Good News for Young and Old: Volume 16 (1874)

when the golden light spreads upward from the east and turns the dewdrops on grass and flower into tiny rainbows, then those who live in country places hear the Bird of Day.

He rises from his little nest hi the old meadow, or among the green corn, and springs aloft to greet the rising sun with his long, loud melody. How he seems to sing with his whole heart as he soars heavenward, “higher and higher yet,” until his gray form is lost to sight in the blue haze of the early morning! I dare say the little reader guesses the name of the Bird of Day? The Skylark has no bright colors to commend him, but his dappled breast and crested head and russet wing are a pleasant sight to see, for they tell of a music that never fails to gladden those who hear it aright as he welcomes the dawn on his dewy wing or bids good night to the setting sun when evening shades are coming on the fields. To some his cheerful song has no other meaning than a pleasant sound, and pleasant sounds, you know, soon pass away; but to others it tells of something more enduring. They alone hear the Bird of Day aright. But do you know who they are? Why, only those who themselves are children of the day. And who are they? The Apostle Paul, when speaking to Thessalonian believers, says, “Ye are all the children of light, and of the day;” so, then, believers in Jesus are those I speak of; they belong to the day, they are brought into the light, and are called to “walk in the light, as He is in the light” by whose grace alone they are in this happy place.

With what joy the little Bird of Day springs to meet the rising sun! How he basks in his golden rays on his tremulous wings, while he pours forth his morning song! Poor unconscious little bird, he only knows that he is happy, for “light is pleasant to the eyes;” and so he sings. The shadows yet lie on his nest, and the morning mist rolls over the fields, but he has left the earth, the shadows and the mist all behind him, and is basking in the light now. To the believer in Jesus his song tells of praise and his upward flight of the faith that soars heavenward, holding communion with Jesus, leaving earth and its shadows all behind and delighting in Him who loved him and gave Himself for him. The skylark’s ready flight and joyous tones remind him too of those gracious words, “Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember Thee in Thy ways.” And what more pleasant sight to see than a little believer in Jesus showing forth in his walk and ways the praises of Him who has called him “out of darkness into His marvelous light,” “singing and making melody in his heart to the Lord,” and proving out to all who know him that he is indeed a little child of light and is walking in it?

Thus the Bird of Day has much to tell to those who can hear him aright. But are you one of them? Do you love Him who took little children up into His arms and laid His hands on them and blessed them? I hope you do; for then, when again you hear the skylark’s early song, it may remind you of the grace that has been given unto you, and that, “if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” It may remind you too that the hour is at hand when you shall sing His praises where no lark’s russet wing has ever soared, even in the Father’s house, where they have “no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof”

J. L. K.

A Sudden and an Early Call.

ON the 16th of April, 1873, the Lord was pleased to take to Himself Elizabeth K—, a young person sixteen years of age. Although her station in life was a humble one, and she was of a quiet, retiring disposition, yet a short account of the Lord’s dealings with her soul, and of her departure from this scene, may be instructive, to some who are young, as well as glorifying to the name of the Lord.

Elizabeth, or Lizzy, as she was called, was blessed with a godly mother, who sought to bring up her children in the ways of the Lord. Thus from her earliest childhood she was sent to a Sunday-school. When she was about eight years old her father died; and it was about that time that the result of the teaching which she had received in the Scriptures began to manifest itself. Sometime after, she, in her childish folly, touched her tongue with a small portion of poisonous matter, which, though it did not materially injure her, yet occasioned her so much pain and irritation of the system that she thought she was going to die; and, during her restlessness on the succeeding night, she intreated her mother to pray with her. This her mother did. She, then, being still under the impression that her death was near, said to her brothers, who were standing by her bedside, “I am dying. Will you come to Jesus? He is your best Friend. Will you love Him? He is my Friend. I love Him because of His love to me.” She shortly after expressed an anxious wish to see her teacher, whose class she had attended at the Sunday-school; and it is very pleasing to have to record of that teacher, that though she was in delicate health, and it was in the middle of a winter’s night, after she had retired to rest, when she was summoned, yet that she immediately arose, and, passing through the streets, went to the bedside of the child, there to comfort her with her presence, and to cheer her with the Word of the Lord. This kind teacher then returned to the bed which she had left, and afterward said that she was so impressed with the scene, and with the reality of the work of the Lord in the soul of the child, that she would not have missed seeing her that night even if she had sacrificed her life. The teacher herself is now with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8); and, surely, it is not too much to say that such an act of love and devotedness for His sake will not be forgotten, when the counsels of the heart and the works of which He is the Source shall be brought to light, to the praise of Him who works in us “both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.”

Lizzy shortly afterward recovered; and it was observed from that time that she became more thoughtful and serious. Though usually reserved, she would sometimes open her mind to her mother. She also evinced a liking to accompany her to the prayer-meetings; and, when she could not be spared from home, would do what she could to enable her mother to go.

When she was about fourteen years old she was apprenticed for a short period to a dressmaker, though she still lived and slept at home. The mistress had other apprentices, and she was, it seems, in the habit of speaking sharply to them at times; and, perhaps, they deserved it. Some of them would, however, defend themselves, and answer again. The mistress seemed to expect this from them; so that, when she found that Lizzy quietly took her rebukes, she said to her, “You are too mild; you are not fit to get through the world.” During the term of her apprenticeship the husband of the mistress was taken with an illness, of which he died; and this brought out an expression of Lizzy’s anxiety about his soul; for she said to her mistress that she hoped he was happy, and asked her if he would like to have someone to come and speak to him of Jesus. When her year was ended, and she was about leaving, her mistress said, “I know, Lizzy, that you like to read good books, and here’s one for you,” at the same time giving her a well-known religious work.

On her return to her home, she still continued to attend Sunday-school and other meetings, according to the opportunities which she had. Her spirit was a meek and quiet one, but she evidenced where her heart was, by steadily declining invitations which she received from her acquaintances to enter into worldly pleasures (1 John 2:15). She was also obedient to her mother, and willing to serve her in any way that she could.

The object which I have in naming these simple circumstances of her unobtrusive life is not to sound her praises, but to show that where there is the love of Christ in the heart, it will show itself, even though but little be said. She was not one that specially shone in her class at the Sunday-school, seldom replying to the questions which were put to all by the teacher, but she quietly drank in the truths which were taught, and let them sink down into her heart. It must not be supposed, however, that she had not her faults. But as Christ died for her sins, and they are all washed away in His precious blood, and as God does not keep in remembrance the ‘sins of those who believe in Jesus, we need not unnecessarily speak of her failings, but rather of that which God wrought in her, which though seen but in tiny sparks, yet show their origin, and are to the praise of His own grace.

When the Lord laid His loving hand upon her, to take her to Himself, the illness with which she was visited was but of short duration, lasting only nine days. She had been away from home a little while, staying with an uncle and cousins in the country. She was fond of paying a visit there, as she enjoyed the tranquility of a rural village; but, having been taken ill, she was brought home sooner than was intended. It was not at first supposed that her malady would be fatal, but at length her friends and herself were made aware of its character. When she returned home, she said, “Mother, I think that the Lord has laid this illness upon me to draw my heart back to Him, for I so often forget Him,” Her conscience was tender, and having been absent for a short time from the meetings which she usually attended, and perhaps having been a little carried away by the change of scene and society which she had lately had, this may have led her to form this judgment of herself. It is a good thing, either in the young or old, to be quick in the fear of the Lord. As the hymn beautifully says: —

“O guard my soul, then, Jesus,

Abiding still with Thee,

And, if I wander, teach me

Soon back to Thee to flee.”

While with her cousins, however, she used to sing hymns with them, and one, beginning, “I heard the voice of Jesus say,” of which she was very fond, they still call “Lizzy’s hymn.” When she knew that she was dying, she said to her younger brother, “I hope, George, that you will not forsake the Lord Jesus.” She also said to him, “If I have ever said anything unkind to you, I hope you will forgive me;” to which he replied, “I have more need to ask you to forgive me, Lizzy.” She also talked with her elder brother, and expressed a hope that his heart would be drawn to the Lord. Just before her last breath she seemed to be unconscious of all around her, but to be occupied with some blessed soul-sustaining truth, for she said, earnestly and deliberately, “Amen, amen, amen,” and expired, departing to be with Christ.

At her burial several of her schoolfellows and young friends attended, and some of them were much affected. God grant that the impression may be lasting upon their souls, impressed there by His own Spirit!

It was very pleasant to her friends—to her dear mother especially—to find in one or two little memorandum-books which Lizzy had privately kept several simple words, in her own handwriting, expressive of her love to the Lord and of His grace to her, as well as confessions of the readiness of her heart to depart from Him, and of the blessing which it would be to be forever with Him. When nature’s tears would flow from the bereaved mother, though there was the sunshine of joy in the Lord shining through them all, it was a sweet word of comfort to which her little boy gave utterance when he said, “Mother, don’t let us cry any more. We should not cry if we only knew what she is enjoying.”

"Me Too."

I DARE say some of the little readers of GOOD NEWS who live in London have, during the past summer, been to Ramsgate, and remember with pleasure the fun they had on the sands and among the rocks and the slippery seaweed, which covers them when the tide is down. Therefore, anything about Ramsgate will have a special interest in their eyes. Yet it is not about seaweed, shells, and sands that I am going to tell them, but about a little girl who lived in a village near Ramsflute and whose name was Jane Harriet T―. On one occasion, not very long ago, a servant of the Lord was preaching the Gospel in the village to a number of people, among whom was this little girl. After having told them how that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he was asking them all to come to Jesus, when suddenly little Jane started up among all the people and exclaimed, “Me too!” You may guess how surprised everybody was; but they were pleased, too, especially the preacher, because this was a sign that God had begun His blessed work in her soul. Well, after this Jane went to a school, the teacher of which was a believer, and she did all she could to show her the way of salvation, telling her often about the Lord Jesus Christ, and how willing He is to receive little children. Thus little Jane was brought to Jesus, and at once began to show the reality of her conversion. Although so young, she got some little Bible story-books, and numbered them 1, 2, 3, and so on, as she had seen the hymnbooks numbered at the meeting in her mother’s house; and then she went about on Sunday afternoon among her little friends and acquaintances in the village, and lent them her books, telling them she would come on the following Sunday and exchange them for others. She would also talk to them and tell them that the little books were about Jesus, that He loved little children, and that she loved Him and wanted to see other little children brought to Him as she had been. That though they were young, they were not too young for Jesus, and that, if they would believe in Him, they should go to be with Him some day, and should dwell forever in His happy home in the Father’s house. As her dear mother was also a believer in Jesus, she was delighted to help her little Jane in this precious work; and so she gave her leave to ask her young schoolfellows and friends to tea on several occasions. Thus, little parties of children were formed; and, after they had all enjoyed their tea and cake and other nice things, little Jane would get them round the table with Bibles and hymn-books, just as she had seen the grown-up people do at their reading meetings. Then she would read something to them from the Bible, and speak to them in her simple, loving way about the Lord, whom she loved, and try to lead them to Him. After this they would sing some of their favorite hymns, and talk together till it was time to go home. Thus did this dear child try to glorify the Lord and serve Him for the little while that she was here. It was not long. Her work was done, and the Lord called her home. In her last illness all her concern seemed to be about the salvation of those around her, but especially her father’s. He had not yet been brought to Christ; but his dear child’s illness and her gentle, loving way of telling of Jesus were blessed to him at last, and he, among others, had cause to praise the Lord for the grace given to his dear little Jane. Her mother and sister had been brought to the Lord before, and now her father was added to the number. They, and doubtless many more whom she knew and loved on earth, will meet her in the glory when the Lord shall come to take all His own to be forever with Him. If you, dear little reader, are one of His, one of the lambs of His flock, I hope the bright example of dear little Jane will lead you to do what you can for the blessed Jesus. In how many ways you may glorify His name! Have you no books to lend? Have you nothing to say about Him who loved you and gave Himself for you? Have you no little friends who are ignorant of Jesus? Oh, yes! I am sure you have, and, perhaps, a gentle, loving word from you might be made a blessing forever to some of them. And then what joy it would give you, both here and hereafter, throughout eternity! May this be your happy privilege, as it will be that of the dear child whose short bright history you will be reminded of whenever you think of Ramsgate and its seaside joys and villages.

The Bird of Night.

I WAS sitting after midnight in a room in my house which overlooks a ploughed field. Beyond lay other fields and meadows, trees and hedge-topped banks, all shrouded in white mist, while a bright moon, sailing high in the heavens, threw a pale soft light over the silent, lonesome scene. All was still—not a sound was heard—not even the rustle of a field-mouse in the grass and fallen leaves by the dyke-side, when suddenly a loud “too-whoo-oo” close by the window broke the stillness of the night. Do you know what it was? I dare say you have seen an Owl, a large brown-looking bird with great round eyes in a very round head, a short hooked beak, and strong legs and talons? Well, it was that Bird of Night hunting for his prey, and he had come close up to the window on his downy wings so silently that until he cried “too-whoo” his approach had been unheard. Owls are seldom seen by daylight, but hide in hollow trees or ivy-grown ruins, or in some hole in an old barn or bank till night. Then he comes forth in search of field-mice, young rats or rabbits, or belated birds. Woe to the little partridge that has strayed from its mother’s side, and is all alone in the rut of a field! the owl’s great eyes will see him in spite of the gloom; and from his powerful talons there is no escape. Unlike other birds, his wings make no flapping noise. Sweeping unheard over the silent fields, he looks like a spectre as he passes between you and the moon without a sound, for you cannot hear him fly. The little field-mouse nibbling some tiny morsel, the young wild rabbit who has ventured out of his burrows to get a bit of green meat, the little mole who has come above ground for a change, all are in danger from the Bird of Night. Suddenly swooping on them, he seizes his prey, and with a stroke of his beak it is dead! Or, if the shadows lie so deep upon the ground that he cannot see the object of his ceaseless search, he utters his loud “too-whoo-oo!” and, startled by a sound so sudden and so near, the little creature flies; but the movement is fatal, for it betrays him at once to his watchful enemy.

Now, dear little reader, TIME may be likened to the Bird of Night. As the owl flies swiftly and stealthily over the fen or the field, or down the dim glades of the moon-lighted wood, so Time sweeps silently, yet speedily, on, snatching off first one and then another from among both the young and the old. How quickly, yet how quietly, the Old Year has flitted by! It made no noise. Church clocks and house clocks may have tolled out the hours as they passed, but Time itself gave no sound. As the owl flits by in the gloom and is lost in the shadows, so has the Old Year flitted along, unheard and almost unnoticed, on the silent wings of Time, and has disappeared in the shadows of the eternal past! The year 1873 is gone forever; but has it left no traces of its flight? Ah, yes! Perhaps some whom you knew and loved have been snatched away and will meet you no more in your summer rambles or by the winter fireside; yet, if they loved the Lord Jesus Christ, they are happier now than they could ever have been upon earth, and, if you love Jesus, you will meet them where Time on its stealthy wing shall never more sweep over the scene of your joys.

“We sing of the realms of the blest,

Of that region so bright and so fair;

And oft are its glories confest,

But what will it be to be there?”

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God Lath prepared for them that love Him. But God Lath revealed them unto us by His Spirit,” and we know they are infinite and eternal. What will it be to tread with stainless feet the golden city in the full blaze of the light of the glory of God? You like to look upon a beautiful garden with gold-fish ponds and grottoes glittering in the summer sun, but what garden on earth can compare with the Paradise of God? You like to see the faces of those you love What will it be to “see His face,” once “so marred” for us, but then beaming on us in all the brightness and grace of heavenly delight to see us round Himself forever, the fruit of His toil, while He drinks with us the “new wine of the kingdom?” Can you say, “He loved me and gave Himself for me?” If not, think how swiftly, yet how stealthily, Time is flitting by, snatching young and old into eternity. And you may be the next, and then! —where will you be?

But, if you do know Him by faith, your sins are washed away by His precious blood, and you may well ask, “What can I do to show my love for Him who so loves me?” Time is still sweeping on in silence, the New Year just begun is hastening fast away, and every moment brings you nearer to the hour when “the day breaks and the shadows flee away.” Are you sure you will ever hear the Christmas chimes again? No indeed, for the Lord may come today—tomorrow. How zealous, then, should we be for the “little while” that remains! The bells that so loudly rang the Old Year out forever may never fall again upon our ears, the music we next listen to may be the glorious sound of golden harps, rolling forth in heavenly strains the praises of God and the Lamb. How well deserved from sinners saved by grace, and glorified by “Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests to God and His Father!”

“What will it be to be there?”

J. L. K.

Ssai Das, the Brahmin.

“The Lord will provide.”

IN the city of Jhansi, which is situated on the extreme verge of British territory in India, there lives a man of the strange name of Ssai Das. He was once a Brahmin, and a worshipper of idols, but the grace of God reached him, and brought him to Jesus some years ago. The love of Christ constrained him to preach the Gospel to the poor benighted heathen around him. There were none there who knew the Lord but himself, and none to help him in the work, yet he did not connect himself with any missionary society, as he might perhaps have had an opportunity of doing, but got together some books and testaments, and by selling these, and doing such work occasionally as he was capable of, he was enabled to support himself and family, looking to the Lord to sustain him in it all. Sometimes he would have to stop at home for a few weeks to earn money, and then he would go out in his more blessed work of seeking souls for Christ. Now and then they had some trying times. Once it happened, when they rose in the morning, that there was no money, and nothing in the house to eat. His wife and children began to cry, but he said to his wife, “We never eat till eleven o’clock, and by that time I doubt not the Lord will provide.” So saying, he took a number of testaments and tracts with him, and went out into the street to try and sell them, and to preach the Gospel as he went about. It had often happened before that he could sell little or nothing, but on that morning the Lord was so gracious that somehow very many people wanted to buy, and he quickly sold twelve rupees’ (about 24s.) worth of books. Going at once to the bazaar, he bought all that was needful for his family, and even some sweetmeats for the children; then hurrying to his home, which he reached before the usual breakfast hour of eleven o’clock, he showed what the Lord had graciously given him. His astonished wife asked, “Where did you get all these things?” and his reply was, “I said the Lord will provide, and He has given us breakfast by breakfast-time.”

Saved by grace, gifted by the Spirit for the work of an evangelist, and sustained by the hand of the Lord, Ssai Das still labors in Jhansi, and all around the country, for Him who loved him and gave Himself for him. I must tell you some more anecdotes about him and his work another time. K.

Oran, the Irish Serf.

ST. PATRICK, of whom I dare say the little reader has often heard, is called the apostle of Ireland because he is believed to have been the first who preached the Gospel in that country. On one occasion he gave great offense to a wild pagan chieftain, named Berriadhe, by overturning a stone pillar which was one of the chief idols of the heathen Irish. Too many of them, alas still worship idols in another shape, such as pictures and images of Mary and other saints, but that is not the fault of St. Patrick, but of the Romish priests who thus mislead them. Well, Berriadhe vowed he would kill St. Patrick the first time he should pass that way again. Whether St. Patrick knew this or not we cannot tell. If he did, it would probably have made no difference to him, for he seems to have been devoted to his work. But his servant, Oran, overheard the threat; and, when some time afterward he and his master were about to pass Berriadhe’s Castle in a car, he suddenly pretended to be taken ill and asked St. Patrick to exchange places with him by mounting the horse he was riding. His master, quite unconscious of his motive and pitying his serf, at once consented, and Oran got into the car, while St. Patrick mounted the horse. As they thus rode by within bow-shot of the castle, an arrow, aimed by the vengeful Berriadhe, pierced the heart of the faithful serf, who fell back dead in his seat, while his master, not knowing what had happened, drove on in safety. It was not till out of danger that St. Patrick discovered the death of his servant, and you may depend upon it he would long remember the devoted love of Oran. He died instead of St. Patrick, and by his death saved his master’s life.

Dear young reader, the Lord Jesus Christ died instead of sinners, and by His death He saves all who believe in Him. Oran, the Irish serf, took St. Patrick’s place and bore the wrath of Berriadhe; Jesus on the cross took the sinner’s place and bore THE WRATH OF GOD. Who shall tell the anguish He endured? But He rose again, and now offers both forgiveness and everlasting life to all who come to Him. Could St. Patrick forget the love of Oran without base ingratitude? “Christ died for all.” Therefore whosoever will may take of the water of life freely, for He will not cast out any that come to Him (2 Cor. 5:14, 15; Rev. 22:17; John 6:37).

Have you hitherto been careless of His great love? Can you continue to be so without being guilty of the blackest ingratitude—an ingratitude only to be measured by the greatness of the sacrifice and the awful intensity of the sufferings of Christ for sinners? Would you like to meet God with this one sin on your head even if you had no other?

"Praise Ye the Lord."

THE Oak for strength; the Rose for scent and grace;

The Vine for grapes; the Nightingale for song;

The Eagle for undaunted flight. All things

And creatures, Man the chief, for praise of Him

Who made them. Such the universal law.

And what of him who has the heavenly birth,

To God redeem’d by Jesus’ precious blood;

Who stands in Christ, his Saviour, Life, and Lord,

And draws his bliss from Love’s o’erflowing well,

Now tasted; to be drunk for evermore

In deeper, fuller draughts, from God, its Spring

And Source? What is the end for which he lives?

It is, that he should glorify the Lord,

His savor yield, and show the lineaments

Of life divine, displacing sinful self.

The Spirit’s fruit in him should freely grow,

And show its heavenly Root, uncheck’d by blight.

‘Tis this that makes the Father’s heart rejoice,

Delights the bosom of His only Son,

And glory brings to God’s most holy Name.

January, Dictionary or the Bible.

Day. ―Among the Jews the day is reckoned as beginning at sunset according to Genesis 1:5: “The evening and the morning were the first day.” Thus the Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday, and closes at sunset on Saturday; and the length of the day necessarily varies with the season of the year. Originally the natural day appears to have been divided into three watches (Psa. 55:17), and the natural night also, viz., the first or “beginning of the watches” (Lam. 2:19), the middle watch (Judg. 7:19), and the morning watch (Ex. 14:24). Military discipline among the Greeks and Romans gave rise afterward to a fourth night watch, each watch being of three hours length (Matt. 14:25; Luke 12:38; Mark 13:35). The first or “late watch” began at sunset and ended with the third hour of the night, and included the twilight or evening dawn. This was also called eventide or evening (Mark 11:11; John 20:19). The midnight watch lasted from the third hour of the night until midnight, when the next watch, called the “cock-crowing,” began and continued until the third hour after midnight, or the ninth hour of the night. It included the two cock-crowing’s, one of which occurs at midnight, and the other at dawn (see Cock-crow). The “early watch” began at the second cock-crow or dawn of day, and lasted from the ninth to the twelfth hour of the night. It was also called morning or morning-tide (John 18:27, 28). After the Babylonish captivity the natural day was divided among the Jews into twelve hours (John 11:9), and the hour is first mentioned Daniel 4:19. The first hour of the day began at sunrise; the third would therefore be from about eight o’clock to nine o’clock (Mark 15:25), the sixth hour ended at mid-day (33), and the ninth at what with us would be about three o’clock in the afternoon (34), or “between the two evenings” (Ex. 12:6, margin). The twelfth hour ended at sunset (John 19:14)3 the hours are reckoned according to Greek time; the sixth hour, therefore, was six in the morning (comp. 18:28).

Death, in Scripture means “ceasing to exist in the way and relationship men were living in,” Thus Adam died on the day that he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that moment he ceased to exist in that way and in that relationship to Jehovah-God in which he had originally been placed. Thus, too, all his descendants were “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2). So, also, when a person dies naturally, he ceases to exist in that way in which he was living, viz., as a man having a body and bodily wants, &c.; his relationships also to persons and things around him are at an end; yet he himself continues to exist, though as a disembodied spirit. His individuality remains; therefore, we read of Moses and Elias (Mark 9:4), Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man (Luke 16:22, ,23), the saved thief also (23:43), who was to be personally with Christ in Paradise, and Samuel (1 Sam. 28:12—19), who, to the surprise and alarm of the witch of Endor, was sent to rebuke the apostate king of Israel, she having expected only her familiar spirit, who was to personate Samuel and deceive the visitor as “spirit-rappers” do now. Death, therefore, does not destroy the being of the individual; he still exists, but as “unclothed” (2 Cor. 5:4, 8; Phil. 1:23; 1 Peter 3:10; Luke 20:38; Rev. 6:9; 20:4; Eccl. 12:7). Revelation 20:11, 12, also shows plainly that the lost continue to exist after death, and that their individuality remains with all its responsibilities. If they had individually ceased to exist they could not be raised again. In that case, those raised would he other persons, not the individuals who have to be “judged according to their works” done in the body on earth.

The death of the body is frequently called “sleep” in Scripture; but this term is nowhere applied to the soul (Deut. 31:16; Psa. 76:5; John 11:13; 1 Cor. 11:30; 15:51).

Deborah (bee). — A prophetess who judged Israel to their shame when they, having departed again and again from Jehovah, were left in the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan. She was the wife of Lapidoth, and dwelt in Mount Ephraim (Judg. 4:5).

The nurse of Rebekah was also named Deborah. She accompanied her foster-child from Laban’s house (Gen 24:59), and remained with the family of Isaac until her death (Gen. 35:8).

Decap’olis (ten cities). — There is much uncertainty as to which cities were originally included in this title, but in course of time the name came to be applied to a region near the Sea of Galilee (Mark 5:20; 7:31).

The Christian's Hope.

OH, what a blessed Hope is ours!

How full of grace and glory 1

‘Twill shine in all its radiant powers

When time is old and hoary.

Its cheering beams now shed their glow

Revive the heart in sadness,

And as they in our bosoms flow,

They give us light and gladness.

Ere long the Bright and Morning Star

Will burst upon our vision,

When we shall soar from earth afar,

And enter scenes elysian.

His heavenly face shall we behold,

Who here our souls has cherish’d,

Who died for us, with love untold,

When we must else have perish’d.

What holy joy Himself to see!

Its fullness who can measure?

And when with Him we all shall be

How great will be His pleasure!

Our pray’rs will all be answer’d then,

For grace then crowns its story;

And full will be the heart’s amen,

On seeing Him in glory.

Bible Enigma for January.

Who dared to treat the living God with scorn?

What judge had thirty sons and daughters born?

What murderer tried to hide a brother’s blood?

What woman gave her infant son to God?

What patriarch was deceived when nearly blind?

With whom could David no reception find?

Who trembling still deferred the day of grace?

Who wished to hide from the Almighty’s face?

What son of Saul did wicked servants slay?

And where did men the bones of Joshua lay?

Who, trusting in the Lord, his living Rock,

Awaited calmly every earthly shock?

If initials be taken apart from persons and place,

A part of a text will appear,

Describing a principle wrought out by grace,

Which in life’s hours of sadness will cheer.

Bible Questions for January.

On the Book of Genesis.

1. Which of Joseph’s brethren tried to save his life when others wished to kill him?

2. Who built the first altar, and what did he offer thereon?

3. How many altars did Abraham build?

4. Where did Abraham go without building an altar?

5. Which was the oldest of Noah’s sons?

6. What four words were a great comfort to Hagar in her trouble

7. Give two verses from different chapters to prove which were the two most cruel of Jacob’s sons?

8. Who looked back upon his life when more than a hundred years old, and wished he had spent it otherwise?

Walking Better Than Talking.

A WEALTHY farmer of Th ornery, a village near Fontainebleau, was taken ill and died suddenly, leaving his affairs in confusion. His married daughter applied to a gentleman, who understood such matters, to undertake the arrangement and division of the property, which he did to the entire satisfaction of all parties; but, when they wanted to know how much he charged for all his trouble, he, to their great surprise, would accept nothing. Now, the farmer’s daughter, and indeed all the family, were Catholics; they had been brought up in this strange religion from their forefathers. I call it a “strange religion” because it is such a wonderful mixture of Christianity and that old religion which was all over the world in the days of Abraham (Josh. 24:2, 14, 15), when nearly everybody worshipped idols; and, as catholic means universal, or “all over the world,” of course, nearly everybody might truly be called Catholics then. But in those old times they gave their idols different names to those they give them now. For instance, now they call the queen of heaven Mary, but then they called her Ashtoreth, or Astarte, and kept Easter (or Astarte’s day) in. Honor of her, and the reason was this: they pretended that Tammuz (or Adonis) had been killed by a wild boar, and they mourned for him for forty days, and sat in ashes on Ash-Wednesday, just as the Catholics do now in Lent, only they pretend that they do it for Christ. Then, on Good Friday (Freia was the Saxon name for Astarte), they offered cakes to the queen of heaven to persuade her to raise Tammuz from the dead. When Easter Sunday came they pretended to believe that Astarte had heard their prayers, and they went about rejoicing and crying, “He is risen,” meaning that the idol they had wept for was now alive again (Ezek. 8:14; Jer. 7:18). You will find during the month that the Catholics make a great deal of Lent and Ash-Wednesday, Good Friday and Easter, and now you know the reason; and, though you may like hot cross buns and Easter holidays, I hope you will have nothing to do with them in a religious way like those who follow the Catholic or “all-over-the-world” religion. But, as I have said, the farmer’s daughter did follow that religion, and the gentleman who arranged her father’s affairs did not. He was a believer in Christ, and his great kindness in doing so much for them and charging nothing drew their attention to the religion he professed. They well knew, by experience, that their priests would do nothing for them without payment, that they would not even pray over them, or bury or marry or confess any one, without being paid a fixed sum of money; and therefore they were the more surprised at this Christian’s kindness.

Seeing this, he took the opportunity of talking to the farmer’s daughter about the Bible. Now, she had never dared to look into a Bible, because the priests forbade it, but she could not help feeling that there was something about this gentleman’s religion very different to her own—something that his ways commended to her—and so at last she was persuaded to accept a Bible and to look into it. She afterward said that she opened it with fear and trembling, but she had not read far before she found out why the Catholic priests condemned that blessed book and all who read it. The Word was soon blessed to her soul, and she got settled peace through faith in the blood of Christ. Then she began to give away tracts to her neighbors, which soon drew the attention of the priest to her. He came, and very solemnly told her she was alone in her error in this world, so she would be alone in the next. “Nay,” said she, “I hope to be with the Lord.”

“Well, but,” said the priest, “why not remain quietly with the good people of the village now, and be with them all after death?”

“God forbid, Monsieur!” exclaimed Madame Bougreau. “Why the villagers are infidels; scarcely one believes in any other god but the sun.”

“In truth, Madame,” replied the priest, “you are right there.”

So you see even the priest was obliged to admit that, although the followers of the Catholic or universal religion might have different names for their gods and goddesses, now it was the same religion after all as that of old (Deut. 4:19; Ezek. 8:16).

The love of Christ always constrains those that know Him to try to bring others to the same blessed Saviour; and so it was with Madame Bougreau. Her husband was not at this time a believer, but he did not oppose or hinder her in any way. Every Sunday she took her children and all her farm servants to the place where the Gospel was preached in Fontainebleau; and on market-days, when she went to any town on business, she used to say to those she had dealings with, “Now our business is ended, I have a little present for you,” and would then bring out a bundle of tracts, which she distributed to all around her. In one of the towns she visited she found a shopkeeper who was a believer, “but secretly, for fear of the” Catholics. She encouraged him and his wife to profess Christ openly, and in order to help him in so doing offered to send her covered cart to fetch him and his wife to the preaching place on the Sunday, hoping that, “built up by the Word of God,” he would gather strength to take a bolder stand for Christ. Thus you see she was an earnest worker for the Lord, and He blessed her labors both abroad and at home, for she had at last the happiness of leading her husband to hear the Word which had been made so precious to her own soul; and it seems to have been so blessed to him that he told the preacher, “It will be the happiest day of my life when you come to preach the Gospel in our village.” Wherever she went she became known as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the peasants would often gather round her and ask for tracts, and beg her to buy and bring them New Testaments the next time she came among them, as those precious books were only to be had in Fontainebleau. All this happened some thirty years ago, and no doubt the truth has spread very widely since then. Perhaps by this time Madame Bougreau has gone to be with Him whom she so ardently loved and diligently served; but her short history is written that you may see how blessed it is for believers to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called.” It was not so much what was said as what was done by the gentleman who arranged her father’s affairs that first won the attention of Madame Bougreau—it was his walk that commended the truth to her. And then, when by grace she had also received the truth as it is in Jesus, you see how she walked. If, then, you know the Lord, seek grace to be an imitator of all such, that so you may adorn the doctrine of Christ and thus magnify His name.

The Holy and Beautiful House.

Isaiah 64:11.

WHEN God’s people were in the desert, and lived in tents, He had a tent among them for Himself, where He was pleased to dwell (Ex. 25:8). But when He had brought them into the land of Canaan, and they were living in houses, He let Solomon build a house for Him, and said He would come and live in it. “Here will I dwell, for I have desired it,” God said (Psa. 132:14). At that time the Lord Jesus had not come into the world, and no one had seen God at any time (John 1:18). He was there, behind “the wail,” but no one dared to go in there to Him, except just one man, the high priest. He only went in once a year, and when he did he had to burn something in there that made clouds of smoke. It was not black smoke like we see, and it smelt very sweet indeed; but still it was smoke, and, if it had not been there, the brightness of the presence of God would have been too much for him and he would have died (Lev. 16:13).

Now, when Jesus was here, God His Father dwelt in Him. He could speak of “the Father which dwelleth in me,” and Jesus was Himself “the brightness of the glory of God” (Heb. 1:3); yet He was so gentle and so kind that no one was afraid to come to Him.

“His hand no thunder bore, no terror clothed His brow.”

All were welcome, and He said Himself, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” So it was better to have the Lord Jesus down here among us, so that any one might come to Him, than to have the great and beautiful temple of Solomon, where no one but the priests could come, except into the outer courts and rooms. But now God dwells in His people by His Spirit (2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:22); and Jesus is not here either, He is gone back to His Father (John 17:11). But He is not content to be there alone. The people of this world were quite willing to have their home to themselves without Jesus, but Jesus is not at all satisfied to have His home to Himself without us. In the house of God that Solomon built there were many “chambers,” one above another, all round the walls (1 Kings 6:5). They were to put the treasures in, and for God’s servants, the Levites, to lodge in (1 Chron. 9:27). And so, when Jesus told His disciples about the place He was going back to when He left the world, He said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” or “dwellings.” It is very likely Jesus was thinking of the many “chambers” in Solomon’s Temple when He told them of those many “mansions” in His Father’s house. How nice to think that in the very place where God lived He chose to have dwellings all round, where His servants might live and be near to Him! How much more wonderful that in heaven, where all is light, and holiness, and love, He should make room for such as you and me! The house Solomon built was to be one “of fame and glory throughout all countries” (1 Chron. 22:5); and so it was. Outside it was grand and beautiful, with pillars and other stone work; inside it was all covered over with pure gold (1 Kings 6:21, 22). But all of it together was nothing to compare with the glory and beauty of the place which is the home of those who belong to Jesus. And, better still, Jesus Himself is there, and His glory is the brightest of all. He said to His Father that He wanted us with Him, that we might see His glory (John 17:24), and I am sure if we love Him we want to see it, and to see Him in it. The glory where Jesus is, and where He waits for us, is the happy home of all those who believe in Jesus. And presently He is coming to call away from this world all who are “ready,” and take them there, to be forever with Himself (1 Cor. 15:51). Dear little reader, are you ready (Matt. 25:10)?

W. T.

The Young Cowherd of Fontainebleau.

I WANT to tell you a tale about Fontainebleau, which, as you probably know, is a town of France about thirty-five miles from Paris. A magnificent forest surrounds this old town and ancient château, where the old nobility of France once lived, and gives a romantic interest to its scenery. Legends of greatness, pomp, and power, still cling around these old castles, and no doubt many a deed of violence and cruelty have been done within their walls, for, where idolatry prevails, it ever will and must be so.

And the people of Fontainebleau were once all idolaters; indeed, too many of them are so even to this day, for numbers still worship “the queen of heaven” (Jer. 7:18; 44:17), as they call the Virgin Mary, and many other idols beside. But, what’s most strange, they actually have the assurance to call this religion Christianity! Now, a Christian is a disciple of Christ, and how a person who bows down before images and pictures which God has forbidden (Ex. 20:4, 5; Deut. 4:15, 16) can be called a disciple of that blessed One whose whole delight was to do the will of God I cannot understand—can you? They also call themselves Catholics, and there they are right enough, for catholic means “universal,” and certainly idolatry was universal till the true light shined and dispelled the darkness; at least, in some places. And I am thankful to tell you that it has driven away the darkness from many a heart in Fontainebleau, although it is to be feared that the mass of the people are still Catholics; that is, followers of the old universal religion of the nations (1 Cor. 12:2).

Some thirty years ago a Christian gentleman built a chapel in his garden in order that the Gospel might be preached to the poor benighted Catholics of this neighborhood, and God graciously prospered the work. Numbers came to hear the Word from the villages around, tracts and Bibles were given away, souls were converted, and a little assembly of believers in Jesus was at last formed. The Catholic priests, of course, did all they could to stop the work, but it was all in vain. The giving away of tracts and Bibles especially stirred the anger of these priests, for the Word of God, you know, is a light to the feet, and a lamp to the path; and how could the universal religion of darkness stand its ground where that blessed light was shining? But the more they preached against Christians for giving away Bibles, the more they made it known of course, and one day a boy of about fifteen years of age came to the wife of the gentleman who had built the chapel, and said to her, “Madame, I have heard that you give the New Testament to poor persons who cannot pay for it. Would it be too great a liberty in a, child to ask for one? My name is Badelet; I feed the cows in the forest, and I should be so happy to read the Testament while I lie all day on the grass.” The lady at once gave him what he asked for, and it seems to have been made a blessing to his soul almost immediately. That “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life,” is indeed wonderful news, and comes with marvelous freshness and power to those who never heard it before. You, dear reader, have often heard it, have you believed it “WITH THE HEART unto righteousness?”

That the young cowherd of Fontainebleau had received the truth was soon proved out by his ways. In a very short time he brought two other little cowherds, who, having seen his book and heard it read in the old forest where they tended their cows, wanted to have one too. How far they got blessing from the Testaments given them I don’t know, but it would seem that the gift was not without fruit, for a little while after this they all came again to ask for a hymn-book, that they might sing together in the forest. Fancy the old avenues of the forest of Fontainebleau echoing the hymns of praise sung by a company of little cowherds sitting on the grass! Why, it was sweeter music than that of all the birds whose melody was sounded there. And this was the beginning of Badelet’s happy work, but it did not stop there. Every time that the chapel was open for preaching, dear Badelet brought his two little friends with him to hear the Word of God, and soon the two became three, and the three increased to several; while Badelet made it his business to sit with them, find their places in the hymn-books and Testaments, and keep them all in order and attention to what was going on. Thus the cowherd became child-missionary to all the children of the forest of Fontainebleau. A little girl wanted. Badelet to get her a hymn-book. “No,” said he, “better ask for a Testament; it will do you far more good, and you can wait for a hymn-book afterward.” Was not this wise of the boy? and did it not show that he understood that we must receive the truth before we can sing the praises of God aright?

One Sunday after the meeting this dear boy came up to the owner of the chapel and said with a look full of entreaty, “Monsieur, there is a young man at the door who has attended regularly for some time; I have promised him a New Testament.”

The gentleman made a sign of assent to his request.

“Monsieur,” continued the boy, “you know there is the young soldier of whom I spoke the other day, he wishes to have one.”

Again his friend nodded his head to signify his consent.

“Here is another boy yet who would like to have one,” said dear Badelet, laying his hand on the shoulder of a lad who stood beside him; and I need hardly tell you that all three had Testaments given them at once.

But how beautiful to see a boy so anxious for the blessing of others that, while fearful of asking too much, he knows not where to stop! Thus it was that the young cowherd of Fontainebleau proved the reality of his love for Christ, in constantly seeking to win souls for Him, that sinners might be saved and the blessed Saviour of sinners magnified in him and by him for the “little while” that he might have the privilege of serving Him here on earth. What a bright example to every child who believes in Jesus! Are you one of them? Do you believe that “He bare our sins in his own body on the tree?” Can you say in faith, “The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin?” Are you one of the “us”— one of those who believe God? If so, how many young friends have you to whom you may lend if you cannot give a Testament, a tract, a copy of GOOD NEWS, and whom you might persuade to go with you at least sometimes to meetings where the Gospel of the grace of God is preached I May you have grace given you to imitate the example of the cowherd of Fontainebleau.

True Happiness.

How would the little reader like to be a king? “Oh,” you say, “it must be fine to live in a grand palace, to have plenty of servants and horses and carriages, thousands of soldiers and officers at command, gardens and pleasure grounds, gold and silver in abundance, all sorts of nice things to eat and drink no lessons to learn, no hard sums to do, everything that heart can wish all day long.” Well, I dare say you think so; and yet, if you have read any books of history, you must have noticed that, after all, kings do not seem to have been very happy people. Still it is a great thing to be a king, and especially after having been only a poor man.

Now there was once a person who was the son of a widow and only a servant, and one day as he was going over a field, dressed in a new coat, he was met by a man who took hold of his new coat and, without saying a word, tore it into twelve pieces! Coats in eastern countries have long skirts; and, as this which I am telling you about happened in an eastern land, I suppose it was the long skirts that were thus rent into twelve pieces. Well, after doing this, the man, who was a prophet of the Lord, gave back ten of the pieces into the hand of the wearer of the coat, and said to him, “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee.” How astonished this person must have been to hear that, if he had lost a new coat, he was going to have a kingdom instead! How grateful he must have felt at the Honor thus put upon him, you will say; but do you know who he was? Why it was that wan of whom it is so repeatedly written, “Jeroboam that made Israel to sin.” Thus you see it is not always a good thing to be a king, for Jeroboam, instead of being grateful, distrusted and forsook the Lord Thinking that, if the people of Israel went up to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah, as He had commanded them to do, they would turn to Rehoboam, the king of Judah, he set up two calves, one at Dan and the other at Bethel, and persuaded the people to worship them. This became a snare unto all Israel, and thus Jeroboam not only forsook the Lord himself, but led a whole nation to do so too. Better for him to have remained in a humble station than thus to abuse the goodness of God. But so it was that the favours he received were only used by him to encourage his heart in his evil ways, until the Lord declared He would destroy the house of Jeroboam altogether and give the kingdom to another. This came to pass very speedily; in fact, in the very next reign; but in the meanwhile there was one son of Jeroboam’s, and only one, of whom it was said that “in him was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel.” He seems to have been his father’s favorite son, and happy would it have been for him if affection for his child had won his heart to follow his example. But such was not the case, and at last the Lord laid His hand heavily upon him. His son was taken dangerously ill, and Jeroboam, anxious to know whether he would recover, sent his queen, disguised and feigning herself to be another woman, to the prophet Ahijah to inquire whether the child would recover.

In spite of all his idolatry and sin, he seems to have known perfectly well that the Lord alone could restore his son’s health or foretell what would become of him, and yet, in his blindness, he fancied that the prophet would not know who had sent to make the inquiry. How blind and inconsistent the heart of the sinner is! How could he expect to deceive God? The queen had no sooner set foot in the prophet’s house than he, although his eyes were dim with age, called out, “Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam,” and then proceeded to tell her the heavy tidings with which as a servant of the Lord he was charged. You may read all that he said to her in 1 Kings 14, and you will there notice that he said as soon as she returned home the child should die, and that, of all the house of Jeroboam, Abijah only should come to the grave, because in him there was some good thing found toward the Lord God of Israel. What that “good thing” was we are not told, but no doubt he had refused to worship his father’s gods, and had clung to Jehovah; but, whatever “good thing” it was that was found in him, it is quite certain that it was owing to the grace of God alone. There is no good thing in any of us naturally or of ourselves. Any good thing found in Abijah was therefore owing to the Lord’s goodness towards him. If he clung to Jehovah, and did not worship the calves of Dan and Bethel, it was the Lord that sustained him in it. How kind and gracious of the Lord first to produce the “good thing” in Abijah, and then to own him and bless him by taking him home to Himself out of all the evil that was coming on his father’s wicked house. But this is like the Lord—He first gives grace, and then blesses those to whom He has given it. This is indeed “grace upon grace.” Now it is “the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men;” but some, alas! reject the grace, and thus are lost. I hope you have not refused the grace of God! You know “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” It is at this tremendous cost—the cost of His only-begotten Son—that God’s grace now offers salvation to all. Have you received it? If you have, then “some good thing is found” in you. Nothing of your own, all of God’s grace, and yet you are blessed because of it! And, if you have received the grace of God, if you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood cleanseth from all sin, then, in the words of the Spirit, “I beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain,” but, by cleaving to the Lord with all your heart and acknowledging Him in all your ways, such as a little believer in Jesus should, to bring glory to His name. Abijah died and was buried; you may never die, for the Lord, who is coming soon to take us home to the Father’s house, may come very shortly, and then, “changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” you will be caught away to be forever with the Lord. Among the Jews it was an Honor to be buried in the land; we look not for death, but GLORY (1 Thess. 1:10).

The Cloud with a Silver Lining.

WHEN over our heads the clouds flee by,

Which lightnings have rent asunder,

With pleasure we see their shadows fly,

Though heavily rolls the thunder;

For soon we expect with joy to view

The Sun, in his glory shining;

And welcome that sign of hopeful hue, ―

The Cloud with a Silver Lining.

The shadows which dim the Christians path

Should cause but an April sorrow;

His Father ne’er visits him in wrath,

And bright is the long tomorrow.

Then let us rejoice. Why should we grieve?

‘Tis sin to be e’er repining;

We’ll rest in His love, and still believe

Each Cloud has a Silver Lining.

Sheep, and Their Clothing.

Is there anything more pleasant to behold than a flock of sheep feeding in a rich pasture, or lying contentedly down upon the ridge of a meadow, on a serene summer’s evening, while the lambkins are racing up and down in pleasant play? It does one good to see such a sight. To me it is a picture of a happy assembly of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, feeding on the fat pasture of the Word of God, the sheep in the calm and quiet way that marks them, and the lambs after the manner that suits their tender age; or, when they are filled and satisfied, expressing their delight in the different ways that become the old and the young. But one thing I want you especially to notice. How beautifully clean and white their wool is! And is it not a lovely sight to see the sheep and lambs of Christ, the good Shepherd who laid down His life for them, keeping their garments clean and unspotted from the world, walking in His pure and holy ways, to the glory of His worthy name.

I have sometimes seen in a park or meadow, within a short distance of a smoky town, some sheep feeding in a good pasture, the freshness of which they seemed greatly to enjoy. Still there was something about them which was a great drawback to the interest of the scene. Their wool, instead of being clean and white, was soiled and dirty. They had not been used to the clean and pure air of the country, but had been kept amid the dirt and smoke of a town; and this accounted for their unseemly appearance, so unsuited to the green and pleasant pasture to which they had been removed. Such a sight reminds me of some who, though they are sheep of Christ, have, instead of following Him, and walking in the clean paths to which He would lead them, imbibed a worldly spirit and walked in the ways of the world.

Dear young Christian reader, may the Lord keep you and me from being, like these, dirty sheep; but may we, having been washed and made “clean every whit” in the precious blood of Christ, seek to keep our garments clean, walking in the pure and blessed paths which He has marked out for us in His holy Word (John 10; Psa. 23; 1 John 2:15-17).

February, Dictionary of the Bible.

Decalogue. — The “ten words” or commandments written with the finger of God upon the two tables of stone (Ex. 31:18; 32:15, 16; 34:28 [margin]; Deut. 9:10; 10:4 [margin]). The people had said, “All the words which the Lord hath said we will do” (Ex. 24:3); but when Moses came down from the mount, at the end of the forty days, with the two tables in his hand, Israel was worshipping the golden calf, and “he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount” (32:19). His mediatorship as to the people, on the ground of law, was at an end before he reached the camp (Gal. 3:20). Two other tables were afterward written and placed in the Ark (Ex. 34:1; 40:20; Deut. 10:1-5).

Dedan. — One person of this name was the son of Raamah (Gen. 10:7), and the other was the second son of Jokshan, son of Abraham, by Keturah (Gen. 25:3). These two persons were each founders of tribes, but, though the name frequently occurs in the prophets, it is not easy to determine in every case which Dedan is meant (Isa. 21:13; Jer. 25:23; 49:8; Ezek. 25:13; 27:20; 38:13, &c.).

Dedication (Feast of) is mentioned John 10:22, 23, and is supposed to have been the feast which commemorated the cleansing of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Macc. 4:52-59).

This feast was held in December.

The dedication of Solomon’s temple was in the seventh month (September—October, 2 Chron. 5:3); that of Zerubbabel’s in the month Mar, or the spring (Ezra 6:15,16); and that of Herod in the winter, but it is uncertain whether this was celebrated by an annual feast.

The ceremony of dedication was accomplished by sacrifices (Num. 7:10, 11; 1 Kings 8:62, 63).

Delilah. ―The Philistine woman who betrayed Samson to his enemies (Judg. 16).

Deluge. (See FLOOD.)

De’mas―A Christian who, having loved this present world, forsook Paul in the hour of his affliction, and departed to Thessalonica (2 Tim. 4:10). He was once a fellow-laborer and an associate of the apostle Paul’s (Col. 4:14; Philem. 24.).

Deme’trius (Votary of Ceres). — This was a common name among the Greeks. Demetrius, the silversmith of Ephesus, was a maker of “silver shrines for Diana”— little silver models of the temple, or of its adytum or chapel, perhaps containing a small image of the goddess. Perceiving that his craft was in danger through Paul’s preaching, he raised a tumult against him by bringing his fellow-craftsmen together and stirring up the whole city. Having caught Gaius and Aristarchus of Macedonia, Paul’s companions, they rushed into the theater, where, after great uproar, the town-clerk succeeding in appeasing the multitude and dismissing the assembly (Acts 19:23-41.)

Demetrius, a believer, is also mentioned ¬ Jno. 12.

Demon. — Among the ancient heathens demons were of three kinds: first, those which had never inhabited human bodies and were regarded as of greater dignity than the rest; secondly, the souls of good men, which, in their disembodied state, were called heroes; and thirdly, the souls of bad men, which became evil spirits. Plato says, “Every demon is a middle being between God and mortal.” It was and still is customary for the heathen to worship demons. Josephus always uses the word in a bad sense, as do also the writers of the New Testament. In Mark 5:12, 13, demons are called “unclean spirits,” and from Matt. 12:22-27 and Mark 3:22-26 we learn that they are satanic, or as rendered in our version, “devils.”

Demoniacs. — Persons possessed with demons or devils were very common when the Lord Jesus and His apostles were on earth. Some have pretended that such persons were merely insane; but our Lord frequently addresses the demons as beings apart from the person afflicted; is said to “cast them out;” to forbid them to make Him known, &c.; and beside all these instances, that one of the legion is of itself sufficient to show that a demoniac was not simply insane, as no insanity could ask permission to enter into the herd, and then, passing from the man to the swine, cause some two thousand of them to run “violently down a steep place into the sea” (Mark 5).

Dena’rius, rendered “a penny” in our version, was equal to about 71/2.d of our money, and was the day’s wages of a laborer (Matt. 20:2, 9, 13). It was a small silver coin bearing the image of the emperor (Matt. 22:19; Mark 12:16), but bore the days of the Caesars was stamped with the symbols of the republic.

Der’be. — A town of Lycaonia in Asia Minor, at the base of the Taurian mountains. It is mentioned as the birthplace of Gaius (Acts 20:4), and as the town to which Paul and Barnabas fled when driven from Iconium (Acts 14:6).

Desert.—This term is variously applied in the Scriptures, sometimes meaning an uninhabited place of any character (Mark 6:35; Acts 8:26), and sometimes uncultivated tracts in the neighborhood of towns. The great desert or wilderness, which is the only real desert in the immediate neighborhood of Palestine, is Stony Arabia. Other wildernesses or deserts mentioned in Scripture are those of Edom, Etham, Judah, Kadesh, Maon, Paran, Shur, Sin, and Sinai.

Dew. — It is said that dew seldom falls in Palestine at night except during the months of April and May, and part of August and September, or a little while before and after the rainy seasons.

The Race.

“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.”— Hebrews 12.

COME, brethren, let us haste along,

And cheer our hearts with gladsome song;

We’re treading now the stranger-soil,

For Christ, our Master, left to toil.

Let us not loiter by the way,

But labor on while here we stay;

Sustain’d by Him who rests above,

Encourag’d by His look of love.

We are, ‘tis true, a feeble band,

But let us travel hand in hand;

Each stumbling one let us restore,

And oil upon his bruises pour.

The law of love let us obey,

And quarrel not while on the way;

Each clinging to the Lord for strength,

Whose face we shall behold at length.

Great things but few are called to do,

But may our hearts to Christ be true;

May each in Love’s own labor serve,

For His name’s sake, and never swerve;

‘Tis thus a cup of water given

Rejoices Christ’s own heart in heaven,

And gives to us a rich reward, —

Our heart with His in sweet accord.

We’re soldiers; too,— a sorry troop!

But let us never flee or droop;

With Christ for Captain we’re secure

Of vict’ry in each battle sure.

Our weapons but a sling and stone,

Yet, wielded in His strength alone,

The greatest giant soon must fall,

And yield to Him, the Lord of all.

Oh! what a day! when He shall own

Each service done to Him alone;

When He shall from oblivion raise

Each faithful act, and give it praise;

Reward with His approving smile

The service of this little while;

While His own hand each brow shall crown,

And on His throne shall set us down.

Prayer and Patience; or, Watching Thereunto.

Eph. 6:18.

As I was sitting in my room the other day, my little girl came to the door, calling to me and knocking for admittance. Not answering and opening to her at the moment, I found, when I went to let her in, that she was gone. “Ah!” said I, “how often I have acted like my child. I have prayed to my heavenly Father for some special blessing, and when His rich and abundant answer has come I have not been found waiting to receive it.” Oh, that we may have confidence in His love, and patience to wait for His answer to our petitions!

Bible Enigma for February.

To whom, when thirsting nigh to death, was help from heaven sent?

Who in the battle fell a prey through his chief ornament?

Who served the Lord, yet lovingly was by the Lord reproved?

Whose tears were long remembered by the apostle whom be loved?

Who met the death which for another craftily he planned?

To whom did hungry birds bear bread and flesh by God’s command?

Where did all Israel clamour for Egyptian food again?

Who, coveting a vineyard, did through blood the ground obtain?

What is it Jesus bids us take, and easy it will prove

To all who seek the promised rest within His arms of love?

Join these initials, and the words of Christ “The Life” appear,

Sure guidance to the Father’s home for every pilgrim here.

Bible Questions for February.

1. WHAT did Jesus say they would do who can truly call God their Father?

2. What two things did God say the Sabbath was between Him and the children of Israel forever?

3. If the old commandment was “to love one another,” what is the new commandment?

4. He that believeth not the record God hath given of His Son maketh God a liar. What is this record?

5. What does God say He will set in the midst of His people (Israel and Judah) forever?

6. How do those who are by nature the children of wrath become the children of God?

7. Give Scripture to prove that it is God’s will that believers should know they have eternal life?

8. What did Christ say the believer would drink, and never thirst again?

Answer to Bible Enigma for January.

“Rich in Faith” (James 2:5).

R ABSHAKEH 2 Kings 18:19-35.

I bzan Judges 12:9.

C ain Genesis 4:9.

H annah 1 Samuel 1:28.

I saac Genesis 27:17-21.

N abal 1 Samuel 25:10, 11.

F elix Acts 24:25.

A dam Genesis 3:8,10.

I shbosheth 2 Samuel 4:6,7.

T imnath-serah Joshua 24:30.

H abakkuk Habakkuk 3:17, 18.

E. B. S., Aged 13.

Answers to Bible Questions for January.

1. REUBEN (Gen. 37:21).

2. Noah’s altar is the first mentioned in Scripture (Gen. 8:20).

3. Four: Genesis 12:7,8; 13:18; 22:9.

4. Egypt (Gen. 12:10).

5. Japhet (Gen. 10:21).

6. “Thou God seest me” (Gen. 16:13).

7. Simeon and Levi (Gen. 49:5, 6).

8. Jacob (Gen. 47:9).

The Wreck of the Waverley.

IF the young reader has ever been taken to the seaside, as many little boys and girls are in the summer-time, I dare say he recalls the visit with pleasure, and will be glad should the time come round for him to go again. There are few things more grand to look upon than, the ocean when its great waves are rolling in upon the beach, rocking the boats moored by the pier-side, and dashing their white salt spray into your face, as if to drive you from the sands. How mighty those great waves are! how lightly they lift the heavy boats, as though they were but feathers on the water! What a terrible thing it must be to be at the mercy of such great water-giants, as so often happens when a ship is wrecked.

Now, it is about a shipwreck that I am going to tell you. A vessel called the Waverley left Southampton one night to carry a number of passengers to Jersey and Guernsey. The usual hour of starting, it seems, was midnight, and all went well until towards morning. Several of the passengers had risen early from their beds below, and had come on deck that they might have the pleasure of seeing the sun rise, which is at all times a beautiful sight, especially at sea. The vessel entered a dense fog, and had to lay to in hope that the mist would clear away. After waiting an hour, the captain, knowing, perhaps, that it was dangerous ground where they were lying, ordered the ship’s course to be altered, and began to proceed in another direction; but hardly had this been done when, all at once, the vessel struck upon a sunken reef, that is, a ridge of rocks, or rather mountains, under water. The shock made the Waverley quiver from end to end, and, of course, was felt by everyone.

All rushed on deck, and terror filled every heart as they heard the crash of the timbers and the rushing sound made by the water as it came pouring in somewhere below. Now, if you have ever noticed with what force the waves break on the strand, and with what terrible power they rock and toss the heaviest boats, you will understand something of the crashing force with which they bump a poor ship against the hard rocks, when, like the Waverley, she happens to get on to a reef. Imagine a thousand sledge-hammers, wielded by giants, they dash and crush and splinter the wooden or iron sides of the poor ship, making an immense breach, into which the mighty waters rush with overwhelming power. Of course, not a moment was to be lost; the boats were instantly ordered out, and the passengers crowded into them. The captain and crew behaved as English sailors commonly do when these sad accidents happen, they tried to take care of everybody but themselves, and to see all safe before they got into a boat at all.

The women and children were first put into boats, and two were soon filled and cast off; but the third was found to be so over-crowded that it was dangerous to all to let it loose from the ship’s side. Yet the Waverley was filling fast, and every moment might be expected to heel over and sink in deep water. What was to be done? Some one must get out of the boat again, and stay a little longer with the sinking wreck, at the risk of being carried to the bottom in a moment! Who would do it? All had an equal right to be in the boat; who, then, would risk his life of his own free will to save the rest? There was a young man there who was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who, through faith in Him, knew that he had eternal life. He knew that, if drowned in the deep sea, his spirit would go to be “with Christ, which is far better” than to be here; he knew that, if “absent from the body,” he should be “present with the Lord,” and, although this did not make him careless of his life, it took away the fear of death. Are you like this young man? God’s Word says, “These things have I written unto YOU THAT BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD, that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life.” Do you believe on the Son of God, who “came into the world to save sinners?” Well, this young man did, and he thought, perhaps, some in that boat did not, and, therefore, if they were lost in the sea, he knew they would be lost forever.

Now, what do you think he did? Why, as soon as he understood that, unless someone got out of the boat, it would probably upset or sink, and so everybody would be drowned, he quietly got out of his seat again, and stepped back into the sinking ship.

Was not this a noble action? You see he risked his life of his own free will that others might be saved from the terrible waves of the deep, deep sea. I am sure you will admire his love for them, and his courage too, and that it will at once remind you of One who not only risked, but “gave His life a ransom for many,” who not only ran the risk of being merely drowned in the waves of the ocean, but went down beneath “all the waves and the billows” of God’s wrath against sin; and who did this that all who believe in Him might be saved, not merely from a watery grave, but from the lake of fire and everlasting death. And who was this but the blessed Jesus, God’s dear Son? How deep, then, must His love for sinners be, and who can doubt that He is willing to receive all who come to Him? Have you done so? I hope you have; for then, like the young man on board the Waverley, you will have no fear of death.

Well, you will be glad to hear that this dear Christian was not drowned, for, before the vessel sank, another ship, called the Brittany, came up, and took on board those who yet remained on the wreck. Thus all were saved, and the young man had the joy of knowing that God had given him grace to glorify His name by proving his faith in his precious Saviour in the hour of peril when death stared him in the face in the wreck of the Waverley.

Part 1: More About Joseph.

For Little Readers. ―Genesis 37:23-25.

WHEN Joseph was come to his brethren, they took him and stripped him out of his coat of many colors, and cast him into a pit that had no water in it; and then they sat down to eat bread! And when the Lord Jesus had come all the way from heaven, to bless sinful men and women, they took Him, and cast Him out of their city, and killed Him. Then they put Him into a tomb, cut out of a rock, rolled a great stone to the door of it, and kept their feast! In John 19:31, we read that the day Jesus was in His grave was “an high day.” We don’t know how they kept their high days; but, whatever they did, the company of Jesus with them would have spoiled it all, and so He must be safely out of the way, neither alive on the earth, nor dead on the cross, but buried in His grave; and they would keep their “high day.” It was no happy day for the poor women who had loved Jesus and been with Him. They had kept by Him to the last, on the Friday night (the day He was crucified), saw where He was put, and how they laid Him (Luke 23:55). And then on the Saturday evening, as soon as the Sabbath was over, they came again to see the grave (Matt. 28:1). And how many times, through the Friday night and the Saturday, would they be thinking of the dear Saviour they had loved and lost! Yet the people of the city were making merry! And so it has been ever since. Some people do not want to have anything to do with Jesus; others are lonely without Him, and will never be fully happy till they are with Him. Alas! many persons in the world try to be happy without Jesus. They profess to keep His birthday at “Christmas,” and to be very glad that ever He came into the world; yet nothing would spoil their pleasure so much as for them to think He was really coming into it again. They have large parties of their friends, but the “Friend of sinners,” who loved them and died for them, is not invited, nor His company desired. They are doing for Jesus just what Joseph’s brothers did for him; having got rid of Him, they set about to enjoy themselves. They stripped Joseph out of his beautiful coat that his father made him; and three times over they stripped Jesus (Matt. 27:28, 31, 35). Then they put Joseph into that hole, with no coat to his back, or any water to drink, and when they had done it they could sit down to eat bread! Yet he had come all the way from his father’s side, in love to them, and obedience to him, who loved them all. What hearts they must have had!

But, dear little reader, let me ask what you think about the Lord Jesus. If other people are like Joseph’s brothers, and like the wicked men who were glad when Jesus was out of the world, what about your heart? Do you want to be happy without Jesus, careless about whether you please Him or not? It is no use talking about what a wicked world it is, if we are trying to make ourselves at home in it; or thinking of the badness of other people in treating Jesus so unkindly, if we are showing by our ways that we don’t care a bit about Him. Those who really love Him long to see Him. They are not glad for Him to be away, and they want Him to come back. They say, “Come, Lord Jesus,” and look forward with great delight to that moment when He will come.

For He is coming, and those who are found waiting for Him will go up to meet Him, and will go in “with Him,” to enjoy with Him all that is in His home. But we learn too that there will be those left out, and shut out, who had quite thought to go in: “They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage; and the door was shut” (Matt. 25:10). Which side of that shut door will my dear little friend be?

W. TY.

Ssai Das, the Mansi Missionary, and the Robbers of Terra.

SSAI DAS, the converted Brahmin, was one day jogging along on his little native pony going towards the lonely hills and jungles of Tehra and Lullutpore on a missionary tour. Nightfall was coming on, and he was in a region noted for robbers, for villages lay wide apart and there was no protection for travelers. Suddenly six mounted robbers dashed out upon him from a thicket, and, drawing up before him in the road, one of them seized his bridle and ordered him to dismount.

“Who art thou?” they roughly asked.

“I am an Hindustani padri” (preacher); he replied, “and who are you, my brethren?”

“That is none of thy business,” they answered, “and call us not brethren, for we are all thy enemies. Give us thy money!”

“I have not much,” said Ssai Das, quite unmoved, “not five annas (fifteen cents); but you are welcome to it,” and, so saying, he handed them his purse.

“Off with thy coat!” they exclaimed; and he, at their command, took off one article after another until he stood before them nearly naked. In searching his clothes one of them came across a watch which had been given him some years before by a missionary.

“What is this?” they asked.

“An image,” he replied, “which the English make better by far than the images you worship, for it can speak and give one good advice.”

While they were looking at this strange article, he said, —

“The most precious thing I have you have not found yet.”

Wondering where anything could yet be concealed about him, they exclaimed fiercely, —

“Give us that too at once!”

“Wait a bit,” he replied; and then, to their amazement, their odd captive began to sing a native Christian hymn, as follows:―

“O soul! thou forgettest thyself in the world!

O soul forgetful!

This world, O soul! thou must surely leave and go a way

Jesus, forget thou not!

This body, O my soul! trust thou not in it!

Dust—it will go to dust!

Hear, O sinner! listen with heart and soul:

Jesus is the Roots^{^{of the world!”}}

The strange wild tone, and yet more strange conduct, of their captive arrested their attention, and then Ssai Das, taking the hymn for his text, preached to them Jesus, that one precious Treasure of his which, with all their searching, they had not found, but which he would fain give them then, and there.

“Brother,” exclaimed the robber chief when he had finished speaking, “you have found the key to our hearts; but you must go with us; “then, giving him back clothing, watch, and all, they remounted him on his pony and galloped away with him some twenty miles through the wilderness. On reaching the village where they lived, and of which the robber captain was Zemindar (proprietor and head man), the chief took him to his own house, where he treated him with the utmost kindness and courtesy. And now the reason for carrying him off appeared. On the following day the robber chieftain said to him, “My wife is sick; you are a man of God; can you cure her?”

Ssai Das, who had gained some knowledge of medicine from the missionary who had been used to his conversion years before, replied, “By the grace of God I can, but not without;” and then, making up some medicine, he gave it to the woman, prayed over it, and pointed her to Jesus, the Good Physician, who alone could heal her body and soul. The woman shortly recovered, and this gave him favor in the eyes of all in the village; so that, like Paul in the island of Malta, he soon had others come to him who were diseased, to whom he could speak of Jesus while he attended to their bodily ailments. He declared afterward that by God’s grace he in no case failed to cure all who came to him, and for twenty days he remained among them, teaching and preaching the Gospel and doing good to all around him. At the end of about three weeks the Zemindar said, “Now you can leave us and go to your wife and children. But you have done us great good; you have earned good wages, and we will give you back all we have taken and twenty rupees besides!” Ssai Das objected to receive the money, but they insisted, and, mounting their horses, they escorted him to his house in Jhansi, forty miles off, where he entertained them as friends and dismissed them in peace.

Thus this extraordinary man was favored by the Lord to carry the Gospel of His grace right into a robber village, from which he was brought, not only unharmed, but with every mark of favor. May we not hope that the day will declare the fruit of his labors there?

From a Tombstone in Charlton Churchyard.

YE Christian mourners, who this tablet view,

Let grief be turn’d to joy, and cease to weep;

Jesus, who shed His precious blood for you,

Hath made the grave a bed, and death a sleep.

1 Thess. 4:13-18.

The Bird of Evening.

LAST month I spoke to the little readers of GOOD NEWS about the Bird of Day and the Bird of Night, and now I wish to talk to them about another little messenger, whom I will call the Bird of Evening. Messengers they are all of them, messengers of good to everyone who will listen to their simple story; and, as I well know that children are fond of birds and like to see them fly and to hear them chirp and sing, I want you to try to understand what they have to tell you. Boys and girls have often wished they could understand the bird language, and I really don’t think it is so very hard to learn after all, if you will only “behold the fowls of the air,” and watch their ways attentively. Well, now, about the Bird of Evening. Just when the sun is setting, and the day is closing in, he comes on to my garden gate-post to sing his evening song. His wings are green—something of the color of the leaves when the year is dying out; his breast reflects the glow of the sunset on the western cloud; his eyes are large and bright, and glance cheerfully about him as he flutters his wings and lifts his head to pour forth his short and simple melody. There is an air of confidence about him which is not to be mistaken; in fact, he has become noted everywhere for his confiding ways. If, for instance, he builds his nest in the ivy on the garden wall, it is often so low down that a child might reach it, yet he seems to take for granted no child will rob his nest. He has even been known to enter an open window and pick the crumbs from the table where the people were sitting. Can you not guess his name? No doubt of it, for every child knows Robin Redbreast, and not one of all the feathered tribe is a greater favorite. But this is not simply owing to his glowing breast, his sparkling eyes, his beautiful green-tinted wings, or his short musical song; it is his air of simple trust that wins our admiration. Who does not like to be trusted? I am sure you do; nothing pleases you more than when father or mother trusts you to do something which perhaps you have never tried to do before. And don’t you think that Jesus likes to be trusted Yes, indeed, and many of the words He spoke when here on earth were spoken on purpose to teach us to confide in Him and His heavenly Father. Now, who that loves Jesus can hear the evening song of little Red Robin without recalling some of those gracious words which He spoke to His disciples, and, therefore, to all who believe in Him? Why, the Bird of Evening seems to come on purpose to say that he has had a good day, and looks for a “hopeful morrow.” How else could he sing so sweetly? If he had had no food, and no water to drink, if he had not been taken good care of all the day long, would he come on to the gate-post when the shadows are falling and sing so loudly and cheerily? No, poor fellow! he would mope in secret with his head under his wing till he died, and we should hear his evening song no more.

So, then, I am sure you will say that Red Robin’s farewell melody plainly says, “Look at me!” Here I am blithe and happy, and well fed and clothed and cared for, with the warm glow of sunset on my breast, and gladness in my heart. “Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” You see he is just going to roost in some ivy-bush where the leaves are still green and abundant though other trees are bare, and before he departs he needs must come, if only to say how happy he is, and has been, and hopes to be. And he says it in tones so loud and sweet that all needs must listen. Oh, that all would learn! Surely this bright Bird of Evening, with the light of the western glory on his breast, with his trustful ways and his tuneful song, speaks to every little believer in Jesus of CONFIDENCE—confidence in God. His musical “good-night” is very short, but full of melody; and, if there be a plaintive tone about its notes, they are well suited to the dying day. In a believer’s ear they plainly say—

“How good is the God we adore,

Our faithful, unchangeable Friend,

Whose love is as great as His power,

And knows neither measure nor end.

‘Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,

Whose Spirit shall guide its safe home,

We’ll praise Him for all that is past,

And trust Him for all that’s to come.”

J. L. K.

The Sheep Owner and His Flock.

LAST month I said a few words in the GOOD NEWS about sheep, and I have now something further to tell respecting them. But, in order to be easily understood, I must first acquaint my readers that some years ago, when I was a youth, I spent the greater part of a year with a friend of mine at a farm-house, for the benefit of my health. The farm was pleasantly situated between two villages, and the society in the house and neighborhood was more cheerful than is often to be found in the country. During the time of my stay there, I endeavored to make myself useful, and several light duties were assigned to me. The farm was rather a large one; and as, in addition to the land which had to be ploughed, it contained a considerable quantity of grass land, my friend kept a flock of sheep, numbering about two hundred, and it was my business, and by no means an unpleasant one, to rise early in the morning and to go and look after the little flock. You see, I was not a shepherd, and I could not have presumed to take upon me the cares and responsibilities of one; but I was a friend of the owner of the flock, and he was pleased to give to me the service of counting the sheep morning by morning, and of reporting to him anything respecting them which I thought needed his attention. Sometimes the numbering would involve a little extra trouble, as the sheep would not always remain still while I counted them, and not unfrequently the lambs would be frisking about, or lying out of sight by the side of their dams, so that I had to walk up and down among them two or three times before I could make sure that they were all right. However, when I was satisfied, I used to return home and make my report to the owner, who would then visit them himself, or give such directions respecting them as he considered necessary.

Most of the readers of GOOD NEWS have doubtless read the 10th of John, that beautiful chapter about the Shepherd and His sheep. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep” (vs. 11). We know that He did this upon the cross, when He who knew no sin was made sin for us, and bore its judgment from the hand of God, who in His love had sent Him to bear it for us, that all who believe on Him might have everlasting life. Jesus also said, “I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (vs. 14); which is, as though He had said, “I know my sheep, and they know me.” I wonder if the one who is now reading this paper can truly say, “Jesus knows me, and I know Him.” Well, God, who searches the heart, can tell if Jesus is precious to you, and, if He can see this, you are one of His sheep, or, if you are a little one that believes in Jesus, we may call you one of His lambs.

The owner of the sheep with whom I stayed set a great value upon his sheep, for he had paid a large sum of money for them; but the flock of God was not purchased with silver and gold, but “with the precious blood of Christ;” and who but God Himself can tell the worth of that? Jesus said to some of the Jews who came round about Him, “Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep” (vs. 26); so that we see that they who do not believe in Him are not of His sheep. One very sweet thing He said about His sheep, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (vs. 27). Now, how do His sheep hear His voice? Why, they hearken to His Word, which is His voice to us. Are you one, dear young reader, who hears His voice? If you are, how sweet to hear Him say, “I know them, and they follow me.” Yes, amid all the glory of heaven, where He is, He looks in love upon everyone who has heard His voice and is following Him. And what is following Him? What is it but walking in His ways, seeking to please Him in all we think, and say, and do?

I have said that I was not a shepherd, but that I was a friend of the owner of the sheep, and, because They belonged to him, I felt an interest in them. Well, are there not some who love the Lord Jesus Christ, and who therefore love those that are His, who might say to themselves, “I know that I am not a shepherd, and I could not think of undertaking to feed and shepherd the lambs and sheep of Christ, but I should like to show my love to Him, and to them, by doing what I can for them in His name?” Well, then, can you not do some service of love for them? Ask the Lord what He would have you to do, and He will assuredly give you an answer if you really desire to do His will, and wait upon Him to learn what His will is. Oh! He loves to see those that are His own by love serving one another. Suppose you see something that you think is wrong and dishonoring to the Lord in any of His lambs and sheep, what is the proper thing for you to do? Go, and tell Jesus, the Owner of the sheep, of it; and, depend upon it, He will not take His eye off them till He has strengthened the diseased, healed that which was sick, bound up that which was broken, brought again that which was driven away, and sought that which was lost.

Another time, if the Lord will, I hope to have something more to say about sheep. Till then may the Great Shepherd keep all who are of the flock of God feeding on the rich pasture which He has provided for us in His Word.

"O Grave, Where Is Thy Victory?"

WHEN trees are crown’d with golden glory,

‘Tis but the presage of decay,

And, when the brow with age is hoary,

The pulse of life soon dies away,

The sun ne’er shines with greater splendor

Than when he’s sinking in the west;

And man his life to God must render,

Though he with health and wealth be blest.

The trees, whose glories thus are fading,

Will bud anew the coming spring,

The sun, whose light the night is shading,

Will rise again on morning’s wing;

And they who are in silence sleeping,

Amid the darkness of the tomb,

Must wake again, to joy, or weeping,

To endless bliss, or ceaseless doom.

How blessed they, in Christ believing,

Who are released from cumbrous clay,

Who, to their Lord and Saviour cleaving,

Are now with Him in realms of day!

Their bodies here awhile will slumber

Till He His sleeping ones awake;

When ransom’d hosts, whom none can number,

Shall rise and His own image take.

And blessed, too, are they who never

Shall lie within the silent tomb;

But, charg’d by Christ, with Him shall ever

Abide in joy’s unfading bloom.

Oh! glorious power of resurrection!

Oh! mighty vict’ry o’er the grave!

‘Tis triumph in its full perfection,

The work of Him who came to save.

Alas! for those who, all unheeding

The warnings God in mercy gave;

On whom the worms are freely feeding

Within the cold and cheerless grave;

For they shall rise, but not to blessing,

To judgment they must all awake,

To hear the Lord their doom expressing—

“Depart ye to the burning lake.”

O ye to Adam who’re united,

Whose hopes are bounded by the earth,

To Jesus turn, whom ye have slighted,

Believe in Him, confess His worth;

Then, though your tombs the earth should cover,

And ye the trumpet there may hear,

Ye’ll rise to dwell with Christ, the Lover

Of all who Him now heed and fear.

March, Dictionary of the Bible.

Deuteronomy, which means “second law,” is the fifth book of Moses, and received this name from the Greek translators as being a kind of second edition of the law and containing a repetition of many things given in the three preceding books.

Dial. — Of the construction of the dial of Ahaz (2 Kings 20:11; Isa. 38:8) nothing certain is known. It was probably Babylonians, as Ahaz formed alliance with Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria (2 Kings 16:7, 9) showed his readiness to adopt foreign improvements by his wicked introduction of a copy of a heathen altar from Damascus (2 Kings 16:10).

Diana. — Artemis was the Diana of the Romans and the tutelary divinity of Ephesus. Her image, said to have fallen from heaven, was, as represented on ancient coins, little more than a head with a shapeless trunk, supported by a staff on each side, and is said to have been made of ebony. One representation on an ancient coin depicts certain deities, ranged four on each side, with pillars supporting a conical roof, ornamented with other deities carved on the front in relief. Artemis, shaped like an Egyptian mummy, supporting herself with two sticks, stands as the central figure. These made in silver were probably the “shrines” which Demetrius manufactured. Artemis and Ashtoreth are the same. Her priests were called Megabyzi, and were eunuchs.

Dibon, or Dibon. — Gad was a city on the northern bank of the Arnon (Num. 32:34). It fell afterward into the hands of the Moabites (Jer. 48:22). The site still bears the name of Dibon, and the ruins there are very extensive. There was another Dibon in Judah (Neh. 11:25), which is supposed to have been the same as Dimonah (Josh. 15:22).

Di’drachmon (a double drachma) was a silver coin equal to two Attic drachmæ, or about Isaiah ls.4d. of English money. It was the “tribute money” demanded of Peter (Matt. 17:24). The “piece of money” found in the fish’s mouth was a stater, equal in value to two didrachmæ.

Did’ymns (a twin). — A surname given to Thomas the Apostle, showing that he was a twin, so that translated it would be Thomas the twin.

Di’ke. — The heathen goddess of justice, supposed to be particularly concerned in punishing murderers. As the goddess of punishment, she is considered the same as Nemesis or Vengeance (Acts 28:4).

Dik’lah. — A tribe descended from Joktan (Gen. 10:27), and signifying in the Aramaic and Arabic, a palm-tree.

Di’nah. — Daughter of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 30:22), on whose account Simeon and Levi were guilty of the barbarous slaughter of Shechem, son of Hamor, and of all the male inhabitants of the city of Shechem.

Dionys’ius, the Areopagite, is mentioned, Acts. 17:34, as among those who were converted by the preaching of the Apostle Paul at Athens (see AREOPAGUS),

Diot’rephes (Jove-nourished). — One who loved to have the pre-eminence among the saints, and seems to have gone so far in his attempts to sustain big own influence among them as to have set himself in opposition to the Apostle John (3 John 9).

Discerning of Spirits. — One of the gifts mentioned 1 Corinthians 12:10, which was especially needful in the assembly before the New Testament was written in order to detect false prophets and teachers (1 John 4:1-3; 2 John,7).

Disciple. — A learner, or one who follows a teacher (Matt. 9:14; 10:1; 22:16, &c.).

Disease. — Freedom from disease was promised to Israel if they were obedient (Ex. 15:26; Deut. 7:15, &c.). The ruin of the people and its cause were therefore declared and made manifest in “great multitude of impotent folk,” in the John 5:3.

Divination. — The art of discovering future events, and revealing secret things, was largely pretended to in ancient times among the heathen, and is still found wherever paganism prevails. The “magicians” or “wise men” of Egypt (Ex. 7:11) and Babylon (Dan. 2:2) were of this class, to which also Balaam and Simon belonged’ (Josh. 13:22; margin Acts 8:9). These “wise men” were skilled in natural science, and used their knowledge to impose upon the ignorant and superstitious multitude. Beside such arts as their superior knowledge enabled them to employ, it is evident from Scripture that many of them were, assisted by direct satanic agency. Wizards (or wise men) and witches (from an Arabic word “to reveal”) consulted, and were assisted in their impositions by evil spirits, who were called their “familiars” (1 Sam. 28:7). The “mediums” of modern spiritualists are the unhappy instruments of communication between their deluded followers and some demon or evil spirit with which they are familiar, except in cases where all is sheer imposture. In former days these sorcerers, partly by jugglery, partly by the aid of natural science and satanic aid, “bewitched with sorceries” those over whom they obtained influence.

Some of their methods of divination were more harmless, such as foretelling what was about to happen, or what direction to take, by the flight of arrows made bright that they might be more readily seen in the air, or by examining the liver of a slain beast (Ezek. 21:21), or by placing a staff upright and taking the direction in which it fell (Hos. 4:12). Some pretended to divine by the motion of the clouds or the conjunction of the stars (Isa. 47:13), and others, called necromancers, frequented the-tombs and professed to consult the dead (Deut. 18:10, 11). Another means of divination was by the use of astrological instruments or tables, as the word “images” (in Ezek. 21:21) is rendered in the Persian and other versions.

Dod’anim, the name of the fourth son of Javan, the son of Japheth, some of whose descendants are supposed to have settled in Thessaly and Epirus, where the name is traced in that of the city of Dodona and the country of Doris.

Do’eg, an Edomite, who, in the reign of Saul, held the important office of chief overseer of the king’s flocks. That Saul should have placed an Edomite, the hereditary enemy of Israel, over his Israelitish servants is one of the numerous instances in his history of his unfaithfulness to the Lord (Ezek. 35; Psa. 137:7; Amos 1:11; Obad. 10-16). This man informed the king of Ahimelech’s having assisted David, and afterward, at Saul’s command, readily fell upon and slaughtered the priests of the Lord (1 Sam. 22:18, &c.; compare Psa. 52).

Dog. — Of this animal there are several species in Asia. One race has never been domesticated; others appear to have been so at some time, but to have become wild, and are as fierce as wolves; others again there are which are neither domesticated nor wild, but live without owners in the cities and towns, of which they are the natural scavengers, subsisting on offal and carrion, yet instinctively guarding the property of the inhabitants of the quarter or district in which they chiefly dwell. The wild dog of Asia is a low, reddish cur dog, sharp-nosed, and not unlike a fox, except in the length and form of the tail. A species of this kind of dog is said to have infested the banks of the Kishon and the neighborhood of Jezreel. It was probably such as these that ate Jezebel and licked up the blood of Ahab (1 Kings 21:23).

The street dogs still haunt the cities and towns of the East, and make the “outer darkness” of their narrow-walled lanes hideous at night by their howling and fierce encounters with each other over their prey (Psa. 59:6, 14). Dumb or silent dogs, who have no bark, are also frequently seen (Isa. 56:10).

Doph’kah. — One of the Israelitish encampments in the Wilderness.

Dor.— One of the royal towns of the Canaanites included in the tribal portion of Manasseh (Josh. 11:2; 12:23; 17:11; 1 Kings 4:11).

Do’than or Dothaim was some miles north of Samaria. It was here that Joseph was sold by his brethren to the Ishmaelites (Gen. 37:17), and here also the Syrians were smitten with blindness or “dazzling’s” at the word of Elisha (2 Kings 6:13).

Doves. — Doves and pigeons were offered in sacrifice by the less wealthy in Israel, and to supply the demand for them dealers sat about the precincts of the Temple, and thus turned it into a house of merchandize (Gen. 15:9; Lev. 5:7; 12:6; Luke 2:24; Matt. 21:12).

Answers to Bible Questions for February.

1. THEY would love Jesus (John 8:42).

2. A covenant and a sign (Ex. 31:12-18).

3. To love as Christ loved (John 13:34).

4. All believers have eternal life in God’s Son (1 John 5:11).

5. When David is their king, God’s sanctuary will be in the midst of them (Ezek. 37:24-28).

6. By faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26).

7. 1 John 5:13.

8. John 4:14, and John 7:37-39.

Answer to Bible Enigma for February.

“I am the Way” (John 14:6).

I shmael Genesis 21:17-19.

A bsalom 2 Samuel 18:9-14.

M artha Luke 10:40-42.

T imothy 2 Timothy 1:4.

H aman Esther 7:10.

E lijah, 1 Kings 17:4.

W ilderness of Sin. Exodus 17:1-3.

A bab 1 Kings 21:6-15.

Y oke Matthew 11:29,30.

Bible Questions for March.

1. Who is greatest the kingdom of heaven?

2. Whom does God say shall find Him?

3. What does Jesus say the world shall know of those who believe through the words of the Apostles?

4. Into what kingdom are believers now translated?

5. Through what are sinners redeemed to God?

6. Whose angels did Jesus say always behold the face of His Father?

7. Which of the disciples saw the kingdom of God come with power?

8. Of what words are men to give an account in the day of judgment?

Bible Enigma for March.

By whose fierce angry blows did death first enter here?

Who prayed that God would give a son her heart to cheer?

Who in the wilderness did nearly die of thirst?

And whom did Jesus call the bands of death to burst?

Whose songs the sweetest are that mortal ever penned?

What new-throned king’s rough words his subjects did offend?

She who to Satan’s tale a willing ear did lend?

He who reproved a king for murder he bad planned?

She who her mother kissed, yet stayed in her own land?

The name that Rachel gave the child that last she bore?

And he who for a thirsty land God’s mercy did implore?

What Jesus bids us say, that so our words be mild?

The day the servants said the fever left the child?

The grandfather of him who great Goliath slew?

The last of those four words that only Daniel knew?

The place where Jeremiah said the mothers should lament?

The day when like to fiery tongues the Holy Ghost was

sent?

Who was struck dead at once for falsehood boldly said?

What sea did Israel cross when from their foes they fled?

What Jesus said when He the deaf and dumb man cured?

Who through a cruel queen the pangs of death endured?

What sea did Jesus cross when winds and waves did rage?

And she to whom God gave a son in her old age?

Now, search the Scriptures, and you there will find

The persons, places, things, that I have named;

The letters first of each in words combined

Enforce a duty by God’s Word enjoined.

"Not Too Young to Die."

IN a boarding-school kept by a Christian lady, there was a little girl, named Emma—, who, though she often heard of Jesus and His love for little children, did not care to listen, for she liked playing with her schoolfellows a great deal better. I am afraid that this is the case with a good many little people Is it so with you? Do you read about the Lord Jesus Christ in GOOD NEWS, then lay down the book and go to play, forgetting all that you have been reading?

Well, Emma—went on in this way for a while; but at last God blessed the labors of her Christian teacher, and a time came when she felt how sinful she was and how much she needed a Saviour, and then the Lord made her feel how kind and loving Jesus was to die for sinners, and how ready He is to receive all who come to Him. Thus Emma’s heart turned to the Lord, and, little as she was, the simple story of the cross became very precious to her by faith; she could understand and delight in it, and was able to say she knew she was saved, for “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Jesus was her own dear Saviour; she knew Him by faith and loved Him. It was not mere religion with her, it was Jesus that had won her heart by His love. Now what do you think was the first thing she did after this? Why, she wrote a little letter to her mamma to tell her how, happy she was, and what made her so; how that Jesus loved her and had saved her by His precious blood, and how she loved Him. And then she asked, in her simple way, “Do you love Jesus, mamma?” But I am sorry to say her mamma did not, and in her reply to little Emma told her she was too young a child to think about such things. Poor little Emma was very sorry to have such an answer from her dear mother, for, in her simplicity, she had thought she would surely rejoice in the salvation of her child. At first she did not know what to say; but God gives wisdom to His own, even to little children who love Him, and so Emma wrote a loving little letter containing these words: — “Mamma dear, I am not too young to die, so, I am not too young to believe in Jesus and be saved.”

Think of these words, dear little reader, written by a childlike yourself— “not too young to die, so not too young to believe in Jesus and be saved.”

The Power of Love.

Pooh Hannah years ago was wed

To one whose love was true;

A sightly man he was, ‘tis said,

In coat of scarlet hue.

With pride she view’d his martial dress,

Admir’d him for his manliness,

And dearly lov’d him too.

But God saw well to wound her pride,

Her loving heart to break;

The one she lov’d fell sick and died,

Him God was pleased to take.

Her sorrow bow’d her to the ground,

And touch’d her mind, which soon ‘twas found,

Did to its center shake.

The Lord pour’d on her troubled mind

His Mercy’s soothing balm,

And to the stroke was she resign’d,

The storm became a calm.

‘Tis thought she learned the Saviour’s grace,

And in His bosom found a place,

And there could breathe a psalm.

A harmless fancy fills her head,

The offspring of her heart;

She decks herself in brightest red,

With quaint, fantastic art.

In scarf, or cloak, of scarlet dye,

With ruby ribbons, braid or tie,

She looks grotesquely smart.

On Sundays, when to church she goes,

With meek and measur’d tread,

In burning colors, then, she glows,

And, smiling, lifts her head;

Her Bible, too, her treasur’d book,

Assumes a strange, unpeaceful look,

Encas’d in fiery red.

Poor soul! to see her flighty ways,

One’s bosom well might ache;

But that there’s hope that Mercy’s rays

Upon her darkness break.

And, though uncouth her garb appears,

She wears it, and her heart it cheers,

For her beloved’s sake.

Ah! shall a creature, weak in mind,

Show such a faithful heart,

And in her love a motive find

To act so true a part;

And how shall I, who know the love

Of Christ, all human love above,

Of shame not feel the smart?

May I, though all should count me mad,

Unto my Lord be true;

In holy garments so be clad

That others Him may view;

Yield to His all-absorbing claim,

With joy confess His honor’d name,

And thus give Love its due.

The Stray Sheep.

“ALL we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a Sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” (Isa. 53:6,7). What a contrast is shown in these verses between poor sinful creatures, such as we are, and the blessed Lord Jesus, “who knew no sin”! We have all, from the oldest to the youngest, gone astray from God, and, instead of turning to His way, we have turned every one to our own way, which leads to distance from God, and ends in destruction. But He who is here compared to a lamb and a sheep always showed perfect meekness and submission to the twill of God in His life here below, as well as in His death of suffering and judgment for us upon the cross. See how tranquil and gentle He was when “brought as a lamb to the slaughter;” but notice especially the words, “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Oh! what love that God should have laid our sins upon His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, that He might bear the judgment that was due to us, so that God “might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

In the GOOD NEWS for last month I mentioned that I had to look after the flock of sheep of which my friend was the owner. Well, one morning when I went as usual to count the sheep, I could not reckon them up to the correct number, though I counted them over and over again. At length I was quite sure that there were two missing. I then looked into the hedges and the adjoining grounds, but I could find no trace of the stray ones; so I hastened back to acquaint the master with his loss. He quickly returned with me to the meadow, and counted all the sheep and lambs himself, and found that my report was correct. He then left everything else to look after the wanderers, and I went with him. We first sought about and around the pasture-ground where the rest of the flock was, but we could see nothing of them. We then took a wider range, and entered into the woods and thickets in the neighborhood, but we found not the stray sheep. Some of the places in which we sought were so desolate and dreary that I should have feared to have been there alone, but, being with my friend, who knew all about the place, I felt no fear, though I never afterward ventured there by myself. Still, we did not find the sheep; and what had become of them we could not tell. At length, towards the close of the day, we learned that they had been seen several miles away on the high-road, and that they were still going on, farther and farther. However, someone who knew whose sheep they were, by the red mark which was upon them, stopped them, and gave them rest and refreshment, for they were weary and worn, and sent to inform us where they were. The owner then had them brought home, and replaced in the meadow and with the flock from which they had wandered so great a distance. He was well-pleased to have them back again, and so was I, as well as his servants and his friends who dwelt round about him.

I am aware that this incident, interesting though it is, falls far short of the perfect parable in the 15th of Luke, where the shepherd leaves the ninety and nine sheep, to go after the one which is lost; and, seeking it till he finds it, brings it home on his shoulders, rejoicing; yet there are features in it which, with God’s blessing, may suggest some useful reflections. In the first place, I may say that I was not unfaithful to the humble service which had been committed to me, of daily counting the sheep; and at length my watchfulness was tested, when I discovered that two of them were wanting. It is a blessed thing to be found faithful in any sphere, however small it may be, in which the Lord has placed one as His servant. Hear what He says in Luke 16:10, “He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much.” But mark this, that no one can be a servant of God till he has become His child, by believing on the name of His only-begotten Son. The fact of my telling the owner of the flock that two of his sheep were missing is like one having communion with the Lord about any of His precious sheep and lambs that have gone astray. And I want you to take notice how my friend associated me with himself in his search after his sheep. He led the way into the woods and other places where he sought them, but I went with him. I knew but little of the paths by which he went, but he knew them well, and I only had to follow him, and I was safe. He had all the responsibility, because the sheep were his; but I felt concerned, and conversed with him about them, and accompanied him in his search. This reminds me of what the Lord says in John 12:26, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father Honor.” Oh! it is a precious privilege to serve Christ, and to be with’ Him, in the spirit of our minds, in anything that we do in His name. A beautiful chapter to read, as showing a true servant in full accord with his master’s mind, and wholly devoted to his will, is the 24th of Genesis. Perhaps some reader of this paper will peruse it; and, if he be very young, it would’ be well that someone who is older should read it with him.

There were two sheep that went astray together in the instance that I have related, and I think that we may learn a lesson from this. No doubt, a single sheep or lamb of Christ often wanders away from the Lord by himself, but not unfrequently some bad companion is the instrument that Satan uses to lead one astray. This is a very common snare, especially with the young. Not long ago I heard of a youth who professed to know the Lord, but who went very far astray, disobeying his parents and acting very sadly indeed, and who for a time beguiled another, younger than himself, and did him much injury; though, I am happy to say, that he who was thus misled was at length freed from the other’s evil influence. The Word of God assures us that “evil communications corrupt good manners.” That also which was said by the Apostle Paul, speaking to the Philippians 3ch. 17v., is applicable to us: “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk, so as ye have us for an ensample. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” The 13th chapter of the 1St book of Kings gives us a very solemn instance of one who was a “man of God” being led astray by the wicked devices of one who is called “an old prophet.” This is another chapter which I would earnestly recommend to the perusal of my readers, as being very instructive upon the point which we are considering.

Observe, too, that the sheep did not return of their own accord; no, they went on and on, far away from the good pasture and the sheep which they had left, and, if they had not been brought back, surely they would never have found the way home again. In the 23rd Psalm, which commences with the blessed statement that “The Lord is my Shepherd,” it says, “He restoreth my soul.” Yes, it is the “Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep,” who restores any of us when we have wandered away from Him; and the restored soul can truly and thankfully say, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake.”

I could say more upon other points of this narrative, but having, as I judge, said enough for the purpose, I conclude with the precious words, “HE maketh me to lie down in green pastures: HE leadeth me beside the still waters.”

Part 2: More About Joseph and His Brothers.

For Little Readers. ―Read Genesis 37:25-28 And 42:21, 22.

WHILE Joseph was in the pit his brothers saw some men coming by, who were willing to buy him of them, to be a slave in Egypt. So they thought it would he as well to get a few pieces of silver for him as to kill him and have nothing. “What profit is it,” they said, “if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?” It may be they were a little afraid to do such a very wicked and cruel thing as to kill their own brother, for the most hardened of bad men have something in them that the Bible calls “conscience,” which makes them feel more or less afraid when they do what they know is so wrong and displeasing to God. They are not easy or happy about it, although they often try to make others believe they are. But I think it was not only fear that made these men change their mind about Joseph, they thought it would pay them better to get the price of a slave for him than not to get anything at all; so they “sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.” Let me here remind you of what Jesus said about profit in Mark 8:36: “What shall it profit a man if, he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Think of this, dear little one; your soul is of more value than your body, and in this world, where people go to so very much trouble to get money, it is well that this word of the Lord Jesus should live in your mind, “What shall it profit?”

It seems Reuben loved Joseph or his father a bit more than the rest of them did, for he tried to get him away from them, that he might send him back home. I suppose if it had not been for him they would have killed Joseph as soon as he came to them. It was he who first of all begged them not to kill him; and we learn from chapter 42 That what they did do was quite against his will. He entreated them not to do it, but they “would not hear.” And we find too that Joseph besought them not to be so unkind to him. He could not bear to think of his dear father’s distress when he did not come back safe; and his hard-hearted brothers “saw the anguish of his soul,” but they “would not hear” him any more than they would hear Reuben, and they actually sold for a slave the dear lad that loved them and served them.

Does not all this remind us of a greater than Joseph, who was in far greater trouble than ever Joseph could have borne? Jesus was the One who, more than anyone else, was a “Man of Sorrows.” “Despised and rejected of men,” “they set at Naught and sold Him, scorned and nailed Him to a tree.” And when He was being thus treated there was not even a brother Reuben to speak a good word for Him. Peter, who loved Him about as much as anyone, was tempted to say he did not even know Him, and he had to go out and weep about his own sin, instead of being near to Jesus to speak for Him. And about the rest of His disciples it says, “They all forsook Him and fled” (Matt. 26:56). Then on the cross there was that which was worse than everything else to Jesus. When He was before the high priest He “held His peace;” He did not ask them to have pity on Him. And, again, before Pilate, “He answered him never a word.” He did not demand that he should, not allow Him to be put to death: “Like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened He not His mouth.” But when He was nailed to the cross He spoke to God. And what did He say “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” The disciples, then, were not the only ones who had forsaken Jesus, and, if you will turn to the twenty-second psalm, you will see something else. In that psalm, though it was written hundreds of years before, we may see what our blessed Saviour felt when He was on the cross; and in the second verse it says, “O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not.” If it was sad for Joseph, when he wept and entreated his brothers, and they “would not hear,” what must it have been for Jesus to look up to God, and have to say, “Thou hearest not?” But it must be so, dear little reader, if you and I were to be saved from being punished for our sins. The blessed Saviour came to “bear the punishment instead,” and He bore it. We see in it what a dreadful thing sin is in the sight of God, but we see too how great God’s love to us is, that He should thus have given “His dear Son” to bear it for us. (See 1 John 4:9,10). And what shall we not say of that precious Saviour who so loved us that He “gave Himself for us?” (Eph. 5:2.)

W. TY.

The Soul's Longings.

MY soul is like a captive bird—

The caged lark that sings;

Whose heav’nly instincts oft are stirred,

Who, buoyant, spreads her wings.

For pure, celestial scenes she longs,

And fain would take her flight,

That she may sing her joyous songs

In realms of blissful light.

Bright Hope still fans the warm desire,

And keeps the heart in peace,

While Faith sustains the living fire,

Till Faith and Hope shall cease.

My soul, her cheerful strain will raise

To Jesus’s matchless Name;

In psalms and hymns, and songs of praise,

His love and worth proclaim.

Oh! what a moment of delight,

Of ecstacy untold,

When saints shall leave this world of night,

And Christ Himself behold!

What millions, then, will soar on high,

To Him, their Saviour spring;

And what a burst of melody

When they His praises sing!

Scripture Questions for April.

1. Did the Apostle Paul beseech sinners to be reconciled to God, or tell them to pray God to be reconciled to’ them?

2. When is a believer made meet for glory?

3. What were the earthly things Nicodemus did not believe?

4. Whom does God love as He loves Jesus?

5. By what is a believer perfected forever?

6. Can sinners draw near to God before they have faith in the Lord Jesus?

7. As no one ever made his peace with God, how is peace to be obtained?

8. Why did God allow His people Israel to hunger the forty years they were in the wilderness?

The Spanish Boy.

I WANT to tell you about a little boy who lived in a country where, until within a very few years past, the Gospel of Christ was not allowed to be preached. Do you ask why they would not let the Gospel be preached there? Well, it was because they were a nation of idolaters, and I fear most of them are so still. Yet in some countries, such as Africa, India, or the South Sea Islands, where idolatry prevails, they do not so completely shut out the Gospel, for the poor ignorant heathen will often come in crowds to hear it. But in the land I speak of they have for ages been most bitter and cruel persecutors of Christ’s disciples, and there was a prison on purpose for all who confessed Jesus Christ, where they used to put poor prisoners to all manner of wicked tortures, and at last burn them alive. This prison was called the Inquisition, and the country I speak of is Spain. The religion of the Spanish people is the Catholic, or universal religion, and the Romish priests have always been for many centuries the worst enemies of Christ’s people. There is no wolf so dangerous you know as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, because they are always afraid of being exposed; therefore, they hate the light and all who have it: “neither will they come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved” or discovered. Well, in this Romish country, some years ago, there was a little boy, who, for eight years—nearly all his short life—had been laid on a bed of sickness. Just about this time some changes had taken place in the minds of the rulers of that dark country, and the Roman Catholic priests had lost much of the power and influence which they had used so wickedly; and thus it came to pass that a Christian preacher was allowed to preach Christ in Madrid. The little boy’s father was led, in God’s providence, to go and hear this preacher, and, after the meeting, he told him about his afflicted child. Upon hearing of him, the preacher sent some Sunday-school children to see him, and sing some hymns to him about Jesus, and after that some young men called upon him, and read and prayed with him daily. At last, one day the preacher, who had been very busy in other work, went to see the little sufferer, and, to his joy, found that the poor little fellow had not heard the Word of God in vain. As soon as the message of God’s love for sinners was brought to him he believed it, and looked unto Jesus, whose precious blood cleanseth from all sin. After reading some plain passages from God’s Word, the preacher sang a hymn, in which the little Spaniard tried eagerly to join, but his voice was so weak that at times it could hardly be heard; still the effort showed that he wanted to sing the praises of the Lord.

After praying with him the preacher said, “Do you suffer very much, my dear boy?”

“O yes, sir,” said the little fellow, “terrible pain. Yesterday I tried to get on my knees in the bed, but my body is so swollen that I could not do so. Then I put my hands up so, and begged Jesus to take away the pain in my head, I was so weary of it. And it all went away; and now every time the pain comes I pray, and it goes off.”

“And you believe in Jesus, dear boy, as your own Saviour?”

“Oh, yes, I sing and believe; I know it is Jesus saves my soul.”

“And have you patience to bear your affliction?” the preacher asked.

“Yes,” replied the dear child, “I can bear it now for Jesus’ sake.” Then he-added, “It is all I can do for Him now. I wish I could do more; but I cannot, and Jesus knows it.”

Was not that a beautiful answer? All that the poor little boy could do to show his love for Jesus was to suffer patiently, which is, perhaps, the hardest thing for any of us to do. And he wished he could do more, for he loved Jesus, and wanted to show it plainly. Do you love Him? If you do, if you know by faith that He has saved you, I hope you will take example by the little Spanish boy, and try to prove your love by doing all you can for Him who loved you and gave HIMSELF for you.

But, if you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, how the little Spanish boy rebukes you for your unbelief! He had lived all his little life among those who worshipped idols, yet, as soon as he heard the Gospel, he believed it. You, I dare say, have heard and read of Jesus scores of times, yet have turned away from Him to think of other things. Well, now, I hope you will do so no longer, but go to Jesus at once, like the little Spanish boy.

Substitution.

I HAVE heard an esteemed preacher tell of his visiting an aged Christian man on his death-bed, and saying to him, “Is it not a happy thing that we have the gospel set in so few, and in such simple words?” The old man looked up and said, “One word, sir!” His friend said, “What is the one word?” He replied, “Substitution!” The Gospel is in one word—SUBSTITUTION. That is, perhaps, rather a difficult word for some of you, and yet I would like you all to understand and remember it. If any were to ask me “What is the way of salvation?” and I wanted to put it as shortly as possible, I would say, “It is the immediate, present acceptance of Christ as the substitute, on the authority of God’s word and offer.”

I shall endeavor, as best I can, to explain what substitution is, or rather, what a substitute is. If you had got into debt—if you were owing money which you could not pay, and I were to go to the man to whom it was due, and say, “Look to me for the money, I shall pay it;” then I might be said to be your “surety” or substitute.

If you had committed some crime, and were apprehended and imprisoned, and the law allowed me to come and say, “I shall take your place as the wrong-doer, and suffer the punishment in your stead,” then I should be your “substitute.”

There was a little boy who had done wrong. His mother was about to punish him, when his brother, unable to bear the thought of his being punished, said, “Please, mother, punish me instead of him.” And she did it; she had a reason for doing it. There was a lesson which she wished to teach her boys; and So she punished the one who did no wrong, and the one who did the wrong escaped. She wished to’ show by an innocent boy suffering for a guilty one, how the Lord Jesus was the substitute of sinners. There was once a king who made a law, that if any committed a certain offense he should have his eyes put out. The first to commit the offense was the king’s own son. I dare say some of the people would say, “We shall see now whether the king will be just, when his own son is the offender.” Others might ask, “Who shall dare to put out the eyes of the king’s son?” But the king said, “Two eyes must go for this sin.” He could not think of his son being blind all his days, and he did this—he gave orders that one of his own eyes should be put out, and one of his son’s. Ever after, when anyone saw the one-eyed king, he might have said the king was the “substitute” of his son.

Soldiers who are on guard must be very particular. No one is allowed to speak to them. Night and day they must keep watch uninterruptedly, and in a time of war or of danger, when anyone passing them without being noticed might do serious damage, if they were found sleeping at their posts, they would be shot. Well, it is told, during one of the first Napoleon’s wars, one of his sentinels became so exhausted that he fell asleep. The emperor was passing, and seeing him sleeping, he took his musket, and did duty for him; and when the soldier awoke, there was the emperor, with his musket on his shoulder, pacing backwards and forwards in his stead. In other words, he became his “substitute,” did his work, and saved his life. In some countries, men are drawn by lot, to serve as soldiers. This is called the “Conscription,” and in some cases is greatly dreaded. One is drawn the only son of his mother; she cannot think of his leaving her, and some kind friend, says, “I will go in your son’s Stead!” He goes to the wars, and fights, and falls, and finds a grave on a foreign shore. That self-sacrificing friend becomes the “substitute” of the other.

There is a touching story told regarding a body of men who had taken part in a rebellion, and were sentenced to have every tenth man of their number shot, to deter others from doing what they had done. Among these were two, a father and son. We can fancy we see the men drawn up in a long line. Fixing, perhaps, on the first man by lot, he is marked out for death, and every tenth man thereafter, counting from him. The father and son stand together, and as the son runs his eyes along the line, he discovers that his father is a doomed man. He realizes what it will be to have their family left without a head, his mother a widow, the old home stripped of its light and joy, and quick as thought he steps in where his father stood, and falls in his stead. He becomes his father’s “substitute;” and if you ask the father in after years how he was saved, with the tear in his eye and a quivering voice he will tell you he was saved by a substitute— that substitute his most loved and loving son.

Thrilling narratives are told of events like those just mentioned, in connection with the late American war. One is described as visiting the cemetery where many a soldier was buried, and erecting over one of the graves that had an interest of a peculiar kind for him, a tombstone, with the brief, but touching inscription “He died for me.” It was the story of a “substitute.”

Thus you see that a substitute is one who takes the place of another, one who does the work of another, one who suffers the penalty due to another. “Christ once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” He “bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18).

A Child's Reply.

THE beloved Christian mother of a little girl was lately removed from this world, and her young family. Soon after her departure, one of the household said to the child, “Your ma has gone to heaven, and you will never see her any more.” The child quickly replied, “Why not? can’t I go to heaven too, and see ma there?” A nice answer for a child, was it not? Jesus said, “I am the Door: by ME if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10).

Youthful Martyrs.

IN the sixteenth century, during a time of persecution in Italy, the son of a Christian man named Marzone, who had suffered much for Christ’s sake, proved himself worthy of such a father; for though quite a boy, he resisted every attempt which was made to compel him to deny his Saviour and forsake the truth. He was told, that if he persisted in his resistance, he should be thrown from a high tower, and on his thrusting from him a crucifix, which his persecutors tried to make him embrace, they carried their menace into effect, and, casting him from the top of the tower, he was dashed to pieces.

In the year 1544 a monk, in a sermon which he preached, said that men’s good works could purchase heaven. A boy who was present, knowing that what the preacher said was not true, boldly told him that God had said in His Word that it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3). A conversation then ensued upon the subject, in which the boy showed more knowledge of the Scriptures than the preacher, who at length becoming angry, said, “Get you gone, you impudent boy; you are but just come from the cradle, and do you presume to understand sacred things which the learned cannot explain?” The boy replied, “Did you never read these words: ‘Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s Thou hast perfected praise,’” (Matt. 21). The monk then left the place, and caused the youthful defender of the truth to be cast into a dungeon, where, it is supposed, he died.

Happy is it for the young who are so instructed in the Word of God that they know the truth when they hear it; but happier still are they who treasure the Holy Scriptures in their hearts, and become “wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3).

April, Dictionary of the Bible.

Doves’ Dung (2 Kings 6:25). — Various explanations have been given of this term. Josephus, taking it literally, says it was purchased for its salt; others suggest that it was used as a manure for hastening the growth of plants, such as melons. But Arabs apply the term “pigeons’ dung” to different vegetable substances, as Bochart shows. A kind of grain thus called is parched or dried in large quantities, and stored in magazines at Cairo and Damascus. “It is much used on journeys, particularly by the great pilgrim-caravan to Mecca.” Lady Callcott mentions the common Star of Bethlehem as the “doves’ dung” of Scripture, which, as well as “birds’ milk,” she gives as two of its vernacular names. Dioscorides says that its bulbs were sometimes cooked with bread, and that it was also eaten both raw and roasted. In ancient times the roots of this plant were eaten in Italy and other southern countries.

Drach’ma. — A silver coin common among the Greeks, which, after the captivity, became current also among the Jews (Luke 15:8, 9). The earlier Attic drachmae were equal to about 93/4d. of English money. In later times they were somewhat smaller, and counted equal to the dinarius, worth at first 8 1/2d., and afterward 71/2d. The value of the drachma of Scripture was therefore about 8d. The “ten pieces,” or drachmae, of the parable in Luke 15:8, would equal 6s. 8d. of English money nominally, but the actual value would be much greater 1,800 years ago.

Dragon. ―This creature is frequently mentioned in Scripture, and is usually associated with ruined cities and desolate places (Job 30:29; Psa. 44:19, 20; Isa. 13:22; 34:13; 35:7; Jer. 9:11; 14:6; 49:33; Mic. 1:8). Python-serpents and enormous boas were common in ancient times, and are still found in the tropics. When seeking their prey these enormous creatures raise themselves like pillars, some 10 or 12 feet high, to look above the surrounding bushes. In this position they seem to drink the air with widely-extended jaws (Jer. 14:6). The mallipambu, or great rock-snake, of Southern Asia, is said to wail in the night.

Dram. ―This word, which occurs 1 Chronicles 29:7; Ezra 2:69; 8:27; Nehemiah 7:70-72, is supposed to have been the Persian daric, the most ancient gold coin of which any specimens have been preserved to the present day, and the earliest-coined money known to the Jews. The mark of the coin was a crowned archer, and its weight fifteen grains heavier than an English guinea. Its value may therefore be reckoned at twenty-five shillings.

Dreams. ―That the Lord frequently revealed His will to men by dreams or “visions of the night” (Job 33:15) is abundantly shown in the Scriptures (Gen. 20:3; 28:12; 31:10; 37:6-11; Num. 12:6; 1 Sam. 28:15, &c.). False prophets sometimes abused this well-known fact (Zech. 10:2; Jer. 23:25), but their pretended revelations were to be judged by the written Word (Deut. 13:1-5; Isa. 8:20; see also Judg. 7:13-15; Dan. 1:17; 2:1-45; Matt. 1:20; 2:12, 13, 19, 20; Acts 16:9; 18:9, &c.).

Answer to Bible Enigma for March.

“Children obey your parents” (Eph. 6:1).

C ain Genesis 4:8.

H annah 1 Samuel 1:11.

I shmael Genesis 21:15,16.

L azarus John 11:43.

D avid 2 Samuel 23:1,2.

R ehoboam 1 Kings 12:12-14.

E ve Gen. 3:6.

N athan 2 Samuel 12:7.

O rpah Ruth 1:14,15.

B enoni Genesis 35:18.

E lijah James 5:17,18; 1 Kings 18:42.

Y ea, yea Matthew 5:37.

Y esterday John 4:52.

O bed Ruth 4:22.

U pharsin Daniel 5:25.

R amah Jeremiah 31:15.

P entecost Acts 2:1.

A nanias Acts 5:5.

R ed Sea Exodus 15:22.

E phphatha Mark 7:34.

N aboth 1 Kings 21:13.

T iberias John 6:1.

S arah Genesis 21:2.

Answers to Bible Questions for March.

1. Matthew 18:4.

2. Proverbs 8:17.

3. When the world walks in the light of the heavenly Jerusalem, they will know that God has loved the Church as He loves the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:23; Rev. 21:24).

4. Colossians 1:13.

5. 1 Peter 1:19.

6. Matthew 18:10.

7. Peter, James, and John (Matt. 17:1-9; Mark 9:1-10; Luke 9:27-36; 2 Peter 1:16-18.)

8. Matt. 12:36.

Bible Enigma for April.

WHOSE mournful death made widows to lament?

What woman from her master’s house was sent?

Who saw bright visions by a river side?

What treach’rous servant to his master lied?

What warlike prince upon a rock was slain?

Who water sought when God withheld the rain?

Who came uninjured from the lions’ den?

Who once near Lehi slew a thousand men?

Whose prayers and tears did a kind answer gain?

In what famed valley was a giant slain?

Who for his sin most bitterly did weep?

Where did his flock the son of Amram keep?

Who with a brother was at deadly strife?

What woman by her faith did save her life?

Who a fierce foe did in a monarch find,

But in that monarch’s son a friend most kind?

Take the initials, and, as noonday clear,

A title of the Saviour will appear.

Saved by a Newfoundland Dog.

A FEW days ago a boat and crew, which had been out fishing near Newfoundland, came home and attempted to enter the harbor, but the wind and weather had changed since they went out in the morning, and they found themselves outside a long line of breakers, and in great peril. The people on shore saw their danger, and friends ran to and fro in great anxiety, yet knew not what to do. Among the crowd was a fine Newfoundland dog, who seemed quite as much alive to the peril of the crew as the people around him. He watched the boat, looked at the breakers, and seemed to be thinking, “What can be done to help them in?”

At last he suddenly plunged into the foaming waters and swam boldly out to the vessel. The crew thought he wanted to join them, and tried to help him into their boat, but he would not come within their reach, but continued swimming around, diving his head under water, and sniffing about as if in earnest search of something. What was he up to? What did the creature mean? What did he want? “Give him the end of a rope,” cried one of the sailors, guessing what was in the good dog’s brain; “that’s what he wants;” and no sooner was a rope thrown to him than he seized the end, turned round in an instant, and made straight for the shore.

The people on the beach soon hauled the boat home, crew and all; and thus, through the dog’s affection and sagacity, all were saved from the peril they were in, and which in a few hours, when the storm increased, would most likely have ended in the wreck of the boat and the death of the sailors.

Now, I am sure you like to read about this noble dog. He was not afraid, you see, of the angry waves, and, though he ran the risk of being dashed to pieces against the rocks, nothing daunted him. That wonderful instinct of love for man which God has created in the dog led him to breast the stormy sea untold by any, and quite of his own free will. It is this that reminds me of One who, unasked, and even undesired, nay more, hated, came from heaven to earth to save. He came from off the throne of glory to Calvary’s shameful cross. He did not merely breast the waves of the sea, but He went through all sorrow, even wrath and death, to save sinners. He bore the wrath of God for us, which none but He could have borne without perishing. Who was this? Do you know? It was Jesus, God’s blessed Son. What led Him from the glory to the grave? It was love, love for sinners, who hated, and even, at last, crucified Him. How beautiful is the LOVE OF JESUS! Do you ever think about it? Do you believe in it?

The Maggot.

ONE morning, after the usual inspection of the flock of my friend, on meeting him, I said, “I found the sheep all right as regards their number, and there seems to be nothing the matter with them, except with one.” “Well, and what is amiss with that?” inquired he. “I don’t know,” I replied, “but it acts in a very singular manner. It separates itself as far as it can from the rest, keeping close to the hedge, and bleating in a pitiful manner; and, though I tried to make it return to the others, I did not succeed; it would remain, by itself.” “Oh!” said the master, smiling, “I know what’s the matter with it. It has ‘the maggot.’” “The maggot,” said I, “what is that?” “It is a disease,” he replied, “to which sheep are subject. It is caused by a certain species of fly depositing its eggs on the sheep, which, when they are hatched, burrow under the skin, and produce great irritation to the poor animal, who shows that it is troubled with that complaint by getting apart from the flock in the way that you mention.” “And what is to be done with it?” I asked. “Oh,” said he, “we must apply the proper remedy, and it will soon be all right again.” So the poor sheep, which, by-the-bye, was rather a young one, was brought home and carefully treated till the cure of its troublesome complaint was effected. It was then taken back to its companions, and the fresh pasture on which they had continued peacefully and diligently feeding, and it was pleasant to see with what alacrity the healed one returned to the flock, and began to feed along with them.

Have we not seen, at some time or other, one of the sheep or lambs of Christ suffering from some sickness of the soul, which has manifested itself much in the same way as “the maggot” did in the poor sheep that got away by itself in the hedge? I think we have; and I fear that such a complaint is by no means uncommon among the flock of God. Mark you unhappy soul! Why does he shun the kindly salutations of his brethren and sisters in Christ? Why does he avoid their society? Why does he forsake the assemblies where the Word of God, by which the soul is fed and nourished, is ministered, and where the praises of God are joyfully sung? Why is he missed from the meetings where prayer is “wont to be made,” and where, in all probability, his own sad and unhappy condition would be discovered to him, and healed by the gracious action of the Spirit of God? And why does he continually run the round of his own miserable thoughts, instead of seeking to be occupied with the precious thoughts of God, the meditation on which makes the heart happy and the countenance bright? Why, why, indeed? These distressing symptoms are unquestionably so many evidences that he is afflicted with “the maggot.” And, to speak plainly, I am afraid that there are but few of us who have not had a touch of this wretched complaint at some period of our history. And have we not found that it has made us restless in ourselves, as well as dissatisfied with everyone and everything around us?

As every complaint must arise from some cause, let us inquire what it is that produces this disagreeable malady—what species of “fly,” so to speak, it is that torments the spirit of one who is thus under its power? Well, I believe that there are several; but, desiring to have that love which “believeth all things, hoped all things,” I shall presume that any who read this little paper are not likely to be visited with this affliction in its more severe forms; but that, if they have it at all, it will prove to be of a mild character. I shall therefore refer only to what, I judge, are two of the prevalent causes of this complaint. One is, the allowance of evil thoughts in our hearts. If, for instance, I permit an unkind and unchristian thought of another to fasten itself upon my mind, it will breed more and even worse thoughts in me, and I shall form a harsh judgment of that one, imagining all manner of naughty things against him. The fault, however, is in myself; and, instead of judging him, I ought to judge myself for having given way to such thoughts, confessing my sin unto God, who tells us, in 1 John 1:9, that, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” While under the influence of such evil thoughts, we are like a person looking through a piece of green glass, and then saying that everything is of a green color; whereas, they only appear to be so because of the medium through which he beholds them. Take away the glass, and all around is seen in its own proper and natural hue. The other cause to which I allude, is continuance in an unforgiving spirit, though this, indeed, is closely allied to the other. Suppose one does something to me which I conceive to be a wrong; he ought, no doubt, to be told of it, and, if he repents, I should forgive him. But, if he will not acknowledge his fault, shall I do worse than he has done by allowing anger and resentment against him to work in my bosom? By such a course, I should dishonor the Lord, injure my own soul, and probably establish the wrongdoer more firmly in his fault. Let me rather pray for him, and, by so doing, I shall be prepared to act upon the divine exhortation: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” But if, instead of being the one who suffers the wrong, I am myself the wrongdoer, and do not repent and confess my fault, depend upon it, I shall have hard thoughts of the person whom I have injured; and, continuing in that state, a crust of evil will fix itself upon my heart, and I shall before long probably exhibit very distressing symptoms of “the maggot.” I only name these things in the hope that, through being made aware of such causes of distance and darkness of soul, we may, by the grace of God, be kept from the allowance of such thoughts and feelings, so that we may be free to be occupied with the precious things and thoughts which the ungrieved Spirit loves to present to us from the Word of God (see Rom. 12:17-21; Eph. 4:30-32; vss. 1,2; Col. 3:12-14; and Phil. 4:8).

I in my inexperience, endeavored to drive the diseased sheep back to the others, who were in a healthy condition and feeding on the green pasture in, peace and quietness; but, as I have told you, my efforts were unsuccessful. And, supposing I had succeeded, what then? Why, the poor sheep would probably have contaminated the rest, and would itself have remained unhealed. Well, if anyone has a care for the little ones of the Father’s flock, and he sees a diseased one, let him seek communion with “the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls” about it, and learn from Him what is His way of treating the disease, for it is only as we are in fellowship with Him that we know what is the true remedy, and how it should be applied. Oh! it is a blessed thing for the servant to work with his Master; that thus he may not frustrate or interfere with the Shepherd’s own work of restoration in a soul. In this connection one might, I judge, read and meditate with profit on John 13, where Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. If we drank into the spirit of this service of the Lord, which He is surely carrying on for us now, and will continue all the time that we are in this world, we should be better prepared to receive His word, when He says, “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” “The washing of water by the Word” is His own gracious service now, and happy are they who have fellowship with Him in it.

As the sheep, when cured of its complaint, no longer rubbed the hedge, but was delighted to return to its companions, again to feed with them on the pleasant pasture; so when a soul which has been wandering from the presence of the Lord, and at a distance from his brethren, is truly restored, he will soon evidence the reality of his restoration, by renewing his fellowship with them in reading and feeding upon the fresh and nourishing food which God has provided for us in the Word of His grace.

Having now finished what I desired respecting sheep, my parting word with my young brethren and sisters in Christ on this subject, is, may God keep both them and me from falling under the power of that miserable malady, “the maggot.”

The Sunshiny Side of the Way.

WHEN Summer is o’er,

And sunbeams no more

Pour down on our pathway their heat,

But Autumn’s soft calm

Sheds its genial balm,

Who seeks from the Sun a retreat?

Nay, rather we woo,

And earnestly, too,

The rays that enliven the day;

We shelter refuse,

But freely we choose

The sunshiny side of the way.

‘Tis thus that the saint

Should feel the constraint

Of Love, which in Christ ever beams;

Should gaze on His face

Of glory and grace,

Dispersing his gloom with its gleams;

With hearty accord

Rejoice in the Lord,

The Life, and the Light of the day;

Uplifting the head,

And loving to tread

The sunshiny side of the way.

Part 3: More About Joseph.

For Little Readers. — Read Genesis 37:29-36.

LAST month I was telling you about Joseph’s brothers selling him for a slave. The men who bought him took him into Egypt, and his brothers did not see him again for a long, long time. They went to their father, with Joseph’s coat, that he had made, all stained with the blood of a little goat, and made the poor old man think it was Joseph’s blood, and that he had been killed by some lion or other wild beast. It was very cruel indeed of them to deceive their father so, and their pretending to comfort him did not make it a bit better. They knew very well it was their own fault that Joseph had not come back to his father, who loved him so; and they ought to have told him what they had done. But, instead of that, they let him believe that Joseph had been eaten up, and he did so cry about it. He said he should not leave off mourning for his dear boy until he died himself and went to him.

But God meant him to see Joseph again, and so He spared his life and took care of Joseph until they did meet again. And then he was glad; he put his arms round his neck and wept for “a good while”— not tears of sorrow, but of very great joy; for people who have kind, tender hearts sometimes weep because they are so very happy, as well as at other times because they are so sad. And not only did Joseph’s father see him again, but all his brothers did so too, although they had done all they could to get quite rid of him. And, when they saw him again, everything about him was so different that they did not know him, and were quite afraid of him! The last time they saw him at Dothan was when the men who had bought him were just taking him away with them, without even his pretty coat that his father had made him. But the next time they saw him he was almost like a king, with clothes of beautiful fine linen, and a gold chain round his neck; and everybody bowed to him and owned that he was lord of all the land!

I want you to read carefully over the chapters that tell of this, from the 41St to the 45th of Genesis; and perhaps next month, or soon, I may say something more to you about Joseph and his brothers meeting again, and what came of it. But for now I would have you think of that word about the Lord Jesus, in Revelation 1:7: “Every eye shall see Him.” The world is made up of people who don’t want to see Jesus, and people who do; as in Joseph’s house there was one dear old man that would have given anything to see Joseph again, and a lot of younger ones who would have gone anywhere so as not to meet him. But they all did see Joseph, and all will see Jesus. Some will be very, very glad to do so; others will be afraid and “ashamed before Him at His coming;” yet that will not put off His coming a single day, for “yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Heb. 10:37).

W. TY.

A Dead Man.

I READ the other day of a man in an eastern country (whether it was China or Japan I forget) who was sentenced to be hanged for some crime which he had committed. What he had been guilty of was not stated, but, whatever it was, the unhappy man was executed, and then, according to the custom of the country, his body was handed over to his friends for burial. But before they put him into the ground, and while they were wailing and crying over him, he, to their great surprise, began to show signs of life, and presently, to their joy, sat up alive! You may guess how pleased those who loved him must have been; but their rejoicings were soon turned to fear and trouble, for his enemies, hearing of his restoration to life, came and dragged him before the judge who had condemned him. Then they began to accuse him of the crime he had committed before he was executed, but the judge interrupted them by asking whether the man had really been hanged; and, when they replied, “Yes,” he said, as that was the case, he had nothing more to do with him.

In this country, when a criminal is sentenced to be hanged, the judge always says “until he is dead;” but I suppose those words had not been added by this eastern judge—at any rate, he insisted that the sentence of the law had been executed upon the criminal, and therefore the law had no more to do with him. It had done its worst upon him, according to the sentence of the judge, and he was free!

Now, although the man had not really died, he had seemed to do so under the executioner’s hands; the life which had been forfeited by crime, according to the law of the land in which he lived, had been taken, to the best of their belief, and now, although he had come to life again, the judge looked upon that life as one which had not done any wrong.

Dear young reader, this is just how “God, the Judge of all,” looks at every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” but the blessed Son of God “bore our sins (the sins of believers) in His own body on the tree.” He took our place, “He was made sin for us,” and He “gave His life a ransom for many.” That is, He bore the judgment of our sins, He was dealt with as if He were sin itself (though “He knew no sin”), and He GAVE, HIS LIFE for the sin we were guilty of. The believer, therefore, can say, “I am crucified with Christ” (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; 6:14). The life, the old Adam life, in which I sinned against God, is gone at the cross of Christ; if I was under law, I am “dead to the law by the body of Christ;” the law has done its worst on me; that blessed, sinless, pule, and holy body, as it hung on the “cursed tree,” is looked at as if it were mine. I am in God’s sight A DEAD MAN, the body of sin is destroyed, the old man is crucified, because Christ was crucified instead of it, as if He were IT, though you know He was “the Holy One of God,” as even the devils owned. The LIFE THAT SINNED (my old Adam life) IS GONE, because Christ “gave His LIFE a ransom” for mine. Now, do you not see how perfectly “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin,” from every sin? “The blood is the life of the flesh,” and did He not pour out His blood for us? Did He not freely and fully GIVE the life He had here as the blessed Man? Yes, “He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many.” Well, then, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, all that you were, and all the sin belonging to you, is looked at as gone forever from before God’s sight. All that has been executed, put to death, done away with for all eternity in Christ crucified. But Jesus is alive again, and the believer can say, “I live, yet not I, but Christ”— not the old “I,” for that is dead; but the new “I.” There is a new life, a life that never sinned at all, and that life is mine. Christ is my life, did, He ever sin? “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” anything touch it, destroy it, or even blame it? “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Have nothing to say to sin, nothing to do with it. Cana dead man sin? “Live unto God.” See how He loves you! “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth,” and “put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering” (Col. 3).

The Happy Skipper.

How the sea seems to smile on a calm summer evening, when little boys and girls are playing on the beach, some chasing the outflowing wave, some hunting for seaweeds and shells, and some putting the finishing touch to the sand walls and houses they have taken so much trouble to build, and wondering whether their marvelous constructions (which it would puzzle the most experienced architect to design) will be there at sunrise when they come, all bright and fresh as the morning itself, to resume their endless labors. But the smiles of the sea are often changed to frowns, and its light-capped waves, so gentle when at rest, are terrible in their might when roused by the stormy wind. Many a little one has been made fatherless, and many a wife a widow, by those quiet-looking waves; and the tale I am going to tell you is one of those sad instances. Less than two years ago there lived in the village of St. Monans, on the coast of Fife, a godly fisherman, who was captain and owner of a herring-boat, which he had named “The Rose in June.” Now, herring fishing is not carried on in the pleasant summer time, but at a season of the year when storms are frequent; and one day, in the cold month of December, Andrew Davidson and his little crew prepared to put to sea. He had but lately been married, and before setting sail he knelt down with his young wife to ask the Lord to keep her safely during his absence; but she noticed with sad forebodings that he said not a word about his own security. The dark clouds threatened a stormy night, but the herring-fisherman could not afford to lose time; and so “The Rose in June” set off in company with a whole fleet of fishing boats, while a crowd of anxious wives, mothers, and children watched their departure, looking now at the little fleet as its sails, filled by the breeze, bore it swiftly away, and anon at the gathering clouds in the sky. At early dawn the same crowd, even more anxious now, were gathered on the beach. A terrible storm had raged during the night, and every eye was strained across the treacherous sea to catch the first glimpse of the returning boats. One by one they struggled in, and shouts of joy and thankfulness arose from one and another, as a husband, a brother, a father, or a son stepped on shore. But “The Rose in June” came not. Driven by the storm, and dashed upon the rocks of Elie, she had become a total wreck. Turned bottom upwards, her crew of six men clung with desperate energy to the slippery keel. No other boat was near to save or help them, and all around the wild waves were rolling and foaming, threatening every moment to tear each man from his hold, and dash him to pieces on the sharp rocks. In the midst of all this peril, and in the face of certain death, dear Andrew Davidson, perhaps remembering how Paul and Silas glorified God in the prison of Philippi, shouted loud and clear above the storm, “Now, boys, is the moment to sing a hymn of praise to our God,” and then at once began with—

“My God, I am Thine,

What a comfort divine,

What a blessing to know

That Jesus is mine,”

It was his last word. A. huge breaker dashed violently over him, and in an instant he was swept far away

“From every stormy wind that blows,”

unto that heaven of eternal rest for which he had been long prepared, through faith in his precious Saviour, whose blood cleanseth from every sin.

A sad silence fell upon those who had tried to join him in his song of praise, when John Allan, the young mate, and a believer also in Christ exclaimed, “Friends, let us go on with the hymn; our skipper is finishing it in heaven now.” And those brave men, rocking on their wrecked boat, with the wild winds and waves around them, sang on till they had finished the hymn. As the words of the last verse died away—

“And this I shall prove,

Till with joy I remove

To the heaven of heavens,

In Jesus’ own love,”

another huge wave bore off the young mate to rejoin his friend and brother where sorrow and death may never enter, where they see His face who loved them, and gave Himself for them, and whom they sought to glorify in their last moments.

Those of the little crew that escaped a watery grave never forgot this wonderful scene, and it is told to you that you may see what faith in Christ can do. The mighty ocean in its terrible strength may have power over the poor perishing body, but you see that it has none over the heart of him who loves the Lord Jesus Christ; he can sing in the face of death, for he knows he is going to Jesus. Could you sing if instant death stared you in the face?

"Salt Water, and Fresh."

(James 3:12; John 4:14.)

THERE is a spot on Brighton’s beach,

Beheld at ebbing tide,

But which the rising waters reach,

And, overflowing, hide.

A Fountain, thence, most strangely, springs,

Of water, fresh and clear,

And sweetness to the ocean brings,

Or doth the thirsty cheer.

A thought of pleasure in my soul

That springing Well awakes,

As o’er its mouth the waters roll,

And surging billow breaks.

That though Misfortune’s boist’rous waves

My head may overflow,

From overwhelming Jesus saves,

And soothes my deepest woe.

And, when Affliction’s tide recedes,

And Trouble’s waves decrease,

A flow of tranquil joy succeeds

Of thankfulness and peace.

Oh! may the living streams in me,

Outflowing, freely tell,

To souls athirst, of Mercy free,

And Love’s unfailing well.

"I See No Harm in It."

“I see no harm in it.” Such was the answer made to me one evening by a young lady who had come to a religious meeting. After the meeting she approached, and thus addressed me: “Sir, I have already heard you often, and I think I have always a greater desire for the peace of God of which you preach, and I love to hear it published.”

I had some fear that this lady, young and lively, had more knowledge than faith, therefore I said to her, “I have spoken to you solemnly about the decisive marks of faith and of love of Jesus; a love which always shows itself by shunning the lusts of the world, and by love to the brethren” (1 John 3:14).

“Yes, yes,” replied she, “and in one of your discourses you have positively named theaters and dances as opposed to the holiness of the Christian. But I confess that, as far as the theater goes, I see no harm in it.”

“Are you, then, a child of God?” I demanded.

“Me, sir? What a question! Without doubt; and I think I have been so for a long time.”

“And, if you please to tell me, how do you know that you are so?”

“Why,” said she, laying her right hand on her heart, “everything tells me I am so. Besides, I love Jesus. That is the best proof, is it not?”

“Very good, if it is the true Jesus whom you love. But there are many false Christs in the world; and, since you love one who goes to the theater with you, and who perhaps dances with you, I very much doubt if it can be that Jesus who dances with you, for the Scripture says, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

“But, sir, what evil do you see in a play which has a good moral, or in the beautiful music we hear at the theater?”

“But, madam, what is your prayer before you go, whilst there, and after you come from the play? For example, before you go to your box at the theater, do you ask of God that you may go modestly clad; that you may hide yourself from the gaze of worldly people; and that you may be surrounded by modesty, chastity, and self-denial?”

“But, sir, do you really speak seriously?”

“Most seriously; and it is before the holy and just God, whom I serve, that I again ask if you pray for the actors, and particularly for the actresses, in order that they may have in their hearts that beautiful morality which you say they utter; and also that they may not find in themselves any immodesty, or hypocrisy, or a thousand other defilements.”

“But, I beg your pardon, sir, would such a prayer be common sense? Who does not know that these are actors, men as well as women?”

“Nevertheless, if the true Jesus was with you at the theater, you would love your neighbor, and certainly pray for the conversion of these men and women; for they have immortal souls, and they must finish their comedies and their dramas, their operas and their tragedies, either in heaven or in hell, and both will be eternal! And again, madam, what is your prayer on your return from the theater? Do you fall upon your knees in your closet, and pray the Lord Jesus to keep in you, by His Spirit, that beautiful morality, and these melodious songs, which you have heard? Tell me, do you do so?”

“But, sir, prayer is not the matter in question. It is amusement, not worship.”

“Amusement, say you? And that amusement you take without the knowledge of God; of Him who has said to His children that all that is done without faith is sin; and whatever we do, in word or deed, we should do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Has the holy and omnipresent God had nothing to do with your amusement? On the contrary, He has been put aside; and, when you passed the door of the theater, you have said to Him, ‘Do Thou, Jesus, wait outside; I will go in here without Thee!’ Ah! madam, you have forgotten that the soul of man is never alone, and that, if the true Jesus does not accompany us wherever we go, it is the enemy of God and of Christ—the devil―yes, madam, the devil himself. You may now decide as to theaters, or balls, or concerts, or parties of pleasure, or other worldly amusements. If the Christ of God is not there; if His blessing cannot be found there; if the soul cannot enjoy His presence and communion there; judgment is at once pronounced against such things; they are the things which God has said that He hates, because they are the works of darkness. If, then, a child of light says she sees no harm in these things, is it not just to apply to her the words of the Saviour, “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

The young lady made me no answer, but I saw the tears in her eyes. I could not tell whether the true Jesus had caused her to hear His voice that evening.

May, Dictionary of the Bible.

Dress. — There is much uncertainty as to the dress of the ancient Hebrews, but it is thought probable, as customs change so slowly in the East, that the garments of the Hebrews were similar to those now worn by the Arabs, and which may be divided into two kinds, those worn by the Bedouin, or desert Arab, and those usual among the townsmen of that ancient people. The head-dress of the Bedouin is a kerchief folded in three-cornered (triangular) form and thrown over the head so as to fall over the neck and shoulders, being bound round the head by a band of twisted camels’ hair or wool. The cloak, or abba, is made of wool and hair, sometimes all black or all white, but more usually marked with broad stripes, the colors (which are never more than two, one being white) marking the tribe by which it is worn. The cloak is like a square sack, open in front, with slits at the sides for the arms. Worn by day, it is slept in by night (Ex. 22:27). Another outer garment, called the hyke, is known in Arabia, and is much worn by all classes of the population. It may be briefly described as a large woolen blanket, either white or brown, and in summer a cotton sheet (blue or white, or both together) thrown over the body from the left shoulder, and leaving the right arm free. Sometimes it is thrown over the head (2 Sam. 15:30; 1 Kings 19:13; Esther 6:12). Under either of these outer coats wide drawers of linen or cotton are worn next the skin, and tied around the body by a running string or band. Over these a cotton or woolen frock or shirt is worn, which in warm weather often forms the sole dress of the Bedouin peasant and the lower class of townsmen in the daytime. To this the abba or hyke is the proper outer robe, and is almost always needed at night, even in summer, as the nights are often cold from the copious dews which fall after a hot day, The shirt (of coarser or finer material, according to the rank of the wearer) is most commonly worn with a girdle. Thus the ordinary dress of the common people consists of a shirt and drawers (sometimes dispensed with) and an abba or hyke. Persons of superior class wear over the shirt a gown or caftan, striped or figured, and of mingled silk and cotton, descending to the ankles, and with sleeves extending beyond the finger-ends, as it is customary to cover the hands in the presence of a superior. The girdle belonging to the caftan is usually a colored shawl or piece of figured muslin. That of the poorer classes is often of leather with clasps, and is much worn by Arabs, and even by persons of distinction, on a journey, sometimes ornamented with metal studs, shells, beads, &c., or with needlework in colored silk and worsted (2 Kings 1:8; Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6; Jer. 13:1).

A knife or sword was worn in the girdle, or an ink-horn by writers (2 Sam. 20:8; Ezek. 9:2; Matt. 26:51; Luke 22:36). In the bosom of this, robe articles are often carried; hence the expression of giving things “unto the bosom.” Over this gown is worn either the short-sleeved gibbeh, a long coat of woolen cloth, or the long sleeved benish of similar material, and worn either over or instead of the gibbeh. The benish is the robe of ceremony. On a journey the hyke or abba is worn over these, so that out of doors the dress of a person of superior class consists of the drawers, shirt, caftan with girdle, benish (or gibbeh, or both), and the hyke or abba, girded with the ornamented girdle with sword or knife. When wearing only the shirt and caftan, which is regarded as an undress, a person is said to be “naked” (Ex. 28:40; Job 30:18; Isa. 22:21; John 21:7; &c.). As the arms are completely covered by the caftan, the benish, and the abba, it was necessary in undertaking any exertion to “make bare the arm,” which is often done by drawing up the sleeves and tying them in a knot behind, or sometimes by means of cords passing round each shoulder and crossing behind, where they are tied. In running or making great exertion, or when in haste to do a thing, the long garments were pulled up under the girdle, which was then drawn tight (1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:1; Job 38:3; Jer. 1:17; Luke 12:35; 1 Peter 1:13.)

Strong Drink. — This was made from various substances, such as the sugar or honey of dates, or of the palm-tree. Such drinks were properly sweet cordials. Palm-syrup was also used as a sweetmeat, and, when diluted with water, as a drink; and was called Shechar, from whence we have sugar. Palm-wine was commonly drunk in its fresh and unfermented state. To get the juice they climbed to the top of the tree, where an incision was made in the bark, and an earthen vessel fastened below it all night to catch the liquor that oozed out. It is described as being sweet and pleasant to the taste, more luscious than honey, and of the consistence of syrups; but quickly grows tart and soapy, and in that state possesses intoxicating qualities. In the heat of the sun it rapidly becomes vinegar. Bishop Lowth thus renders Isa. 24:9: “With songs they shall no more drink wine (that is, of grapes); the palm-wine, shall be bitter to them that drink it.”

Intoxicating palm-wine was called Sakar, a name which in various forms was afterward applied to other kinds of intoxicating drinks made from fruit or grain.

Dru’silla (Acts 24:24) was much noted for her beauty, and was the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa the First. She was betrothed to Epiphanes, prince of Commagene, but married Azizas, king of Emesa. The procurator Felix persuaded her to forsake her husband in order to live with him. When Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, for his conscience told him he was living in sin. Yet we read that he “left Paul bound” long afterward, from which we gather that he never repented, although he had had many opportunities of communing with God’s faithful servant.

Answer to Bible Questions for April.

1. 2 Corinthians 5:20.

2. Colossians 1:12-14; Colossians 2:10.

3. Ezekiel 11:19; 18:31; 36:24-27; 37:14; 39:29. Nicodemus bad the Scriptures, which taught that, when Israel are restored to earthly blessing in their own land, they will be born of water and of the Spirit.

4. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Read John 17:20-26. The answer is in the 23rd verse.

5. The Offering of Christ (Heb. 10:14).

6. John 14:6.

7. By faith (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:14; Col. 1:20).

8. Deut. 8:2, 3.

Answer to Bible Enigma for April.

“The Good Shepherd.”

T abitha Acts 9:36-39.

H agar Genesis 21:14.

E zekiel Ezekiel 1:1.

G ehazi 2 Kings 5:25.

O reb Judges 7:25.

O badiah 1 Kings 18:5.

D aniel Daniel 6:23.

S amson Judges 15:15.

H ezekiah 2 Kings 20:5.

E lah 1 Samuel 17:2,51.

P eter Luke 22:61,62.

H oreb Exodus 3:1.

E sau Genesis 27:41.

R ahab Hebrews 11:31.

D avid 1 Samuel 19:1,2.

Bible Questions for May.

1. Give Scripture to show that Jesus Christ is as willing to bless little children who come to Him now as when He was on earth.

2. How near is the believer brought to God, and how is he made near?

3. What did God say He would look upon when He set it in the firmament?

4. For what things is the believer to thank God?

5. What Scripture shows God’s willingness to receive everyone, whether young or old?

6. As none can enter heaven who are not born of God, give Scripture to show who are, and by what means?

7. What did God give that was beautiful to the sight?

8. What three things occurred to Nebuchadnezzar which are similar to what takes place with every pardoned sinner?

The Burning House.

HAVE you ever seen a burning house? It is not a very unusual thing in London, where there are so many thousands of houses, and, if you live there, perhaps you may have seen such a sight. Well, one night, when all the family—father, mother, and little children—were fast asleep, their house caught fire. No one knew anything about it at first, and the flames, which began in the kitchen, crept silently on, all over one room, and then into another, burning through lath and plaster and closed doors, till it reached the passage, and then, with a bound and a roar—as if it were alive, and rejoicing in the mischief it could do—it leaped up the staircase, from landing to landing, with a loud rushing sound, like a torrent, while the wood split and crackled, the smoke rolled in great clouds higher and higher, and forked flames sprang upward, as though in haste to find the sleepers and destroy them. Roaring, hissing, rushing on, the fire soon reached the bedrooms; and, awakened by the noise and smoke, the father and mother ran to snatch up their little ones, only to find there was no escape! The staircase was all in a blaze, and glowing like the red embers on the hearth; the flames were pouring in through the bedroom doors, and all around big clouds of stifling smoke encircled them. The poor children screamed and clung to their parents, but they could not save them—if they were to be saved at all, it must be by someone who was not in the terrible peril they were in.

Well, all at once a voice was heard calling to them to come to him! A man was at the window! He had mounted up by a kind of ladder called “a fire escape,” had thrown open the casement, and was now ready to save them all. Don’t you think they must have been glad to hear his voice bidding them take courage, and let him save them from those dreadful flames? Yes, indeed; and, when he sprang in and laid hold of the father and mother, half-stupefied by smoke and fright, you may depend upon it they did not turn from him, bat gladly let him lead them to the ladder. And then, again, when he took up the little ones in his strong arms, and hurried with them, through smoke and flames, down the “escape,” and into the street, you can guess they didn’t say, “No, I won’t go,” and try to get away from their kind deliverer. Not they! they clung to him tightly as he clambered down the ladder, and when they found themselves once more beside their parents, and all saved from the burning house, you can well believe they felt very grateful to the kind man, and loved him for saving them and their dear father and mother.

Well, now, does not all this remind you of something else—something you have often read about, in one way, or another, in GOOD NEWS? Like this family in the burning house, you know the Bible tells us we were all lost, all in peril of “everlasting burnings.” But Jesus came unasked to save sinners. He was not in any peril as we were, for He was God’s eternal sinless Son; yet He came from heaven to earth, and went to that dreadful cross, and there “He who knew no sin was made sin for us.” And now that He has “laid down His life for us,” and risen again and gone back to heaven, you have often heard how He says, “Come unto me.” Have you heard His voice calling you to come to Him and be saved? Have you gone to Him, looked to Him, believed in Him? The little children in the burning house were only too glad to let the kind man save them; will you refuse to come to Jesus? I hope not. When He was here on earth He took little children into His arms more than once; He is ready now to take you up, and save you forever from a more fearful danger than even that of a burning house.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

Part 4: More About Joseph.

For Little Readers. — Genesis 40, 41.

BEFORE I speak to you about Joseph’s brothers seeing him again when he was “lord of all Egypt,” I must just tell you, in a few words, how it came about that he Was such a great man, when they only sold him into Egypt to be a slave. He came into Egypt to be bought by any one that thought him worth buying, and yet now he was such a great person that no one was above him, except King Pharaoh himself. It was God who brought about this wonderful change; and this was how He did it. First of all, He was with Joseph, as it says several times over, and He blessed Joseph in all that he did. And when He allowed some naughty people to put him in prison, even there it is said, “the Lord was with Joseph,” and He made the keeper of the prison to be very kind to him. You see, dear little reader, if we are trying to please the Lord in all we do, He will as soon come to be with us when we are in trouble as when everything goes right and we have no trouble; not that the Lord comes to us now in any way that we can see Him; but He gives us to feel that He loves us and cares for us, and that although we cannot see Him with our eyes, yet He is near enough for us to cling to Him and lean upon Him. And if we are thus cleaving to Him, feeling every day and every moment that we cannot do without Him, it is no matter how poor we may be, or in what distress, the Lord Himself will be with us. Joseph in Egypt was first a slave, and then a prisoner, and then a ruler; but the Lord took just as much care of him in the prison as in the palace. His brothers had hated, and envied, and sold him; his mistress had told lies about him, and his master had put him into a dungeon when he had done nothing wrong. While he was in there, he did a kindness to the king’s butler, and begged him to think of him when he should be out of prison and Joseph left in; but he forgot all about him for two whole years. But the Lord was not like any of these, and He did not forget Joseph; and, when the right time was come, He brought things round so that Joseph was fetched out—not by his master, who ought to have done it, nor by the butler, whom he asked to do it, but by the king himself, who would not only give him his liberty, but would make him “lord of all his house.”

God made Pharaoh the king to dream two very strange dreams that he thought meant something, but no one could tell him what they meant. He had a lot of men that pretended to be very wise, and to know things that nobody else knew; and the king had them all called, and he told them what he had dreamed. But not one of them could tell him what he wanted to know, and he was in great trouble about it. Well, just then his servant-man (or butler) remembered that once he had a dream, when he was in prison, and that Joseph had told him what it meant. So now he went over all this to Pharaoh, and, when he told him that every word Joseph had said had come true, Pharaoh thought he would be just the person to tell him what his two dreams meant; so he sent for him out of prison, and Joseph did not have to go back to it any more at all! He told Pharaoh all he wanted to know, and he soon became a great and rich man.

And now Joseph could understand how it was that God had allowed him to be put into that dark dungeon, and “his feet to be hurt with fetters” (Psa. 105:18). No doubt at the time he thought it very strange that the Lord should let him stop in there year after year. He would say, “It was very cruel of my brothers to treat me as they did; and then for my master to have me put in here when I had done all I could to serve him; and it is not very kind of the butler to forget me so. But for the Lord to let me be in this place for such a long time, how very strange it seems!” But the Lord knew all about it, and He was not unkind—He never is. And when Joseph was out of prison he might have said, “Well, if I had not been in there, I could not have told the butler the meaning of his dream, for it was in prison that he dreamed it; and then, if I had not, it might never have been known in Pharaoh’s house that I could understand dreams; so that it is a very good thing indeed that I was put into prison, although I did not deserve it.”

So what he could not at all make out at the time was very plain to him after; and so it always is with those who fear God and seek to do what pleases Him. He may let them get into trouble sometimes, but He brings them out again, and shows them that they are in some way better off than if they had not been in it.

I must now say good-bye to you, my dear little friends, for another month, and leave you to think about Joseph in prison, and how he came to be fetched out.

W. TY.

The Happy Little Girl.

(For the Little Ones.)

WOULD you like to know who was the happiest child I ever saw? Listen, and I will tell you.

The happiest child I ever saw was a little girl whom I met traveling in a railway carriage. We were both going on a journey to London, and we traveled a great many miles together. She was only eight years old, and she was quite blind. She had never been able to see at all. She had never seen the sun, and the stars, and the sky, and the grass, and the flowers, and the trees, and the birds, and all those pleasant things which you see every day of your lives; but still she was quite happy.

She was by herself, poor little thing. She had no friend nor relations to take care of her on her journeys, and be kind to her; but she was quite happy and content. She said, when she got into the carriage, “Tell me how many people there are in the carriage; I am quite blind, and can see nothing.” A gentleman asked her if she was not afraid. “No,” she said, “I am not frightened; I have traveled before, and I trust in God, and people are always very kind to me.”

But I soon found out the reason why she was so happy, and what do you think it was? She loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ loved her. She had sought Christ, and she had found Him. I began to talk to her about the Bible, and I soon saw she knew a great deal of it. She went to a school where the mistress used to read the Bible to her.

I asked her what part of the Bible she liked best. She told me she liked all the history of Jesus Christ, but the chapters she was most fond of were the last three chapters of Revelation. I had got a Bible with me, and I took it out and read these chapters to her as we went along.

When I had done, she began to talk about heaven. “Think,” she said, “how nice it will be to be there! There will be no more sorrow, nor crying, nor tears. And then Jesus Christ will be there, for it says, ‘The Lamb is the light thereof,’ and we shall always be there with Him. And, besides this, there shall be no night there; they will need no candle, nor light of the sun.”

Just think of this little blind girl taking pleasure in talking of Jesus Christ, and rejoicing in the account of heaven, where there shall be no sorrow nor night.

“What will it be to dwell above,

And with the Lord of glory reign?

Since the blest knowledge of His love

So brightens all this dreary plain.

No heart can think, no tongue can tell,

What joy ‘twill be with Christ to dwell.”

Robert Smith.

Written by a Martyr named Robert Smith during the time of his imprisonment in Newgate. He was burned at Uxbridge, on the 8th of August, 1555: —

“Content thyself with patience,

With Christ to bear the cross of pain,

Who can and will thee recompense

A thousand-fold with joys again.

Let nothing cause thy heart to quail; —

Launch out the boat—haul up the sail—

Put from the shore,

And be thou sure thou shalt attain

Unto that port that shall remain

For evermore.”

Christ's Love to His Own.

(Solomon’s Song of Solomon 2:14,15.)

How bless’d to hear the Saviour say

To one He calls His dove,

“Turn not from Me thy face away,

But look on Me above.

I love to see thy comely face,

To hear thy pleasant voice,

Dear object of My love and grace,

Thou darling of My choice.

“Hast thou upon thy heart a grief?

Oh! tell that grief to Me.;

Yield not to gloom and unbelief,

But trust My love to thee.

Let but thy face look full on Mine,

‘Twill brighten as the day,

And let Me hear that voice of thine,

And what thou wouldest say.”

O Lord, I freely own Thy love,

Which unto death was tried,

All other love so far above,

And true, whate’er betide;

But, oh! these heart-consuming cares

Are worms to Love’s fair fruit,

And, fox-like, ent’ring unawares,

Destroy it at the root.

Upon Thy face, whene’er I gaze,

My brow from gloom is clear’d,

And, while I utter pray’r and praise,

My heart is calm’d and cheer’d.

Then, keep me dwelling in Thy love,

So faithful, sweet, divine,

That Thou may’st often hear Thy dove

Speak to that heart of Thine.

History of a Jewish Boy.

MANY years ago a Jewish family lived in a small country town in Thuringia. In the same place dwelt a Christian who had several children; and among their playfellows was a little Jewish boy, whom they liked so well that they often took him to their home. In this way he was sometimes present at family worship. Though he was only ten years old, the reading in the Bible, the singing of hymns, and the prayer, made so deep an impression on his mind that one day he asked the Christian father to tell Mm more about the histories which were in the Bible. He was pleased with the request, and told the boy that, if he continued to behave well, he would let him know all about them. After a time the Christian became convinced that God had begun a good-work in the heart of this young Israelite. He gave many proofs of this; and among others was his desire to read the Scriptures for himself. His kind friend, therefore, did what he could to gratify this feeling; and, as the boy was quick, he soon made great progress. Now, he wanted a Bible of his own; but, alas I he met with opposition of which he little dreamed. One day, in the simplicity of his heart, he went to his father, and begged him to buy a German Bible for him, as he had made up his mind to be a Christian. The father was utterly amazed at the request, and flew into a great rage. Instead of a Bible, he gave his son a severe flogging, and ordered him to be confined to the house. The angry man also threatened that if he ever dared to play with the “Christian monsters” again, or entered into the house of the “heathen” (for so he called those who believed in Jesus Christ), he should be punished still more severely. Scarcely, however, was the boy free, when he ran to the house of his Christian friend, and told him what had happened. This man then sent him again to his father to ask his pity, but told him if he was punished to come to him, and that he would give him a Bible. This advice was followed, and the boy again asked his father to buy him a Bible. Upon this, the father was so furious that he flogged the poor boy more unmercifully than before, and ordered him to be shut up for many days in a dark chamber, without any food but bread and water, and but little even of that. Indeed, he wished his son to die rather than become an apostate from Judaism. In this state the little fellow remained until he promised that he would never ask his father again for a Bible; but he did not promise that he would never think of becoming a Christian. No sooner, therefore, was the door of his prison opened than he fled to the house of his friend, and, falling on his knees, begged that friend to pity him, and not leave him to the cruelty of his father. He confessed that he believed Jesus Christ to be the promised Messiah, and declared that no punishment should keep him from becoming His disciple. He knew, however, that his father would rather destroy him than consent to his being a Christian; and, therefore, he embraced the knees of his kind bene factor, and would not leave him until he had promised to take care of him, and not force him to go back to his father’s house.

The first thing the Christian did to help the poor boy was to go to the magistrates, and ask them to protect him. The magistrates heard what the boy had to say in the matter, and his answers to their questions surprised them. They were more like those of an old Christian than of a young Jew. His parents were also present, and they said what they could to change his mind; but neither their promises nor threatening’s could turn him from his purpose. The greater part of the Jews of the place, with their Rabbi, were also present and spoke to him; but the persuasion of the Rabbi had as little effect upon the boy as the punishment he had received from his father. As his parents were rich, they spared no money to draw him back, but all in vain. The magistrates agreed that the Christian might take him into his family; thus the young convert became an inmate of the house he loved. He was taught with the children of the family. After a time he became a preacher of the Lord Jesus Christ. God blessed his labors, not only to strangers, but to his younger brother; and many in the day of glory will be witnesses to the power with which he preached the Gospel.

Jesus Died for Me.

WHAT a dreadful thing is war! When we think of a battle-field, and the bloodshed that follows, we shudder at its terrible violence and cruelty; but the, dead bodies that cover the field, the wounded, and the dying are by no means all the sad consequences that follow the outbreak of a war. Widows and orphans brought to poverty and ruin, crippled men and broken hearts, are also some of its results, and long, long after the battles are all over, and peace proclaimed, the terrible effects remain. The little tale I have to tell you is a sorrowful proof of this, and a proof, too, of another thing, which is, that the God of all grace can, and does often make even the wrath of man to praise Him.

Some years ago a young English gentleman went over to America to take the professorship of a college in Charlestown. There he married, and for a time lived happily with his young wife, whom he tenderly loved. But presently the American war began, and Charlestown was threatened with attack, which so preyed upon the mind of the young wife that she became dangerously ill, and the doctors told her husband that the only hope of saving her life was to remove at once from the country. To do this he would have to give up his professorship and means of subsistence, but he loved his wife too well to hesitate; and so, as soon as possible, set sail for England. Yet all was in vain; disease had taken too great a hold upon her; and, after lingering for a little while, she died. Thus, through the war, he had lost all; his professorship was gone, his dear wife was dead, and his hopes in this world blighted; and with shattered health and a broken heart, he returned to the mother and sisters he had left but a few years bore with such bright prospects a despairing, hopeless man.

In his bitterness of soul he doubted God’s goodness; nay, he went even further, and openly denied it. His friends took him to a lodging by the seaside, but, full of despondency, he made no effort to get his health restored; he cared not to live, nor, though slowly dying, would he listen to any who sought to speak to him of Christ. A Christian lady lodging in the same house heard of him, and sent him a little present of new-laid eggs, flowers, vegetables, and cream to show her sympathy and, if possible, to open the way, so that she might speak with him about his soul. Then she lent him a book, and shortly afterward one of his sisters came to say that he wished to see her.

This was just what she wanted, and had prayed for; and yet it was with a trembling heart she went to see him, lest any words of hers or lack of wisdom should cause him to refuse all further intercourse.

She found him sitting in an arm-chair, wrapped in shawls, with his back to the window, from which the sun-lit sea was visible. He cared not to look on the smiling waste of waters, the white seagulls, the dancing spray, the ships in the distance, for his heart was broken. “The bitterness of death” was on him, death in every sense; the death of life and all its hopes and comforts, death too in “trespasses and sins.” No condition could be more thoroughly wretched; and, though he had sent for the lady, he took little interest in her visit. When, at last, she ventured to say a word about faith in the Son of God, such a look of strong dislike came over his face that she felt she must say no more. Yet, unwilling to leave him in such a state, she asked permission to pray for him. To this request no answer was given, but, kneeling down, she prayed, asking God, for Christ’s sake, to give the poor broken-hearted one power to believe in the Saviour of sinners. Then, rising from her knees, she bade him good-bye, and expressed a hope that she might be permitted to see him again. He made no reply, and she went away, hardly daring to hope; yet, remembering that she had asked of God, and that Jesus had said, “Ask, and ye SHALL receive, that your joy may be full,” she took courage, trusting in the Lord.

That very night she was awakened from sleep by the sound of loud groans, and learned that the poor invalid had burst a blood-vessel, and was suddenly filled with terror, lest he should die.

Thus God had already begun to answer the prayers of His child, for this young man, who but the day before cared neither for God nor man, for life or death, was all at once afraid of the judgment to come. God had already roused his conscience, and made him feel he was a sinner, and could not face death.

During the next day she learned that immediate danger was past, but did not ask to see him, fearing that any excitement might bring on another attack, but she continued in prayer for him, that the Lord would spare him yet a little longer, and bring him to a knowledge of Himself. On the following morning he sent for her, and almost as soon as she had entered his room, he exclaimed, “I think you are a hypocrite!” You may suppose the lady was greatly surprised, and perhaps hurt, at this undeserved remark, but, having much grace she bore with it, and gently asked why he thought so? It was, as he explained, because she had not come to see him on the day following his dangerous attack. He had begun to feel the all-importance of the Gospel, and, though he did not yet believe it, he thought if she did she ought to have come to him at once, lest he should have died in his sins. But when she told him why she had not come, and that she had been in prayer for him continually, his heart began to soften towards her, and from that hour she was allowed to come to and fro, and to speak freely with him about the Lord Jesus Christ. She soon found that Satan and his ministers, the Unitarians, had long filled his heart with wicked teachings about God’s eternal Son, and so persuaded him to read and meditate upon that most precious portion, the first chapter of the gospel of John. The result was that the Word was blest to him, and he believed in the Son of God. But then came conflict; doubts and fears and questionings afflicted him, and for a long time he suffered the painful consequences of listening in days past to the wicked suggestions of the enemy as to Jesus.

His friend did not forsake him, but patiently sought to lead him on in truth. But at last the time came for her to leave the seaside lodging and return to her home. At her last visit he said to her, “You may thank God that you were sent here to be His messenger of salvation to a poor lost sinner—lost in unbelief and misery; but still he owned to doubts and misgivings, the fruits of former teaching in his unconverted days. Having commended him to God in earnest prayer, she went into another room to bid farewell to his mother, when one of his sisters came to say that her brother was weeping, and to beg her to see him once more before leaving, and to try to comfort him. Looking in at his open door, this Christian lady said, cheerfully, “This is my last little lesson for you. Will you learn it by heart? —

“I do believe, I will believe,

That Jesus died for me,

That on the cross He shed His blood,

From sin to set me free.’”

The dying professor looked up at her with a smile of gratitude, and then, closing his eyes, he clasped his hands in prayer, and so they parted to meet no more till the resurrection morning. Soon afterwards he sank into a state of unconsciousness, in which he continued for some hours, and then was heard to murmur, “Christ alone—my only trust is in Jesus.”

When his last moments were at hand, though unable to speak, he made his mother and sisters understand that he wished them to repeat the simple verse his friend had left with him when she went away—”

“I do believe, I will believe,

That Jesus died for me,” &c.

Turning from one to the other, he led each to repeat it in turn, and, as this was done, he laid his hand on his heart, or clasped his hands together, and gazed upwards, with beaming eyes, seeking in every way to express his joy and thankfulness as he listened again and again, till he sank once more into unconsciousness, and so passed away full of peace at last through faith in the precious blood of God’s dear Son.

Perfect Peace.

WHERE the dead lay thickest on one of the many battle-fields of New Zealand, a young officer lay dying. Wounded in the throat and mouth, he could utter no sound when, after the fight was over, the wounded were sought for and carried to the hospital, but prostrate among the dead he was left to perish. How solemn must have been his reflections as he lay there amid a heap of slain, some of whom his own hand had helped to send into eternity! The more solemn because, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (for such he was), he must have felt what a terrible contrast there was between the scenes of violence and bloodshed in which he had been taking part, and the Gospel of peace in which he believed. For hours he lay there, the living among the dead, and, but for the love of his wife, he would most likely have perished where he fell. He had been married only a few days, when he was ordered with his regiment to the war. His wife had followed from England, and had but just landed when she heard that her husband had been killed in battle. But she would not believe it. “I prayed and wept before God, night and day, that I might see my husband’s face once more in life,” she said, “and I know He would not have brought me here if He had not meant to grant me my heart’s desire.”

It was in vain they told her he was surely dead; that the field had been searched and the wounded all carried away. She resolved to face the revolting sights of that scene of carnage, in the full belief that God would not fail to answer her earnest and long-continued prayers. And so it proved; her dearly-loved husband was found still living, and tenderly borne to the nearest place of shelter. There for three days—priceless days to her faith and love—he lingered on, and she had the privilege, so precious to her heart, of watching over and tending his last moments and soothing his dying pillow. In answer to her last question, “Is it well with you now, my beloved?” he, though unable to speak, and when his dying hand could hardly movie, faintly traced with a pencil the words, “Peace, peace, perfect peace, deep as a river,” and then, with one last look on her whose faith in God and love for him had nerved her heart to tread that dreadful field of blood and slaughter, he gently sank to rest.

June, Dictionary of the Bible.

Dumah, (Gen. 25:14; Isa. 21:11), the name of a tribe of Ishmaelites and of a country in Arabia still called Duma the Stony, and the Syrian Duma situated on the borders of the Arabian and Syrian deserts and possessing a fortress. A town belonging to the tribe of Judah was also called Dumah (Josh. 15:52).

Dung in the East is used not only for manure, but for fuel where wood is scarce. Cow-dung dried in the sun is thus used in our own country.

Du’ra, the plain in which the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar was set up (Dan. 3:1). It was probably a part of the plain in which Babylon stood.

Eagle. — The Ring-tailed, the Imperial, and the Booted Eagle are found among the mountains of Syria, and the Sea Eagle visits its coasts. These last build in the cliffs of Phœnicia, and usually subsist on fish, but will also occasionally pursue the partridge, lizard, &c. The Sea Eagle, or Osprey, dislikes carrion, but the others are not so averse to it, as is often represented, and will, like the vulture, hover over the battle-field to prey upon the carcases of fallen men and horses, or wait around the dying camel or traveler in the desert, sometimes attacking them before life is quite gone. The eagle most common in Syria has a white spot on each shoulder. There are many allusions to the eagle in Scripture—its power, ferocity, swiftness, habit of training its young to take flight, &c. When moulting it is said to lose nearly all its feathers, and to become bald and helpless, after which its new plumage grows rapidly, and: its strength is renewed. This renewal of strength continues to the end, nor does it die of mere old age, but, after a length of life which is said to exceed a century, the hooked upper mandible grows round the lower, so as to hinder the bird from opening his beak, when he perishes only from starvation, not old age. It is the same with the falcon; and those who kept these birds for hawking in former days were accustomed to pare the beak when the hook became too lengthy, and thus pronged the lives of their favourites indefinitely (Deut. 28:49; 32:11; Ex. 19:4; 2 Sam. 1:23; Job 9:26; Psa. 103:5; Prov. 23:5; Isa. 31; Jer. 4:13; 49:16; Obad. 4; Mic. 1:16; Matt. 24:28).

Earing. — This is an old-fashioned English word which means plowing, from the Anglo-Saxon erian, to plough.

Earnest. — A pledge given as securing beforehand the fulfillment of a promise or engagement (2 Cor. 1:22; vs. 5; Eph. 1:13, 14).

Ear-rings. — These are supposed to have been round in shape, as nearly all the earrings on ancient sculptures are of that form, being either hoops of gold, sometimes set with precious stones, or round plates of gold or silver attached to a small ring in the ear. Their use among the Hebrews appears to have been confined to women, but among the Ishmaelites they were worn by men (Judg. 8:24). Certain kinds of earrings are in the East connected with idolatry and superstition, and this seems to have been the case anciently even in Jacob’s family (Gen. 35:4).

Earth. ―In our translation this word sometimes means the whole geographical earth, and at others the land of Israel only (James 5:17; Isa. 24:1; &c.); sometimes the inhabitants of the whole earth (Gen. 6:11; 11:1; &c.), or occasionally the heathen nations as distinguished from Israel. The context will generally guide the reader as to the sense in which it is employed. The same original word is often rendered “land” in our version (Gen. 1:9; 2:6; 4:11; 8:11; Ex. 9:15; Hos. 2:23; 1 Kings 17:14; Gen. 18:18; Deut. 32:13; Psa. 76:8; 82:8; &c).

Earthquake.―The first earthquake mentioned in Scripture is that which we read of in 1 Kings 19:11,12. Another is referred to as occurring in the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah (B.C. 811-759), and was of such a terrible character as to have become a kind of epoch, from which the Jews reckoned after events, as appears from Amos 1:1. This earthquake is not recorded in the historical books; but the awful nature of the calamity may be gathered from the fact that it is referred to by the inspired prophet in connection with what will take place at the coming of the Lord (Zech. 14:5).

Ebal and Gerizim.

A great earthquake is said by Josephus to have occurred about the year 3013.C., at the time of the battle of Actium, in which about 10,000 men perished by the fall of houses, and many cattle. Jerome also mentions an earthquake which destroyed Rabbath Moab about A.D. 315. In the middle ages these convulsions of the earth appear to have been frequent and very formidable. In 1834, and again two years afterward, severe shocks of earthquakes shook Jerusalem and its neighborhood, but no serious consequences appear to have followed. The greatest earthquake of all is yet to come (Psa. 18:7; Hab. 3:6; Nah. 1:5; Heb. 12:26).

E’bal and Gerizim. — These two mountains are situated in Samaria, and form opposite sides of a valley in which the town of Shechem stood, now called Nabulus. This valley is about three miles in length, but only some 200 yards wide, Ebal being on the right, and Gerizim on the left hand of the valley as one approaches Shechem from Jerusalem. Both these mountains, rising some 800 feet in height, are sterile and naked, excepting a few scattered olive-trees (Deut. 27:12, 13; Josh. 8:30-35).

Eben-Ezel (stone of departure). — What event this stone commemorated is not stated in Scripture, but the stone itself is merely mentioned (1 Sam. 20:19).

Eben-e’zer (stone of help). — This name was given by Samuel to a stone he set up between Mispeh and Shen to commemorate the deliverance which the Lord wrought for Israel when He thundered from heaven upon the Philistines in answer to Samuel’s prayer and burnt-offering (1 Sam. 7:7-12).

The Presence of the Lord.

(Psa. 139)

WHERE’ER I roam, on land or sea,

O Saviour, keep me near to Thee;

Disperse the clouds of doubt and gloom,

And grant me joy’s unfading bloom;

Oh! may the beams of Love Divine

So brightly shine within my soul

That I may live as wholly Thine,

And yield myself to Thy control.

As points the needle to the pole,

While round the bark the billows roll,

With quiv’ring, yet with steadfast, aim,

Confessing, thus, the Magnet’s claim;

So, Lord, to Thee, oh! may I turn!

To whom my life, my all, I owe,

And Thy great love within me burn,

And rule me, wheresoe’er I go.

No rival would I ever own,

But Thee within my heart enthrone,

Nor would I ever wish, or dare,

To let an idol harbor there.

At home, abroad, by night and day;

In grief and gladness, blight and bloom;

E’er bind me, Saviour, to Thy sway,

And for the tempter leave no room.

Bible Questions for June.

1. What did Job know that the reader must, otherwise he will die in his sins?

2. What kind of peace does God say those have who trust in Him?

3. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved: are the callers believers or unbelievers?

4. What five things did Paul tell Agrippa, all believers receive, and by what means?

5. God says His children do not commit sin: what reason is given to show they cannot?

6. If we say we have no sin, whom do we deceive?

7. Who are wise in their own conceits, and why are they?

8. What blessing will the groaning creation be privileged to have when the nations walk in the light of the New Jerusalem?

Bible Enigma for June.

ON what high mountain were seven altars made?

Who was for her son’s safety much afraid?

From ‘what town were th’ apostles forced to flee?

Whom did the Saviour ‘neath the fig-tree see?

Who to a king did tidings sad convey?

And who did once Goliath’s brother slay?

Whose valor was rewarded with a wife?

Who trembled when Paul preached a future life?

What king to Abram did his wife restore?

Who was a ready scribe in Moses’ law?

A king of Judah in his chariot slain?

A town where Jesus did some time remain?

Who walked with God, and knew not death nor pain?

Take these initials, and a name they form

Of Him who, speaking, hushed the angry storm,

And where He walked, in gentleness and might,

A peaceful radiance shed—the Lord of light.

Answers to Bible Questions for May.

1. Hebrews 11:8.

2. John 17:20—24; Ephesians 2:13.

3. Genesis 9:16.

4. Ephesians 5:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

5. John 6:37.

6. Galatians 3:26; 1 John 5:1.

7. Genesis 2:9.

8. Daniel 4:34. He lifted up his eyes to heaven, his understanding returned, and he praised the Most High.

The Cemetery.

IN a cemetery not far from my residence there are many objects of interest, and, among them, none is more striking than one particular piece of grassy ground, containing, perhaps, a hundred little hillocks or mounds, each of them being about a foot in height, a foot and a half in breadth, and about two feet in length. They are laid in five or six straight rows, and are very neatly and cleanly kept; and there is room left for many more. This piece of ground is the Babies’ Burying Place, and beneath each of these mounds lies the body of some loving mother’s departed darling. On many of the tiny graves are placed some simple memorials of the love of the friends of the little ones. Here, one sees a few flowers or a shell or two; and there, one of the child’s playthings, or some other trifling tribute of affection. And, not unfrequently, may be seen the bereaved mother, with, perhaps, some of her surviving children, paying a visit to the spot which has so much interest in their eyes, because of the little body which lies beneath it.

A few days ago, while passing along a street, I heard a young woman say to another, “If my dear little Bessie were living, she would be five years old next Sunday.” This remark told me that that poor woman had not forgotten her little girl, whom the Lord had been pleased to take. A mother’s love is not soon quenched. We are all indebted, more than we are aware of, to the love of our mother. How much she will do for us! How patiently and watchfully she will attend to us in our illness! What an interest she will take in all that concerns us! But let us not forget that it is God who has implanted this love in her bosom. He is the Giver of every good gift. That is a sweet word in the Book of Proverbs 1:8., “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.” And that word, in 23:22, is a very solemn one, and may we all give heed to it, “Despise not thy mother when she is old.” How becomingly “Solomon, in all his glory,” behaved to his mother. “Bathsheba went unto king Solon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand” (1 Kings 2:19). But above all, how blessedly did Jesus behave to Joseph and His mother when He was a child, being, though He was Lord of all, “subject unto them.” And in the midst of all His agony on the cross, see how He loved and thought of her: — “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto “his own home” (John 19:25, &c.).

Now, as regards babies who die, they certainly go to Jesus, because He hath “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” And when He.is speaking about “little ones,” and their angels always beholding the face of His Father in heaven, He says, “The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost” (Matt. 18). This is a great Comfort to those who have to part with their infants, and sweetens the bitter cup to the sorrowing parents. But Jesus came to seek, as well as to save (Luke 19:10); and of you and me, dear reader, it may truly be said that “we, like sheep, have gone astray.” But Jesus, as the Shepherd, seeks the lost sheep till He finds it, and then brings it home on His shoulders, rejoicing. Have you been found of Him, through believing on His precious name, and trusting in His precious blood? If you have, then you have everlasting life; as He says in John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” The life of the believer is in Christ; yea, it is Christ Himself, as it is written, “Your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our, Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (Coloss. 3). But, if you have not believed on Him, then you have not this eternal life, but you are in your sins. You may die at any moment; and then, after death, there is the judgment; and that judgment is everlasting separation from the presence of God, where there is “fullness of joy,” and from His right hand, where there are “pleasures for evermore.”

When I was a boy I used to spend most of my holidays with my grandfather and grandmother in the country; and I well remember what a pleasant change it was from the confinement of town and the application at school, to ramble about in the green fields and shady lanes, and to have a part in all the novelty of life in a farm-house. In those days there were not more than one or two small railways in the kingdom, and but few steam-boats, so that we had to travel either by coach or by sailing-vessel; and sometimes I traveled by one, and sometimes by the other. On one occasion, when I was a passenger in a sailing-vessel, we were two days making a short voyage, and I, of course, had to sleep in one of the little berths in the cabin. I was then about nine years old; and one night, when I was lying in my berth by myself, and could hear the water passing close to my head, the thought struck me that there was but a plank between me and eternity. This thought made me feel very uncomfortable; not so much that I was afraid that I should be drowned, but I was afraid of death. My conscience told me that I was not fit for the presence of God. I thought of the many naughty things which I had done, and I promised myself that I would do better for the future. But you know, dear reader, that this was not the right way to get clear of my sins. I did not then know Jesus as my Saviour, nor did I understand the wondrous work which He had accomplished upon the cross when He “suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” Would you be afraid to die now, just as you are? Yes, you would, unless you know that your sins are all washed away in the precious blood of Christ. But, if they are thus washed away, you are “clean every whit” in the sight of God, and, having Christ for your righteousness, you need have no fear of meeting God, because He sees you in Christ, and not only so, but, “as He is, so are we in this world.”

Sometime after this I was brought to know Jesus, not only as the Saviour of the world, but as my Lord and Saviour. I was led to trust in Him, and to know that I had eternal life in Him who had died and rose again. I was then not afraid to die, for dying to the believer is falling asleep in Jesus. I remember that one of my first expressions of thankfulness to God then was, that I was no longer afraid, when I went to bed at night, lest I should die before the morning, because I knew that I had forgiveness of sins, and so I could go to rest without fear. I now travel daily by railway, and, when the train is rattling along through tunnels and crossing the intricate network of the numerous points, I often quietly bless God that He has prepared me for the worst; for supposing that a terrible accident were to happen, and I should be killed, I know that I should “depart to be with Christ.” At the same time I pray to Him to keep me from harm and danger, and thank Him too for His long-continued mercy to me in preserving me hitherto.

A short time ago a gentleman with whom I was slightly acquainted came into the room where I was. He was a fine healthy-looking man in the prime of life. He did not come to see me, but I heard him speaking in a pleasant, lively manner to another person. When I went into the same room on the next morning, the first thing that I heard was that that gentleman was dead. I could scarcely credit it. It appears that in the afternoon of the day on which I saw him he went to his home, felt a little unwell in the evening, and fell down and died in a few moments. How sudden! was it not? God knows whether he was a believer in Jesus; and we know that, if he was, he is now with Him, safe and happy forever; but, if he was not, then—but I would rather not finish the sentence, but leave the reader to do so himself from the Word of God; only praying that God may give a blessed application of His Word in the case of his own individual soul, so that he may be prepared at any moment “to depart and to be with Christ,” or to be caught up “to meet the Lord in the air.”

The Bastile.

About a hundred and sixty years ago a lady was in one of the dungeons of the Bastile, which was a castle built by Charles V., king of France, in 1369, and afterward used as a state prison. It was no new thing to this lady to be in prison, for she had spent many years of captivity in various parts of France. And what was her crime? She loved her Bible and her Saviour, and had laid herself at His feet, to live for Him, and, if need be, to die for Him. Her name was Madame Guyon. While in her lonely dungeon she composed a good many hymns; one very beautiful one is, “A little bird I am.” She was not allowed paper or pen; but she committed her hymns to memory, and often sang them over to herself, and when at last she was released from prism she wrote them down on paper—

“A little bird I am,

Shut from the fields of air;

And in my cage I sit and sing

To Him who placed me there;

Well pleased a prisoner to be

Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

Naught have I else to do,

I sing the whole day long;

And He whom most I love to please

Doth listen to my song.

He caught and bound my wandering wing,

But still He bends to hear me sing.

Thou hast an ear to hear,

A heart to love and bless;

And, though my notes were e’er so rude,

Thou wouldst not hear the less;

Because Thou knowest as they fall

That love, sweet love, inspires them all.

My cage confines me round,

Abroad I cannot fly;

But, though my wing is closely bound,

My heart’s at liberty;

My prison walls cannot control

The flight, the freedom, of the soul.

Oh! it is good to soar

These bolts and bars above,

To Him whose purpose I adore,

Whose providence I love;

And in Thy mighty will to find

The joy, the freedom, of the mind.

True Courage.

A SCRIPTURE story of three really brave men. The bravest and most courageous are those who know and fear God. There are many persons who do not fear Him, who think it a disgrace, and not an Honor, to be true Christians and followers of Jesus. They would rather be thought to serve the world than to serve God. Some are ashamed, some are afraid, to confess they are His, though it says, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Peter was ashamed and afraid when he denied Jesus three times in the hail on that sorrowful night when the Saviour was judged at Jerusalem; and there are many Peters in the present day I fear. To such as these Christ says, “Fear not” (Matt. 10:28). I now want to take you in thought to a beautiful city which stood many, many years ago in the country of Chaldea, on the continent of Asia. If you look on the map of that quarter of the world, you will see it marked there as Babylon, and the scene of this Scripture narrative is Babylon, called in old times, “The Golden City,” “The Glory of Kingdoms.” It was sixty miles in circumference, and in the form of a square, crossed by twenty-five principal streets. The walls were seventy-five feet high, and thirty-two broad, entered by one hundred gates, formed of solid brass. Between every two gates were watch-towers, ten feet higher than those high walls, and many a wonderful building, full of the magnificent riches of the East, might be seen within those gates. There in the clear air rose the temple of Belus, or Jupiter, a heathen temple, where God was not worshipped, and most likely built on the very spot where once the tower of Babel stood. A river ran through the city; a great river, the ancient Euphrates. Beautiful it was as it flowed along by the side of lovely gardens—those hanging gardens of which we read in the Bible. These were the king’s gardens, and made, no doubt, by Nebuchadnezzar (whose wife came from the wooded country of Media), to remind his queen of the home of her childhood’s days.

A noble place it was, and more beautiful than any of the gardens on the river’s bank were those which he planted. They were raised on terraces supported by walls or piers eleven feet asunder, one above another, until they reached the height of the city walls. Into this city one day, in old times, even six hundred years before Jesus came to seek and save them that were lost (Matt. 18:10, 11), a band of prisoners was brought, taken in the wars between a king of Judah, called Jehoiachin, and the same Nebuchadnezzar whom I have mentioned. Among them were four Jewish lads, and you may imagine how sad their hearts must have been as they entered one of those brass gates and saw the temple of Belus, where their God and their fathers’ God was not worshipped; and, grand as the sights were in that “golden city,” they thought sorrowfully of their beloved Jerusalem, left so far behind—Jerusalem, where the temple of God yet stood, although, alas! robbed of many of the sacred vessels of gold and silver, brought hither as so many trophies of victory, or because of their value as precious metals. Perhaps the soldiers who bore the captive youths to Babylon asked them to sing one of the songs of their native land. Ah! well can we understand how Daniel or one of his companions would then reply in the words of that beautiful Psalm: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered. Zion. We hanged our harps on the willows. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’’

But, mark, although these lads had left Jerusalem, they had not left God; and, perhaps, never in the sacred services of the great temple there had they felt Him so near and so precious as then, for God is ever present. Those who trust in Jesus may always draw near to God; and they had for their consolation the promise of the Lord that He would not forsake His own (Josh. 1:5.; Deut. 31:6-8). Their work was soon appointed them. They were too good to be treated like common captives, and therefore were intended to stand in the presence of the king himself. But for three years they must be trained for that Honor, they must eat of the meat of the king’s table, drink of his wine, and be maintained entirely by him; and, moreover, wise as they were, they must have further instruction in all the wisdom of the people of the country, and must learn their language and knowledge. Their very names must be changed also; for the name of Daniel, which in Hebrew means “God is my Judge,” the king gave the youth the name of Belteshazzar, and to his companions those of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. The meat and the wine from the king’s table at Babylon were not welcome to the lads. The law of the Jews was very strict in its rules as to the food which the people should eat, and, although now away from the priests and rulers of the people, they knew their God was with them, and they refused the Babylonish dainties; and the plain food and pure water which the captives chose agreed with them better than the rich dishes, for they were fatter and fairer than any in the court. So, in the fear of God, the young Jews grew and prospered in the court of the idolatrous king until the time came for them to be conducted to the royal presence. And, when they stood before the king with other wise men who had been trained with them, they were pronounced better and wiser than all the astrologers or magicians in Babylon, and were taken into great favor. Daniel was able to tell the meaning of some dreams which puzzled the king when the magicians failed; and that which was dearer to Daniel’s heart than the gifts of the monarch—the companions of his exile—also were honored daily, and all went well with the Jewish youths for a time.

One day, however, news was brought into the city that, on the plains of Dura, near Babylon, a great image was about to be set up, and preparations were making for the dedication of this image, no doubt to the idol god of Nebuchadnezzar, named Bel or Bolus. Governors and captains, judges, treasurers and counselors, rulers of princes, were to be gathered together to see this monstrous statue. It was threescore cubits in height and six in breadth; the scene was to be a very brilliant one. The day came at last, and crowds were gathered on the plains not far from the city of Babylon. A herald then cried aloud that, as soon as the music began, everyone was to fall down and worship this image, and that whoever did not worship and fall down was to be cast into a fiery furnace, to be burned alive. Do you think that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, those friends of Daniel, would worship an idol? Not they. The festival was over, and the crowd went to their homes in the city, but we do not read that Daniel was there that day—perhaps he was excused from attending on account of his high office—but his three friends were present, and the eyes of their enemies in Babylon had marked that, when the rest bowed down, the knees of the young Jews bent not. Those who saw these faithful ones standing up when the vast multitude knelt went to the king with the news, and told him that these captives, whom he had so honored and favored, would not obey his commands. The king was furious at this, for he was a tyrant—a proud, bad man—who believed not in the true God, but worshipped idols. So at once he sent, full of anger, for the three Jews, and asked them if it were true what he heard, and, if so, did they know the consequences?

They stood calmly before him—they knew that the God whom they served would not forsake them. They saw a proud king, indeed, on his throne, but it were better to suffer his wrath than to deny the King of kings. So they told him the truth, and they said that, even were he to fulfill his threat, the God they served could deliver them out of the furnace, and out of the king’s hand, but, be that as it might, they would not worship the image nor serve the gods of Babylon.

This answer provoked the king yet more, and with vehement anger he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more fiercely, to bind the Jews closely, and to throw them into it.

It was, indeed, a fierce furnace, for the strong men employed to bind them, from its very heat, were burned, but the three faithful ones were not. When, from a short distance, the king looked into the furnace, what did he see but these very Jews walking as calmly and unhurt in the flames as in a green meadow in summer time! That was not all; a fourth was there. It was like an angel form which the proud king saw, but not a created angel; it was the Son of God. God will never forsake those who put their trust in Him. He may sometimes allow His people to suffer, but will give grace to bear it. The king was touched by this—who could see God’s angel by those men without feeling awe-struck? — and he went to the mouth of the furnace, and calling them by their names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, bade them come forth, and the three came forth at once—unhurt, not a hair singed, not any of their clothes even scorched, nor smell of fire upon them. The king, convinced that the God of the Jews must be the true God, ordered that no one hereafter should speak amiss of Him.

This story shows that those who fear God have the special care and love of God, whether in joy or sorrow. Children, you may never be called to such trials as those which the young Jews endured, but you may still be called to show your faithfulness to God before those who fear Him not. Remember the courage of the three captives. There were the furnace and the angry king, and there was God’s command, “Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, nor in the earth beneath; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them.” The question was, Are we to obey God or man? They did not hesitate a moment, and they refused to obey the king.

Though the reader may be one that loves Jesus, and can call God his heavenly Father (John 8:42), yet he may be tempted to commit some sin, tempted to tell a lie, or to indulge in some sinful pleasure, or he may be ashamed of seeming too good, when among those who do not love or fear God. Now, which will he do? Will he yield to the fear of an angry word, a cross, ill-natured push or blow, or, more bitter still, a laugh; or will he say courageously that he fears God, but does not fear man? Now, if you would stand fast in the hour of temptation, remember you must live as the young Jews lived—near to God; you must watch as well as pray that temptations do not overtake you; and He who preserved them will preserve you. God’s Word says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

A Lesson from a Dog.

“JACK! Jack! here, sir! hie on!” cried Charlie, flinging his stick far into the river. Jack didn’t want to go; it wasn’t pleasant swimming in among the green rushes and leaves, that would flap against his nose and eyes, and get in the way of his feet: so he looked at the stick and then at his master, and sat down wagging his tail, as much as to say, “You are a very nice little boy; but there was no need of your throwing the stick in the water, and I don’t think I’ll oblige you by going after it.”

But Charlie was determined. He found another switch, and, by scolding and whipping, forced Jack into the water, and made him fetch the stick. He dropped it on the bank, however, instead of bringing it to his master; so he had to go over the performance again and again until he learned that, when Charlie told him to go for the stick, he was to obey at once. Charlie was satisfied at length, and, with Jack at his heels, went home to tell his mother about the afternoon’s work. He seemed quite proud of it. “It was pretty hard work, mother,” he said; “Jack wouldn’t mind at all, until I made him; but now he knows that he has to do it, and there will be no more trouble with him, you’ll see.”

“What right have you to expect him to mind you?” asked his mother quietly.

“Right, mother? Why, he is my dog! Uncle John gave him to me; and I do everything for him. Didn’t I make his kennel my own self, and put nice straw into it? And don’t I feed him every day? And I’m always kind to him. I call him nice old Jack,’ and pat him, and let him lay his head on my knee. Indeed, I think I’ve the best right in the world to have him mind me?”

His mother was cutting out a garment for her son. She did not look up when Charlie had finished, but, going on steadily with her work, she said slowly, “I have a little boy. He is my own. He was given to me by my heavenly Father. I do everything for him. I mend his clothes, and prepare the food he eats. I teach him his lessons, and nurse him tenderly when he is sick. Many a night have I sat up to watch by his side when he was ill; and daily I pray to God for every blessing upon him. I love him. I call him ‘my dear little son.’ He sits on my knee, and he goes to sleep with his head on my arm. I think I have the ‘best right in the world’ to expect this little boy to obey me; and yet he does not unless I make him, as I would have to make a dog.”

“Oh mother,” cried Charlie, tears starting to his eyes, “I know it was wrong to disobey you, but I never thought before how mean it was. Indeed I do love you; and I’ll try—I really will try—to mind you as well as Jack minds me.”

“Dear Charlie, there is a great difference between you and Jack. You have a soul. You know what is right, because you have been taught from the Word of God; and you know, too, that the devil and your wicked heart will always be persuading you to do wrong. That is a trouble which Jack cannot have. But neither has he the comfort you have; for you can pray to the Lord Jesus Christ for help, and He will teach you to turn away from the wicked whispers of Satan, and to love and obey Himself alone. When you learn to do this, you will not find it difficult to be obedient to me; for it will be just the same as obeying God, who has said, Honor thy father and mother; and where we truly love, it is easy to obey.”

The Wanted Text.

A LADY near Coleraine related the following incident: — Driving along one day in-a pony carriage with her children, she came to a lonely cottage, where a brood of chickens attracted the eye of one of the little boys, and he wished his mamma to go in and buy them for him. The lady consented, and was entering the dwelling, when a girl passed out with a Bible in her hand, as if afraid that the stranger might not have sympathy with her. The girl was weeping; and, as the lady observed her tears, she kindly asked her to come in with her, for she should so like to hear her read a little from that book. They entered and sat down; and, after the girl had composed herself a little, the visitor inquired what was vexing her.

“Oh! madam,” said the girl, her grief bursting out afresh, “I was at a meeting in a cottage last night, and they told me that God so loved the world that He gave His beloved Son for us; and they told me,” she added, very simply, “that that was written somewhere in the Bible, and I have been looking for it ever since, but cannot find it.”

The lady took the Bible and read John 3:16, to the great delight of the poor girl; and, as she went on to speak for a few moments of Jesus and His dying love, the girl and her mother seemed to open their hearts to Him like a flower before the rising sun.

As she was about to leave, the mother said, “Oh, ma’am, you must have the chicken for nothing, for the good words you have spoken to us.”

“Nay,” replied the stranger, “the Gospel is free without money and without price.’ Jesus says, ‘Freely ye have received, freely give.’”And it was only after a hard struggle that she could persuade the poor woman to accept the money.

Mignonette.

A CHERISH’D flower

Is Mignonette. Its fragrance sweet

Is its chief dower,

Though it has graces, chaste and neat,

Which it may show without conceit.

No gorgeous hues

Its meek and modest form displays;

Yet well it woos

Th’ observant friend to give it praise

As he its comely charms surveys.

Ah! should not I

Yield fragrance, more than scented flower?

And, blest on high,

Show forth the sweet, constraining power

Of love—Christ’s love—each day, each hour?

If ‘tis not so,

What live I for? What am I worth?

Oh! may I show

That I’m a plant of heav’nly birth,

And yield a scent that’s not of earth.

July, Dictionary of the Bible.

Ebony is mentioned only in Ezekiel 27:15. It was formerly obtained from Ethiopia and India. In the present day three sorts are used; one froth the Mauritius, one from the East Indies, and the third (the African) from the Cape of Good Hope. It is the wood of a tree called by botanists Dyos-pyros Ebenum.

E’ber. — One that passes, a passage, or anger. Son of Shelah, and great-grandson of Shem (Gen. 10:21). A priest in the days of Joiakim (Neh. 12:20).

Ebiasaph. — A father that gathers together (1 Chron. 6:23).

E’bronah. — Numbers 33:34.

Ecclesiastes, or the book of Koheleth, i.e., Solon, king of Israel.

E’dar. — Tower of the flock (Gen. 35:21; Mic. 4:8, see margin).

E’den. — Delight. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed; and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted and came into four heads.” (Gen. 2:10).

E’den. — A place mentioned 2 Kings 19:12; Isa. 37:2; Ezekiel 27:23.

E’den. — The house of Eden (Amos 1:5).

E’der. — A son of Mushi (1 Chron. 23:23; 24:30).

E’der. — A city of Judah towards the coast of Edom.

E’dom—Redness. The dwelling-place of Esau and his descendants, in width from west to east about 20 miles, and extending from north to south about 100 miles from the border of Moab (Psa. 108:9).

E’domites. — Descendants of Esau. God told His people Israel that they should not abhor an Edomite, because he was their brother (Deut. 23:7).

E’drei. — The death of the wicked. A city of Og, the king of Bashan (Deut. 3:1,10; Josh. 12:4). This city was given by Moses to the half tribe of’ Manasseh.

E’glah. — Heifer, chariot, round. David’s wife (2 Sam. 3:5; 1 Chron. 3:3).

E’glaim. — Drops of the sea (Isa. 15:8). See ENEGLAIM, Ezekiel 47:10. The east of the Dead Sea. When Israel is restored, the holy river that will flow from the temple (which will be built in the midst of the priests’ portion, north of Jerusalem) will heal the waters of the Dead Sea, and cause it to produce fish of many kinds; then will fishermen spread their nets from Engedi even unto Eneglaim (Ezek. 47:1-16).

E’glon. — One of the uttermost cities of Judah (Josh. 15:39).

E’glon. — A king of Moab (Judg. 3:12).

E’gypt (in Hebrew, Mizraim, Gen. 10:6). — That binds or straitens, or that troubles or oppresses. The land of Israel’s bondage, according to the word of the Lord to Abram, Genesis 15:13. It has been the scene of many wonderful events in connection with the children of Israel; and, when they are gathered to their own land, the people of Egypt also shall be brought to know and serve the Lord, and be called His people. “In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and He shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and He shall deliver them. And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it. And the Lord shall smite Egypt; He shall smite and heal it; and they shall return even to the Lord, and He shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them. In that day shall there be a highway Lout of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land. Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance” (Isa. 19:18-25).

Egyptians. ―Natives and inhabitants of Egypt (Ex. 14:23).

E’hi. ―A son of Benjamin (Gen. 46:21).

E’hud. — He that praises. A deliverer of the children of Israel (who was left-handed). He killed Eglon, king of Moab (Jud. 3:12-26; 4, 1. ; 1 Chron. 7:10).

E’hud (1 Chron. 8:6).

E’ker. ―Son of Ram (1 Chron. 2:27).

E’kron. — Barrenness, torn away. A city of the Philistines. The men of Ashdod sent the ark of God to Gath, saying, “The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for His hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god; “and when the men of Gath were afflicted they sent the ark to Ekron; then” the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people” (or me and my people, see margin, 1 Samuel 5:1-12).

Ekronites. ―The people of Ekron.

E’lbethel. ―The place where God appeared to Jacob when he fled from the face of his brother (Gen. 35:7). B.

Answer to Enigma for June.

“Prince of Peace” — Isaiah 9:6.

P isgah Numbers 23:14.

R ebekah Genesis 27:41-46.

I conium Acts 14:1-6.

N athanael John 1:48.

C ushi 2 Samuel 18:31, 32.

E lhanan 2 Samuel 21:19.

O thniel Judges 1:12,13.

F elix Acts 24:24.

Pharaoh Gen. 12:18-20.

E zra Ezra 7:6.

A haziab 2 Kings 9:27.

C apernaum Matthew 4:13.

E noch Genesis 5:24.

Answers to Bible Questions for June.

1. Job 19:25; John 8:24; 1 John 5:10-13.

2. “Perfect peace” (Isa. 26:3).

3. “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?” (Rom. 10:14.)

4. “To open their eyes.” Turned “from darkness to light.” Turned “from the power of Satan unto God.” They “receive forgiveness of sins.” “An inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus” (Acts 26:18).

5. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).

6. We deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8).

7. Those are wise in their own conceits who do not believe that Israel will be restored to their own land when “the fullness of the Gentiles be come in,” by the coming of the Deliverer to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and to take away their sins (Isa. 59:20; Matt. 23:39; Zach. 12:9, 10).

8. The creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God; that is the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem will shine upon this creation (Rom. 8:18-23).

Bible Questions for July.

1. UNTO what has every believer repented?

2. Who does God say are made free from the wrath that is to come on all that love not the Lord Jesus Christ?

3. What is the state of those whom Jesus tells to come to Him to find rest?

4. What things are hid from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes?

5. What might the unconverted do if the Ethiopian could change his skin or the leopard his spots?

6. What does Jesus say believers must do to be disciples?

7. What must we know before we can be disciples of Christ?

8. What does God say He will do to those who have turned a deaf ear to the words of His mercy and love?

Bible Enigma for July.

A CHILD who, taught to know in early youth

The Scriptures, loved and served the God of truth.

A royal child, whose kinsman shin and dead,

He out of Edom quick to Egypt fled.

A Jewish maid who, called a queen to be,

Still kept the law which ruled her infancy.

The first-born child of man, first mother’s joy.

Alas! that sin should innocence destroy.

A captive youth who braved unhurt the flame,

By God delivered: tell his Jewish name.

A lad whose mother laid him down to die,

When help was sent from God, who heard his cry.

A brother, o’er whose grave two sisters wept,

Till Jesus woke him, though in death he slept.

The youngest son of Jesse: he who threw

A stone so skillfully, a man it slew.

A youthful king who ne’er from duty swerved,

But served the Lord as never other served.

A brother who despised the first-born’s right,

And yielded all to present appetite.

A child, to God by grateful mother lent,

Whose lengthened life was in God’s service spent.

A king who early sought and found the Lord,

But, disobeying, died of men abhorred.

A child whose birth by angel was foretold,

He grew in dreaded strength a champion bold.

Take the first letters, and the name appears

Of One who grew in wisdom as in years.

In childhood subject to His parents, He

A pattern was of sweet humility.

To manhood grown, His choice and pleasure still

His heavenly Father’s purpose to fulfill.

The little children heard His words of love;

And now, ascended to His throne above,

He still looks down to bless each little one

Who goes in faith to God, through Christ the Son.

ANSWER No. 1 to Bible Questions for May, should have been Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Joseph Forgotten.

(Gen. 40:14,15, 23.)

I HAVE been thinking, dear children, how very unkind it was of that butler, when he was fetched out of prison, to forget all about poor dear Joseph, who was left in. And he had begged him not to forget him, too. Just read his words again: “But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.” “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him!” How very different to the way the dear Saviour treated the man who was hanging by His side on the cross, and who asked Him to remember him! Did He forget him? Joseph said, “Think of me;” the poor thief said, “Remember me;” and it was as if Jesus answered him, “Remember you, when it shall be well with Me? Why, I am going to Parise today, and you shall go, too, and be with Me there; “and so he was. How unkind of Pharaoh’s butler to forget Joseph! How very kind of Jesus to think of the thief, and take him to be with Himself! Would you not like to live forever with such a Saviour?

And, the more we think of it, the more wonderful it seems, for what brought Joseph into prison? Hear what he says, “Indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.” And it was quite true. But what about the thief on the cross; had he “done nothing?” Hear what he says: “We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds!” (Luke 23:41.) So the man that had no business in prison at all was left in and forgotten; while the man who was hung on a cross, because it was the only right place for him, was taken to Paradise, to be with the Lord of glory the very same day.

And then, again, Joseph in prison had been very kind to the butler, and it was a great shame that he should forget all about him when he was out himself; but had the dying thief been very kind to Jesus? No, indeed, for we find that he had been mocking Him only a short time before (Mark 15:32), and nothing had he done that could be a reason why Jesus should think of him. Yet Joseph in prison, who had been such a good friend to the butler, was clean forgotten; and the thief, who had been no friend at all to Jesus, has found a home ever since with the Saviour he despised. How much Jesus is better than the ungrateful butler! Has this Lord Jesus got your heart, dear little one? Is He the One you love, and long to see, and try to please? Who else is there like Him? Who so kind to his enemies, or who so good to his friends?

And let me say another thing to you. When He was going away, He told His disciples how He desired that they should remember Him (1 Cor. 11:24, 25). He does not forget us, and He wants us not to forget Him. The butler had some reason why he ought to have remembered Joseph; but what has not Jesus done for us that should keep us from forgetting Him? Joseph saw the butler one morning looking very sad, because he had dreamed a dream, and he did not know what it meant. Joseph told him what it meant, and made him very glad. But the Lord Jesus saw us in our sins, and came from heaven to die for those sins, bearing them “in His own body on the tree,” that we might be saved from them, and made glad forever.

Lord, let us ne’er forget

Thy rich, Thy precious love;

Our theme of joy and wonder here,

Our endless song above.

Oh, let Thy love constrain

Our souls to cleave to Thee,

And ever in our hearts remain

That word, “Remember Me.”

W. TY.

Do All Good Children Die Early?

A GREAT many little books, says a writer, about good children, have been printed in our times. It is very natural that children should like to read the history of children. Ent there is one thing about many of these books which, perhaps, makes young readers somewhat sad. A large proportion of the published histories of “very good children” are the histories of children who have died young. Some readers, perhaps, may think that those who love Jesus early will soon die; on that account they rather dislike to read the biography of one early converted and eminently Christ-like. They begin to think, ere they get half through the little volume, that the model child, whose words and actions it records, will soon grow sick and die, and be laid in the dark cold grave.

Now, the young reader loves life, and would rather run about above the ground than be laid beneath it in early youth. There is no sin in such desires. God, who gave us life, expects us to love it, and is not displeased when we do. These eyes were given to us that we might look upon the light, and all the beauties in earth, and air, and sea, which the light reveals. The appetite of hunger was put within us, and the earth commanded to bring forth its fruit, in order that we might eat and enjoy our daily bread. The thinking mind was given to us that we might understand the creation and worship the Creator in the land of the living. It is a great mistake to think that careless people are the people for living, and that good people have no business with anything but to die. Those who have been converted to Christ, forgiven, and renewed when young, are best fitted for living long.

“But still,” you say, “those very good boys and girls about whom we read in books nearly all died young.” And I can tell you the reason. It is not safe to make a book about anyone as long as he is living. There are many children today, who trust in Christ and walk in His holy ways, who live and enjoy life now, and will live to old age and be like the palm-tree—fresh and flourishing then. But we don’t print a book about them as long as they are here to read it. It would never do to publish to all the world the graces of a child while he was still in the world. In the first place, if he were truly good, it would greatly grieve him to read his own praise; and, in the next place, the praise would spoil him and strongly tend to make him self-righteous and vain-glorious.

You see, then, that we cannot and ought not to print the history of a converted child if he is alive, and that we can write the life only of those who have departed, and after they have departed. That is the reason why most of the good children of whom you read in books have died in childhood; but it is not the case that most of the children who give themselves to Christ early are taken away early. The reverse is the truth; most of them are preserved in life and allowed to grow to old age, and to be as salt in the earth. Christ, who redeems them, has need of some to be with Himself, and He calls one here and one there away to Himself in their spring-time; but the most of them are needed here in the body a long time. Christ leaves them in the world to be His witnesses, to enjoy His love, and to do His work.

The service of the devil shortens life, but the service of God lengthens it. Again, the service of the devil makes life sad while it lasts, and the service of God gladdens it. Many persons’ lives are made bitter while they last, and cut off early by their own wickedness. For example, what an uncounted multitude of men and women spend a wretched life and come to a violent death through drunkenness, and what an uncounted multitude of little children are murdered slowly but surely by the unkindness of drunken parents.

I observe that Jesus, when He was here among men, not only loved to get little healthy children in His arms and bless them, but that He went willingly with a grieving father to the house where his sick child lay, and that by His power He raised her up and lengthened her days. Jesus, when He was here, lengthened many people’s lives, but shortened the life of none. And His service now is like Himself: it makes our life happier and makes it longer too.

Ask those who are old Christians now, and most of them will tell you that they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ when they were young. They will tell you, further, that their only regret in the matter is, that they did not trust in Him earlier.

"Do it Heartily."

WHEN I was a child, I used to think that there were some verses meant for children and some for grown people. This was one which I thought was not meant for children. But, since I have grown older, I have decided that it is meant for every-believer, young or old; so I thought I would write something about it, hoping that some of the children who read may learn that they, too, however mall, may do something for the Lord, who has done so much for them.

Now, I am not going to tell you of any great things that you can do, but of what you call little things—things that you can do almost every day.

Suppose it is Monday morning, and you think you will have a good time for play before school, but your mother has something she wants you to do instead. At first you are tempted to refuse; but your mother reminds you that God has said, “Honor thy father and thy mother,” and you know that, when your mother was talking to you of the Saviour, you thought you would try to please Him. So you slowly obey, wishing all the time that you could play a little longer. Now, this, perhaps, you think, is obeying the verse; but you have forgotten the first part. That says, “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily.” Now, if you are wishing all the time to do something else, and complaining because you cannot have your own way, I am sure that it is not doing it heartily (Col. 3:23).

Going to Glory.

THOUGH we have trials by the way,

And clouds pass o’er us day by day,

And though we feel the plague of sin,

That lies without and lurks within,

Yet let us ne’er by grief be bow’d,

But lift the heart and sing aloud,

“We’re going soon to glory,

Yes, we’re going soon to glory.”

"If My Father Holds Me;" or, a Child's Faith.

IN the Highlands of Scotland there is a mountain gorge twenty feet in width and two hundred feet in depth. Its perpendicular walls are bare of vegetation save in their crevices, in which grow numerous wild flowers of rare beauty. Desirous of obtaining specimens of these mountain beauties, some scientific tourist once offered a Highland boy a handsome gift if he would consent to be lowered down the cliff by a rope, and would gather a little basketful of them. The boy looked wistfully at the money, for his parents were poor, but, when he gazed at the yawning chasm, he shuddered, shrank back, and declined. But filial love was strong within him, and, after another glance at the gift and at the terrible fissure, his heart grew strong, his eyes flashed, and he said, “I’ll go, if my father will hold the rope! “And then with unshrinking nerves, cheek unblanched, and heart firmly strong, he suffered his father to put the rope about him, lower him into the wild abyss, and to suspend him there while he filled his little basket with the coveted flowers. It was a daring deed, but his faith in the strength of his father’s hand gave him courage and power to perform it. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength” (Isa. 26:3, 4). “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me” (Psa. 23:4; 119:117).

Knowledge and Wisdom.

KNOWLEDGE is proud that he has learn’d so much;

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

1 Cor. 8:2.

Mementoes and Memorials.

A WELL-KEPT Cemetery is a pretty place. Its graveled walks, its graceful trees and shrubs, its ornamental flower-beds, its many monuments and affectionate epitaphs, together with its freedom from the noise and traffic of the highway, render it an agreeable place of resort to the thoughtful and seriously disposed. It is, however, notwithstanding all its pleasantness, but a vast “Sleeping Chamber,” as the word “Cemetery” literally means. Perhaps some of the youthful readers of the Goon NEWS will not object to accompany me, in thought, while I take a short ramble through the one to which I introduced them last month, as we may, with God’s blessing, find something both to interest and instruct us.

We will on our way look at some of the inscriptions on the tombstones; and I may say that I have seldom in any burial-ground which I have seen met with so many that are good. Let us commence with those relating to the very young. One pretty and simple stone is inscribed by the parents to the memory of their twin daughters, who both died a few days after their birth. What a sweet and simple history was theirs. They drew their breath in this world for a very short time, and then passed away to be with Christ forever. What a blessing that “His precious blood was shed, His body bruised for sin!” Another pleasing inscription is to a little one of the sweet name of Grace, her parents’ “dearly-loved child;” and in a small crescent at the head of the stone are the cheering words, “Until the day break.” On both of these stones are written the words in Isaiah 40:11: “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.” What a good and loving Shepherd Jesus is! Is He not? Another stone is to the memory of a little dear aged three months, and on this is written, “Is it well with the child? It is well.” In order that you may see where these words are taken from, and learn their proper meaning in their own place, will you kindly read the second Book of Kings, fourth chapter, from the 8th to the 37th verse? It will well repay an attentive perusal.

The following lines are on a baby boy six months old:—

“Blessed baby, laid to rest

Gently on thy Saviour’s breast,

Dweller in the realms of light,

Should we wish to stay thy flight,

And keep thee here?”

Much to the same effect is this verse on two other children:—

“It is God who has taken our children away

From sorrow, and sickness, and pain;

But why should we murmur, like those without hope?

Our loss is their infinite gain.”

The next relates to a little girl six months old: —

“‘I take this little lamb,’ said He,

‘And lay her on my breast;

Protection she shall find in me,

In me be ever blest.’”

Is not that which is written on an infant, that “of such is the kingdom of God,” perfectly and blessedly true? Read Mark 10:13-16. One little girl died of scarlet fever, and of her it is said by her bereaved parents: —

“Here lies our lovely bud,

Untimely blasted by the tempest’s power;

Yet she will bloom beyond life’s troubled flood,

A bright and glorious flower.”

It is a great sorrow to parents to part with their dear children whom they have so carefully reared, and for whom they have thought and cared so much. This Scripture, from Job 9:12, applied to the loss of a daughter, eight years of age, is a very natural expression under such circumstances: “Behold, He taketh away. Who can hinder Him? Who will say unto Him, What doest Thou? “The following lines, however, on a little dear, 2 1/2 years of age, with the lovely name of Florence Maud, sweetly express the true bowing of the heart under the hand of God: —

“Submission to the will of God,

Let each sad bosom feel;

The stroke is from a Father’s rod,

Who only wounds to heal.”

What a blessing it is to have believing parents, who bring us up in the fear of the Lord and in the knowledge of His Word! Not only are we the subjects of their constant care, but also of their prayers to a heavenly Father. The love of a mother for her child, even when that mother was about to leave this world, is sweetly expressed in these words, which are on one of the tombstones!

“I leave this world without a tear,

Save for the child I hold so dear;

To heal her sorrows, Lord, descend,

And to the friendless prove a Friend.

I leave her at Thy feet, O Lord,

Trusting in Thy eternal Word,

Rejoicing in the hope that’s given

Of meeting her I love in heaven.”

WE will now look at two or three of the memorials of some who, having passed the period of childhood, have been taken away in the bloom of youth or early manhood. There are few sights more affecting than that of a young man or woman passing away forever from all earthly charms and prospects to which, at that period of life, they so naturally cling. I have seen many such instances, and have not unfrequently shed the sympathetic tear for them; but, happily, my experience has been mostly among those who were leaving this world for a better, because they were trusting in Christ, and were, consequently, going to Him. And how blessed it has been to see the power that Christ and heavenly things have had in their souls, so as to eclipse all the glories and expectations which this passing scene could present to their earnest hearts and minds.

How appropriate to a young man leaving this world are the words, “His sun has gone down while it was yet day;” and, “We all do fade as a leaf.”

On another, who died after a few days’ illness, at the age of twenty-three, it is said, “He came up, and was cut down like a flower.” This is to the effect, though not in the exact words, of Job 14:2.

The perusal of such inscriptions on tombstones is doubtless in some cases made a blessing. When I was a youth I read in a quiet churchyard in the country this verse in Job, placed over the body of some person who had died young, and the reality of the uncertainty of life struck me with much seriousness, which, I believe, was never entirely obliterated from my mind, though it was not till some time after that I was brought as a sinner to look to the Lamb of God and to find eternal life in Him. I would remind my young friends of what Wisdom says in Proverbs 8:17: “Those that seek me early shall find me.” We know from 1 Corinthians 1. that “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God;” and often does He, in His grace, set a soul seeking Him, in order that he may find Him, as we may see in John 1:45. If you do not yet know the blessing of being brought to Jesus, may God work in your heart by His Spirit, that this blessing may be yours. It is Jesus, however, who is the Seeker of the sinner, as He said, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Our walk through the cemetery must now close, and I hope that it has not been without some profit to us.

“Learn of Me.”

O LORD, in my weakness,

On Thee may I lean,

And learn of Thee meekness,

While passing this scene;

Who, when Thou didst suffer

While walking below,

As roads became rougher,

Didst say, “Even so.”

Thy Father’s good pleasure

Was e’er Thy delight,

In joy’s passing leisure,

And sorrow’s long night.

Though friends all forsook Thee,

Though Judas betray’d,

And foes came and took Thee,

On God Thou wart stay’d.

Thy sorrows now ended,

Thou, there on the throne,

Hast ever befriended

And succor’d Thine own.

Thy heart is so tender,

So faithful and free,

It claims the surrender

Of mine unto Thee

"The Only People in the World."

WHEN Captain McClintock and his crew were searching for Sir John Franklin, in the far north, where the ice and snow never disappear, they traveled over the ice far a great many miles.

Though it is such a cold country, yet there are people living in it; but they are extremely ignorant. Once, part of Captain McClintock’s company met with a tribe of these people. They were in a poor and miserable condition, living in wretched huts, and with scarcely enough food. When Captain McClintock’s men drew near to them, these poor people were indeed very much surprised; their wonder knew no bounds. They ran hither and thither, and showed all the signs of astonishment which you can well suppose. What was the cause of their wonder? It was this: they had always thought, up to that time, that they were the only people in the world. Just fancy that! How very much we feel inclined to laugh at such an absurdity, a few Esquimaux thinking that they were the only people in the world! I wish it were only in the far north, among the ice and snow, that this opinion were to be found; but alas! too many among ourselves live as if they were the only people in the world? They never tell others about Jesus. They never try to do any good. They never pray for their ungodly neighbors. They give little of their money to spread the knowledge of Christ on the earth. Is not this being like the poor ignorant inhabitants of the far north, who believed themselves the only people in the whole world?

Luther Climbing Pilate's Staircase.

HERE is a man climbing a staircase on his knees; yet his feet are whole, his limbs strong, and his health good. He is not doing it for show, or for fear; he is a learned man and of a sound mind. Now, what is he climbing up those stone steps for? He has been deceived and deluded, and is doing penance; that is, he is trying to merit the favor of God by some painful bodily service. It is no other than the famous Martin Luther, who did so much to advance the great Reformation three hundred years ago. This was before he came to the full light of the Gospel. You know he was born in the Popish Church, for the Pope ruled all Europe then, and he was educated for a monk; and even after he had a Bible, which he could call his own he could not all at once get free from the errors of his early education; they hung about him like cobwebs, obscuring the clear shining of heavenly truth.

Luther well knew how bad Popery was in Germany, where he lived, but he thought it must be a great deal better in Rome, because the Pope lived there; and, as the Pope called himself the successor of Peter, he supposed the Pope must be very good indeed. He was glad, therefore, when he was appointed to visit Rome, for he expected to hear and learn more of heavenly things there. When he first caught sight of Rome, he was deeply affected: falling on his knees, he cried, “Holy Rome, I salute thee!”

But how surprised and disappointed was Luther, for it did not take him long to learn that the priests in Rome were as bad as those in Germany; they lived wicked and scandalous lives, and made a mock of sacred things. This grieved Luther, yet he gave himself up to many of the vain ob servances which were enjoined upon strangers who visited Rome. At first Luther entered upon them with so much zest—for he was sincere and zealous, and whatever he undertook he did with all his might—he said, “Oh, how I regret that my father and mother are still living! What pleasure I should have in delivering them from the fires of purgatory by my masses, my prayers, and by so many good works; and one of these was climbing a stone staircase on his knees. It was falsely called Pilate’s Staircase, and was said to have been miraculously brought from Jerusalem to Rome.

While Luther was slowly climbing these steps, a voice, as if from heaven, seemed to speak to his very soul, saying, “The just shall live by faith!” Luther remembered the words in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans. He was alarmed, ashamed, and agitated; and in a moment he saw what folly it was to suppose that dragging his body up the stone steps in this uncouth manner could give pardon for his sins or peace to his soul. Luther’s eyes were now opened; he saw how superstitious it really was, and he immediately arose and hastened away.

Oh, yes; God’s people “shall live by faith,” not by penance; believing that He is the Rewarder of all who seek Him by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He “came into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” From this time Luther grew more and more confirmed in these precious truths of the Gospel.

“The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation,” as well for children as for men like Luther (Rom. 1:16). How anxious are your friends for your improvement; how they try to correct Your faults. Now, let me tell you that believing in Christ, and living by faith in Him, will not only save the soul, but will do more towards subduing your selfishness, checking your temper, reforming your habits, and making your daily life purer, than anything else can. It will, indeed, make you little reformers in the circles in which you move. “For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14).

August, Dictionary of the Bible.

E lelohe-Israel. — God the God of Israel (Gen. 33:20).

E’lparan.— The oak of Paran (Gen. 14:6).

E’ladah―God adorned, one of the sons of Ephraim (1 Chron. 7:20).

E’lah. ―A common name, one of the dukes mentioned in Genesis 36:41.

E’lah. ―Father of Shimei (1 Kings 4:18).

E’lah, king of Israel, succeeded his father Baasha, and was killed in the second year of his reign by Zimri, the captain of half his chariots (1 Kings 16:9, 10).

E’lam. ―One of Shem’s sons (Gen. 10:22).

E’lam. ―A province of the ancient Babylonian empire (Dan. 8:2).

Elam. — The name of a Levite; a Korhite, who, in the time of David, had a subordinate charge about the house of God (1 Chron. 26:3).

E’lam. ―A chief man of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chron. 8:24).

E’lam. ―Some person, otherwise unknown, who gave his name to a large party who accompanied Zerubbabel from Babylon (Ezra 2:7).

Elam. ―Another person called “the other Elam,” from whom a company of the same number, 1,254, derived their designation (Ezra 2:31; Neh. 7:34).

E’lam. ―A priest who took part with Nehemiah at the dedication of the second temple (Neh. 12:40-42).

E’lamites. ―Jews from Elam, mentioned in Acts 2:9.

E’lasah or Eleasah, (God-made). — A man of the tribe of Judah; son of Helez (1 Chron. 2:39).

E’leasah. ―A man of the family of Saul by the line of Jonathan (1 Chron. 8:37).

E’leasah. ―One of the family of Pashur, who married a Gentile wife (Ezra 10:22).

E’lasah. ―A son of Shaphan who, along with another person, carried a letter from Zedekiah, king of Judah, to the king of Babylon, and took charge also of Jeremiah’s letter to the captives of Babylon (Jer. 29:3).

E’lath or Eloth. ―Oaks, or terebinths (1 Kings 9:26). Nothing special is mentioned of Elath till the days of Solomon; then we read, “Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is bide Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.” Again we read, “Then went Solomon to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth, at the seaside, in the land of Edom.”

E’lath. ―2:8; 2 Kings 14:22; 16:6.

E’ldad (loved of God). — One of the seventy elders who had been appointed under Moses to assist in the administration of justice among the people. He is mentioned along with Medad, another elder, as having, on a particular occasion, prophesied in the camp, while Moses and the rest of the elders were assembled at the tabernacle. Joshua, the son of Nun, entreated Moses to forbid them, but Moses answered and said, “Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord’s spirit was upon them” (Num. 11:28, 29).

E’lead. ―Son of Ephraim (1 Chron. 7:21).

E’ldaah, (God has called). — Son of Midian (Gen. 25:4).

Elders of Egypt (Gen. 1:7).— Elders of the twelve tribes (Ex. 19:7; Num. 11:16-24).

Elder.―Peter says, “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock.” Paul sent from Miletus to Ephesus, and called for the elders of the Church, and said, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28: from this Scripture it appears that in Ephesus there were several elders in the Church; 1 Peter 5:1; 1 Tim. 5:17).

E’lea’leh, (to go up). — A town of the Moabites which, after the conquest of the country by the Israelites, was assigned to the tribe of Reuben (Num. 32:3, 37). The children of Reuben are said in this passage to rebuild it, along with certain other cities in the district. But in process of time it appears to have reverted to its original owners, as in some of the prophets it is named among the cities of Moab which were doomed to desolation. It is commonly named along with Heshbon as if the two stood near to each other (Isa. 15:4; 16:9; Jer. 48:34).

Answer to Bible Enigma for July.

“The Child Jesus”— Luke 2:43.

T imothy 2 Timothy 1:5, 3:15.

H adad 1 Kings 11:14-17.

E sther Esther 2:7,20.

C ain Genesis 4:1.

H ananiah Daniel 1:6, 3:13-25.

I shmael Genesis 21:15-20.

L azarus John 11:1-46.

D avid 1 Samuel 16:11, 17:49.

J osiah 2 Kings 22:1, 2, 23:2.5.

E sau Genesis 25:32-34.

S amuel 1 Samuel 1:27,28.

U zziah 2 Chronicles 26:3,4,21.

S amson Judges 13:5.

Answers to Bible Questions for July.

1. Unto life (Acts 11:18).

2. All who believe in the Lord. Jesus Christ are delivered from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:5,9,10; John 5:24).

3. Heavy-laden, unrighteous, lost (Matt. 11:28; 9:13; 18:11).

4. Those taught by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 11 See also Matthew 16:17.

5. Do good (Jer. 13:23). He that is in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:8, 9).

“Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 15:8). The one who will not obey the Word of the Lord, his prayer is an abomination, for the Lord will not hear those who regard iniquity in their hearts (Prov. 28:9; Psa. 66:18). The Lord Jesus Christ said, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” We learn from this Scripture that no good works, prayer, or praise, are acceptable except from those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; for without Christ we can do nothing good or pleasing to God.

6. Forsake all rather than disown Christ before men. They must hate their lives, take up their cross daily, and follow Christ, though all forsake them (Luke 14:26-33).

7. We must know we are of God (1 John 5:19).

8. He will not regard their prayer; and, though they seek, they shall not find Him. (Prov. 1:22-23).

Bible Questions for August.

1. Salvation is spoken of in various ways in the New Testament: first, the salvation of the soul as already received by every believer; secondly, their “own salvation,” or deliverance from evil, as daily worked out by the power of God working in them, and the salvation or redemption of the body which they have in prospect. Give Scripture for each state.

2. How many times does the Scripture record the question, “What must I do to be saved? “And what is God’s answer?

3. Can anyone be a new creature in Christ without having the Spirit of Christ?

4. What Scripture teaches that believers are not to expect to die?

5. Give Scripture to prove that the child of God cannot die.

6. What are they called who know when Jesus speaks to them? what do they do? what do they receive? and in what place of security are they said to be?

7. Where was Jesus when God laid all believers’ sins upon Him?

8. Why does Scripture put the sanctification of believers before their justification?

Bible Enigma for August.

THE fatal night is past, the night of death;

The houses burnt, — and all things that had breath

Are now but smoldering ashes, sounding wide

A warning ‘gainst voluptuousness and pride;

One man escaped the all-devouring flame,

Now think, and quickly tell this one man’s name.

Then say who hid the prophets of the Lord,

And saved them from a cruel woman’s sword.

A monarch reigned from India’s golden strand

To Ethopia’s drear and sultry land,

He made a feast, and bade his queen be there,

For she was thought to be the fairest of the fair;

But she refused to come. Then all agreed

That by the king it ought to be decreed

The queen should be forever put away,

Lest other wives should learn to disobey.

Now give her name who suffered this disgrace,

And whose successor was of Israel’s race.

She knelt and prayed—in bitterness she knelt—

For who may tell the anguish that she felt?

But God’s anointed priest mistook her case,

And bade her leave at once the sacred place.

Meek was her answer, and the priest then said,

“Now go in peace with blessings on thy head.”

The thing she ask’d was given; she then the same

Gave back to God. Now tell her husband’s name.

These four initials in one word combined

Reveal a name of God most precious to mankind.

"I Thought There Was No Hurry."

ONE day we were sailing with a gentle, favoring breeze, not very far from the shores of America, on our outward voyage, when it was proposed by one or two of my companions to get our lines and try to add a few fresh fish to our usual salt fare. I was pleased enough to join them, and for some time we had abundant sport. This put me in high spirits, and when at last they grew tired and left me alone, I climbed out nearly to the end of the long spar that I dare say you have seen in pictures projecting from the vessel’s stern, straight over the sea, and sat there careless and secure, fishing and thinking all the while of things far enough away. All at once, a sudden roll of the ship, for which I was not prepared, threw me on one side; I felt I had lost my balance, and, joining my hands over my head, I let myself fall, as if voluntarily diving, into the waves beneath. I felt no fear, for I could swim like a duck, and seeing my cap, which had fallen off, already at some yards distance, I struck out towards it, never thinking of the rate the ship was going, or that I should have any difficulty in overtaking her again. I heard my mates call out to me to let the cap go and come, but I thought there was no hurry and swam on, till, just as I had snatched it and caught it, I looked round and saw at what a perilous distance the ship was from me. Oh, how I turned and swam! My blood seems to run cold within me now when I think of that moment and the feelings that gushed upon me as I strove with all the energy that deadly peril can bestow to reach the ship’s side once more. There were thoughts of home—how different to those so fondly dreamed of a few moments before!—but they only flashed across me with a keen quick pang, and then I thought of death, “and after that, the judgment.” On occasions such as this the thoughts of hours crowded into seconds; and, though you may wonder how, in that brief moment of mortal struggle with the waves, conscience and memory found time to speak. I had been taught the truth of the Gospel from my childhood; I knew my responsibility; I felt I was unsaved, and with this thought, solemn and dark upon my soul, I dashed on desperately towards the ship. It was my only hope, for they could not lower a boat in time to rescue me.

At last I was alongside of her, and two ropes were flung out to me. Who will believe that after all my terror I could trifle still? And yet I hardly caught at the first; when I saw myself within reach of the ship I did not think there was any hurry. Just at that moment one of the men called out, in a voice that showed he was in earnest, “It’s your last chance, Ned; I can see a shark close astern!” Then, indeed, with a sharp cry of terror, I sprang towards the rope. I nearly missed it, for the men pulled up hastily, because of the nearness of the danger, and it was only by a convulsive grasp that I was drawn in safety up the ship’s side. Ten minutes after a monster shark, which must have been a very few yards from me, was hauled up on deck and dispatched. You must picture to yourself—for I can never describe them—the feelings with which I looked into his fearful jaws and supped that night on some of his flesh.

Do you think in this passage of my life I was strangely rash and foolish? Do you condemn my delay in turning when I was warned of my danger, and my indifference to the means of safety when within my reach? You are right in so judging; but stay a moment lest you condemn yourself.

Have you never acted—are you not now acting—in a matter of far more importance, just as I did? You know you are a sinner, going farther and farther from God every day, you know there is no help but in Jesus, yet you turn your back upon Him and pursue things that you must own to yourself are but the merest trifles in comparison with the salvation of your soul. I did not mean to miss the ship in the end, neither do you mean to miss Christ and heaven at last; nor did millions of those that have died in their sins.

You may be near Christ, but, if you are not in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), you are unsaved. And is there no shark near? Has no companion ever been snatched from your side and lost hi the jaws of death? It may be that the same destroyer is close upon you now; it may be that the fatal cramp of a chilled and deadened conscience is even now settling on your soul. Now is the day of salvation, and the Word says, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” Come and be safe; trust in Jesus, and you will be happy forever. (John 6:35-37).

Joseph Exalted.

(Read Gen. 41)

WE have seen, in looking over the life of Joseph so far, that he is a true picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who was “despised and rejected of men” (Isa. 53:3). Joseph had indeed been loved by his father, but we read of hardly anyone else who was really kind to him. His brothers hated and sold him; his master put him in prison, not for doing any wrong, but because a wicked woman had told lies about him; and the man in the prison, to whom he had been so kind, forgot all about him when he was out himself. But a wonderful change comes in this chapter; for, instead of being any longer a prisoner in the dungeon, he is now made ruler over all the land in Egypt. Except in being king, and sitting on the throne, he is now as great a man as Pharaoh himself. He is the king, but he has made Joseph lord of all his house and all his people. Indeed, when the poor hungry Egyptians want corn, and come to Pharaoh for it, he says, “Go to Joseph; what he saith, to you, do.” As you will remember it was said at the wedding at Cana, in the second chapter of John: they had “no wine,” but Jesus was there, and someone spoke to Him about it, and then said to the servants, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do.” And they did it, and the end of it was that they had wine; plenty of it, and better, too, than the best they had before!

Well, Joseph’s life had these two great parts: his sufferings, and the glory that came after (see ch. 45:13). And so with the Lord Jesus: the prophets that spoke of Him long before He came told of “His sufferings, and the glory [or glories] that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11). Some of His disciples had not noticed this, and supposed that when He came, it would be all glory and no suffering, So that, when He had suffered and died, they were surprised, and disappointed, and Jesus had to remind them of what was written in their holy books about Him; as it says in Luke 24:26, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” Joseph had suffered many things, in one way and another; but now at last he is brought out from being in a dungeon, despised and forgotten; and highly exalted, and all the people told to “bow the knee” to him. All power is committed to him; the king says all the people shall be ruled according to his word. He “set” him over all the land of Egypt (vs. 41), and gave him a wife (vs. 45), to enjoy all his greatness with him. What a change for Joseph!

And now, if you have read and remembered the things told us about the Lord Jesus in the New Testament, I am sure you cannot help seeing how very much all this is like them. In Hebrews 2. we read more than once about the sufferings of Jesus, and how He even “tasted death,” but that now He is “crowned with glory and honor.” And again, in Philippians 2, how “He humbled Himself,” and came down so very low as to submit to the shameful death of the cross; but that now God has “highly exalted Him,” and says to everyone, “Bow the knee.” The people of Egypt were to be ruled according to the word of Joseph; but Hebrews 1:3 tells us that all things are upheld by the Word of God’s Son. By His power “all things consist” or “hold together” (Col. 1:17). If it were not for the mighty power of that blessed Man who once carried the cross He was about to be hung upon, the sun would cease to shine, and we could no more breathe, and the world would go to pieces. “All things” are “given into His hands” (John 13:3), which were once emptied and nailed to “the tree; and “all power” committed to Him, both in heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18). Joseph was “set” in the highest place, except the throne; but Jesus is “set down “with His Father in His throne (Rev. 3:21), or, as the first of Ephesians tells us, God has “set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all... and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” As Joseph did not enjoy all his greatness alone, so you see God has given to Jesus “the Church,” which is composed of all those who believe on Him, from the time that He went into heaven as a Man, until the moment when He comes again, to receive them unto Himself. And this same company of saved sinners is called, in the book of Revelation, the “Bride,” or the “Wife” of Christ, the Lamb of God. They have been loved by Him, and saved by Him, and share with Him all His glory forever.

I should like to say much more to you about this, but must now stop, and hope next month, if spared, to say something more to you about “Go unto Joseph.”

W. TY.

A Voice from Heaven.

HARK! the Saviour, in His love,

He on whom abode the dove,

Speaking from the throne above.

Heed, oh, heed His gracious call,

Sounding freely unto all,

To the great, and to the small;

Come, oh, come, to Me.

I, the Father’s only Son,

All salvation’s work have done,

Full and free redemption won;

On the cross my blood I shed,

Laid awhile among the dead;

Now ascended—Lord and Head—

Come, oh, come, to Me.

Refuge take within My arms,

From the Serpent’s wily charms,

Far from Judgment’s loud alarms

Shelter seek within my breast,

Where thou’lt find eternal rest,

And for evermore be blest;

Come, oh, come, to Me.

Haste, then, while ‘tis call’d today,

Why, oh, why, dost thou delay?

Wherefore at a distance stay?

Listen to My loving voice;

Make Me now thy bosom’s choice,

Trust in Me, in Me rejoice;

Come, oh, come, to Me.

John Hooper.

ONE of the sweetest spirits among “the noble army of martyrs” was Dr. John Hooper, who was burnt at the city of Gloucester in the reign of Queen Mary. He was born in Somersetshire in the year 1495, and entered Merton College, Oxford, in 1514, when he was about nineteen years of age. After this, it is supposed that he became a monk, but that, disliking the monastic life, he soon forsook it and applied himself to the study of the Scriptures and the perusal of some of the writings of the Reformers; the result of which was that he was led to believe the truth, and to forsake the doctrines of popery. In the year 1539, being then forty-four years of age, falling under the displeasure of King Henry VIE and certain doctors of divinity, he withdrew to the Continent, and was kindly received by a worthy and learned Christian man of the name of Bullinger, who resided at Zurich, in Switzerland. There he married, and acquired a knowledge of the Hebrew language. He also continued zealously to study the Word of God.

On the accession of Edward VI., Hooper returned to England, where he arrived in 1548. He appears to have had a presentiment of the troubles which would arise, and of the fate that awaited him, for on parting with his friend Bullinger, while assuring him of his affectionate remembrance, he said, “I will write to you how it goeth with me. But the last news of all I shall not be able to write; for (said he, taking master Bullinger by the hand), where I shall take most pains, there shall you hear of my being burned to ashes; and that shall be the last news, which I shall not be able to write unto you, but you shall hear it of me.” He preached for some time. in London, often twice, and never less than once, a day, when crowds of people came to hear him, for he was both earnest and eloquent. He was afterwards nominated to the bishopric of Gloucester, in which he seems to have conducted himself in an exemplary manner, continually traveling about his diocese and preaching to the people. He also brought up his children in proper subjection, and instructed them in the ways and’ fear of God. “In every corner of his house,” says his biographer, “there was some savor of virtue, good example, honest conversation, and reading of Holy Scriptures.” He was also very hospitable and charitable, his custom being to have a table spread every day “for a certain number of the poor folk of the City by course, who were served with wholesome meats.” Then he, or someone on his behalf, would instruct the people in some of the elements of truth, after which, but not before, he would himself sit down to dinner.

When Queen Mary had ascended the throne, Hooper was one of the first of those who were called before the council on account of their nonconformity to the Roman Catholic religion, bishops Bonner and Gardiner being specially violent against him. He was committed to the Fleet Prison, in London, on the 1St September, 1553, where he suffered much from ill-treatment and the unwholesome state of his place of confinement. Yet in such circumstances he wrote to a friend: “Imprisonment is painful, but yet liberty upon evil conditions is more painful. The prisons stink, but yet not so much as sweet houses where the fear and true honor of God is wanting. It were better so to be, and to have God with me, than to be in company with the wicked.” On the night of Monday, the 4th of February, 1555, after he had been imprisoned about eighteen months, his keeper intimated to him that he would soon be sent to Gloucester to suffer death; at which he greatly rejoiced, praising God that He saw it good to send him in the midst of the people among whom he had labored, there to confirm with his death the truths that he had before taught them; not doubting that the Lord would give him strength to suffer for His glory. He then sent immediately for his boots, spurs, and cloak, that he might be in readiness to ride when he should be called.

The next day, about four o’clock in the morning, the keeper and others came and searched him and the bed whereon he lay, to see if he had any concealed writing, and then he was led by the sheriffs of London from Newgate to a place near St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet Street, where six of the Queen’s guard were appointed to receive him and carry him to Gloucester. They started about break of day, placing a hood upon his head under his hat, that he should not be known; and so he took his journey joyfully towards Gloucester. Upon the Thursday following, they came to the town of Cirencester, where he dined at the house of a woman who had hated the truth and spoken evil of Hooper. She, however, treated Mm with kindness on this occasion, and, lamenting his case, owned that she had often expressed her opinion that, if he were put to the trial, he would not stand the test. After dinner they rode forwards, and reached Gloucester about five o’clock in the afternoon, where many people were assembled to see him, and to sympathize with him in his affliction; so that, fearing lest a rescue should be attempted, one of the guard was sent hastily into the town to require the aid of the mayor and sheriffs. The officers and their company quickly repaired to the gate of the city with weapons, but no attempt was made by the people at rescue or violence. Hooper was then lodged at the house of one Ingram, and that night, as he had done all the way, he took his meal comfortably, and slept his first sleep soundly. After his first sleep, he continued in prayer until the morning, and then he desired that he might go into the next room, for the guard were also in the chamber where he lay, that there, being alone, he might pray and hold communion with God.

One who had access to him was Sir Anthony Kingston, who appears to have been one of the Commissioners appointed to see the sentence of death carried out upon him. He, coming into Hooper’s chamber, found him at prayer, and burst into tears. Hooper did not at first know him. Then said Kingston, “Why, my lord, do you not know me, an old friend of yours, Anthony Kingston?” “Yes, master Kingston,” replied Hooper, “I now know you well, and am glad to see you in health, and praise God for the same.” “But,” said Kingston, “I am sorry to see you in this case; for, as I understand, you are come hither to die. But, alas! consider that life is sweet and death is bitter. Therefore, seeing life may be had, desire to live; for life in days to come may do good.” “Indeed,” answered Hooper, “it is true,” master Kingston, that I am come hither to end this life and to suffer death because I will not gainsay the truth that I have taught amongst you here and elsewhere; and I thank you for your friendly counsel, although it is not so friendly as I could have wished. True it is that death is bitter and life is sweet; but alas! consider that the death to come is more bitter, and the life to come is more sweet. Therefore for the love I have to the one, and the fear of the other, I do not so much regard this death, nor esteem this life, but have settled myself, through the strength of God’s Holy Spirit, patiently to pass through the torments of the fire now prepared for me, rather than to deny the truth of Ibis Word; desiring you and others, in the meantime, to commend me to God’s mercy in your prayers.” Kingston then gave up contesting with him, but, before leaving, confessed to his having derived benefit from Hooper’s ministry; and so they parted with mutual sorrow.

In the afternoon of the same day, a blind boy, after much entreaty, gained admittance to Hooper’s presence. This boy had himself suffered imprisonment for confessing the truth. Hooper, after conversing with him, said to him, with tears in his eyes, “Ah! poor boy! God hath taken from thee thy outward sight, for what cause He best knoweth; but He hath given thee another sight much more precious, for He hath endued thy soul with the eye of knowledge and faith. God give thee grace to continue in the truth which He hath given to thee.” Hooper’s prayer was answered, for the boy, whose name was Drury, was burnt at the stake in the following year for his steadfastness. After that, another came to him, whom he knew to be a wicked man, who appeared to be sorry for Hooper’s trouble, saying, “Sir, I am sorry to see you thus.” “Why art thou sorry?” said he; “be sorry for thyself, man, and lament thine own wickedness; for I am well, I thank God, and death to me, for Christ’s sake, is welcome.”

The same night he was committed by the guard to the sheriffs of Gloucester, who would have lodged him in the common gaol of the town, if the guard had not earnestly entreated for him, declaring how quietly, mildly, and patiently he had behaved himself in the way, adding that a child might take care of him, and that they themselves would rather watch with him, than that he should be sent to the prison. So it was at length determined that he should remain at Ingram’s house. He requested that he might be permitted to retire early to rest, saying that he had many things to remember. He did so, and slept one sleep soundly, and passed the rest of the night in prayer. After he rose in the morning, he asked that he might be left alone in his room till the hour of execution. At nine o’clock he was told to prepare himself, for that the time was at hand. When he was brought down from his chamber by the sheriffs and saw a number of the guard armed with weapons, he said, “Master sheriffs, I am no traitor, neither need you have made such a business to bring me to the place where I must suffer; for, if you had wished it, I would have gone alone to the stake and have troubled none of you.” So he went forward, walking meekly between the two sheriffs; but not being permitted to speak to the assembled multitude, who mourned bitterly for him, he lifted up his eyes toward heaven, and looked cheerfully upon such as he knew, it being remarked that he had never been seen to look so happy in all his life as he was then.

When he arrived at the stake, he knelt down and continued in prayer about half an hour; and then a box was brought and laid before him upon a stool, with his pardon from the Queen if he would recant. At the sight of it, he cried, “If you love my soul, away with it!” The box being taken away, Lord Shandois, one of the commissioners, said, “Seeing there is no remedy, dispatch him quickly.” Hooper then prayed again in words which were overheard, seeking grace to be firm and patient unto the end. Then, taking off his outer clothes, he was fastened to the stake, but when they brought irons to bind him he refused them, saying, “You have no need thus to trouble yourselves, for I doubt not that God will give me strength to abide the extremity of the fire without bands. I am well assured I shall not trouble you.” The fagots were then placed round him, two of which he received into his own hands and embraced them, giving directions how the rest should be placed. The fire, however, burnt slowly, and thus his sufferings were prolonged; he was heard to say, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

In the substance of the words of his quaint but affectionate biographer, we may say, “As a lamb, he patiently bore the extremity of the fire, neither moving forwards nor backwards, nor to either side; but, having his lower part burnt and his vitals destroyed, he died as quietly as a child in his bed. And now he rests with Christ, in the joys of heaven, which are prepared for those that love Him. For his constancy, all Christians are bound to praise God.”

A Drinking Fountain.

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. ―Is. 55:1

I SUPPOSE this little fellow thinks he has as much right to drink at the fountain as the man has that is just by him; and so here he conies, and takes, and drinks. And he is quite right too: the school may be for little boys, and the workshop for grown-up men, but the fountain is for both, if both are thirsty and both will come and drink. Just so, dear little reader, any one is welcome to come to the Lord Jesus who is willing to come. There are some men who only care for rich people to come to see them, while others are never spoken to except by the poor: Some have more to do with little children than with older people, and others again will hardly take any notice of children. But Jesus receives and blesses all who come.

He loves His little ones to teach,

And put His truth within their reach,

And not the weakest e’er can say,

“I came, but I was sent away.”

You will remember that when the “mothers of Salem” brought their little ones to Jesus, and the disciples were driving them away, Jesus would not have them sent away. He was “much displeased” with them, and as good as said, “You mustn’t drive them away; I am very glad for them to come, and you must let them come.” And then at the end of the same chapter (Mark 10) there was a poor man wanted Jesus to cure him, and he called out to Him, but the people told him to be quiet, as if Jesus would not have anything to do with him. But He would, and He did not let the crowd hurry Him on, or keep poor Bartimeus away, for He stopped still in the road, and had him brought to Him. And you may come to Him, dear little child: it is not His will that keeps you away. He says (John 7:37), “If any man (any one) thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” And again, in the last chapter in Revelation, “Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” We cannot know God, or be happy with God, until we have this new life; but God gives it freely to all who come to Him by faith. Do not say it is not for you. It is for you, dear child, however young and feeble you may be, if you will only come as a thirsty one to the Lord Jesus, as this little boy comes to the fountain, to drink, without paying for it, of water provided for him by the kindness of another.

They are both drinking, you see, for both may drink, even if the man were bigger and the boy smaller than he is; because the fountain was opened there for all who thirst and come. But there is another thing about it I may say to you; both of them must drink, if both are to be satisfied. The little boy cannot drink for the grown-up man, nor could he drink for the little boy. If he were to drink all day, it would not make the boy a bit less thirsty, would it? And so, my little friends, you must come to Jesus for yourself. Many others have done so, and have been made happy forever in knowing Jesus. Perhaps your dear father and mother are Christians, but that will not save you. There are many things we can do for one another, as going on errands, and such like; but we cannot eat and drink for one another, nor can we believe in the Lord Jesus for one another. And I am sure it would grieve you very much if, when Jesus comes presently (as He will), He were to take your dear parents home to be with Himself, and leave you behind. He might say, “Well, little boy (or girl), you were satisfied for your father to believe for you, and you never came to me yourself, and now you must be content for him to come to heaven for you, and you stay behind!” But no, my child, that will not do at all. Ask yourself alone and in the presence of God, “Am I one of the Lord’s little ones? Have I been to Him myself about my own sins, and confessed them to Him, and had them all forgiven? If not, do not delay another moment, but go to Him at once, as you would to a fountain if you were dying of thirst, and drink for yourself. Tell Him you know yourself a great sinner, to have grieved Him and turned away from Him so long, and ask Him to make you to know Himself. The more you know of Him, the more happy you will be, and the more you will long to see Him face to face, the more you will find out that He is worth loving with all your heart, and living for all your life, and He will fill your heart, which not all in this world could ever do. This man at the fountain has had to be drinking every day since before he was as old as the little boy, and he is not satisfied yet, but will have to keep on doing the same as long as he is in this world, for “he that drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” But the heart that truly knows Jesus says, “Now I have found one who satisfies me. He is perfect every way. I shall love to go on forever and ever learning all about Him but I want no one better, not even in heaven, and I know Him now!” And he that drinketh of the water that Jesus gives shall not thirst again forever. Come to Him yourself, dear child, and you will find it all true, and far more than I can tell you with pen and ink.

W. TY.

"Perhaps Our Little Mary Can Pray?"

IN one of the western states of America, a little girl,, belonging to a Roman Catholic family, was sent to the Protestant Sunday-school. It happened soon after that the father of this family was awakened to feel his sinfulness and danger. He became very anxious about his soul. His distress increased daily, and one night, at the midnight hour, he arose from his bed in agony. He begged his wife to pray for him, as he said he did not know how to pray for himself. She told him she “could not pray any better than he could.”

“What shall I do, then?”

“Perhaps,” said she, “our little Mary can pray?”

So the father went up to her room, where she was fast asleep, and took her up from her bed in his arms and bore her downstairs, and, putting her gently down, he said to her, with great earnestness, “Mary, can you pray?”

“Oh, yes, father, I can pray.”

“Will you kneel down and pray for your poor father?”

“Yes, I will pray for you.”

So she kneeled, put up her little hands, and prayed for her father in her own language, asking God to save him for Jesus Christ’s sake. When she had finished her prayer, her father said to her, “Mary, can you read in the Bible?”

“Oh, yes, father, I can read. Shall I read to you in my Bible?”

“Yes, read to me.”

She began at the third chapter of the gospel of St. John. She read until she came to that verse, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“Oh, Mary,” said he, “is that there?”

“Yes, father, it is here. Jesus Christ said so.” “Well, that is just what I need—what your poor father needs.”

“Yes, father, and hear the rest of it. For ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“Oh, that is for me—for just such as me! ‘Whosoever believeth in Him. I can believe in Him; I do believe in Him.”

And from that day that father went on his way rejoicing in Christ Jesus with great joy.

May you, dear young reader, also, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31); and then you, like little Mary, will be able to pray to God for others, that they may flee from the wrath to come to Jesus Christ the only place of safety; for “there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be save” (Acts 4:12).

September, Dictionary of the Bible.

E-leazar. — Who was appointed to take charge of the ark while it remained in the house of Abinadab (1 Sam. 7:1).

E-leazar.— One of David’s heroes also bore this name; one it is said, “of the three mightiest’ He valiantly withstood the Philistines in a great emergency, and drove them back; also, along with two others, broke through the host of the Philistines, at the hazard of life, to fetch David a draft of water from the well of Bethlehem (1 Chron. 11:11-18; 2 Sam. 23:9).

E-leazar. — Various persons of the same name are also mentioned in later Jewish history (1 Chron. 23:21; 24:28; Neh. 12:42).

Elect, Election. — The terms are variously used in Scripture. They denote designation of persons to office (Acts 9:15; John 6:70; 1 Sam. 10:24); of people or nations to the enjoyment of peculiar privileges, as in the case of the Jews (Deut. 7:6-8; Isa. 65:9-22). In the New Testament, election is mostly connected with individuals who are members of the body of Christ, and are spoken of as the Church of God (Matt. 24:22, 24, 31; Mark 13:20, 22, 27; Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:33; Rom. 9:11; 11:5, 7, 28; Col. 3:12; 2 Tim. 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 John,13; 1 Thess. 1:4.

El’-elohe-Israel (God the God of Israel). — A name given by Jacob to the altar which he erected to God on his return to the land of Canaan, shortly after he had received the name of Israel. The El at the beginning designates God as the strong and mighty One, who can do whatever seems good to Him, and who, in the recent experience of Jacob, had peculiarly manifested His power in overcoming the deep-rooted enmity of Esau. In memory of this signal deliverance, and of the goodness of God, he erected this altar to the Mighty One, the God of Israel (Gen. 33:20).

Elements, in the primary sense, are parts of the physical universe, viz., fire, air, earth, and water. The term is used in this sense in 2 Peter 3:10, 12, where, in reference to the final close of things, it is said that “the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” It is also used figuratively to describe the state of the people of God in the Old Testament dispensation, before the Lord Jesus Christ suffered on the cross, and by His one offering perfected forever all that love His holy name (Gal. 4:3,5).

Elhanan (God-endowed). — Son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite; “slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam” (2 Sam. 21:19).

Eli (in Hebrew probably means ascension, height). — A priest and judge of Israel (1 Sam. 1). He judged Israel forty years. His character is presented to us as one of mingled excellences and weaknesses. This is evident from the general recognition of his title to the place of a judge in Israel, and also from the deep concern he manifested in his old age for the ark of God, trembling for it in the first instance, and then, when he heard of its surrender into the hands of the enemy, falling paralyzed from the seat upon which he sat, and breaking his neck. But this earnestness was conjoined with a melancholy and most culpable slackness in the management of his own family, practices being systematically carried on by his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, within the very precincts of the sanctuary, which ought to have been instantly, and with the firmest determination, repressed. Eli contented himself with asking them, “Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by this people. Nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord’s people to transgress” (1 Sam. 2:23, 24). But this was all; even after the most solemn reproofs and warnings, first by a man of God, and then through a vision and dream communicated to the child Samuel, he appears to have taken no effective measures against the evil. It was expressly on this account that judgment fell so heavily on the house of Israel. Parents often bring much grief on themselves by allowing sin to proceed unchecked; this is not only displeasing to God, but cruel to their children. God’s word to Eli should warn them against such sad neglect.

Eliab (God for Father). — A leader of the tribe of Zebulun (Num. 1:9).

Eliab. — A Reubenite; an ancestor of Dathan and Abiram (Num. 26:8, 9).

Answer to Bible Enigma for August.

Love. ―1 John 4:8.

L ot Genesis 19:27-29.

O badiah 1 Kings 18:4.

V ashti Esther 1:10-22.

E lkanah 1 Samuel 1:1.

Answers to Bible Questions for August.

1. Salvation of the soul received by all believers (1 Peter 1:9). Own salvation or daily deliverance (Phil. 2:12, 13). Salvation or redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23; 13:11:12).

2. Once. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

3. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His (Rom. 8:9).

4. 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Titus 2:13.

5. John 11:26. Those who depart to be with Christ do not die, their bodies sleep till the first resurrection (1 Thess. 4:14). Jesus said to Martha, “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?’ (John 11:26).

6. They are sheep of Christ. They follow Him. They receive eternal life. They are in His and His Father’s hand, and none shall pluck them thence; therefore those who have professed His name, and lived a life of sin and died unpardoned, they were religious without being born again of the Spirit of God, and never were Christ’s sheep, for He says, “My sheep shall never perish.”

7. All believers in the Lord Jesus Christ may say, “He bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

8. 1 Corinthians 6:11; Jude 1; 2 Timothy 1:9.

Bible Questions for September.

1. What persons will the day of the Lord, overtake as a thief?

2. How many times are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ called saints and Christians in the New Testament?

3. What are the children of God told to do when they are afflicted, and what when merry?

4. What does God say of those who do not keep the commandments of Jesus Christ?

5. What three things does God say of the one who meditates in His law day and night?

6. Those who are saved are said to know that they have passed from death unto life, because they love the brethren; in what way does the Scripture say we can know who are the children of God, that is, by what are they distinguished from the unpardoned?

7. What is the standard of the walk of those who are new creatures in Christ Jesus?

8. What did Job do when he could say of God, “Now mine eye seeth Thee?”

Bible Enigma for September.

WHAT king was by his mother pious lessons taught?

Who once the hill Samaria of Shemer bought?

Where did a prophet make a chosen king his guest?

Where did Paul narrowly escape arrest?

What godly man resided with a wicked king?

What ruler trembled when he heard Paul arguing?

Whence came a woman for a banished son to plead?

Where did the son of Amram lead his flock to feed?

What grandson, by the patriarch’s prophetic hand

Exalted, claimed the choicest blessings of the land?

What monarch’s servants carried with them shields of gold

Who suddenly fell dead when he a falsehood told?

Who craftily with Baanah Ishbosheth slew?

What fruitful tree did Christ compare Himself unto?

What prophet, while a minstrel played, once prophesied?

Where Jacob built a house wherein he might reside.

Where stood the image Molech, and mid rites most dire,

Where infant children made an offering by fire?

When autumn weeks the spreading fields adorn

With the ripe ears of waving yellow corn,

They praise His love who know His guardian care,

Whose name in these initials will appear,

With faith’s eye too, to some the broad earth yields

Wide Gospel scenes like autumn’s ripened fields;

And calling for the laborers to come,

Thy servants pray, Lord, take thy harvest home.

A Strange Talk Between Two Little Ones.

Two little boys, the sons of godly parents in Scotland, were sitting together one evening by the fireside, when the eldest, whose name was Aleck, said to the other, “Dickey, it’s only just a year and a half since I began to live.”

Now, when you understand that Aleck was about ten years old when he made this strange remark, I dare say your first thought will be that he was not quite right in his head, or “a little cracky” (as people say in Somerset), and, certainly, for a boy of ten years of age to say he had only lived a year and a half does sound strange; but, if you think so of Aleck, what will you say to his little brother Richard when I tell you the answer he made?

Richard was about four years younger, a bright little boy, and usually a very happy one; but on this particular evening he looked rather dull, as he sat opposite his brother, gazing ruefully into the fire. Instead of showing any surprise when his brother said he had only begun to live a year and a half before, he did not even look up, but, solemnly shaking his curly little head, replied, with a sigh, “Ah! but I have not yet begun to live!”

Now, dear little reader, was not this a strange talk for two little boys to have at the “ingleside,” as these Scottish boys would call the fireplace, one being, according to his own account, only a year and a half old, and the other not alive at all? Is it your opinion that they were crazy? I assure you they were both in their “right mind,” and both spoke what they fully believed to be solemnly true. The secret of it all was this: that, being brought up by godly parents, these dear little boys had been taught to believe that all born of Adam are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, because God says so in His Word (Eph. 2). But Aleck had been brought to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ just a year and a half before this conversation with his brother, and he knew that he had eternal life (1 John 5:13), while little Richard was not yet able to say that he had faith in Jesus, and therefore considered that he had not yet begun to live. I think it is pretty clear that in his heart he really did believe God’s Word, but he had not the comfort which flows from a full, entire reliance upon Christ as his own blessed Saviour. Well, sometime after this a friend spoke to him about Jesus, and showed him John 3:36. There it says, “He that believeth on the Son HATH everlasting life.”

“Now,” said this friend, “can you really take Jesus at His word?”

“Yes,” said little Richard, “I will.”

“Well, then, what have you got?” said this gentleman.

“Everlasting life,” said the little fellow, confidently; and then and there he was able to rejoice in the Lord, through the Spirit’s power, that he had at last received what he had so long wished for—life in Christ.

As soon as he got home he took a Bible and sat down to spell out his favorite text, and then, that he might fix it on his memory, he found a bit of paper, and, not being able to write, he copied letter by letter the printed words, just as they stood in the Bible. The next day he got together every Bible in the house, and put a black mark in each of them against what he called “his own text,” and from this time forth the Bible was his Book above all others. He never went out without his little Testament in his pocket; and often as he went along he might be seen to pull it out and read as best he could the text he loved so well.

Do you not see that little Richard had now begun to live? Yes; he could truly say, “I LIVE, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

And remember these two boys will live forever. Others must die. Aleck and Dickey may “fall asleep,” but they can never die, for Jesus says, “He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” They have everlasting life. They may someday “depart and be with Christ,” or the Lord may come from heaven to fetch them and all who believe in His name, as He has promised to do (John 14), but they cannot die, as those must do who know not the Lord. Are you one of these? or have you, like little Richard and his brother, “begun to live” through faith in Christ?

A Summer Morning's Ramble.

ONE morning in August last I took a walk of a few miles in a pleasant part of Kent, with the object of refreshing myself for my daily duties. I was alone, yet not alone, for I was conscious that I had the presence of the Lord with me, and very blessed it is to have communion with Him by the way (see John 16:32). I like to take my young friends into my confidence, so I shall acquaint them that, before I left home, I had asked the Lord that I might not only be refreshed by my walk, but that I might be led to observe such things, and have such thoughts given to me, as I went along, that the narration of them to the youthful readers of the GOOD NEWS might be both agreeable and serviceable to them.

The morning was lovely; not only was there the sweetness of the light, but there was the pleasantness to the eyes of beholding the sun (see Eccl. 11:7). There was a clear azure sky, with but a few bright clouds, and a refreshing breeze. In fact, the day was just such as one would choose for a ramble. I left my cottage soon after breakfast, and was walking along an agreeable country road, with trees and hedges on both sides, towards the village of C―, which is but a short distance from my residence, when I noticed that there were some wild flowers growing by the hedges, and amongst them the convolvulus, which, though not so fine as that which is cultivated, is yet pretty and yields an agreeable odour. One would scarcely expect to find anything that was interesting by the side of a hedge, yet, as I hope my readers are aware, many really sweet flowers grow in such a position. The sight of these pretty flowers made me think of the beauty of lowliness in the sight of God. What a precious word that is in Psalms 138:6, “Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly: but the proud He knoweth afar off.” So, too, is this: “He giveth grace unto the lowly” (Prov. 3:34). But we only see lowliness in all its perfection in Jesus, the meek and lowly One. See what is said of Him in Philippians 2:5-11, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The next thing that I observed was some ivy, growing most luxuriantly on a high wall which surrounds a gentleman’s park. What a pleasant-looking plant it is, and a beautiful picture of a believer, weak in himself, but strong in the Lord! As Christ Himself said to the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” And how joyfully did Paul accept this place of weakness, saying, “Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12). The following is a “spiritual song” on this subject: intended for one who clings to the Lord:

The Ivy on the Wall.

Among the thousand charming sights

Which deck this favor’d land,

Its dales and dells, its hills and heights,

Its prospects, calm and grand,

One crowning glory holds the throne

On castle, hut, and hall,

And reigns in beauty all its own, —

The Ivy on the Wall.

‘Tis lowly in its birth, I grant,

And creeping e’er was found,

But ‘tis an ever-verdant plant

On ruins it hath crown’d;

And though this clinging, cleaving thing

A parasite you call,

Yet all the praises speak or sing

Of Ivy on the Wall.

A weakling I, how can I slight

Whate’er is poor and weak,

Or scorn a thing that hath no might,

Or creatures that are meek?

My helplessness to Christ I bring,

My Strength, my Lord, my All,

And closely unto Him I cling,

Like Ivy to the Wall.

While thus I prove His grace and power,

A thriving plant am I;

And, drinking each refreshing shower,

My roots are never dry.

I fear not Winter’s wind, though keen,

Nor dread what may befall,

By Christ sustain’d, I’m ever green,

Like Ivy on the Wall.

By this time I reached the village, which once had an air of picturesqueness about it, but which is now being somewhat spoiled by modern improvements. It has, however, some good shops, and amongst them a music-seller’s, where I noticed as I passed the titles of one or two swigs which were exhibited for sale. One of them was “Hope told a flattering Tale.” “Ah!” said I to myself, “how true that is of the hope which the world gives!” It flatters only to deceive. It promises pleasure, but it only gives the semblance of it. It leads you to expect happiness, but it is beyond its power to give it. It is only the true knowledge of God in Christ which can give that, and it is only the believer in Jesus who is brought to the fountain of pure and eternal joy. The blessed hope which he has, never flatters, and will never fail; for he shall unquestionably see Jesus as He is, be like Him, and with Him in His glory forever. I hope, dear young reader, that you are not trusting to the world for happiness, but that you have already found it where only it is to be found—in Jesus. The title to the other piece of music was “Home, sweet Home,” and this has a very pleasant sound to one who has a right mind and a loving heart. I have no doubt that most, if not all, of my readers have a happy home. Of course, it is not perfect happiness there, but it ought to be one of the happiest places to us on earth. And why do we love our home? Because, whether it be a mansion or a cottage, a hut or a hall, it is there that those whom we most love dwell. It is the place where the natural affections of the heart are most closely bound; and it is a bad sign when young people begin to think lightly of their home. The younger son of whom we read in Luke 15, and who experienced so much want and wretchedness in the “far country” into which he so sinfully wandered, began his sad career by turning his back upon his father’s house. The Christian, however, has a better home than any home upon earth. He has “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” and he can truly and happily sing—

“I have a home above,

From sin and sorrow free;

A mansion which eternal love

Design’d and form’d for me.

The Saviour’s precious blood

Has made my little sure;

He pass’d through death’s dark raging flood,

To make my rest secure.”

This heavenly borne is precious to the heart of the believer, because his God and Father, who gave His only-begotten Son, and Jesus, who loved him, and gave Himself for him, are there. Is your home there, dear reader? Well, it is, if you have made the bosom of Jesus the resting-place of your soul; but, if you have not trusted in Him for salvation, then you cannot truly say, “Heaven is my home.”

I hope, please God, to resume the account of my walk, next month; till then, adieu.

The Wave Ripple Mark.

ON the east coast of Scotland., Fifeshire, on the seashore between Anstnither and Grail, there is to be seen a petrified forest. Parts of the trunks of some eleven or twelve trees stand there, hard as the rock beside them and lashed by the billows of many centuries.

Near those trees, which grew, and waved, and flourished ages ago, something at first not so noticeable attracted our attention. On the surface of sonic of the slabs of red sandstone we distinctly saw impressions or undulations. These were the ware ripple marks. Some bore, as it were, the trace of a rougher, and others of a gentler, wave, but the ripple marks were very manifest. There lay those large blocks, like the leaves of a book with the handwriting of their great Creator imprinted on them; and at a subsequent period they had been tilted up by the arm of the Almighty.

Now, young friends, as we gazed upon the imprints made by those ancient waves, and which had remained for centuries, we could not help thinking of another Book―the Book of God’s remembrance.

God has a “Book of remembrance” more enduring still than those rocks. In it is written every thought, word, and action of our lives; and these words are more lasting than those marks made upon the rocks by the hand of time. God is silently, but surely, putting down in that Book the story of your lives. Every idle thought, every idle word, every act, is recorded there, every sin is registered in that Book. Time will not—cannot—wear out that record. Your forgetfulness of your sins won’t do this, all the influence of your friends will not do this, all the power of angels cannot do this, no created being can do this for you.

There is only one thing which will meet the case, and that is the precious blood of Christ, which cleanseth those who believe from all sin. Of such God says, “Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.” Dear reader, are your sins thus forgiven and forgotten?

Blind Rosa.

DURING the summer of 1860, when Mr. Moon was at Berlin, Mr. Millard introduced to his notice a blind but pious woman named Rosa; she had been blind nearly eighteen years, during which time she had made several efforts to learn to read by books in the Roman type, but without success. In half an hour she was able to read the whole of the Lord’s Prayer upon Mr. Moon’s plan. She said to Mr. Moon, “I would thank you if I could, but I do not know how to do so enough. You have unsealed for me this precious Book, the Bible, which for eighteen years I have been unable to read. Often have I tried the Stutgardt system, but without success. I cannot thank the Lord enough for His kindness to me.” She could say no more; her heart was full; flowing tears told what words could not express. Mr. Moon then went to his hotel to fetch the Gospel of St. John, and four other books he had there, and, when he returned to Mr. Millard’s office, he called Rosa down to receive the present he had brought her. On opening the Gospel of St. John, he said that, if she could read to him a portion from that new book, she should have them as a present. With trembling touch she commenced, and read the following words: — “Im anfang war das Wort” (In the beginning was the Word). But she could read no more, her heart was full; she sobbed aloud for joy, and, as soon as she recovered herself, she said, “All the wealth in Berlin to me would not be equal to these riches you have now given me;” taking up her treasure in her arms, hugging and kissing the books, the tears trickling down her cheeks, while her face beamed with joy.

Mr. Millard told Mr. Moon that, about a fortnight previous to his arrival at Berlin, Rosa had been telling him how much she prayed that the Lord would put a plan into some one’s mind by which a Bible might be made that she could read. Poor Rosa little thought her prayers were so soon to be answered. The promise to His people Israel and Judah was literally fulfilled to her, “Before they call, I will answer;” for, during the previous year, the Lord had inclined the hearts of some of His children to provide Mr. Moon with means for preparing the Gospel of St. John and several other books in German, in his type; and, while she was yet speaking, these portions of God’s Word were on their way to her.

Can the reader, like Rosa, say that the Word of God is more precious to me than the wealth of a city or, as David, “How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them;” or, like Jeremiah, “Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts.”

Why was the Bible so dear to her? Was it not because she had received pardon and peace through the precious blood of Christ? When any one can truly say with Paul, “The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me,” then he will daily prove that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord (Psa. 139:17; Jer. 15:16; 1 John 1:7.; Rom. 5:1; Gal. 2:20; Deut. 8:3).

God's Love to the World.

(John 3:14-18.)

How great the Love of God!

His only Son to give,

That He might shed His blood,

And die, that we might live.

The wondrous Love of God to man

Surpasses creature-power to span.

This Love is not confin’d

To nation, clime, or place,

‘Tis shown to all mankind,

Of ev’ry tribe and race.

The Gospel banner is unfurl’d

To sinful man, throughout the world.

The Son has drain’d the cup

Of judgment due to sin,

And, now He’s lifted up,

He sinners seeks to win.

And whosoe’er in Him believes,

That soul forever God receives.

The Love which God commends,

Eternal life imparts;

His foes it makes His friends,

And breaks the hardest hearts.

Such is the Love which God hath shown,

And now in Christ, His Son, makes known.

"Snow" And Harry.

THIS nice white dog is called “Snow.” Does he not look sharp? Little Harry is his master, and he is asleep. But “Snow” takes care of him, and, if any one came to hurt Harry, “Snow” would bark and wake him up’.’ Good “Snow,” to mind Harry when he is asleep! When we are asleep in our beds, we cannot take care of ourselves, but God never sleeps. He can see us in the dark, and He takes care of us. He sends His angels to serve us by day and by night. We need not be afraid to be in the dark, for God can see us as well in the dark as in the light. He loves us and watches over us, and gives us every good thing.

We cannot hide from God in the dark, for He can see everywhere.

Nothing can hide us from God (Psa. 139:11, 12; Rev. 6:16).

W. TY.

"The Home of the Narrow Way."

A FEW years ago, a little Hottentot girl died in South Africa. She had been trained in a missionary school there. While she was lying ill, her teacher went to visit her. The first thing she said to him was, “Uncle, I want to go home.”

The young Africans of that district always call their teachers uncle and aunt.

He replied, “You are at home, my dear; this is your home.”

Still she said, “I want to go home—I want to go home.”

Her teacher then asked, “What home is it you want to go to?”

And she cried, “The home of the narrow way.” Her pains then became very great. Her poor mother, and those who stood by, shed many tears.

For some minutes she could not utter a word, but as soon as her pain stayed a little she said, repeating the words three times, as these Africans always do when they wish to speak very strongly, “Jesus receiveth sinners! sinners! sinners! Joy! joy! joy!”

That poor little Hottentot knew Jesus as “the Way,” and her heart overflowed with joy at the thought that He “receiveth sinners,” and casts out none who come to Him. She did not then die, but rallied again, and was easier several hours, during which time she spoke to her mother. Her last words were, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”

Thus peacefully did this little African go home, to be forever with the Lord far wiser than many in this favored land, who tell us that they hope to go to heaven when they die, and yet forget or will not see that heaven is the home of the narrow way.

And now I must ask my young readers if they too will believe, as the little Hottentot girl did, that Jesus is the Way, and the only Way, to God, for He says “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). And also you will find written in John 6:37, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” And seeing that Jesus is so willing to bless you, as He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, I do trust you will come to Him at once, as “now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

Praise.

(John 5:44.)

MAN covets glory and renown,

And loves the voice of praise;

He fain would wear the jewell’d crown,

Or coronet of bays.

For fame, on Fancy’s wings he’ll soar,

Or dig in Learning’s mine,

The battle brave, the world explore,

And life itself resign.

But can the fleeting breath of Praise,

The fading wreath of fame,

Within the ardent bosom raise

An ever-fervent flame?

Ah! no; the truthful heart will own

It does not joy possess;

Earth yields it not— ‘tis there unknown; —

The creature cannot bless.

Man only tastes of bliss, as he

The praise of God esteems:

Fame’s fancied joys with swiftness flee,

Like tempest-clouds or dreams.

The closer clasps he to his heart

These frail, ideal joys,

The keener will he feel the smart,

And know how pleasure cloys.

Then, oh! be wise, Thy bosom fill

From God, the Source of bliss;

No longer climb Ambition’s hill,

By Ruin’s dread abyss.

In Jesus trust, — confess His name, —

Let Him be all thy praise,

Declare His love, make known His fame,

And shine thou in His rays.

Listening to Mother.

I KNOW some little children who very often want to play when their dear mother wants to read or talk to them. I think this little boy and girl in the picture are good children; they are stopping quite still, to hear what mother has to say. This is what we should always do. It pleases the Lord when we are kind to our dear parents, and do what they wish us. Jesus was a very good Child indeed before He grew up to be a Man. He was subject to His parents (Luke 2:51, 52). It is very sad when we are not subject, when we want always to have our own way. It is not like Jesus at all. And if our sins are washed away through faith in Jesus, and He is our Saviour, we want to be like Him. When He comes in glory, and we see Him, He will make us to be quite like Him; and now, while we are in this world, it should be our desire to be as much like Him as we can.

W. TV.

"You Never Can Rub it Out."

ONE pleasant afternoon a lady was sitting with her little son, a light-haired boy, five years of age. The mother was sick, and the child had left his play to stay with her, and was amusing himself in printing his name with a pencil on paper.

Suddenly his busy fingers stopped. He had made a mistake, and, wetting his finger, he tried again and again to rub out the mark, as he had been accustomed to do on his slate.

“My son,” said his mother, “do you know that God writes down all you do in a book? He writes every naughty word, every disobedient act, every time you indulge in temper, and shake your shoulders, or pout your lips; and, my boy, YOU can never rub it out.”

The little boy’s face grew very red, and in a moment tears ran down his cheeks. His mother looked earnestly on him, but she said nothing more. At length he came softly to her side, threw his arms round her neck, and whispered, “Can the blood of Jesus rub it out?”

Dear children, Christ’s blood can rub out the record of your sins, for it is written in God’s holy Word, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

The Kaleidoscope.

MOST of the readers of GOOD NEWS doubtless know what a Kaleidoscope is. It is an optical instrument in which we see an endless variety of colors and forms. It may be interesting to some, to trace the etymology, or origin, of its name. It appears to be compounded of three Greek words, viz., kalos, beautiful; eidos, form; and skopeo, to see. So that, putting these three together, the meaning is “to see beautiful forms,” which, we must admit, is peculiarly appropriate to the instrument referred to.

For some time past I have had an opportunity of occasionally looking into one of these interesting instruments of superior quality, and I confess that though it is many years since I was a child, yet that the sight of the varied combinations of shapes and colors which it exhibits gives me a passing pleasure. It is not, however, with the view of stating this, that I now write to my young readers, but to tell them that the almost unlimited variety of shapes and colors which the kaleidoscope displays, suggests to my mind the vast blessings and boundless beauties which the Word of God contains, and which are unfolded to us by the Spirit of Truth, as our hearts are prepared to receive them. Every believer who has been much taught of God in His Word would freely own that every time he looks into it, with true subjection to the Spirit’s teaching, he finds more and more wondrous and varied beauties and glories in it than he had seen before, as well as in Him of whom it testifies, even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Supposing that I allow the kaleidoscope to remain in its case unopened for a long period, then, though of course it still contains all its beauties, yet I am, for that time, a stranger to them. I retain only the recollection that they are there, but I am not enjoying the sight of them. So it is with the Christian who neglects the reading and hearing of the Word of God. All its blessings remain, but he is living only in the barren knowledge that they are contained in the Book, and not in the actual enjoyment of “the diligent soul,” who is “made fat” through the Word of Christ dwelling richly in Him. May we, then, both young and old, be not slothful in the reading of the Word, but followers in the footsteps of the blessed man spoken of in the 1St Psalm, of whom it is said, “His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

Eternal Peace.

GOD in the face of His dear Son

Makes His eternal counsels known.

There love in all its glory shines,

And truth is drawn in fairest lines.

The pris’ner there may break his chains,

The weary rest from all his pains;

The captive feel his bondage cease,

The mourner find eternal peace.

October, Dictionary of the Bible.

Eliab. — An ancestor of Samuel the prophet (1 Chron. 6:27).

Eliab. — David’s eldest brother. Of him nothing is known, except that he seems to have looked with a kind of envious eye towards David, and sought rather to check than to encourage him to fight against Goliath (1 Sam. 17:13-28).

Eliab. — There are also two others, of whom no more than the name is known (1 Chron. 12:9; 16:5).

Eliada (whom God cares for). — A son of David, the last but one born to him in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:16; 1 Chron. 3:8).

Eliadah. — The father of Rezon the Syrian (1 Kings 11:23).

Eliada. — A Benjamite; a mighty man of war, who led an immense force from his tribe to assist Jehoshaphat in his wars (2 Chron. 17:17).

Eliah’ba (whom God hides, i.e., keeps in safety amid perils). — One of David’s thirty heroes (2 Sam. 5:16; 2 Sam. 23:32; 1 Kings 11:23; 1 Chron. 3:8; 2 Chron. 17:17).

Elia’kim (set or appointed by God). — An officer in the household of Hezekiah; a man apparently of faith. He was one of the commissioners sent by the king to treat with the messengers of Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:18, 26, 37); and is also referred to with honor by Isaiah (ch. 22:20; 2 Kings 19:2; Isa. 36:3,11,22; 37:2).

Elia’kim. — A king of Judah, son and successor of Josiah, whom Pharaoh Nechoh made king after the death of his father. Pharaoh at the same time changed his name to Jehoiakim, which simply substitutes the “Je,” contraction for “Jehovah,” for “El,” God, and means “set by Jehovah” (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Chron. 36:4).

Elia’kim. — A priest in the days of Nehemiah, who took part in the thanksgiving at the dedication of the new wall of Jerusalem (Nell. 12:27-41).

Eli’ am (God’s people). — The father of Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:3).

Eli’am. — Son of Ahithophel, and one of David’s thirty warriors (2 Sam. 23:34).

Eliasaph. — Son of Deuel, and chosen as captain of the sons of Gad (Num. 1:14; 2:14; 7:42-47; 10:20).

Eliashib. — A son of Elioenai, a singer in the house of God, to whom the eleventh lot fell, which entitled him to become one of the governors of the sanctuary. Ezra, when grieving for the transgression of Israel, went to Eliashib’s son’s chamber to mourn (1 Chron. 3:24; 24:12; Ezra 10:6, 24, 27, 36).

Eliashib. — Son of Joiakim, who was high priest. He sinned greatly in preparing a chamber for Tobiah in the courts of the house of God (Nehemiah 13:4, 8, 28; 12:10; 3:1, 20, 21; 12:22, 23).

Eliathah, (great lamentation). — One of the sons of Heman, who were devoted to the service of the house of God according to King David’s order (1 Chron. 25:4, 6, 28).

Elidad. — Son of Chislon, of the tribe of Benjamin, chosen to divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel in the land of Canaan (Num. 34:21).

Eliel (whose strength is God). — Son of Toah; one of the mighty men of valor, famous men, and heads of the house of their fathers (1 Chron. 5:24; 6:34; 8:20, 22; 11:46, 47; 12:11).

Elienai. — One of the heads of the fathers of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who drove away the inhabitants of Gath (1 Chron. 8:13, 20).

Eliezer (whom God helps). — Steward of Abram’s house, and consider heir, as Abram said, “Lo, one born in my house is mine heir.” There was some bond between Abram and this man superior to that of an ordinary servant (Gen. 15:2, 3). It is not said in Scripture that Eliezer was sent to fetch a wife for Isaac from the kindred of Abraham, though it is understood it was Eliezer, from Abram sending his eldest servant, that ruled over all that he had (Gen. 24).

Eliezer. — Second son of Moses and Zipporah, to whom he gave the name of Eliezer: “For the God of my father was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh” (Ex. 18:4; 1 Chron. 23:15,17). There are other persons bearing the same name, see 1 Chronicles 7:8; 15:24; 26:25; 27:16; 2 Chronicles 20:37; Ezra 8:16; 10:18, 23, 31.

Answer to Bible Enigma for September.

“Lord of the Harvest.” —Matthew 9:38.

L emuel Proverbs 31:1.

O mri 1 Kings 16:23,24.

R amah 1 Samuel 9:22-24; 7:17.

D amascus 2 Corinthians 11:32,33.

O badiah... 1 Kings 18:3.

F elix Acts 24:25.

T ekoa 2 Samuel 14:2, 13, 21, 24.

H oreb Exodus 3:1.

E phraim Genesis 48:14-20.

H adadezer 2 Samuel 8:3-7.

A nanias Acts 5:1-5.

R echab 2 Samuel 4:5-7.

V ine John 15:1.

E lisha 2 Kings 3:14,15.

S uccoth Genesis 33:17.

T ophet Jeremiah 7:31, 2; Kings 23:10.

Answers to Bible Questions for September.

1. The day of the Lord will not overtake the children of light, but the children of darkness as a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:4, 5).

2. Believers are called saints sixty-two times in the New Testament, and three times Christians.

3. “Is any afflicted? let him pray; is any merry? let him sing psalms.”

4. He that says he knows Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and lives a life of sin, “is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” for “hereby we do know that we know Him [Jesus Christ] if we keep His commandments” (John 2:1-6).

5. Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1:1-3.

6. “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt. 7:20). “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22-25).

7. To walk even as Christ walked (1 John 2:6).

8. Job said, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).

Bible Questions for October.

1. Give Scripture to show how peace with God is to be obtained, and how the peace of God is to be enjoyed.

2. In what does God say His children stand before Him I’

3. Give Scripture to show why some of God’s children doubt that God is their Father?

4. How did Christ put away sin, and whose sins are put away?

5. By what does God say we are saved?

6. Give Scripture to show what will entitle any one to say he is a member of the Church of God.

7. Give four Scriptures which state that God has pardoned all the sins and iniquities of believers, and that He will not look at or remember them any more. In the four Scriptures which prove this the words sea, back, cloud, east, and west, will be found.

8. “The Lord knoweth them that are Ms.” What is reserved for such in heaven?

Bible Enigma for October

WHERE in His childhood did Jesus reside, from the sojourn in Egypt returned?

From what height did He gaze on the city He loved, whilst over its ruin He yearned?

When coming from Jordan, baptized of John, to what place did the Saviour go?

And what is He called who, though he was God, became man amongst men here below?

Where, asking for water, did Jesus make known the gift of the water of life?

Where, when He proclaimed Himself heavenly bread, were the Jews with each other at strife?

Who longed to see Jesus His power display, having heard of His wonderful fame?

Of what nation was he who, condemning our Lord, yet shielded himself from the blame?

Whose prophecy tells of the Saviour’s birth, His death, and His power to save?

Who, seeing the child in the temple, blessed God that salvation by Jesus He gave?

Who refused to believe that Jesus had risen till seeing and touching his Lord?

What title of honor did Mary bestow on the Master, whom death had restored?

What surname had he on whom woe was pronounced, for by him the Lord was betrayed?

When from judgment to Calvary Jesus was led, on whom was the heavy cross laid?

Whither went the disciples when Jesus drew near, and was known in the breaking of bread?

Who with myrrh and with aloes a hundred pound weight enwrapped the Lord’s body when dead?

Arrange the first letters, a truth will appear; a light midst the darkness below.

In Jesus who live, in Jesus shall die: oh, fullness of blessing to know!

"Go unto Joseph."

(Genesis 41:55.)

WHEN Joseph had been made such a great man of, every one that wanted food had to go to him. He had all the corn in Egypt in his keeping, and he laid it up in great places called storehouses, and it was not till he opened these storehouses that the people could get the wheat, and barley, and rye that were in them. When the poor men and women were “famished,” and cried to Pharaoh the king for bread, he told them they must go to Joseph, for he had it all, to sell or to give. So they went to him from out of all countries; and “he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth” (ch. 42:6.) Joseph knew them quite well, and remembered that this was the very thing he had dreamed would come to pass when he was a lad. They did not know him, but they were doing the very thing they had made up their minds they never would do. They had sold him into Egypt, that his dreams might not come true, and now they have come after him to do just what he had dreamed they would do! It was twenty years or more after, but Joseph had not forgotten, and God had not forgotten what he meant these men to do for that same Joseph they had once despised and hated. And God never does forget, dear little reader; and what He means people to do He can make them do, however they may kick at it and make up their minds not to do it. It is very sad if we are ever unwilling to do His will, and especially His will about how we should believe in His dear Son, and honor Him (John 5:23). If people “will not come” to Jesus, or have Him now as a Saviour, God knows how to compel them to honor Him as a Judge, as we have often said to you, and He will do it. When Jonah would go just the other way than the one God had told him, He knew how to send out a “great wind into the sea,” and make there to be a “mighty tempest,” so that Jonah could not go where he meant to. And so here with Joseph’s brothers in Canaan; God sent a “mighty famine” into that land, and they “began to be in want.” Then, when they heard that in Egypt there was corn enough and to spare, there was nothing else they could do but go there and get some. So they took their money, and went to Joseph, and they got the corn they wanted, and, strange to say, they got all their money back, too! They came to Egypt “among those that came” from other places, and they meant to buy the same as the rest, but Joseph knew his brothers, although they did not yet know him again, and he was not going to sell to his own brothers, whom he loved. They had hated and sold him for money, but he loved them, and would not have their money, even when he had let them have corn for it. He told his man to take the money every one of them had brought, and put it back into their sacks along with the corn, and he did so.

They little thought who it was that was being so kind to them; but it was that same Joseph who had once come to them to do them good. They had put him into the empty pit, and then sold him into Egypt; but now they have come to him there, pinched with hunger, and he will not send them empty away, but fill their bags with corn, and take no money for it either.

And is not he like the blessed Lord Jesus? When He was here He said, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest;” for He never sells anything, except it be “without money and without price” (Isa. 55:1). Pharaoh exalted Joseph, and told everyone to come to him; and Jesus said, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). And again, in the sixth chapter of John, He speaks to the people about the bread that gives life forever, which, He says, “the Son of Man shall give unto you, for Him hath God the Father sealed.” But all must come to Jesus who would be saved from their sins and live with Him in His “Father’s house,” for “there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Pharaoh said, “Go unto Joseph;” Jacob said, “Go again unto the man;” and the brothers said, “We will arise and go, that we may live and not die.” And they went, and came to Joseph, and the second time they came he made himself known to them.

But, before I talk to you about that, I must leave you for another month to think about him as the person they must come to if they were to “live and not die.” They were obliged to come, not only because God meant they should go, and bow down at his feet, and not only because Joseph himself still loved them and desired to do them good, but because, if they had not gone, they must have been starved to death, with their wives and their little ones. In all this he is still a picture of Jesus, to whom all must come by faith if they are to be saved from what is called “the second death,” the judgment of God for their sins after they leave this world. Those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus have eternal life, and will never come into judgment (John 5:24); but there are some who will not come, and they are not saved; as Jesus said: “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life” (John 5:40). He did not say, “You may not,” or “You cannot,” but “You will not.”

I hope, my dear little readers, you are not among those who “search the Scriptures,” and learn about Jesus, but do not come to Him for themselves. What would have become of Joseph’s brothers if they would not have come to Joseph? What will become of you if you “will not come” to Jesus? (See Matthew 22:3; Luke 19:27.)

W. TY.

"'Cause They Killed Him."

A CHRISTIAN gentleman going late one evening from St. Martin’s Lane to Bloomsbury Street, London, saw a number of ragged lads—beggars, thieves, or both—standing in a knot, talking, laughing, and swearing. Just as he passed, one of them shouted some jeering piece of impertinence after him. He turned round, and said kindly to the one who had spoken,

“Did you speak to me, my boy?”

He shambled a little away, muttering, “No, sir.”

The gentleman then stepped into the middle of the dirty group, saying, “Boys, listen to me. I have something to tell you—a sort of story.”

They were all silent in an instant, and then, in few and plain words, he told them of the kindness and love of God to the world (John 3:16); after which he spoke to them of the life, sufferings, and death of Jesus Christ, trying to tell all he could about it, and using the words of Scripture as much as possible. As he spoke of how weary and tired and hungry the Saviour often was, all was silence. Then as he went on to describe the closing scenes of that wondrous life, in the way he thought most likely to present its reality vividly to their minds, he heard an occasional scuffle, as one and another pushed nearer to hear how the Lord had suffered for sin. They listened with faces of awe—dirty enough, but solemn—to hear of the agony in Gethsemane, the cross and death of Jesus; and by-and-by he heard, and God heard too, little vulgar sobs of uncontrollable emotion. Dirty hands wiped dirty faces, and their round eyes never moved from the speaker’s lips, as he told them that, while he spoke to them, Jesus was there, and that His love was as great that night as when He died upon the cross for sinners.

The story ended; no one spoke. Suddenly the gentleman said, “Now, lads, He loved very much; ought not we to love Him? Who loves Him? Let everyone that wishes to love Him hold up his hand. I do,” and he held up his.

They looked at one another. Then one held his up. A little mass of rags, with only one shoe and a little grimy face, half hidden by his tangled hair, with an old battered hat without a rim, held up his dirty little hand. It was a touching sight. One and another followed, till all the hands, just twelve in number, were up.

The gentleman then said, slowly, “You all wish to love Him: now, dear boys, hear what He says to those who love Him: If ye love me, keep my commandments.’ “Then to him who had first held his hand up, he added, holding out his hand, “Shake hands on it that you will promise me to try and keep His commandments.”

At once the little hand was put in his for a hearty shake; and, giving the lads three shillings to be shared amongst them, he wished them goodnight. So they parted.

About three weeks afterward, the same gentleman, in company with a friend, was going under St. Clement Dane’s archway, when a little shoe-black, who had been kneeling at the side, made a dive forward and stood grinning with delight before them. The gentleman had not the least notion of who he was; so at last said, “Well, my boy, you seem to know me: who are you?”

“Please sir, I’m Jack.”

“Jack—Jack who?”

“Only Jack, sir, please sir.”

At once it occurred to him who the lad was. “I remember you now,” he said. “Have you tried to keep your promise to show your love to the Lord Jesus by obeying Him?”

“Yes sir, I have; indeed I have,” he answered, earnestly.

The gentleman stopped a little, making an excuse by letting him clean his shoes. “Can you read, Jack?” he asked.

“Yes, sir; not over well; but I can make shift to spell out a page.”

“Would you like a Testament of your own, where you could read the story you heard the other night?”

There was no answer, but such an expression of delight that the gentleman said,” I see you would like it, Jack. Come to my rooms at― tomorrow, and you shall have one.”

Exactly at the appointed hour Jack was there, having first washed himself at a neighboring pump, and plastered down his hair. His friend shook hands with him, and said he was glad to see him, adding, when the boy was seated by his side,

“Jack, why do you want a Testament?”

“To read about Him you told us of,” said he, shortly.

“Why do you want to read about Him? Because you love Him, is it?”

Jack nodded once, shortly and decisively. There was no doubt about it.

“Why do you love Him?”

Jack was silent. His little features moved in a singular way, his eyes twinkled, his breast heaved. All at once he dropped his head upon the table, sobbing as if his heart would break. “Cause they killed Him,” gasped poor Jack.

It was with some difficulty the gentleman restrained his own tears. The fervent belief in the Saviour’s death, the clear view that it was for him, and that he did in no way deserve it, had melted this poor little heart as it never had been melted before.

Jack’s name was then written or rather printed, at his request, “worry large” in his Testament. Then, after the gentleman had prayed and talked with him about his serving Christ by speaking of His love to others, they parted.

From that time Jack longed to tell other sinners of the love of Jesus, and the way in which they might be made happy now, and dwell forever with Christ in heaven.

This is always the case where Christ is truly known. Dear reader, is it so with you?

Old Lane.

BEHIND my house, at some little distance, there is a broad green lane which winds along between lofty hedges, where the blackberry, the sloe, and the hawthorn flourish, and dwarf oak and ash and wild rose bushes grow luxuriantly; where wild birds nestle in the thickets and wild rabbits burrow in the banks beneath. Save when the cow-herd drives his charge a-field, or leads them home at milking-time, it is seldom trodden, for, although broad enough for a high road, it really leads nowhere in particular, but, after wandering away for a good distance, ends in a stream of water and a five-barred gate. “What a curious lane,” you will say; and so it is, and a very pleasant one too, for there is plenty to look at and much to delight the eye and the ear. In the spring time there are flowers and birds’ nests in abundance, and all the summer long the blackbird and thrush, the lark and the linnet, and a host of other feathery minstrels, make music very much sweeter to listen to than those noisy bands that haunt the streets of London and other large towns. Wouldn’t you like to be there among the flowers and birds on a bright summer’s day?

Yes, I am sure you would; especially when the blackberries are ripe and the hips-and-haws are shining in the sun like numberless little red apples. How you would like to climb the banks and pluck them, or peep into the thickets to spy out some strange bird or wild flower, such as you have never seen before! How pleasant to watch the golden butterflies fluttering over the flowers, or the dragon-fly sporting on his glorious wings about the rush-grown fish-pond by the side of the road; to ramble far away to the end of the lane, where the murmuring stream crosses the path and flows wide and shallow beneath a long low arch of dense foliage, until it is lost in the meadows beyond, while high overhead the saucy rook going home to his nest in the wood on the hill greets you with a loud “caw,” as if he wanted to know what business you had there! Yes, I am quite sure you would like a ramble in “Old Lane” (for that is the name it is known by) when the summer’s sun is shining or autumn’s wild fruits are hanging on the hawthorn and the wild rose-bush and the blackberry-tree. But summer days soon pass away, and autumn’s warm hours grow shorter and shorter. Cold November comes at last, and drizzling rains and frosty nights soon strip the branches of both leaves and fruit, and then how dreary does the Old Lane become! The fish-pond overflows its sedgy banks, the murmuring stream below becomes a torrent, the grass-grown road, ploughed into deep mud by the frequent tramp of the herds on their way out and home, is like a bog, the flowers are all withered, the trees are all bare, and the tall hedges, so luxuriantly green but a little while before, and fluttering their leaves in every passing breeze, stand all still and naked in the cold gray light, mere skeletons of their former selves—weird spectral forms traced out against the wintry sky. Poor Old Lane! Its beauty has vanished like a dream—its verdure is all gone, its leaves and blossoms have perished, the music of the birds is heard no more, the murmur of its stream has changed into an angry roar, and, if a bird flits by, it is in silence and alarm, knowing that it has no shelter there!

And now, little reader, what do you think Old Lane reminds me of? Well, I will tell you: it reminds me of those words (Eccl. 11:9), “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thine heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes, but—” how does it all end? In disappointment; yes, and something worse than disappointment, for it ends in death and judgment! The world and its ways may seem very pleasant while youth and health remain, and all things are prosperous like the spring and summer time amongst the flowers and foliage of that green Old Lane; but the winter of this life comes at last, and then what remains? You know the worldly man must die, and then, even though he may have enjoyed this world for a season, what shall it profit him “if he lose his own soul?” Will the memory of what he once enjoyed soothe his misery then? Does the recollection of the summer gladness of Old Lane make it look any brighter in its wintry desolation? Oh, dear no; but rather the worse by contrast. When Abram said to the rich man, “Son, remember,” do you think the remembrance of what he once possessed would lighten his anguish? Ah, no; it would but increase his wretchedness a thousand fold!

So, then, the happiness which this world may give is at best but like the fleeting beauty in which spring and summer time clothe Old Lane. When “the harvest is past and the summer is ended;” when wintry winds and drenching rains prevail, the sweet scene closes in dreary desolation. And as Old Lane ends in a stream of water and a gate that bars the traveler’s path, so he that walks in the ways of his own heart and the sight of his own eyes will find at last that his sins have forever barred his way to heaven and happiness and eternal rest. But he that comes to Jesus by faith, especially while young, like you, dear reader, will learn that “Wisdom’s ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace,” and, unlike Old Lane, will never wither, but endure forever.

Enoch and Methuselah.

(Gen. 5:21-27)

“The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”― 1 Corinthians 15:52.

“AND Enoch walked with God”— how blest was he,

Translated, so that death he should not see!

And soon a multitude shalt thus arise,

Changed and caught up in glory to the skies,

With millions ransomed from the cold dark tomb,

Who wake with joy to see their Saviour come.

“He died”— the longest life was closed at last;

Nine hundred years and sixty-nine were past!

Methuselah, as many a one beside,

Had run his earthly race, and then “he died.”

Yes, “once to die” is man’s appointed doom,

“But after this the judgment,” sure to come.

The young, the old, are carried to the grave,

Nor human power nor skill from death can save;

But look to Jesus, and your soul shall live,

He died that life eternal He might give;

Then, if alive or summoned from the tomb,

What joy ‘twill be to see your Saviour come!

A Summer Morning's Ramble, 2.

LEAVING the village to which I introduced my young friends last month, I approached the Manor House, which is a noble-looking structure between 200 and 300 years old. It is ornamented with an elegant garden, and nearly surrounded by an extensive park, containing an ancient rookery, and a stock of deer. I cannot help sometimes wondering whether the occupants of such beautiful residences are really happy. In many instances, I fear that they are not. Of one thing, however, I am certain, and that is that, if they are happy, and their happiness is to be enduring, it must not be based upon their high station, nor upon the many elegancies and comforts of life which attend them. Of all who ever lived, Solomon, I suppose, had the fullest opportunity of making the most of this world; and what does he say about it? Let us hearken. “I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun” (Eccl. 2:1-11). It is clear, then, that if we would be, truly happy, we must not seek our resting-place under the sun, but must build upon the foundation which God hath laid, even upon the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

A little farther on, I came to an interesting object, a nursery of young poplars. It is situated just within the wall of the park, and the number of the trees is 150 or more. They are planted at equal distances, and with their tall and taper stems, and their ascending branches and twigs, they present a very graceful appearance. The trees appear to be stripped of the leaves as they grow, so that only a small quantity of foliage is seen on the top. The uprightness of the trees, also, is so evident that they confirm the correctness of the proverbial expression, “as straight as a poplar.” I like to see, in objects around me, especially in the works of God in creation, some suggestion or illustration of a spiritual truth; and this nursery of poplars suggested to me the pleasantness and blessing of an orderly, well-conducted, and well-taught Sunday-school, in which it is the aim of the Lord’s gardeners, as we may call the teachers, to train the souls of the young for God and for heaven. What pains the teachers will take to sow the seed of the Word in the hearts of the children, in the hope that they may become “trees of the Lord!” How patiently they continue in their work week after week, year after year; besides embracing any special opportunities of pressing that Word upon the hearts and consciences of the children. May such teachers be encouraged by the exhortation, “Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

It is undoubtedly a great privilege for a child to be thus taught and trained, especially when the teaching which he hears at the school is a continuation of that which he receives at home. But there is a verse in 2 Timothy 3 which we should always remember in connection with this privilege. It is this: “From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” This plainly shows that whilst it is a good thing to be instructed in the Scriptures, yet that, unless the child who is thus instructed believes in Christ Jesus, he is not wise unto salvation, though he may know much of that which is written in the Bible. May you then, dear child, be taught of God, for every one that is so taught cometh to Jesus Christ for pardon, peace, and eternal life (Eph. 1:7, 2:17; John 10:28).

Passing on with these and such-like reflections, and taking a glance at other objects on my way, I came to the boundary-stone which divides the parish of C. from the parish of W. It may seem strange, but that stone seemed to teach a very instructive lesson to me, and that which it seemed to say I will endeavor to communicate to my young readers. When I reached the stone I stopped. I was then still in C., though I was but a step from W. I had but to take one short step, and I should then have passed out of the first parish, and have entered into the other. As I stood thus for a few moments, I thought how like my position was to that of some souls. They seem to be very near to Christ, but they are not in Him. They hear the Word of God, they attend the preaching of the Gospel, and, if they be the children of believers, they frequently accompany their parents to the meetings which they attend. They are also present when their father reads the daily portion from the Word, and bows down his knees in thanksgiving and prayer. They often hear the pleasant sound of praise, and join in the expression of it, in “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” They are brought up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” and not unusually they are trained to be subject both to their parents and instructors. But have they really passed out of the region of death and judgment, which is the portion of the world, into Christ, through believing on Him with the heart? That is the question. You see that though I might have come very close to the other parish, yet, if I did not pass the boundary line, I was still out of it. Where, dear child, are you? Are you, though well-behaved and moral, and, perhaps, outwardly religious, only “of the world,” which “lieth in the wicked one?” Or are you really and truly, in the sight of God, who reads the heart, one of those concerning whom it is written, There is not, neither can there be, any condemnation to that man to whom the Lord will not impute sin (Rom. 4:8; 8:1).

There are two instances in the Scriptures which are very instructive upon this point. One is that of king Agrippa, recorded in Acts 26, who, after he had heard the Apostle Paul preach, said unto him, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” But Paul well knew that there was no use in being almost persuaded; and so, he said, with the true dignity of, one who himself knew what a blessing it was to be a Christian in reality, “I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.” The other instance to which I refer is that of the young man whose case is narrated in three of the Gospels. We will look for a moment at the account given in Mark 10. Now, he seemed to be very near indeed to the kingdom of God. He came “running” to Jesus; he “kneeled to Him and asked Him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” And, concerning the commandments, he said, “Master, all these have I observed from my youth;” and I suppose that outwardly he had done so. “Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him.” Yes, the sight of an amiable, moral, and seemingly God-seeking young person, is indeed one that is very attractive. But the Lord, penetrating to the depth of his heart, said unto him, “One thing thou lackest.” The young man, thus tested, revealed that, notwithstanding all his good moral qualities, he had no heart for Christ. Did he not seem at first sight very near indeed to Christ? Yet the end was, that “he went away sorrowful.” Yes, it is sorrowful to go away from Jesus, the only One who can make us joyful. May this not be the case with any reader of this friendly address to him! May the lesson of the Boundary-Stone not be lost upon him!

The next place to which I came was a cemetery, situated upon a hill, to the highest point of which I ascended. Very strikingly, just below me, was a hoary-headed old man, who was mowing the grass between the graves. He seemed to be the very picture of old Time, mowing down high and low, rich and poor, old and young, with his sharp and sweeping scythe; sparing none, but bringing them all to the grave.

“All alike, the young and old,

Like the months must pass away,

All are hasting to decay;

Yea, the young, as well as old.

“Quickly fade the months and years;

Life upon a thread is hung;

Flee to Jesus, old and young,

Ere are closed your months and years.”

From the eminence on which I stood, there was a charming view. The sun was, at the time, shining in his meridian strength, the sky was beautifully clear, and the magnificent span of the heavens was seen to great advantage. At one’s feet lay the rich beauties of fields of golden corn, luxuriant meadows, and clusters of graceful trees, interspersed with pleasant mansions and villages. This view was of a few miles’ extent; and in the distance there was a bold background of a range of Mills. I cannot of course describe every object that met my eye; but there was one upon the distant hills, which stood conspicuously forth, sparkling in the beams of the sun, and that was the Crystal Palace of this world’s pleasure. Yet, however, it appeared an insignificant structure in the presence of so much natural scenery. Truly, as saith the Psalmist, “the works of the Lord are great,” and they completely eclipse the glittering glory of the world. The Christian can look around with pleasure upon the handiwork of God, and see therein “His eternal Power and Godhead;” and small, indeed, appear the greatest works of man in comparison. But when he lifts up the eye of faith to the heaven of heavens, and sees there the brightness of the glory of God, “in the face of Jesus Christ,” and the heavenly brilliancy of the throne upon which He sits in divine Majesty, everything “under the sun” which is of man fades away from his view into its native nothingness. May you, then, dear young friends, cc see JESUS,” and thus be brought to the Fountain of those pleasures which are for evermore.

Next month, please God, I hope to be able to bring the narrative of my morning’s walk to a conclusion.

November, Dictionary of the Bible.

Elihoreph, (God will recompense). — Son of Shisha, a scribe (1 Kings 4:3).

Elihu (whose God he is). — Son of Tohu (1 Sam. 1:1).

Elihu. — One of the captains of the thousands that were of Manasseh (1 Chron. 12:20).

Elihu. — One of the brethren of David (1 Chron. 27:18).

Elihu. — Son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the kindred of Ham, whose wrath was kindled against Job because he justified himself rather than God; he evidently understood Job’s state better than Job’s three, friends, yet it is recorded he waited until they had finished because “they were elder than he!” (Job 32:2-6).

Elijah (whose God is Jah). — The seventeenth chapter of 1 Kings gives us Elijah’s first appearance in public, but in James God has graciously furnished us with the account of a yet earlier stage in his history, and one full of instruction, and lets us into the secret of Elijah’s prayer to God, before ever he came out in active service before man. “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17-20). It is instructive to observe that Elijah is presented to us, in common with all his fellow-servants, in circumstances of secret training and exercise ere he appears in public. This is a feature in the history of all the servants of God; all have been happily trained in secret with God previous to their acting in public with man, and, moreover, those who have entered most deeply into the meaning and value of the secret training will be found the most effective and permanent in their public service and testimony. That man has cause to tremble who has arrived at a position in public which exceeds the measure of his secret exercise of soul before God; he will assuredly come short. If the superstructure exceed the measure of the foundation below, the building will totter or fall. If a tree shoot forth its branches into the air to a degree exceeding the strength of its roots, it will be unequal to the violence of the storm, and will come to the ground: so it is with the man who enters on public service; he must be alone with God—his spirit must be exercised in private.

Elika (God’s congregation). — The Harodite; one of David’s mighty men (2 Sam. 23:25).

Elim (strong trees). — The place where the Israelites encamped after the miracle of sweetening the waters of Marah. There were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees (Ex. 15:27; Num. 33:9,10).

Elimelech, (whose God is king). — A Bethlehemite; the husband of Naomi, by whom he had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. During the time of famine when the judges ruled, he went to sojourn with his family in the land of Moab, where he and his two sons died (Ruth 1:1, 2).

Elioenai (unto Jehovah are mine eyes). — The seventh son of Meshelemiah, who ministered in the house of the Lord (1 Chron. 26:3-12).

Elioenai. — The head of a family in Benjamin (1 Chron. 7:8).

Elioenai. — The head of a family in Simeon (1 Chron. 4:36).

Elioenai. — A priest; one of the sons of Pashur, a contemporary of Ezra, and one of those who married strange wives (Ezra 10:22).

Eliphalet (God for safety). — A son of David; the last-born in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:16).

Eliphalet. — One of David’s thirty heroes (2 Sam. 23:34). There are others of this name, one a Benjamite, and two companions of Ezra (1 Chron. 8:39; Ezra 8:13).

Eliphaz (God for strength). — One of the sons of Esau; the father of Teman (Gem 36:10).

Eliphaz. — One of Job’s three friends. He is simply described as “Eliphaz the Temanite,” and regarded as a descendant of the preceding Eliphaz (Job 2:11).

Elizabeth (who swears by God). — The name of the wife of Zacharias and mother of John the Baptist. She was, like her husband, of the family of Aaron. Both were righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless (Luke 1:5, 6).

Elisha (to whom God is salvation). — The ministries of Elijah and Elisha occupied the days of the family of Ahab, of the house of Omri, the time of the deepest corruption in the kingdom of the ten tribes. The testimony of Lord about those times is this: “And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him.” It was in those days that Hiel the Bethelite dared the arm of the Lord by rebuilding Jericho (Josh. 6:26; 1 Kings 16:34).

Answer to Bible Enigma for October.

“Now is Christ risen.”-1 Cox. 15:20.

N AZARETH Matthew 2:19, 23.

O livet. Luke 19:37-41.

W ilderness Luke 4:1.

I mmanuel Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23.

S ychar John 4:5, -7:14.

C apernaum John 6:51,52,69.

Hered Luke 23:8.

R oman Matthew 27:24,26.

I saiah Isaiah 9:6; 53:8, 11, 12.

S imeon Luke 2:25-31.

T homes John 20:24,25.

R abboni John 20:16.

I scarlet Luke 22:3, 22.

S imon Luke 23:26.

E mmaus Luke 24:13, 30, 31.

N icodemus John 19:39, 40.

Answers to Bible Questions for October.

1. “Peace with God” (Rom. 5:1). If believers follow the exhortations given in Philippians 4:4-7, the peace of God which passeth all understanding will keep their hearts.

2. God’s children are not only saved by grace, but they stand in grace (Titus 2:11; Rom. 5:2).

3. Some of God’s children doubt His love because they do not add to their faith (2 Peter 1:5-9).

4. All who have faith in Christ may say, “He bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

5. We are “saved by grace through faith” (Eph. 2:8).

6. The children of God are members of one family, baized into one body, stones of one temple; they are builded together for an habitation of God (1 Cor. 12:12-31; Eph. 2).

7. Sea (Mic. 7:19), back (Isa. 38:17), cloud (Isa. 44:22), east and west (Psa. 103:12).

8. 2 Timothy 2:19. An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth: not away (1 Peter 1:4).

Bible Enigma for November.

WHAT judge in Israel had a father’s claim

To thirty daughters, and of sons the same?

Whose son was hid to shun the king’s decree,

Whom Pharaoh’s daughter afterward set free?

What cave did Abraham of Ephron buy,

Where after death his family did lie?

From whence did Joab a wise woman bring

To plead for Absolom before the king?

What minor prophet wept o’er Israel’s crimes,

And lived in Jeroboam wicked times?

Where were two armies in battle arrayed

When David drew nigh to the field?

What virtuous queen would not her lord obey,

Though he the Assyrian’s scepter long did sway?

Who went to Mizpeh with deceit and art,

And plunged his dagger in the ruler’s heart?

Who sat beneath a tree in thought profound,

Of whom Christ said, “In him no guile was found?”

Who in their youth did not his sons restrain,

And in his hoary hairs found grief and pain?

From the above initials you’ll discern

A metaphor, from which we clearly learn

Which is the only source of life divine,

And from whence must all Christian graces shine.

Bible Questions for November.

1. What Scripture tells us God has sworn that the reader’s knee shall bow to Him?

2. Give one verse which states that we cannot be saved by works, but by faith.

3. Give Scripture which tells us that if man could get to heaven by works, then Jesus would not have suffered on the cross.

4. Give four Scriptures showing that God will not accept anything from us except we come to Him by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

5. Give Scriptures from the Old and New Testament showing that God would have all men come to Him to be saved.

6. What did Jesus say about the hairs on the believer’s head?

7. What reason is given why a child of God should not be anxious about food and clothing?

8. Does the Bible speak of any event to be looked for before all Christians are caught up to meet their Lord in the air?

Joseph Dead and Alive Again.

(Read Gen. 42)

OF course, he did not really die and come to life again, but, if you will carefully read through the 37th, 42nd and 44th chapters, you will find that at least seven times he is spoken of as dead. In some places it is his brothers who say it (as in 44:20), and in others it is Jacob his father. (as in 42:38); only, you know, he thought he really was dead. So that, when he heard afterward that he was “yet alive,” the poor old man “fainted, for he believed them not.”

And now look at them all at the end of this chapter (42). They think Joseph is dead; yet in truth he is alive, and it is through his being alive that they are alive also. They say “one is not,” and they mean Joseph; but he is, and the very food they are living on came from him, and he would not let them pay for it either! He is “lord of all the land” of plenty, while they are starving in the land of famine; and they have been to him, and will have to go again, if they are to live and not die; and yet with all they don’t know that Joseph is anywhere! “The man who is the lord of the land” they have seen, and bowed themselves to the earth before him, and now they fear him; but little do they think that same man is Joseph, their brother, with a heart full of love to them, and longing to do them good, and make them happy and prosperous, near to himself!

Now, in Acts 25:19, we read about another Person whom some people said was dead, and others said He was alive. The governor, Festus, is speaking to the king about the Lord Jesus, and he says it is “one Jesus who is dead;” but Paul said He was alive, and he knew he was right, for he had seen and heard Him. The truth was He had been really dead, not only supposed to be, as Joseph was, and He had been raised from the dead. As He said Himself to John in the first chapter of Revelation: “I was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore.” And so He is. As Joseph was taken from the dungeon to be lord of all, so Jesus has been taken from the grave to the right hand of God, who has “made Him Lord” (Acts 2:36). And as all people were supplied by Joseph with the food he had laid up in store, so now, if we are really blessed, we have to say, “Of His fullness have all we received.” He Himself spoke, too, of the water that He would give (John 4:14), and of the bread that He would give (chs. 6:27, 51). Even if we do not know Him as our Saviour, all the good things we enjoy come from Him, as we sing:

“The good I have is from His store supplied,

The ill is only what He deems the best.”

The food Joseph’s brothers were eating came from Joseph, although they did not know who he was; but that did not satisfy Joseph. He wanted them not only to enjoy his corn, but to know him, and be happy with him; and by-and-by, when the best time came, he told them who he was, and had them to come and live near him. But what I want you to think of just now is, that, even when they did not know him, he knew them, as we read in verse 8 (ch. 42). He knew them every one, and remembered all about them, though for a bit he did not let them know but that they were all strange to him. He did not even speak to them in words they could understand; when he said anything, there was a man just by to tell them what he meant. But Joseph could have done without him, and have spoken to them himself; and so, when they talked to one another, they thought he would not know what they said, but he did know every word! And so as to the Lord Jesus; whether you know Him yet or not, He knows all about you. He does not yet speak to you Himself, as He did to Saul of Tarsus, in Acts 9, but He speaks to you by means of His servants. But it is Him that you have to do with, and even now every word you speak He hears. And, more than that, He can do what Joseph could not do. He looks into your heart, and knows just what you think and feel, whether you say it or not. If you read in the Gospel of John, you will find in many places how “He knew all men,” whether they knew Him or not. In chapter 1 “the world knew Him not,” and John says he” knew Him not; “and Nathanael knew Him not; but Jesus knew them all, and the end of chapter 2 tells us He knew every one—what was in them, as well as what came out! In chapter 4 He knew all about that poor woman, and could tell her all things that ever she did. Again, in chapter 5:6, He knew all about the poor helpless man. But He was a Stranger to them; and so He was to the blind man of chapter 9, till Jesus told him who He was, and then he believed Him, and worshipped Him. And then in chapter 10 He speaks about His sheep, and says that not only He knows them, but they know Him! (vs. 14.) This is a very happy thing to know, to be able to say, “Jesus is my Shepherd, and He knows me, and loves me, and cares for me. And I know Him. He is no Stranger to me. I love Him, too, and love to hear His voice, and to try to please Him by following Him. His precious blood has washed away all my sins, and His perfect love has cast out all my fears, and I am going to be with Him forever and ever.”

Dear little reader, do you know Jesus like this? Never rest until you do.

W. TY.

Idol Worship and the Wicked Hindoo Son.

You have often read in GOOD NEWS about people in other countries who worship idols, and how wicked it makes them, because they who worship idols do really worship devils, and you know they cannot do that without becoming like them. It doesn’t matter what names they may give their idols; whether they call them Vishnu or Mary, Jupiter or Joseph, it all comes to the same thing, and they who say, “Hail, Mary!” as some sinful people do even in this country, might just as well say, “Hail, Satan!” for God declares that the things which they sacrifice to idols they sacrifice to devils (1 Cor. 10:20), and little by little they become like what they thus worship. I am sure you will think so when I tell you what an American gentleman, who was living in India, one day witnessed. He was taking a walk one morning on the banks of the river Ganges when he heard someone moaning, as if in distress, and, on going to see what was the matter, found an aged man, lying all alone on the ground, apparently dying. On looking at him, he saw, to his great astonishment, that it was a person who was known to him as a Hindoo of high rank and large property, with whom he had dined only a few days before. “Why!” exclaimed the American, “how came you here?”

“Alas!” replied the aged man, “my son placed me here to die. He thinks I have lived long enough, and wants to have my property. He has it all now, and I shall never trouble him any more.”

Now, little reader, just think of this. These Hindoos worship idols; the old father, who lay deserted and dying on the banks of the Ganges, was a heathen, and had brought up his son in the same wicked religion, and now, when he was old and feeble, that son, his own child, had actually had him taken by force to the place where he was found, and had there left him to die of cold and starvation! Is it not true that they who pray to idols, and so worship devils under different names, become like them? What shocking wickedness this son was guilty of to try and murder his own aged father by the dreadful death of cold and starvation, for the sake of having his money a little sooner! I am glad to tell you that his wicked purpose was defeated, for the American gentleman went at once to the magistrates, and had the old man taken back to his house and his property, and the wicked son turned out. But it shows what idolatry brings the sinful heart of man to be capable of, and how much cause we have to value God’s precious Word and the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For even those that do not believe are controlled and influenced by the Word of God, so that such wickedness as this would shock them. But, if they owe so much to that precious Word, what a solemn thing it is for many, even among the readers of GOOD NEWS I fear, to go on careless about the Lord Jesus Christ, about whom they know so much, yet in whom they do not believe! And a still more solemn thing it is to think that, even where the true light shines so brightly, there should be so many in this country who mingle the worship of idols with the worship of God, and what with images, wax tapers, flowers, and prayers to Mary and others, imitate both Balaam and Cain too! For you know Balaam pretended to worship the Lord on the high places of Baal (Num. 22:41; 23:1-3), thus mixing up the worship of Jehovah with that of idols; and Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord (Gen. 4; Jude 11).

You may not be old enough yet to understand how very solemn all this is, but I can tell you that it shows that “the night is far spent,” and that “the day is at hand.” Are you ready to meet the Lord? If you have believed in Him as your own dear Saviour, His precious blood has cleansed you from all sin, and when He comes, as He will do soon and suddenly, He will receive you unto Himself, that where He is, there you may be also. But, if you have not believed in Him, you are in danger of the judgment that is coming on this Christ-rejecting world. Which would you prefer? Surely, I need not ask you? Well, then, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

Little Samuel.

I HAVE often thought it must have been a pleasant sight to see little Samuel ministering “before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod” (1 Sam. 2:18).

Samuel, you know, belonged to the priestly tribe of Israel, and the ephod was a garment worn by priests when they approached to worship or minister before God. That which the high priest wore was very beautiful, being formed of fine-twined linen, embroidered with gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet; while the ordinary priests seem to have worn a similar garment of linen only (1 Sam. 22:18). Now, a priest is one who offers sacrifices to the Lord, and these Jewish priests were really a type or figure of those who, ever since Jesus died and rose again, have been made priests to offer unto God spiritual sacrifices (Rev. 1:6; 1 Peter 2:5). I suppose you know who they are? A priest is a worshipper, and you can hardly have read GOOD NEWS without knowing that none can now worship God but believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They, and they only, are true priests, because they, and they only, are clothed in Christ, and little Samuel in his ephod was really a type of a little believer in Jesus worshipping the Lord. Is not that a pleasant sight? I am sure you cannot deny it, and I only hope that you who are now reading this are a little Samuel, able to “minister before the Lord.” But are your sins gone? for you cannot worship God in your sins, because God is holy. If your sins are not put away, you are not “in Christ;” you have no ephod, you are not a little priest, like the child Samuel, and, though you may go to a place for worship, you really are not a worshipper at all. What a solemn thing to be “before the Lord” without the power to worship Him!

Now, I notice that Samuel had something else beside the ephod, for he had “a little coat.” This little coat was also made of linen, and every priest, whether big or little, old or young, must wear one (Ex. 28:40, 41). I have no doubt that this linen garment was a figure of the white raiment spoken of in the New Testament, for in Revelation 7 we read of some who had “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” and they were worshipping. Well, now, what does this mean? Why, of course, that their sins were gone—washed away in the blood of Christ. So, then, we may take the “little coat” which the child Samuel wore to represent that sinlessness in which every believer in Jesus appears before God. If you are.” in Christ,” you are sinless in God’s sight; if you are not sinless before God, you are not in Christ. The “ephod” and the ‘little coat” go together, and the child Samuel had both.

But there is something else I want you to notice. Samuel’s little coat needed to be renewed “from year to year;” for we read, “Moreover, his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year” (1 Sam. 2:19). Of course, Samuel’s little coat would wear out, and, besides, he, being a child, would grow bigger and bigger every year, and so would need a new coat. But the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ never needs to have his white robes renewed. “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “We HAVE redemption, even the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). It is true that we may, alas! get our garments defiled, but then, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). So, then, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, however little, is clothed in Christ, and washed from his sins in His precious blood; he is always acceptable to God; for, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom, also, we have access, by faith, into this grace (favor) wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5.1; 2). We always “stand” in this “grace” or favor; we are ever “accepted in the Beloved;” we are always clothed in the ephod, and the linen coat. Are you one of these I Are you a little Samuel? I hope you are, for then, not only can you “minister before the Lord” now in this present time, but you shall hereafter dwell in the “Father’s house” (John 14), and worship and serve Him forever and ever.

Just a word or two more about Samuel’s little coat. I dare say when in after years he grew to be an old man, and wrote the book that bears his name, he loved to recall his dear pious mother’s care and love for him in making and bringing to him his little coat “from year to year,” and, if you are “a little Samuel,” you will not forget, but like to remember, all your mother’s love and care for you. Those that wear the ephod and the linen coat, those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, “honor their father and mother,” because He has commanded them to do so. Once more I ask, “Are you a little Samuel?”

A Summer Morning's Ramble. 3.

IN the Cemetery, from the summit of which I had the extensive view of which I spoke last month, there is a tombstone inscribed with the name of a boy of the age of thirteen years, which, it is stated, was “erected by his schoolfellows, in affectionate remembrance of the good qualities and example of their beloved companion.” The Scriptures, “Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him,” and “He, being dead, yet speaketh,” are also engraved on the stone. One would hope that this inscription, though of an unusual character, has its foundation in truth, and that the good qualities and example for which the youth is commended were the result of his having “received Christ Jesus the Lord,” and of his having walked as one who was “rooted and built up in Him.” Good as the truthful testimony of our fellow-creatures may be, it is more blessed to have such as Enoch had, who “walked with God,” and “had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Still, it is pleasant to read, as we do of the child Samuel, that he “grew on, and was in favor both with the Lord, and also with men;” and it is far more precious to be told of the child Jesus, that “He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”

Another stone is inscribed to the memory of a beloved mother, and to her is applied the Scripture, “Her children arise up, and call her blessed.” It is, indeed, a privilege to have a mother who fears the Lord, and brings up her children in His peaceful and pleasant ways. May those who are thus privileged prize her highly, and give heed to her unwearied teachings and faithful guidance. And if she should be taken from this scene to that which is for herself far better, even to be “present with the Lord,” how sweet a savor does the recollection of herself and of her God-fearing ways bring to the hearts of those who loved her during her days of toil for her young ones, whom she thus sought to train up for the Lord. “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck” (Prov. 1:8).

A little farther on; I came to a cornfield, in which the harvest men were busily occupied in reaping some of the precious grain which God has given for the food of man. The regular return of harvest is a blessed fulfillment of the word of the Lord to Noah, after the flood, when, having smelled the sweet savor of Noah’s burnt-offerings on the altar, the Lord said, among other things, “While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.” The reaping of this field was a very pleasant sight, and I rested in order to take a view of it. The reapers were at work at the end of the field, at a distance from where I stood; but not far from me was a young woman—probably a daughter of one of the harvestmen—who, though not actually engaged in the reaping, was still very usefully and helpfully employed, for she was preparing food for the men who were reaping the corn. What a picture, I thought, is that young woman of a youthful Christian, helping to the extent of his or her ability in the work of the Lord! The young cannot be presumed to be sufficiently trained workers in His harvest-field, to bear “the burden and heat of the day,” as reapers; but they may be “fellow-helpers to the truth,” in the many useful and unobtrusive ways which they whose hearts are constrained by the love of Christ will not fail to discover as suited to their age and the ability which God has given to them. “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” is the proper expression of a soul in its true attitude before Him, as ready to do His will, and to serve with the service of love, however humble the sphere may be.

Being now on my return home, I varied the way by taking a path which led through fields and meadows, in one of which I found a torn tract, which I picked up and perused. From its appearance I supposed that it had been thrown away by someone who did not care to read it and yet it contained a clear and vivid statement of “the Gospel of Christ,” which is “the power of God unto salvation.” The title of the tract is “The Sinking Ship, and the Lifeboat.” It points out the impossibility of the sailors saving such a ship, though they work at the pumps with all their strength. Then comes alongside the lifeboat, and some of the sailors get into it immediately, while others remain in the leaky ship, and still try to save it, though it is rapidly filling with water. The sinking, leaky, ruined vessel, says the writer, is a picture of the state of a sinner, and all his labor and toil to save himself are in main. There is no escape but in the Lifeboat, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it is written, “There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), What, then, will you do? Will you not enter the Lifeboat at once? Lose no time. Escape for your life. Give up all your fruitless doings, and trust in Him. He has made full satisfaction for sin upon the cross; so that whosoever trusteth in Him as his Saviour receives the remission of sins, is kept and sustained through this world, and at length will be safely landed in heavenly glory.

In the meadow adjoining that in which I found the tract was a very pleasing sight. It was that of about twenty or thirty lambs, with beautifully clean fleeces, reposing, during the heat of the day, beneath the shadow of some leafy trees, looking the very picture of contentment and repose. I thought of the passage in the Song of Solomon (ch. 2:3), “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.” This sight seemed to follow sweetly in order, after the forsaking of the sinking ship, and getting into the lifeboat. What the sinner first needs is salvation, and that he gets through faith in Christ. But, having obtained this salvation, he has also sustenance and satisfaction in the One who is his Saviour. As these lambs had their green pasture, so the believer has refreshing and nourishing food in the Word of God, and rest and repose in His love, as they had beneath the shady trees. Oh! it is blessed to see the sheep of Christ, the young especially, satisfied with Christ, and resting in Him. That He desires that they should be fed upon His Word, we know from what He said to Peter: “Feed my lambs,” and by what Peter himself says, by the Spirit of Christ, to the elders: “Feed the flock of God.” May all who know and love Him listen and yield to His gracious invitation, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11).

As I was approaching home, I overtook, in a retired lane, a decent-looking man, who I presumed was blind, by the manner in which he felt his way with his stick. I was about to pass him in silence, when I felt rebuked, and said to myself, “Why, here is a good opportunity to say a word in season to this poor man, and yet I was about to let it slip.” I then stepped back a few paces, and said to him, “So, my friend, I see that you are taking a walk this fine morning. Well, I hope it may do you good; and, if I am not mistaken, I think that you are blind.” His face brightened immediately, and he cheerfully replied, “Thank you, sir, I am out for a walk, and I am blind, but you would scarcely think so, would you, sir; from the look of my eyes? For,” continued he, “I am thankful to say that, though I have lost my sight, the appearance of my face is not unpleasant, in consequence of my affliction;” and he opened his sightless eyes upon me, which answered to the description he gave of them. Having thus commenced a conversation, I presently said to him, “I was lately reading of a blind boy who was brought into the presence of Bishop Hooper, a martyr of the reign of Queen Mary, to whom the bishop, after conversing with him, said, Ah! poor boy, God hath taken from thee thy outward sight, for what cause He best knoweth, but He hath endued thy soul with the eye of knowledge and faith.’ I trust, my friend, that this is the case with you.” We then had an interesting conversation for about a quarter of an hour, and I left him with the persuasion that he was a Christian who, as regards his state of soul, answered to the description of the man, in Mark 8, who had been blind, when the Lord “asked him if he saw aught. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.” The Lord grant that, like that same man, he may yet see “clearly;” and know assuredly the blessed portion which the believer has in Christ. He was, however, of a happy, thankful spirit, and, from enquiries which I afterwards made, I learned that he bears a good report. When I left him, I had the inward satisfaction which one experiences when; though in ever so humble a manner, we confess the name of the Lord, and for His sake seek the good of others.

I have now ended the account of my morning’s walk, as well as the expression of such thoughts arising from it as I hope may be of use to my young “unseen friends.” I have endeavored to serve you, and I trust that I have in some measure been successful. May God bless you all, and bring those of you that do not yet know Him to the knowledge of Himself in Christ; and may those of you who do know Him, as taught of God, “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever.”

"Is It Well

(2 Kings 4:26.)

I’LL ask thee a question, O thou who art young,

And trust that the truth thou wilt tell;

Let conscience and heart give the word to thy tongue,

“Is it well with thee, child? Is it well?”

Thou hast health, thou hast strength, thou hast raiment and food;

In a bright happy home thou Bost dwell;

But, though God all thy path with His blessings hath strew’d,

“Is it well with thee, child? Is it well? “

A mother thou hast, always loving and kind,

A father, whom none can excel;

But, though round thy young heart all their love is entwin’d,

“Is it well with thee, child? Is it well?”

Hast thou look’d to the Lord? Hast thou trusted in Him

On whom our just judgment once fell?

If not, though thy mercies run over the brim,

With thy soul, dearest child, ‘tis not well.

Against God, who sent Jesus His Son from above,

Oh, let not thy bosom rebel;

Take refuge in Christ, and repose in His love;

Then ever with thee ‘twill be well.

December, Dictionary of the Bible.

Elishah, —The name of one of the sons of Javan (Gen. 10:4).

Elishama (God has heard). ―1, A prince of Ephraim (Num. 1:10); 2, a son of David, born to him in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:16); 3, a descendant of Judah (1 Chron. 2:21; 2 Kings 25:25); 4, a priest in the time of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 17:18).

Elishaphat (God has judged). — A captain of hundred in the time and service of Jehoiada the priest (2 Chron. 13:1).

Elisheba (God’s oath). — The daughter of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah, and the wife of Aaron (Ex. 6:23; Num. 1:7); so that the descendants of Aaron were closely allied to the tribe of Judah, though they actually belonged to the tribe of Levi.

Elish ua (to whom God is salvation). ―2 Samuel 5:15; 1 Chronicles 14:5.

Elizaphan; (God has hidden, protected). ―1, A Levite and head of the family of the Kohathites when the census was taken in the wilderness (Num. 3:30); 2, a leading person of the tribe of Zebulon, who took part in the distribution of the land of Canaan (Num. 34:25).

Elizur (whose God is a rock). — The son of Shedeur, prince of the children of Reuben (Num. 1:5; 2:10; 7:30, 35; 10:18).

Elkanah (whom God has taken into possession). ―1, One of the sons of Korah (Ex. 6:24). All the family of Korah did not perish with himself (Num. 26:11); 2, several other descendants of Korah bore this name (1 Chron. 6:26, 27, 34; 9:16; 12:6); he lived at Ramathaim-zophim, in Mount Ephraim, had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah, and by the former became the father of Samuel the prophet (1 Sam. 1:2).

Elkoshite, applied as a designation to the prophet Nahum (Nah. 1:1).

Ellasar. — The country and kingdom of Arioch; one of the four kings who invaded Canaan in the days of Abraham (Gen. 14:1).

Elm. — The translation given us in Hosea 4:13 of “alah,” which everywhere else is rendered “oak.”

Elnaam (to whom God is pleasantness, delight). ―1 Chronicles 11:46.

Elnathan (whom God has given). —1, Maternal grandfather of Jehoiachin, and probably the same with the son of Achbor, who lived in Jehoiakim’s time (2 Kings 24:8; Jer. 26:22); 2, certain Levites in Ezra’s time (Ezra 8:16).

Elohim. — The eternal God.

Elon (to be strong).―1, A Zebulonite, who judged Israel ten years (Judg. 12:11); 2, a Hittite chief; the father of one of Esau’s wives (Gen. 26:34); 3, one of the sons of Zebulon (Gen. 46:14).

Elon —A border town of the tribe of Dan (Josh. 19:43).

Elon-beth-hanan. — 1 Kings 4:9.

Elonites. — Numbers 26:26.

Elpaal (God’s work or reward). — The founder of a family among the Benjamites (1 Chron. 8:12,18).

Eliphalet. — One of the sons of David (2 Sam. 5:16; 23:34; 1 Chron. 3:6, 8; 8:39; 14:5, 7; Ezra 8:13; 10:33).

Eltekeh (to which God is the object of fear). — Part of the inheritance of the children of Dan (Josh. 19:44; 21:23).

Eltekon (to which God is the foundation). — One of the cities of the tribe of the children of Judah (Josh. 15:59),

Eltolad (Gods generation). — Another city; part of the inheritance of the children of Simeon, within the inheritance of the children of Judah (Josh. 15:30; 19:4).

Elub. — The sixth Hebrew month (Neh. 6:15).

Eluzai (God is my strength). — One of those who came to David at Ziklag (1 Chron. 12:5).

Elymas. — A magician who withstood the Apostle Paul and sought to turn away the pro-consul from the faith (Acts 13:8).

Elzabad. — A Gadite, whose face was like a lion, and who was as swift as a roe upon the mountains. He separated himself unto David (1 Chron. 12:8, 12; 26:7).

Elzaphan. — The son of Uzziel and the chief of the house of the father of the families of the Kohathites (Ex. 6:22; Lev. 10:4; Num. 3:30; 1 Chron. 15:8; 2 Chron. 29:13).

Answers to Bible Questions for November.

1. Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10,11.

2. Romans 3:28; verse 1; Galatians 3:26.

3. Galatians 2:16, 21.

4. Proverbs 15:8; 28:9; Romans 8:8, 9; Hebrews 11:6.

5. “As I live,” says the Lord, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 33:11). “I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men... for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1-6). “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22). “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

6. Even “the very hairs of your head, are all numbered” (Luke 12:7; Matt. 10:30).

7. Your heavenly Father feedeth the fowls of the air. Are ye not much better than they? (Matt. 6:26.)

8. When Paul preached the Gospel at Thessalonica, they who believed were taught to wait for God’s Son from heaven, “even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come.” In the second epistle they are told the apostacy would first come and the man of sin be revealed before the day of the Lord. Many confound the day of the Lord with the Church being gathered together to the Lord Jesus in the air, and thus rob themselves of the privilege of daily waiting for Jesus, and to be changed and made like Him in a moment (1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess. 1:10; 4:17; Titus 2:13; 1 John 3:2, 3).

Answer to Bible Enigma for November.

“I am the Vine.”— John 15:5.

I BZAN Judges 12:8, 9.

A mram Exodus 2:3; 6:20.

M achpelah Genesis 23:16-20.

T ekoah 2 Samuel 14:2.

H osea Hosea 1:1; 14:1.

E lah 1 Samuel 17:19.

V ashtij Esther 1:12.

I smael Jeremiah 41:2.

N athanael John 1:47.

E li 1 Samuel 4:18.

Good News for Young and Old: Volume 16 (1874)

Table of Contents

The Bird of Day.

A Sudden and an Early Call.

"Me Too."

The Bird of Night.

Ssai Das, the Brahmin.

Oran, the Irish Serf.

"Praise Ye the Lord."

January, Dictionary or the Bible.

The Christian's Hope.

Bible Enigma for January.

Bible Questions for January.

Walking Better Than Talking.

The Holy and Beautiful House.

The Young Cowherd of Fontainebleau.

True Happiness.

The Cloud with a Silver Lining.

Sheep, and Their Clothing.

February, Dictionary of the Bible.

The Race.

Prayer and Patience; or, Watching Thereunto.

Bible Enigma for February.

Bible Questions for February.

Answer to Bible Enigma for January.

Answers to Bible Questions for January.

The Wreck of the Waverley.

Part 1: More About Joseph.

Ssai Das, the Mansi Missionary, and the Robbers of Terra.

From a Tombstone in Charlton Churchyard.

The Bird of Evening.

The Sheep Owner and His Flock.

"O Grave, Where Is Thy Victory?"

March, Dictionary of the Bible.

Answers to Bible Questions for February.

Answer to Bible Enigma for February.

Bible Questions for March.

Bible Enigma for March.

"Not Too Young to Die."

The Power of Love.

The Stray Sheep.

Part 2: More About Joseph and His Brothers.

The Soul's Longings.

Scripture Questions for April.

The Spanish Boy.

Substitution.

A Child's Reply.

Youthful Martyrs.

April, Dictionary of the Bible.

Answer to Bible Enigma for March.

Answers to Bible Questions for March.

Bible Enigma for April.

Saved by a Newfoundland Dog.

The Maggot.

The Sunshiny Side of the Way.

Part 3: More About Joseph.

A Dead Man.

The Happy Skipper.

"Salt Water, and Fresh."

"I See No Harm in It."

May, Dictionary of the Bible.

Answer to Bible Questions for April.

Answer to Bible Enigma for April.

Bible Questions for May.

The Burning House.

Part 4: More About Joseph.

The Happy Little Girl.

Robert Smith.

Christ's Love to His Own.

History of a Jewish Boy.

Jesus Died for Me.

Perfect Peace.

June, Dictionary of the Bible.

Ebal and Gerizim.

The Presence of the Lord.

Bible Questions for June.

Bible Enigma for June.

Answers to Bible Questions for May.

The Cemetery.

The Bastile.