know, to trust, to love her as their dearest 
 friend. Her presence has been the one great joy in their little, 
 uneventful life. Even her absences, they know, have been devoted 
 to their good. Yet the time has seemed long when she wa.s away, 
 and they have been ever ready to welcome her return with " tumult 
 of acclaim." So the days pass by ; and the eaglets live on in their 
 high nest in peace, and never dream of danger. 
 
 But lo ! one day their mother's mien is strangely altered. 
 Sailing swiftly down upon them, she carries nothing to them in lier 
 talons as of yore, but in seeming fierceness strikes with theni swift 
 and deep into the nest. The well-built structure yields : it is 
 stirred to its very heart. Twigs, leaves, feathers, scattered over the 
 ledge, are all that is left to tell of the once snug and happy home ; 
 and the bewildered eaglets find themselves sprawling in the air, 
 trying with poor success to bear themselves iip for dear life's sake 
 on their unpractised wings. But now see the mother-bird, how 
 tenderly she flutters over them — taking hold of this one as in its 
 very eagerness it is j'ust going to sink, bearing that other one aloft 
 as it seems ready utterly to fall, gliding once more from beneath it 
 when it is calmed and rested a while, that it may try its skill again. 
 And when at length, by kindly training, by plain example and 
 timely aid, the fluttering brood are taught to rise, far above the 
 eyrie from which with such alarm they had been shaken — will they 
 not be thankful for the apparent cruelty which was real kindness, 
 since it has taught them to rise to the larger life and liberty of the 
 azure sky 1 
 
 331 
 
November 26 Selling tbc JBirtbttgbt. 
 
 "Esau, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." (Heb. xii. 16). 
 
 Esau and Jacob were twins. But they were very unlike each other, 
 even in bodily appearance — also in tasstes, and, as their story shows, 
 in character, and in the end toward which in life they travelled. 
 
 In some respects Esau was the more loveable. He was frank, 
 outspoken, rollicking, impulsive, as boy and man. Jacob, again, was 
 quiet and designing, and often very cunning. But Esau's was 
 after all a poor life ; and though there was much dross in Jacob's 
 character, God took means to purify it, and he was led onward 
 to a nobler life and heritage. It is not always those who start 
 best who come out best at the end. In Jacob we see what divine 
 grace can do. How good a man he became, and how bright a death- 
 bed he had, though he made in some respects so unpromising a 
 beginning ! 
 
 Both the brothers were selfish, and both were punished for their 
 selfishness — a vice which seldom prospers in the longrun. But 
 there is this difference, that while Esau, as he went on, became a 
 worse and more worldly man, Jacob, as he went on, became a better 
 man. His face was turned upward toward God, and forward toward 
 heaven, of which he had a vision at Bethel, which never came to 
 the like of Esau. He knew how to value the promises which his 
 brother despised ; for there was in Jacob's breast what Esau lacked, 
 a faith in God which strengthened him for work and suffering, in 
 the sure hope of a rich reward. 
 
 The truth is, that Esau, with all his dash and free-handedness, 
 was extremely selfish at heart — so selfish that he could never hold 
 himself in check for any length of time, but must needs gratify 
 himself at once, and at whatever cost. He was not a drunkard ; 
 but he was just like in spirit to the drunkard who said, " Give me 
 the drink now, although I should go to hell to-night ! " He was a 
 spendthrift. " Give me some of that red there," he cried, " and let ray 
 birthright go." Just because he was hungry and could not wait so 
 much as an hour, he surrendered his precious birthright for a bowl 
 of pottage. He had no high thoughts of God, no liking for religion, 
 no value for the promises of a distant future. Present worldly 
 pleasure was what he was bent upon. So he got what he desired, 
 l)ut lost far more instead of it. He lost both his birthright and his 
 blessing, and had only the portion of the world — not the inheritance 
 of God. 
 
 You remember the two children, Passion and Patience, in 
 Bunyan's " Interjireter's House." Do not be like Passion, who was 
 so like to Esau. Little good, depend upon it, will come of tlie boy 
 or the girl who says — "A bird in the hand is worth two in the 
 bush : give me good fortunes now, and you may have all your fine 
 texts of Scripture, and all your fine glory in the world to come to 
 yourself." 
 
 332 
 
Coucbtllfl tbC SccpttC* November 27 
 
 " So Jiet/ier drew near, and touched the to}) qf the sceptre " (Esth. v. 2). 
 
 This is a very beautiful and suggestive scone — Esther drawing near 
 to King Ahasuerus, at what was the supreme moment of her life, 
 and touching tlie top of the royal sceptre. When we remember 
 that the Persian monarch was regarded by liis subjects as a god, 
 and had the absolute power of life and death in his hand, it may 
 make us think of a soul drawing near to the Most High. There is 
 one important dilference — that ni God we have not to deal with a 
 capricious tyrant, but witli One who is just in all His ways, and 
 who delighteth in mercy. But in otlier respects her experience was 
 very like that of many a supplicating soul. 
 
 (1) Esther^s anxiety was great, and it was far from groundless. 
 She was one of a race under the ban of a royal condemnation. She 
 was one, moreover, for whom there seemed to be no standing-room 
 to plead. For thirty days at least the King had not called her to 
 his presence, and to go there unbidden meant death, if the King 
 .should not extend to her the golden sceptre. Yet she felt impelled 
 to adventure herself into the inner court. For it was certain death 
 for her whole kindred, to stay away. It might be life for them and 
 lier, to enter. " I will go in," slie said ; " and if I perish, I perish." 
 
 (2) Esther's ho])e in coming to the throne Avas simply and solely 
 a hope in the possible mercy of the King. She well knew that her 
 action could not be defended upon legal grounds. It was "not 
 according to the law." If Vashti had been degraded for refusing to 
 come when bidden, how could she defend herself for daring to 
 intrude unbidden ? From an appeal to the law, there was absolutely 
 nothing to hope. Her acceptance, if accepted she was at all, could 
 only be of the royal grace. 
 
 (3). Esther's mode of approach was very suitable. She came near 
 in a spirit of deep humility, and she appeared before the King in the 
 robe which he himself had given her. After a three days' fast, we 
 are told, she put on her royal garments, wliich Ahasuerus liad 
 exchanged for the poor attire she had worn as the captive Jewish 
 maid ; and clad in these she went within, and standing opposite the 
 throne made thus her mi;te appeal — saying nought, but thinking 
 in her heart, " If I perish, let me perish thus, and here ! " 
 
 (4) Esther^s reward was the reward of simple trust. It touched 
 the monarch's heart ; and her silent, modest mien, standing in the 
 robe which was the token of her weddedness to him, was more 
 eloquent than words. No call for the sword of justice to be un- 
 sheathed against her ! But forth goes the golden sceptre as the 
 token of her welcome. Her person is accepted, her life sjiared, 
 communion with her lord granted, and a rich promise given that 
 her prayers will be answered, " even to the half of the kingdom." 
 
 333 
 
November 28 (BoD bolDttifl Out tight banb. 
 
 " JS'evertheleas I am eontinucdly with Thee : thou Jutd holden me by my righi 
 hand " (Ps. Ixxiii. 23). 
 
 A CHILD in tlie darkness finds it sometimes a great comfort to have 
 a loved and trusted one simply clasping him by the hand to tell 
 him he is near. Some people, even grown people, have a great 
 shrinking from the darkness. A silly nurse, perhaps, used to tell 
 them awful stories in their childhood ; and they would almost 
 rather anything than stay in the dark alone. This is foolish. None 
 need fear being in the dark, unless those whose bad conscience bids 
 them dread being left " alone with God." The wicked are told to 
 fear, and even in their mirth they are warned to rejoice with 
 trembling. But God's people need not be afraid. They are the 
 children of One to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, 
 and they are continually with Him. Their Heavenly Father is 
 always near. 
 
 A little girl once taught her father, in this connection, a valuable 
 lesson. He was in trouble, and thick darkness seemed to lie upOn 
 his future. He did not know into what situation his next step in 
 business might land him. As he lay tossing on his bed at night, 
 brooding over his anxieties, his child in the crib close by awoke 
 with a troubled cry : " It's dark, father ; it's dark ; take Nellie's hand." 
 He stretched out his hand, and clasped the child's in his. Immedi- 
 ately she was comforted, and soon again she sank into a placid sleep. 
 And the parent, as the story ends, remembered that he too had a 
 Father, to whom he could lift his cry, saying — " Father, it is dark : 
 it is dark. Father ; take my hand." 
 
 Difficulty, too, has sometimes to be encountered in the day-time, 
 w^hich makes it an untold comfort to have a strong, experienced 
 hand to cling to, that it may guide and hold us up, and bring us 
 safely through. A traveller whom I knew was attempting to pass 
 along what is called the Mauvais Pas, near Chamounix in Switzer- 
 land. The path for a considerable distance is only a narrow ledge 
 about a foot wide, on the face of a rocky height ; and below there 
 is an ugly precipice. To a clear head and a strong nerve there is no 
 danger, as there is an iron rail to cling to at the part which is 
 most precarious. But on tliis occasion the iron railing had got loose 
 in places, and, yielding to the traveller's grasp, it had, as he after- 
 wards confessed, a most unnerving effect upon him. The strong Swiss 
 guide, observing this, however, made his way toward him, and did 
 not let go his hand till he was in the place of safety. Faint symbol 
 of the help afforded by the strong but tender hand of Jehovah ; and 
 of the reassurance brought to those who, turning to the Omnipotent 
 One, have thankfully to say — " Thou hast holden me by my right 
 hand." 
 
 334 
 
ttbe SlanbCC a300k. November 29 
 
 ^' Laying aside all evil speakings" (1 Pet. ii. 1). 
 
 In a certain family there waa an account-Look kept, ■wliicli liad the 
 above title printed on the outside — "The Slander Book." In.side 
 there wjvs a register kept of the tines inllicted upon the different 
 niendjers of the household every time they were guilty of sjieaking 
 evil of others. It w;is instituted on the suggestion of a daughter of 
 the house, who noticed how terribly prevalent the sin of backbiting 
 is, and how readily even " good people " fall into it. I do not know 
 how the filling-up of the hook went on. But if it was faithfully 
 kept, and if the hues were rigidly exacted, it would imdoubtedly do 
 a great deal of good. 
 
 I am afraid that in too many families, and in too many circles 
 of friends, such a book is sadly needed. Slander is a crime which 
 people seem to pardon very readily in themselves. But God does 
 not so lightly overlook it. It is hateful in His sight ; for all 
 calumny is of the devil. As his very name suggests, he is the prince 
 of slanderers ; so that, when we are " running other people down " 
 behind their backs, — saying and suggesting unkind and untrue 
 or only half-true things about them, — we should know whose work 
 we ai'e doing, and what master we are pleasing. Certainly we are 
 not serving and pleasing Christ. 
 
 A minister one day gave a well-merited rebuke to some young 
 ladies who were calling at his house, and who, as he entered the room, 
 were discussing — along with his own daughters perhaps — a young 
 lady who was absent. Among the adjectives used, he heard such 
 words as " very odd " — " so singular," and the like. Having inquired 
 and been told the name of the person under discussion, he said 
 seriously, " Yes, she is an odd young lady — very odd ; I consider 
 her extremely singidar." Then, after a pause, he added with 
 emphasis, " She was never heard to speak ill of an absent friend ! " 
 The curious thing is, that it is often the best jjeople who are 
 slandered most. This arises partly from envy perhaps, and the 
 desire to drag those who are better than ourselves douTa to our own 
 level. Bacon explained it quaintly by saying, that " we generally 
 find that to be the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at." 
 
 Beware, then, of evil-speaking, this often thoughtless rather 
 than malicious, habit of de-traction — of " dragging away " something 
 from the good name of others. It will be hurtful to them, and 
 hurtful also to yourself. Better for you to bite your tongue, than 
 to utter a biting word behind a neighbour's back ! Do what you 
 can, at home and among your companions, to make an atmosphere 
 of kindliness. If we can say at a fit time a word of honest commen- 
 dation, we ought to speak it. If we cannot say what is good about 
 others, the less we say about them the better. Remember 
 what M'Cheyne said to a young convert who was lamenting that he 
 could not speak for Christ. "Then, perhaps," said he, "you can 
 sometimes be silent for Him ! " 
 
 335 
 
November SO XLbz Moii&Crful ITlaiUe. 
 
 " Jlis name shall be called Wonderful " (l^a.. ix. 6). 
 
 AxD certainly it may well be called so ; and that for many reasons. 
 Of these I will mention only four. 
 
 (1) It mea7is so much. There is a wealth of meaning in it we can 
 never exhaust. The riches in the name of Jesus are unsearchable. 
 It is more full of significance than all other names together that the 
 world has known. Richard Newton wisely puts " the wonderful 
 name " lirst among the wonders of the Bible ; and after giving at 
 least one hundred and fifty of the titles that belong to Jesus, he says 
 that he has not given them all, and cannot tell which is most 
 beautiful. 
 
 (2) It has lasted so long. There are very few names that outlast 
 their generation. Of the multitudes of men Avho lived ujjon the 
 earth in the days of Jesus, we know now only a very few names ; 
 and of those we do know, some are mere names and nothing more. 
 Even famous names fade in lustre as the ages pass. But the name 
 of Jesus shines forth with undying splendour. His memory will 
 never fade. It will grow more and more vivid, if possible, as time 
 goes on. For God has said, " I will make Thy name to be remem- 
 bered in all generations." 
 
 (3) It has travelled so far. Some men are counted great in one 
 ])lace who are not so much as heard of in another. The head man 
 in the village is not known in the nearest town ; and the town 
 provost's fame has not reached the neighbouring great city ; and 
 even the Prime Minister of England's name may not (as Mr. Glad- 
 stone found in an outlying jjart of Norway) be known in some other 
 countries. But where will you find me the land in which the name 
 of Jesus had not been often said and sung? Its glad sound has 
 gone forth unto all the earth. It has travelled to the remotest 
 corners of the world. 
 
 (4) It has so much influence. While He lived on earth, the name 
 of Jesus brought a spell over the hearts of multitudes who thronged 
 to hear Him. After He departed, many miracles were wrought in 
 the name of God's holy Child, Jesus ; and by faith in His name dead 
 souls were made alive. Then, during the dark succeeding ages, 
 amid the overthrow of dynasties and the wreck of thrones, the 
 name of Jesus still lived on, a name of power. And in the Avorld 
 at this moment it has a more commanding influence than 
 ever before. The countless lives of Christ never want for readers. 
 His is a name which men cannot put aside. They feel its influence 
 in si)ite of themselves. Some rage against Him. Multitudes adore 
 Him. As Napoleon said, "To this day millions would die for 
 Him." 
 
 There is no name like that of Jesus ! It brings gladness to the 
 heart in life ; it gives comfort to the saint in death ; it opens for the 
 believer the gate of heaven. It is the name of greatest influence 
 with men ; it is the one name of influence with God. Is not Jesus, 
 then, "the Wonderful"? 
 
 336 
 
Surclg, atl& QulCftlV. December 1 
 
 "Surely, I come quickly" (Rev. xxii. 20). 
 
 Is this a tlireat, or is it a promise ? It clei^ends on how you stand 
 rehatcd to Hiiu who here announces that He is coming, and coming 
 soon. To some the coming of Clirist means that awful terror ; to 
 others it is that blessed hoi)e. Quickly, (juickly, quickly — thrico 
 repeated in this chapter (verses 7, 12, 20) — so the swift years say, 
 however we receive it, I come qtiicklij! 
 
 AVhen Saul sent word to the beleaguered men of Jabesh-Gilead 
 — " I am coming ; by to-morrow, wlien the sun is hot, ye shall have 
 hel])," it was pleasant news to them. But it -was disastrous tidings 
 to the Ammonites, whom by the appointed time they scattered, 
 "so that two of them were not left together" (1 Sam. xi. 11), 
 and -whom they slew " until the heat of the day." So, too, it was 
 blessed music to our fellow-countrymen awaiting a horrible death 
 in Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny, when the slogan of the 
 Highlanders told them that Havelock and his men were marching 
 to their relief. " Dinna ye hear if? Dinna ye hear it?" cried 
 Jessie Bro-wni ; " we're saved ! we're saved ! " And soon the most 
 unbelieving in Lucknow found that she was right. But the 
 api:)roach of the gallant Havelock was bad news for the Sejioys. 
 
 Even so is it with the approach of Christ, foretold in these 
 closing verses of the Bible. It is the Avorst of news to some ; it is 
 the best possible news to others. When He comes, there are those 
 who shall flee from His presence, and shall vainly cry to the 
 mountains and the rocks, " Fall on us, and hide us from tihe face of 
 Him who sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb ; 
 for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall l)e able to 
 stand ? " But there are others who shall flee not from Him but to 
 Him, saying, " Let me behold the face of Him who sits upon the 
 throne, and enjoy the love of the Lamb ; for the great day of His 
 love is come, and who that loves Him would stay aAvay 1" A 
 friend said to the late Dr. Andi'ew Bonar once, "Now, doctor, if 
 you were told that Christ was coming, what Avould you do ? " The 
 simjile-hearted saint replied, "I would just run to meet Him ! " 
 
 A writer tells of a poor Welsh jjcasant who used to look out 
 every morning from his casement, for years, to see if Jesus Christ 
 was coming. " He was no calculator, or he need not have looked 
 so long ; he was no student of projihecy, or he might not have 
 looked at all ; he was ready, or he would not have been in so much 
 haste ; he was willing, or he would rather have looked another Avay ; 
 he loved, or it woidd not have been the first thought of the morning. 
 His Master did not come, but a messenger did, to fetch the ready 
 one home. The same preparation sufficed for both ; the longing 
 soul was satisfied with either." 
 
 May we too be ready for the Saviour's coming. Coming to Christ 
 is the best preparation for the coming of Christ. We knoAv not 
 when the end of the world shall be. But to us at anyrate Christ 
 is coming, both surely and quickly. May we be of those who can 
 say with John from the heart — '* Even so, come Lord Jesus." 
 
 (22) 337 
 
December 2 2\ iDarft ipatb to a :©rtgbt Career, 
 
 " Ye thought evil against me; lut God 'meant it unto good" (Geu 1. 20). 
 
 God meant Joseph's trying experience to turn out for good both 
 to himself and to his brethren. 
 
 He needed humbling, and he got it. He had a fond father, 
 who was foolish enough to show favouritism for him — keeping him 
 much beside him, and clothing him in a gorgeous princely coat as 
 a mark of special fondness. Thus Joseph Ijccame a vain youth. 
 Though he was a good boy, — ])ure and upright and steadfast in wirly 
 and later life, — he couUrhardly fail to be somewhat " spoiled " by 
 Jacob's treatment of him. As he marched about in his fine robe 
 among his shepherd brethren, the thought of pride would come 
 into his heart, and tell him that he was lietter than they. Young 
 as he was, he had an ambition to excel which gave colour to his 
 thoughts l)y day and even to his dreams by night. 
 
 Joseph's desire to be greater than his brethren was to be fulfilled 
 in a way he little imagined. God in His j^rovidence was to lead 
 him to its accomplishment. But it was to be through much mental 
 suffering; and one influence to be used toward the end desired 
 would be the envy of his brethren. 
 
 How terrible a thing is envy ! It has often led onward to the 
 blackest crimes. If another excels you in anything, be sure to 
 crush the envious thought, lest the spark set on fire the tinder of 
 corruption within ! Perhaps it is hardly to be wondered at, that 
 the feeling of envy rose in the hearts of Joseph's brothers, as he 
 strutted about in his gay coat, and, with a self-satisfied air perhaps, 
 told them of the great things he had dreamed for himself. Eut 
 they should have put the feeling down, before it had time to pass 
 into hatred. Since they did not do this, however, it changed them 
 into monsters ready for murder or anything. 
 
 But for a pang of soft-heartedness on the part of Reuben, Joseph 
 would actually have been j>ut to death. In the end, as yoii 
 remember, he was sold to a passing caravan of Midianites. Sold 
 into Egypt by his own brothers ! Oh how sad j^oung Joseph's heart 
 must have been ! As he trudged behind the camels to a foreign 
 land, and thought of his kind father whom he might never see 
 again, his spirit must have sunk within him. 
 
 Yet this Avas a dark path to a bright career. He who leads the 
 blind by a A\ay that the}- know not Avas leading Joseph to a place 
 of great usefulness and high renown. His banishment to Egypt 
 punished Jacob's favouritism and Joseph's own vanity, and was 
 made the means of sore humbling to his envious and cruel brethren. 
 But it was also overruled by God for great good to the whole family. 
 For " the Lord was with Joseph," and he rose, step by step, next to 
 the throne of Pharaoh. And when the famine drove Jacob and his 
 family to Egypt, Joseph, the Prime Minister, had a home ready for 
 them there, in the fruitful land of Goshen. 
 
OatbCrInO to CbriSt. December 3 
 
 " Unto Ilini shall the gathering of the people he " (Gen. xli.v. 10). 
 
 It is a touching scene lliis — of old Jacob, as lie lies a-dving, speaking 
 to his sons of what should befall " in the last days." He says in 
 effect — "You are gathering, my sons, about my dying bed for 
 blessing. Tliere are varied experiences awaiting you. Separating 
 influences are sure to assert themselves. There will be a sciittcring 
 among you yet. My prophetic eye foresees how different the future 
 is to be for some of you from what it is to be for others. But there 
 is One coming, wlio, thougli of the tribe of Judah, is to be of 
 common interest to all. He is the One about whom you shall 
 assemble for effectual blessing. Not an old dying man like me, 
 but the Peace-bringer, the Rest-giver. He is coming. And unto 
 Him shall the gathering of the peoples be." 
 
 The fulfilment of this prediction has been far more Avonderful, 
 I doulit not, than Jacob himself imagined. It was a comparatively 
 light thing to be the Restorer of the tribes of Israel ; but He on 
 whom the vision of the Patriarch rested was to be the Light of the 
 Gentiles also, and Salvation to the ends of the earth. Christ was 
 to be the great Gatherer : He was to be the centre of attraction for 
 the souls of men all the world over. 
 
 Even in the Cradle, we see the attractive power of Jesus making 
 itself felt upon widely different classes of men — the shei)herds, the 
 wise men of the East, and others. So too in the Crowd, during the 
 days of His busy ministry, upon the streets of Jerusalem or by the 
 shores of the Galilean lake, the presence of Jesus acted like a 
 magnet, to draw all sorts of needy seekers after Him. But it is 
 esjiecially through the Cross, as He Himself predicted, that His 
 draAving power is exerted over the hearts of all kinds and 
 conditions of men. " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
 all men unto Me." To Him, as the crucified but now glorified 
 Redeemer, shall the gathering of the people be. 
 
 Are you among those who have been gathered around the 
 Shiloh? He loves to gather the young about Him. He invites 
 you to gather about Him at the Cross, to lay your sins iipon Him 
 there as the Rest-giver who is His people's Peace. He calls you to 
 gather al)out Him beneath His Banner, that He may lead you on 
 to share with Him the bloodless victories of the gospel. The youth, 
 you remember, are represented in Ps. ex. as flocking to the standard 
 of the Conquering Sou of God, thick as the dewdrojis that gem the 
 fields at early morn. And He will see to it, if you are His, that 
 you are safely gathered about Him at last in the eternal Fold, 
 'where none of His own M'ill be amissing in the great day. When 
 the Christian dies, he is, like old Jacob, "gathered to His people" ; 
 and the people to wlmm he is gathered are the people whom Sniloh 
 has gathered about Himself. 
 
 339 
 
December 4 sceftfng Onc Biiotber, 
 
 " He soi'gkt io see Jesus . . . And Jesus looked up and saw him' 
 (Luke xix. 3, 5). 
 
 When there is a seeking sinner and also a seeking Saviour, who 
 ■will pre-\'ent them from finding one another 1 Jesus at the time 
 mentioned here was just leaving Jericho, the City of Palm-trees, for 
 Jerusalem. It was His last journey ; for He Avas going up to the 
 Capital to be crucified. But though He is on the most important 
 business of His life. He has time to think of and to save this poor 
 lost soixl Zacchseus, whose heart is yearning after Him more than 
 Zaccha^us himself knows. 
 
 It is a beautiful story with man)^ lessons, on which we cannot 
 dwell. But let us think of (1) the Sinner seeking Jesus. Who was 
 he 1 A rich man, one of the wealthiest in the neighbourhood, but 
 of the hated tax-gatherer class. What was his desire? To see 
 Jesus ; not from mere curiosity, biit from a vague sense, too, of his 
 need of this so-called " Friend of publicans and sinners." And how 
 did he satisfy his desire ? In a way which showed the sincerity of 
 it very plainly ! By pocketing his dignity and overcoming every 
 difficulty in his way : pushing his way through the excited crowd, 
 and (because he was little of statxire) actually climbing up into a 
 tree to get a sight of Jesus as he passed. So there he was — peering 
 out from among the leaves of the sycamore (a species of fig-tree with 
 low, hanging branches), with the great swelling crowd beneath — 
 none thinking of him, and he of none, save only One, the One he so 
 greatly longed to see. And who -was He ? 
 
 (2) ITie Saviour seeking a sinner. He was a Man, with a face of 
 wonderful gentleness, yet dignity and power : a face of great 
 serenity, though with a shade of sadness resting on it ; very earnest, 
 but very kind and tender, with a look in the eyes that seemed to 
 say that He was hungering to do others good. He was more than 
 man, too ; for He was the Son of God. Yet He was not being 
 borne along in State as the great ones of earth sometimes are, but 
 just walking on the dusty highway as a humble wayfarer might. 
 And now what a surprise there is for Zacchajus, up among the 
 leaves! For Jesus looks up (accidentally as it might seem) and 
 recognises him ; and, calling him by name, invites Himself as an 
 intimate friend, or else as a monarch, might do, to abide at the tax- 
 gather's house ! 
 
 And now we see a third thing — (3) the mutual joy between the 
 sinner rejoicing in the Saviour, and the Saviour rejoicing over the 
 sinner, who had been lost, but now is found. Can we wonder that 
 Zacchajus found joy in Jesus, who put a new hope into his heart 
 and a new meaning into his life ? Can we wonder that Jesus 
 rejoiced over Zacchreus, when He saw in him another lost sheej) 
 found, another jewel reclaimed from the mire of sin, for a place of 
 beauty in His glorious diadem ? It was for this very purpose He 
 came to earth. " For the Son of Man is come, to seek and to sav^ 
 that which was lost," 
 
 340 
 
EpapbroOltUS. December 5 
 
 *^ Brother, companion, fellow-soldier, viesscnger, and Minister" (Phil. ii. 25). 
 
 Such is Paul's Lciiutiful di'scrii^tiou of one of the luenibers of the 
 Philii)j)i<in Church wliich he loved so well. Philippi was the 
 place where fir^t in Eurojie he had preached the gospel ; and the 
 Christian conuiiunity there seems to have had a iieculiarly warm place 
 in his heart. We cannot wonder at it, if jnany of the Philippiau 
 l)elievers were at all like Epaphroditus, whom he here describes. 
 
 An old Roman sage saia that " some men, like pictures, are 
 fitter for a corner than for a full light." With Epaphroditus it is 
 different. The fuller the light and the more careful the scrutiny, 
 the more we see in him to admire. The ties that bound him and 
 the apostle together were indeed very close and i)owerful. 
 
 (1) There was the bond of kinship, " My brother." What a Hood 
 of suggestion this name suggests ! Reared under the same roof with 
 ourselves — sharers in our blood — partakers in the nurture and 
 discipline of the same home — having prayed at the same mother's 
 knee and shared in the same father's counsel and blessin" — " my 
 brother." The world's poets have often, with good reason, dwelt on 
 the tenderness of this relationship — 
 
 " The gnarliest heart hath teuder chords 
 To waken at the name of brother." 
 
 But it is in Christ that the true brotherhood of men is realised. 
 And Paul said a great and a true thing of Ejjaphroditus when he 
 called him " my brother." 
 
 (2) The bond of common service and endeavour — " My fellow- 
 companion in labour." This name, too, is full of suggestion. Not 
 only had Epaphroditus a warm and brotherly heart, not only was he 
 a man of tender sensibilities, but he was one who could face and go 
 through with genuine hard work. " For the work of Christ he was 
 nigh unto death." In this epistle we are Ijeautifully reminded that 
 the Master Himself, though Lord of all, was found in the form of 
 a servant. And not only for Paul, " the servant of Jesus Christ," 
 but for his " companion in labour," Avas there, as there is for you 
 and me, a place to till, and a work to do which the Master could 
 turn to good account. 
 
 (3) The bond of chivalry — " My fellow-soldier." This may be 
 k(!pt in view along with the other. If there is a lowly side to the 
 Christian life, as a life of labour, there is a heroic side to it as well 
 — " my fellow-soldier." All true Christians are knights — of the 
 Order of the Cross of Calvary. It does not need the sheen of 
 glistening armour to proclaim the hero. Some of the followers of 
 Christ in the humblest spheres are most worthy of that name. 
 The plodding side and the heroic side of Christian life may some- 
 times be the very same. When it is so, the blessed inlluence of 
 such a life will shed itself on others. The/eZ/otf-soldier, going with 
 others, with the one heart and the one step, as messenger, or 
 minister, or anything, will be a benelicent power for which many 
 will have to bless the God and Father of all believers. " Hold such 
 in reputation." 
 
 341 
 
DecetQber 6 JB^CB tO tbe MlW^. 
 
 " / 2oas eyes to the blind " (Job xxix. 15). 
 
 In defending liimself against the liarsli accusations of liis friends, 
 Job feels himself called upon to rehearse some of his own good 
 deeds ; and, in sj^eaking about the kindness he had shown to one 
 class of people and another, this is part of his claim — " I was eyes 
 to the blind." This must mean that when he knew of a blind 
 person, he saw to it that he was guided and cared for, doing by 
 himself and through others what he could to alleviate the distress 
 of those afflicted with loss of sight. 
 
 With all due deference to Job, there died not long ago (in the 
 autumn of 1894) a man who, in a far larger sense than the ancient 
 patriarch, might have said of himself — " I was eyes to the blind," 
 This was Dr. William Moon, who lived at Brighton, and died at his 
 residence in Queen's Road there, at the advanced age of seventy-five. 
 It was he who invented the embossed or raised alphabet, which 
 bears his name, and has been of such untold comfoi't to the blind. 
 Others had preceded him in valuable attempts to provide a type 
 which the blind mi»ht read, and some of them, such as Mr. James 
 Gall of Edinburgh, had done noble service in this field. But Dr. 
 Moon's system was found simpler than any other ; and the blind, not 
 in our own country only, but all over the world, learn to read his 
 type. It is said to be used novv' ^in no less than 476 languages and 
 dialects. 
 
 Was not this a noble end to serve in life ? And how was he 
 qualified to accomplish it so well ? He had other gifts that so far 
 fitted him for it, no doubt; but one chief element in las preparation 
 for his great life-work was, that he himself was overtaken with 
 blindness at the age of twenty-one. This aroused his symj)athy 
 and awoke his inventiveness as nothing else could have done, with 
 the result that he has jirovided the blind with a literature of con- 
 siderable extent, both in English and other tongues. Thus God 
 brought good out of seeming evil, and made it well both for him and 
 others that he had been so sadly afflicted. 
 
 It is interesting to know that it was the longing for the Bible on 
 the part of the l)lind that principally stimulated invention on their 
 behalf. And when we think how much spiritual light and comfort 
 the embossed Bible has brought to those blind in more senses than 
 one, we perceive in how blessed a sense a man like Dr. Moon has been 
 as " eyes to the blind." It has been his privilege to direct multi- 
 tudes in this way, who were sitting in darkness, to Him wdio is the 
 Light of Men. You, yovmg reader, have eyes to read your Bible, 
 and I hope you read it. But what if you are more blind in soul 
 than some of the poor blind jjeople you so sincerely pity ? 
 
 342 
 
Ipilijriina to Cn;ina;i. December 7 
 
 " iTe are hurneylntj to Uie pUwe of which the Lord saut, I will give it you 
 {Num. x. 29). 
 
 It must have licen a strange siglit, to f>oc that nation of w.andercrs 
 crossing the desert ; young and old, ricli and \mi>\\ man and woman 
 and chikl, pressing on together with one purpose in their lieartsand 
 one goal before their eyes. What could it mean ? What could have 
 prompted them to the journey ? What could l^e sust'iining them in 
 it? 
 
 I have sometimes seen a pilgrim band, hastening from the rail- 
 way train through the streets of Glasgow, to the emigrant ship that 
 was waiting to carry them to the far-off land they knew but 
 little of. Frequently a motley crew, whose appearance no less than 
 their jargon as they hurrv past, tells you they Ijelong to diverse 
 nationalities, and must have been brought together from widely 
 different surroundings. You read something of their past in their 
 very faces. From the honest Norwegian rustic, bone and sinew of 
 the land he has left and a future strength to the land of his 
 adoption, with faith in his heart and strength in his arm to do the 
 right — to the broken-down outcast of the continental town, leaving 
 his country for his country's good, with vice and wretchedness 
 written on his face, and in, his he;irt just hojie enough to keep him 
 from desjjair : — you instinctively feel how widely ditlerent the 
 histories of these have been, and of the grades that lie between 
 them and around them. 
 
 But amid all the diversity of past experience and of present 
 characteristics, there is that in common which binds them all 
 together to the fulfilment of one purpose, the pursuit of one goal. 
 They have all been brought to feel some measure of discontentment unth 
 their past ; they have all been led to cherish some degree of hope 
 with reference to their future — if only they can reach the land they 
 have been told of across the seii, where there is room, they say, for 
 all, and welcome for all, and work for all, and reward for all who 
 rightly seek it. So forth they go, to follow if not to find, to hope 
 and struggle if not to succeed : some to work their way to 
 competence and ease — others to find the El Dorado of their dreams 
 widely different from the sober reality that soon confronts them. 
 
 Now look at the Christian band on their way to Canaan. 
 Their past experiences and present characteristics are widely varied. 
 But they are all urged by discontent and lured liy expectation to 
 seek one far but friendly shore. Only, their discontentment is 
 mainly a discontentment with themselves ; and their hope rests 
 upon no mere human hearsay. They are going forward on no mere 
 peradventure, but to the sure enjoyment of a glorious inheritance — 
 " the land of which the Lord hath* said, ' I will give it you.'" 
 
 343 
 
DecemlDer 8 1bar5 tO 3BlOt ©Ut. 
 
 " Blot out all mine iniquities" (Ps, li. 9). 
 
 Sin is a horrible evil ; and one of tlie most awful tilings aljont it 
 is, that, once yon are defiled with it, it is so difficult to get I'id 
 of its stains again. They Avere discussing once in a Sunday school 
 the conduct of a newsboy, who, in order to sell a newspaper, had 
 told a lie. Dick was asked, " if he thought it worth while for the 
 bov, to tell a lie for a jienny ? " He promjitly answered, " No." 
 " Fur £1 ? " He still said, " No." " For £1000 ? " Dick hesitated. 
 But another of the boys in the class cried out — " No ; because when 
 the £1000 was all spent, the lie would he there all the same." 
 
 IMacbeth is rej^resented liy Shakesj^eare as crying out in anguish, 
 "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my 
 hand ? " The stain of murder was upon his conscience, and upon 
 his wife's too, as it afterwards appeared ; and their sense of guilt 
 told them that the great ocean itself would not suffice to cleanse 
 away that stain. What is true of the sin of murder is true of 
 other sins as well. They leave their mark behind them ; and 
 nothing we can do, nothing that other people can do, will rid us 
 of the foul stain. 
 
 But there is One who can cleanse us, and who offers to do it, 
 if we ask Him. He says, " I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy 
 transgressions, for Mine own sake." God can do for us what no 
 other can do ; and He is willing to do it, not because we deserve 
 it, but because of His own great mercy. And so it is to Him that 
 the Psalmist David turns Avith the prayer — "Blot out all mine 
 iniquities." 
 
 David was a great sinner. But there was wrought in him a 
 deep heart-hatred of sin ; and he is anxious to make very thorough 
 work of his cleansing from that abominable thing which he as well 
 as God now hates. So we find him praying in tliis beautiful 51st 
 Psalm, "Hide Thy face from my sins." And not only that, but 
 "Blot out all mine iniquities." And not only that even, but 
 " Create in me a clean heart, O God." He desires to be done with 
 sin ; not only to be delivered from the evil of the past, but to have 
 a heart disj)osed to seek only what is pure and lovely in God's sight, 
 in all the time that is to come. 
 
 Are you in sympathy with David here ? You have sadly 
 blurred at school, through carelessness or wilfulness, your copy- 
 book. Will it content you, if the master does not see, or profess to 
 see, the blot ? A better thing will be, if, even while he rebukes 
 you for it, he takes means to remove the blot awaj^ Better still, 
 if he can fill you with an earnest desire, and can give you power 
 and skill, to keej) your coj)y clean. " The blood of Jesus Christ, 
 God's Son, cleansetli us from all sin." And here is the secret of 
 progress and purity for the future. " I will put My Spirit within 
 you." 
 
 344 
 
tTbC C^brCC IR'S, December 9 
 
 " Those things vkich arc most surely believed among us" (Luke i. 1). 
 
 By "the three B'a" used to be ineant the three subjects taught to 
 those who had any pretension to be educated at all — Reading, 
 (W)ritin" (A)rithinetic. A quaint divine, Eowland Hill, who was 
 immensely pui)ular in a bygone generaticjii in London, applied tlie 
 expression to religion in a Avay that has been often quoted since. 
 lie said, speaking of the foundation truths, or what our fathers 
 used to call "the f undamentjils " of Christianity, that they were 
 three — " Ruin bv the Fall, Redemption by the Saviour, Regeneration 
 by the Spirit." "These, said Rowland Hill, are "the three R's" of 
 Thcolog}'. 
 
 Rowland Ilill was right. Just as nobody could profess to be 
 educated who had not learned to read and write and count, so 
 nobody can be said to have mastered the elements of Christian 
 truth who has not been taught the truth of the ruin sin has wrought, 
 the need of a redemption through the blood of God's own Son, and 
 of a new l)irth to the soul by tlie power of the Holy Ghost. These 
 are truths at the foundation of the Christian system. Have you, 
 reader, learned them yet — not only with your head, but in your 
 heart? Have you discovered how terrible is the ruin sin has 
 wrought in your nature 1 Have you been brought to see in Jesus 
 the very Redeemer whom you need — " in whom we have redemp- 
 tion through His blood, even the forgiveness of o\ir sins, according 
 to the riches of His grace " ? Have you Ijeen taught anything in 
 your own experience of the renewing power of the Spirit — who 
 gives the new life, and gives it more abundantly? Then happy 
 are you ! Your education for a blessed eternity is at least begun. 
 God will not leave your training incomplete. May you abound 
 in knowledge more and more. But never allow yourself for a 
 moment to forget or to desjiise " the three R's of Christianity," 
 from a firm grasp of which all stable progress in si^iritual attain- 
 ment must ever proceed. 
 
 Rowland Hill said many funny things which made people smile. 
 He did not believe that religion consists in wearing a long face 
 always, or that there is anything inconsistent between earnest 
 Christianity and a hearty laugh. He considered rather, that it is 
 the Christian who of all men has the best reason to be happy, and 
 that a smile rests on no face so suitably as on the face of a reconciled 
 God. But with all his humour and mirthfuluess, he was a serious 
 man, living for a serious purpose. And you may depend upon it 
 that, as you grow older, you will be made to feel that the happiness 
 to be envied most is the joyous serenity of those who are rooted 
 and grounded in the Love which has conquered sin through the 
 Cross, and which by the Spirit has breathed a new life into what 
 was before a dead soul. 
 
 345 
 
December 10 ClOSCD }£gC5 ©pcued. 
 
 " Open Thou mine eyes" (Ps. cxix. IS). 
 
 When Isaiah is describing, in language adopted afterwards by 
 Christ, tlie dreadful condition of impenitent Israel, one of the 
 worst things he has to say of them is this, " Their eyes they have 
 closed " (Matt. xiii. 12). And this is true of a great many people 
 besides the ancient Jews. They have closed their eyes, and more 
 or less deliberately they keep them shut. 
 
 One great end for which God's Son came to earth was to open 
 men's eyes (Isa. xlii. 7) ; and this was one of the duties specially 
 laid upon Paul as Christ's messenger to the Gentiles — "to open 
 their eyes" (Acts xxvi. 18). It is assumed, you see, that the eyes 
 of people ai'e for the most part shut. They are closed sometimes 
 through slothfuluess. Sometimes they are intentionally closed, to 
 prevent something from being seen which it is not desii'ed to see. 
 
 It is thus a very suitable prayer for the world — " Lord, oj^en 
 their ej^es. Awaken them from their sleep of carelessness. Arouse 
 them from their indifference. If they are keeping their eyes de- 
 liberately shut, make it impossible for them to continue doing so. 
 Make them see what they ought to see, even if they do not wish to 
 see it." This was the dying prayer of the martyr William Tindal, 
 on behalf of the King with whose concurrence the persecution was 
 carried on against God's suffering saints, " Lord, open the King of 
 England's eyes ! " 
 
 But the Psalmist felt that it was a prayer to be offered not only 
 for others, but for himself ; and so we too should feel, " Open Thou 
 mine eyes." Not merely do men of the world — ay, even those who 
 count themselves most "wide-awake" — need to have their eyes 
 opened ; but the most advanced believers still need to pray that 
 their eyes may be kept open, and made more fully open than in 
 time past they have been. 
 
 A great theologian said, as he lay dying, " TFe are all of us only half 
 aivake." Tliis witness is true. We are all of us only half awake — 
 
 (1) To the glory of God. Do we see God in everything? Have 
 we especially seen God in Christ, and are we seeing God in 
 Him every day ? "I never see anything like your pictures in 
 nature," said a lady once to Turner, "Don't you wish you did, 
 madam?" was the quiet answer. 
 
 (2) To the depth of our ovm and of the world's sin and need. Who 
 can understand his errors ? None of us can. And who can measure 
 the need that sin has wrought for us and for the world of men ? 
 We can best discover something of what that means by looking at 
 it with divinely opened eyes in the light of the Cross of Calvary. 
 
 (3) To the nobility of the Christian calling. There is help for men 
 in (3od. If we have discovered this for ourselves, it is well for us 
 personally to discover more and ever more of the divine helpfulness. 
 And it is also well for ns, remembering the shortness as well as 
 greatness of our opportunity, to seek that the eyes of others may 
 be opened (as the young man's eyes were opened at Samaria, 
 2 Kings vi. 17) to the abundant provision God has made for the 
 safety and blessedness of them that are His. 
 
 346 
 
tt>artaRcrS of Qtbers' S(n6. December n 
 
 ''^either be partaker qfothiv men's siiis : keep thyself pure" (1 Tim. v. 22). 
 
 We who live side by side, aiui arc brought into contact with one 
 another day by day, are partakers together in many things. There 
 is a mutual inlhience constantly at work l)et\veen us ; and we 
 shouhl l)e anxious that this iulluence may always l)e of a gocKl and 
 lielpful kind. (Jod has intended us to be sharers of one another's 
 experience in this world ; and His word fre(|Uently urges the im- 
 portance of a spirit of earnest practical sympathy between man 
 and man. 
 
 But there is a point at which the Bible comes in and says, Stop ; 
 there is one thing in which you are not to be a sharer with your 
 brother ! You are to share in his sorrow, in his burden, in his 
 anxiety, and al.'^o in his happiness and joy. But you are not to 
 share in his guilt. Be not partaker of other men's sins ! Here is 
 the one case in which you are to hold quite aloof, and to shake 
 yourself clear of cojiartnery. The very love which otherwise says, 
 " Share with your brother," says here, " Be not partaker with 
 him 1 " If you love him, if you love your own soul, be not pur- 
 taker of his sins. 
 
 There are various ways in which young people as well as old 
 may be sharers in the sins of others. 
 
 (1) By a cowardly silence. This is a very common way of 
 having fellowship with evil, and becoming partaker in unrebuked 
 sin. You would not yourself cheat ; but your companion does it 
 and you wink at the fraud. You would not pollute your lips with 
 swearing ; but your companion drops an oath .sometimes, and you 
 are silent, if you do not smile. You are in company where loose 
 talk is going on ; and though you do not join in it you lend a not 
 unwilling ear to the immoral jest and impure tale. How easy and 
 how common it is, in such ways, to be partaker of others' sins ! A 
 word of remonstrance in fit season — how good it sometimes would 
 be to a neighbour ! How the uttering of it would at anyrate 
 deliver your own soul ! 
 
 (2) By a bad example. Example may make us partakers of tlio 
 sins of others in two different ways. We may associate ourselves 
 with a neighbour in evil, either by setting him a bad example 
 which he follows, or by following a bad example which he sets. 
 Jxist in proportion as your comimnion looks up to you, your 
 influence upon him will be great for good or evil. If he is 
 accustomed to take his lead from you, your responsil)ility for what 
 he is and does will be greater than you sometimes think. In the 
 way you treat truth, purity, kindness, religion, remember this ! If 
 you are iudilFerent to these, and lead him to i>e the same, you will 
 be partaker of his sin. On the other liand, you must be specially 
 on your guard against imitating the evil things in those you admire 
 and love. How much more prone we are to do thi.s than to copy 
 what in them is good ! Let us not, through imitation, become 
 partaker in the badness of any, however dear they be. But let us 
 only follow others in so far as they follow Christ. 
 
 347 
 
December 12 SSe IbOltCSt ! 
 
 " Thou dcslrcst truth" (Ps. li. 6). 
 
 The foundation of all -worthy character is truth. It was a poor 
 account the Scotchman gave of hiniaelf when he said, "Honesty 
 is the Lest policy, my friends, for I have tried baith." A slave-boy 
 once said a much better thing, in answer to the question 
 of one whom he was anxious to have for a master. " Will }"ou 
 be honest, if I buy you 1 " said the intending purchaser. " I 
 shall be honest," he ans-wered, with a look that spoke volumes, 
 " whether you buy me or not." 
 
 God desires truth. His Word requires us to be — 
 
 (1) Honest with ourselves. "Happy is he," says Paul, "who con- 
 demneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth " ; the man, 
 that is to say, who lives conscientiously, and does not permit 
 himself to do what his conscience condemns. W^e are to deal 
 righteously with ourselves as well as with others. If we have a 
 high conception of life, we should seek personally to live by it — 
 attem^Jting ourselves what we commend, not holding our ideal 
 slothfully, but goading ourselves when necessary to its attainment, 
 and dealing honestly with our own failure and sin. This was one 
 of the best of the many good things Polonius said — 
 
 " To tliiue owu self be true ; 
 And it must follow, as the niglit the day, 
 Thou caust uot then be false to auy niau." 
 
 (2) Honest with God. He desires truth, perfect candour, on our 
 part in dealing with Him. If we give Him that — frank sincerity — 
 He will make us to know wisdom. The Psalmist was not alone in 
 the exijerience he describes in the 32nd Psalm. So long as he " kept 
 silence," seeking to hide or excuse his grievous fault, he was miser- 
 able. But when he was brought to confess his sin, God forgave it, 
 and he was compassed about with songs of deliverance. A prince 
 visiting the arsenal at Toulon had the privilege of setting free one 
 of the galley slaves. Questioning them one by one, he found most 
 of them ready to maintain that their punishment was unjust. But 
 at last he came to one who sorrowfully declared — " I deserve it ; I 
 deserve to be broken on the wheel." "This," said the prince, "is 
 the man I Avish to set free." 
 
 (3) Honest xoith our neighbour. We are to be straight and 
 "above board " in all oiir dealings. There can be no self-respect or 
 genuine hapjiiness, if we are not mindful of what is due to other 
 jjcoj^le. He who takes a mean advantage of a neighbour may seem 
 to be a gainer. But he will be a loser in the end. Honesty is the 
 best policy. A boy accidentally smashed a large and costly pane 
 with his ball, and ran away. But he was ill at ease. "Why not 
 turn back and tell the truth ? " He did so, expressing sorrow, and 
 willingness to give work in payment of the glass. His ofler was 
 accepted, and he did so well that the merchant would not part with 
 him afterwards, but made him his confidential clerk. Do you 
 think that youth ever regretted Ijeing honest ? And many liave 
 had a like experience. 
 
 348 
 
"Cleinfl tbC /IRcan0, December 13 
 
 "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot he saved" ('Acta xxvii. 31). 
 
 "What a stirring dcscri]>tion that is of a storm at sea, of a wreck, 
 and of tlie saving of all Llie crow and passengers which you have in 
 this 27th chapter of the Book of Acts ! You boys will find it 
 diflicult to match it in the best of your stories of adventure. 
 
 First we see the vessel putting out to sea under a gentle breeze. 
 Then very soon we see her driving before the wind, wliicli rises and 
 rises in severity till it is a perfect tempest — a regular Euroclydon. 
 Then we see every means ])eing taken to save tlie sliip and its cargo 
 by striking the sails, and "f rapping" or undergirding the ship by 
 Cibles p<assed under the keel and fastened round the hull. Then wo 
 see the sailors convinced tliat the cargo must go, and casting the 
 goods, and even the tackling, overboard for dear life's sake. Then 
 we see general despair settling down upon all faces, excepting only 
 one — even the oldest "salts" on l.ioard being fully convinced, as the 
 ■shattered hulk drifts heli)lessly on, that it is all over Avitli them. 
 And then we hear a voice of good cheer spoken, by one of the 
 passengers named Paul, who is a prisoner on his way to trial in 
 Rome. He says that the angel of God ( " whose I am and whom I 
 serve " ) has appeared to him during the ni^ht and told him that 
 the lives of all on board would be preserved. This announcement 
 brought some comfort to his fellow- voyagers, especially as there were 
 signs soon discovered that they were drawing near to land. 
 
 But now occurred the incident which called forth the warning of 
 our text. The sailors very meanly devised a plan for escaping in 
 the ship's boat, under pretence that they wanted to get round to the 
 foreship for the purpose of anchoring it. Paul saw through their 
 trick, however, and instantly told the centurion and soldiers who 
 had liim in charge — " You won't be saved without the sailors. If 
 they are permitted to desert their post, you are lost." Quick as 
 thought, the swords of the soldiers Hashed out. The boat's ropes 
 were cut, and the sailors were kept on board in spite of themselves. 
 The result was that, after some more adventures, they managed to 
 run the sliip into a narrow creek, and all in one way or another 
 escaped safe to land. 
 
 Now, did not Paiil before declare plainly that all on board were 
 to be saved, and that he " believed God," whose angel had told him 
 so ? Why should he then have been so concerned about what the 
 Bailors might do, or not do? Simply because he knew that God 
 works through means. As the old proverb says, " God helps those 
 who help themselves." It was not enough, because God had 
 promised safety, to sit down with folded hands and let things take 
 their course, and say that everything would come out right at last. 
 And yet this is what people sometimes do regarding the great 
 salvation — deliverance not from drowning merely, but from death, 
 and hell, and sin. They say, in effect, " If we are to be saved, we 
 shall be saved, no matter what happens ! " But if they do not 
 avail themselves of the means of safety, committing their souls to 
 Christ and giving Him the guida;nce of their lives, such a hope is 
 utterly vain. 
 
 349 
 
December 14 XLbe 3f(Ultl0 Of tbC Clip, 
 
 " This year also" (Luke xiii. 8). 
 
 It is told of an Italian prince wlio lived in desjiotic days, that he 
 was celebrated for two things — for his forbearance first, but also for 
 his severity when at length his vengeance was aroused. A servant 
 of his, whom he had repeatedly admonished, seemed to become more 
 reckless and impudent every day. Presmning on the indulgence 
 of his royal master, he entered his presence with his hat on ; and 
 when rebuked he saucily said he had a cold. The prince calmly 
 but sternly answered — " I will take care that you never catch cold 
 again." The man was immediately haled away to prison, and the 
 order was given to the executioner to nail his hat to his head. It 
 was a cruel but instructive comment on the Bible declaration — " He 
 that being often reproved hardeneth his heart, shall suddenly be 
 destroyed, and that without remedy." 
 
 One of the prince's friends expressed sui'i^rise at the severity of 
 the sentence upon one Avho had siirvived more serious offences. The 
 prince took a cup, and having half-filled it with water, requested his 
 friend to put an apple in it. The water rose to the brim. " How is 
 it," he asked, " that the small coin has made the water to run over, 
 Avhile the large apple raised it only to the brim 1 " The friend 
 needed no further explanation. He perceived that the cup of 
 righteous indignation had needed but a very little thing to make it 
 overflow. 
 
 Now, there are people who go on for long, provoking the Almighty 
 to anger ; for, as the Bible tells ns, God is angry with the wicked 
 every day. He mercifully restrains the fierceness of His anger. But 
 if they do not repent and forsake their sin, the flood so long sluiced 
 will at length burst forth upon them and sweep them to destruction. 
 
 The owner of the vineyard came year after year to look at his 
 trees, and there was one fig-tree on which he never found any fruit. 
 His patience became at length exhausted, and he proposed to cut it 
 down. But the dresser of the vineyard jjleaded that for one year 
 more it might have a chance of doing better. And even he had to 
 admit, that if, with all the care bestowed uj)on it, there was no fruit 
 xipon it then, it ought to be cut down as a mere cumberer of the 
 ground. As our years are lengthened out, let us be more and more 
 in earnest that our lives may be found bearing fruit to the glory of 
 our God. It would be a sad thing — would it not 1 — if God's sparing 
 mercy, and all His goodness, instead of softening our hearts only 
 liardened them ? It would be sad indeed if, instead of accepting at 
 God's hand the cup of salvation, we went on through the years 
 filling up for ourselves a cuji of divine anger, which should overflo'^v 
 at length to our destruction ! 
 
 359 
 
3\\ 1bf0 Steps. December 15 
 
 "Leaviny us an (X:n:\plc, (hat ye should folloio His steps" (1 Pet. ii. 21). 
 
 Chrirtiaks have not only a book of instructions as to how they 
 ouglit to live, — wliat they should do and not do ; hut they have a 
 hriglit and glorious i)atU'ru to go hy, in M'hich tlu'v sec the will of 
 (lod perfectlv embodied l)efore their \ery eyes. And so, while the 
 Bible gives us many counsels as to life and character, it sums uj) all 
 by pointing us to Christ, saying — " Consider Hira ! There you will 
 find in an actual example everything you ought to seek to bo and 
 to do ! " 
 
 This is a great advantage for us. It is so much easier to under- 
 stand what is expected, and to strive intelligently to act up to it, 
 when we have a model before us rather than a mere description on 
 pai)er of the shajie our character and life should take. And this is 
 not all. For, witli this example l)eforc us, Jesus puts His Spirit also 
 within us, to enable us to follow where lie leads, to walk througli 
 this world as He also walked. 
 
 Now, Ave should be constantly bringing our copy alongside of 
 the original, comjiaring our handwriting with the headline above it. 
 This may be very humbling to us, as we perceive how far short we 
 tome, and what a poor l)lurred copy ours is at the best. But it will 
 be also very useful ; and indeed it is the only way in which to 
 make real progress. AVithout it, we shall more than likely go back 
 instead of forward, and be found growing worse instead of better. 
 M'Cheyne somewhere speaks about his Avatch having had a tendency 
 to go slow, and being found more at fault in this resjiect when he 
 was in the country tlian when he Avas in the toA\-n. The explana- 
 tion Avas simply this, that he Avas frequently brought face to face 
 Avith the steeple-clock in the toAvn, Avhich called him to set his watch 
 right ; but that there Avas no such reminder in the country. This 
 lie applied to the inner Avatch — the heart Avithin — AA-hich the 
 Christian ouglit often to compare and set right by Jesus Christ. 
 
 Let us then ask often — ""Wliat would Jesus do?" and, whether 
 called to act or to endure, let us seek to be like Him. " I will set 
 the Lord alway before me," is a good motto for every Christian. 
 HoAV thankful avc should be that Christ goes before us, and that He 
 is Avilling to inspire us to folloAv Him. It is said to haA-e been one 
 of the great secrets of Caesar's influence and conquering might, that 
 he seldom said " He " (Go) to his soldiers, but " Venite " (Come). So 
 is it Avith a greater than Ca;sar, namely, Christ. He cheers His 
 people in face of dilhculty by His oAvn examjjle. Like the 
 Hungarian king Avliose Aveary men Avere sinking into a death- 
 sleej) among the snow. He says to us — "Arise, arouse ye; folloAV 
 Me." And as Ave are aAA\akened and enabled to put our feet into 
 His footprints, it Avill mean for us life, progress, victory, everlasting 
 reward. 
 
December 16 tTbC Commotl I-Ot. 
 
 "And he died" (Geu. v. 5, 8, 11, etc.). 
 
 Men liaA'e learned from long experience to speak of deatli as " the 
 way of all the earth," because everyone, sooner or later, has to pass 
 through its gloomy portal. It is the common lot of man. Only 
 two men in the world's long history have escaped death. Concern- 
 ing all the rest, it has had to be written, " And he died." This is 
 not a pleasant thing to think of ; but it is true, and we need not 
 attempt to conceal from ourselves its truth. 
 
 A French preacher at the Court once gave xitterance to the 
 commonplace, in presence of the King—" We all must die." The 
 royal brow was observed to be clouded with a froAvn ; and the 
 orator, who spoke mainly to please his audience, stammeringly 
 added — "at least most of us!" Whether this interjection bright- 
 ened the royal countenance or not, I cannot tell. But that preacher 
 was a base flatterer ; and death would not come one moment later 
 to the royal palace for all the flatteries that man might utter, and 
 all the delusive hopes that might be suggested by them. 
 
 You have perhaps read the Vision of Mirza, by Addison ? If 
 not, obtain it, and read it, and think upon it. It is a beautiful and 
 instructive specimen of what is called Allegory — belonging as it 
 does to the same kind of composition as the Pilgrim's Progress, 
 though much shorter than it. The Bridge of Human Life, with the 
 innumerable trap-doors through which the passengers fall into the 
 great tide beneath, has its lessons for us, whatever be the stage of 
 the earthly journey at which we have arrived ; and, since " the 
 hidden pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge," as 
 well as towards its end, there is a lesson even for the youngest. 
 
 As you look round among your many class-fellows, with faces 
 ruddy with health and eyes sparkling with the fire of youth, you 
 may think it will be a very long time before your ranks can be 
 thinned by death. Yet as you go on in life, one after another will 
 disappear from the bridge — most of them long before the seventieth 
 arch is reached. I knew a very aged gentleman, who had been in 
 youth a member of a very large class in the High School of Glasgow. 
 In after years, the survivors of that class, he told me, used to meet 
 annually to dine together ; and they all signed their names every 
 year in the class album, which was to belong at last to him who 
 outlived all the rest. Fewer and fewer the number grew : 50 — 40 
 — 30 — 20 — 10 — 5 — 3; until only two white-haired old men sat 
 down together, and wrote their names in the book. Then my 
 friend alone was left, and became the possessor of the album. Aiid 
 now he too is gone. " And he died " has come true of every one of 
 them. )So will it be sooner or later with every member of your 
 class. Our times are in God's hand. Happy he of whom it not 
 only has to be written, " And he died," but can be added — "Never- 
 theless he lives the blessed life with God " ! 
 
 352 
 
BmiD CbanocfUl "CCICatbcr. December 17 
 
 "//« abidcth faithful" (2 Tim. ii. 13). 
 
 We live in a world that ia full of change. You will be more and 
 more impressed with that as you grow older. But there is One 
 who changes not ; and I trust that you will learn more and more 
 to value llim as the Friend who in .storm or sunshine will abide 
 with you, and undertake for you, and make all things work together 
 for your good. 
 
 " He abideth faithful." He is always trtia to His own character. 
 He is a God of unswerving righteousness. He is utterly and at all 
 times to be relied upon. He cannot deny Himself. He is a God 
 also of marvellous loving-kindness. That, you must not, dare not 
 doubt, whatever appearances may say. A good f)]d man had a 
 curious weather-cock made, and set it over his house. It had 
 printed upon the vane the words, " God is Love." So, whether 
 biting Boreas or the gentle Zephyr blew — whether the wind was 
 from the north, south, east, or west — the weather-cock told the same 
 true story still, " God is Love." It was a quaint but useful way of 
 reminding himself and others, tliat " (iod may change His dispensa- 
 tion towards His children, Init His disposition does not change." 
 
 " He a1)idetli faithful." He is always true to His promise and 
 purpose of grace to believers. No good word in which He has 
 caused any of them to hope will come to naught. God will be 
 found true, though all men should be found liars, even the best 
 men we have known. He is faithful a\']io hath promised ; and what 
 He has promised He will do. As for His purpose, it is sure to be 
 executed. To human view, this may not appear likely ; some 
 things may seem to point in quite a diflerent direction. But He 
 sees the end from the beginning, and can control everything to the 
 attainment of His end. 
 
 Let us trust Ilim, and trust Him wholly. He does all things 
 well. He makes "all things work together for good" to them that 
 love Him. That word " together " is a very important word. The 
 frosts, the snows, the ploughing, Ijy themselves would not give a 
 harvest ; l)Ut, together Math the seed and the sunshine and the 
 showers, they have their own part to play. That cup in the patient's 
 hand might l)e poison, were the ingredients taken separately, or 
 were even one of them left out ; but mixed together by the skilled 
 physician's hand, it is breath and life. 
 
 It is a safe rule to go upon, when we are tempted to pass 
 judgment on God's dealings with us — " Wait till you see the end : 
 do not judge till you know the whole." Stitch by stitch the 
 texture of your life miist be inwoven. There may be some dark 
 threads in it which you would fain have had left out. But when 
 the work is done, and you look at the completed pattern from above, 
 you will not wish tliat any single divinely appointed thread oj* 
 stitch had been omitted then. 
 
 (-3) 3>3 
 
December 18 B IbClptul faster. 
 
 "Ixoill kelp thee: yea, I will uphold thee" (Isa. xli. 10). 
 
 Those who serve Christ serve the best and kindest of all masters. 
 He is botli just and generous to those who serve Him. He takes a 
 deep personal interest in CA^ery one of them. When they are 
 perjilexed, He is ready to coimsel them. When they are in straits, 
 He is ready to helj) them. When they are weary and cast down, 
 He not only sympathises with them under their burden, but says 
 to thein — oh, how kindly and persuasively ! — " Cast thy burden 
 upon Me." 
 
 It is told of an old woman, a mill-worker, tliat as she was toiling 
 up a hill in a hot day, almost ready to faint under the web of cloth 
 she was carrying on her shoulder, she heard a voice behind her, 
 saying — " Koll it off on my shoulder ; and I Avill help you." Veiy 
 thankfully she obeyed. What was her surprise and almost her 
 confusion on seeing that he to whom she had transferred her load 
 was none other than the gentleman she served, the wealthy owner 
 of the mill himself ! 
 
 Now that deed of kindness, that bringing of kindly succour to 
 one oppressed, was a Christlike deed. Our holy Heavenly Master 
 loves to do things like that. He is doing them so constantly that 
 we need feel no confusion when, at His bidding, we cast our burden 
 upon Him. He is our Master, but He is our Friend and Saviour 
 too. And when His strong hand makes help to us, it both 
 lightens the heart and shortens the way. " I will uphold thee with 
 the right hand of I\Iy righteousness." How strong and yet how tender 
 a hand is this — the right hand of our Redeemer's righteousness ! 
 
 "More than thirty years," said the gallant Havelock, "have I 
 served Christ ; and no man ever had so good a Master or so kind a 
 Friend." Havelock's Master is willing to be yours. How well it 
 will be for you, to enter His serAdce early, that you may know from 
 the very outset of your life the joy, which some have grieved that 
 they knew so late, of being "a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 They are to be pitied Avho are toiling and struggling on amid 
 life's burdens, all ignorant of the symjaathj' and the hel^jfulness of 
 Jesus. " I used to work single-handed," said one who knew well 
 what difficulty meant ; " but now I have a Partner, and He lightens 
 the load for me." The loving Saviour is willing on His jmrt to be 
 the Partner of your life. Are j^ou willing to enter into partnership 
 with Him ? " Two are better than one," says the wise man in the 
 Book of Ecclesiastes. And if there are to be two, of whom you are 
 to be one, who shall be the other ? Can you for a moment hesitate 
 about the answer ? Surely it will l>e Christ ! 
 
 3S4 
 
5 must TRUorR. December 19 
 
 " I must work the works of Him that sent vie" (John ir. 4). 
 
 Why must ? Wlien Jesus said, " I must work," did it mean that He 
 was compelled, that He had to work whether He liked it or not ? 
 This is the case, we know, with some people — perhaps with a great 
 juany ; when they work at all, they do it out of sheer necessity. 
 
 A gentleman met a tramp upon the road one day, who asked him 
 for some money. The beggar was a sturdy-looking fellow ; and the 
 gentleman refused at first to give him anything. But the man 
 looked him solemnly in the face and said — " I am sorry for that, 
 sir ; for I shall have to do what my soul abhors." The gentleman, 
 alarmed and thinking that he contemplated suicide, drew a shilling 
 from his pocket, and in handing it to him spoke seriously to him 
 on the sin and folly of even hinting that he meant to take away his 
 life. " Oh," said the vagrant, with more wit than gratitude, as he 
 turned away, "it was not that I meant at all, sir; I meant that I 
 should have to u'orh ! " 
 
 That man was one of the sort who coimt work a great infliction, 
 and exercise far more persistence and ingenuity sometimes in 
 seeking to avoid it, than would have been needful in order to its 
 easy and successful accomplishment. I need hardly say that Jesus 
 was of the very opposite spirit. His life was a patient continuance 
 in well-doing, cheerfully undertaken and carried throiigh. Must 
 work, in His case, means, not because He was compelled, but 
 because He loved His Father and His work so much that He could 
 not be idle. 
 
 If \jou love your Heavenly Father, you will find some way of 
 pleasing Him, too ; and you will have to find it, or you will not 
 be at rest. " What can I do for you, father ? What can I do for 
 you, father?" said a little fellow to his parent so often that the 
 latter grew wearied at length, and said rather sharply, " Why do 
 you bother me so ? " The boy burst into tears and cried, " Oh father, 
 because I can't help it ! " But the Heavenly Father is never 
 *' bothered " when His children, under the constraint of love, come 
 to Him for errands. 
 
 " I must work to-day," said Jesus, " because night is coming." 
 He was still in the A^igour of His maiihood ; but he knew that the 
 working clay was short. • So is yours and mine, though life may 
 seem for the present to be stretching out long before us. We must 
 work from love ; we must work with a will ; we must work for an 
 end ; we must work to-day. The old are prone to say. Yesterday. 
 The young are prone to say, To-morrow. Christ says. To-day. 
 Remember this — for it is true : To-morrow, if it is yours, will 
 bring to-morrow's duty with it. To-day's duty cannot be done 
 to-morrow. 
 
 355 
 
December 20 TTbcrC BlSO, 
 
 " There shall also My servant be " (John xii. 26). 
 
 Jesus expects His servants to be wliere He is. He intends that 
 they shall be there. And when He says to us, " Where I am, there 
 shall also My servant be," we should hear in the words both a call 
 to duty and an encouragement to hope. 
 
 " There shall also My servant be" has (1) a meaning j or this life. 
 "Wliere is Jesus to be found on earth 1 Where there are souls need- 
 ing to be enlightened, troubles to be relieved, devils to be cast out, 
 there the Saviour loves to be, and is ; and there He sends His 
 servants too. Those who are truly His disciples (Matt. x. 1) He 
 makes apostles also (Matt. x. 2) ; and each of them has an errand of 
 mercy for the Master. We have not all the same road to run, the 
 same bit of work to do for Him. But there is something for us to 
 do, in enlightening somebody's darkness, alleviating somebody's 
 sorrow, helping somebody in society somewhere to overcome the 
 evil spirit and cast him out. Where the cause of Jesus needs to be 
 represented and His work to be done, at home or abroad, here or 
 anywhere, there also shall His servants be. 
 
 You remember what was said to King David by Ittai the 
 Gittite, at a time when David and his cause stood sorely in need of 
 sympathy and help? It was a wonderful expression of devotion 
 for the King of Israel to have drawn from a Philistine. But there 
 was a magnetic charm about David which attracted the loyalty of 
 widely different people to him ; and he had charmed the heart of 
 this man of Gath, among the rest. So here is what Ittai said, when 
 it was suggested that he might go back to a place of safety and ease 
 — " As the Lord liveth, and as my Lord the King liveth, surely in 
 what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death or life, 
 there also will thrj servant be " (2 Sam. xv. 21). So should we be 
 ready to speak to our yet nobler King, as One we will on no account 
 be i^arted from. And then we shall find, that — 
 
 " There also shall My servant be," as spoken to us by Christ, has 
 (2) a meaning for the life to come. Even on earth we shall find the 
 place of duty, ay, or of severest trial for His sake, the place of true 
 inward reward. But that is not all. For Jesus has gone to heaven 
 as the Forerunner of His people ; and, one by one, when His own 
 time comes, He gathers His servants home. His presence in heaven 
 is the pledge that all His faithful followers also shall yet be there. 
 " If any man serve Me," He says, " let him follow Me ; and where 
 I am there shall also My servant be ; if any man serve Me, him will 
 My Father honour." 
 
 Is not this a cheering echo from heaven of words such as those 
 of Ittai the Gittite 1 " There also will thy servant be," says the 
 devoted heart to Christ. And the heavenly echo from the glorified 
 Saviour answers back, " Here also shall My servant be ! " 
 
 356 
 
SbUttiUfl tbC Boor. December 21 
 
 ''And the Lord shut him in " (Gen. vii. 16). " Atul the door 
 was shut " (Matt. xxv. 10). 
 
 The shutting of the door in both these cases meant, enclosing some 
 in safety and comfort, and leaving others out to dismay and desolation. 
 
 The mockers in Noah's time would fain have had a place at last 
 in the despised Ark. But their day of opportunity -was past. The 
 Lord who had shut Noah in had shut them out, and the last of 
 them, even on the highest mountiiin-tops, had at length to die, amid 
 the plashing rain, with the despairing cry upon his lips— "Too 
 late ! Too late ! " God gives to you, as to Noah, the invitation, 
 " Come." Take heed lest the same lips have to say to you the heart- 
 breaking word, " Depart." A godly father and pious home will not 
 themselves save you. The invitation runs, " Come thou and all thy 
 hotise into the Ark." Had one of Noah's sons refused to commit 
 himself to the Ark, he would have perished like anybody else. 
 
 So, too, the foolish Virgins in the Parable would gladly at last 
 have got within to the marriage feast. But their folly and 
 negligence cost them dear. While they were going to Iniy oil for 
 their lamps, wliich should have been trimmed and ready, the Bride- 
 groom came. And they that were ready went in with Him to the 
 marriage : a7id the door n-as shut. Alas ! poor foolish ones, they 
 might knock, and knock, now ; but they could not enter. The only 
 answer they could obtain from within was the refusal which sounded 
 like a knell — " I know you not." 
 
 How much better to be shut iu than to be shut out ! It was a 
 beautiful answer given by an old man who lived in a cottage upon 
 a lonely moor, when one asked him if he was not afraid at night. 
 " Oh no," he said ; " faith closes the door and shutters at night, and 
 mercy opens them in the morning." May such safety and peace be 
 yours in the Ark — that is, in Christ. May perfect joy at last be 
 yours at the marriage feast — that is, in Heaven. 
 
 But what if you, meantime, are shutting the door ? Perhaps the 
 King of Grace has been knocking gently and patiently at the door 
 of your heart to get in, and you have refused Him. He will not 
 force His way in. Unless any man, or boy or girl, xdll open the 
 door, it may remain shut for ever. 
 
 What an unkind thing to Jesus, to keep Him standing there out- 
 side ! And wdiat an unkind thing to yourself, to run the risk of 
 sending Him away ! For He is standing ; and while this reminds 
 us how very very anxious He is to get in, it also reminds us that He 
 may pass on. In sorrow, not in anger. He sometimes has to say — 
 " I will never seek to brighten that door again ! " The door, you 
 must remember also, will grow harder and harder to move on its 
 rusty hinges. Tlie company within may be less and less tit for the 
 presence of the King. And you may be less and le.«s disposed even 
 to think of opening it for Him. Alas, you may put off till the case 
 is just reversed — Jesus within and you knocking. What a sad, 
 solemn word to hear, spoken from within and you out^side — " Too 
 late — too late — you cannot enter now ! " 
 
 357 
 
December 22 "fflOW* 
 
 " Xoio is the accepted time" (2 Cor, vi. 2), 
 
 That little word noio is a very important word for all of us. We 
 can hardly exaggerate its importance ; because the future so greatly 
 depends uj)on the now, and the noiv will so speedily be changed into 
 the past which can never be recalled. 
 
 The ancients sometimes represented Time as an old man with a 
 bald head that had only one lock of hair upon it — namely, at the 
 front : to remind men that once Time is past it is impossible to lay 
 hold of him again. An opportunity once missed is gone for ever. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that the Bible, since it deals with the 
 most serious of all concei'ns, is so urgent in its call to us to make the 
 very most of the spiritual opportunities that are given to us. There 
 are people who practically go upon the foolish rule — " Never do to- 
 day what you can put off till to-morrow." But God warns us of 
 the folly of such a course, and wliat His Word enjoins is — " Never 
 l^ut off till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day." Especially 
 does the Bible wai'n and entreat us not to delay, where it is a 
 question of our soul's salvation. "Now," it urges, "is the accepted 
 time : Now is the day of salvation." Do not trust to a to-morrow 
 which may never be yours. It is a very serious thing to pray the 
 prayer, which Augustine confesses that he prayed in his sinful 
 youth — " Lord, convert me, but not now." 
 
 A man was bird-nesting on the face of a high cliff'. He was 
 standing on a ledge of rock half-way down the cliff', which rose 
 almost sheer out of the sea beneath. The rope by which he had let 
 himself down slipped somehow from his hand, and though it kept 
 swinging to and fro, he saw to his horror that every time it swung 
 it was a little farther away. To be left on that little ledge meant 
 death by starvation. Quick as thought he perceived that his only 
 chance for life was to spring at the rope and seize it at its next 
 vibration ; else it would be for ever beyond his reach. His resolve 
 was taken : he leapt for dear life, and clutched the rope, and was 
 saved. Oh, how thankful he was as he reached the top of the cliff' 
 again, and was restored to family and friends, that he had been 
 enabled to seize the noio before it became a never ! 
 
 " My Lord, these letters contain serious news ; and I am 
 requested to ask you to read them at once." The speaker was a 
 messenger who had arrived in hot haste with despatches for Archias, 
 the governor of Thebes, while with a company of boon companions 
 he was seated at a feast. " Serious things to-morrow," cried Archias 
 laughingly, as he put the letters beneath the pillow of his couch. 
 But that same evening the conspirators, against whose plot the letters 
 warned him, rushed into the banquet hall and put him and his 
 guests to death. Delays are dangerous. Let us remember that 
 " every hour added to our life is an hour taken from it " ; and that 
 "now ia the accepted time." 
 
 338 
 
f)eird of <50D. December 23 
 
 " If children, then heirs" (Rom. viii. 17). 
 
 A man's heirs are usually his children. And God's children arc 
 His heirs. They will get all their Father has to give them. 
 
 Now, the Bible speiiks about God's only-begotten Son. And 
 for long ages He had l)ut one Son, who dwelt in His bosom from 
 eternity, and was tlie Heir of all things. But in wonderful grace it 
 was determined to bring others within the family. And who do 
 you suppose these were? Why, iust sinners, outcast and vile, 
 like you and me ! God's heart of love went out after us. "I 
 would like to bring these children of men into My family," He 
 said. And the Son made answer, "I would like to go forth, to 
 seek them, and bring them to share with Me tlie blessings of JMy 
 Father's house. Yea, I will die to take away their sin, and make 
 them meet to dwell with us on high. For I long to make them 
 sharers in My bright inheritance." And so Christ came, and lived, 
 and died upon the earth, that we might become children of God, 
 and joint heirs with Himself, "As many as received Him, to them 
 gave He the right to become the sons of God, even to them that 
 believe on His name " (John i. 12). 
 
 The heir to a large estate in Scotland lay dying. He smnmoned 
 his younger brother to his bedside ; and, after talking to him for a 
 little while, he said — " And now, Douglas, in a short time you will 
 be a duke, and — I shall be a kin"." The dying youth was a 
 believer in Jesus. He was a child of God. He was heir to a richer 
 inheritance than any uj^on earth ; and he hievj it. Hence he could 
 leave the world without a sigh. He felt that he was not quitting 
 his best possessions, but rather entering upon them. 
 
 Peasant or peer — poor or rich on earth — there is none with 
 prospects to compare with those of the heirs of God. It has been 
 said that "all are low-born who are not born from above." The 
 converse is true — that all are high-born who are children of the 
 Heavenly King and have the heavenly heritage in store. If you 
 are Christ's, and Christ is yours, then all things are yours in Him. 
 "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the 
 heart of man, what God hath prepared for them that love Him." 
 
 Surely this may well be an inspiring thought for us, whatever 
 be the place we are called, meantime, to occupy on earth — " I am 
 one of the children of the King, and I am under preparation here 
 for the prepared inheritance." John Newton says : " If one o,f the 
 angels was called on to rule an empire and another to sweep a 
 street, they would not wish to exchange places." To be where the 
 Lord puts us should be enough for us meantime here ; and we 
 should i^atiently and thankfully seek to be qualified there for the 
 higher things in store. God forbid that we should ever envy those — 
 
 " Who barter life for pottage ; sell true bliss 
 For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown ; 
 Thus Esau-like, the Father's blessing miss, 
 Then wash with fruitless tears their faded crown," 
 
 359 
 
December 24 ZhC Sate TRCflX^C. 
 
 " God is our Re/iige" (Ps. xlvi. 1). 
 
 This is a wonderful thing to be able to say of tbe high and holy- 
 God — that He is our refuge. As you young Latin scholars can tell 
 lis, this means that He is One to run to : One to whom we may run 
 back, when we are feeling ourselves sorely pressed, that in Him we 
 may find safety, succour, consolation. 
 
 Perhaps you have sometimes felt that He was rather One to run 
 from, if haply you might hide yourself from His sight, as Adam 
 and Eve tried to do among the trees of the garden. But this is 
 both an unhappy and a foolish course to take. It can never 
 succeed. The sinner has to learn that there is no refuge from God 
 except in God. He only knows true peace who has been brought 
 to say with Augustine — " I fear thee, God : therefore do I flee 
 into Thine arms." 
 
 You remember about the Cities of Refuge in the Old Testament ? 
 They were six in number, three on either side of the Jordan ; and 
 they were placed so that one or other of them might be easily 
 reached from any part of the land. In them there was a shelter 
 for the fugitive from the avenger of blood, and he would at any- 
 rate have the question between them fairly tried before punishment 
 was inflicted upon him. 
 
 Now the fugitive fleeing for safety to one of these six cities of 
 Levi, makes us think of the sinner fleeing to the Saviour. Just as 
 there were way-posts along the road, — with the word Eefiu/e printed 
 upon them, and pointing toward the City, so distinctly that he 
 who ran might read, — so in the Bible we have many an invitation 
 and promise plainly directing us to God in Christ, that in Him we 
 may find safety. I wonder whether you have fled to the Saviour, 
 and found a refuge for your poor guilty soul in Him ? If you 
 have, there is always now a Refuge for you in God. He is One to 
 whom you may constantly turn ; and, coming to Him in need and in 
 expectation, you will never find Him turning His back upon you 
 and refusing to you His sympathy and help. 
 
 We have not Cities of Refuge now. But we have still some 
 institutions which teach lis what a refuge means. We know what 
 a Home of Refuge is, for the cold and hungry and weary in our 
 great cities. We know what a Harbour of Refuge is, for storm- 
 tossed sailors along our coasts. We know what a Fort of Refuge is, 
 to which hard - pressed soldiers might repair nnder the stress of 
 battle. Among the cold and want and storm and battle of life, 
 how well it is for us to have, in such a sense, a Refuge in God. But 
 there is something more familiar still than any of these, which may 
 enable the youngest to understand what is meant by having in God 
 our Refuge. A mother's lap ! Where, in days of early childhood, 
 did you naturally flee with all your troubles, great or small, that 
 you might be comforted ? To your mother's lap ! Even so, Jesus 
 says, " Come to Me ! " The Eternal God is thy Refuge ; and 
 underneath and about thee Avill be the everlasting arms. 
 
 360 
 
TTbe l^OUIlfl CbilD. December 25 
 
 " The young child and IIU mother^' (]Matt. ii. 14). 
 
 Os tliis ilay, wlu-n many ;iru coleLnitiiig lliu IjiiLli of Cliri.st, I invite 
 you to think of the nanie by -wliich He is called at least nine 
 times in this chapter — " Tlie Young Child." The name teaches us — 
 
 1. That Jesus began life at the very herjinniwj. He did not come 
 into the world endowed at first with the i)Owers of manhood. In 
 that case there might he a gi'eat gulf between you and Him. But 
 He cjime a hel2)k's.s l)al)e, requiring to have everything done for 
 Ilim. Mary had to put Ilim in Ilis baby dress, and feed Him at 
 her In-east ; and Joseph had to snatch Him away to Egypt in order 
 to save him from the wicked king who sought the young Child's 
 life. He needed food, clothing, protection, training — just like any 
 other child. Thus — 
 
 2. Jesus understands you. He can enter into all your feelings, 
 and knows your ways. He lived and grew among boys and 
 girls like you, and He knows their temptations, their troubles, 
 tlieir difliculties, as well as their joys ; ana He can feel for them. 
 He is Jiot a Saviour only for grown-up people ; but He is a Saviour 
 — a Friend — a Brother — to the young. And you on your part are 
 to remember that. 
 
 3. You may copy Jesus, and begin to copy Him now. You are 
 not to wait till you are bigger, and to say, " Ah, when I am a 
 grown man or woman, then I'll try to be like Christ ; then I'll love 
 God and go aliout continually doing good." No, no ; begin now I 
 The young Child Jesus "hallowed childhood and early youth by 
 passing through them," that yours, too, might be holy. He grew 
 and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisaom ; and the grace of 
 God was upon Him." That is His boyhood. And when He gi-ew 
 older, He did not, as lads are sometimes prone to do, try to throw 
 oil" His parents' authority. Even after exciting the wonder of the 
 doctors in the temple. He went down to Nazareth with His parents 
 and was subject to them. "And He increased in wisdom and 
 stature, and in favour with God and man." 
 
 Now that is in the Bible just for yo\i. Some of us are past 
 childhood and youth ; and our opportunity for being like Christ in 
 these is over, leaving the record of our failures in the great book of 
 God's remembrance. We may long to bring oj^portunity back, but 
 cannot. An eminent servant of Christ, whose youth was spent in 
 folly, used to sigh, " Lord, too late I loved Thee;! " And many an 
 unhappy man has died with the useless lament of the expiring 
 soldier in his heart, if not on his lips, " If I could be a boy again — 
 a boy again ! " But youth is still yours, though you are just now 
 reminded that another year of it has almost sped. Do not triHe 
 with it. Do not stain it. Do not waste it. Yield yourselves to 
 God. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 361 
 
December 26 ZbC IkluDCSt Misb. 
 
 " / wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and he in health, even as 
 thy soul prospereth'" ( 3 Joliu 2). 
 
 One of the Popes made the following remarkable confession on his 
 deathbed — " 'When I was a common man, I tliought I had good 
 hopes of getting to heaven ; when I became a Cardinal, I very much 
 doiibted it ; and when I became a Pope, I had no hope at all." 
 Many a one in humbler circumstances has reason to make a like 
 confession — that his spiritual prosperity has diminished as his out- 
 ward prosperity has increased. This ought not to be so. Increase 
 in riches or in rank ought not to be allowed to turn the head, or 
 lead the heart away from God. But against so unhappy a result, 
 di-\ane grace is the only proper safeguard. Hence the wisdom of 
 such a prayer as this of the Apostle John for his well-beloved Gains. 
 
 This is a season for good wishes. We should always be wish- 
 ing one another well, not in words merely, but from the heart ; but 
 one of the pleasantest features of this season of the year is, that the 
 air is IfuU of the kind wishes which everybody is uttering so 
 cheerily for everybody else. 
 
 Well, now, this Bible wish is like, and yet unlike, what is so 
 common among us. The apostle wishes that his friend may "get 
 on well," and " keep well " — that he may grow richer and stronger, 
 and keep his bodily health. But he is thinking more of his friend's 
 spiritual than of his temporal interests ; and so he adds — " even as 
 thy soul prospereth." He loves Gains too well to desire for him 
 worldly good out of proj^ortion to his spiritual prosperity. He is 
 above all things anxious that Gains may "get on" and "be in 
 health " in his soul ; and then that, along with that, he may have as 
 much outward prosperity as he can safely bear. 
 
 Now, dear young reader, the best wish those who love you 
 most can give you is — (1) that your soul may prosper — that you may 
 be cleansed from sin's guilt, cured from sin's leprosy, delivered from 
 sin's j)ower — that you may grow richer and stronger every day — 
 richer in faith and love and heavenly wisdom, and stronger to 
 resist the evil and to perform the good. And then, we may safely 
 wish for you (2) that your outward prosperity may he just as great — 
 that you may get on in the world, and become richer and more 
 influential day by day, so long as that does not interfere with the 
 well-being and progress of your never-dying soul. "Worldly 
 adversity is sometimes the greatest blessing God can send to His 
 children, whose hearts have been growing cold and self-satisfied, 
 and dead through a superabundance of earthly good. It is a 
 searching question for old and young in the closing year — What 
 would my outward prosperity be if it were exactly proiDortioned to 
 my inward worth ? 
 
 362 
 
B ipCCSSing Snvitatton. December 27 
 
 "Come — Co)nc—Conu:— Take" {IImv. xxil. 17). 
 
 The closing year is a time for giving and receiving invitations. 
 Here is an invitation for you from the closing Bible. It is the best 
 of all invitations — the call to sinners to accept the blessings of 
 salvation purchased for them by the blood of Christ on Calvary. 
 Come, and take I 
 
 You cannot fail to notice two things about this invitation. 
 
 (1) How earnest it is ! The Bible, being just about to close, 
 seems in this last ajijieal to gi'ow, if possible, more earnest than ever 
 before. The Spirit — the Third Person in theHoly Trinity, whose 
 jiart it is to strive with men — says, " Come." The Bride — that is, 
 the Church, the Bride of Christ the Saviour, whose will is also hers 
 — says, " Come." And all who have heard it for themselves are 
 urged to join in the glad invitation, " Come." "Within the heart — 
 within the bounds of the Church — and wherever there is a living, 
 loving Cliristian in any corner of the world to give voice to it, the 
 cry is the same — " Come — Come — Come ! " 
 
 Then (2) How free it is ! No price is asked. And God means 
 it. I remember hearing the water-sellers on the streets of Cairo 
 shouting — " Ho, thirsty ones, water without money ! " But they 
 did not mean it. They only intended to let it be known that they 
 had fine fresh water to sell, for which they would not charge mitch. 
 But when God says "Without money and without price," as in 
 Isa. Iv., or " Come and take," He means it. " Let him that is athirst 
 come." Are you thirsty ? That is all. Here is water for you. 
 Don't hold back ! Come and take it, that your soul may be re- 
 freshed. Yea, *' "WHiosoever will, let him take the Water of Life 
 freely." Lest you should stop to ask — " Am I so thirsty as to be 
 one of those meant 1 " this is added — " Whosoever will ! " 
 
 "Thank God," said the famous Kichard Baxter, "for that 
 * whosoever.' Had it been — ' Let Richard Baxter take,' I might 
 have doubted if I were meant ; but that ' whosoever will ' includes 
 me, though the worst of all Richard Baxters." Why, dear young 
 reader, should it not include you too 1 Perhaps you are able, 
 humbly but thankfully, to say that it has included you. If not, 
 are you to allow this year also to close, without closing with the 
 ofl'er which God in Christ is making to you, so earnestly and freely 
 now? "/ am willing with all my heart," He says. But what 
 of you 1 
 
 363 
 
December 2S IbltbCrtO. 
 
 " Ilitherto Jiatk the Lord helped W5 " (1 Sam vii. 12) . . . " Hit^wrto have 
 ye asked nothing in My name " (John xvi. 24). 
 
 When, in answer to Samuel's prayer, the victory was given to Israel 
 over the Philistines at Mizpeh, the prophet set up a memorial stone 
 and called it Ebenezer (the Stone of Help), saying, " Hitherto hath 
 tlie Lord helped us." Samuel meant it to be a token both of thank- 
 fulness and of hope. He declared by it his gratitude to Jehovah 
 for His faithfulness in the past ; and likewise his confidence in the 
 divine faithfulness for all the time to come. 
 
 Surely we, as we look back on the way by which God has led us 
 during our past life, or even during the bygone year, have abundant 
 reason to praise Him for His mercy and His truth. And when we 
 remember what He has already been to us and done for us, we may 
 well trust Him for coming days. It is ours to set up our Stone of 
 Help, as Samuel did, as a stone both of gratitude and of continued 
 hope in God. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." Never once, 
 as yet, has He been found wanting to us. In straits, in times of 
 sorest difficulty. He has always proved Himself a present aid. 
 Therefore will we trust, and not be afraid. 
 
 But the word "hitherto," while reminding us of the constant 
 faithfulness of God, is fitted to suggest to us at the same time our 
 I^ast faithlessness. We have not confided in Him as we should have 
 done. We have not always looked to Him for help as He invited us 
 to do. Sometimes we have presumed to fight our Philistines, our 
 spiritual foes, in our own poor strength ; which was but to court 
 defeat. Too seldom have we turned to God for the blessings which 
 He was so willing to give us ; and so we are much poorer to-day 
 than we might have been. He is faithful ; but we have been 
 luibelieving. And Jesus j)uts into His " hitherto " a tone of gentle 
 chiding. 
 
 " Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name." Nothing, that is, 
 in comparison with what you miglit have aslced. If you are a child 
 of God, you have asked something. " Behold, lie j^rayeth," is " the 
 hall-mark " of a real Christian. " None of God's children are born 
 dumb." The new-born soul cries for God as the new-born babe 
 cries for his mother. But hitherto you have asked nothing worth 
 speaking of alongside of what Christ is able and ready to bestow. 
 And so He comes to you now with a fresh challenge to faith — "Ask, 
 and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." 
 
 " When will you cease asking, Ealeigh 1 " said Queen Elizabeth 
 once to her courtly favourite. Sir Walter answered, " When your 
 Majesty ceases giving ! " If we are not to stop asking till Jesus 
 stops giving, we shall go on asking much and long. And this is 
 what our Heavenly King desires. He longs to crown the year for 
 you with His goodness, and to enrich you with His best gifts. Do 
 not, like the unbelieving king who was called to smite with the 
 arrows (2 Kings xiii. 18), restrain the blessing. Try to ask in such 
 a way as to satisfy the Great Giver's heart. 
 
 364 
 
■ffJCllCCfOrtb, December 29 
 
 " Th^y who live should not henceforth live unto IhoMelves " (2 Cor. v. lo). 
 
 " God has spared my life, and I am going to be God's man now." 
 So cried a poor convict, in fervent thankfulness, in Gla-sgow prison, 
 on the 16th January 1891, when the news was brought of the 
 respite of the death sentence under which he lay. 
 
 Tlie story of the man was interesting, and some of the particulars 
 connected with it were as touching as the incidents in any romance. 
 Loreto Palombo, for that was his name, had been at a marriage in 
 tlie company of other Italians resident in Glasgow. A (quarrel 
 tlirough jealousy arose between him and one of the other guests, 
 whom he stiibljed. The wound proved fatal, and Palombo was 
 sentenced to death. But there were certain extenuating circum- 
 stances. Petitions were largely signed in favour of a reprieve. And 
 one who loved the condemned man greatly, after seeking help for 
 him without avail in various quarters in Glasgow, made her way to 
 Lord Lothian himself, who represented the Crown in the matter, 
 and sent into him, at his residence at Dalkeith, the earnest message — 
 " If you will spare his life, I will willingly take his place, as I 
 know that but for me the thing would not have happened." 
 
 The result was what has been already indicated. After careful 
 consideration of the case, a reprieve was forwarded to the Governor 
 of Glasgow prison. He immediately sought the Lord Provost, and 
 they rejiaired together to the convict's cell. " They found 
 Palombo," runs the newspaper report, " upon his knees on the floor, 
 engaged fervently in prayer. On seeing the Lord Provost and the 
 Governor, he rose immediately to his feet. His Lordship said he 
 had good news for him, and read the letter intimating tlie Queen's 
 pardon. Palombo, on hearing the news, dropped on his knees, 
 threw up his arms, and thanked God for his deliverance from 
 death. Addressing his Lordship, he thanked him for his visit, and 
 expressed gratitude to all the good peoj^le of Scotland for what tliey 
 had done to save his life, and added, ' God has spared my life, and I 
 am going to be God^s man now ! ' " 
 
 It was a fit resolve. It was a resolve quite in keeping with the 
 spirit of the Apostle Paul. " Henceforth — unto Him ! " It is a fit 
 resolve for you and me. If, as we look back, we are ashamed to see 
 how much we have been living for selfish ends, and degrading our 
 life to mere earthly and sinful uses, let ns, as we look forward, say 
 from the heart : " This sort of life must cease. No longer shall I 
 live to the gratification of what is base in me, but to the will of 
 God." If Christ died for us, and thereby, at an infinite cost, secured 
 our reprieve from the sentence of eternal death under which we lay, 
 we should remember that He died, " that we who live should not 
 henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and 
 rose again." In view of all the future that awaits us, let this, then, 
 be our motto — " Henceforth unto Him ! " 
 
 365 
 
December 30 ZbC Bin Of 5tt9ratltu5e» 
 
 " Forget not cell Ilis benefits" (Ps. ciii. 2). 
 
 You cannot remember them all. But you certainly ought not to 
 forget them all ; and you should not be unthankful for any of them 
 which memory, as you look back this day, may enable you to recall. 
 
 Your blessings are far more than you can count. As a minister 
 was walking along one starry night holding the hand of his little 
 daughter, she began, looking up, to try to count the number of the 
 stars. Bravely she proceeded for a time, but at last he heard her 
 exclaim — " Two hundred and twentyj- three, two hundred and 
 twenty-four, two hundred and twenty-five — Oh dear, I did not 
 think there were so many ! " And then she stojiped. And the 
 minister said to himself — " I am just like my little maiden, Avhen I 
 begin to count the mercies of my God. I can review a great many 
 of them ; but when I begin to reckon them up before Him, I am 
 constrained to exclaim in wonder — " I did not think there were so 
 many ; they are more than can be numbered ! " 
 
 There are some people who pride themselves because they never 
 forget an injury. It is a very j)Oor thing to pride themselves upon. 
 There are multitudes who should humble themselves because they 
 never remember a kindness — especially a kindness bestowed on them 
 by a loving and bountiful God. A short memory in such a case is 
 not only an infirmity, but a grievous sin. 
 
 " The river past, and God forgotten," is a proverb which reminds us 
 how much readier we are to ask good at God's hand, and to implore 
 help from Him in seasons of extremity and distress, than to pause 
 afterwards to give Him thanks. You remember how, when Jesiis 
 had healed the ten lepers who besought His mercy, nine out of the 
 ten straightway forgot all about their obligation to Him. And it 
 was with a reproachful sadness in His tone that Jesus exclaimed — 
 " Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine ? There are 
 not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger." 
 
 There are base forms in which ingratitude has sometimes shown 
 itself, from which we would instinctively recoil. Such, for instance, 
 was the conduct of a wounded Russian soldier at the battle of the 
 Alma, whom Captain Eddington heard crying piteously for water. 
 The charitalile English officer stooped and gave him a refreshing 
 draught. But as the captain was turning to join his regiment, the 
 wounded man rose upon his arm, and used his reviving energy to 
 shoot and wound his benefactor. T\^iich of us is not ready to say — 
 " Such a wretch was not worthy to live ! " 
 
 Are any of us base enough to wound by a sjiirit of hostility the 
 heart of Him Avho, times without number, has been our Friend in 
 need 1 Are any of us willing to grieve Him by even a spirit of cold 
 indiff"erence in view of all His benefits? Nay, rather, "Bless the 
 Lord, my soul ; and all that is within me, bless His holy name ! " 
 
 366 
 
^be store of life. December 31 
 
 " We spend our years as a tale that is told" (Ps. xc. 9). 
 
 The main idea here is, the swiftness of life. There are other 
 figures in Scripture which lay emphasis on this. In the Book of 
 Job, life is likened to a swift " post." Just as the swift horseman 
 careered along with his message and handed it on to another, and 
 another, wlio brought it to its destination, so life goes quickly 
 forward to its goal. The "swift ships," too, which pass and hail 
 one another and then vanish beyond the horizon ; and the flight of 
 " an eagle in the air," which soon gets quite out of your sight ; and the 
 disappearance of "a little vai)our," which speedily melts into the air 
 and is no longer seen — these are some of the things which sugge.'iL 
 the shortness of man's life on earth. 
 
 This 90th Psalm has already compared life to the growth of the 
 grass, which springs up quickly and vei'y soon withers again. 
 Here it speaks of it as a tale that is soon told and over, so far as 
 earth is concerned ; or more literally, as a thought which flashes 
 into the mind and passes — one of the thoughts of God. 
 
 Now, if life is a tale, you have this advantage over us who are 
 older, that you are still near the beginning of the story, and have, 
 under God, the writing of your biography upon the tablet of time 
 very much in your own hand. See that yours is a story with a 
 pure moral in it. Have it filled with generous aims and high 
 ideas. Ask Christ to take your hand and guide it to write well all 
 through. Then you will have fewer blots and fcAver regrets than 
 some of lis have, when we look back upon the pages that are past. 
 
 The tale you are telling has years for chapters, months for 
 paragraphs, days for pages, hours for lines, and minutes for 
 words. If the pages, paragrajihs, and chajiters are to he worthy of 
 you, take good cure of the words and lines ! And remember this, 
 that when ^' finis" has been written to your story by Death, it is 
 not to be forgotten and cast aside. God is to read oft' every chapter 
 of it, including the chapter now closing, and the next — or as much 
 of it as you are to be spared to see ; and He will pronounce upon 
 its every page. 
 
 There are waxen tablets called " palimpsests," because they have 
 been rubbed and Avritten on more than once. When the upper 
 layer of wax has been removed, the writing below has been found 
 legilde still. So will it be with your life and mine. Many things 
 crowded-out of our memories by new events and scenes will be laid 
 bare to view again. Our whole career will be revealed as in a 
 panorama before us. All our Ijiography in its connection will be 
 read out in our hearing. The tale we now are telling will ere long 
 be a tale that is told. 
 
 God knows how much yet remains untold of our life-story upon 
 
 367 
 
December 31 UbC StOrg Of %itC. 
 
 earth. But wlietlier it be much or little, let us remember, in the 
 words of Dr. Horatius Bonar, " the sweet singer of Scotland," that — 
 
 " He liveth long who liveth well ! 
 All other life is short and vain ; 
 He liveth longest who can tell 
 Of living most for heavenly gain. 
 
 He liveth long who liveth well ! 
 
 All else is being flung away ; 
 He liveth longest who can tell 
 
 Of true things truly done each day. 
 
 Waste not thy being ; back to Him 
 
 Who freely gave it freely give ; 
 Else is that being but a dream, 
 
 'Tis but to be, and not to live. 
 
 Be what thou seemest ; live thy creed, 
 Hold up to earth the torch Divine ; 
 
 Be what thou prayest to be made ; 
 Let the great Master's steps be thine. 
 
 Fill up each hour Avith what will last ; 
 
 Buy up the moments as they go ; 
 Tlic life above, when this is past, 
 
 Is the ripe fruit of life below." 
 
 36S 
 
Date Due 
 
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