Good News for Young and Old: Volume 19 (1877)

IN the first Book of Kings, chapter 14, we have an account of the illness, death, and burial of Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, that king who, because he established idolatry in the kingdom of Israel, is always spoken of as he “who made Israel to sin.” When the child fell sick, the king sent the queen, his wife, to the prophet Ahijah; to whom she went in disguise. The Lord, however, uncovered the deception by revealing to the prophet who she was. Ahijah, therefore, said to her, as she entered the door of his house, “Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings.” He then unfolded to her the judgment which the Lord had pronounced upon the house of Jeroboam. He told her, also, that the child should die; but added that “all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.”

Whatever may have been the age of Abijah, it is plain that he was old enough to have some right direction of heart towards the Lord, for in him, it is declared, there was “found some good thing.” It is also clear that that “good thing” did not spring up naturally in the heart of the child, but that it came from God. The apostle Paul says, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.” (Rom. 7:18.) He also says to Timothy, “That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost.” (2nd Tim. 1:14.) Everything, therefore, which is really good, comes from God, and from Him only. (See also James 1:17.)

Now, is it not pleasant to know that in the midst of the wicked house of Jeroboam there was one member of the family, and he but a child, of whom God, by the mouth of His prophet, could speak favorably? We know not by what means it was that the “good thing” toward the Lord God of Israel found its place in the heart of Abijah. It is likely, notwithstanding the idolatry of the family, that there was someone in or about the palace at Samaria, who instructed the child in the word and ways of the Lord. This instruction was, in all likelihood, very limited, and his disadvantages must have been great, dwelling, as he did in the midst of such a family. Still, he profited by that which had been taught, and his heart inclined toward the Lord, who took notice of it, and proclaimed its worth.

It was the will of God, however, that Abijah should die. Possibly that he might be delivered from the evil with which he was surrounded, as well as from the judgment with which his father’s house was to be visited. When he was buried, “all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which. He spake by the hand of His servant, Ahijah, the prophet.”

I have no doubt that most of the young readers of GOOD NEWS, have the blessing of being the children of God-fearing parents. The privileges of such are far greater than those which were possessed by this young prince. His advantages were few, but his profiting was manifest. I trust that the Lord, who is the Searcher of hearts, can see the work of His own Spirit in yours. Is Jesus precious to you? Are you cleansed from your sins in His precious blood, or seeking after it, at least? Can you truly say, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” “Order my steps in Thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” (Psa. 119)

Perhaps, however, some child who may read this interesting account of Jeroboam’s son, may, through attending at a Sunday school, or by some other means, have been taught of God to bow to the name of Jesus, and so to trust in Him as his Saviour. Should such be the case, even though you may have but little instruction and guidance at your own homes, in the works and ways of the Lord, remember, for your comfort, that He knoweth them that are His, and that He cares for every one of His Father’s flock. Only be careful to give heed to His Word, and to “obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord.” (Col. 3). If you are thus obedient and humble-minded, and endeavor to please them for His sake, who can tell how soon you may have the joy of seeing them also acknowledge Him as their only Lord and Saviour!

Little lights that brightly burn,

Meekly Christ confessing,

Others may from darkness turn

Unto light and blessing.

Absalom.

(Read 2 Sam. 15 and 18)

I AM going to talk to you a little, dear children, about a young prince, who was at the same time the most beautiful and one of the most wicked persons in all the country where he lived. He was the third son of David, and his father loved him most dearly. When he had done wrong, and had run away in fear, we read “David mourned for his son every day.” Until he came back his soul “longed to go forth unto Absalom.” When he came back to him he “kissed” him; and when he heard afterward that he had been killed, he was much moved,” and went up to a chamber and wept, and said, “O my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” So deeply was this young man loved by his aged father, and yet there could hardly have been a son more utterly unworthy of his father’s affection than Absalom was. Not only did he not love his father himself, although so beloved by him, but he “stole the hearts” of others who did love him, and kissed and flattered and deceived them to make them love him and admire him instead of their own true king (ch. 15:6). He would have had no place at all in the royal city but for his father’s love to him, and sparing his life when he deserved to die. Yet, instead of loving his father in return, honoring him himself and teaching the people to do the same, we find he taught them to desire him instead of his father; and the end of it was that David had to flee as an exile from the very city where his love and forbearance had given Absalom a place!

Such was the wickedness of this handsome young man; and it is said that even the Jews have had such hatred of his treason against his father, that the place called the “Tomb of Absalom” has long ago been filled with stones thrown in by them (one stone being thrown by everyone passing by) to show how they detest such conduct on the part of a son towards a father.

And what must God have thought of it all? He had said, “Honor thy father and thy mother;” and again, “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother” (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 27:16). And He had His eye on this naughty son. It was He who had given him his personal beauty, but not that he should be proud of it; and I suppose he must have been proud of it, for he would not even have his hair cut till the end of each year, when it was such a quantity that he could not bear the weight of it, and then he had it weighed, he thought so much of it. It was God who had also permitted him to be in such a place of influence that it was possible for him to win the hearts of all the people for himself; but He was not pleased for him to use his influence so as to rob the true king of his place in the affections of the people and in the “city of God” (Psa. 87:3). He allowed him to prosper for a time in his wicked course, as He does at times permit the worst of men to do. David had seen this when he said, “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found” (Psa. 37:35, 36). And so it was with Absalom; it was for but a little while that he carried things before him in his wicked way, and then God stopped him. David had learned for himself what he wrote for others in that same psalm: “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.... For, evil-doers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.” The time soon came for Absalom to “flee,” as you see him doing in the picture. David had fled, but the Lord brought him back in peace. Absalom fled, and was not brought back at all! The bushy locks of hair he thought so much of became twisted in the thick boughs of a great oak, the beast he rode upon ran from under him, and there he hung until a soldier came by and thrust three darts into his body, and ten others came and killed him.

Such was the end of his sad history, from which we may learn many solemn lessons. Remember, dear children, that having a beautiful face or body may leave us with the heart full of pride and wickedness; and where beauty is the most beautiful, is not where it is “outward,” in the sight of man; but where the “hidden man of the heart” is adorned with that which is “in the sight of God of great price” (1 Peter 3:3, 4). You must remember too that those who set themselves in a way that is not good, although they may seem to prosper, and succeed for “a little while” (Psa. 37:10); yet the bitter end soon comes, and their wickedness has its due reward. And again, as to Absalom’s death, you may recollect that in Deuteronomy 21:23, it had been said, that whoever died by being hanged on a tree was “accursed of God,” and that curse fell upon Absalom. He had put himself under the curse pronounced by God against those who “set light by” their father and mother. He will not have us to despise our parents, however clever we may think ourselves; and though not one of Absalom’s enemies may have thought of hanging him on a tree, yet that “rebellious son” lifted up there, was the solemn proof that. God had not forgotten His word.

But I could not finish my letter without saying something to you about another “son of David,” who was “hanged on a tree” (Acts 5:30). Is it not wonderful that the Son of God should have stooped so low as not only to live a life of lowliness among men, but to die a death of shame “on the tree?” Yet so it was. As it says about Absalom, “he was taken up between the heaven and the earth,” so the Lord Jesus said of Himself, “the Son of Man must be lifted up.” And again, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me” (John 12:32). And the curse resting upon such as were put to death in that way is not forgotten, even as to the Lord Jesus Himself, as we read, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:13). But oh, what a difference there was between the two persons! The one a “rebellious son” indeed; the other, One who could truly say, “I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.” We have seen how David loved his ungrateful son, but the Father of Jesus would not only say, “This is My beloved. Son,” but He could add what David could not say, “In Thee I am well pleased.” Well might God delight in His dear Son, for Christ could always “I delight to do Thy will: “and again,” I do always those things that please Him.” We see the characters of Absalom and of Jesus brought together in one verse, where the Lord says (in John 7:18), “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no ma-righteousness is in Him.” The first part of that verse is just like Absalom (2 Sam. 15:4); the latter part is just the opposite, and was exactly true of the blessed One who spoke it. Absalom sought his own glory, but Jesus “humbled Himself,” and could say, “I have glorified Thee.” The selfish man stole the hearts of the people from his father, and for himself, but the Lord Jesus spent a great deal of His lovely life in leading people to know and love and honor His Father; as He says. “I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.” That wicked son not only aimed at his father’s throne, but even sought his father’s life (chs. 17:2, 4). The Lord Jesus came to give His own life in obedience and love to His Father; and if we can hardly understand why David should be so fond of a son who was so unworthy of his love, we can easily see how Jesus could say “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life... this commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17, 18). What a contrast between that godless man who died the death of shame, when he had betrayed and all but murdered his own father, and that Son who is in “the bosom of the Father,” who when He was about to complete His obedience unto death, “even the death of the cross,” could say “That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given me commandment, even so I do,” (John 14:31).

And let me remind you of another wonderful thing. David had other sons, who were better sons to him than this one was, yet David could hardly part even with Absalom. When he heard he was dead he wept and mourned and covered his face, and cried with a loud voice, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son.” But God, in “His great love wherewith He loved us,” gave His only Son (John 3:16). David would “spare” his son, though he was the most cruel enemy he had in the world (see 2 Sam. 18:5), but God in His love to His enemies “spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all” (Rom. 5:10, 8:32). Oh my reader, has this wondrous love of God melted and broken your heart, and filled it with love and thankfulness to that blessed God who has shown such love towards you? Where will you be forever if you turn away from love like that? Look at Absalom, who slighted his father’s love and went from bad to worse, till he died the accursed death; and are you following him, to find yourself forever outside a love that would have welcomed you to itself? Look again at that other “tree,” where One died to atone for sins not His own, and say is He your Lord, and do you love Him and follow Him? If your heart is broken about your sins, that cost Him that cross, you can go to Him and confess them to Him, and say “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” But if you never have been humbled before God about your own sins, and yet are shocked at Absalom’s hardness in presence of love that would have died for him (ch. 18:33), O think what are you going to do with His love who has died for the ungodly?

W. TY.

Ahab in Naboth's Vineyard

(Read 1 Kings 21)

NABOTH was a man who feared God, and as he had a little piece of ground in the land that the Lord called “His land,” he would not sell it to anyone who was the Lord’s enemy. God had told His people that the land was His; that they were strangers in it, and sojourners with Him, and that they must not sell it “forever” (Lev. 25:23); that was, they were not to part with it for it never to come back to them. It was God’s will that every fifty years the “trumpet of jubilee” should be sounded, and that then every man should possess again all the land that bonged to his fathers before him, even if he had sold it to someone else. Of course, if anyone wanted to buy, they would not want to give so much for it, if they knew that, when the year of jubilee came, they would have to give it up again; but the person selling it was not to mind that. He was not to sell the land, except for it to come back to be his again at God’s appointed time (Lev. 25:10, 13). Well, this good man, Naboth, had a vineyard which King Ahab wanted to buy of him. It was near the king’s palace and he wanted to turn it into a garden of herbs for himself. He was willing to pay Naboth for it. He would either give him a better vineyard for it, or as much as it was worth in money; but he must have it, and he would want to keep it. Naboth was not a man who would disobey the king, or disoblige him, unless there was some good reason for it. The word of God says— “Honor the King” (1 Peter 2:17). Only in the very same verse it says, “Fear God,” and that is put first. The Lord would have us to be subject to the powers that are over us, and obey them in everything except when to do so would be to disobey God, and then we have to say, “We must obey God rather than men.” So Naboth would not give up to Ahab “the inheritance of his fathers,” and Ahab was very much vexed with him. He went down to his house sad and angry. He was a wicked man to want one of his people to act contrary to God’s word; but he had a wife who was, if possible, still more wicked than himself. Her name was Jezebel, and she soon formed a plan for getting Naboth’s vineyard for her husband. The good and obedient servant of the Lord should die! And she gets a number of other people to help her in her wicked plot, so that within a few days Naboth is actually stoned to death, and Ahab goes down to take possession of the piece of ground he coveted.

But God looked down from heaven and saw that wickedness, and sent His servant Elijah to meet Ahab in the garden he thought he could now call his own. In the picture you see the two men meeting God’s servant and His enemy. The rightful owner of the place is dead, and no longer stands in Ahab’s way. He has got rid of him, but finds he cannot get rid of his God, and he has to hear from Elijah how the judgment of God will follow him and reach him. He has sold himself “to work evil in the sight of the Lord”: has made Israel to sin by his idolatry; and now he has added to all his other wickedness this murder of God’s faithful tenant. It is true he has not done it himself, but he has been altogether a party to it, and in God’s sight he is guilty of the deed. So now he learns from the prophet that, not only every man of his family shall be cut off and die, but even as to himself, in the very same place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, there they should lick his blood also! His sin had found him out. He had found it pretty easy to have it all his own way so far. His wife would not hold back from any wickedness, so as to get what she wanted; and she had found men, too, who were wicked enough to falsely accuse Naboth of a crime he was entirely innocent of, so as to have him stoned under the cloak of zeal for the honor of God and the king. But there was One who could see through all the hypocrisy, and to Him they must answer for what they had done.

Dear reader, it is solemn to reflect that sin is not done with when it is committed. God may appear to take no notice at the time of what is done. In the gospel of John we read of Jesus in the presence of some whose hearts were full of evil thoughts. He stooped down and wrote on the ground, “as though He heard them not;” but He did hear, and when His time came He answered in such a way as they did not expect. Cain thought he had done something for himself when he had put his “righteous” brother out of the way; but he had very soon to hear a voice calling him to account, “Where is Abel thy brother? What hast thou done?” And he was compelled to answer, and to hear his own sentence. Even before that, Adam and Eve had sinned, when God had, as it were, left them alone; and then, when they heard God near to them, they tried to hide, but it was no use. A voice called to him, “Adam, where art thou?” and he was obliged to answer and to come forth into the very presence of God! And so with every sin committed ever since. You may have done that which you know to be wrong, under the shades of the darkest night, but “the darkness hideth not from Thee.” And though for now He may “keep silence,” (Psa. 1:21), He has not forgotten it, and some day you will have to hear what God has to say to you about that matter. Above all, there is the crime of putting Christ to death, for which this world will have to answer to God. He was hated without a cause as Naboth was, and false witnesses were hired to accuse Him of blasphemy, as in Naboth’s case. So He was condemned and crucified, and entombed, and men thought they had quite got rid of Him. “But God raised Him from the dead” (Acts 13:30), and He declares to all men that He has “appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness,” by that very same Man whom wicked men “once pierced and slew.” (Acts 17:31). Now, I solemnly put it to you, my dear reader, whether you are old or young, do you belong to that world which God is going to judge for the rejection of His Son? You either belong to the Father as one who loves His Son, or you belong to the world that hates both the Father and the Son (John 15:24). All that belongs to the world is “not of the Father” (1 John 2:16), and all that belong to Christ are “not of the world.” (John 17:14,16). Do consider which side you are upon. And if you have not “received” the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, you are rejecting Him with the world, and God will hold you guilty of His death. Did Cain have to answer to God for what he had done to Abel? Did Ahab have to hear God’s judgment upon him for the murder of Naboth? What will you hear from God presently, if you are found by Him to be a part of that world which cast out “His dear Son?” And what will you answer?

W. Ty.

“BECAUSE I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.”— Prov. 1:24-26.

All My Sins.

AN elderly Swiss Christian, when near his end, got into a doubting state as to his salvation. When visited by a person much interested in his comfort, he told him that he was not concerned about his sins previous to his becoming a believer, but those since. The friend then asked him how many of his sins had he committed when Christ bore them. After this he saw clearly that when Christ bore his sins on the tree, it was ALL his sins. He departed in peace (Peter 2:21).

“BLESSED is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:8).

Angels' Charge.

“For He shall give his Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”

ANNIE was a very timid little girl. She did not like to be left alone in a dark room, and sometimes at night, when the wind blew very hard, she would wake up, and feel very much frightened.

One day, after she had asked God to take care of her, her mamma lifted her in bed, and after giving her a good-night kiss, was just leaving the room, when she heard little Annie say, very softly, “Mamma!”

She went back to her little girl’s bedside to see what she wanted. “O mamma!” said little Annie, “I am so afraid! I hear such strange noises, and the windows rattle so.”

“Why, it is the wind blowing down the chimney that you hear,” said her mamma, and it blows the windows too. I will try and fasten them more tightly.”

Then she put some little wooden wedges in the windows, so they did not rattle any more, and then, sitting down by little Annie’s bed, she said: ―

“You don’t feel afraid darling now, when I am with you, do you?”

“Oh! no, mamma; I do not mind the noise, or feel afraid of anything when you are here.”

“And yet, Annie, your Heavenly Father can take better care of you than I can, and He is with you all the time. I will teach you a beautiful verse from the Bible, whenever you feel afraid: ‘He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone!’ And now I want my little girl to say the verse once more, that she may remember it as long as she lives.”

Annie repeated it several times, and then she said: “Now, mamma, you may go downstairs. I shall not be afraid anymore.”

So her mamma kissed her and went away, and little Annie closed her eyes and went to sleep, saying “God’s angels will take care of me.”— Psalms 34:7.

To which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

ARE they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.

The Angels of Little Ones Who Believe in Jesus the Son of God.

TAKE heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Matt. 18:1-6; 10-14).

God so loved the world, we know,

For the Bible tells us so;

“Little ones” to Christ belong,

They are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves them,

The Bible tells us so.

Jesus loves them though they’re bad,

And He waits to make them glad,

‘Twas for this to earth He came,

Blest are they who know His name.

Jesus loves them, He who died,

Heaven’s gate to open wide;

He will take away their sin,

For His blood can make them clean.

Jesus loves them, loves them still,

When they’re very weak and ill,

From His shining place on high,

Watches all, where’er they lie.

Jesus loves them, He will stay,
Close beside them night and day;
All who trust Him, if they die,
He will take them home on high.

Answer to Bible Enigma for January.

“Let Brotherly Love Continue.”―Heb. 13:1.

	L emuel Proverbs 31
	E liab 1 Samuel 16:6, 7.
	T ilagth-pilneser 2 Chronicles 28:20.
	B alak Numbers 22:41.
	R hoda, Acts 12:13-15.
	O bed-edom 2 Samuel 6:11.
	T iberias Cæsar Luke 3:1.
	H adarezer 1 Chronicles 18:9.
	E lishaphat 2 Chronicles 23:1.
	R amoth Gilead 1 Kings 22:29-35.
	L uke 2 Timothy 4:11.
	SY nagogue Luke 4:16.
	L apidoth Judges 4:4.
	O livet 2 Samuel 15:30.
	V alley of Achor Hosea 2:15.
	E glop Judges 3:25.
	C aleb Numbers 13:30.
	O rpah Ruth 1:14.
	N aboth 1 Kings 13:6.
	T imnath Judges 14:1.
	I ttai 2 Samuel 15:21.
	N athan 2 Samuel 12:13.
	U zziah 2 Chronicles 26:18.
	E nook Genesis 5:24.

Answers to Bible Enigma for February.

“Abide in Me.”―John 15:4.

	A bner 2 Sam. 3:31.
	B aruch Jer. 36:19, 32
	I saac Gen. 24:67
	D emas 2 Tim. 4:10.
	E lisabeth Luke 1:36, 63.
	I saiah Isa. 6:6-8.
	N od Gen. 4:16.
	M ary Luke 10:39, 40.
	E mmaus Luke 24:13, 32.

Answers to Bible Enigma for March.

	H umility Proverbs 15:33.
	E mulation Galatians 5:20.
	I ssachar Genesis 49:14.
	S olomon 1 Kings 4:30—34.
	O nesimus Philippians 1:10.
	U zziah 2 Chronicles 26:21.
	R ahab Joshua 2:1-15.
	P otiphar Genesis 39:20.
	E liezer Genesis 15:2.
	A braham Galatians 3:7.
	C apernaum Matthew 17:24-27.
	E sau Genesis 33:4.

He is our Life, Redeemer, Friend;

He is our Way, our Path, our End;

He is our Lord, His love won’t cease;

But more than that, “He is our Peace.”

W. H. S.

Answers to Bible Enigma for May.

A title Jesus bears, to saved ones known—

The tried, the precious, ever-living Stone.

	A ffliction Job 5:6.
	L of 2 Peter 2:7,8.
	I dle soul Proverbs 19:15.
	V erily, verily Gospel of John especially.
	I niquity Psalms 119:133.
	N icodemus John 3
	G race Ephesians 2:8.
	S in 2 Corinthians 5:21.
	T ruth (the) 2 Thessalonians 2:13.
	O x (the) Isaiah 1:3.
	N aaman 2 Kings 5
	E gypt Books of Genesis and Exodus.

Answers to Bible Enigma for September.

“The Judgment.”―Hebrews 9:27.

	Tertullus Acts 24:1-9.
	Hezekiah 2 Kings 20:2.
	Eliab 1 Samuel 17:13.
	Joash 2 Kings 11
	Uzzah 2 Samuel 6
	Daniel The Book of Daniel, especially chapter 6.
	Goliath 1 Samuel 17:50,51.
	Miriam Numbers 26:59.
	Elisha 2 Kings 2
	Nahor Genesis 11:26. Isaiah 41:8.
	Tabitha Acts 9:36, &c.

Answers to Bible Enigma June.

“Holiness.” Heb. 12:14.

	H aman Esther 7:10.
	O rpah Ruth 1:14,15.
	L ove Galatians 5:22; 2 Peter 1:7; 1 Corinthians 13 (“Charity.”)
	I shmael Genesis 21:9-21.
	N ineveh Book of Jonah.
	E ve Genesis 3
	S inners Romans 5:8.
	S aviour John 4:42; John 4:14.

Answers to Bible Questions for April.

1. The blood of the Lamb (Ex. 12:7).

2. Bear ye one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).

3. “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24).

4. “Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name” (Psa. 138:2).

5. Twice (Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13).

6. Colossians 2:10; Hebrews 10:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:7; Colossians 1:12.

7. To the Jews.

8. “Let your speech be alway with grace seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6).

9. Acts 16:25; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; James 5:13.

Answers to Bible Questions, for August.

1. While the foolish virgins went to buy the door was shut (Matt. 25:10).

2. The foolish virgins now are those who profess they are Christians, but are not “born again” (John 3); they have not faith in the blood of Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:25).

3. Believers should always watch, for they know not what hour their Lord will come (Matt. 24:42).

4. The Apostle Paul tells the persecuted saints that they will be at rest when the Lord is revealed, and thus they will not be in the tribulation (2 Thess. 1:7).

5. Every knee shall bow (Rom. 14:11; Phil. 2:10, 11; Isa. 45:23).

6. The Church of God will be caught up in the clouds “to meet the Lord in the air” before He comes with them to judge, destroy, or” cut off” Christendom (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rom. 11:22; Matt. 16:27; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; 2 Thess. 1:8; Jude 14-16).

7. They know not God, and obey or believe not the Gospel.

8. God will send a strong delusion to those who profess the truth and receive not “the love of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:10).

Answers to Bible Questions for February.

1. The Lord Jesus sat down at meat with sinners for their sake, and not for His own (Matt. 9:10; Mark 2:15).

2. The Holy Ghost would give them words that same hour (Matt. 10:14, 19; Mark 13:9-13; Luke 12:11, 12).

3. Matthew 5:16, 45, 48; 6:1; 7:11; 23:9.

4. Matthew 7:21; 10:32, 33; 16:17; 18:10, 19.

5. Matthew 6:14, 26, 32; 15:13.

6. Matthew 6:8, 15. All who are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus are privileged to call God their Father; yet they should never speak in such a way as to lead persons to suppose they are speaking of their earthly parent. We are to serve God with reverence and godly fear Heb. 13:28, 29.

7. Matt. 6:6, 18; Matt. 6:4, 6, 18. This question should have been printed THY, not My Father.

8. Matt. 12:31; Mark 3:28.

9. Matt. 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15. Scriptures are given to questions 8 and 9 that it may be seen that grieving or sinning against the Spirit of God is one thing, and blasphemy against the Holy Ghost another. The Scribes and Pharisees saw with their eyes the mighty works of God, and said it was the work of the devil. Men do not see Jesus working thus now.

Answers to Bible Questions for January.

1. Could not “make the comers thereunto perfect” (Heb. 10:1).

2. He hath “perfected” “them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).

3. “Sin” (Heb. 9:26).

4. When God has made “all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

5. “A new earth” (Rev. 21:1,4).

6. The new earth (Rev. 21:4).

7. “New Jerusalem” (Rev. 21:2).

8. Their “sins” (John 8:21).

B. E. L.

Answers to Bible Questions for July.

1. “That 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).

2. “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

3. Acts 8:35-39; 9:3-7; 16:14-30-31.

4. “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us in wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

5. “Seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His gooess in the latter day” (Hos. 3:5).

6. Jeremiah 30:9. Ezekiel 37:24.

7. Ezekiel 34:24; 37:25.

8. “Forever” (Ezek. 37:25.

9. “One Shepherd” (Ezek. 37:24).

10. “The joining of two sticks” (Ezek. 37:15-23).

B. E. L.

Answers to Bible Questions for June.

1. Joel 3:8, 13.

2. In the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Joel 3:2.

3. “The heavens and the earth shall shake.” Joel 3:16.

4. Hebrews 12:28.

5. “For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Revelation 12:12.

6. “Now is come salvation, and strength, and tke kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. Revelation 12:10,11.

7. “The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof.” Revelation 21:23.

8. “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” Revelation 16:22.

B. E. L.

Answers to Bible Questions for March.

1. Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 6:14.

2. Philippians 4:8.

3. Romans 8:6.

4. Galatians 5:22, 23; James 3:2,17, 18.

5. Galatians 6:1.

6. “In the spirit of meekness” (Gal. 6:1).

7. 1 Corinthians 16:22.

8. 1 Corinthians 15:55-58. Our love is never perfect towards God. When we believe God’s perfect love towards us, we have no fear. His perfect love casteth out all fear. He that feareth does not believe that God loves him as He loves the Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:23).

Answers to Bible Questions for May.

1. The statutes, judgments, and commandments of the Lord (Deut. 11:1-20).

2. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord” (Psa. 55:22).

3. “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psa. 37:4).

4. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass” (Psa. 37:5).

5. Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18,19; 1 John 3:2.

6. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace” (Psa. 37:37).

7. “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:2).

8. Righteousness (Rom. 4:5; James 2:23).

B. E. L.

Answers to Bible Questions for November.

1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God. Romans 5:1.

2. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:11.

3. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion.... the city of the great king. Psalms 48:1,2.

4. “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord.” Jeremiah 3:17.

5. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10.

6. Isaiah “I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people.” Isaiah 65:19.

7. (Jesus said to the Jews), “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins. John 8:22, 24.

8. Martha. “Jesus said unto her... Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:26.

Answers to Bible Questions for October.

1. “To the nations to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off.”— Isaiah 66:19.

2. God’s glory. verse 19.

3. God’s fame. verse 19.

4. God’s glory. verse 19.

5. “All your brethren.” verse 20.

6. “Upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts.” verse 20.

7. God’s holy mountain Jerusalem. verse 20.

8. Your seed and your name. verse 22.

9. Revelation 21:9-27.

Answers to Bible Questions for September.

1. Ephesians 2:3.

2. “Dead in sins” (Eph. 2:5).

3. Ephesians 2:5.

4. “Unto good works” (Eph. 2:10).

5. “Without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).

6. To God. “The blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

7. Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-9; Luke 9:28-37; 2 Peter 1:16, 17, 18.

8. Matthew 24:27. Luke 17:24. Matthew 24:37, 38, 39. Luke 17:26, 27.

B. E. L.

Answers to Enigma February.

A. L. A. E.―M. A.―F. E. W.―R. F. M. M.―S. J. P.―

M. L. S. ―B. E. L.-J. N. F.―F. E. S.―E. W.

Answers to Bible Questions.

A. L. A. E.―M. L. S.―E. G. M.―W. B.―M. A.―E. M W.

―B. E. L.―M. A. L.-R. E. S.―A. J.―A. S. G.―C. P.―T. J. C.―E. E. G.

"Behold the Lamb of God!"

What joy it is to view

Thy life, O Lord, below,

Thy holy pathway to pursue,

Through this dark vale of woe.

Divine and heavenly rays,

Beam’d forth from Thee, THE LIGHT,

And shone in all Thy works and ways,

So blessed, pure, and bright.

With what delight and zeal

Thou did’st Thy Father’s will,

As Thou the broken heart did’st heal, —

The thirsting bosom fill.

Where Thy blest presence came,

Thence Satan fled, afraid;

Pale sickness turn’d away with shame,

And death withdrew, dismay’d.

The winds obey’d Thy-word,

And own’d their Maker’s will;

The raging waves confess’d Thee, Lord,

And at Thy voice were still.

The desert, bare and wild,

Whose face with famine frown’d,

At Thy o’erflo wing blessings smil’d

On thousands seated round.

The widows’ tears were dried,

And mothers’ babes were blessed;

The wearied, mournful, and the tried,

In Thee had peace and rest.

Thy tender, loving heart

Must sympathize with grief,

With sorrow Thou would’st take Thy part,

As well as give relief.

‘Twas not for man alone

Thou did’st this grace display;

Thy Father’s pleasure was Thine own,

In every word and way.

Yet Thou, the Lord of all,

Whose life was truth and grace,

Who ne’er denied’st a suppliant’s call,

Had’st here no resting-place.

But oh! surpassing Love,

That Thou should’st die for sin!

Oh! proof of love, all proofs above,

Our souls from death to win.

To Thee, the Lord on high,

Our thankful hearts we raise,

And long to meet Thee in the sky,

On Thine own face to gaze.

Believers Are Crucified With Christ.

“I AM crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and 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.” ... “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:20, 21).

Bible Enigma April.

WHAT visitation comes not from the dust?

An erring man, who yet was counted just.

What soul is that which hunger shall endure?

What words says Jesus, making doubly sure?

What should not have dominion over me?

Who came by night, the blessed Lord to see?

By what are sinners sav’d? Even such as we.

What Christ was made, to give us righteousness.

What we must know, for God our souls to bless.

What creature knows its owner, as Isaiah says?

Who, being cleans’d, went homewards filled with praise?

Where dwelt the Hebrews, toilsome years and days?

Bible Enigma February.

M.A.―R.F.M.M.-W.H.S.-E.B.S.-F.F.W.-J.M.F.

Bible Questions.

C. de W.C.―E.G.M.―J.B.E.F.―E.E.G.―M.A.―E.B.S.―

W.B.S.―E.M.S.― B.E.L. — C.K. — E.MW. — W.H. — A.L.A.E — M.A.

Bible Enigma for February.

Whose sudden loss caused David grief and pain,

Whom vengeful Job had for envy slain?

Who did re-write the roll destroyed by fire,

And hid himself from the king’s dreaded ire?

Who led his wife into his mother’s tent,

For whom a trusty servant had been sent?

Of whose delinquency did Paul complain,

Who sinfully left godliness for gain?

Who in a good old age brought forth a son?

Whose father wrote, when dumb, “His name is

John?”

What prophet’s lips were touched with living fire,

To preach the truths the Spirit did inspire?

Where did a wicked murderer seek to hide

Himself from wrath his soul could not abide?

Who sat at Jesu’s feet to learn his will,

While Martha strove home duties to fulfill?

Near to what town did two disciples meet

Their Lord and Master, whilst in converse sweet?

In the above initials you will read

The words of One who knew our utmost need.

Bible Enigma for January, 1877.

WHO, by wise sayings, wisdom did impart?

Of whom did God affirm, I search the heart?

Who, from Assyria, did. King Ahaz dread?

By whom was Salaam to high places led?

Who was told Peter’s angel she had seen?

Whose house was blest where Israel’s ark had been?

In whose imperial reign did Jesus die?

Who before David’s valiant troops did fly?

Who aided to place Joash on the throne?

Where were the troops of Ahab overthrown?

Who, in his travels, did with Paul proceed?

Where did the Lord open the book and read?

Whose wife to Barak did her counsel lend?

Towards what mount did David’s footsteps tend?

What did the prophet call of hope the door?

Whose servants found their master on the floor.

Who brought, from Canaan, tidings true and clear?

Who chose to settle ‘mongst her kindred dear?

Who would not to the king his vineyard sell?

Where did the heathen wife of Samson dwell?

Who followed David in his great distress?

Before what prophet did the king confess?

Who, in the Temple, was by priest withstood?

Who, while he lived on earth, walked with his God?

The second letter of the twelfth line find

The initials of the rest with this combined,

A text appears, a counselor of love,

Which, follow’d, will bring blessings from above.

Bible Enigma July.

An orator, who falsely spoke against the pris’n’r Paul.

A king, who in his sickness turn’d his face unto the wall.

Of David’s father’s many sons, the eldest of them all.

A prince preserv’d from murd’rous hands, and hid till he was crown’d.

A man who rudely touch’d the Ark, and fell dead on the ground.

One Honor’d much by foreign kings, yet faithful to the Lord.

A vaunting champion, headless made by stroke from his own sword.

The sister of the man by whom God gave His holy law.

A prophet who, from Jordan’s bank, a fiery chariot saw.

A brother of the man whom God distinguished as His friend.

One rais’d to life, who by her works did much the truth commend.

What is it men with dread must meet, who have resigned their breath

In all their sins and unbelief, — a something after death?

“AT the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in [the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me” (Matt. 18).

Bible Enigma June.

The Jews’ arch enemy—on gallows hung.

A weeping widow, who to idols clung.

The ripest, richest, of the Spirit’s fruits.

A bondmaid’s son, of fierce and wild pursuits.

A city doom’d, but through repentance spared,

A woman by the serpent’s voice ensnare&

The name that’s given to all of Adam’s race.

A title borne by Him who died in love and grace.

What is it, without which not one can see

The Holy Lord, or in His presence be?

Bible Questions.

1. What does the Scripture say the many yearly sacrifices could not do for those that offered them?

2. What did the Lord Jesus Christ do by one offering for all who receive Him as their Saviour?

3. What did Jesus Christ come to put away?

4. When will all sin disappear from this earth?

5. What does God call the earth at the time when there will be no more death?

6. In what place will there be no more tears, sorrow, or pain?

7. What did John see (in vision) come down from God?

8. What does the Gospel of John say that those will die in who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” ―Isaiah 11:6-9.

Bible Questions for April.

1. What were the Israelites told to put on their door-posts?

2. What are Christians told to do with their burdens?

3. What is a saint exhorted to do that he may obtain the desire of his heart?

4. What do the Scriptures say God has magnified above all His name?

5. How many times is it stated that all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are quickened together with Him?

5. Give five verses which teach that the Christian is complete in Christ?

6. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,” to whom does this “us” refer?

7. What should a Christian have always in his speech?

8. Give four scriptures that speak of a Christian singing?

Bible Questions for August.

1. In the Gospel of Matthew we read “And the door was shut.” What are the persons called who were shut out?

2. What class of persons do they represent who will be shut out?

3.What reason is given in Matthew 24. that persons should watch?

4. With whom will the persecuted saints rest when the Lord appears in mighty power taking vengeance?

5. Give three Scriptures which state “every knee shall bow.”

6. The Scripture says “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven in flaming fire to take vengeance.” On whom will this be?

7. What does it say those on whom judgment will fall “know not,” “obey not,” and “believe not?”

8. What reason is given why God will send a strong delusion to mere professors, that they all may be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness?

ERRATA. ―See pages 83, 84.

The Ecclesiastes is the preacher’s theme;

Of life and death and future judgment teem;

And stamps as “vanity” each worldly dream.

In Jeremiah tenderness we see,

And sins deplored in bitterest agony,

And Israel charged with her inconstancy.

Haggai urges God’s host to build

The second temple, which Jehovah willed

More than the first, with glory should be filled.

Malachi Israel’s folly doth record,

Yet tells of those who thought upon the

Lord, Jehovah’s jewels, ―His blessing their reward.

Bible Questions for February.

1. Give Scripture which says many sinners sat down at meat with Jesus.

2. Give Scriptures where the disciples are told to take no thought how they should speak when brought before governors and kings for the Lord’s sake.

3. Give six Scriptures from Matthew where the Lord Jesus says, “Your Father which is in heaven.”

4. Give six Scriptures from Matthew where the Lord Jesus says, “My father which is in heaven.”

5. Give three Scriptures from Matthew which says, “Your Heavenly Father,” and one, “My Heavenly Father.”

6. Give two Scriptures from Matthew which says, “Your Father,” where heaven is not mentioned.

7. Give two passages from Matthew which says, “Thy Father which is in secret” and three “My Father which SEEST in secret.”

8. Give one text from Matthew and one from Mark where we are told that “All manner of sin shall be forgiven unto men.”

9. Give three verses, one each from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that show no person can blaspheme against the Holy Ghost NOW AS those Scribes and Pharisees DID who were told by the Lord Jesus Christ they should not be forgiven in this world, nor in the world to come.

Bible Questions for July.

1. What two things are mentioned in the tenth of the Romans that must be confessed and believed by those that are to be saved?

2. What did the apostle Paul state to be the gospel in the fifteenth of Corinthians?

3. Give four scriptures where it speaks of sudden conversions?

4. What is the Lord Jesus made unto everyone who know Him as their Saviour?

5. It is prophesied that the children of Israel shall abide a long time without a king. What does scripture say they will do after their “return.”

6. Give two scriptures which speak of David as the name of the king that Israel and Judah shall have when they are restored in the latter days.

7. Give two scriptures which give the name of David to the prince who shall be over Israel and Judah.

8. How long is the prince to reign over Israel and Judah?

9. How many shepherds does God say he will give to Israel and Judah?

10. Name the figure which is used by the prophet to show God’s people will become one nation, and not be divided any more.

Bible Questions for June.

1. For what object are men told to beat their ploughshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears? and to what valley are they told to go?

2. In what valley does Scripture say the Lord will judge the nations?

3. What does God say will shake when the Lord will utter His voice from Jerusalem?

4. What kingdom does Scripture state shall not be shaken?

5. Why does it say in Revelation 12 “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth?”

6. Why does it say, “Rejoice ye heavens?”

7. What reason is given that the heavenly Jerusalem will not need the sun or moon to shine in it?

8. What reason is given for the absence of a temple in the heavenly Jerusalem?

Bible Questions for March.

1. Give three Scriptures where believers are said to have been crucified with Christ?

2. Give one verse that has the word “whatsoever” six times.

3. Give the verse that says to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

4. Give two verses which describe a spiritual mind.

5. What is to be the state of those who are exhorted to seek the restoration of others?

6. In what spirit is a person exhorted to deal with an erring Christian?

7. Give the Scripture which says if anyone love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha?

8. What will remove all fear of death?

Bible Questions for May.

1. What were the Israelites told to write upon their door-posts?

2. On whom are saints told to cast their burdens?

3. What will the child of God receive if he delights himself in the Lord?

4. What may the Christian expect if he commits his way unto the Lord?

5. A Christian has a good hope through grace. Give one passage from Titus, one from Hebrews, and one from 1 John, explaining what this hope is.

6. David tells us what is the end of a perfect man. Give the Scripture.

7. James describes the perfect man. Give the description.

8. What was imputed to Abraham when he believed God’s promise to him?

Bible Questions for November.

1. By what are they justified who have peace with God?

2. In whom are they said to joy who have peace with God?

3. Give the name of the city that is to be the joy of the whole earth.

4. In what city does the Lord say he will place his throne?

5. What Scripture says the joy of the Lord is the strength of His people.

6. What prophet tells us God will joy in His people.

7. Who were told by the Lord Jesus Christ that they should die in their sins.

8. What was her name who was asked by the Saviour if she believed that those who received Him should never die.

Bible Questions for October.

1. To whom will the Jews be sent to preach when they are restored to their own land?

2. What will the Jews preach?

3. What have they not heard that will be made known to them by the Jews?

4. What have they net seen that the Jews will declare unto them?

5. Who will be brought out of all nations?

6. How will they be brought out?

7. To what place will they be brought?

8. What is to remain before the Lord as the New Heavens and the New Earth are to remain?

9. Give one text from the Revelation that speaks of the Church of God being with Christ in heavenly glory when the Jews are sent out to preach.

Answers to the first eight questions may all be found in one chapter.

Bible Questions for September.

1. Scripture states believers were children of wrath even as others. Give chapter and verse.

2. In what were believers dead, when God quickened them together with Christ?

3. Where does it say that Christians are raised, and in Christ Jesus.

4. What are Christians said to be created in Christ Jesus unto?

5. Gentiles are spoken of in Scripture as without Christ, what are they also said to be without in the same passage?

6. To whom are Christians brought nigh, and what was it that made them nigh?

7. Give three scriptures from the Gospels on the transfiguration, and one from the epistles Which explains a promise to the disciples.

8. Give one passage from Matthew, and one from Luke where lightning is used to show the character of the second coming of the Lord Jesus, also a passage from each of the same gospels where the deluge is connected with the subject of the Lord’s second coming.

"Blessed Are the Peace Makers."

IT was a dark and dismal night, and yet scarcely less dreary inside the little cottage that stood by the wayside, than without. Supper had ended—a quiet, uncomfortable meal; for fierce passions were at work in her father’s breast, and, while it was so, Amy Brown could not be at rest. She knew the cause; her father had been deeply injured by an unprincipled man in the neighborhood. It was in such a way as not to bring trials to himself—he could have borne that—but the little cottage might have to be sold, and then all he had provided for his only daughter, in case of his death, would be lost to her. The thought of this was unbearable. Supper was over. Amy was washing and putting the room in order. Still her father sat thinking, gloomily, over his wrong. She tried in many ways to turn his thoughts from it, but all in vain. At length he rose and paced up and down the room, with angry, passionate motions. She knew what he was when his evil temper got the mastery, and feared the result. She felt that when his anger had cooled he would be sorry for what he might have done in a moment of passion, and her heart sank within her. Her mother’s last request, “Watch over your father, Amy, and try by all means in your power to help him to conquer his evil temper,” came to her. She inwardly prayed for strength to do right.

“Where is my hat, Amy?” asked her father.

“It is such a dreary night, father. Listen to the storm. Do not, for my sake, venture out in it; it can do no good.”

“Better that, Amy, than the storm within. I must go; do not detain me.”

“You may regret it tomorrow, father.”

“That is my look-out. Let me alone, Amy; you can do no good.”

He was bent on going, then, and she must yield. Oh, for some power stronger than her own to keep him back! His hand was on the door, — that once passed, and she dare not think what might happen. Should she speak again, and thus bring his anger upon herself? It was a trying moment; but the asked for strength was given, and words were put into her mouth. In a low tremulous voice she said, — “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Her father let go the latch, and, sinking into a chair, buried his face in his hands, in deep emotion. Soon the struggle was over. When he lifted up his head, he was calm again.

“Amy,” he said, “you have saved me. No words like those could have had such power to turn me back from evil. My mother repeated them to me when I was a child. Her pale face, as she urged me always to bear them in mind, rose up before me as they fell from your lips after so long a time. Had I passed the door just now, I feel that I should not have entered it again as an innocent man. You have thus, through the blessing of God, kept me from the commission of a dreadful crime. Will you not make it your constant prayer that in the future I may not be overcome of my evil temper, but that, through the power of God, I may become a changed man?”

Great thankfulness filled Amy’s heart that she had withstood the temptation to remain silent, and had been strengthened to do even the little that she was able to keep back her father from evil.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

Books of the New Testament.

Matthew presents us Jesus, as alone

The “Son of David”— Heir to David’s throne,

Who soon as “Lord.” shall through the earth be

known.

Mark as the “Servant” e’er obeying God,

Who in the path of loving service trod,

Though sinking oft beneath the weary load.

Luke as “the Christ,” the “anointed. One” from

heaven,

To whom all power and majesty was given;

And Satan oft from wicked man was driven.

John as the “Word made flesh,” God’s only Son,

Who lived and died to make God’s glory known,

And claim for us a seat upon the throne.

Acts are the records of the Holy Ghost, —

The chronicles of Jesus’ valiant host,

Who served and followed Him at every cost.

The Romans teach us how God can be just,

Yet save in righteousness poor sinful dust,

Who in the precious blood of Jesus trust.

Corinthians tell us who the Church compose, —

What order ruled, what heresies arose,

And what the gifts God on the Church bestows.

Galatians show the law’s dire curse and shame

Was borne by Christ, who to fulfill it came;

That Christ, not Law, the sinner can reclaim.

Ephesians tell us how the Church is blest

E’en now, in Christ, of all heaven’s wealth possessed,

And seen by God as entered into rest.

Philippians teach how love from hearts can flow,

Bound up in Christ, the humbled One, below;

That saints should aim His tenderness to show.

Colossians tell us of the “Church’s Head,”

And warns of holding aught than Him instead, —

The Lord of glory, first-born from the dead.

The Thessalonians show us saints, so bright,

For Jesus waiting through the world’s dark night, —

Children of day, and children of the light.

Timothy tells us how the man of God

Should walk on earth, with truth and meekness

shod,

As Christ the path of true submission trod.

Titus exhorts the faithful chosen band,

To hold “the truth,” though pressed on every

hand,

And in the “blessed hope” with joy to stand.

Philemon, tells us of a brother’s care—

A slave returned his master’s love to share,

And shows how saints should with each other hear.

Hebrews on truth, both past and present, dwells,

The earthly, heavenly work of Jesus tells,

How grace, now reigning, all past law excels.

James writes, “Without works faith is dead”—

That faith must ever from love’s fount be fed,

That Christians fruitless faith should ever dread.

Peter portrays the saint, a pilgrim here,

Called, for his Lord, reproach and shame to bear,

As on the Lord he rolls his every care.

John writes of “love,” the new commandment

given,

By which the world shall know the child of heaven;

And tells the joy of having sins forgiven.

Jude the apostacy at hand portrays,

Yet tells where light is found in darkest days,

To guide the saint, and to direct his ways.

The Revelations close the wondrous scene,

And tell of all which yet shall intervene,

Ere Christ shall reign, the Lord of all supreme!

A. M.

Books of the Old Testament.

Genesis is the record of this world’s creation,

Whereon the wondrous plan of God’s salvation

Would be wrought out by blood, — sin’s sole oblation.

Exodus tells the mode of God’s redemption;

How blood alone can give from guilt exemption;

Jehovah’s wondrous plan of intervention.

Leviticus shows the way of worship true—

Priest, altar, minister, and victim, too,

Together rendering what to God was due.

Numbers unfolds how God His own can aid,

How by redemption each is precious made,

How strong are they whose help is on Him stayed.

Deuteronomy declares Jehovah’s claims,

And how His love the saint’s glad heart inflames;

How full the answer, prayer to God obtains.

Joshua displays the wondrous power of faith;

How life is gained by passing on through death,

And what refuge firm, God’s people hath.

Judges man’s utter failure doth record;

How man, most favored, still forsakes the Lord,

Yet power is still to faith the sure reward.

In Ruth the wondrous ways of God do shine

In grace and power to keep the royal line,

Through Ruth and Boaz of the Seed Divine.

Samuel the sovereignty of God makes known,

And tells the choice of David for the throne,

When Saul, through faithlessness, was overthrown.

Kings is a picture sad of every ill

By kings committed, and imperious will,

The kingdom rent—Jehovah faithful still.

In Chronicles man’s government is seen

An utter failure; yet across the scene

Bright rays of faithfulness oft intervene.

Ezra presents us faith most sorely tried;

God’s house rebuilt, though pressed on every side,

So strong are they who in the Lord confide.

In Nehemiah zeal ‘mid danger shines,

To work for God, and perfect His designs;

Faith ne’er gives up, but e’er on God reclines.

Esther discovers God in very deed

Hidden, yet working for His people’s need;

The Gentile fall’n, the Jew extolled instead.

Job brings the saints’ accuser up to view.

And tells how Job was searched through and through;

Of all his conflicts, and his troubles too.

The Psalms, prophetic, point to David’s Son,

And lauds the victories which shall yet be won

When, sorrows past, Messiah fills the throne.

The Proverbs show us who are truly wise,

And folly paints in its forbidding guise,

And tell their end who wisdom’s voice despise.

The Song of Solomon is wondrous fair!

And counts the glories which in Jesus are,

And how He makes the chosen bride His care.

Isaiah to the Gospels is allied,

And tells the sorrows of the Lamb who died,

His death, and reign o’er all creation wide.

In Jeremiah tenderness we see,

And sins deplored in bitterest agony,

And Israel charged with her inconsistency.

The Lamentations are a sea of woe,

Where sighs are heard, and tears incessant flow

For Judah’s sake, because of sins brought low.

Ezekiel doth unfold God’s glorious rays,

And how His judgments all bespeak His praise,

And all the glories of the latter days.

Daniel’s the history of the Gentile kings,

And Judah’s bondage clear before us brings

Jehovah’s judgments for their many sins.

Hosea shows us Israel once so blest

With Judah of all glory dispossessed,

By God rejected, for sins unconfessed.

Joel predicts what Gentile power will do,

And how that power His people will pursue;

Yet God protecting still the remnant few.

Amos declares the patience, firm and strong,

Of God, though angered by His people’s wrong;

Forsaken, tempted, yet forbearing long.

In Obadiah Edom’s judgment flows

For bringing Israel through a sea of woes;

Thus God doth humble all His people’s foes,

Jonah God’s faithfulness in grace declares;

The wicked city and the prophet spares;

So God in mercy for the contrite cares.

Micah, Samaria threatens with a blow,

Jerusalem, too, he sees in dust laid low,

On all God’s enemies he utters “woe!”

Nahum foretells the world and all its power

Shall be destroyed in judgment’s bitter hour,

When vengeance shall awake, and wrath devour.

Habakkuk o’er God’s erring people yearns,

For their apostasy his spirit burns,

Yet to the God of his salvation turns.

Zephaniah utters all the judgments sore

Jehovah on Jerusalem will pour,

Which, blest by Him, rebelled yet more and more.

Haggai urges on God’s wish to build

The second temple, which Jehovah willed

More than the first, with glory should be filled.

Zechariah brings Jerusalem up to view,

And tells the nations what distress they’ll know

Unless they there in lowly worship bow.

Malachi Israel’s many sins record,

Yet tells of those who thought upon the Lord;

Jehovah’s jewels, His blessing their reward.

A. M.

The Children's Text.

IN reading the wonderful book of God, the Bible, we find two great and important truths running all through it; one, the ruin of man, the other, God’s remedy for the ruin. Now, my dear young friends, you all well know that in natural things, people do not go to the doctor for a remedy until they feel ill, as the Scripture saith, “They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” And thus I would ask you, first of all, whether you have ever really discovered that you are not whole, that you are a ruined sinner suffering from the terrible malady called sin. Have you ever really cried out before God, “Oh, I feel so wicked, I know not what to do.” If you have, I am sure you will be glad to hear of God’s remedy for your evil case. And here it is in those beautiful words in the 3rd chapter of the Gospel by John; I hope you will read them very attentively, and think of their meaning, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What a precious message for Jesus Himself to bring from Heaven, “God so loved the world.” Think of it, dear young friends, “God so loved.” Mark, it is God, the Holy God of whom you have been afraid because of your sins, that so loved. So loved what? the world; yes, this wicked, wicked world to which you belong. Think of that, what wonderful words. A Holy God on the one hand, and a wicked world on the other, coupled together with the precious words, so loved, God so loved the world. What volumes are expressed in the meaning of that dear little word, “so.” How beautiful to read that the love of God was so great that He gave the dearest object of His heart, His only begotten and well-beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. No one asked God to do it, it was the great love of His own heart that prompted Him, and it was the sad state of the poor world that drew out His pity and compassion; and the love was so great, so very great, that He spared not His only Son. And what was it all for? that whosoever—oh, dear little ones, do think of that beautiful word, whosoever. Do you all know what it means? Let me tell you; I do not think I can do better than give you the answer of a number of Sunday School children, “You, me, and everybody, sir.” It’s a wonderful word; it takes in everybody, high, low, rich, poor, young, old, good, bad; everybody in London, everybody in England, everybody in Europe, everybody everywhere. Everybody is a sinner, and everybody is included in the precious gospel word, whosoever. And what comes next, why whosoever believeth; not trieth, hopeth, doeth, worketh, but believeth; whosoever believeth in Him, in Jesus, God’s dear Son, the precious Saviour; remember, whosoever. Does that really mean me? says one; but I am so wicked. Yes, you are, and God knows it; and yet His Word, which endureth for ever (1 Peter 1:25), says whosoever (John 3:1416); that must mean you, because, as we have seen, it means everybody; then, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Dear little ones, have you believed? if not, why not believe now? and if you do, you shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Mark, it is God who says so, and it is impossible for God to lie (Heb. 6:18). “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). How happy you will be, if you take God at His word; eternal life will be your blessed portion now. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36).

But some little one will say, “but I thought he was going to tell us about the children’s text.” Yes, and so I am; I am just now coming to it. I wonder if any one can guess which it is; I dare say many would have to do so for a very long time, and then, perhaps, not guess the right one. “Which can it be?” says one little one; “I wonder what he means by the children’s text.” Well, I hope when I tell you, you will remember it; some little ones are very forgetful, but I hope you will remember this as long as you live. Perhaps some of you will know it already when I tell you. Well, it is a very important text, and why I call it the children’s is this—because there is not a single word in it of more than four letters, so that every little boy, and every little girl who can read up to words of four letters, will be able to read this. And here it is— “He—that—hath—the—Son—hath—life, — and—he—that—hath—not—the—-Son—of — God—hath—not—life” (1 John 5:12). There now, we were speaking of God’s love in giving His dear Son Jesus that we might have eternal life; and here is a text about it so simple that no one need make a mistake. It divides the world into two great classes, those who have and those who have not the Son of God; those who have, have eternal life in Him; those who have not, have it not. Those who believe, have the Son of God; those who believe not, have not. Dear young friends, which class are you in? Can you say? Oh! yes, I know I am a sinner, but I do believe, and I have Jesus as my Saviour; then eternal life is yours. God says you have life, and you will never go to hell, never perish. But if among others, who say— “Oh! I have not yet believed,” then you have not life, and you are in danger of everlasting punishment (John 3:36, Matt. 25:46). Knowing this, and how uncertain your life is, let me entreat you, my dear young readers, not to delay, but come as you are to Jesus now, He will not drive you away; believe on His precious name, and He will forgive you all your sins, and give you eternal life; and then the first part of the children’s text, “He that hath the Son hath life,” will always fill your heart with joy as you read it, and the last part, “He that hath not the Son of God hath not life” will cease to cause you fear.

E. H. C.

Ching Ting.

A MISSIONARY lately sent home the following account of a native convert, named Ching Ting: —

“The Spirit of God arrested him and brought him a humble suppliant to the feet of Jesus. He became truly converted, and we did not hinder him from going down to his own people and telling them of the great change that had been wrought in him. In one place he was stoned; but, instead of being discouraged, he went out into the next village and commenced preaching there. In one of those villages he was arrested and put in prison, and, while the crowd was gathered around to see this man who dared to preach a foreign doctrine, he preached Jesus. He was brought before the magistrate, and sentenced to receive 2,000 lashes. He received that sentence all at one time, the Chinese whip having three hard leather thongs, each stroke of the whip counting three strokes. He was then carried back to Foochow unable to walk, groaning with intense agony. Our physician there said he never saw a case of whipping in which such very severe bruises were received. Lying in agony and restless in body, he said, Oh, my soul is in peace; Jesus is with me!’ He would say to his unconverted friends, ‘Oh, come to Jesus! He can make your soul peaceful when your body is in pain; He can take you home to heaven. Come to Jesus!’ That was his talk while he lay there helpless on his back. As soon as he could walk, he wished to go back to where he had been so cruelly treated, and preach the Gospel there.

“He afterwards went to the island of Lamyit, and some of the people said, ‘We know about these doctrines; they are nothing strange to us; come up to our houses, and we will show you.’ They showed him the Gospel of St. Matthew and of St. John, and other Christian books, and said, ‘We have had these books thirty years.’ One of them said, ‘My father gave me this book, and told me there would be people who would come and explain it to me; you see I have a new cover on it.’

“Now, what was the result? Whilst in Foochow the Missionaries had to labor ten years before there was a single convert to Christ, yet, on the Island of Lamyit, where this good seed had been sown, in six months after Ching Ting went there, sixty had passed from death unto Life.

“Thirty years before, in the year 1833, Dr. Medhurst had gone up the coast in a Chinese junk, scattering Christian books. The people were glad to receive them, and that seed sprang up into a harvest when the living preacher came with the message of Christ. So we find it all through our work. We see as clear as sunlight that no effort put forth has been in vain. When we penetrate into the interior, oftentimes while preaching there we find copies of Books that were distributed years before, which had prepared the way for us. Sometimes we find people who say, ‘Twelve years ago we heard Missionaries preach in Foochow; we became satisfied that idolatry was all vain; we have not worshipped idols in all these years.’ Such instances are very numerous.”

The Clock and the Book.

You see the clock has two hands, and if you are to know the exact time, you must look at both of them. Sometimes I think the Word of God is like that. We cannot tell the time by noticing only one of the fingers; and we cannot get the whole truth as to any subject by only giving heed to one portion of God’s Word. We must take it as a whole, and look to the Lord to give us understanding as to how to “rightly divide” it (2 Tim. 2:15). We need both the pointers, but if there is any difference in value between them, the shorter of the two is the one we could least afford to lose. In the “Holy Scriptures,” also, those portions we may be most in danger of overlooking are by no means the least valuable and important. Some old clocks have only the “hour” hand; with such we could always tell nearly the exact time, but if we would be quite exact, we need the minute hand also. Only what use would the precise minute of the hour be to us if we did not know also the hour of the day? So we must notice the great divisions of God’s Word, or exactness as to particular portions will not be of very much value to us in learning God’s thoughts. On the other hand, if we would know just what is the mind of God about things, we must be prepared to have to carefully and patiently study each particular part. We must not suppose that all God intends us to know is in the “New Testament; “while it would be very wrong indeed to neglect that, and read nothing but the Old. But then we must learn how to distinguish the two. It would never do to lose sight of the difference between the two hands of the clock. We should make all sorts of mistakes as to the time of day. Again, we must not mix up together the teaching God has given for those of His people whom He has called with a “heavenly calling,” and has only left upon earth for “a little while,” to be “strangers and pilgrims” in it; with what He says about those people who are to “inherit the earth,” and whose days are to be long in the land which Jehovah their God giveth them. The one company are called to walk in grace, to do good and suffer for it (1 Peter 2:20); to suffer evil and bless for it (ch. 3:9). The others are to be subjects of His government, when “justice and judgment” will be the establishment of His throne. To them it is said, “Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee” (Num. 24:9). Compare also Romans 12:20, with Psalms 137:8-9.

To learn “the truth” we must look at the whole dial. We must “consider” all that God has said, while never forgetting either that when we have it all before our minds, we are entirely cast upon the Lord to give us “understanding in all things” (2 Tim. 2:7). How many mistakes are made through taking a truth and putting it out of its place, as if it were the whole truth instead of only a part of it!

W. TY.

Come and See.

THERE are many little words in the Bible which even a child may read and understand, and the little words at the head of this paper are three of them. You will find them twice in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, where we read, at verse 36, how John the Baptist, looking on Jesus as he walked, saith “Behold the Lamb of God!” and how two of John’s disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus, who turning and seeing them following Him asked “What seek ye?” Now in the first place I want you to think over this question. What seek ye? “Do you seek salvation?” If so Jesus has it to give you as a free gift. You have not got to earn it by doing or praying, for “THE GIFT OF GOD is eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” So then you have only to go to Jesus for it, and you will have it at once and forever.

Well, when Jesus asked these two men “What seek ye?” they asked another question in reply which was “Rabbi,” (meaning teacher); “where dwellest thou?” and then it was that the Lord used the words at the head of this paper “Come and see.” Then we read “They came and saw where He dwelt and abode with Him that day for it was about the tenth hour.” Thus it would seem they remained with Him, “where He dwelt” all the night through until the morning. Now it is this I want to speak to you about. The Lord Jesus was then, you know, here, in this earth, for “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not,” but instead of believing in Him the world crucified Him, and from that hour the world has never seen Him, and never will until He comes again “in clouds, and every eye shall see Him and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him, even so, Amen.” In the meantime He is in heaven, for you have often heard how He rose again on the third day and went up where He was before, and sat down on the right hand of God. So then if you were to ask the same question now which those two disciples asked 1,800 years ago, what would the answer be? Well, some would say “In heaven,” and of course that is quite true, but would it be of any use merely to know that I believe a good many little people and big people too know it because they have heard it and read it, and it only makes them think that Jesus is a long way off and does not see them or know anything about them. No, dear little reader, a far better answer to such a question would be the answer Jesus Himself gave in those three little words “COME AND SEE.”

Let us look at these simple little words. First, Jesus said, “Come,” and when He said so, what did those two men do? Why they went after Him of course, for “they came and saw where He dwelt,” and so may you if you will, for Jesus though now in heaven still says “Come.” Oh that you may hear Him, and that your young heart may go up after Him by faith, up there, far above the earth and earthly things, far beyond the sphere were clouds are drifting, where the stars are shining, where the moon is walking in brightness; far away to heaven itself, where angels serve and worship Him who now sits in brightest glory waiting to come again and take to Himself all who love His name! Jesus still says “Come and see.” If you “come” to Him by faith, then you shall “see.” First you shall see all your sins all gone through His precious blood, or you could not be happy in His presence. But this is not all. Too many never see more than this because they are thinking only of their own blessing instead of going on to think of Him Himself and all the blessing and the glory He is in. It is in His blessing that we are bleed, it is in His glory that we are glorified. (Eph. 1, John 17).

“Come and see;” and having seen, you will still long to see more, like the dear Apostle Paul, who, “for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord,” counted all things but loss, and still went on “reaching forth to the things which were before” and beyond, ever “growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Do you ask, How am I to begin? I answer, by simply hearing His Word and believing in Him, by looking right away to Him Himself, who bids you. “come;” by trusting His love with all your heart and soul, and thus in spirit coming to Him. Thus you will “see” where He dwells, and will know what it is to “abide with Him,” as the two disciples did; not, indeed, like them, in an earthly home down here, but in spirit in His heavenly home up there. “Seeking those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand, of God; “and setting your affections (your whole mind) there, you will abide with Him all through “the night” of this world’s pilgrimage until the resurrection morning dawns, when, raised or changed, you will be caught away to be forever with the Lord.

May God give you grace to “COME AND SEE.”

Come Now.

In the parish of C―, in the north of Devon, resides a family, the parents of which are children of God. Their eldest child, a boy, when young attended a Sunday School in the neighborhood of their residence, where he was instructed in those truths which are able to make wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. When he became older, he left the school and obtained employment, and all the instruction he had received seemed to have been entirely forgotten and lost. In this state he continued until the age of eighteen years, when it pleased the Lord of His great mercy to bring him to a saving knowledge of Jesus, in the following remarkable manner.

At the time alluded to he was in the service of a farmer, whose wife was converted to God, and who had often spoken to him and his fellow-servant concerning their state before God. Having conversed with them from time to time alone, and they not being able to say anything in their defense, this youth said to his companion, “Mistress is overcoming us fast, so you and I must keep together;” meaning that one could help the other in replying to her when she spoke to them on the subject.

One evening when she returned from hearing the word of God, at a meeting held weekly near her house, she found John H― and his fellow-servant sitting by the fire, and she inquired if they had been there all the time she had been at the meeting? John replied that they had. She asked why they had not been at the meeting? To which he replied, that there was no room there. Knowing this to be a mere excuse, she said, “There will be room enough in hell!” to which he answered, “We shall only make the fire larger!” They then went out, swearing, and saying that she only made them worse by speaking to them. It was winter and dark, and as they went out of the house, John—stumbled over an iron pot used in farm-houses, which the servant had left outside the door, and in falling he slightly injured his knee. The words of caress impiety quoted above had just quitted his lips, when thus his death-blow was sent him from God! There was a small wound, the skin being a little broken, but it did not seem likely to be attended with serious consequences. He was not, however, able to go to his work, though not seriously ill, but after remaining a few days at home with his parents the wound healed. Still he felt weak, and seemed shaken as to his general health.

It was on a Wednesday evening when he fell as above described, and he continued without seemingly having much the matter with him, until the Saturday week following, when he complained of a swelling in his neck, and said he thought he should have the mumps, a disorder then prevalent. A medal man saw him “on the Monday following, who at first was inclined to think that it might be the mumps, and he was thinking of leaving, but there was something that struck him as strange about the symptoms, and on more closely examining them, he was alarmed at the case and pronounced it to be one of great danger, as he found the swelling in the neck was connected with lockjaw, and he at once intimated that there was but little, if any, hope of recovery.

This fearful malady was making rapid progress, he soon became stiff and unable to lie on his back or side, but lay on his stomach with his head hanging over the bed in great suffering, and incapable of moving.

He was in this state when a servant of Christ, who knew his parents, and had known him when a child in the Sunday School, went to visit him. He spoke to him about his soul, said he was sorry to see him in such a state, and asked him what he thought Auld become of him if he died in his present condition. His reply was, “Oh sir! if I die now, I know I shall go to hell”— to which Mr.— replied, “Yes, John, I know it also.” He then spoke to him about Jesus as a Saviour, and left greatly exercised in soul concerning him.

There was a meeting of believers that evening for reading the Scripture, at the house of Mr.― (as was usually the case every Monday evening). When they met, Mr.― proposed that instead of reading and conversing on Scripture as they ordinarily did, they should devote the time to prayer for the conversion of poor John; and also for parents generally, that they might be more exercised in soul respecting the conversion of their children. Prayer was accordingly offered up to the Lord and with much earnestness, and there was felt to be such manifest power and presence of the Spirit of God in the meeting, that those who prayed felt assured their prayer would be answered.

The first thing Mr.— learned on the following morning, was that poor John was converted! He went to see him, and found him peaceful and happy instead of restless and distressed. He was lying in the same position over the side of the bed as on the day before, but oh how changed as regards his soul! On seeing Mr.— he said to him “I know now that my sins are forgiven, I am not afraid to die, and I shall go to Jesus. Last night that word came to me, ‘Come now, let us reason together saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.’” A great change had indeed been wrought in him—he had passed from death unto life, and was now manifestly a new creature in Christ Jesus.

His mother said he had been praying in the night, and that now the Lord had answered prayer for him, and that he had told her he was saved, she could give him up to the Lord, being assured of his salvation. Her prayer also for him had been answered, as for a week before she had continued earnestly praying for his conversion, without having any thought at the time that he would so soon be removed from this world.

Mr.— then read to him John 14; and after reading and speaking some time stopped, seeing him much exhausted, and asked if he should pray with him, to which he replied, “Please go on, I want to hear all I can of the Lord first, I shall not go for half an hour.”

Mr.— remained with him some time, and it was evident that his soul was resting peacefully on the atoning blood of Christ, and that through faith he had “peace with God.” It was now that what he had formerly heard at the Sunday School returned to his recollection, and as one proof of it, he requested Mr.— to sing the 73rd Hymn in the Cottage Hymn Book—

“There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,” &c.

which Mr.— read to him, as he was suffering greatly in body.

He also expressed a desire that Mr. — would on the day of his funeral, allow his body to be taken into the place in the village, where the people of God met on the Lord’s day, and would there speak to sinners to warn them to flee from the wrath to come.

Having remained with him sufficiently long to feel perfectly assured that it was a genuine work of the Holy Spirit upon his soul, Mr.— left with a gladdened heart, praising the Lord for the riches of His grace to this poor sinner, and for having thus speedily answered the prayers of many on his behalf.

After he had left, poor John was not satisfied with the hymn having been only read, but requested it might be sung, which was accordingly done by the few of the Lord’s people that were gathered around his bed. He then spoke much about his unconverted fellow-servant, and his unconverted relations, sending messages to each, and exhorting them to seek the Lord, and not to put off doing so, as he had done, to the time of sickness and death. His mistress (who had spoken to him as before related,) came also to see him, and was satisfied, and thankful to the Lord, that he had indeed plucked him from that very burning of which he had so heedlessly spoken but a little time before. He also wished to see Mrs.— (whose employment he had formerly left in an unbecoming manner), saying he thought she would come, and that if he could not speak to her when she came (for his mouth was getting closed by the fearful disorder), he would put out his hand that she might take it as an expression of her forgiveness.

In these and other ways was grace seen to be working in him, and thus he continued till the afternoon of the same day, when a violent convulsion came on and he was speechless.

One of his godly relations who was standing by his bedside, then said, “I could not pray for the Lord to take him whilst he could say anything for the Lord, but now he can speak for Him no more, let us ask the Lord to take him soon to Himself.” Accordingly they did so. One faint expression only they heard which sounded like “Jesus.” He spoke no more—the time for his dismissal from the suffering body had arrived—and whilst they were praying his happy and ransomed spirit peacefully departed, to be “forever with the Lord,” who had so loved him and given Himself for Him.

On the following Lord’s-day a great number of persons assembled at the cottage of his parents, and devout men assisted in carrying him to his burial. The body, as he had requested, was carried into the place of meeting, which was crowded to the utmost. Mr.— spoke from Isaiah 53:11, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied;” setting forth the satisfaction of Jesus in seeing His sufferings for sinners effectual in bringing them unto Himself and unto glory. After this, another servant of Christ spake from Romans 14:7, 8. “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth unto himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord’s.” In reference to this it was stated that while we should praise the Lord exceedingly for the riches of His grace in this and similar instances of conversion to God, yet we must remember the great importance of being brought to the Lord when in possession of health and strength, so that we might not only die in the Lord, but live to the Lord, and serve Him in newness of life.

It was a solemn and happy season. The body was then conveyed to the grave and deposited there in hope of that day when Jesus, the resurrection and the life, shall appear in glory, and raise the bodies of His saints, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” Philippians 3:21. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also, which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:14 to 17.

In concluding this short narrative the writer has not thought it needful to make any application of the facts thus recorded, being desirous of leaving it entirely with the Lord Himself, to apply them by the Holy Spirit, as He pleases, to the conscience of the reader, whether converted or unconverted. If the simple record of God’s own act of grace in saving this poor sinner should produce no effect on any unconverted person who may read it, the writer could not hope that anything he might add would produce any beneficial result.

His objects in writing are―1. That sinners may be led to feel their danger, and that the riches of God’s grace in salvation might be presented to their view.

2.— That those children of God who are engaged in instructing the young might be encouraged in their work of faith and love, and patiently wait for the result of their labor according to that word, “And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”— Galatians 6:9.

3.— That parents might be encouraged to pray for their children, however much evil they may manifest in their ways, and

4.— That the Saints of God may seek by prayer to be helpers in bringing many from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

He would commend this little paper unto the Lord, that it may be blessed to many souls, unto the praise and glory of His grace.

J. E.

A Contrast, yet No Difference.

WHAT striking contrasts may be witnessed in a great city like London! I was lately passing through one of its noble thoroughfares, where the mansions which line each side of the road are grand and lofty, showing by their style that the occupants must be persons of wealth and distinction. The internal decorations, too, which meet the eye of the passer-by, are mostly distinguished by refinement and elegance. The many carriages conveying ladies and gentlemen up and down the road also show the general character of the place. But notwithstanding all this respectability, there is, not far from this road, a dirty and wretched locality, inhabited by persons of the lowest class, where not only poverty prevails, but where degradation and crime seem to find a congenial soil.

As I was walking along the imposing thoroughfare to which I refer, there came from one of the side streets two policemen in charge of some miserable-looking little boys. As these passed I could but stay and look on them with pity and compassion. They were dirty, neglected, under-sized children, with that look of low cunning on their faces which evidences familiarity with wickedness and crime. I understood that they were young thieves, and that they were being taken to prison, in order that they might undergo the punishment which had been passed upon them for their offenses.

After these poor little criminals had passed away from my sight, I could but observe as I continued on my way how many respectable children I met. Here, were two or three young ladies out for a walk, with an attendant to take care of them, all of them tastefully dressed, showing at a glance that they were partakers of every comfort and even luxury of life. Then, there were some young gentlemen, who, not unlikely, were going to their grammar-school or to college. Others, too, I saw, who though, perhaps, bent on other objects, also evidently belonged to the educated and polished classes of society.

The contrast between the wretched little Arabs whom I had just seen, and these young ladies and gentlemen struck me forcibly; and I could not but confess that the comforts and refinements of life are by no means to be despised. In outward manners and appearance the two classes seemed scarcely to belong to the same race. How natural, thought I, would it be, if these young gentlefolks were to look down upon those miserable creatures. It would not surprise me if a self-righteous thought arose in their hearts, and that in the spirit of the Pharisee, of whom we read in Luke 18, they were to say to themselves, “I thank God that I am not as others are, or even as those bad children.”

Yet, after all, wherein does the difference consist? Truly, as before men, the difference is great. But, as before God, we are taught in the Scriptures, that there is NO difference; for ALL “have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3). So that in himself the scion of a noble house is no better than a city Arab, and both must be saved in the same way. The most amiable and moral child must have his conscience purged by the precious blood of Christ, as well as the most evil and sinful, if he is to be a partaker of the Salvation of God. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim. 2). “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).

The case of the young man which is recorded in Luke 18 is very instructive upon this point. He had an abundance of natural advantages. He was very rich, moral, lovable, and religious. But when he was searched by the word of the Lord, he showed that he had no heart for Christ. The result was that he went away very sorrowful. How different is the instance of the thief on the cross. There was no question that he was a wicked man, and a law-breaker; but he at length turned to the Lord and trusted in Him, and had the blessed assurance from His holy lips, “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with ME in paradise.”

Now, my dear young friends, do not misunderstand me. It is right to be moral and virtuous, and to use the many mercies which a gracious God has strewed about our path. Only remember that there is but one way in which to be saved, and that the precious blood of Christ is alike requisite to give the most naturally excellent and worthy person acceptance into the presence of God, and to make even a wretched city Arab a partaker of the same unspeakable blessing.

Are you thus washed, and made whiter than snow? Or, are you resting upon the sandy foundation of some fancied goodness or righteousness of your own?

The Daisy.

SWEET Flower! Thy simple charms have won

For thee a name of praise;

Thou lowly image of the Sun,

Resemblance of his rays.

Thou openest when at morn he gleams,

Rejoicing ‘neath his glowing beams,

Till ev’ning spreads her haze;

When thou, no longer in the light,

Dost close thyself in shades of night.

A language, thou dolt plainly speak,

My erring heart to guide;

That as my Saviour’s face I seek,

And in His love abide,

So I receive His living rays,

Reflecting Him unto His praise,

Who for my sins has died;

But as I from His presence flee,

Then self, not Christ, is seen in me.

"Dear Child."

PASSING, a few days since, through an ancient and famous burial-place, my attention was directed to the many interesting tombstones and tablets with which it is filled; but among all that met my eye there was one tablet, with a short inscription, which charmed me more than all the rest, on account of its sweet simplicity. It was as follows: —

JANE LISTER, DEAR CHILDE, Died October 27th 1688.

This is all that is communicated upon the stone respecting the dear child whose death is thus recorded as having taken place nearly two centuries ago. One feels, however, quite at home with this young girl of a former generation, as well as with her loving and bereaved parents, just as though they had been dwelling in our midst. We do not know, it is true, her exact age, nor any particulars as to her parents. We may, however, assume that their station in life was that which is accounted respectable, as otherwise the body of the child would not have been interred in so noted a burial-place. But it is the loving exclamation of “Dear Childe,” which brings the case home to one’s bosom, as it can scarcely fail to cause a responsive vibration in any heart that is under the influence of natural affection.

“Dear child!” Is it not pleasant to you to be thus addressed by your kind father and loving mother? Even if they had occasion to speak to you in the language of correction or warning, would not an appeal to you, as their dear child, have a claim upon your heart, and dispose you to give heed to their kind and faithful words? I think it would.

What a sweet passage that is in Jer. 31, where Ephraim, after having grievously sinned against the Lord, is turned to Him, and truly repents! “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” How tender is the heart of the Lord toward the repentant one! “Is Ephraim my dear son?” What a sweet remembrance of the relationship which existed between them! “Is he a pleasant child?” He had, indeed, like the younger son in Luke 15, once turned his back upon his father’s house and gone into a far country; but he has bemoaned himself, and is ashamed for his sinful departure and is returned. And now the Lord thinks of him as “a pleasant child,” and says, “My bowels are troubled for him.” How wondrous that He should feel so deeply for the trouble and grief which the chastised one had brought upon himself through his stubbornness and rebellion! But being now turned from his backsliding, “I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” Oh, what a blessing to be one whom He calls “My dear son,” and “a pleasant child!”

There is a sweet word in Eph. 5:1. It is, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.” The children of God are there addressed by the loving title of dear children. Now, I trust that you know how we become the children of God. We are plainly instructed on this point in Gal. 3:26, as well as elsewhere in the Word of God. But in the passage referred to it is written, “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” So that it is quite clear that unless we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not the children of God; but that if we are believers in Him, as taught in our hearts by the Spirit, then we are truly the children of God. Now, I trust, dear child, that you no: only know this, as written in the Book, but that you also know it in your heart, as engraved there by the Spirit of the living God. Then, if this be so with you, think how blessed it is to be one among the “dear children” of God, and to be privileged to call Him “Abba, Father.” (See Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15-16; and Gal. 4:6.)

Have you never noticed how naturally children imitate the words and ways of those about them, especially of their parents? I, for instance, have a little child, who sometimes surprises me by the way in which I find she has watched and imitated me. In the verse quoted above, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children,” the word “followers” really means imitators. So, as our own children copy us, God calls upon us as His beloved children to be imitators of Him. But one might say, “How can I do this?” “No man hath seen God at any time.” True, dear child of God, but we see Him in Jesus Christ; “the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” And if we look upon Jesus, and have our hearts occupied with Him in all His beauty and perfection, as shown to us in the Scriptures, we shall be in the true way of being imitators of God, as dear children.

Dear child of God, may you and I have our hearts increasingly occupied with Him who is the Son of the Father, that reflecting Him more perfectly, we may thus manifest, in our spirit and our ways, that we are at least seeking to be “imitators of God, as dear children.”

A Debtor for Life.

SOME time ago a person had a dog that he wanted to get rid of, so he took him out in a boat on the River Moselle, in Germany, and, having tied a large stone round the poor dog’s neck, threw him into the water. Of course, the poor creature sank at once; but it seems that the stone must have been loosely tied, for it slipped off his neck, and he rose again to the surface and tried to get into the boat again. In vain did his master push him back, every time he did so the dog returned, until at last, the man being angry, struck at him furiously with the oar. But I am glad to say he missed his aim, and, instead of hitting the poor dog’s head, overbalanced himself and fell into the water. As he was quite unable to swim he was now in the same danger that he had put the dog in, and began to sink at once. And now the dog, who, like all dogs, could swim well, was free to make his way to land, and so escape the cruel death intended for him. But instead of this, what do you think he did? Why, he turned round at once, swam after his master, and seizing him by his coat, lifted his head above the water and then headed away towards the shore; and although beaten back several times by the wind and waves, and in danger of being drowned in his efforts to save his master, he struggled bravely on until he succeeded in gaining the land.

I am glad to tell you that the faithful creature’s life was spared, and I hope that his master, grateful for the love that so promptly returned good for evil, will make much of him as long as he lives. I am sure you will say he ought never to forget that under God he is a debtor for his life to this faithful animal, and that, too, in spite of his having tried to kill him.

But I think this little tale reminds us of One whose love was greater, far greater, than that of this faithful dog.

Eighteen hundred years ago there was One whom men not only tried to kill but did actually put to death.

“And such a cruel death He died,

For He was hung and crucified.”

And not only so, but when thus cruelly treated, such was the malice of His enemies, that they railed on Him, mocked Him, wagged their heads at Him as delighting in His sufferings, and defied Him to save Himself from their brutal hands. Yet after all this when, having died and been buried, He rose again from the dead, almost one of the first things He did was to offer life, pardon, and peace to His murderers! for He bade His disciples preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations, “beginning at Jerusalem,” the very city where they had been His “betrayers and murderers!” And many thousands of Jews afterward believed and were saved by the very blood they had shed in their malice and ignorance, and thus were debtors for life—life everlasting—to Him whom they had slain, even the Prince of life, the Lord Jesus Christ, I dare say you have heard all this before many times, but I want you now not merely to hear of it or to read about it, but to think over it. How great must that love have been which could not only forgive the wicked cruelties those people had done, and all other sins too, but even give life in return for the death they put Him to, and that life not merely short and fleeting like the life which the faithful dog had saved, but life eternal; life that will endure when worlds have passed away. Surely His love was stronger than death, was it not? Well, this same Jesus, so loving, so gracious, now offers you life—nay more; He offers you HIMSELF. He invites you to “receive Him,” to “believe in” Him, to “come unto” Him, to “look” to Him, and He declares that all who do so, no matter what they may have done, or thought, or said against Him, shall receive remission of sins; that is, a full, free, eternal forgiveness—new life, a heavenly home in the Father’s house, and all the joys—joys unspeakable and full of glory—which belong to the children of God. Will you refuse these blessings? “Oh; no,” I think I hear some reader say, “I cannot refuse love so full, so free.” Then “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” and evermore throughout eternity you will own with joy that to Him, and to Him alone, you are a DEBTOR FOR LIFE.

The Fire of the Lord.

1 Kings 18:38.

Two months ago I was talking to you about a furnace of fire that was made hotter than ever it had been before, so hot that when strong men came near the door of it they were burnt and killed; but not hot enough to singe the hair of the heads of three young servants of God, who allowed themselves to be put into it rather than disobey Him. I wish now to speak to you of another fire, sent by God, not made by Nebuchadnezzar. This fire was so unlike any other fire, that instead of water putting it out it “licked up” twelve barrelsful of water, and burnt up not only the sacrifice prepared for it, but even the stones and the earth the altar itself was made of! The king’s flame could not turn the color of the coats of God’s servants, but “the fire of the Lord” could burn up cold water and great stones.

We send you a little picture of it this month; but what a scene it must have been! The king and the people are struck with amazement as the fire falls in answer to the prophet’s prayer. In the chapter before, he had prayed (compare James 5:17), and the heavens were closed, so that there was no dew or rain for over three years; now he prays again, and not “rain from heaven,” but the “fire of the Lord” falls. Some day this same Elijah would go up to heaven in “a chariot of fire;” before that, fire should come down and burn up his enemies, first one company and then another; but here God has sent him, just before He would give rain again to His thirsty land, that Elijah might plead with the people and that their heart might be “turned back again,” to know who really was God, and to worship Him alone. The Lord had good reason to be angry with His people; but in His patient goodness He sends His servant that they may be brought back to that fear of God which was their blessing and their glory. Last month we read of a wicked prince who “stole the hearts” of the people from the true king. Then we find that strange wives “turned away the heart” of the next king, so that he went after false gods; but about this wicked Ahab we read that he did more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the kings that had been before him! He and his queen, if possible more wicked than himself, had actually kept and encouraged hundreds of false “prophets” to teach the people to turn away from Jehovah, their God, and to worship Baal and other gods, which, in truth, were not gods at all. And all the prophets of the Lord that queen Jezebel could find she had killed! Elijah was faithful to God through it all, and God took care of him, feeding him through all the famine that came from there being no rain; first by means of the ravens, and then in the house of a very poor widow, who, when the prophet went to her, had only just enough for herself and her son to eat at one meal and then die, as she thought. This man of God was obedient to all that the Lord said to him; and those who I walk as in the presence of God have really nothing to fear, either from famine or from the malice of the wicked, or from anything I else. God had said to Elijah in the former chapter, “Hide thyself,” and he had done so, and God watched over him. Now, He says, “Go, show thyself,” and he was quite ready to go. And though he knew how the guilty king Ahab had been hunting everywhere for him, to kill him, and what Jezebel had done and desired to do to all the prophets of Jehovah, yet he is calm and fearless in the face of all, and directs Ahab to gather the people and Baal’s prophets together that he may meet with them and speak to them about their ways and their God. Ahab had felt what a terrible famine had come since the solemn words Elijah had spoken to him the last time they had met; but, instead of humbling himself for all that wickedness by which he had provoked the Lord to anger, he insults the man of God by asking if he was the troubler of Israel. Elijah rebukes his impiety, and the king not only fears to kill him, as he wanted to do, but feels compelled to do exactly what he told him, and so he gathers the people and the “prophets” to meet Elijah on the slopes of Mount Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” What could they say? What folly to try to mix up the worship of Jehovah with that of Baal! Both could not be the living and true God; and, not to speak of the sin of worshipping any other than the true God, what folly it was not to be altogether for either one or the other! It was not for the glory of Jehovah or of Baal that the people should serve partly one and partly the other; and as the people seem to have been deceived and seduced by Jezebel’s prophets till they hardly knew who was God, Elijah proposes that there should be some public proof of whether Baal really was God or not. They worshipped him as the “god of fire,” whose burning throne was the sun itself. Suppose, then, that they put a dead bullock on his altar, and looked to him to send fire to burn it up, so proving that he was the great God they represented him to be. It seemed reasonable enough: the people said, “It is well spoken,” and Baal’s prophets themselves do not make any objection. They appear really to have trusted in Baal to show that he was God. Poor deluded men! It was Israel’s God, Jehovah, who was a “consuming fire” (see Deut. 4:24), and they had been worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator. Yet look at their earnestness; praying from morning till noon; leaping on the altar with excitement, crying aloud, and even cutting themselves with knives, to get Baal’s attention and draw down his fire. Of course, there was “no voice, nor any that answered,” for there was no Baal really to hear. He was at best but a dumb idol, and if they put no fire under his altar, it was quite certain he could not. How it teaches us that for people to be ever so intensely earnest about a thing is no proof that the thing is right, or pleasing to God, or any real good to them. These foolish and wicked men cried from morning till the time of the evening sacrifice, “O Baal, hear us,” but no Baal heard. Elijah builds an altar and not only puts no fire, but has quantities of water poured over, till it fills a deep trench all round it. Then he calmly speaks to that God whose word had been his guide in doing all he had done, and the fire descends at once, and burns up the sacrifice and the altar, and licks up the water that was round about it. The people see it, and fall on their faces with awe, and no longer “halt between two opinions” as to who is God. I think you will say, how foolish they must have been to have ever doubted that Jehovah was God and the only God. You never halted between two opinions as to who is God. I hope it is so. The Word of God says, “Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well.” But I want you to think of what the end of that same verse says: “The devils also believe and tremble” (James 2:19). The wicked spirits in the time of Christ owned God as “the Most High God;” and more than that, they confessed the Lord Jesus to be the Son of that God, but did that save them? They feared Jesus, and they “tremble” at the thought of God. Have you learned to tremble as you think of yourself as a lost sinner in the presence of the majesty and holiness of God? Baal’s prophets did not halt between two opinions; they believed in Baal, and showed it plainly enough by their frantic zeal in his service. Now, God has a right to say, “You say you believe in Me; then show your faith by your works.” Let me ask you, dear reader, what difference is there between your works and ways now, and what they would be if you did not thus believe in God? Real living faith will show itself in ways according to God’s will, and we must not deceive ourselves into calling something “faith” which is not faith really. All our “good works,” without that faith which confesses guilt and ruin, and looks to Christ, are “dead works.” But all “faith” which leaves us just doing our own will and pleasing ourselves, is “dead” faith (James 2:20). And God will no more accept dead faith than dead works. If we have learned our place as dead in sins, and have believed in Christ so that we have “life through His name,” let us be “careful to maintain good works” (Titus 3:8). God did not want half-hearted Israelites, halting between two opinions; partly for Baal and partly for Jehovah. He said by His servant, “If Jehovah be God, follow Him.” And he does not want half hearted Christians now; partly for Him, say on the Lord’s days, and and partly for themselves and the world the greater part of the week. He says, “I would thou wert cold or hot; “and luke warmness He hates and loathes. What could be more miserable than a person like Pilate, who would first declare he found “no fault” in Jesus, and then show himself the best of friends with Herod who “set at naught” the faultless Man and “mocked Him!” In one verse we read he called Jesus “this just person”; in the next but one he “scourged Jesus and delivered him to be crucified! “Yet believe me, my dear reader, if you are one of His loved ones,” His own which are in the world,” the stripes laid on His back by those cruel and godless soldiers were not so keenly felt by Him as His heart grieves over you if you slight His love. He “gave His back to the smiters,” but He never gave Himself in love for you that you should go into company and forget Him! There is no sin like sinning against love, and oh, think of His love who “pleased not Himself” (Rom. 15:3), but who emptied Himself; and “gave Himself,” and that for you. We were dead in sins and away from Him, and “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15). We cannot worship two Gods, or serve two masters, or make the best of both worlds, except by living in “this present evil world” as “strangers and pilgrims,” and cleaving to Christ, and following Christ, while we wait for Him to come from heaven to receive us unto Himself.

And if this should fall into the hands of one who is not yet “almost and altogether” a Christian; who is, as it were, halting between two opinions, let me solemnly remind you that the next great sight will be, not “the fire of the Lord” to consume the sacrifice; nor the Lord Himself, come down from heaven to be the sacrifice, that He may “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” But it will be “the Lord Jesus revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:7, 8). And what of “the lake of fire” beyond, which is “the second death?”

W. TY.

The Flood.

ONE of the greatest events that ever occurred in connection with the ways of God with the children of men, was the Flood, by which He destroyed man from off the face of the earth. And yet, as we learn from 2 Peter 3, there are some in the last days who, being scoffers, are willingly ignorant of that overflowing of the earth by water, and of the perishing of its inhabitants. It is sad that any should be ignorant of the Word of God, but to be willingly ignorant of it is far worse; for this shows that persons in such a state of mind do not wish to be acquainted with the truth. I trust, however, that none of the readers of GOOD NEWS are among this class, but that they are desirous of knowing the things which God tells us in His Word. I therefore propose that we should look at the narrative which God has given to us of that wondrous event in the history of man. And may He so direct us, that we may derive both instruction and profit from the perusal.

It is evident that at the time of the Flood many hundred years bad passed away since “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” After the fall of Adam, and his consequent banishment from the Garden of Eden, he “begat a son in his own likeness, after his image,” and many sons and daughters having been born in succeeding generations, the human race had, in the course of centuries, multiplied greatly on the face of the earth. “There were giants in the earth in those days,” and “mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Yet, notwithstanding all their greatness and renown, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” What a terrible description is this of the state of mankind shortly before the Flood. Mark the expression that GOD saw all this wickedness. “All things are naked and opened unto the, eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” The Lord, then, being grieved at His heart, said, “I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them.” He had previously said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” By this I understand that the Lord would not destroy man without full warning, but that He would defer the judgment of the Flood until that number of years had expired. One is reminded of what is said in 2 Peter 3, that “the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” His judgment will surely come at last, but in His tender mercy He delays it till the last moment, if perchance sinners will repent and turn to Him in the meantime.

Amidst all the wickedness which was then in the world, there was one bright exception in the case of Noah and his family; for “Noah was a just man, and perfect (or upright) in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Certainly not. And this shows us that Noah walked so as to please God. To such a one the Lord could open His mind; for “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” So “God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence-through them; and, behold, I will destroy them from the earth.” This is much like the way that God took with Abraham, when he was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, saying, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” And then He told Abraham of the judgment which was about to fall upon those wicked cities.

God then gave directions to Noah concerning the building of an Ark, or great vessel, in which he and his family, and a selection from all the creatures of the earth, were to be preserved from the Flood. The Ark was to be made of gopher wood, which is said to be noted for its durability; and it was to be pitched “within and without with pitch;” or, as some think, with a mineral substance specially adapted for binding together the boards of the Ark, and for the exclusion of water. God then told Noah of what size the Ark was to be, giving explicit instructions as to its length, its breadth, and its height, and said that it was to have three chambers or story’s. It was clearly a vessel of enormous size, considerably larger than any trading-ship or man-of-war that was ever built. It was also to have a window above, a kind of skylight, as I suppose, and a door in the side. There can be no doubt, I presume, that it was built upon the dry land, and that it must have taken many years in building, and also that a great number of persons were employed in its construction.

God then declared, “And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.” What a complete destruction there was to be! “All flesh” and “every thing” were to die. But as regards Noah, God said, “With thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the Ark; thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” In connection with this, it is written in 1 Peter 3:20, that “Once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.”

Then God instructed Noah as to the preservation of some “of every living thing of all flesh,” saying, “two of every sort shalt thou bring into the Ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shalt come unto thee, to keep them alive.” God also took into consideration the food which “both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air,” would require while they were shut in the Ark; and so He added, “And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee and for them.”

I have gone rather fully into this account because I desire, my dear friends, that the great fact of the Flood should be clearly impressed upon your minds, and I hope, if the Lord will, to continue this subject on another occasion. I will only now refer to the faith of Noah, who, having received his instructions from the Lord, fully carried them out, as expressed in the words: “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” Blessed man! He obeyed God. Have you, dear friend, obeyed Him by believing on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ?

“IF it be possible, as such as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” Romans 12:18.

The Flood.

Part 2.

NOAH, having prepared the Ark as commanded by God, and the time drawing near when the Flood should come, the Lord said unto Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the Ark”; “and Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the Ark.” Also “of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the Ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.” “And the Lord shut him in.”

Thus, everything being in readiness according to the word of the Lord, “it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the Flood were upon the earth.” But oh! how sin hardens the heart and darkens the understanding; for, though Noah, as “a preacher of righteousness,” had faithfully testified that the flood was coming “upon the world of the ungodly,” and had built the Ark in their very sight, yet we are distinctly told in Matthew 24, and also in Luke 17, that “in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the Ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away.” How solemn! that they should be thus occupied with the ordinary affairs of life until the very day that the judgment of God came upon them, and they perished in the swelling of the waters. Thus, we, ourselves, are also warned as regards the judgment to come, “that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, “and they shall not escape” (1 Thess. 5).

So great and fearful an event was the Flood, that God has preserved to us the record of the day of the month on which it commenced. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows (on floodgates) of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” The sources from which that immense flood of waters were derived appear to have been three. First: “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up.” This seems to show that, besides the vast supply of water which the ocean and seas supplied, God, by His almighty power, opened up some vast reserve or fountains of water for this special occasion. Secondly: “the windows (or floodgates) of heaven were opened.” In Genesis 1 we read that “when God created the heaven and the earth,” “He divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.” So that it would seem that, besides the waters whose channels are in the earth, and those which are contained in the clouds, there are other waters which are described as being “above the firmament.” This fact is also expressed in Psalms 148:4, where it is written, “Praise Him... ye waters that be above the heavens.” Thirdly: “the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” This was evidently a continued torrent of rain, though it fell for a longer continuance, and doubtless in greater quantity, than has ever since been witnessed.

No wonder, then, that “the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the Ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven, were covered.” “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man; all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the Ark.” This was, indeed, a terrible flood, such as never had been before, never has been since; and, moreover, never will be again, the Lord having made a covenant that “the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh,” the token of which is the bow which he hath set in the cloud. “And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between ME and all flesh that is upon the earth.”

It is important for us to observe that the real reason for the judgment of the flood was that “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.” And, while God caused water to be the instrument of that terrible judgment, it was by His Word that it was brought about. “By the Word of God,” “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 3).

There are other points of importance connected with the Flood to which we hope to draw attention in a future number.

The Flood.

When God had declared that the earth should be drowned,

And man should be swept from its face,

Because He had nothing but wickedness found,

Though long He had lingered in grace;

The world, all regardless of hastening doom,

Still ate, and still drank, and still wed,

And saw not a cloud or a shadow of gloom,

Nor aught that occasioned them dread.

The sun rose at morn in his glory and pride,

And set in his splendor at eve;

While earth still her bounties did daily provide,

And judgment no eye could perceive;

But when the day came that the flood should be pour’d,

And fountains should burst from the deep,

Too late was it then, though they mercy implor’d,

And vain, in their anguish to weep.

No refuge the rocks, nor the mountains and caves,

Could give to those souls in their woe;

The ever-encroaching and pitiless waves

Would reach them and then overflow.

Alas! they thus perish’d, the strong and the weak,

The married, the youth, and the maid,

Engulph’d in the deep, with a groan or a shriek,

In judgment which none could evade.

And so shall it be, when the Lord shall appear,

And be in His glory reveal’d;

For men will pursue, unconcern’d, their career,

Their conscience and heart being steel’d.

Even now, there are scoffers who question in scorn,

The coming of Christ in His day,

Though He, in the Scriptures doth faithfully warn,

That then He Himself will display.

When He, in His brightness, from heaven shall come,

And shine as the lightning on all,

Ah! then the despisers with fear will be dumb,

His presence the guilty appal.

In vain, then, the hope of retreat or of flight,

Too late, then, for mercy to plead;

The sword of His mouth shall their consciences smite,

And finish the judgment with speed.

But like, as of old, in the Ark there were some

Preserv’d from the watery waste;

So now, there’s salvation for those who will come

To Jesus, as sinners abas’d.

In Him there is mercy and safety for all,

Who rest in His work and His love;

Then, hear from on high His compassionate call,

And hide in His bosom above.

"Forbid Them Not."

(Mark 1:13-16.)

LET little children come to Me,

From palace, mansion or from cot;

The young I always love to see:

Then let them come, — forbid them not.

I fain would fold them in My arms,

Bestow on them a blissful lot,

And shelter them from all alarms:

Then let them come, — forbid them not.

My blood, which was on Calv’ry shed,

Can cleanse from ev’ry sinful spot;

And still, as when on earth I said—

Let children come, — forbid them not.

Their artless steps I love to lead

From each unsafe, unholy spot;

On heav’nly food their souls to feed:

Then let them come, — forbid them not.

When saints I summon to the air,

Not one of them will be forgot;

And hosts of children will be there:

Then let them come, — forbid them not.

"Forget Me Not."

An Old Legend.

If you live in the country you must sometimes have seen a very pretty blue flower which grows wild on the margin of streams, called the Forget-me-not, and, perhaps, have wondered how it got this curious name. Well, there is an old story, a very old story indeed, which tells how the name arose. It seems that many long years ago, when those old castles, whose ruins we see now and then on some hill-top or crag, all ivy-grown and crumbling to decay, were new and strong, when “might was right,” and that

“old plan,

That he shall take who has the power,

And he shall keep who can,”

appeared to be the law of the land in which we now dwell so quietly, a certain knight was walking one day by a river-side with a lady, when she spied a bunch of bright blue flowers growing where the deep stream laved the foot of the high bank on which they stood. Greatly admiring their wild beauty, she happened to say how much she should like to have them; and the knight, wishing to please his companion and, perhaps, also to display his courage and devotion, of which so much was thought in those old days, at once attempted to descend to the water’s edge to get them. The bank, as I have said, was high and very steep, and, to make matters worse, the knight was clad in armor. Perhaps he was just about to start on some warlike expedition which, in those times of violence, were very frequent even among neighbors, or he would hardly have chosen to take a walk on a summer’s day clothed from head to foot in steel. I don’t think you would like to wear a steel coat and trousers, a steel hat and steel gloves and boots, especially on a summer’s day; but he was used to it and did not feel the weight, only you know it was awkward on a slippery bank, especially as it would seem that the river was deep close up to its sides, as is the case, for instance, in many parts of the river Severn, where it would be certain destruction for anyone unable to swim to descend to the edge of the stream. Perhaps it was that very river where all this happened; but, however that may be, the knight had no sooner reached the water than he plunged at once into its depths Of course the weight of his armor bore him down and made it impossible for him to swim; there were no bushes or reeds to cling to, nor any hand to help him, for the lady was far out of reach and quite unable to render him any assistance from the height at which she stood, and after a vain struggle to get some footing on the slippery bank he found himself sinking.

Making one desperate effort more, he snatched at the bunch of wild flowers on the bank and, throwing them to the feet of the lady, cried “Forget me not!” then sank out of her sight in the deep waters! How far this tradition is to be relied on I cannot tell you. In those old times when the Bible was shut up from the people by the Romish priesthood; when all sorts of idols, dubbed with Scripture names, were set up in the churches, and worship of Vishnu or Ashtoreth, under the name of the Virgin, was the chief religion of this country, as it still is of many parts of the Continent, wherever Romanism prevails, it was the custom to risk life and limb on the most trivial occasions, in a vain display of courage and devotedness to the female sex, under the idea that in doing so they were honoring their principal idol, the Virgin, so that this old tradition is not unlikely to be true. But I don’t know that it matters much to you and me whether it be so or not, except as it serves to show, if true, for what trifles men will risk life. A bunch of wild flowers, a little praise, a passing name for courage and devotedness, any or all of these were enough to lead a man, you see, to undertake a task which a moment’s thought would have shown him was, under all the circumstances, certain death. Perhaps he felt this as he looked down the steep bank and saw there was no footing for him where the flowers grew, but hoped he might escape, or, if not, if he lost his life, he would be spoken of in song and story as the devoted knight who laid down his life for the Honor of his idol; for what will not self-love and vain glory lead a poor sinner to do? Yet his very name is forgotten long since, and although the flower ever says “Forget me not,” no one knows who “me” is, or cares to know. And if the old tale be true, and that poor idol-worshipper died in his sins, how solemnly his doom reminds us of the rich man who, for trifles of but little more-real value, lost his never-dying soul! “Purple and fine linen and sumptuous fare” were somewhat more solid than the breath of fame; but “what shall it profit a man if he gain the WHOLE WORLD, and lose his own soul?” Surely, then, the old legend that gives a name to this little wild flower is not without instruction. He who was the chief actor in it and the author of the name, has long passed into oblivion, but the memorial of his folly lives on still by many a lake and stream, and as its blossoms peep out from their grassy bed or bend over their blue shadows in the water, have they not a warning voice for every heedless worldling, young or old, who in one shape or another repeats the folly of the long-forgotten knight! I think they have, and that, although centuries have rolled away since he sank in the deep stream, “he being dead yet speaketh,” saying solemnly to all who love “the world and the things of the world,” as they look on this little blue blossom, “Forget me not.”

You are young, and the world, with all its hidden snares, seems all bright and joyous before you, seen in the halo of golden hope, through which childhood sees all future things; but, depend upon it, it is no better for all its fair show than the bunch of wild flowers by the water’s edge, or the passing breath of praise, or the name so soon forgotten for the sake of which the knight, in the old tradition, lost his life, and perhaps his never-dying soul! As he snatched at the blue forget-me-nots, then sank into eternity, so men snatch at the perishing blossoms of this world’s promised joys, and sink into that which the heart shudders to think of. He was, lost in the deep river; what must it be to be lost in the lake of fire!

But there is another lesson yet to be gathered from the blue Forget-me-not. The knight of the old legend risked his life, and lost it, to display his courage or to earn a little momentary praise; but there is an old, old story of ONE who gave His life—gave it willingly; came, not down a bank to a river’s margin, but from off the eternal throne to this poor world—a world that His own hands had made—to die for sinners. I need not tell you Whom I mean, for you cannot have read GOOD NEWS without knowing. But it is one thing to know about the Lord Jesus Christ, “who, His own self, bare our sins in His own body on the tree;” and it is quite another thing to know Him HIMSELF. You see it is possible for you to know all about the knight in the old legend, what he did, and how he died, and why; and yet you never knew him, himself, nor ever will. We don’t even know his name, much less his person. Well, but I hope you are not content merely to know, in this way, about Jesus and His love for sinners. Surely He deserves something better at your hands! If that poor knight deserved to be remembered by the lady, even though vain-glory had so much to do with the sacrifice he made, does not the blessed Jesus, who never thought of nor loved self for one passing moment? But how can you remember One whom you have never known? You see the lady could remember the knight, because she had known him; we cannot, for though we know something about him, we never knew the man himself. So it is with those who only know about the Lord Jesus Christ, they cannot remember Him, although they may remember what He did; but that will only condemn them, unless they go on to know Himself. I hope you see the difference. I point it out to you, because you may have been reading GOOD NEWS month after month, learning much about the Lord, and the old, old story of His love, and so may be content; yet, after all, you may be as far from Him as those who never heard about Him. This will never do; you must have to do with Him Himself, for He says “Come unto ME;” you must believe on Him, for the Word of God declares, “whosoever believeth in HIM shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” You must have Him, for it is written “he that HATH THE SON hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” “He died for our sins, and rose again, according to the Scriptures,” therefore He is living still up there in heaven, and you can turn your eye to Him now, just the same as if He were living here on the earth; nay, easier, for if He were on earth you would have to go where He was, but now you can go to Him where you are, which makes an immense difference, for your heart can go out to Him just where you are at this moment. He loves sinners, and says “Come unto Me.” Can you refuse Him, and sit down contented with merely knowing something about him, instead of knowing Him himself? Think of the difference whenever you hear or read the old, old story of the Gospel of His grace. To be satisfied with His history, that wondrous tale of love, while ignorant of Him himself, would be sad indeed. Does He deserve thus to be forgotten? Ask yourself the question when again you look upon the lowly wild flower blooming amid the grass and water-plants beside the sunlit stream, and saying ever, as its blue-eyed petals look you in the face, “FORGET ME NOT!”

JESUS CHRIST the same yesterday, and, today, and forever. — Hebrews 13:8.

Four Little Boys.

What They Heard and What They did.

A SHORT time ago, as a servant of Christ was preaching on the coming of the Lord in a seaside town, four little boys, belonging to a boarding school there, happened to be among the audience. The preacher showed from Scripture that when the Lord comes He will first of all take every believer to Himself. All such who have “fallen asleep” since the beginning of the world, from Abel or Adam, down to the moment that Jesus rises from His Father’s throne, will be raised in glorified bodies, and all who are living on the earth at that time will be changed and caught away “together with them to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:16,17; Phil. 3:21; 1 Cor. 15:51, 52). Then “when they that are ready” through faith in Christ have thus gone “in with Him to the marriage THE DOOR IS SHUT” (Matt. 25:10). It will be of no use then to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, Lord, open unto us;” for it will be TOO LATE (vss. 11,12); for, of course, all who are not ready, all who are not believers, are shut out and left bind, so that they come into all those terrible judgments foretold all through the books of prophecy, as to be poured out on this earth.

Well, these four little boys went home to their boarding school thinking and talking solemnly of what they had heard, and what do you think they did? Why, as they were very much concerned about it, and knew that their kind governess was a real disciple of the Lord Jesus, in whose teaching and prayers they had full confidence, they put their young heads together and wrote the following little letter, a touching appeal when you consider that it told how anxious they were to be saved: —

“Miss—. We find from Mr. R— ‘s sermon that you and all the believers may all be taken away to heaven, and we left behind. WE SHOULD LIKE YOU TO PRAY WITH US ABOUT IT.”

Having all signed their names to this, they quietly laid it on her bible and left it there.

I have no doubt at all that the cry of their young hearts has been heard, and the prayers of their Christian guide and teacher on their behalf answered by Him who proved His love for the little ones when He was here on the earth (Mark 10:13-16), and who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” My purpose in telling you of it is to show you that even little boys can understand this solemn truth connected with the coming of the Lord, namely, that only those who love Him will be caught away to meet Him in the air above the clouds.

Now, as this may take place at any moment suddenly, I hope that if you are not yet “ready” by believing in Jesus, you will not rest until you are so, but be in earnest to get salvation at once by the blood of Christ like THE FOUR LITTLE BOYS.

Fragments From the German.

A PIOUS gardener of Berlin, the capital of Prussia, was on a visit with his little daughter of five years of age to Schönhausen, who at that time was gardener to Elizabeth, the consort of Frederick the Second. The Queen, on one occasion, happening to meet and converse with the child, became so attached to her that she could not get her out of her thoughts. A few weeks afterward she expressly desired that the little one should be brought again to her. The father then took her back to Schönhausen, and on her arrival a court lady announced her to the Queen just as she was about to sit down to dinner. Her Majesty ordered her to be introduced at once into the dining-room. On her entrance, the little one immediately recognized the Queen, and ruing to her, kissed her robe. She was then, by the Queen’s command, placed beside her on a high stool, in order that she Night be able to see over the whole table, as her Majesty was anxious to hear what the innocent child would say to the splendid ornaments and valuables before her. The little girl looked at everything, cast a glance at the costly clothing of the guests, and the golden and china dinner-service, and for awhile was silent. Then suddenly folding her hands together, she said aloud―

“Christ’s blood my plea;

Himself my righteousness;

My only ornament, and robe of State,

In these before my God shall I appear.”

The courtly guests were astonished, and deeply moved. At last one of the ladies, turning to the Queen, said, weeping, “Oh, the happy child. How far inferior to her are we!”

How does this little one’s example rebuke the fondness for display and love of appearance, which, in the present day, alas, is so general.

Friendship of the World is Enmity With God.

James 4:4.

THE following allegory is translated from the German: ―

Sophronius, a wise teacher, would not suffer his daughter to associate with those whose conduct was not pure and upright.

“Dear father,” said the gentle Eulalie to him one day, when he forbade her, in company with her brother, to visit the volatile Lucinda “you must think us very childish, if you imagine we could be exposed to danger by it.”

The father took in silence a dead coal from the hearth, and reached it to his daughter.

“It will not burn you my child; take it.” Eulalie did so, and, behold, the beautiful white hand was soiled and blackened; and, as it chanced, her white dress also.

“We cannot be too careful in handling coals,” said. Eulalie, in vexation.

“Yes, truly,” said the father; “you see, my child, that coals blacken even when they do not burn. So is it with evil company,” for “evil communications corrupt good manners.”―1 Corinthians 15:33, 2 Cor. 6:14,18.

From a Bible Colporteur in New Zealand.

IN 1868 I was on a colportage journey, and on the bank of the Motueka river I overtook a digger, with whom I entered into conversation. I found him very open and communicative. He had received, he said, a religious training in his youth from a mother of whom he spoke with warm affection.

At an early age he went to sea, and had continued a wanderer ever since; but although he traveled far and wide he could never get beyond the reach of his mother’s influence. He was not religious, he said, but he knew what it meant, for he had had a touch of it once, and “Oh, then,” he added, with an animated countenance “I felt so happy—nothing seemed able to disturb my peace. I felt this especially on Sundays, when I took delight in Bible meditation and prayer.”

All his friends he believed to be dead, and that a property was awaiting his arrival at home; “but,” said he, with a defiant air, “I will never return until I have a decent coat on my back.” This last remark suggested to me the parable of the Prodigal Son, and as I had no Bibles for sale, my stock having preceded me on a pack-horse, I alluded to that parable, and reminded him that if the prodigal had waited until he had a good coat on his back, he would never have returned to his father.

I then asked permission to refresh his memory by reading that portion of Scripture to him. To my surprise, however, he refused, and begged me not to do so, adding, “I cannot bear to listen to it—it touches me so; it reminds me of my mother.” These words strengthened me in my desire to read it to him, but my every effort only seemed to add to his excitement. “Don’t read it, sir! I can’t bear to listen to it.”

Seeing him thus resolute, I thought there was no use in persisting, and closing my Bible, I said— “Well, if you order me off, I will go.”

But, thank God, this was a brand to be plucked from the burning. Just as I was turning away, he seemed to relent, and said, “Don’t go, sir. I don’t want to offend you; and if you will read it, read it, and I will endeavor to listen.” Then, with an evident effort to control his emotions, he folded his arms across his chest, and leaned back against a tree, while I read him that incomparable parable.

As I read, the strong man was bowed down, and he wept like a child. Before parting we knelt down together, and in the solitude of the New Zealand bush offered up the sweet incense of prayer unto God. The next morning he came to the Baton, and purchased a copy of the New Testament, in which I wrote his name and direction to that fifteenth chapter of Luke.

Three years after, when on his way to Australia, he heard that I was stationed at Wakefield, and immediately turned off his road, a distance of eighteen miles, to thank me for that conversation which I had had with him in the bush, and especially for the prayer at its close. “That prayer,” he said, “broke my heart.” He then told me that after I had quitted him he felt miserable. He tried to pray when he reached his tent, but for a long time he could do nothing but weep. At last he thought of the Lord’s Prayer (a prayer he had probably learned at his mother’s knee), and he poured forth that prayer unto God.

This relieved him somewhat, but still he could not find peace. He, however, resolved, God helping him, to amend his ways. He continued in this anxious, troubled state, for several months, till one day he encountered another colporteur, to whom he immediately unburdened his mind. This man opened his Bible, and spoke to him of Jesus, and as he spoke God was pleased to shed light upon his understanding, and enable him to receive the truth in the love of it. And from that hour he rejoiced, believing that the blood of Jesus Christ had cleansed him from ALL his sins. (John 1:7; Col. 1:12; Heb. 10:14).

Go Thou and Do Likewise.

I TOLD you lately about a little girl named Ada who was brought under deep conviction because she did not love Jesus, and who got peace the same night on being shown that Jesus loved her (though she did not love Him), because the thought of His deep love encouraged her to trust Him just as she was. Now, you will always find that those that really love Jesus are sure to wish to see others saved by His grace, because they “have the Spirit of Christ,” and if you love Him you will be glad to learn that this proof of life has been given by the child referred to.

She and her sisters were taking a walk in the country on Good Friday last with Annie, the servant-maid, who had been used both to bring the child under conviction, and to give her peace, when they met two young men who were known to them. One of them had been converted very lately under the same preacher that was used to “the four little boys,” whose simple letter you well remember reading about; but the other young man although present at the time that his companion was brought to Christ, had not believed, and therefore, was not saved. Now, whose fault was that, do you think? Why, his own of course, for if one was brought to the Lord by the word, the other who heard the same word preached, might have been also if he had not turned away his heart from the truth. If any of your little friends are saved, and you are not, I hope you will think of this, and ask yourself, “Whose fault is it?” for “the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him” (Rom. 10:12). Well knowing all this, Annie, who seems very much in earnest in trying to bring sinners to Jesus, began talking to this young man about his soul, and his companion did the same, while Ada, the little girl I have mentioned, listened very attentively all the time, and on reaching home said to Annie,

“I don’t think that Baker loves Jesus you know.”

“No, he does not.”

“I hope, poor young man, you pray for him?” said the child.

“Yes, and you might pray for him, too,” suggested Annie.

“So I will,” was the prompt reply, and so saying, Ada walked upstairs at once into her mother’s bedroom, and knelt down behind the wardrobe, all alone, where she thought no eye could see her but His to whom she prayed. When she came downstairs again, Annie asked her what she said when she prayed?

“What do you want to know for?” inquired Ada, who I must tell you is remarkably intelligent for her years, and perhaps thought that that was a matter between himself and the Lord.

“Because,” said the other, “I should like to know how little girls pray to Jesus;” and I think she was right, for one does like to know how the little ones talk to Him who, although the “High and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” stoops to listen to a little child, and delights to do so.

“Well,” said Ada, perceiving that the question was not put in idle curiosity, “I said, Please, Lord Jesus, make that poor young man love you. Amen.’”

Now, what do you think of this? If you know the Lord, do you forever pray for others that they may know Him too? You have playmates, schoolfellows, friends, relations, who it may be are still unsaved, would you not like very much indeed to see them led to Jesus? I am sure you would if you love Him, because you will desire to see Him glorified in the salvation of the lost. Well, then, “Go thou and do likewise.”

"God Knows!"

OVER the tiny grave of an infant, whose little body was the only one washed ashore at Lydd, near Dungeness, from the wreck of the emigrant ship Northfleet, a slab has been placed without a name, and bearing only the simple inscription, “God Knows!” These words were spoken by the parish constable when he was asked by the undertaker what name he was to put on the coffin-plate. How could he tell? The little creature was unknown to all. Whence it had come, to whom it had belonged, what had been its name, none knew but God alone; and so, as the parish constable looked on the tiny coffin and thought of the little stranger’s sad and sudden death in the deep sea, he could only shake his head, and say, “God knows!” And he spoke the truth, for God does know all about that little child and those to whom it once belonged. He saw it when the ship went down and the mighty waters overwhelmed it in its utter helplessness, and He permitted it. Perhaps He foresaw that if that little child had lived to grow up it would have become a rejector of Christ and a wicked person. He foresaw, too, perhaps, that because “the way of transgressors is hard” even in this world, when grown up it would be wretched, with nothing before it, but “after death, the judgment,” and so in mercy took it to Himself while yet innocent of evil, an unconscious infant saved in the power of that precious blood which “taketh away the sin of the world.” The little one, you know, had committed no sins; if it had, nothing but faith in Christ could save it; but it had the sin of its nature alone, the root and not the fruit, for it had not lived long enough to think an evil thought or do an evil deed; and so, dying all unconscious of evil, the poor little “innocent” (as Scripture calls very little children) was taken to God.

I often think how many myriads—yes, countless myriads—of little children are now in heaven. I believe it would be as impossible to count them as it would be to reckon up the number of grains in “the sand of the sea.” We know that numbers of little children die every day in all parts of the world. It is one of the sad fruits of sin; but, so far as they are concerned, we may truly say, “Our God hath turned the curse into a blessing;” for is it not a blessing to escape all the sins and all the sorrows and sufferings of this world, and all the danger of everlasting misery? Of course it is. “God knows,” as the parish constable said; and so, because “God is love,” He takes multitudes of little ones home to heaven every year; and although death is the fruit of sin and the terrible proof of its power, He brings glory to Himself even out of that! What a wonder-working God He is! And when all those countless multitudes of saved little ones shall be seen

“Around the throne of God in heaven,”

clothed in glory, singing the praises of Him to whose love even unto death, the death of the cross, they owe all their happiness, when they see what might have been if they had lived long enough on the earth to sin against God by refusing Christ, O how they will adore the Saviour of sinners!

But you are older than the little infants of whom I speak; you can read and hear and think; and, sad to say it, you can even sin, perhaps have done so too often already in naughty ways and tempers, thoughts and words, and worse still, in not believing in Jesus If so, it is very solemn to think that “God knows.” Even if no one else knows anything about it, He knows all. Do you ever think of this? It is with God that all of us have to do, even children who are old enough to think. You may please your parents, and it is surely right to do so; but are you pleasing God? Not unless you have really come to Jesus. To hear and read about God’s blessed Son, and not to love Him, must surely be a very great sin in God’s sight. Are you guilty of this sin day after day? If so, remember “GOD KNOWS.”

The Gospel.

“THE gospel of Christ is, indeed, glad tidings—cheering to the heart. For what does the sinner want? Does he want forgiveness? The gospel proclaims redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7). Does he want to be counted righteous before God? The gospel says, ‘To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness’ (Rom. 4:5). Does he want salvation? The gospel 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). Does he want everlasting life? The Lord Jesus Christ says, “He that believeth on me hath, everlasting life” (John 6:47).

“WHOSOEVER liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this” (John 11:26).

A Great Flood.

IN the year 1821 There was a dreadful flood at St. Petersburgh, of which we have a minute account from actual witnesses.

In the previous autumn the weather had been unusually tempestuous through the whole of Europe. The wind, which set in from the west, blew with resistless force, so that the waves of the Atlantic were driven in the bosom of the North Sea, thus mightily swelling the waters of that vast expanse, and these in their turn poured into the Baltic, and from thence into the gulf of Finland, close to St. Petersburgh.

“On the 19th of November,” writes Dr. Patterson, who with Dr. Henderson was residing there as a principal agent of the Bible Society in that city, under the patronage of the Emperor Alexander, “the wind became a perfect hurricane. The water of the canal before the Bible house rose very fast, and I soon perceived it to be up to the street, which lay higher than most parts of the city. All the men on the premises, nearly one hundred, were ordered to remove the thousands of bound scriptures to the highest part of the building, the gates were shut and secured with planks and earth, and every means resorted to keep out the enemy. For two hours we succeeded, but the water then rose to about four feet in the streets, undermined our garden wall, and rushed with violence against the door of the building where the men were at work, shutting them all in, so that they were obliged to escape through the window, up to the waist in water, to gain the second floor. What a scene now presented itself! — a widespread sea of water, stretching out itself on every side, with the houses just appearing above it. The hurricane tore up the fairest and finest trees, and rolled up the iron roof of our building like a sheet of paper, carrying it away in the air. Fear was on every side at the devastation which was now being made. We saw one of the sentry boxes on the other side of the canal swimming down the stream, and another with the policeman himself inside, fairly carried off along the side of the street, where, passing a poor fellow wading up to the neck in water, he took hold of him and saved his life. The kitchen and lodging apartments had several feet of water in them, and in some up to the very roof. The large heavy barques in the river were lifted high and thrown down upon the shore. All the horses that were kept in the stable were drowned; those that were let loose swam for their lives and were saved. Boats were got out, but it was impossible for them to live, except in the shelter of the neighboring houses, and hundreds perished by overcrowding into them. Many log houses on the island were lifted from their foundations and carried into the stream, with their inhabitants on their roof. Whole villages, with houses, people, and animals were swept away. The prisoners in the fortress were drowned. Churchyards near the river were torn open and the remains of the dead either swept into the river or deposited with the coffins in the street. One I saw of a poor Englishman, who had been buried but a few days before, lying in the street, with his name and age fresh upon it. The coffin of a newly-buried and dearly-loved child came swimming in at the windows of the still weeping parents, and dismay and terror were depicted on every countenance.”

“But much as St. Petersburgh suffered, Cronstadt, from its lying lower, suffered still more. The hills were covered with the waves, which threatened to submerge the whole island. Ships of war were driven from their moorings and set down high upon the land. One of them of a hundred guns was never got off. Stacks of corn were borne to a great distance, and cattle buffeting the torrent were mingled with the corpses of persons drowned, or at their last gasp. The Emperor, in a shattered state of health, beheld the tumultuous scene with the greatest consternation. Wringing his hands he cried, ‘It has come upon us for our sins; and lifting them up to heaven, he implored the Almighty to let His anger fall on him, but to spare his people.’

“The day wore away, and still the waters continued rising. What, had they continued rising during the following night and day, would have been seen but a universal wreck. But about four o’clock in the afternoon, just when deliverance was most needed to prevent the entire destruction of the city, the bow of promise appeared. One of the most beautiful rainbows was seen stretched across the sky (Gen. 9:11, 17). It was as a voice from heaven testifying to the mercy and faithfulness of that God who declared to Noah that the waters should never again overflow the earth. Encouraged by this token of peace, everyone looked up, and lo! the rising of the water was stayed. Hope was kindled in many an anxious breast, and they who feared the Lord gave thanks to his name, saying, ‘He retaineth not His anger, because He delighteth in mercy.’

“Great were the depredations occasioned in these few hours. Houses thrown down, or rendered unfit for habitation, bridges broken, and roads strewed with ruins everywhere met the view. Dead corpses and pallid living sufferers in all parts made their appearance. In Cronstadt five hundred persons perished, and in St. Petersburgh one thousand, besides many others who were disabled and maimed for life.”

Yet many were the instances in which mercy rejoiced against judgment. The following touching one is recorded by my esteemed friend, Mrs. Henderson, an eye and ear witness of the transactions she relates. “Early in the morning, before the wind had risen so high as to give any indication of the coming catastrophe, a poor German mechanic and his wife, who resided in a low part of the city, were obliged to go out on business. They were pious and industrious, and much respected. The wife dressed her two little children, gave them their breakfast, and was prepared to leave them at home for as short a time as possible, at most for two or three hours. [The children, a little boy five years of age, and his sister a year younger.] When the mother turned the key of the door to depart with her husband, she inwardly commended her beloved ones to the care of her Heavenly Father. They took their way confident of His love and care, to that part of the city to which their business called them, and which was known by the name of the Nevesky, a street running in a direct line from the Admiralty, and familiar to all who have viewed the metropolis of the Russian Empire. On reaching the house to which they were journeying, they proceeded to transact the business that required their attention, and were so engrossed by it as not to observe the rapid encroach went of the unwonted tide. On opening the door they beheld, to their surprise and consternation, the flood as it covered the ground rising higher and higher, and threatening destruction to man and beast. The first impulse of the father was to wade through the water, then knee deep, to the rescue of his children; but the idea seemed hopeless, for the room in which he had left them was so situated partly below the level of the ground, and in a low quarter of the town, that the water must have entered it and done its fatal work! And then, his dear wife, if he were to leave her; what must be the event? No one could tell how far the waters might prevail, and should he abandon her she might be drowned in his absence. On her part she durst not urge her husband to venture, lest his life should be sacrificed in the attempt. They looked at each other in perplexity and disquietude, and then turned their eyes upwards in silent prayer to Him whose arm is not shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear.

“In their distress they felt their only resource was in prayer, not for the life of their children, for that they could not hope for, but that themselves might be prepared to resign them, and say with the bereaved Patriarch, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Thus watching and praying they passed the weary hours, waiting with anxious longing for the waters to subside. At four o’clock in the afternoon, as we have said, the tempest abated, and the waters began sensibly and rapidly to decrease. The flood had risen, indeed, within a single step of the apartment occupied by the writer of the narrative, and the whole family felt how seasonable was their deliverance. Mournfully tempered, however, were the joyful feelings of the agonized parents, whose gratitude for their personal preservation was mingled with the bitter prospect of finding their darling children lying pale, and cold, and lifeless in a watery tomb. Three painful hours elapsed before it was safe for them to venture through the water yet in the streets to the humble dwelling that contained all they held dear on earth. They reached the door, and as it moved heavily on its hinges the mother’s heart fainted within her. They looked in and saw the bodies of their dear ones stretched out on a small round table motionless, and locked in each other’s arms. No water covered them, but on looking up it was evident, from the state of the room, that the flood had reached far above the height of the table, and that the rest of the furniture had been completely under water. The fatal consequences seemed inevitable. The father approached the table; he looked at his children—they breathed; he laid his hand upon them—they were warm, they were in a sweet sleep. ‘God be praised,’ said the mother, and roused the lovely little sleepers from their tranquil slumber. On opening their eyes, and recognizing their parents, they clung to them with fond delight, interrupting the caresses bestowed upon them by cries of hunger. Some remains of biscuit from the mother’s pocket were instantly shared between them; and after a short while they sought to solve the mystery of their preservation, by asking them what they had been doing, and what had happened to them during their absence.

“ ‘When you and father,’ said the boy, ‘were gone, we played about the room. The water began to come in under the door, and I got some chips of wood, and sissy and I played at ships, and the ships sailed along so prettily. Then the water came over our shoes, and we got upon that chair; and when it came up a little more, we got frightened, and so we got upon the table, where it could not hurt us, and played on the table; and when we were very hungry, we laid ourselves down and went to sleep, till you and father came home.’ From this recital, and from the fact of the surface of the table being dry, it was apparent that when the water had risen to its height, it had lifted it up like a little raft, bearing up its precious burden, while in its subsidence it was let gently down, and the slumbering babes were unconsciously and wonderfully preserved, to be restored to the arms of their praying parents. They were joined by their neighbors in the adoring exclamation, ‘What hath God wrought!’”

How strikingly this circumstance brings before us the words of the Psalmist, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.... Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee” (Psa. 91). If any read this prayer that know not the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, they will do well to turn to the third chapter of the Second Epistle of Peter, and learn, though the earth will not meet another flood, yet it is to be burnt up, and the works that are therein. Where will you be then?

A Happy New Year.

WHEN the old year has died, and the new year is born,

And neighbors and friends chance to meet,

At home or abroad, on the first day at morn,

How gaily each other they greet!

With a shake of the hand, and a smile on the face,

In token of welcome sincere,

Each says to the other, with courteous grace, —

I wish you a happy new year.”

To you, my young friends, may the year now begun

A circle of happiness prove;

May every morn, as uprises the sun,

Your hearts in true gratitude move

To God, who His blessings hath shower’d around,

To comfort and strengthen your hearts;

Each evening, too, may you thankful be found

For all that His goodness imparts.

And, may you, believing in Jesus, the Lord,

Partake of the heavenly birth,

That you hearty praises to Him may accord,

And love to tell others His worth.

If you rest in His love, and delight in His ways,

It is certain your bosoms He’ll cheer;

For He happiness gives, to each one who obeys,

And pleasure, each day of the year.

How is it With You?

A MOTHER and her little girls were playing some years ago at hide and seek together. When again it was the mother’s turn to hide, she having already tried several places only to be found out by the sharp eyes and ready wit of the little ones, sought a more secure hiding-place. A large empty packing-case stood upside down on the landing, and while the little girls were out of sight, she crept under it, and was thus completely hidden. The search began, and every place that the children could think of was looked into in vain. They peeped into the closets, crept under the beds, looked behind the doors, searched all the rooms, perhaps even glanced up the chimney, but nowhere could their mother be found. Again and again they renewed their search, but all in vain, until at last, convinced that no place had been left untried, their boisterous mirth sank into silent amazement, and they began to look wonderingly at each other. Now, although they were very young, they were not too young to understand a truth which their mother had taught them, namely, that believers are not to look for death, but for the coming of the Lord, and that although they may die before He comes, it is their happy privilege not to wait for that, but, having “turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God,” to “WAIT FOR HIS SON FROM HEAVEN” (1 Thess. 1:9, 10). They had also been taught that the coming of the Lord into the air (1 Thess. 4:17) for His own, may occur at any moment, and that when He does so come all believers raised or changed (1 Cor. 15:51, 52) will be caught away, and all others left behind (Matt. 25:11, 12). I am sorry to say that at this time these little girls were not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, for as yet the truths they had been taught seemed only to be held in the head, and not in the heart. But now, after having searched every place they could think of only to find that their mother was not there, they suddenly remembered the truth she had so carefully taught them as to the coming of the Lord, and the solemn consequences to all who are not “found in Him” at that moment, and as they stood together near the great packing-case in silent bewilderment and alarm, she from within her hiding-place heard them say to each other at last, “The Lord has come and mother is gone!” Of course she speedily put an end to their fears before they became too painful to bear, by coming out, to their glad surprise; but you may depend upon it those children never forgot the solemn lesson so unintentionally given, and by which an I all-important truth was pressed upon their young hearts in a moment of thoughtless play. I am glad to say they afterward found rest from all their fears in Him whose precious “blood cleanseth from all sin,” and now, as believers in Him, can look not with dread, but hope for His coming. How is it with you?

"How Little Lily Was Saved Out of the Well."

Some little time ago, whilst visiting the village of C―, ill Berkshire, I called at a cottage to see a Christian woman and her husband, when the following story was rated to me about a little girl that was sitting by the fireside. She was an adopted child, about six years of age, and her name was Elizabeth W—, but usually called “Lily”:—

A few yards from the cottage door, which was one of three or four in a row, there was a well some sixty or seventy feet in depth, and one day Lily had gone out to play in the garden, and as she was standing on some paling very near the well, her little foot slipped, and the poor child fell down the well into the water. Her screams were heard, and the man and his wife ran out; their first thought, of course, was to save the child, but how was it to be done? for the old well-rope was not strong enough to bear a man’s weight. But, my dear little readers, man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, and so it proved on this occasion. He who knows the end from the beginning, without whose knowledge not even a sparrow falls to the ground, had not forgotten poor little Lily, and showed, as you will see, His wonderful care over her. The man immediately ran to a neighboring farmhouse, where he was kindly lent a strong new cart-line, with which he hastened to the well, and just at the moment two men passed down the road, and came at once to help. Lily, after falling down into the water, which was about fifteen feet deep, came up again to the surface, dreadfully frightened, but not much hurt, and, stretching out her little hands, clasped hold of some slight projection from the side of the well; and her body being partially supported by the water, she was enabled to hold on for a little while. The man, who loved little Lily, at the risk of his own life, was lowered by the other two into the well, and his wife, in the meanwhile, went into the cottage with another woman, and knelt down and prayed God to save the child and her husband. As the man neared the water, the others, who were letting him down, fearing he would be under it before they were aware, stopped lowering him, when he could see his dear Lily, apparently lifeless, and quite helpless, sinking, as he thought, for the last time. He hurriedly called out to them to lower him quickly, and to his great joy was just in time to clasp her in his arms. He was then gradually drawn up, holding his precious charge very tightly until they reached the top of the well in safety. Lily was soon restored to consciousness, and could then tell how ineffectual her attempts to save herself had been by holding on to the side of the well. On being asked what she thought when in the water, she said she thought her Father would save her; and she now calls Jesus her Saviour.

And now, my dear young readers, that I have told you how dear little Lily W—was rescued from the well, let me tell you what it reminded me of when I heard about it. I immediately thought that the little girl down in the dark well, with nothing to hold her up, or help her out, vainly trying to save herself, only to find her strength gone, and just about to sink lifeless under the water, was like all little boys and girls, and grown-up people too, who are not yet saved by God’s dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All belong to a fallen race (Rom. 3:23), at a distance from the bright sunshine of God’s blessed Presence (Eph. 2:13), down in the darkness of this world (John 1:5), many trying in vain to save themselves, only to find that they are quite helpless, without strength (Rom. 5:6); but what does God’s precious Book tell us about? Oh! my dear young friends, it tells us of Jesus, the precious Saviour, and how he came all the way from heavenly glory, right down to where poor helpless sinners were to deliver them out of their dreadful condition (1. Tim. 1:15) just like the kind man went right down the well with the rope, and took up and saved poor little Lily. But before Jesus could take one little girl or boy from this dark sinful world to glory, He must first die on the cross (John 3:14) and shed His precious blood to wash their sins away (Heb. 9:22); and now what have you to do? Why, give up trying to save yourself, and simply trust in this dear Saviour, believe on His precious Name, and, just as Lily was clasped in the strong arms of the one who came to save her, you will find yourself safe in the arms of Jesus, who came to save you, and then you will be truly able to sing: —

How loving is Jesus, who came from the sky,

In tenderest pity for sinners to die!

His hands and His feet were nailed to the tree,

And all this He suffered for sinners like me!

How gladly does Jesus free pardon impart,

For all who receive Him by faith in their heart!

No evil befalls them, their home is above,

And Jesus throws round them the arms of His love.

A few more moments, and it would have been too late; Lily must have been drowned. A few more moments, dear young readers, and it may be too late for you to be saved. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). But Lily found herself in her kind friend’s arms out of the well in the sunshine, and at home in her adopted father’s house; and so also, if you now believe on the Lord Jesus and trust Him, and Him alone, you will find yourself brought out of darkness into light (1 Peter 2:9), at home and happy in the presence of God, children with the spirit of adoption, crying, “Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15); and soon, very soon, Jesus, the Lord. Himself, will come and take you to that beautiful place that He has gone to prepare in the Father’s house above (John 14:3; Rev. 22:20).

At the name of Jesus

Every knee should bow;

Children, trust in Jesus,

Trust in Jesus now.

Jesus cometh quickly,

All to Him must bow;

Trust in Jesus only, Now.

E. H. C.

I Am Happy Now.

ONE sunny afternoon in the spring of 1874 I spent some hours in a little country town, visiting some dear children of God, and was returning along the public road to a place some two miles distant, when I met with Louisa M―. She was a stranger in the neighborhood, and had come to live there through marrying a sailor from the village in the outskirts of which I lived. I offered her a tract, for which she warmly thanked me, and we soon entered into conversation about her soul; she answering my question, “Are you at peace with God? “with” I am trying to do my best.” I explained to her that all our efforts ate vain; that God has “found a ransom” in His Son, and that our safety depends on taking God at His word, and that “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” She had to proceed on her way, and I to return home ere the evening closed in, so our conversation was interrupted, and we parted on my promising to send her something to read. As I was leaving home for some weeks, a child of God, named Mrs. J― who had herself not long known what it was to rest in Christ, undertook to visit her, both of us in the meanwhile laying the case before our Heavenly Father for His blessing on our efforts. I sent Louisa to read what I deemed calculated to help forward any work the Lord might have begun in her soul, and she was left for a week or two unvisited. One afternoon Mrs. J—went to see her, and found her in tears. On inquiring the cause, she said “Oh! my sins are more than I can bear; they are like mountains upon me, and I have been praying to God, but it seems of no use, for my sins are so many.” Her sorrow was very deep, and had evidently reached a crisis. Mrs. J― opened her Bible and read some passages speaking of the love of God in giving His Son to die in our stead, and that it is neither our prayers, nor our tears, nor our trying, that renders us fit for His presence, but that we must cast ourselves on Him as Lost Sinners, believing in the efficacy of The Blood shed upon Calvary as enough to cleanse us from all sin. For awhile Louisa listened with rapt attention, and then exclaimed “Can that be true”? “Is it all done for me”? The light broke in upon her, and she in ecstasies of joy praised the Lord.

She had been ill for some time, and it now became evident to all that she was not long for this scene. I was occupied in nursing a sick relative, after returning home, and did not see her for some weeks, but continued sending her some little delicacies suitable to her weak state; and after the death of my relative, paid her a visit. She was firm and joyous, but from extreme weakness could say but little. A few days after this ‘I went again, and found her rather more able to converse. She clasped my hands firmly, and continued holding them the whole time I stayed, speaking in a quiet cheerful tone of the love of God, the wisdom displayed in the way she had been led, the value of the death of Christ; and, finally, as if lost in wonder, she exclaimed, “But people will not believe it; they are all fighting against God, only so blinded that they suppose its against you; you are, nevertheless, the happiest I ever knew; and oh, the marvelous way in which I was brought away from my own people, which I often repined at, and here, through dear Mrs. J― and yourself, to be brought to God. She first taught me to read as I was totally ignorant when I married; and that has helped me now to know more of what God has said in His Word.” I asked her if she wished to recover. “Yes,” she replied, “for two reasons; the first, to speak of God, and the great things He has done for me.” And the other? I asked. “My husband has been very good to me, and since he will be very lonely when I am gone, I should like to live to make him comfortable.”

Finding she was a good deal spent by saying so much, I left her; but little did I imagine that that was the last time I should hear her voice in intelligent conversation. She became so much worse that she had no strength left at all; and though she lived for some days, and knew me when I went to see her, trying to make herself understood, she was too far gone for language, but her bright smile showed me that the heart was at rest, and a few days after this she breathed her last.

"I Am the Sinner, Then He Died for Me."

A YOUNG woman of the name of E. D―, living at S―, in Berkshire, was brought up, like many more around her, to observe the outward forms of religion. Satisfied apparently with its mere routine, the question of the salvation of her soul, or her fitness to meet God, never seemed to trouble her. But the eye of God was upon her, and she was to know His saving grace, His first manifest dealing with her being weakness of body, which gradually became a serious illness. At first, some of the Lord’s people living in the village often spoke to her about her soul, but her replies were to the effect that she was all right, she had not wronged anyone, had always attended her church, and that was all she had to do. Nothing seemed to move her, and there appeared to be no concern whatever about her state, neither would she own that she was a lost sinner.

Gradually becoming weaker and weaker, she was at last confined to the house, when only certain persons were allowed to visit her, amongst them three Christian young ladies when she knew well. These latter used every opportunity to present the precious truths of the gospel to her, telling her of the Lord Jesus and His finished work on the cross as that alone which could save her from hell, and give her an entrance to the glory of God, counting upon God to bless His own Word to her soul, knowing His love to poor, careless, and indifferent sinners, His unwillingness that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). Things had gone on thus for some time with no apparent result, when one of them was so desirous that someone else should speak to her, that a servant of the Lord was asked to come from O—on a Lord’s Day; but when he came he had to be told that he would not be admitted. This was a great blow to the three young ladies who had visited her, and who were so desirous that she should be brought to know the Saviour; but nevertheless they were still encouraged to wait upon God, much earnest prayer going up to Him for the conversion of her soul, and He who hears and loves to answer the cry of His own children, shortly gave them the answer.

Again one of the young ladies went to see the poor dying girl, but still no apparent desire on her part to know the salvation of God. She read to her from the 19th chapter of Luke, and spoke to her of the Saviour’s willingness to receive poor sinners, then prayed with her and left. After she was gone, E. D—fell asleep, and presently waking up, she saw herself as a lost sinner in the presence of a Holy God, in danger of eternal judgment; when (oh! the mercy of Him who is also a Saviour God) her eyes rested on a text of scripture, hanging on the wall at the foot of the bed, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). “Oh!” said she, “I am, the sinner, then He died for me.” In a moment the Word of the Living God, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, had done its mighty and powerful work; the arrow of conviction had entered E. D— ‘s soul; she saw that she was a lost sinner, and here was God’s salvation to meet her in her need. She accepted the truth at once, she believed the faithful saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and she was saved, yes saved, dear reader, saved from her sins, saved from judgment, saved from hell, saved to be with Christ forever in the glory of God. How blessedly simple. “I am the sinner, then He died for me.” What more could possibly be needed, a sinner needs a Saviour, and a Saviour is for poor needy sinners. Here was one to whom God in His wondrous grace had shown her need, and here was One who in His infinite love had come into the world to meet it. Why, dear reader, everything you need is found in the one short sentence uttered by E. D—. Will you own with her, “I am the sinner”? God asks no more. Take your true place before Him; cease from your wretched works, and feelings, and experiences; the question is of such momentous importance, it admits of no delay. Own now, “I am the sinner,” and you may go on and say at once, “then He died for me.” Mark, it is a faithful saying, a saying of God who cannot lie, a saying upon which you may rest your eternity, and worthy of all acceptation, therefore surely worthy of yours, that Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, came into this dark, sinful, ruined world, to save. To save who? sinners, sinners of all kinds, sinners of all characters, moral or immoral, religious or irreligious, sinners of few sins, sinners of many sins. No particular class named, but every class included in the one word, sinners; God makes no distinction as to this. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, Christ Jesus died for sinners (Rom. 5:8). Are you, my reader, a sinner, a poor lost sinner; do you own it? will you take the only place in which salvation can reach you? Oh! if so, blessed, blessed news, Christ Jesus died for sinners; and I think I hear you saying with the poor dying girl, “Oh! then He died for me.” As long as E. D—justified herself, all was darkness, as long as she trusted in her own righteousness, she was in danger of hell; but the moment she was roused to a sense of her actual condition before God, and took her right place as “the sinner,” the glorious gospel of Christ shone into her heart, the whole of which is contained in that one simple statement, “He died for me.”

The next time the young lady went to see her, she told her she was saved, and gave her the account of her conversion. It was a real work of the Spirit in her soul, “turning her from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). She lived for some weeks after, testifying to the end to the love of God that had met her in her lost condition, and saved her. Her joy never seemed very great, the nature of her malady keeping her low; but she trusted simply in Christ Jesus and His finished work, until He took her to Himself, “absent from the body and present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8), where she now awaits that resurrection morn, when the assembling shout of the Lord Himself, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God shall call the dead in Christ first, and the living saints, in a moment being changed, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Him in the air, so to be forever with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15-18).

Dear reader, let me appeal to you once again; are you a poor, careless, deluded shiner, unconscious of your awful state, or are you one of that happy company who shall surely go to meet Him at that wondrous moment. Who can say now with E. D―, “I am the sinner, then He died for me?”

E. H. C.

"I Don't Want to Go."

For the Little Ones.

A DEAR little boy about five years of age was at a meeting the other night with his father, and when the meeting was over and the people rose to go, the father took him by the hand saying, “Come along, we must get home now.” Now I dare say you know that little boys and girls are seldom sorry when it is time to go home, and generally jump up pretty quickly when they see the people going out—in fact, I have often seen the little people on their feet to go before the bigger people are ready—haven’t you? Well, but it was not so this time, for, to the great surprise of the father, his little boy sat still looking earnestly towards the preacher, who was moving from the desk.

“Come” said his father, smiling at what he perhaps took for absence of mind, “don’t I you want to go home?”

“No,” said the little fellow very decidedly, “I don’t.”

“Why not?” asked his father.

“Because,” said the child “I LIKE IT.”

Now, dear little reader, what was it, do you think, that this little boy so liked that he was in no hurry to go home? Why it was the very thing you were reading about last month in Goon NEWS in the little narrative called “Tricie’s Star;” not that the preacher spoke about the star, but about that which the bright star shining in the heavens reminds us of, namely, the COMING OF THE LORD. The preacher was telling how a time was close at hand, when all who love Jesus will be changed and caught away (1 Cor. 15:51-53; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17); when mothers and fathers who have believed in the Lord will suddenly disappear from the midst of their homes and families, and when all who are old enough to believe in Jesus and have not done so will be left behind. He was saying how sad it would be for all those who have rejected Jesus—all who have refused to believe in Him—all who have said in their hearts “There’s time enough yet,” and who will then find out their mistake, and will find too that it is TOO LATE to cry “Lord, Lord, open to us!’ Because He has said “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” He shall answer, “I say, I know you not whence ye are,” and then goes on to tell them that they shall see those who have loved the Lord in the kingdom of God, and they themselves thrust out.

Oh how dreadful this will be to those who might have been saved, especially those who know that the friends they knew and loved on earth are gone to glory, while they are left behind to mourn their loss, and not only so, but worse, the loss of all the blessedness, glory, and joy those friends will then be in for evermore with their precious Lord in the Father’s house. Now, dear little reader, I don’t think it was this part of the preacher’s address that the little boy liked go much, but that which followed at the close, when the preacher showed that as the Lord had not yet come, and the door was not yet shut, there was still time for ALL to be saved through the blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin, if only they would believe in Him; because “NOW is the accepted time; behold NOW is the day of salvation.” And although the trumpet might sound, and the door be shut before the people in that room could walk down the stairs, they were reminded that the Saviour of sinners had said, and is still saying, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and, “Him that cometh unto me, I will IN NO WISE CAST OUT.” Well, this dear little boy was, perhaps, thinking of those gracious words, and “so liked it” as he said, that he wanted to hear more, and was in no hurry to go home. Now was not this much better than kicking his heels about, and staring at everything and seeing nothing, as too many little boys do? Like other children, this little fellow was usually glad when it was time to go, but on this occasion he wanted to stay. Why was this? It was because he had listened to what was said, and thus, as I hope, the loving words of Jesus had reached his heart. May they find lodgment there till they bring him to that gracious One who said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me.”

And now, dear little reader, will you listen to the words of Jesus, and take Him as your own dear Saviour for time and for eternity? If you do, then when Jesus comes as “The bright and morning star” to take His own to be forever with Himself, He will take you, and I am very sure that when you “Reach those bright regions of joy” where Jesus now is, when you see His face, and “know even as you have been known,” you will evermore say, I don’t want to go.”

“BELOVED, now are we the sons of God... we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:1, 2).

In the Fire and yet Not Burnt.

Read Daniel 3.

A GREAT king made a great image, and thought he could make everybody bow down to it. Most of the great people of the earth were willing enough to do so. Princes and captains and rulers came to worship; they were the men of power from different parts of the kingdom. Then the “counselors” were there, and the “judges”; the wise men, and the men who were set to see that right was done. They might have said, “We are all here, to do what our king commands; all the greatness and the wisdom in the world are here, and we all agree to bow down to this great golden statue—what everybody says must be right.” But there were, at least, three young men who dared to think that the people were all wrong; or, at any rate, that it would be wrong for them to do what the rest of the world were doing. Some might come to them and say, “How proud, and how stupid you must be, when all the world is wondering at this great image, and worshipping it, to say that you won’t join them! Why should you set up to be right, and everybody else wrong? If you chose not to own any God but Jehovah when you were in your own land, you are in Babylon now, and you must do as Babylon does. Your own God has cast you off and given you into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (ch. 1, 2), and yet you will not do what he tells you; how foolish you are!”

But it would all go for nothing with Shadrach and his two friends. They knew the living and true God, and His word to them was that they should not bow themselves down to any graven image; and that was enough for them. Nebuchadnezzar’s idol might be thirty-six yards high or more. The music of all kinds might be very charming to the senses; but there was a greater charm for them in pleasing the God they served, by keeping His word and not denying His name. And if the king thought to terrify them by telling them of the furnace they should be cast into if they refused, still he would find that they did not fear all that man could do unto them so much as they would fear to displease “their own God?’ So they told the king they hardly cared to answer him about doing such a thing as bowing down to an image he had made and set up. They were quite sure that their God whom they served was “able to deliver” them; and even if He did not see fit to deliver them, they would not disobey Him by worshipping this great image. Then the king became furious with them, and ordered the furnace to be made seven times hotter than ever it had been before. So hot they made it that they had to pick the strongest soldiers in the army to get anywhere near it. And even then, when they went to fling these three good men into the fire, the flames came out and burnt the strong men so badly, that they were killed. The heat outside the furnace was enough to kill the strong men, but the weak ones “in the midst of the burning fiery furnace” were not hurt by it at all! It did not even singe the hair of their heads, nor was the smell of fire upon them. The only thing the fire did for them after burning up their enemies, was to burn up the bands they were bound with, and set them free to walk about with the Angel of the Lord, who came to be with them in the furnace. They had been faithful to God when in the king’s palace (ch. 1), for His name’s sake they had refused the king’s image; and now that they found themselves in the king’s furnace, He would see that they were not left alone there.

The king and his nobles were astonished beyond measure, and well they might be. They had put three men in, and they were closely tied up; but they nod see four there, and are all walking about! And the king calls to the three whose names he knew, to come out. His mighty men had put them in, and lost their own lives in doing so, but not all the men in his army could have fetched them out again. But when the king called them, out they walked, for they were not disobedient men, although they would not obey the king when to have done so would have been to disobey God. So they came out, and all the great people had to see and own that God had so taken care of His servants, that the fire had “no power” over them, and they had “no hurt” when they were in the midst of it. Nebuchadnezzar’s image had “no power” to command their worship; his music “no power” to charm them; nor his threat to frighten them; so now his furnace had “no power” to harm them. God was the One who had power. Shadrach and his fellows knew it; Nebuchadnezzar and his nobles had to, learn it, and confess that there was “no other God” who had such power. If all the great people of the earth came to see and worship the king’s golden image, they went back to tell of the wondrous power of that God who gave him his kingdom and glory, although in the pride of his heart he had forgotten Him (ch. 2:37).

How well it was that these three young men had believed and obeyed the word of God! They honored Him, and He did not fail to put Honor upon them (vs. 28; 1 Sam. 2:30). And now, although we may not be called either to be cast into furnaces, or to be delivered out of them, still we can say, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” He still loves that we should treasure His Word; saying to us, “If a man love me, he will keep My Word, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” And to some of those who have kept His Word, and have not denied His name, but have been despised by others, He says, “I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee,” as He made Nebuchadnezzar to know at the end of this chapter, that though he might proudly say, “Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” yet there was a, God who could and would deliver His servants who trusted in Him.

But there are those still who despise this same God, either disbelieving or forgetting both His goodness and His infinite power.

They despise Him and neglect His Word as if it had no authority over them. They say by their lips or by their lives, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Then there is another “furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:50) which will never need to be heated seven times more than usual; a “lake of fire” from which there will be no coming forth unhurt. God, not Nebuchadnezzar, has prepared it; but who, my dear reader, young or old, “who is the God that shall deliver” from that burning those who turned away from the “grace of God that bringeth salvation?” “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

W. TY.

“THIS is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3; Acts 13:38, 39).

Innocents.

Jer. 11:34, 19:4.

INNOCENCY, Innocents, and Innocent occur nearly forty times in scripture. Children are often spoken of (in a comparative sense) as innocent; thus it was used in the article “God Knows” in the August number. The Editor had not forgotten what the Psalmist says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,” &c., or the words in the Ephesians, “Children of wrath even as others.” Psalms 51, Ephesians 2:3.

Jesus Is Precious.

“Unto you therefore which believe He is precious” (1 Peter 2:7).

THE “He” of this text stands for Jesus. If we remove it and put “Jesus” in its place the text will read thus, “Unto you therefore which believe Jesus is precious,” or if the words were transposed it would read in this way, “Jesus is precious therefore to you which believe.”

The word precious is used in connection with things of great price. Thus rubies, pearls, emeralds, diamonds, &c., are called precious stones, and gold and silver are precious metals. Anything, however, to which we attach much value is precious to us though it may be of little worth in the eyes of others. A letter written by a dear friend now dead may be regarded as very precious for his sake, or the Bible that was dear mamma’s before she went to be with the Lord is precious to you because it was hers.

Will you pause for a moment and consider whether Jesus is precious to you. Do you love Him, and is His name dear to your heart?

“Why should not an angel be as precious to you as Jesus?” I asked yesterday a number of Sunday school children.

“Because,” said one little fellow, “an angel never died for us.” Just so. But Jesus did die for us, and that is one great reason why He should be precious.

If you were in the top story of a house on fire and likely to perish in the flames, and a man scaled the ladder and saved you, but in doing so received such injuries as soon ended in his death, would you not always love him, and, if you could, would you not sometimes visit his grave, and say, “There lies the man who lost his life in saving mine?”

When the shepherd left the ninety-and-nine sheep in a safe place, and went forth to seek the straying one, was it not that it was precious to him? If he had cared nothing for it, he might have said, “Poor silly thing, it has thought fit to stray from the fold, and it must now pay for its folly; I shall not trouble to seek it.” But the shepherd sought it over hill and dale until he found it, and then laid it on his shoulders rejoicing, and carried it safely home. Why was this? Because he loved and valued it.

The Lord Jesus left His home on high, and came into this world of sin and suffering to seek and save the last.

“He might have left us to endure

The wrath we seem’d to brave;

Our case would then admit no cure,

For who but He could save?

But though resisted long, He strove;

His purpose was to save:

He show’d the greatness of His love,

And though provoked, forgave.”

He loved His lambs and sheep so much that He laid down His life to rescue them from sin and death. He calls His own sheep by name, and gives them eternal life; and tells them they can never perish, for His Father holds them in His hand, and none can pluck from Him. They may well say Jesus is precious to them, yea the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely.

W. B.

Just in Time.

IN the month of December last year a high wind arose, and blew violently over London all night. Now, you know, if you live in London, that it is rather awkward when a very high wind blows, because there is such an immense number of tiles, slates, stacks of chimneys, cowls, and chimney pots, that you cannot tell how soon some of them may come rattling down on your head. It is bad enough in the country when a hurricane is blowing, especially at night, to wake up and find the thatch gone, and the stars shining quietly down into the cottage bedroom, as if curious to see how you get on under the circumstances; but the danger is far greater in a large city, where the houses stand so close together, and something is almost sure to fall and do injury to somebody. Thus, several accidents occurred in the night I refer to, but one of them is so remarkable, that I think you would like to hear about it. A little girl was sleeping all alone in her little bed on that night, when the roarin of the wind awoke her. There is something very terrible in the rush and roar of a violent hurricane whether on land or sea. How it makes men’ feel their utter helplessness. There is no controlling the might of the tempest, “the wind bloweth where it listeth,” and man’s puny strength can in no wise hinder it. As the little girl lay listening to the awful voice of the hurricane, shaking the house and making doors and windows rattle, she became so frightened that she could lie there no longer; so getting timidly out of bed in the dark wild night, she sought her father’s room, and crept into bed beside him. Hardly had she done so when a terrific crash was heard, and a large chimney-stack came crashing through the roof of the house, and fell right on to the bed where the little girl had just been lying. Had she remained there another moment she would have been crushed and mangled to death; but God in His mercy had caused her to leave her little bed just in time to escape, and thus, although much damage was done, no life was lost, for the little girl was safe in her father’s arms.

Now, I remember many years ago, that an aged schoolmaster, who, for more than thirty years, had had the charge of an infant school in London, told me that he was quite sure from his long experience that “there was a special providence over little children.” I could not help thinking when he said this of Him who took little children up into His arms and laid His loving hands on them and blessed them, and I felt sure the old schoolmaster was right enough, for He who did this when on earth is now at God’s right hand, exalted, and “all power is given unto Him in heaven and on earth,” as the blessed Man (God’s eternal Son) who glorified God on the earth so perfectly. I remember reading, not long since, of a child falling out of a window from a height that would have killed any man, yet the child was unhurt, and got up and walked indoors again as if nothing had happened! Yes, there is surely “a special providence over little children,” and YOU ought to think of this, for it is sad indeed that children should forget Him who, the old schoolmaster thought, never forgets them. Is He not “THE SAME yesterday, today, and forever?” And if He so loved little children when He was here on earth, do you think He has ceased to love them now? No, indeed. Who but He took that little girl from her bed just before that chimney-stack fell and crushed the place where she had been lying; nor would let it fall until she was safe in another room? I wonder whether she ever thought of thanking Him? But, perhaps, she did not know Him. Do you? If not, I hope His love—love told out upon the cross, where He died for you—will win you to Himself.

But this little tale of a child’s wonderful escape from a sudden and violent death, speaks not only to the young, but also to the old. The child was only just in time; another moment would have been too late. Now “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment,” and who shall tell how soon or how suddenly that appointed moment, “once to die” may come? And then there is all eternity, and no change! If you die in your sins “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest”; no work of salvation there, no device whereby you can escape perdition, no knowledge of Christ save as the awful Judge of the wicked; no wisdom, the beginning of which is “the fear of the Lord”— no hope for evermore! Safe in her father’s arms, the little girl escaped a painful death, but she got there only just in time. Do you GO AT ONCE to Christ, whose precious blood cleanseth from all sin, and then from all fear of judgment YOU will be safe in the hands of Him whose almighty hold will never let you go, for He has declared “My sheep shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.”

“Behold, Now is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation.” Go to Him now; delay not another moment—you are JUST IN TIME.

Justified by the Faith of Jesus Christ.

“KNOWING that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:16).

The King Struck With Leprosy.

(Read 2 Chron. 26)

THE history of king Uzziah is a very sad one. The Lord had been very good to him, and had “helped him” against all his enemies, so that he had become a very great king. He was only sixteen when he began to be king, and it appears that while he was a young man he really lived to please the Lord, and “God made him to prosper.” His fame was heard down in Egypt, and “his name spread far abroad.” Of course, it was the Lord who enabled him to succeed so well, and the greater king he was the better chance he had of showing to all the world what high respect and deep reverence he had for that God who had given him all his glory. But, instead of that, we read that he became proud: “his heart was lifted up.” When he was weak he trusted in God, and was “helped;” but “when he was strong,” he “transgressed against” the One who had helped him, by going into the temple of the Lord to burn incense, which only “the priests” had any right to do. They were the people whom God Himself had chosen to serve Him at His altar, and it was wickedness in the king to attempt to draw near to God in that way. If he had been both priest and king it would have been different, but it was not so; and if he had really respected the word and authority of the God who had given him his power he would not have dared to act as if God had not perfect right to choose one family of His people to serve at the altar and another family to sit on the throne. Uzziah might have said that he, too, was a servant of the Lord, and that it was to the Lord that he desired to offer the fragrant incense; but it would not have been the least excuse. God’s high priest was there to burn the incense, and for Uzziah to come to do it instead was an insult to God, and God was displeased with Uzziah. He had been warned by the priests that what he was doing was out of place, but instead of turning back and confessing his sin, he was “wroth” with them! But he had to do with God, and if he would not hear them, God made him feel His hand in judgment upon him. He was struck with leprosy, which both they saw and he felt, so that he did not wait to be put out from the holy place; he “himself hasted to I go out, because the Lord had smitten him.” How solemn! Uzziah was His servant, and had in his younger days served the Lord; but God could not, and would not, pass over this willful transgression. He had helped him before, but that only made it so much the worse that he should so far forget what was due to God as to force himself into His presence in such a manner. So Uzziah had to be as a leper in a separate house as long as he lived, and someone else had to look after the affairs of his kingdom. He had thought to go into the Lord’s house, where he had no right, and the end of it was that had to give up and leave his own house, where he had a right to be. A lonely man, “in a several house,” he had to learn that he not only could not go into the house of the Lord, but people would be afraid to come to his house lest they should catch his leprosy.

Of course, in many ways it is very different now. There is now no place upon earth which God looks upon as more holy than any other place (John 4:21.), except, indeed, that His Spirit dwells in the bodies of His people; the body of every true believer in the Lord Jesus being a “temple of the Holy Ghost,” as we learn from 1 Cor. 6:19 and other passages. And then, as to the priests, it is not now Azariah who is the “chief priest,” but it is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who is the great High Priest over the house of God (Heb. 4:14; 10:21). Then it is not in the temple of Solomon on Mount Moriah that He appears in the presence of God for us, but in “heaven itself” (Heb. 8:1; 9:24).

“In heaven itself He stands,

A heavenly priesthood His.”

Again, it is not now the case that any of God’s servants are priests more than every other servant of His. All those who have learned that the Lord Jesus has loved them and washed them from their sins in His blood, are made both “kings and priests unto God,” and every one of them has an equal right to draw near to God. Such passages as 1 Peter 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:6; Hebrews 7:19, and 10:22, make this very plain, and show us what a great mistake it is for people to call any one christian man in an assembly now “the priest,” and all the rest “the people.” Now that the Lord Jesus has shed His blood, and the veil has been rent by God, there is “a new and living way” opened into the very presence of God, and all true believers have the same “boldness” or liberty to “draw near” (Heb. 10:19, &c.). But, while this is all true, we must never forget that it is God Himself we have to do with, as much as in the case of Uzziah, and His holiness and majesty are the same now as then. He could no more have sin or stubborn self-will in His presence now than He could then. And as we know that we are in ourselves only guilty sinners before God, we feel that it is only through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done on the cross for us, and what He is now doing at the right hand of God for us, as our great High Priest, that we can approach God at all. It is “through Him we both (Jew and Gentile) have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). If we should pass by Him, and dare to come before God as if we had any right of ourselves to come, God could not accept us. We might be as “great” as Uzziah, or as “wise” as Solomon, and we might say it was God we came to worship, as this king wanted to burn incense at God’s altar; but in coming to Him, who is “of purer eyes “than to look upon sin, we have first to take our place as lost sinners, confessing our sins, and believing in the Lord Jesus, or God could not welcome us. It would be putting ourselves forward, as if we were fit for God, and would be slighting God’s Son; but the Word of God says “He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which sent Him” (John 5:23). As sinners having to do with God, we have to learn that it is only “by the blood of Jesus” that we can draw near; and if, as children of God, we desire to know more of the Father, we know who has said “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). The same blessed One who takes away our sin also brings us to God (1 Peter 3:18), and reveals to us the Father, and we cannot do without Him for one thing any more than for another. Now, my dear reader, if you slight God’s High Priest, and think, like Uzziah, to rush into His holy place, as if you had in yourself any fitness for it, you must be prepared for God’s displeasure to show itself in a far more terrible manner than in the matter of this king of whom we have been thinking. With him the punishment was only “until the day of his death; “but if you turn away from Christ and do not own Him as God sets Him before you (Rom. 3:25), death itself, in all its bitterness and terror, will be but as it were the dark passage to that “eternal judgment,” of which the Word of God says “after death, the judgment.”

W. TY.

The Lake and its Lessons.

A lake of still water encompass’d by hills,

In secret sustain’d by their nourishing rills,

Reflecting the skies on its motionless breast,

Oh! what a pure picture of calmness and rest.

How like to the soul that’s abiding in Christ,

The conscience made clean, and the bosom sufficed,

Reposing by faith in the arms of His love,

And proving the peace of His presence above.

How graceful the ripples which zephyrs awake,

As softly they breathe o’er the peace-loving lake;

So calm in its depths, and so pure in its springs,

It smiles with delight, and with melody sings.

And so with the saint who knows Christ as his peace,

His joy in the Lord doth abound and increase,

Not loud and protesting, but full and profound,

Sustaining the heart, though subdued in its sound.

But soon may the lake be arous’d by a storm,

And boisterous billows its beauty deform,

The skies, which it mirror’d, reflecting no more,

Its calmness exchang’d for tempestuous roar.

Alas, too, how quickly may passions arise,

The heart, off its guard, in a moment surprise;

Oh! then, what a tempest is stirr’d in the soul,

As wild and o’erwhelming as billows that roll.

But He, who the waves could subdue with a word,

As some on the Lake of Tiberias heard,

The tumults which rage in the bosom can still,

And with peace in Himself that same bosom refill.

The Lamb That Was Slain.

IF you take one more look at the picture about which I wrote to you last month, you will notice that all the animals you can see are sheep or lambs, except the man who looks after them and the dog who helps him in doing so. If you could see a picture of the first sheep there were in this world, you might see some bears and lions among them, for there was a time when even wolves and sheep were as gentle with each other as the old sheep and the young ones are now. When Adam had all the creatures brought to him that he might name them, he did not have to put the “wild beasts” in cages to keep them from eating up the tame and weak ones. It is part of the misery that has come upon God’s creation through man’s sin, for one animal to be in fear of another, or for the strong to devour the weak; so that if, when a wolf comes, the shepherd flees, the wolf catches the sheep and scatters the flock. And when the Lord Jesus has appeared in glory, and the “sons of God” (Rom. 8:19) have appeared with Him, we read that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage it now groans under, and will be made to share the liberty of the glory of God’s sons (Rom. 8:21). You see the sheep and the oxen cannot know anything about what it is to enjoy the grace of God, to be set free from the power of Satan, and from the power of sin, and from the fear of death. All that is the liberty of grace, and is only known by those who are believers in the Lord Jesus. But when God has brought His many sons unto “glory,” when “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,” Jesus will be known as the great King over all the earth, and He will make even “the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea,” to find out how much better off they are for His having dominion over all the works of God’s hands. They will share in their way the “liberty” and peace of His glorious reign; so we read that in that day, “the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, and their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox” (Isa. 11). The wolf and the lion and the bear are not only put in the same verses with the lambs and the calves, but they will “dwell with” one another, and feed together, and lie down together, and “a little child,” like one of you, will be able to lead about any of them.

I like to think of a lion and a lamb being friendly with one another, but when I took my pen to write to you, I did not mean to talk to you about lions and lambs, but about one blessed Person, to whom desire always to direct your thoughts, and who is called both a Lion and a Lamb! I wonder if you could turn to a chapter in the Bible where Jesus, the Son of God, is called the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.” You know Judah was that son of Jacob from whom the Kings of Israel were to come (Gen. 49:10); and above all that glorious One of whom God says, “I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion” (Psa. 2:6; Heb. 7:14). And when there was a book in heaven, at the right hand of God, which no one was found worthy to open, or even to look upon, and John was sad and weeping about it, he was told that one Person was found who was worthy, and He was “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” Well, John looked round to see this mighty One, expecting, no doubt, to see someone with every mark of glory and dignity, going “in the greatness of His strength”; but what does he see? He says, “I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne.... a Lamb, as it had been slain!” How strange this seems, that instead of a Lion, with tokens of strength, he should see a Lamb, with marks of suffering and death! You know a lion is called the “king of the forest.” Agur tells us in the book of Proverbs, that it is “the strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any,” while a lamb is one of the most feeble and timid of all creatures: even “a little child” frightens it, and when led to the slaughter it opens not its mouth. But how is it that “the Lord of glory,” the “Creator of the ends of the earth,” the One who “upholdeth all things by the word of His power,” should have become “a Lamb,” and should have been “led as a lamb to the slaughter,” yet opening not His mouth, except to pray for His enemies, and to speak peace to a dying man who had just been reviling Him? Read the first chapter of John, and you will find that the same One who was with God, and who was God, “in the beginning,” who made the world, and “was in the world,” is “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world” (vs. 29). Ah, that is why the “Son of God” became the “Lamb of God;” it was that He might “offer Himself without spot to God,” and “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Remember, our sins cost God His Son! When Abraham and his son were going up the side of the hill where Isaac was to be offered up to God, Abraham said to him, “the Lord will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” All those who felt their sins before God and read the fortieth Psalm, finding out that the sacrifices they offered continually could not take away sins had to look forward to the coming of the Lamb whom God would “provide. “But we who believe in the Lord Jesus can now look back and see that God has sent His only Son into the world to be a sacrifice for our sins. The Lord Jesus has been here, and “suffered once for sins the just for the unjust,” and now “by Him all who believe are justified from all things.” John the Baptist saw Him on earth, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” John, the beloved disciple, saw Him in heaven, in a vision, “the Lamb that was slain,” and we, too, expect soon to see Him there. Never shall we forget that He is the One who shed His blood to cleanse us from our sins, and redeem us to God; and never shall we cease to praise Him for such love as brought Him into such suffering for our sakes. John could see even in heaven that He “had been slain,” not that He was dead then, but He bore in His body the marks that He had suffered death. He showed to His disciples the marks of His wounds more than once (Luke 24:39; John 20:20, 27) after He had been raised from the dead. Others in a day yet to come will see the wounds in His hands, and will ask Him about them (Zech. 13:6); and I do not doubt that all those who are “forever with the Lord” will ever have the tokens before them, that if they can say of themselves the end of that wonderful verse, which says, “by His stripes we are healed,” it is because the first part of that same verse was true of the Lamb of God. “He was wounded for our transgressions.”

I cannot say much more to you now, dear children, but must just remind you that if the fifth chapter of Revelation is full of the worship of the Lamb of God, there is such a thing in the next chapter as the “wrath of the Lamb.” May you know what it is to be washed from your sins in “the blood of the Lamb,” and you will gladly join in the song of praise to Him, but remember all power in heaven and in earth is given to Him, and if we do not learn his grace as “the Lamb” we shall have to fall under the terrible judgments He will execute as “the Lion.”

W. TY.

Not all the blood of beasts

On Jewish altars slain,

Could give the guilty conscience peace,

Or wash away its stain.

But Christ, God’s holy Lamb,

Took all our guilt away,

A sacrifice of nobler name,

And richer blood than they.

My soul looks back, to see

The burden Thou didst bear

When hanging on the accursed tree,

For all my guilt was there.

Believing, we rejoice

To see the curse remove;

And bless “the Lamb” with cheerful voice,

And sing redeeming love.

Learning About Jesus.

I DARE say some of my little readers find that the meetings for worship, or the preaching of the gospel to which their parents take them, are sometimes rather wearisome. Perhaps one reason for this may be that they do not listen to anything that is said; they sit staring about them, looking now at the windows and then at the walls, now at the sunshine playing on the floor, and then at somebody who happens to move. If another little boy or little girl happens to be near, the amount of attention they get is really wonderful. He or she becomes quite a study, every bit of dress, every button, the color of the hair and eyes and hat, all is most narrowly scanned, and when that is done and there is nothing more to look at in that direction there is an uncomfortable shuffle, and a book falls and makes a noise, and then the little culprit colors up and looks ashamed of course. All this time things are being said or sung that are well worth hearing, but are all lost through want of attention; while the poor child who has been thus idly staring about feels so weary that he hardly knows how to sit any longer. It seems as if the meeting never would come to an end, and I have sometimes seen a little boy or girl just going to exclaim “O ma!” when they have suddenly remembered where they are and have only got as far as O! Well now, I dare say there is often a great deal going on at these meetings which little ones cannot quite understand or take an interest in, but I am very sure that if they went just with one purpose in view, and determined to keep that before them all the time, they would, at the very least, escape all the weariness they too often feel; and not only so, but little by little they would learn at last so to like the meetings that they would want to go every time. Now what do you think that one purpose is which I refer to? Well, I will tell you in the words of a little girl named Alice, not yet quite five years of age, who said the other day “You know, ma, I do so like to go to the meetings, for I know so little about Jesus, and perhaps I might learn more at the meetings.” You see she wanted to know more about Jesus; she felt she did not know enough about Him (who does?), and expecting to hear more, she went to the meetings in that hope and for that purpose. So then if you want to like the meetings, go there like little Alice, for the purpose of LEARNING ABOUT JESUS.

A Letter to Some Dear Saved Ones at the Seaside.

MY DEAR LITTLE FRIENDS,

I am truly rejoiced to hear that you are having such nice meetings on the Beach, and I much wish that I was able to come to you, so that I might tell you still more about the Lord Jesus, who is the Children’s Friend and the Children’s Saviour; but as I cannot, I thought I would write to you, and this letter that I am writing to day is for the Saved Ones. Oh! How I wish that all of you dear ones who are listening to my words could say from the bottom of your hearts, the Lord Jesus is my own dear Saviour; it is to those who are saved and those only that I write now, in the words of St. John, “I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” Does not the thought of the Lord Jesus, and what He has done for you, fill your hearts with love and praise to Him? I know it does, as, “We love Him because He first loved us,” and now instead of pleasing yourselves, you want to live in this world, to please God, and to the praise and glory of the One who by His own blood has bought you for Himself, “ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ” 1 Peter 1:18). You cannot please anyone unless you know what will give them pleasure; can you? Now the way to please God our Father, is by being like Jesus, and the more we are like the Lord Jesus in all our ways, actions, words, and thoughts, just so much shall we be living as God our Father would have us, during the little while we are left in this world. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart,” are the words of the Lord Jesus; and again, “If any man love Me, he will keep my words, and My Father will love him.” I think I hear someone saying, But how am I to do this? I am so young, and I know so little about God’s ways and thoughts. Well, I will tell you when you trusted the Lord Jesus as your own Saviour, who had died for you, and who had borne all your sins, God gave to you His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to dwell in your heart (for your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost) to be your power for all this, and to instruct you in His ways, from His Own Word, the precious Bible. “Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.”— You can read in the 14th chapter of John how the Holy Spirit will do this for you. When He speaks within you, and to you, through the Bible, be sure to listen, don’t by any wishes of your own grieve Him, but heed His voice, and listen while He speaks to you of Jesus, or points out God’s ways, or God’s thoughts about yourself from the Scriptures. Make much of your Bible, read it night and morning, and every time you have an opportunity, for there God will meet all the desires of the new Life He has given you, and will feed your soul, so that you may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Don’t forget prayer, pour out before God all your troubles, failings, and cares; cast all your cares upon Him, and. He will give you perfect rest, for He has said in His word, “Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” He will sustain you and lead you gently along, until that blessed time comes when “the Lord Himself” shall come to fetch all His little lambs (and big ones too) home to His Father’s house, where there are many mansions; that beautiful place that He has gone to prepare for all who are washed and forgiven, where we shall see Him face to face, and be like Him. Oh! what a joyful prospect, to be with Him forever and forever, with that One “who loved me and gave Himself for me;” and then, in that bright home above, we shall take the crowns that His love has bestowed on all who loved His name below, and cast them at His feet, in wondering praise and worship.

I want to remind you that the Lord Jesus has promised to keep you ever safe as His lambs. Read His words in the 10th chapter of John, 27th 28th and 29th verses; but your happy enjoyment of this knowledge may be dimmed in some measure if you walk carelessly and grieve His spirit by unconfessed sins. St. John, in writing upon this subject, says, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that YE SIN NOT. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What a salvation! What a Saviour! Perfect! Complete! Is He not enough to fill your hearts and to supply your every need?

Now, my dear little friends, with much love, I prayerfully commend you unto God and unto the word of His grace, which are able to keep you from falling, and to keep you walking with diligent steps in that narrow way that shines more and more unto the perfect day, the day of glory, when you and I shall meet Him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Your loving friend, J. A. G.

Life in Death; or the Open Bible.

A Tale of Carisbrooke Castle.

IF any of my little readers have been to the Castle of Carisbrooke, they have doubtless visited, amongst other old dilapidated apartments, a small upper room, where the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Charles the First, died, while a prisoner with her little brother Henry, within its precincts. There is no beauty in the room, but the associations connected with it are very precious and happy, especially for all who love the Word of God, and have found peace with Him through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). But let me tell you a little about Elizabeth: —

The Princess was only fourteen years old, when with her brother, the little Duke of Gloucester, she was taken to the Castle, but eight months after her father had been executed. How sad it must have been to her to have been taken there, where her beloved father had been so little a time previously a prisoner also; and she now a poor fatherless girl, with only one companion in the prison-house—her little brother. Yes,

They bore her away from her palace fair,

They bore her away to a stranger’s care;

And they brought her hither with many a sigh,

Yes, they brought her hither to fade and die;

Like a rose transplanted from genial bowers,

To a place where the storm-cloud always lowers.

But we have every reason to conclude that Elizabeth was a Christian. She had been saved from many of the temptations of royalty by an accident which befell her when nine years old while running across a room, which caused a fractured leg. This was, perhaps, God’s way of making her a lover of good books—not being able to join much in children’s usual pastimes—and especially a lover of the Bible. Bibles were not so plentiful then as now. Two hundred and twenty years ago it was a rare thing to possess a Bible. But Elizabeth had one, and I will tell you how she came by it—a large and costly one it was.

When her father, the king, had been condemned to death, he was intensely anxious to see his children. Only two of them, Elizabeth and Henry, were in England. The queen with the other children had fled to other countries. It was not until the morning of his execution that Elizabeth and her brother were taken to have a last interview with their loving father. And oh! it was a most affecting one! Many kisses and embraces, and such kisses and embraces as love on the threshold of the grave well may bestow upon loved ones, the royal father lavished on his children, already fatherless in his sad eyes!

At this interview he gave to Elizabeth two seals, wherein were set two diamonds, and yet a more costly gift—his Bible, saying, “It hath been my great comfort and constant companion through all my sorrows, and I hope it will be thine.”

On the 16th day of August, 1650, the youthful royal prisoners entered the Castle, and on the eighth day of the next month Elizabeth was found in her bedroom, whither she had retired being very unwell, with her pale face resting on her father’s open Bible, as though she had but gently fallen asleep, her spirit having passed away, and her eyes having rested, as her last solace, upon the precious verses in the eleventh of Matthew, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Happy Princess! A prisoner no longer! Her prison-house had indeed become to her the vestibule of heaven. She found—resting on Christ—liberty and life in death. Happy Princess!

Quietly she was interred in Newport Church, and the interesting picture which heads this paper is a representation of the beautiful monument which our beloved Queen has had placed there to her memory. Thus the Queen speaks thereon: “To the memory of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I., who died at Carisbrooke Castle, on Sunday, September 8th, 1650, and is interred beneath the chancel of this church, this monument is erected—a token of respect for her virtues, and of sympathy for her misfortunes—by Victoria R., 1856.” And often the Queen with her children, princesses also—but more highly favored—go to gaze thereon, thus cherishing the memo; of Elizabeth, the Bible-loving Princess.

My young readers will see in the picture that the Princess is laying her head on the open Bible: and they will also notice that the iron bars which are whole at the back of the monument, are broken in the front to denote that the bars are broken and that she is a prisoner no longer—the captive freed!

That precious page! Those living words—

“Come unto Me and rest

“Ye weary, laden ones, recline

“Forever on my breast.”

Allured her soul: to these she turned

And resting there her eye,

Inspired by energy divine,

She passed beyond the bounds of time

And found it sweet to die.

May you, dear readers, know a like joy, and be all ready for death should it happen, or for the Lord’s presence should He come. And if ever you visit the room in the beautiful Castle, which witnessed her departure, think of the open Bible there, and of the sweet words which cheered the dying Princess; and if you have not as yet, Oh, do now accept the precious invitation, and go to Jesus, and find eternal rest in Him.

“Jesus only—He can give

Sweetest pleasure while you live;

Jesus only can supply

Comfort if you’re called to die.”

A. M.

Little Birds.

IN the January number of GOOD NEWS there is a picture of a little bird looking out of a tiny house “on the tree-top,” which, I dare-say, reminds some little readers of the nursery rhyme about a certain cradle said to have been rocked by the wind in the same sort of place, a thing by no means unlikely to happen near an Indian wigwam or a negro hut, where mothers commonly leave their babes, snugly wrapped in a little kind of hammock slung to the bough of a tree, out of the reach of wild beasts, while they go to work in the fields. But the little bird’s house does not look as if it was so likely to come to grief as the cradle did in the nursery legend. It is strongly built, and it is clear that no bird had a hand in forming it. Several little readers have wanted to know what it means Well, it seems that in Germany and Switzerland the people who have gardens find small birds so useful in destroying insects, grubs, &c., that they make these tiny huts for them on the tops of trees to preserve them from the intense cold of winter, and also from wild cats, which are more common in some parts of those countries than they are here in England. It is said that in Long Island New York) the farmers have suffered so much from the depredations of the wire-worm, or some such creature, that they, too, have lately adopted the same plan of keeping sparrows in and near their fields and gardens. You see the winter is very severe there, and so sparrows, who are fond of warmth (which leads them to live so much in towns and house-roofs), are very scarce in Long Island. So the Americans, who are a very sharp witted people, have for their own sake made a great number of these little houses for the sparrows; and I have no doubt the wire-worms feel the difference and the farmers too. Kindness to God’s creatures always brings its own reward; and no one who loves Him will ever be guilty of cruelty to them.

A friend was one day standing on Lambeth pier in London, where the steamboats take up and deliver passengers, when a man at the wheel dropped his bread-and-butter overboard. Another hooked it up out of the water, saying it “would do for the sparrows.” Then a third called out, “Come on, come on!” and, to the amusement and surprise of the beholder, three sparrows, who were evidently used to it, came hopping along the pier to be fed. One of them was a female sparrow, which, unlike the male bird, has no brown patch on its breast, and this the men called “Jenny.”

Now, Jenny had got a little family at home, and as soon as she tasted the well-buttered bread, knowing how very, nice it would be for her tiny chickens, she fairly drooped her wings with pleasure, as if to tell her gratitude, and then snatched a good big piece, and flew away to them. The two gentleman sparrows, who had no family cares, fed on at their leisure until they had had enough; but she went to and fro carrying food to her little ones, thinking only of them and not of herself. When she had quite satisfied their wants, then she would, I suppose, take her own dinner, but not before, you may depend upon it.

Now, it afterward turned out that an officer on duty at this pier is a Christian, and I have no doubt at all that the kindness shown to the poor little birds is owing to him and to the influence of grace on his heart. In speaking to the friend above mentioned about God’s care even over sparrows, he remarked that all God has promised is sure to be fulfilled; and that, although many think it presumption to say “we HAVE redemption (through Christ’s blood), even the forgiveness of sins,” a believer might be, and ought to be, quite sure of it, because GOD has said it. Won’t you believe Him? Then, like this officer, you will love Him who is so gracious that He cares even for the little birds.

The Load of Hay.

A SIMPLE thing will often bring

Some latent thoughts to mind,

Which stir the heart, or soothe its smart

Beneath the lot assign’d.

With me ‘twas so some time ago,

As I pursued my way;

For hopeful thought in me was wrought,

Just by a Load of Hay.

The time of year made all appear

Of dull and sombre hue;

No bright’ning ray illum’d the day, —

The sun was hid from view.

I, too, was sad, for sorrow had

Its dark’ning shadow cast,

As I, unwise, with drooping eyes,

Had ponder’d o’er the past.

Along the road a waggon load

Of hay just then appear’d;

And though the sight gave brief delight,

Its fresh’ning fragrance cheer’d.

It carried, too, my mental view

To sunny meads and fields,

And rais’d the scene of rural green,

With all the charms it yields.

I thought of Spring, when songsters sing,

And sweets the air perfume;

Of Summer’s glow, when zephyrs blow,

And roses blush and bloom.

Hope bade me smile, and said, ‘erewhile

The Winter would be past,

When clearer rays and lengthen’d days

Would brightness bring at last.

Thus cheer’d anew, I rais’d my view

To brighter realms above,

Which never fade, nor cast a shade,

But beam with light and love.

The central Sun, — The Heavenly One, ―

My Lord, I too beheld;

Then, from my heart did doubt depart,

And clouds were all dispell’d.

With heart uprais’d, His name I prais’d,

And blessed Him for His grace,

And patience sought, with hope, till brought

Before Him, face to face.

With strength renew’d, I then pursued

His rightly-order’d way;

Nor would forget that, thus, I met

That fragrant Load of Hay.

Look, Hear, Come, Believe; Could God Make it More Simple?

IT is remarkable with what simplicity God has set forth the way to be saved in His blessed Word. People raise all kinds of difficulties, and seek salvation by numberless methods of their own, but God has only one way, as simple as can be, and that way is “faith in His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Let us turn to a few portions of Scripture, and see what very simple language God has used in order that poor sinners, young or old, may have part in this great salvation.

In Isaiah 45:22, we read, “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” What a precious word, “Look unto me.” It matters not who you are, where you are, or what you are, the Lord says to everybody, everywhere, “Look unto me and be ye saved.” If you look around, you will see nothing but a world ruined by sin; if you look in, nothing but your wretchedly sinful self; but if you look away from everything and everybody down on earth, and turn the eye of faith to the glory, there you will see the precious Saviour, the Lord Jesus, and He says to you now, “Look unto me and be ye saved.” You have not to move from where you are, you have not to wait another moment, but simply, as a poor lost sinner, to look. ARE YOU LOOKING?

There is life in a look at that glorified One,

There is life in a moment for thee;

Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,

Unto Jesus who died on the tree.

Another scripture, Isaiah 55:3, says, “Hear, and your soul shall live.” Poor sinner, whose voice are you listening to? Thousands of discordant sounds reach your ear as you pass along the way of life, Satan ever whispering his, lie (Rev. 12:9) to allure your soul to destruction; but have you ever heard the voice of the blessed Son of God, the still small voice of Jesus, saying, “Hear, and your soul shall live”? “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). Have you heard that voice? Faith cometh by hearing. The hour when “the dead (i.e. the dead in sin) shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25), is swiftly passing by; soon, very soon, that Voice will cease its calling. Sinner, hearken now. “Verily, verily,” said Jesus, “he that heareth, my Word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, &c.” (John 5:24). Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken, and hear for the time to come? (Isa. 42:23). HAVE YOU HEARD?

Hear the voice of Jesus saying

“I have life and peace to give;

I have wrought out full salvation.”

Sinner, hear; your soul shall live.

Think, too, of that oft-repeated word in Matthew 11:28, “Come!” “Come unto me.” Oh! my reader, can you resist the loving appeal of Jesus? Where else can you go to find that which will satisfy your heart? You have tried a thousand things around, but still dissatisfied, still an aching void, still a stranger to peace and lasting joy (Isa. 48:22), still like the troubled sea that cannot rest. How sweet, how precious the invitation that reaches you as you read these lines, “Come unto me.” Can you still stay away? Are you heavily laden with sin? Jesus says, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” Are you hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Jesus says, “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price” (Isa. 55:1). “Let him that is athirst come” (Rev. 22:17). “Him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out” (John 6:37).2esus had to say to some “Ye will not come to me that ye might have life” (John 5:40). WILL YOU COME?

Come, weary, anxious, laden soul,

To Jesus come, and be made whole;

On Him your heavy burden roll—

“Come, anxious sinner, come!”

And now, lastly, let me remind you of the familiar word, “Believe!” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” &c. (Acts 16:31). Could God make it more simple? “Whosoever believeth, in Him shall not be ashamed” (Rom. 9:33). “Whosoever” a world-wide word. Thousands, hundreds of thousands are striving to save themselves by their own works in some form or shape, going about to establish their own righteousness (Rom. 10:3). God says, It is “not of works, lest any man should boast “(Eph. 2:9), but “to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). Are you crying out, “What must I do to be saved?” “Believe,” is the blessed answer; “believe on Him who has done everything, who has finished the work” (John 17:4). All, all was done by Him long, long ago. This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent (John 6:29). “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). DOST THOU BELIEVE?

Sinner, are your sins a burden?

Jesus can your sins forgive;

Mistrust self, and trust in Jesus,

Trust Him now, believe and live.

Oh! my reader, let me ask you once again, “Could God make it more simple?” LOOK, HEAR, COME, BELIEVE. Atonement for sin has been made by the precious blood of Jesus, and God has raised Him to His own right hand in glory; the blessed gospel message comes to every sinner now, and whether you look, whether you hear, whether you come, or whether you believe, it is one and the same blessed result; salvation is yours, a free, full, perfect, present, and everlasting salvation. Oh! then, take Jesus at His Word, and you are saved. Saved from judgment and hell, saved to walk in holiness, to show your faith by your works, saved for the glory of God. Could God make it more simple?

E. H. C.

Love.

Solomon’s Song 8:7. Read also Revelation 4:1-7

LOVE is content with naught but Love,

All else, indeed, it but contemns;

The answ’ring heart it owns above

The richest gifts of gold and gems.

Love is the sovereign law on high,

And bows its subjects to the throne;

‘Tis shown to all beneath the sky,

And holds the heart where Christ is known.

God, in His Son, His love reveals,

And says, “My child, give me thine heart.”

The faithful heart of Jesus feels

If from His love a soul depart;

He cares not for our fairest works,

Nor all the sounding words we say,

If in the heart He sees there lurks

The hidden root of Love’s decay.

His love we own. Then let Him claim

The core and center of our hearts;

That they may glow with fervent flame

To Him who all our bliss imparts.

Oh! may the love that burns to Him.

E’er feed itself on Him, its sun;

That it may ne’er grow dull or dim,

But brightly shine while here we run.

MANY waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

Love the Lowly.

JESUS, Son of God,

Lord of all creation,

On this earth once trod

In humiliation.

He a babe was born

In a lowly manger;

Bore reproach and scorn;

Was the Heavenly Stranger.

He the hungry fed,

On the poor had pity,

Rais’d the sick and dead

In the cot and city;

Old and young he bless’d,

Those once lame, went leaping,

Wearied souls had rest,

Widows ceas’d their weeping.

He, from boat or beach—

Skies his fane and steeple—

Would the Gospel preach

To the poorest people;

While the eager crowd

Hung upon His preaching,

Heart and conscience bow’d

By His heavenly teaching.

Dost thou still despise

Aught that’s meek and lowly?

Fix thine heart and eyes

On The Saviour wholly.

See Him on the cross,

Crucified in weakness!

Love surmounting loss,

Love express’d in meekness.

For the thorny crown

Round His brow, so gory,

God hath set Him down

On the throne of glory.

There we see Him now,

Worship and adore Him; —

Soon all knees shall bow,

By decree, before Him.

Ye, who’re of the light,

Spread the Saviour’s glory;

Tell, to those of night,

Blest Redemption’s story;

Speak to age and youth, —

All of human fashion, —

Of His grace and truth,

Mercy and compassion.

Honor ye the great,

Aid your poorer neighbor!

Slack not, nor abate,

In each loving labor;

Strengthen, thus, the weak,

Seek your erring brother,

Love the pure and meek,

Honor father, mother.

Wrong ye not the least

Bearing human feature,

Mercy show to beast,

Bird, and meanest creature;

Dare not to despise

Creatures, few or many,

God, who’s great and wise,

Ne’er despising any.

March, Bible Enigma.

A gentle grace, in which true honor grows,

A fleshly work which like a, virtue shows.

One of the tribes, o’er—burdened like an ass.

One who in wisdom all men did surpass.

A slave converted by the means of Paul.

A lep’rous king who dwelt apart from all.

A faithful soul whose house was on the wall.

The man who Joseph into prison thrust.

A steward worthy of his master’s trust.

The father of the chosen, faithful race.

Once Peter fish’d for money. Name the place.

One who, though wrong’d, his brother did embrace.

In Christ the anxious soul doth find release,

When he by faith can say, He is our peace.

Moses on the Top of Pisgah.

Deuteronomy 34:1.

I DESIRE to talk to you a little, my dear children, about “Moses, the man of God,” but his whole life is so very interesting that I really don’t know where to begin. No doubt you have seen many pictures of what took place very soon after he began his eventful life, and have often read of how God took care of him when his mother committed him, as it were, to the waters of death. The king had ordered that all the little Hebrew boys should be cast into the river, that they might not live; but when Moses was put there in his little basket of rushes, God so watched over him, that not only was his life spared but he was “drawn out of the water” (as his name means) and was taken back to the house of his own mother, to be nursed for wages for the one who had drawn him out. It was her own little boy, but she brought him up for the person who had saved him; and when he was old enough he was taken to her, and became her son. God was going soon to “draw out” His people from Egypt by the hand of Moses, and He so ordered it that these remarkable things should take place in the very early days of his history. As we read of his growing up, and what he did, we cannot help noticing that in many ways he was a type of the Son of God Himself. The people who would someday refuse the Lord Jesus, and say “not this man,” we find “refused” Moses (Acts 7:35), saying “Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?” And the same man “whom they refused” did “God send, to be a ruler and a deliverer.” But years before that Moses himself had chosen rather “to suffer affliction” with them, than “to enjoy the pleasures” he might have enjoyed without them. The blessed Saviour chose also to “suffer” for His people, rather than to enjoy alone the glory that belonged to Him, and which He had with the Father “before the foundation of the world.” Only we see how, in every way, Christ is greater than Moses, and His love deeper than the love of any mere “man of God,” however devoted he might be. His sufferings were not simply “with the people of God,” but “for sinners” as their atoning Substitute; and He knew all the suffering that would come upon Him, while we read of Moses, that he “supposed his brethren would have understood how that God, by his hand, would deliver them” (Acts 7:25). Then we read another thing that Moses did: he not only gave up the wealth and pleasure he might have possessed and enjoyed in the court of Pharaoh, but he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” He turned his back on the high relationship in which he stood, and would have nothing more to do with it. The Lora Jesus, although for awhile He “laid aside” His glory, did not in any way give up His relationship with His Father, not even when He suffered for our sins. As we see He said, when His enemies came round about Him, “The cup which My Father hath given Me shall I not drink it?” But what He did do was infinitely better for us. God, in sending His only begotten Son into the world, had it in His mind to make us also His sons (Gal. 4:4, 5). And the Lord Jesus, when He had come forth from the Father and come into the world, would not again leave the world and go to the Father until He had finished that work which would give Him a title to say “I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God” (John 20:17). How wonderful to think, dear children, that all those who have looked to Christ as a Saviour He calls “My brethren,” and teaches us that as He looked up and said “Abba, Father,” so we too can look up to the great God Himself, and say “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:6).

Moses then gave up his title of son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and chose to be a sufferer, and God chose him (Psa. 106:23) to be a ruler, and deliverer, and intercessor. He was a “prophet” too, and some of the prophecies he uttered (see Deut. 32:36-43) are not even yet fulfilled! But they certainly will be, for it was “God spake by Moses.” At the end of the Book of Deuteronomy it is said that, up to the time that was written there had not been another “prophet” like unto Moses; but in chapter 18 he had said that there should be one, and we know that what he said has long since come true, for the Lord Himself was “that prophet that should come into the world.” When too the Holy Spirit by Paul speaks, in Hebrews 3, about the Lord Jesus as the “Apostle and High Priest of our profession,” it is likely that he had Moses and Aaron before His mind; for those two men might have been called the apostle and the high priest of that people who were called to Canaan, as Jesus is of those who are “partakers of the heavenly calling.” Moses was the man who came from God to the people (Ex. 25:22), and Aaron was the one who went to God for the people (ch. 28:29). The blessed Lord unites the two glorious offices in His own person, and is the One who “came from God, and went to God.” (John 13:3; see also Heb. 1:2, and 2:17). We have thus seen many of the titles which are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, and have noticed how the same might be used in measure of Moses. I may now remind you of one other very precious character of the Lord Jesus, in which Moses was a faint foreshadowing of His glory. Moses was a shepherd. For about forty years of his life he was away in the solitude of the desert in the land of Midian, and “kept the flock” of his wife’s father. And when God, who is “the Shepherd of Israel” (Psa. 80:1) would have His people led through that same desert, it was Moses whom He chose as His under-shepherd, to lead them and care for them as His servant. As it says at the end of Psalms 77, “Thou leddest Thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” Now the picture you have in this month’s GOOD NEWS shows us this aged shepherd just before his death. A hundred and twenty years have passed over him since he was put in his little cradle of bulrushes, and God took care that a kind heart should be the first to find him. And now he is up there, on the top of one of the heights of Nebo, alone with God! The Lord has called him up there; the Lord shows him from there all the good land He is going to give to His people, and which even now He calls by their names, and not by the names of the people actually in possession of it. He dies there at “the word of the Lord,” and the Lord Himself buries him! He is not blind with age as Isaac was, long before he died; nor is he feeble and “bed-ridden” as Jacob was. But his eye clear and bright, and his body in full vigor, he dies in obedience to the word of the Lord to him. The Lord Jesus, too, died “in the midst of His days.” Yet, oh, what a difference between “Moses, the servant of God,” and “Jesus, the Son of God!” Moses had failed to glorify God; he had been angry with the people when God was showing them mercy. He had been dis-obedient, and had “struck the rock,” when God had told him to “speak” to it. (“That rock was Christ;” and how could it be smitten more than once?”) And, more than that, he had given credit to himself and Aaron for bringing water out of the rock (Num. 20:10), instead of sanctifying the Lord God in the eyes of the people. He had “rebelled against” God’s word (Num. 20:24), and now he has to die for his sin. He sees with his eyes the land of Canaan, but is not to enter it, and has to leave to another the glory of leading the people of Israel across the Jordan, and into the land of their inheritance. Not like Stephen, who looked up steadfastly into heaven, saw Jesus in the glory of God, and went to be with Him there. Moses has to take one look at that country which is “the glory of all lands,” the “goodly heritage” of Israel, and then lie down and die, and be buried in a valley of Moab. The “Good Shepherd” also had received a commandment from His Father to “lay down” His life, and He went up the Mount Calvary to do it. But had He “rebelled” against the Word of the Lord, or acted disobediently? No, surely not! Never was He angry with unholy anger, but “meek and lowly in heart;” always could he say, “I was not rebellious,” “I do always those things that please Him.” And instead of glorifying Himself at the expense of His Father, He could always speak of Himself as “He that seeketh His glory that sent Him.” Why then must He lay down His life? Ah, “‘Twas for sinners Jesus died,” “Jesus, the ‘good Shepherd,’ for the sheep He bled.”

As He Himself said, “I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He would “give His life a ransom for many”; and when He took it again (John 10:18) He would give life, eternal life, “life more abundantly,” to those for whom He died. Moses died at the commandment of the Lord; and the Saviour, about to die, said “As the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do.” But great was, indeed, the difference between “the man Moses,” who sinned and had to die, and “the man Christ Jesus,” who “knew no sin,” but who died a willing and devoted sacrifice for the sins of others. Then we find Moses was buried, but no man knew where to find his body, as Mary said about the body of Jesus, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him”; only we know that Moses could not be found because God had buried him, but Jesus could not be found because God had raised Him. If we think of Moses in his life or his death, or his appearing in glory with Jesus (Luke 9:30, 31), we are made to feel that we cannot compare him with the blessed Lord, without owning that every way He is “worthy of more glory than Moses” (Heb. 3:3). And even in those three wonderful chapters (Ex. 32, 33, and 34), where the character of Moses shines so brightly, we see how infinitely the glory of Christ surpasses it. In the first of the three, where the people had sinned a great sin, and displeased the Lord exceedingly; and Moses had shown in the presence of God such care for Israel, and had shown among the people such zeal for God, we find he proposes to go again to God for them, and offer to be blotted out himself from God’s book, if only the people may be forgiven. He says, “peradventure I shall make an atonement for you.” But how different when the Lord Jesus went to the cross, to “make atonement for the sins of the people”! God could not accept Moses, a sinful man, as a substitute for sinners; but He did send His own Son to be “the propitiation for our sins.” Moses could not obtain the forgiveness of the people’s sins, even by being blotted out of God’s book himself; but the Lord Jesus appeared once “to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,” and all He came to do He did, and God accepted it. Then, in the next chapter (Ex. 33). Moses asks to see the glory of God, but he did not know what He asked. His eye might not be “dim,” but that sight would have been too bright for him to gaze upon, and he had to be hidden in “a clift of the rock” while God passed by. But not so the blessed Son of God. When He had come, and had “finished the work” given Him to do, He could not only “see,” but claim for His own the “glory” with His Father, saying, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17:5). And then if we follow Moses into the next chapter, and see how “the skin of his face shone “with the reflection of the brightness of God’s presence, we have still to say even of “the glory of his countenance,” what was it to compare with His glory who is “the brightness of the glory of God, and the express image of His person?” We may turn from the shining face of Moses, the lawgiver, to “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” the Saviour, and say that the first has “no glory,” by reason of “the glory that excelleth.” The law was given by Moses, and, if his face shone, it was a ray of searching light from the presence of that God who said they must love Him, and if they did not keep the law they came under its curse. But the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ tells us of the One who came to make known God’s love to us, seen most of all in His death for sinners (read Rom. 5:8). And all the glory of His countenance tells us how perfectly He has made an atonement for sins, which Moses could never do.

Oh, the glory of the grace,

Shining in the Saviour’s face,

Telling sinners from above,

“God is light,” and “God is love!”

And here I must leave you, dear young readers. I would like to have said more to you about that time when Moses “appeared in glory” with the One of whom he had prophesied, and “talked with Him” about that death of which I have been speaking to you. But I have said as much as there is space for, and can only add that I pray you may learn to know more and more about that blessed Saviour, whose grace and whose glory so far outshine all there is to admire, even in the person and character of “Moses the man of God.” W. TY.

My Head, My Head!

Read 2 Kings 4

THIS is a wonderful chapter about the great things done by Elisha, “the man of God.” He brought joy and plenty to the house of the poor widow, and liberty instead of bondage for her sons. He blessed another family with a child when they never expected to have one, and then restored that child to life again when he had died. There was “dearth in the land” and “death in the pot,” but he supplied food for the people, and made there to be “no harm in the pot.” And then a hundred men had “enough and to spare” out of a little food that Elisha’s own servant thought it was no use to set before such a number! All this the man of God did, not of courtesy, his “own power or holiness,” but because God allowed His power to be used by the holy man who acted “according to the word of the Lord” (vs. 44). In the next chapter we read of his cleansing a leper; and I am sure that in all these things we cannot help being reminded of the Lord himself, who was “anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, and who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). I think sometimes that the difference between the works of Elijah and Elisha is something like the difference between Moses and Jesus. One of the first miracles God did by Moses was to turn water into blood, the sign of death; but when we read of the “beginning of miracles” that the Lord Jesus did and “manifested forth His glory,” it was not turning water into blood, but into wine, the sign of joy and good cheer for those who had used up all they had. Moses stretched forth his rod towards heaven, and there was a great storm of hail, with thunder, and fire mingled with the hail, “very grievous.” Jesus “arose,” and said, “Peace, be still,” and there was “a great calm.” Now, when Elijah the Tishbite began his work for the Lord, the first thing we read of is that he told the wicked Ahab there should be no rain nor dew for years, except when he should say. But the first miracle Elisha performed, when he had come back into the land of Israel, was to “heal” the waters of Jerico, so that, instead of their bringing death and barrenness, they should bring refreshing and fruitfulness. And so with most of Elisha’s miracles, they were very much like those of the Lord Jesus. The leper was cleansed, the dead was raised, the provision of the hungry abundantly blessed, and the poor satisfied with bread (see Psalms 132:15; John 6:14). And yet this friend of the needy, so near like in his ministry (though, of course, infinitely inferior) to Him who had not “where to lay His head,” was a poor “wayfaring man!” He passed by “continually” from one place to another, and if one in trouble set out to find him he was not sought “in kings’ houses,” clothed “in soft raiment;” but found in solitude, with his staff and his servant, on the top of the lonely mount Carmel. But as there were some saved and godly women who ministered to Jesus “of their substance” (Luke 8:3), so there was at least one woman whom God had favored with what people call a good position, and who was glad to do what she could for this servant of the Lord. How nice to read of a man whose habits and manner were such that a pious woman could “perceive” that he was a “holy man of God!” How different it was with Lot in Sodom! He was in his wrong place, in Sodom instead of out of it; a judge sitting “in the gate,” instead of a pilgrim and a stranger, sitting in his tent door, like his uncle Abraham in the chapter before. And so when Lot heard and believed what the angels told him about the destruction of the city, and when he sought to warn others, that they might flee and escape, we find “he seemed like one that mocked unto his sons-in-law.” He “seemed” too much like a citizen of Sodom to have much power to deliver others out of it, and they perished, while he was only just saved, so as through the fire. Elisha seemed just like what he was, and the good woman at Shunem had to say, “I perceive that this is an holy man of God which passeth by us continually.” We may well ask ourselves, dear children, if we always “seem like” what we really are. The blessed Saviour always did so to perfection. His words and His works were ever a true testimony to what He was. So when He was asked who He was (John 8), He could answer that, exactly what He said that same He was. His works also were always according to this, as He said, “The works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me” (John 5:36). Well, if we are strangers on earth, and waiting for God’s Son from heaven, He would say to us, “Be like unto men that wait for their Lord;” and if we have no Christ as our own blessed Saviour, we might well be like those who are “wretched and miserable” (Rev. 3:17), instead of seeming gay and happy, when we have really nothing at present to give us solid peace or abiding joy.

So this “great woman “and her husband made a little bedroom for the prophet, so that he might always turn in there to rest or sleep when he came that way; and she furnished it just in that simple manner she thought most likely to please and suit the man of God. Only four pieces of furniture were there, and some “gentlemen” might have thought the room looked rather bare; but the things provided were enough, and Elisha was very thankful for the kindness shown him. He did not complain that there was no carpet or looking-glass, but said the good woman had been careful for them “with all this care” and wanted to do something for her to show his gratitude. The Lord loves that kindness should be valued. He will not forget to reward for even “a cup of water to drink,” given to one “because he belongs to Christ” (Mark 9:41); and He is much displeased with those whom He has to call “murmurers and complainers” (Jude 16, see also Num. 21:5, 6). Well, it appears that this woman, although she had a good house and a kind heart, had not any child, and Elisha tells her she shall have a son about that time the next year. She could hardly believe it, but, however, it came true. She had a little boy, and I have no doubt that the mother, who had cared for the prophet so kindly, would love her child most tenderly. But one hot summer morning, when he was just big enough to go out into the harvest field to his aged father, but not too big for a lad to carry him back to his mother, he had a sort of “sunstroke.” You see him in the picture just falling, after he had said, “My head, my head!” And when his father sent a lad with him into the house he sat on his mother’s knees till about twelve o’clock, and then died! She, instead of preparing to bury him, or even laying him on his own little bed, carried him up to Elisha’s room, and laid him on his bed. And then, without even telling her husband what was the matter, she sets off as quickly as possible to fetch Elisha. He is the only person who can help her now. She seems to have had plenty of servants, young men; but they cannot help her, except by taking her to Elisha, and bringing him back. Even Elisha’s servant, with Elisha’s staff, will not do for “the mother of the child”— the prophet himself must come with her, or she will stay there with him. We see that Gehazi, with his master, is something like Peter and the rest with their Master. Then “mothers of Salem their children brought to Jesus,” but “the stern disciples drove them back, and bade them depart.” Here a mother from Shunem comes about her child to the one who had been the means, through God’s goodness, of her having him. In her distress she lays hold of the man of God by his feet, and Gehazi comes near “to thrust her away.” The prophet says, “Let her alone,” as the gracious Saviour said more than once; but, if we see that he was so far something like Jesus, we see, too, how everything about Christ was “far better” than the most excellent of His servants. For Elisha did not know what distressed the woman! He says, “Her soul is vexed within her, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me”! But, when the “Man of sorrows” was here, and “acquainted with grief,” who ever found Him ignorant of what ailed them? He might say, “Woman, why weepest thou?” But he knew quite well, and only desired that she should tell it out in her own words, and tell Him thus (without knowing it) her own affection for Himself. It needed no one to come from Bethany to tell Jesus of the sickness or the death of Lazarus; it was Himself who said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,” and if the sisters sent a message about his illness, the Lord knew it all quite well already. How good it is to have such an One to look to now! We never “make known” our need to Him. He knows it all before. We are to make known our requests to Him, as we read in Philippians 4; but the same chapter tells us, “My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.”

When Elisha knows the sorrow, and that nothing will do for the mother but for him to go with her, he does as she desires, and finds the child not “awaked,” but cold and dead, and laid upon his bed. The mother is left outside and Gehazi too, and when he is all alone with the corpse, and the door is shut, he prays to the Lord. Like Peter in Acts 9, with Dorcas, he first looks to the Lord before doing or saying anything to the body. The Lord’s servants do the same when they preach the Gospel. That is a word from the Lord to the people, that those who are dead in sin may “pass from death unto life;” but before speaking to the people from God, the preacher speaks to God about the people, and Elisha does so here. Then when he has prayed, he turns to the child and stretches himself out upon him, warming the cold flesh with the warmth from his own body. Then he walks to and fro, full of earnestness and care—not sitting on the “stool” provided by the mother who is now longing to have her son again. Then he goes again to the dead body, and this time the Lord causes the child’s soul to come back; he sneezes seven times and opens his eyes! Elisha has the woman called, and he delivers him to his mother (see Luke 7:15). What could she do but fall at his feet, bowing herself to the ground. How would she not love the lad now; and would she not more than ever thank God and Honor His servant? She had long perceived that he was an holy man of God: surely she could have no doubt about it now. And we read that sometime after when a famine was coming, and God told Elisha of it, he went and made it known to this same woman, and told her it would not do for her to stay in Shunem. She must go where she could, that she might not die in the seven years’ drought that was coming. She would have to leave the place where she had lived so long; going away among strangers, and even leaving her house and her land to strangers, without knowing at all whether she would be able ever to get them back again. And yet, although this must have been so great a trial to her, she had such confidence in the truth of Elisha’s word, that she took her son and what she could; went right away from the house where the prophet’s chamber was, and stayed among the Philistines for seven long years (ch. 8). Did she not believe in the word of Elisha to go and do that?

Now I want to remind you once more of the Lord Jesus, who has done far more to win our confidence and love than Elisha could ever do for that Shunammite. The prophet touched death; but the Saviour “tasted death.” He “died for sinners.” Elisha stretched himself on the dead child, putting his hands on its hands; but Jesus allowed himself to be stretched upon the cross, and to have cruel nails driven through His hands. Elisha hastened to Shumem, prayed, and walked to and fro in his intense desire for the restoration of this dear child; but what pen can describe how far the “Lord of glory” came “to save sinners,” or the love that was in His heart when He came, or the agony and sorrow He endured when He had come? Dear child, think of Him. Be quite sure you will see Him ere long: ask yourself the question, How shall I meet those eyes?

W. Ty.

“WHATSOEVER is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23.

New Light.

SOME years ago an excommunicated German Roman Catholic gave to one of our colporteurs the following narrative of the circumstances attendant on his conversion: —

“When I was a boy at school I was much struck with the difference between the answers of my Catechism and the texts of Scripture quoted to prove them. These seemed to me so much grander and holier than those. I went to my schoolmaster and asked him if he could not lend me the book from which the proofs were taken. He merely laughed and said nothing. On the occasion of my first communion I told my confessor, in the confessional, of my desire to have the Holy Scriptures. He rebuked and chided me mildly, telling me that that book was not for such as me.

“Still the thought of the Holy Scriptures was continually in my mind, only I thought of it as a book destined for holier and purer hands than mine. I married, and now I did what I could to secure my soul’s salvation. I prayed in my family and in my church. I gave alms. I went on pilgrimages, but the thought of the Holy Scriptures and the blessedness of those who were worthy to read them was ever present to my mind. One day I came home to dinner; my eye caught something placed on the canopy of my bed. It was a little book, plainly bound, quite new. A strange feeling seized me. I trembled. I said not a word, but as soon as I was alone I took up the book and read, ‘The New Testament!’ I was thunderstruck, and hid the book immediately. How it came there I could not tell, nor can I now.”

He then describes the fearful agony of mind which he endured whilst struggling with conscience, and deciding the question whether he should read the book or no. At length, having resolved to do so, he adds: —

“I then read. When I came to the 18th verse of the 1St chapter of Matthew I seemed to breathe a new air. Joseph, Mary, Bethlehem, John the Baptist, were old familiar names. I shall never, no, not in eternity, forget the effect produced on my mind by the Sermon on the Mount. With every successive paragraph new light kept pouring in.

What I did not understand I read again. True, the reading of these chapters awakened new thoughts and inflicted deep wounds on my conscience; but then I had the infallible Physician at hand.

“I kept my secret almost entirely to myself, my wife alone sharing it. Soon I felt scruples of conscience as to addressing prayer to the Virgin. I quietly dropped the usual addresses and prayers to Mary from our daily devotions. Somehow it became known. One day the priest stepped in, as if by accident, when we were at dinner. I felt that the crisis had come. Should I, just for the sake of peace, put in a short address to the Virgin, in returning thanks for our mid-day meal? I felt I dared not. So I thanked God through Christ, and then was silent.”

“The priest asked me to explain what I had done, and I told him the whole truth. A storm of trouble then burst upon me. The people in the parish were warned to have nothing to do with me, and at last I was excommunicated, and my wife shared my lot.”

Such was the old man’s story. Not long after he told it, God was pleased to take him to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.

News From the Nursery.

A VERY little girl was playing in the Nursery with the other children of the family, when a dispute arose about a toy which the little one wished to obtain, but with which the others were not willing to part. After a short contest, the child turned aside, and, kneeling down, told, in her little way, her trouble to the Lord. She then resumed her play with the rest, but made no further attempt to gain possession of the tempting toy. The Nurse, who was present, believed that the Lord, in answer to the simple prayer of the child, gave her the victory over her desire for the plaything which she had just before so earnestly coveted. (Matt. 18:1-14; Psa. 145:18, 19).

Nicodemus.

John 3:1-21.

THE sun had sunk behind the hills

Ere Nicodemus came

Where Jesus was, for he had heard

Much of His blessed name:

And now, beneath the shades of night,

When all was sunk to rest,

He hastens for awhile to be

The God-sent Teacher’s guest.

“I know Thou art from God,” he said,

“None but Thyself can do

The wondrous works, which, daily done

By Thee, we wond’ring view.”

But Jesus answered, and His words

Were simple, few, and plain,

As one who knew the worth of souls—

“Ye must be born again!”

And then in words, with marv’lous skill,

The love of God He told;

How He must be uplifted, as

The serpent was of old.

That all who on Him should believe,

Eternal life should have,

For He was come into the world

The guilty world to save.

And so the hours of night passed on,

Nor were they spent in vain,

For Nicodemus heard the word,

And he was born again;

And while the Saviour sojourned here

He never from Him turned,

And ne’er forgot the saving truth

That night with Christ he learned.

But now, uplifted on the Cross

The Lord of life has been,

Has answered all the claims of God—

Has borne the sinners’ sin:

The best, most precious proof of love

That heaven itself could give;

The serpent’s antitype; and all

Who look unto Him—live!

A. M.

The Peacock.

“Fine feathers, fine birds,” are oft utter’d words.

Their truth, in the Peacock, behold!

When strutting about, his train he spreads out,

In richness of colours untold.

His many-hued dyes delight and surprise,

Enhanced by the beams of the sun,

So bright, too, his breast, and graceful his crest,

No wonder much praise he has won.

But though he doth shine in feathers so fine,

Discordant and harsh is his voice;

And when from his throat there issues his note,

Who listens from pleasure and choice?

Some others we know, who’re wingless, yet show

A passion for dress and display;

Though we must needs own that they are outshone

By birds, deck’d in nature’s array.

But we who, in sin, our being begin,

And have to meet God, who is Light,

Can only appear, and stand without fear,

Before Him, in raiment of white.

Search over the globe; where is there a robe,

Or garment, unsullied and fair,

That it will endure His gaze, who is pure,

And we, in His presence, can wear?

But, wash’d in the flood of Christ’s precious blood,

The soul is made perfectly clean;

And, cover’d in Christ, God’s claims all sufficed,

The conscience is calm and serene.

If thus you are dress’d, with God now at rest,

Believing in Jesus, the Lord,

Most glady you’ll own He is worthy alone,

And praises to Him will accord.

Then, let it be seen, by manner and mien,

That Christ is the Robe which you wear;

Your garments, dear child, maintain undeffi’d—

To keep them unspotted, take care.

In Jesus rejoice, attuning the voice,

To sing of His excellent Name,

So precious and sweet, so suited and meet

To sinners, uncloth’d, to proclaim.

The Philippian Jailer.

The Same Hour of the Night.

“THEN he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the SAME HOUR of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”

Rachel Weeping.

(Matthew 2.)

How cruel it was of King Herod to kill

The babes, in his fierceness and rage!

His heart, oh, how hard, and how wicked his will,

Such warfare with children to wage!

But all his desire was the Infant to slay,

Who King of the Jews had been born,

The holy Child Jesus, the Star of the day,

Whose birth was, of blessing, the dawn.

What wailing and weeping of mothers was heard,

Because their young darlings were slain!

The love of their hearts to its fountain was stirr’d;

Their tears fell like torrents of rain.

Oh! had they but known that the sage-worshipp’d

Child

Would sin, in due time, put away,

Amid all their grief, they in hope might have smil’d,

In view of the bright coming day.

From Herod God hid the dear Son of His love,

That He, as the Lily, might grow;

The Spirit receive, in the shape of a dove,

And do His good pleasure below.

At length, on the cross, as the bearer of sin,

He took all its judgment and shame;

That life everlasting for us He might win,

Through God-given faith in His name.

The Rattlesnake.

I DARE say you have heard of that dangerous creature found in. America, and called a rattlesnake? They are so called because when they move, or are angry, they make a rattling noise with the bones of the tail. When they lie hidden in the long grass or among the bushes, or perhaps in the hollow log of some fallen tree rotting in the woods they are very dangerous, because any one going along might sit down on the log to rest, you know, or tread on one of them by accident, and then, as their bite is very deadly, the wayfarer might be killed.

But the rattle warns the traveler, for, as soon as the creature begins to move, the bones in his tail clap together, and thus, in spite of himself, he gives notice of his presence. On this account the Indians and backwoodsmen of America (where this creature is found) do not fear it much. When they hear the rattle they fire in the direction of the sound with the rifle or the Indian bow. If the reptile is hit, but not killed, he rises up in wrath, his jaws are wide open to bite, his eyes seem to flash a greenish fire, his tail rattles loudly, and then the woodsman must be quick, or the snake will fling himself on him, and bite with his poisonous fangs. If he has had time to reload his rifle he fires again at the creature’s head, and shatters his terrible jaws; if not, he takes his ax from his belt and strikes it down, cuts off its head, and then, if he is hungry, he lights a fire and roasts the snake for his dinner. So you see the hunter does not mind meeting with a rattlesnake (providing always he does not happen to tread on him before he hears the rattle), because it makes him a plentiful meal at any rate, and is said to taste very much like veal. I dare say you would rather not have a rattlesnake for dinner, but you see these hunters in the vast forests of America, tramping on for many, many weary miles through tangled underwood and endless rows of trees, become very hungry sometimes, before they can get anything to eat, and I fancy when that is the case they would rather meet a rattlesnake than not. But how watchful such men must be as they travel on in this way through the wild woods! Watchful against danger on the one hand, and on the other, watchful for something good to eat. The rifle must be always ready, for a rabbit, a wild pig, or even a deer may suddenly dart across the path from some thicket at hand, and be gone in a moment. What a disappointment to a hungry hunter and how he would blame himself for not being ready! Or a panther, a wolf, or a bear may meet him, and although these creatures generally flee at the sight of a man, there is no knowing what they might do if they happened to be very hungry too, for of course you know they like to have a dinner as well as the hunter does, and perhaps have been two or three days without one. In that case panthers and wolves are not very particular what they eat or who suffers, so that their hunger is satisfied, and when very hungry, they are very fierce. So then the hunter must be always on the watch. And this reminds us of what God says to every believer, whether young or old. He says, “Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving;” and again, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance.” You see the believer has to watch against a wily foe, that is, Satan on the one hand; and he has to maintain a prayerful spirit and to watch for answers to his prayers also. If he is in need of some good thing that he has asked the Lord for, he must watch for the answer. It may come when he is not looking for it, and then he forgets to be thankful; thus, although he gets the good thing he asked for, he misses the blessing it would have brought him, besides losing the opportunity and privilege of thank-offerings and praise, which both give glory to his heavenly Father, and minister grace to his own soul; just as the water-spout drawn upward by the cloud that stoops to meet it, descends again in showers to refresh the thirsty plain.

But I must tell you more about these serpents. They live on all kinds of small creatures, birds, reptiles, squirrels, rabbits, and such like, and some think that the rattle in the tail helps them to catch their prey.

An American planter was one day sitting with his children on a high rock, enjoying the beauties of a summer sunset, when they heard, just below them at the foot of the rock, a loud rustling, and then the rattling which this snake makes as he moves along. On looking in the direction of the sound, they saw the reptile in the grass below creeping towards a tree on which his bright eyes were fixed. Presently he raised himself, his jaws were wide open, his eyes seemed to burn, and his clappers kept up a continual noise. “See, father,” cried one of the children, “that squirrel on the tree seems to be watching the serpent, and coming nearer and nearer to the end of the bough.” And so it was. Instead of scampering away when he heard the rattle, as a squirrel can do so well if he likes, by springing from branch to branch, and from tree to tree, the poor foolish creature only got nearer and nearer to the snake. Whether the rattle attracted him until the bright eyes held him spell-bound, I cannot tell you, but little by little, he crept to the end of the branch, and then, as if paralyzed by fear, he dropped right before the serpent and was seized and swallowed in a moment. I suppose the strange rattle drew his attention, in the first instance, and then, getting too near, the terror of those dazzling eyes, looking right into his own, did the rest.

Now, you know, to a backwoodsman the rattle would have been a warning of danger, and of the serpent’s presence; and so to a believer, whose senses are exercised to discern both good and evil, temptation is a warning of the presence of that old serpent the devil. But to the poor silly squirrel the rattlesnake’s clapper seems to have been only something curious or attractive, which he wanted to know more about, and then, drawn on by it, he got within the power of the serpent, from which he could no more escape. I dare say you will think him very foolish, and so he was, poor fellow; but I can tell you, and better still, the Bible tells you that there are and have been many people just like him. Was it not the rattle of the old serpent that drew on Eve, until first she “saw that the tree was good for food,” and then, “that it was pleasant to the eyes,” and then, that “it was a tree to be desired to make one wise” (the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1 John 2:16), so that at last “she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,” thus bringing “sin into the world and death by sin” (Gen. 3). It is said that the horny rings which form the clapper in the rattlesnake’s tail become more numerous the older he gets; and no doubt the “rattles” with which Satan deceives men have grown in number, immensely since our first parents fell, although they all have the same root. Did not the “rattle” of a lawless will lead Cain to envy, murder, and open rebellion against God? (Gen. 4). And Satan used this “rattle” so effectually that at last “the imagination of the thoughts of the heart” of man brought in the flood on the world of the ungodly (Gen. 6). Yes, and yet even after that tremendous judgment rebellious sinners let the same “rattle” of a lawless will lead them on to build the tower of Babel, that they might be independent of God (Gen. 11). Surely, you will say, the poor little squirrel is not so foolish after all, as men and women are. No, indeed, and if you will turn to the Scriptures I give you, this will be plainer and plainer. What led Joseph’s brethren to think of killing, and then at last to sell for a slave their true-hearted loving brother? Was it not the “rattle” of envy, that has its root in the pride of life (Gen. 37:11, 19, 20, 26, 27)? Satan knows how to use the rattle, first in one way, and then in another. Did not the “rattle” of “the lust of the eye” lead Achan to covet the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold, so that he fell into disobedience and utter destruction (Josh. 7)? King Ahab allowed the “rattle” of Jezebel’s lawless tongue to bring him to ruin and his kingdom too (1 Kings 21:15). Gehazi was drawn into falsehood, sin, and leprosy by the “rattle” of Naaman’s silver and raiment (2 Kings 5:22). The “rattle” of a crown led Athaliah to murder “all the seed royal” of Judah’s line, so that if God had not preserved one little child, she would have overturned all His gracious promises’ to David (2 Kings 11; Psa. 89:35-37). Ah! what a “rattle” the serpent must have made to try and bring this about! But who can cope with God? And that little child, so graciously preserved, found, when he grew up, that the “rattle” of flattery and homage could lead him to forget all the mercies he had known, and bring him into the power of the adversary, sorrow, suffering, and death (2 Chron. 24:17-25). Ah! and worse even than this, the “rattle” of “the gods of the heathen” drew all Israel away, so that they forsook Jehovah, and were led at last to the Assyrian and Babylonish captivities (2 Kings 17:25). Surely, men and women are quite as foolish as the poor little squirrel, and have far less excuse. Was not the “rattle” of thirty pieces of silver enough to draw on the arch-traitor Judas, until he got so completely into Satan’s power that he betrayed his blessed Master to His murderers? And though in his terrible despair he hanged himself to escape the agony of a fiery remorse, he could not, for “he went to his own place,” and there his remorse is with him forever. What a terrible warning to all of the danger of allowing the “rattle” of temptation to draw them into the power of the old serpent! And there are many more such warnings. The rich fool let the “rattle” of bigger barns and goods, and his own ease, and eating and drinking draw him on until one night his soul was suddenly required of him, and he found, to his eternal cost, how fatal was the snare which that “rattle” drew him into (Luke 12:16). The “rattle” of wealth and ease, sumptuous fare, and purple and fine linen attracted the rich man until he too fell into the power of Satan, so that he would not obey “Moses and the prophets” (that is, you know, the Word of God), and when He died and was buried, “in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment” (Luke 16:19-23). How dreadful! But the worst “rattle” of all was that by which “the Prince of this world” led both Jews and gentiles to crucify the Lord of glory. Don’t you think so And yet, just as the noise which the rattlesnake’s clappers make when he steals through the grass to his prey has often led to his destruction at the hunter’s hand, so that very “rattle,” by which Satan moved the world to crucify the Lord, led to the bruising of his own head (Gen. 3:15; Heb. 2:14), and the accomplishment of God’s purposes of love towards poor sinners. How wonderful to think that the precious blood which sinners shed upon that cross should wash sinners from their sins! Yet, so it is, for “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1). Yes, even His murderers were forgiven, if they believed (Acts 2:36-41); but all who do not believe are one in heart with those that slew Him, because they have neglected Him as they did, and will come into the same judgment (John 8:23, 24; Mark 16:16). Now, on which side are you? Do you love Jesus, or do you despise Him, as His murderers did? One or the other you must do, for if you don’t love Him, then you don’t care for Him, and that is despising Him. Not to care about Jesus is to despise Him, and that you know is just what the Jews did (Isa. 53:3). Will you think of this, and keep on thinking about it until it leads you to Jesus, if you have not yet believed on Him? Don’t let any “rattle” turn your thoughts away from this; don’t be like the poor foolish little squirrel who listened to the serpent’s clappers until he plunged right into the power of the rattlesnake.

But even if you are a little believer you will have need to beware of the serpent. Even Abraham, you know, was tempted by the “rattle” of his own fears to forget the power of his gracious God, and to tell a lie (Gen. 12:13); and Jacob’s history tells too often how the same “rattle” led him to do crooked things, so unbecoming in a man of God (Gen. 31:31).

Long after this poor Peter found that Satan could use this “rattle” so as to drive him to deny his precious Lord with oaths and cursings! (Mark 14:66-72) and then in later years to dissemble before his brethren (Gal. 2:11-14).

Good King Hezekiah learned to his cost that Satan could employ the “rattle” of the pride of life and love of self to lead to sorrow and rebuke (Isa. 39). When the Babylonish messengers came to him, “he was glad of them,” for it flattered his self-love; he forgot his brother Israelites, who were captives in those far-distant regions, and that men of Babylon were dwelling even then where his brethren should have dwelt (2 Kings 17). And then the “rattle” of “the pride of life” led him on to show all his treasures to the enemies of the Lord.

A hunter was one day sitting on a fallen tree in one of the vast American forests, for he was tired and weary and wanted rest. But, after resting some time, he suddenly heard a low rattle inside the old hollow tree he was sitting on. Do you think he sat still? Not he! Up he jumped and got his rifle ready, and then he presently saw the ugly head of the rattlesnake peeping out of a hole, close to the place he had been sitting on. The creature had been asleep, but awakened by the hunter’s movements, or by hunger, was creeping out either to escape or to bite him. Of course, the backwoodsman put a bullet through his head, and made a meal of him. You see the rattle warned him, and, instead of remaining where he was, he got on his feet and conquered his dangerous foe. But there was one of old who heard the “rattle” of the serpent, and went and sat down just where it led him! “Why,” you will say, “whoever could have been so foolish?” Well, it was a Christian named Demas. Satan rattled “the love of the world” in his ears, and he forsook God’s dear servant, and departed in the direction that the “rattle” led him into (2 Tim. 4:10). I am sorry to say the path that Demas trod has been often trodden since by some of God’s dear children, led by the same old “rattle;” but I hope you will not be so unwise, but rather that, when you hear the “rattle” of temptation, you will imitate the hunter, “and, having done all, STAND,” for it is written, “resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Thus you will give glory to Him who loved you and gave Himself for you, instead of being like the silly little squirrel who followed the sound of the deadly clappers, until he forgot the BRANCH (Isa. 2:1), where his safety lay, and fell into the coils of, THE RATTLESNAKE.

Reading the Bible with the Lips.

IN France an aged woman dwelt,

Who was both poor and blind;

Yet she the beams of mercy felt,

For God on her had shin’d,

In Christ, His Son, in whose bless’d face

His radiant glory, love, and grace,

In fullness are combin’d.

Thus, though she was depriv’d of sight,

And all was dark around,

She yet in Christ had heav’nly light,

And blessing in Him found;

With eyes anointed she could see

The One who set her spirit free,

And made her joys abound.

The Bible was her treasured book,

A sure resource in need,

And though thereon she could not look,

She yet its truths could read;

With raised type, by touch of hand,

Its language she could understand,

And found it food indeed.

Her lowly lot required that she

Should labor for her bread,

And so, although her heart was free,

A life of toil she led;

And as her work was rough and hard,

The softness of her hands was marred;

To feeling nearly dead.

The living telegraphic wire,

Which long had been her aid,

Thus idle, like a slacken’d lyre,

No words to her convey’d.

She keenly felt the bitter loss,

Which was to her indeed a cross,

And on her spirit weigh’d.

One morn, on parting with her Book,

Whose truths she so much miss’d,

The treasure in her hands she took,

And lovingly she kiss’d,

As ‘twere a friend who held her heart,

Saluting it, still loth to part,

And scarcely could desist.

But, oh! how tender are the ways

Of God unto His own,

Her grief He quickly turn’d to praise,

For mercy to her shown;

For as the Volume she caress’d,

She found that on her lips were press’d

The words her heart had known.

Thenceforth her mouth—to her delight—

Supplied her fingers’ place,

And soon she learned to read aright

The Word of truth and grace.

Thus did the Lord, in love divine,

Upon her clouded spirit shine,

And re-illume her face.

His words—the kisses of His mouth―

Which with her lips she traced (Song of Sol. 1:2),

Refresh’d, like breezes from the south,

And were of sweetest taste (Job 23:12);

While in the Lord did she rejoice,

And rais’d to Him the heart and voice,

Whose love her soul embrac’d.

Rose and Lily.

A MOTHER nurs’d two fondlings,

And they were sister—twins; —

‘Tis from the cot and cradle

My narrative begins—

‘One babe was blithe and bonny,

And freely coo’d and smiled.

The other, pale and slender;

A frail and fragile child.

These birth-united darlings

Bore names both apt and sweet,

Selected by their parents

With sense and taste complete;

The lively, blooming maiden

Their Rose was justly nam’d;

Her fair and tender sister,

The name of Lily claim’d.

Together grew these flowers,

Were nurtur’d side by side

For five succeeding summers,

And then the Lily died;

Or, rather, was transplanted

By Jesus, in His love,

That she, His gathered lily,

Might ever bloom above.

For He, in grace, once suffered,

Himself He freely gave,

And shed His blood, so precious,

That sinners He might save;

And even little children,

As tender as this twin,

Had need of His atonement,

To make them pure from sin.

I need not tell the sorrow

Which filled the mother’s breast

On parting with her weakling,

So tended and caressed;

Nor yet, how little Rosy

Her Lily-sister missed,

With whom she long had prattled,

Had played with, loved, and kiss’d.

This flower of human culture

Still flourishes and grows,

Her title well sustaining

To her sweet name of Rose.

Oh! may the Heavenly Planter

Display his grace and power,

And set her in His garden,

A fair, unfading flower.

Himself, the Rose of Sharon,

His glory earth shall see;

The Lily of the valleys,

How meek and lowly, He!

Now set in heavenly glory,

All-fragrant and all-fair,

How blest are they who see Him

In all His beauty there!

The Ruby Ring.

A Tale of Carisbrooke Castle.

MANY of the readers of GOOD NEWS may have heard of the Castle of Carisbrooke, in the Isle of Wight, a picture of which is given above and some may have even enjoyed a visit to it if so, they will not easily forget the delightful spot. Often has the writer seen crowds of little children there with happy faces, enjoying their Sunday-school treat.

Well, he has many things of interest to speak of in connection therewith. And if the dear young readers of GOOD NEWS will give him their attention, he will endeavor to interest them this month by narrating the anecdote of the “Ruby Ring.”

Thank God, dear children, we live in quiet times! Not that the world is a bit better than ever it was. The character of its evil has altered, and is ever altering; but it is the same world in opposition to God and His beloved Son, and lies under judgment.

But many years ago our country was at perpetual war, one part of it battling with the other part; and the fair fields of our native land were moist with blood, and echoed to the groans of the dying and the tumult of the conflict. Ah, the sword made many a dear child fatherless then!

This was in the time of Charles, the first king of that name, more than two hundred years ago. Most of you have heard of that unhappy king, and of his revolting subjects, and how they at length defeated him in battle, made him a prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle, and at last cut off his head. Sad treatment, indeed, for a king to receive at the hands of his subjects. You may recollect that just before his head was severed from his body he said, “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can have place.”

Well, it is about this unfortunate king that I wish to relate the anecdote, as it shows that he had a tender heart, and a love for children, especially as his own boys and girls had been separated from him for a long, long time, as he had been a prisoner at the Castle for about nine months when this incident occurred.

The king was walking, one fine day in the month of September, on the beautiful green plat called the bowling-green, and there found the gunner’s little boy, then about eight years of age, marching up and down with a wooden sword, as little boys love to do. The king smiled, and said to him, “What are you going to do with that terrible weapon?” The little boy answered, “Please your Majesty, going to defend the king with it from all his enemies.” The kind king, surprised and pleased, patted him on the head, and gave him his blessing, and said, “Well, my little friend, I am soon going away from here, and I do not expect I shall ever return;” and then he put up his hand and unfastened a gold ring adorned with a large ruby, which held his neckerchief in front, and added, “And I should like to give you something in order that you may always remember me.” And he then gave him the beautiful ornament.

Now, don’t you think the little boy must have been very happy in receiving such a valuable gift from the king? To be sure he was. And how tenderly he remembered him whenever he looked upon the ruby ring.

But ah! dear children, there is a more touching remembrance of One more exalted than this earthly monarch, which, if you believe in Him, is yours; even the remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ. You recollect that just before He left this world, —” the same night in which He was betrayed” the cross with all its sorrows before Him, He gave His disciples something by which to remember Him—it was a very simple service, the “Lord’s Supper”— at the same time expressing His desire that they should do it, as oft as they did it, in remembrance of Him.

But, unlike that which the king said to the little boy, He expressly tells us in His words from the glory (1 Cor. 11) that He is coming again, and that it is only “until He comes” the remembrance of Him is to be repeated. So you need not envy the loyal little boy. More than a ruby ring is given to you as a remembrance, if you have accepted the Lord Jesus, and have looked to Him as your Saviour—the bread and the wine here, and when He comes, to see Him, and be made like Him,

“In yonder bright regions of joy.”

A. M.

The Salvation of God.

Jeremiah 2:22, 1 Peter 1:18 and 19.

How full is God’s salvation,

Secured in Jesus’ blood!

Eternal in duration,

An ever-flowing flood.

Where sin had much abounded,

There o’er-abounded grace,

Whose depths can ne’er be sounded,

Whose heights no eye can trace.

Though nature’s “sope” and nitre

Can neither cleanse nor cure,

The “precious blood” makes wham

Than snow, however pure.

From scarlet sins it cleanses,

How deep soe’er their dye,

And purges all offenses

From God’s omniscient eye.

The fullness of perfection

Is God’s beloved Son;

The shelter and protection

Of each believing one.

No wrath, no condemnation,

Nor sharp, avenging sword,

Can touch the sure salvation

Of those in Christ, the Lord.

Oh! what a bounteous Giver!

How God delights to give!

His grace flows like a river,

And all who taste it, live.

His gift is life eternal,

In Jesus Christ, His Son;

His perfect Love, the kernel

Of all His Love hath done.

Samuel Anointing Saul.

(Read 1 Samuel 9)

THE old man, in the picture, is the prophet Samuel, called in this chapter “the seer” (see vs. 9). He is the same person whom his godly mother brought to “the House of the Lord” when he was a very little boy, and he has been the Lord’s servant ever since. Hear what is said about him in verse 6; he is a “man of God,” an “honorable man,” and “all that he saith cometh surely to pass!” We can hardly read it without thinking of One who came into the world long afterward, who was not only a “man of God,” but the God-man; “honorable” beyond everyone else, or God would not have “crowned Him with glory and Honor” in the highest place in heaven. And He could say, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35).

The young man is Saul, and he is being “anointed” the first king in Israel. He was a choice young man and goodly,” a head and shoulders taller than the rest of the people, but in seeking some lost asses of his father’s he had lost himself, and now he and his servant want someone to tell them their way that they should go. He hears of Samuel from the young man who is with him, and they consult as to what they shall “bring” to the man of God to tell them their way, little thinking that when they came to him they would find that he wanted nothing from them, but had made abundant provision for them. Neither Samuel would ask them what they had brought in their “vessels” (vs. 7), nor need they say a word about the little piece of silver, worth seven pence, which they had settled in their minds to give to Samuel to tell them what they wanted to know (vs. 8). There is not another word about what they had for him; but a good deal said about what he had prepared for them. The seer has been getting ready for Saul since the day before, and they do not part company until Saul has been made a king!

But you will wonder how it was, if Saul was such an entire stranger to Samuel, that Samuel should know all about him; and not only receive, and feast, and anoint him when he came, but make such preparations for him before he came; inviting about thirty persons to eat with him, and telling the cook to “reserve” a special portion for him from the day before (vs. 24, margin). Saul himself must have thought it very strange. He would say, “Well, I just came to get a little help as to finding my way, and thought I must pay for that; and here I am, in the chief place at the feast, in the best room, to eat what has been kept on purpose for me from the day before I came!” It is this strange reception given to Saul that I want to talk to you a little about, for it is to my mind just a picture of that wonderful grace of God which every sinner learns in some measure when he is brought by God to meet with the Lord Jesus Christ. You will see that God had to do with this meeting of Saul and Samuel. It was God who had sent Samuel to anoint Saul (ch. 15:1). And it was the same God who was sending Saul to him to be anointed (ch. 9:16). So when a poor lost one meets with the Saviour who “receives sinners and eats with them” (vs. 19, Luke 15:2,23), it is the same God who sent His Son, who has also drawn the sinner to that Son; as He said, “No man can come to Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him” (John 6:44). It is a blessed thing indeed to be drawn to Christ. It was a great day in the history of this young man, when God caused him to meet with Samuel.

He not only had a good meal when all his own food was gone, but he was anointed king when he never expected it in the least. And far greater things still than that are done for every poor needy one who comes by faith to the Lord Jesus. He not only gets present peace to his conscience in knowing that his sins are put away, and gets his heart filled with the enjoyment of “the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,” but he is made to be a “King” and a priest unto God, and he will “reign” with Christ forever! We may know very little about what it is to reign; and the people of the world would laugh at us if we told them that we were “kings,” and were going to sit with the Son of God upon His throne (Rev. 3:21). But, dear children, we may believe it, even if we cannot understand it, and there it is in the Word of God, as plain as can be. In Rom. verse 17 we read of those who “receive” the abounding of God’s grace, that they shall “reign in life by One, Jesus Christ.” Then in Revelation 1:6, all who are “washed” from their sins in the blood of Christ (none others, mind!) are said to be made “kings”; and in the last chapter of the same book we find how long they will reign, even “Forever and ever”! (vs. 5). How wonderful is the grace of God! When His Son came down among men, and was “born King,” He was “despised and rejected of men.” He ought to have had a diadem and a throne, but He had a wreath of thorns, and a cross, and they “killed the Prince of life”! But when a guilty sinner comes to Him in faith, confessing his sins, and that he has no claim to anything except that God should judge and punish him, what does God do? The Lord Jesus deserved that they should worship Him, and they spat in His face; we deserve to be banished from His presence, yet He “lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory”! (1 Sam. 2:8). May we not well say—

“Of Him, then, let us speak and sing,

Who soon in glory shall appear;

And us in all that glory bring,

His own peculiar throne to share.”

It is God Himself who brings this about for all those who believe in His gospel about His dear son, as we read in 1 Corinthians 1:9, and 2 Thessalonians 2:14; He calls us to share the glory of the blessed One who is at this moment at His right hand in heaven! He does it because He chooses to do it, and though we may ask, “Why was I made to hear thy voice?” as Saul does in this chapter (vs. 21) we find that no answer is given. God “delighteth in mercy,” and that is why He does what He does, and we know another thing. It went all wrong with Saul after, for he disobeyed God, and “The Lord repented that He had made him king over Israel” (ch. 15:35). But what God does for those who belong to Christ He does according to the “good pleasure” of His own will” (Eph. 1:5, 11), and never will He repent of it.

But, dear child, have you met with this blessed Son of God? You may know there is such a Person, as Saul did when his servant had told him about him. And you may have heard still more about him, and where He is to be found, as Saul did about Samuel, when the little girls urged him to “make haste now,” that he might not miss him. But have you gone to Him for yourself It is “the Lord Himself” you need to know, and “behold He is, before you” (vs. 12). You have not to go to heaven to bring Him down, He has come down in love to you. You have not to go to the grave to bring Him up, “God raised Him from the dead,” and there He is in heaven today, a living Saviour for all who will have Him. And He is very “nigh unto all that call upon Him!” Psalms 145:18, Romans 10:8, &c).

Saul was now really in earnest to find Samuel, and the very next person he met was Samuel himself! He “knew him not” (as John 1:31, verse 13, 9:36, &c.), but Samuel knew him, and could tell him all that was in his heart (John 2:24, 4:29, &c.) And so they met. Samuel knew Saul, though Saul knew not him; as we read of Joseph in Genesis, “Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him” (ch. 42:8). And was there not another Saul, who was met in his path by One whom he knew not? A voice from heaven said “Saul, Saul,” and he could only answer, “Who art Thou, Lord?” What a turning point that was in the life of that other “young man whose name was Saul!” He had hated Jesus, and loved to take the lives of those who followed Him. Now he would follow Him himself (1 Cor. 11:1), and either live for Him here, or gladly lay down his own life to depart and be with Him yonder (Phil. 1:20 to 23): And that blessed Son of God whom he had learned to love, was so precious to him, that when he was chained to a soldier in prison, and could no longer preach and teach, as he had loved to do, instead of being vexed and fretful, he was full of joy, and wrote a letter to the Philippians, which has more about “rejoicing” in it than any other part of the Bible. He says, “I joy and rejoice with you all,” and I want you to “joy and rejoice with me!” (chs. 2:17,18). That was the man in prison, who had “suffered the loss of all things,” had now lost his liberty, and did not know any day but he might lose his life. Yet he says, “I have all, and abound; I am full.” What a reality it is to be able to look up and say, “Christ Jesus, my Lord!”

Jesus, Thou art enough,

The mind and heart to fill,

Thy life, to calm the anxious soul,

Thy love its fear dispel!

Just one more word I want to say to you, dear young reader. It was from his servant that Saul first heard of Samuel; but Samuel said the servant must “pass on,” that he might speak to Saul alone, and he did so. (vs. 27.) In the picture you see him with his back towards you, and Saul “stands still awhile,” alone with the “man of God.” Now, dear child, it is a good thing to be “left alone” with Jesus. (Gen. 32:24, John 8:9.) We may have heard words spoken to Him, or about Him, but He Himself speaks to us, when we are really alone with Him. It may be the very person whose preaching or writing has been the means of our meeting with the Lord; let them “pass on,” that we may hear what the Lord Himself will speak to us. When Philip had “preached Jesus” to the Eunuch in Acts 8, and he had believed on Him, the Lord caught His servant away, but the man went on his way “rejoicing.” He had learned to know One who would never be caught away, and his heart was filled with the joy of knowing him. May you, too, find yourself in the Lord’s presence, alone with Him. He will not pour oil on your head, but true and holy and abiding joy into your heart, and you will be blessed indeed. W. TY.

How CAN WE KNOW THE WAY? ― “Jesus saith, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6.)

Saved.

I DARE say you know that children are fond of music and fine sights, and like to hear the one and see the other when they have the chance. Now, it happened one day that a little boy and his sister, who was some two years younger than himself, went on to a common where some troops were exercising. The bright colors of their uniforms and their glittering arms pleased the children very much, for they did not know that all this show was meant for bloodshed and slaughter. And beside the gaudy colors of the soldiers’ uniforms the band was playing and the drum and fife were sounding loudly, so that the little boy and girl were so delighted that they forgot all about time, and when at last all was over, and they turned to go home, it was already getting late. Now, whether the music and the grand display had bewildered their little minds I don’t know; but in returning they lost their way, and thus, when at last they reached their own door, it was long after they ought to have been in bed. This troubled thaw a good deal, the more so because, I am sorry to tell you, their father was at that time a very bad man, given to drinking, and they were afraid that if he were at home he would beat them. Now, this little brother and sister were very fond of each other, and so the little boy said he would go first and see if father was at home, thinking perhaps that if his poor drunken father was there the blow would fall on him first and his little sister would escape. She crept timidly behind him as he entered the house, and they had hardly done so before they heard sounds upstairs which too plainly told them that he whom they dreaded was there. As was usual with him then, he had come home the worse for drink (although I am glad to say he has since been brought to Christ), and, being quarrelsome, he took occasion to lay all the blame of the absence of the children upon their poor mother. The little boy hurried upstairs when he heard his poor mother being beaten, and he had no sooner got into the room than the furious man seized him and beat him unmercifully with the same rope he had been ill-using his wife with. Then he turned and laid hold of the little girl, saying savagely it was her turn next. Now, as I have said, these two children were very fond of each other, as all brothers and sisters ought to be. They were constant companions, and although there were other children in the family, these two seemed to like to be always together. Thus the poor boy could not bear to see his little sister beaten, and although he was crying with pain, yet when he saw his father lay hold of the poor child, saying, “it was her turn next,” he forgot his own suffering, and, throwing himself between his father and his little sister, he cried out—

“O, father, don’t beat her; BEAT ME AGAIN!” meaning that he would take “her turn” rather than she should be punished. I am glad to say that, bad as he was, the man found this too much, even for his wicked heart, and so he let the child go, and laid down his rope. Thus she was saved. Now I am sure you will say this was a noble boy, and if you have paid any attention to what you have read in GOOD NEWS you will see something in his loving act which reminds you of a greater than he. You see this boy was willing to be punished instead of his sister, because he loved her, and rather than see her beaten he took her place saying “beat me again.” Well, now, who was it that took the sinner’s place 1,800 years ago, and suffered in our stead upon the cross? You know it was Jesus, God’s dear Son, “for this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Not that God wanted to punish sinners, but He could not pass by or excuse sin, and therefore because He “so loved the world” He “sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world,” by bearing, instead of them, all the judgment due to their sin. Thus Christ became the substitute of all who believe in His name. Now, a substitute is one who stands in another’s place, just as the little boy wanted to stand in his poor little sister’s place, and bear the punishment for her. By this he proved that he loved her better than himself, and surely you will say Jesus must have loved us far more than He loved Himself when He not only wanted to take our place, but actually did so, and endured God’s wrath against sin to the uttermost, thus putting sin away and making it possible for a righteous God to forgive the worst of sinners who believe in Jesus. Well, now, do you believe in Him? Have you trusted Him as your own dear Saviour? Surely He deserves to be trusted, does He not? What! Shall it be said that you don’t love Him for all the love that He has so fully proved for you upon the cross? I hope not. When He had “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” He rose from the dead and went up into heaven, and now He sits at the right hand of God, and all who will may, by faith in His blood, by believing His word, by TRUSTING HIMSELF, have Him for their own Substitute, for God has told us in His Word that His dear son is “the propitiation for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Now, whose fault will it be if anyone has to bear the punishment hereafter of the sins he has committed? Why, his own, of course, for Jesus says, “If ye believe not that I am He ye shall die in your sins”; and those who do so are forever lost. But those who believe in Him, those who believe what God says about Him in His Word, can say of this blessed Saviour, “He bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” and thus they know that they are SAVED.

A Scene in Capernaum.

Luke 5

BEHOLD! Jesus in a house in the City of Capernaum, preaching unto the company which is assembled to hear Him. There is a crowd of people; so great, indeed, that there is no room to receive more. What wondrous utterances of grace and truth proceed from the lips of Him who speaks as never man spoke! How varied is the effect produced upon the hearts and consciences of the hearers. Some, hearkening in simple faith, receive balm and blessing for their souls through the words of His mouth. Others, looking on Him with a jealous and suspicious eye, are listening with a disposition to cavil and object to the truth which is flowing forth from its living well.

But what is this strange sight that is approaching? A man sick of the palsy, lying upon a couch, on which he is carried by four bearers. How prostrate is the poor paralytic! He is more helpless than a babe. He is literally without strength. But those who are bearing him, believe that if they can but succeed in bringing him into the presence of Jesus, He will display His gracious power and heal their friend. But the multitude so presses upon the Lord, that the friendly bearers of the impotent man cannot get near Him. Must they then return home with their sick burden, saddened and disappointed? No; for if they cannot obtain an entrance by the door of the house, they raise the couch to the low flat roof of that house, and uncovering it let down the palsied man right before the Lord.

Is He displeased? Does He reprove them for their presumption and intrusion? By no means. Such earnest confidence in His love and power, as they exhibit, delights His holy bosom. So, seeing their faith, He says unto the sick of the palsy, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” Strange words! Their thoughts had not reached to such a height. They had looked for health in lieu of sickness, for strength instead of impotency. But it is the way of the Lord to exceed the utmost expectation of those who trust Him. So He pronounces that unspeakable blessing of forgiveness of sins, which is not for time only, but for eternity.

But mark the effect upon the unbelieving hearts of the Scribes who are before Him. He reads what passes there, and brings out to the light the reasoning thoughts which fill them. They are saying in secret, “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?” Exactly so. Who can forgive sins but God only? But it is “God manifest in the flesh” who is there before them, showing plainly who He is, and they, because of the hardness of their heart, receive Him not. Oh! the darkness of unbelief, as witnessed in these reasoning Scribes; and the light and blessing of faith, as evidenced in the man whose sins are forgiven.

But the Lord, by the two-edged sword of His Word, proceeds to make manifest the folly of human reasoning in its accusation of Himself, but the blessedness of the man who puts his trust in Him. All eyes are upon Him, all ears are attentive to hear Him as He says, “Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is easier to say, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee;’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk?’ But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (He said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, ‘Arise, and take up thy couch, and go unto thine house.’” What ground has unbelief now to stand upon? It is condemned upon its own showing. If the reasoners bow not to such testimony before their eyes, it is because their will is engaged not to own that He is indeed the Christ. But, oh! the added blessing to the man whose sins are forgiven. Immediately he arises, takes up his bed, and goes forth before them all; insomuch that they are all amazed, and glorify God.

What a change has been wrought by the power and grace of Christ! The sick of the palsy goes away a forgiven sinner, and with strength instead of helplessness, bringing glory to God. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

Blessed, too, is the man whose strength the Lord is, for victory over all that once carried him captive, and for walking in His holy ways, to the praise and glory of Him who died for us and rose again.

A Scoffer Saved.

AT the time the French Government was sending troops to the Crimea, a regiment of Fusiliers halted for several days at Toulon, in the south of France, from which port it afterward embarked. It happened at the time that a colporteur of the Bible Society in France was busily employed in endeavoring to sell Bibles and New Testaments among the population of that crowded place, and when he saw this regiment, his solicitude was awakened by the thought that many of them would never see their native land again, and that all of them were about to encounter danger and death, for which, in all probability, they were wholly unprepared. He therefore addressed an earnest request to the colonel in command to be permitted to converse with the men previous to their embarkation, which was readily granted.

One morning, while surrounded by a group of soldiers, to whom he was speaking of their spiritual need, a young man, with a most expressive and intelligent countenance, stepped forward and said, “I have been deeply touched by your serious and affectionate exhortations. They have,” he added, “convinced me of the necessity of getting possession of the Word of God; but, alas! I have no money to make this precious purchase.”

“That need not signify,” replied the colporteur: “if you have so great a desire to possess a copy, it shall not be said that a Christian allowed you to go away without giving you one;” and, taking out of his wallet a small New Testament, he handed it with much pleasure to the soldier. But, to his surprise and grief, scarcely had he done so, when the young soldier burst into a loud laugh, exclaiming, “You are done, my fine fellow! I am the chief jester of the regent, and it is as clear as noon that I am not a bad hand at making a fool of you.”

“Give me back the book,” said the colporteur.

“Nay, nay, old fellow,” replied the soldier, “I should be ashamed so to affront you before such a respectable company as this is. What would my comrades think of you, were they to see you taking back with your left hand the present which your right has just bestowed Matters have never been managed like that in the French army. Whatever is given is given willingly, and so I shall keep it. Moreover, the book may be of use to me, and this, no doubt, is what you wish. In the camp one has not always a piece of paper at hand. It will do to light my pipe.” On this, making the military salute in the most grotesque manner, he went away laughing; but not before he heard the warning of the colporteur, who said, solemnly, “Young man, take care what you are about, for ‘IT IS A FEARFUL THING TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE LIVING GOD.”’

The colporteur left the barracks immediately afterward. His heart was filled with sorrow, which found utterance in prayer that the young soldier might not be left to himself. “Lord, pardon him; for he knows not what he does. O God, with Thine almighty voice cause a word to pierce into the very depths of his conscience, which shall change his heart. Lord, Lord, enlighten his mind—convert him—save him.”

Fifteen months had passed away since the above-named incident had taken place, when one evening he arrived at a small village upwards of three hundred miles from Toulon, and entered an inn to obtain food and rest after the toilsome labors of the day. Scarcely had he crossed the threshold, when he became aware that some sorrowful occurrence had taken place.

The family and servants were pursuing their work in silence, and close to the fireplace sat an elderly woman, evidently in great distress of mind. The colporteur approached her, and kindly inquired the cause of her sorrow, and uttered his feelings of sympathy. “Yes, I am in sorrow, deep, deep sorrow,” exclaimed the landlady, while the tears streamed from her eyes. “Only a few hours ago he who was the happiness and pride of my life—my son—was placed in the silent grave; and what a son!” Here her emotion choked her utterance.

“Do not grieve so, my good woman,” replied the colporteur, deeply moved himself. “Let me read to you a few lines out of a Book which I never open without finding something exactly suited to all the circumstances through which I may be called to pass.”

He thereupon drew from his pocket a small New Testament, and read— “God path chastened us for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

On hearing this, the woman rushed hastily out of the room, and speedily returned with a little book in her hands. It was her son’s legacy to her, “the most precious thing she possessed belonging to him.” The colporteur took it in his hands. It was a copy of the New Testament of the same size and version as that out of which he had been reading. It was much mutilated, many pages having been torn out. But on the inside of the cover, written in large letters, was the following inscription: —

“RECEIVED AT TOULON, ON THE—, 1855. DESPISED AT FIRST, AND BADLY USED, BUT AFTERWARDS READ, BELIEVED, AND MADE THE INSTRUMENT OF MY SALVATION. J. L., FUSILIER OF THE 4TH COMPANY OF THE—REGIMENT OF THE LINE.”

From the condition of the little volume it was plain that the young soldier had made use of the missing leaves to light his pipe, as he had boasted he should. But this work of destruction was stopped on the evening before I a battle, in which his regiment was to occupy the perilous post of the advanced guard. At this juncture serious thoughts came into his mind in a very strange manner; and all on a sudden the words of the man whom he had tricked out of the book came to his recollection like a thunder-clap: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” “And if I should fall into His hands!” he exclaimed, in a new distress of mind.

The thought haunted him the whole of the night and as soon as it became light in the morning, he took from his knapsack the book which appeared to have become his accuser. He opened it, expecting to find it full of threatening’s, when, to his astonishment, he read in the pages that remained such appeals and statements as: “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This last passage, which so met his anxiety, deeply affected him. He turned it over and over in his thoughts, trying to find out its true meaning, until, at the sounding of the morning drum, he had to replace the Testament in his knapsack, fall into the ranks, and march to meet the enemy.

The struggle did not last long, but it was one of the most bloody description. At its close this young soldier was among the number that lay scattered on the field. He was severely wounded, and for weeks his recovery was uncertain. But these weeks were not lost to him. The verses which he had read in the dim gray light of the morning of the battle had been brought home to his heart by the Holy Spirit.

After removal from one hospital to another in the East, there was a respite in his sufferings which allowed him to be brought back to France. He returned to his home about six weeks before the visit of the colporteur. The mutilated Testament was scarcely ever out of his hand during his waking moments. His mouth was full of tender entreaties that his dear mother and friends might embrace Christ and His salvation. To his very last breath he ceased not to exhort them all to accept God’s offered mercy in Jesus, and not to run the risk of falling, in an unconverted state, “into the hands of the living God.”

As the colporteur heard the narrative, he lifted up his heart unto the Lord in adoring thankfulness that He had heard and answered his prayer for the poor soldier, who in his folly had said of the Holy Word, “It will do to light my pipe!”

M. D’A.

A Search for Joy.

Oh! tell me where can Joy be found?

If Joy inhabit earthly ground.

By flowing brook in sweetest scene

Of Nature deck’d in robe of green;

By golden sea; or sunny mount;

By river’s brink; or gurgling fount;

At dawn; or at the noon of day;

At eve; or when the moon hath sway?

Oh! tell me, pray, how I shall gain

Access to Joy, to banish pain?

Say—shall I turn from Nature’s face,

And in the page of Learning trace,

By midnight lamp’s dull, sullen ray,

The path that Joy loth wend her way?

In books of lore, shall I peruse,

To seek out Joy, the way to choose?

Or, in the page by Fancy penn’d,

Say—shall my searching’s find an end?

To find out Joy, oh! point the way;

In vain I’ve sought her night and day.

Or, am I wrong to hope to find

Abroad, what may be in the mind?

Within the heart may Joy reside;

Though not by brook, or mountain’s side?

And, though not found in learned lore,

How long soe’er o’er books we pore,

Perchance she dwells within the breast,

And thence imparts her blissful rest?

I’ve sought in all, but cannot find

The Joy I need for heart and mind.

Joy Found.

NOT Nature’s self, with all her grace,

Not Learning, mocking Wisdom’s face,

Nor yet the unrenewed mind,

Could give the Joy I long’d to find.

All earthly pleasure has alloy,

And poison’d at its source is joy;

The only perfect bliss that’s given,

Flows from the Fountain—Christ in heaven.

Thanks be to God, that now I know

The only source whence Joy can flow.

"See the Day Approaching."

Some time ago, after a reading on prophecy, a young believer in the Lord Jesus Christ said to me “O, why don’t you write all this for us in GOOD NEWS? It brings the coming of the Lord so near, and I am sure it would be a blessing to many.” It struck me at the time that what she had found profitable might, by the Lord’s grace, prove so to others; the chief difficulty being to make the matter simple enough for the readers of GOOD NEWS, because prophecy is generally looked upon as being beyond the comprehension, not only of the young, but also of many among the old, to whom this magazine is addressed, unless they have a pretty good knowledge, both of Scripture and of history. Nevertheless, by going a little more into details than one would find necessary in speaking to persons having some acquaintance with these matters, I think it quite possible to make the subject plain to all who really desire to understand it, except, of course, the little ones. But before attempting this I would remind you that the coming of the Lord (1 Thess. 4), of which I hope to speak more fully hereafter, consists of two stages, first His descent into the air (vs. 17) for His Saints, and second His descent on, to the earth with them (Jude 14, Zec. 4, 5). Now, the first stage of His coming may take place at any moment, and is in nowise dependent upon any event foretold in prophetical Scripture. It occurs before, and ushers in “the Day.” As the morning star is seen glittering in the sky before the dawn of day, and tells that it is at hand, so is it with the first stage of the Coming of Christ for His own, hence, as the Bridegroom, He is called the Morning Star (Rev. 22:16). Thus, the believer looks for HIM before the fulfillment of anything foretold in prophecy. This is important, else the mind gets occupied with foretold events connected with the Day rather than with Himself. But if by the light of prophecy we can, not only “see the Day approaching,” but evidently nigh at hand, it follows that the Coming of the Bridegroom must be nearer still, and this is what the young sister just referred to meant when she said, “It brings the Coming of the Lord so near.” Moreover, the Spirit by the apostle Peter, when speaking of the Coming Kingdom and glory of Christ, says “We have also a more confirmed word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed (as unto a light that shineth in a dark place) until the day dawn and the Morning Star ARISE IN YOUR HEARTS” (2 Peter 1:19). With this end in view, I must begin my subject by telling you that there was a time long, long ago when God’s throne was set up on this earth. This, I dare say, will surprise a good many; yet it is quite true, for in the Temple of Solomon God “dwelt between the Cherubim” in the Holy of holies, where the Shechinah or glory over the Mercy Seat was the sign of His presence. But none ever saw it save the high priest, and he only once a year, through a cloud of incense. So that Israel only knew it by report, and the Gentile nations knew nothing about it. By Gentile nations I mean all who were not Israelites, such as the Egyptians, Assyrians, and others. You must look at a map if you want to know where these nations were, and I hope you will do so, and that your parents and friends will show you one, in order that you may get a clear understanding of things and places often spoken of in Scripture.

Now, I suppose you know how that Israel sinned against Jehovah again and again, until after long patience He gave them up into the hands of the Gentiles; and first the Assyrian king carried away the tribes in the north of the land (2 Kings 17); and finally, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, conquered and destroyed Jerusalem, burnt the temple, and carried the Jews into captivity (2 Chron. 36:11-21). Then the Throne of Jehovah finally left Jerusalem, as you see in Ezekiel 10:18, 19, and thus “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24) began. Yet although God’s throne had departed, it was not forever. A time is coming when His throne shall be again set up in Jerusalem, and that, not as it were in secret, but openly and manifestly, so that all the world shall know it. And it is this that I want to draw your attention to, because, as I hope to show you, the time is very near, much more so I am quite sure than many even of the Lord’s people suppose or have any idea of. When God’s throne went up from the earth, as you see in Ezekiel, there were three witnesses left to tell us about what then occurred—Jeremiah in the land of Israel, Ezekiel among the captives by the river Chebar, and Daniel in Babylon, the great capital of Nebuchadnezzar’s empire; and while both Jeremiah and Ezekiel tell of Israel’s continued sin and rebellion, even when under these heavy chastisements, and Daniel shows the pride and wicked self-exaltation of the Gentile, they are nevertheless all three witnesses to God’s super abounding grace and goodness, and all foretell, in spite of the failure, sin, and ruin of both Jew and Gentile, a time of such blessing as this earth has never seen, to be brought in at the coming of the Lord with all His saints (Jer. 31, 33.; Ezek. 37, 43. et seq.; Dan. 7:18). But before this time of universal blessing there must come a time of judgment because of the wickedness of men. The world will not be converted by the Gospel, but “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” until judgment overtakes them, and that in this world, for “the Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom (the field, the world), all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:38 to 43). Now it is chiefly in the books of Daniel and Revelation that these things are spoken of. Daniel, in Babylon, was the witness of the ways of the Gentiles from the time that power was committed into their hands down to the coming of “the Ancient of Days.” To him were given visions and revelations setting forth the whole course of Gentile rule to the end; and this is particularly the case in chapter 7. Let us now turn to that chapter. At verse 2 you read, “Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.” Then describe three of them, and to show how they followed each other in succession until the 7th verse, and there the chapter is divided by the words, “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold.” This occurs again at verse 13. Thus this portion of the chapter is divided into three parts—first, that relating to the three beasts, then that which concerns the fourth, and then, lastly, that which foretells the kingdom of the Son of Man. Now, first, you must understand that by “the sea” is not meant the ocean, but something quite different, for in prophetic scripture the Spirit uses certain figures or symbols which are intended as pictures or representations of other things to which they have some resemblance. Thus “the sea,” in prophetic language, is used as a figure of nations, or rather peoples, not yet reduced to rule or order by regular government, as the waves tumble over each other, and are tossed hither and thither by the wind without order or control. Again, by “beasts” are meant Gentile empires or monarchies, which all history tells have had their origin in the strife and passions of men, and, like wild beasts of the forest, destroy and prey upon that which is weaker than themselves. How true it is that “that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God!” (Luke 16:15). So, then, the “four great beasts” in Daniel 7 represent the four great Gentile empires which succeed each other, from the time that Israel fell for his iniquity under the power of the Gentile until the Lord shall restore His people to their own land and the divinely-given place they ought always to have kept; and He “shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously” (Isa. 24:23).

"See the Day Approaching."

As I told you last month the four beasts of Daniel 7. represent the four Gentile monarchies of “the times of the Gentiles,” viz., the Assyrio-Babylonian (vs. 4), the Medo-Persian (vs. 5 and 8:20), the Alexandrian (vs. 6 and 8:21), and then, lastly, the Roman empire (vs. 7). With the first three we need not now concern ourselves, as they have passed away; but the fourth, or Roman monarchy, has a separate place given to it from the way in which it is introduced by the words, “I saw in the night visions, and behold.” Hence it is marked out as more important than the others, as it surely is. It was under its rule that man’s iniquity, both in Jew and Gentile, reached a climax, and “the judgment of this world” was declared in the crucifixion of our blessed Lord; it was mainly within its limits that the Gospel was preached, and Christendom with all its responsibilities was established, and where also it still exists (although terribly corrupted), and it is, as you see from verses 11, 25, 26, directly owing to its blasphemous wickedness and assumption that judgment at last comes upon it. This is important, as it quite upsets the notion so commonly entertained that the Gospel is to convert the world, for on the contrary, the world in this its last form becomes so bad as to call down judgment on itself as in the days of Noah (Luke 17:26-30). This will appear more fully as we go on. I would first try to make plain to you what is meant by the fourth beast, or Roman empire. In doing so we shall have to enter into some historical and geographical details which, though of no direct spiritual importance, are necessary to an understanding of the prophecy. Those of my readers who are already acquainted with these things must bear with this for the sake of those who are not.

About 750 B.C. a city was built on the banks of the Tiber, in Italy, called ROME after Romulus its founder. Its inhabitants (at first no better than a band of robbers) gradually extended their sway from Italy to other countries, so that at last when our blessed Lord was on earth, “the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 2:1; 4:5) under the Roman dominion included all the countries from the Euphrates along both sides of the Mediterranean Sea, as far west as the south coast of Britain. It was not, however, until the second century that England was finally conquered, when the boundaries of the Roman empire were as follow: ― On the north, the Wall of Antoninus Pius (a little way beyond the modern cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh); the rivers Rhine and Danube, and the Black Sea. On the south, the coast of Africa, from Mequinez, in Morocco, as far as, and including Egypt. On the east, the rivers Tigris and Euphrates; and on the west, St. George’s Channel and the Irish Sea. There was one province beyond the Danube called Dacia, stretching along the west coast of the Black Sea, which also belonged to the empire. Its boundaries were, the Dniester and the Theiss, so that it comprised the countries now called Roumania, Tenneswar, and Transylvania. Altogether the empire extended in length some 3,000 miles from west to east, and about 2,000 in breadth from north to south, and comprised countries with the names of which I have no doubt many young readers of GOOD NEWS are already familiar, as England, Spain (including Portugal), and France, anciently called Gaul, and extending from the Pyrenees to the mouths of the Rhine, and from the Alps to the ocean, so as to include not only modern France, but also Switzerland, Alsace, Lorraine, and part of Holland, as far as Leyden. Then there was Italy, the seat of the Roman capital and power—Bavaria, as far north as Ratisbon, on the Danube; Austria (excepting Bohemia, Moravia, and its northern skirts), ancient Dada, already mentioned, Greece, and the whole of Turkey in Europe and Asia, as far east as the Euphrates and Tigris, and including God’s favored land, Palestine; and on the African continent, Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, Fez, and part of Morocco, as far as Mequinez, already mentioned. Of course the islands of the Mediterranean were under the same dominion, while the nations bordering on the empire were kept down by its military power according to the latter part of verse 7, where you read that it “stamped the residue with the feet of it.” Now, it is not my intention to enter into all the details of this chapter, but only to direct your attention to three points. First, that this fourth beast is not, as some think, an ecclesiastical or church power; but a civil power, or kingdom (vs. 23), whose military strength is greater and more destructive than that of any of the other three (vs. 19). Secondly, that it is characterized by blasphemy (vs. 25); and thirdly, that it is found hi existence when God is again about to set up His throne in this earth (vs. 9).

And now, perhaps, you will say, “If this great empire was in existence when Christ first came, and is found existing When He comes again, how is it that we do not see it at the present moment? for evidently the countries which once owned its sway are no longer under one Government, but subdivided into many kingdoms, having no common center as formerly, but each possessing its own capital, Government, and laws without any necessary connection with each other, much less with Rome, except as a bishopric, whose ecclesiastical domination has been so remarkably overturned of late years, even by the most Romish of the nations.” Well, to answer this question, we must now turn to Revelation 13, where, at verse 1, you read “And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rising up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of blasphemy.” Here you have clearly the ten-horned beast of Daniel bearing the same blasphemous character, and differing mainly in this, that you see seven heads instead of one, because Daniel gives only the broad out lines of the empire, being chiefly occupied with that which specially concerns Israel, namely, the “little horn” which rises after the other ten (Dan. 7:8). As to these seven heads you read in Revelation 17:9, “The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman (vs. 18) sitteth.” Rome was built on seven hills, and is always called in history “The Seven-hilled City,” and thus the seven mountains fix the locality and name of the imperial city; “the seven heads are seven mountains.” Then we read, “and there (or they) are seven kings,” that is, the seven heads represent seven different ruling powers governing the empire. Of these it is said “five are fallen,” so then when John saw the vision (A.D. 96), one of these governmental heads had already ceased to exist. These are stated by Tacitus, a Roman historian, who lived and wrote in the same century, to have been kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and military tribunes. These having passed away, we read “one is,” that is to say, the sixth head was ruling when John wrote this book, and on turning to Luke 2:1; Acts 25:11; Philippians 4:22, we learn that the ruling authority of the empire, from the birth of Christ and onward throughout the Apostles’ days, was the Cæsar or Kaiser. This was the sixth head. This imperial form of government began in Augustus (Octavius), who was the first of the Caesars, and it is worthy of notice that just when He came into the world, who was “born King of the Jews,” and not only of the Jews, but who was rightful heir to the throne of the whole earth, the sixth head should have sprung into existence, claiming universal dominion, so that he could command “that all the world should be enrolled” as his subjects, not even excepting “the King of kings and Lord of lords.” This one verse in Luke 2 Contains, as it were in embryo, the character and ways of both Imperial and Papal Rome, from its beginning to its awful end; ignoring His presence, whether personally in the world, or by His Spirit in the Church; utterly denying His claims, and not only so, but usurping them to itself, with a blasphemous audacity carried at last even to an open-eyed lawless defiance of His authority and power as “God over all, blessed forever,” so that finally, blinded by its own arrogance and monstrous assumption, the wild beast dashes himself madly upon the Rock of Ages and is ground to powder—but only to occupy the lake of fire forever with the living dead who owned him here, “and denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ”!

(To be continued.)

The Serpent and the Tiger.

I HAVE been looking some time at the picture over the leaf, but I cannot see that there is much hope for the poor tiger. He may open his mouth, and look very angry at the huge serpent, who has wound around him his beautiful but deadly coil; but he cannot get away, and will be crushed to death before he has the chance to make any resistance. You see the serpent has a small, smooth head, which he could slip under the tiger when it was asleep, and before the poor victim would be aware of it he would have entwined his powerful body around him.

I heard once of a man who was so foolish as to be not afraid of a serpent, and even to play with it, because he would not believe but that it was quite harmless. He took hold of it by the neck and tried to run away with it, but found to his surprise that the reptile was winding itself round his body, and if he had not at once called for assistance, and had it, the serpent would have killed him. It is often so with the “pleasures” of this world; people are not afraid to go after those things that they know quite well have proved dangerous and hurtful to others. They think there is no fear of their receiving any injury; and when they have had as much as they please they think they will just give them up and turn to something better. But before they are aware of it there is an enemy of theirs, called “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), who keeps himself out of sight, but who makes use of the things of this world to draw people, old and young, farther and farther from God, until they find themselves cast forever into the place prepared for him and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Some few people he even succeeds in persuading that there is no such person as himself, and many believe that they have nothing to fear from him, being much stronger than he is, and perfectly “free” to act for themselves. But those who least believe in his strength are just those who are most hopelessly “led captive by the devil at his will” (2 Tim. 2:26). On the other hand, those who best know what a terrible “adversary” he is (1 Pet. 5:8), whom even the Lord Himself compares to “a strong man armed” (Luke 11:21); they are the most thankful to learn the power of Christ, who is “a stronger than he,” and to put themselves into His mighty hand, that He may keep them from “all the power of the enemy.” There was a solemn time when He Himself came into conflict with the power of Satan, as He said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness;” but He “overcame.” He bruised, as it were, the head of the “serpent,” though the serpent might bruise His heel (Gen. 3:15). He put forth all his power to try to destroy Jesus. He roused the people at Jerusalem early in the morning in the-cold of winter, so that before six o’clock in the morning “the whole multitude of them arose and led Him unto Pilate” And many other things he did, which-are not written in the book; and he so far succeeded that presently the “Prince of Life” was killed and buried. Then he no doubt thought he had Him in his power. What a prisoner! Satan was the one who “had the power of death” (Heb. 2:14), and now the Lord was dead, and in His tomb! He must, by all means, be kept there, and Satan did his best to accomplish it. Whatever His disciples forgot that He had said to them, His enemies did not forget what He had said about rising again from the dead; only it must by some means be prevented from coming true. So a “very great” stone was rolled to the grave’s mouth (Mark 16:4), and a seal put upon the stone that none should dare to break; and a band of men set to “watch” that the body of Jesus was not removed. But what folly it all was! What use was the “great stone,” or the seal, when God caused a “great earthquake” to shake the place, and “the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it?” “His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.” Could they not keep Jesus in the grave? Not they; and the only good they were was that God would, by their mouth, cause the enemies of Jesus to hear the most unwelcome news they ever heard, and that from persons whom they had no excuse for not believing. They had put Jesus to death, and God had raised Him from among the dead, their own soldiers being witnesses! There they were, all wide awake and watching the sepulcher, when the angel came and first rolled away the stone, and then sat upon it, and they had no power to hinder him! This was sad news for the chief priests, for if they wanted Barabbas back to liberty, they did not want Jesus back to life upon any account. And it was worse vexation still for Satan, for he could not but feel that so far his power was crippled and broken. His prisoner had become his Conqueror; He had led captivity captive, and Satan was no longer he “that had the power of death.” It was the risen Son of God who could now say “I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, — and have the keys of death and of Hades.” That is, He has supreme power over death itself, and over that region to which the spirits of the dead go, to wait until the time of resurrection. The blessed Saviour went there; His body into the place of corruption (Acts 13:34, &c.), and His spirit into Hades, called “Hell” in Acts 2:27, and in some other places. But He could not possibly be held there, and so He rose again a mighty Victor. And if this was the most unwelcome news to those whose only desire was to get rid of Him, it might well be the most joyful news to us who know that He “died for our sins.” He came “to give His life a ransom for many,” and when the “hour” came for Him to suffer and die, “the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” If he would redeem and save us, and cleanse us from all sin, it was “not possible” for that bitter cup to “pass away from” Him which he drank upon the Cross. He must taste the “bitterness of death,” and what it was to bear the hiding of the countenance of God, about sins not His own, but for which He died to atone. But then, what if He had remained in the grave, where the consequences of our sin brought Him? He bare our sins “in His own body on the tree;” what if that body be left in the silent tomb? where would our sins be then? As the Apostle says (1 Cor. 15:17), “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” But no; the work of Christ on the Cross, when he suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, was so perfect that God would not allow the One who accomplished it to remain longer in the grave than was needful to prove that He was really dead, and then He was “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.”

Could not all our guilt retain Him,

Prison’d in the guarded cave?

No, He conquered death in dying,

By His cross He spoiled the grave;

Lo! He’s risen!

Christ, Almighty now to save.

If it was not possible for that “cup” to pass from Him except He should drink it: so now He was raised up from the dead, God having “loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.”

And so that old serpent which is the devil had to feel that he was conquered in his last great fortress. Jairus’ daughter just dead: the widow’s son, just about to be buried; and Lazarus, dead and buried some days, had all been raised from the dead by the power of Jesus, but they had all of them had to die again; but now One had left the grave by His own power (John 2:19; 10:18), and not to die any more, but to be crowned with glory and honor in the heaven He came from, and to sit there at the right hand of God, until His enemies be made His footstool, and His friends the sharers of His throne. But how different will it be when it comes to be the turn of the serpent himself to be “shut up” in “the bottomless pit”! Not a cave; but “the abyss” the unclean spirits spoke of, in Luke 8:31 (the “deep”). Not a “great stone” rolled to the door; but a “great chain;” (see Rev. 20:1), and not a little seal put on the Saturday night and broken before Sunday morning, but a seal set over him which neither he nor any other can break until God’s set time comes. And then to be cast into the lake of fire to remain there for all eternity; but not alone, as you may read in verse 8 of the next chapter. All who have turned away from Christ as a Saviour will be there, and there will be need of a “watch” being set, to see that no one steals away. Ah, my child, it makes all the difference who shuts the door. He shuts and no one can open: He opens and none can shut. The Lord shut Noah in and he was safe: none could come in to harm him. The virgins who were “ready” went in to the feast with the One they had looked for, and “the door was shut:” others might knock, but none could open. And when once “the Master of the house has risen up and shut to the door” it will be vain to think of getting it opened again. Dear reader, shall you be shut in with the Bridegroom, “Forever with the Lord,” or shut out with “the dragon, that old serpent?” W. Ty.

"She Doesn't Love Jesus."

Some children were playing together one evening in a house in Weymouth, last autumn, when somebody said “Let us sing some hymns.” All agreed to this but one little girl not quite six years of age, whose name was Ada. She wanted some other amusement, and refused to sing. The others not thinking it right to mind a little girl who was rather noted at that time for always wanting to have her own way, although I hope it is no longer so now, began to sing a hymn together, but Ada remained silent. “Ah!” said the servant girl, who was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, “Ada does’nt want to sing because she DOES’NT LOVE JESUS.” Presently, while the others were singing all happily together, Ada began to cry, but, supposing that this was only temper, nobody heeded it until bed-time, and then, as Ada was still crying, they began to tell her how naughty she was for being so stubborn. At first she made no reply, but, as she continued to shed tears, one of them said “What can you be crying about now?” To the surprise of all, her answer was, “Because I don’t love Jesus.” This unexpected remark changed everything, and now, instead of scolding, they began to try to comfort her by telling her that if she did not love Jesus He loved her, and that as when on earth He took little children up into His arms, and laid His hands on them and blessed them, though, at the time, they did not love Him, so now he would surely receive her if she would simply trust in His love. Before she went to bed that night Ada was able to say that she loved Jesus because He first loved her. I hope she will never forget His love, and that her ways through life till the Lord comes will never more give occasion to any to say at any time “SHE DOESN’T LOVE JESUS.”

The Sheep, Lost and Found.

You know, dear friends, that when the Lord Jesus was upon earth, “He went throughout every city and village” in the land in which He sojourned, “preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.” In the gospels we have the account both of where He went and of what He said. Those of you who have been accustomed to read, or to listen to the reading of those gospels, are also aware how often the Lord spake in parables.

Now, a parable is a kind of story or tale, by means of which the truth is conveyed to the heart and conscience of the hearers, and I believe that if we dwelt more than we are accustomed upon the parables and narratives of the Scriptures, it would be greatly to our advantage. I therefore propose that we should now look at the first of the three beautiful parables which are contained in Luke 15.

First of all, let us notice the sort of congregation which the Lord was addressing at that time. In the first verse it is said, “Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him.” Those called publicans were not inn-keepers, but collectors of the taxes for imperial Cæsar, and were mostly harsh, unjust, and exacting men, and were very much disliked by the Jewish people. The other class of hearers, who are termed sinners, were persons of notoriously wicked and evil lives, such as we should call bad characters. The next verse tells us that “the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” The Pharisees were those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others; “and the Scribes were copyists and expounders of the law, and were in many cases Pharisees also.

“And He,” the Lord, “spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, Both not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it.” We all know that there is nothing so foolish as a lost sheep. It seems to have no idea of returning. If, therefore, it is ever to be brought back, some one must go after it. What a true figure this is of a lost sinner, according to the description in Isaiah 53:6, “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.” We have all wandered far away from God, and could never have been brought to Him if He had not sent His dear Son to seek and to save that which was lost.” The blessed Lord, “who knew no sin,” was made “sin for us,” and on the cross, as the sin-offering, bore the fearful judgment of God in the stead of the sinner; so that the sinner who trusts in the Saviour and His precious blood, becomes a partaker of the salvation of God, and has everlasting life. Jesus, who died for our sins, has been raised again for our justification, so that God Himself, against whom we have, sinned, becomes the Justifier of the one who believes in Jesus.

What an interest the Lord takes in the sinner. How He goes after, and seeks till He find, the lost one. What a sweet instance of this we have in John 4. How He went after that lost one, and sought and found her, and brought her to the knowledge of Himself! The Lord in the parable said, that “when he (the seeker) hath found it (the lost sheep), he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” What a touching picture of the joy which the Saviour has in bringing home a sinner to God. And He takes all the burden upon Himself. No doubt the poor found and saved one is happy, but how feeble is his happiness compared with the Lord’s own joy in thus seeking, saving, and bringing home the wanderer.

The next verse is very blessed: “And when he cometh home he calleth his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.” This is just a picture to show us that the Lord desires that others should share in the joy which He has in the conversion of a sinner. Surely His own saved ones, who are yet in this world, cannot but rejoice when a sinner is saved. But do they respond to the Lord’s claim upon their heart to rejoice with Him in His delight in the salvation of a sinner? In heaven, too, as the Lord explains, there is joy: “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” Just think, that when a poor sinner turns to the Lord, there is a glow of holy delight running through the hosts of heaven! And, what is more blessed still, the bosom of God himself is filled with joy when a sinner is turned “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.”

One word, with you, my dear reader. Has there been joy in heaven on your account, because you have been sought and saved, and brought to God as a poor sinner, trusting only in the finished work and all-surpassing worth of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ?

“THERE is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10).

The Shepherd and the Sheep.

WELL, my little friends, what do you think of our new picture? You see, now the Publisher makes the pages of Good News longer and wider, we can have larger pictures to look at; and if pictures please you as much as they do me, you will not like your magazine a bit the less because the pictures are bigger and better than they have been before. I suppose you are bigger yourselves than you were when last New Year’s books came, and I trust you are, in some respects, better too. You know there is a blessed Man in heaven who is “altogether lovely,” and it is possible to be getting more and more like Him every day. We might be much more gentle, and patient, and kind, and humble than we are. And then we read that when He was a child, with His mother, He was “subject” unto her and to Joseph. Then he was “obedient,” even until death; and he “loved” what was right, and “hated” what was wrong, though filled with the tenderest pity for those who did the wrong, even when others wanted to stone both them and Him (John 8:5-59). In all these things it would be far better for us if we were more like Him; but, you know, the first thing to do is not to try to be like Him, but to believe in Him as our Saviour who died for us because we were so unlike Him. Not to imitate the good there is in Him; but to confess the bad there is in us, and the sins we have committed, and to get them all washed away in His precious blood.

You see our little book that we send you every month is called GOOD NEWS, and the very best of good news is that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Many who did not see anything very good for them in that, last New Year’s Day, have since learned that it is just the thing they need, and now they say,

Yes, Jesus only, none beside

Can do the sinner good;

Far off was I; but Jesus died,

And I have peace with God.

His name is dearer to me now,

Than every name beside;

All glory beams around the brow

Of Jesus crucified.

His beauty shineth far above

A seraph’s power to praise,

And I shall live and learn His love

Through everlasting days.

The knowing that He loveth me,

Hath made my cup run o’er;

So Jesus all my song shall be,

Today and evermore.

It was about this same Jesus that the angels came to tell when they said to the shepherds (by night, not day, as in our picture), that they had “glad tidings,” or good news of great joy, which should be to all people; and so when Paul writes to the Christians at Rome about God’s good news (Rom. 1:1), he tells them that is concerning “God’s Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” And even when a man was shedding tears in heaven (in a vision), it was something about Jesus that dried them up (Rev. 5). So you cannot wonder that in a little book of GOOD NEWS, where we write to those whom we want to be as happy as the Lord Jesus has made us to be, we should say more about Him than about anybody else. We want you to think more of Him than of anybody else. The more you read of Him and think of Him the more you will love Him, and the more you love Him the more you will try to please Him. He is not hard to please, and it is very happy for us if we know that He, who looks to the bottom of our hearts, sees that we do desire to please Him in all we do. (Rev. 5:4.)

But I wanted to talk to you a little about the picture. It seems to me that the friend who drew it thought more about the lambs and sheep than about the Shepherd; but thought there ought to be someone to look after them, so he put a man sitting down, a good way off, and looking half asleep. I am afraid this is too much like we all think of our own “good Shepherd.” We think more of ourselves, and how we take care of ourselves or of one another, than of what it is to belong to the “one flock” of that good Shepherd who never sleeps. He “ne’er forgets the least,” and He holds in His “hand “the lambs as well as the sheep. He “gathers” them with His “arm,” holds them in His “hand,” carries them in His “bosom” or on His “shoulders.” And does He not love them with His heart? If He does not I cannot tell why He should say, “The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.”

I do not know how many shepherds we read of in the Bible, but there is not one, even there, to compare to the Lord Jesus. The first man who died and went to heaven was a keeper of sheep, but I don’t know what became of them when he died. Our Shepherd has already passed through death, and “He dieth no more;” so that we shall never be left to the mercy of Cain, or any one like him. Abram and Lot had lots of sheep, and their shepherds could not agree, though I dare say the sheep did not fall out with one another, and I hope you do not either, whatever the older people may do, and sometimes they do quarrel sadly. Moses kept sheep till he was eighty years old, and then left them to go and lead the children of Israel “like a flock” across the wilderness. David, too, was a very good shepherd, but he left the “few sheep in the wilderness” to go and first deliver the people of Israel, and then reign over them. But Jesus will never leave His flock to go anywhere or be anything, only presently He will come and gather us all close round Himself, so that we may see Him and be with Him forever, 1 Thess. 4:11-18. I must not keep you to say much more now, but it is nice to see in the picture that so long as the sheep keep within sight of the shepherd, the dog can sit still by the side of his master. If they should run away, where the shepherd could not see them, no doubt the faithful dog would soon be after them, I barking, and perhaps even biting at their wool, to make them come back. Even then they ought to be very glad, as there is a great difference between the shepherd’s dog and a wolf or a thief, who would want to hurt them. And no doubt some of our little troubles come because we do not keep so near as we ought to our good Shepherd. He does not want to send them if we would only listen to His voice and follow Him, and let Him guide us by. His wisdom. But if we will have our own way, we must remember “the way of transgressors is hard,” and the Lord may make us feel very sorely that it is an evil thing, and bitter to depart from Himself. Still, He rebukes us in love; the dog may not seem very kind or gentle, but he is the shepherd’s dog, not the wolf, and the One who watches over us does not send the trouble because He does not love us, but because He does.

May you, dear little readers, and may I, learn more about this Shepherd of the sheep! Next month, if spared, I may say something to you about the Lord Jesus as the Lamb, instead of the Shepherd. Till then, farewell.

My Shepherd is the Lamb,

The living Lord, who died;

With all things good. I ever am

By Him supplied

W. TY.

The Siege of Samaria.

2 Kings 7.

They heard the news and slept, —

Good news about the morrow;

Yet still they hungered, still they wept,

With hearts bowed down with sorrow.

They slept, for hope had flown,

Sad tears their eyes bedewing;

But sleep had vanished, — had they known

What then the Lord was doing.

Nor had they charged on God

The ills upon them pressing;

But they had meekly owned the rod,

And waited for the blessing.

For, ere the morning rose,

And light had dawned from heaven,

In terror and dismay, their foes

Hence, far away, were driven!

Yes! they in haste had fled,

Their all behind them leaving;

Samaria now was richly fed,

The Syrian’s wealth receiving.

But, ah! his hapless fate,

To doubt the Lord, who basted, —

They trampled on him at the gate,

He saw—but never tasted.

So life and death were there, —

God’s grace, and human madness;

This brought in death and dire despair,

That turned their grief to gladness.

A. M.

Sudden Conversions.

3,000 THE SAME DAY.

“THEN they that gladly received His word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the Apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.... Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved.”

"The Coming One."

“Who is Coming?”

“THE Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, the Heir of all things.” The Blessed One, who was cast out, rejected, and crucified on earth, but whom God has raised from the dead, is coming again. Scripture is very plain and clear as to this momentous fact we have both the words of the Saviour Himself, and also the repeated testimony of the Holy Ghost through His servants. The Christian is warned that scoffers shall come in the last days, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming” (2 Pet. 3:3, 4,) and can rest with joy upon the sure word of Scripture, which replies, “Yet a little while and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry” (Heb. 10:37). Let us turn to a few passages which treat of this important truth.

In John 14:2, 3. we find the Lord saying, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may be also.” In Acts 1:10, 11, when He ascended on high, the two men that appeared in white apparel said to the disciples, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Again, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,” &c.; and in chapter 1:9, the Thessalonian saints are spoken of as having “turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus,” &c. Surely this is sufficient proof to every subject heart as to the blessed truth of the Lord’s return, and as to the identity of His glorious Person. But, dear reader, are you ready to meet Him?

When is He Coming?

The moment of the Lord’s return is uncertain; no one knoweth the day nor the hour, but it is presented in such a manner that the children of God might always be kept in the attitude of watching for Him, and He has positively and repeatedly declared that He is coming quickly (Rev. 3:11; 22:7,12, 20). The Lord said to His own, “ Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord,” &c. (Luke 12:36). “Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matt. 24:42). “What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:37). “Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13). In Hebrews 10:37 we have the blessed words, “For yet a little while and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.”

Three times in the Book of the Revelation we find the promise, “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 3:11; 22:7,12), and it almost closes with the emphatic words. “Surely I come quickly” (Rev. 22:20). Sad indeed that so many should question this blessed and, glorious truth, and others deny it altogether, with such a mass of Scripture testimony with regard to it. Dear reader, at any moment the Lord may come, are you ready to meet Him?

How Is He Coming?

There is much misunderstanding in the minds of many as to the manner in which the Lord is coming. One class of persons speak as though He had already come, because Christ dwells in the heart of the believer; another class apply the Scriptures which treat of His return, to the Christian’s death, or falling asleep, when he departs to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). Now, although it is perfectly true that Christ dwells in the Christian, and also that if he falls asleep he is absent from the body and present with the Lord, yet both of these facts are quite distinct from His coming. This is very clearly proved from many Scriptures For instance, take Philippians 3:20, 21, “Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body,” &c. Now, let me ask any candid reader, does this take place when we receive Christ, or when we fall asleep? It needs no proof that such is not the fact. In the one case the mortal body remains the same, in the other it goes to corruption; but when the Saviour comes, the bodies of His sleeping saints shall be raised, and the bodies of the living ones changed and fashioned like unto His own glorious body (Phil. 3:20-21.) How, then, is the Lord Jesus coming? He is coming personally, the very man Jesus who died for sinners at Calvary, and now sits at God’s right hand, is coming again. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God,” &c. He is coming personally and alone to receive His people unto Himself, that where He is, that there they may be also (1 Thess. 4:16; John 14:2-3). After this event we find that He will also come to judge and reign, accompanied with all His saints and with all His holy angels (Zech. 14:5; Matt. 25:31-32), a train worthy of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Where Is He Coming?

On this subject again we find the greatest confusion in men’s minds, whereas the Word of God is most explicit. We must remember that He will come first for His people, and then afterward with them to judge and reign. When He comes for His own, we read that “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.... and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air,” &c. (1 Thess. 4:16-17). When He comes in judgment and to take His power and reign, we read that, “His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives” (Zech. 14:4); and in Acts 1:11-12, we also find that the disciples to whom the promise was made that Jesus should so come in like manner as they had seen Him go into heaven, returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet. So that God has clearly revealed that Christ will come into the air for His people, and to the Mount of Olives when He comes for His kingdom. Dear reader, are you amongst those who would be caught up to meet Him if He were to come in the air now (and when He comes, it will be in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52); or are you still in your sins, in danger of being overtaken by the awful judgments of the Day of the Lord?

Why Is He Coming?

Lastly, let us ask, and briefly answer the question, “Why is Jesus Coming?” He will have a two-fold object in view, blessing for the righteous, judgment for the ungodly. At His coming in the air, they that are Christ’s (1 Cor. 15:23) in a moment will be removed from this scene, the dead saints being raised, and the living being changed (1 Cor. 15:52); the corruptible thus putting on in-corruption, the mortal putting on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53-54), so to be forever with the Lord. He will come to claim the fruit of His mighty triumph at Calvary, to deliver forever from the power of Satan, sin, and death, all who have been washed from their sins in His own precious blood, and to perfect them both spirit, soul, and body in heavenly glory with and like Himself forever and forever (1 Thess. 5:23, and 1 John 3:2). At His coming in judgment, we read, “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 1:7-8). He will come to judge the world in righteousness, the living’ nations being gathered together before Him for that purpose (Matt. 25:31-32, and Joel 3:9-14); for the Lord’s determination is to gather the nations and assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them His indignation, even all His fierce anger, &c. (Zeph. 3:8). He will then avenge Himself upon His enemies, and deliver and bring into the blessing of His kingdom and righteous rule, a remnant of all Israel (Zech. 13:9, Rom. 11:25-26, and Ezek. 20:34-38), and a multitude of Gentiles (Rev. 7:9-17), and reign over this, earth for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6).

Beloved reader, in the light of the coming li of the Just One, and the blessed and solemn events which will accompany His, return, let me ask you once again, are you ready to meet Him, does the thought of His return fill your soul with all joy and peace, and lead you to re-echo the precious words of the Spirit of God? Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20); or does it strike your heart with dread and terror, because you are still unsaved, still in your sins. Oh! if so, delay no longer, flee from the wrath to come. A prudent man foreseeth the, evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on and are punished (Prov. 27:12). Jesus is willing and waiting to receive you, and him that cometh to Him, He will in no wise cast out (John 6:37). Come just as you are, and you shall hear His blessed voice, saying, “Thy sins are forgiven, thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” (Luke 7:48-50.)

E. H. C.

"The Young King and the Wicked Queen."

2 Chron. 22, 23.

THE precious book of God, the Bible, not only contains many blessed truths for grownup people, but you will also find in it many interesting stories about kings and queens, giants, and lions and bears, and other things which most young people like to read about; and if we are thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ when we are reading it, we shall not fail to find in these stories precious truths which point to that blessed Saviour and what He has done for sinners on the cross.

Now in the 2 Chronicles 22:2, we read about a woman, whose name was Athaliah, who had a son named Ahaziah, that reigned over the kingdom of Judah; but when he had been king for about one year he was slain; and in the 10th verse we find that “when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.” Her object in doing this wicked act was to get the throne for herself; but the Bible tells us, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23); and when God says anything, it always comes to pass; and so Athaliah found to her cost, as you will see, for she also was slain. Now, Athaliah is what is called “a figure of the world led on by Satan; “and in seeking to destroy all the seed royal, so that the rightful heir should not have the throne, it reminds me both of Herod, the king, who slew all the dear-little children in Bethlehem, because he thought that Jesus, the heir, the true king, was there; and also of the world afterward led on by Satan, crying, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” “away with Him, away with Him,” and then nailing that Blessed One to the cross.

But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada, the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not. And he was with them hid in the house of God six years; and Athaliah reigned over the land (vss. 11,12).

Thus, my dear young readers, God raised up a woman, named Jehoshabeath, who loved one of the royal family named Joash, a little baby, only one year old; and she, knowing that he ought to be the king, stole him from among the king’s sons who were slain, and hid him with his nurse from Athaliah in a bedchamber. And Athaliah reigned as queen for six years, little thinking that the real king was alive and would soon be brought out of his hiding place, and that she would be killed. So also we read of Jesus, that when Herod killed all the children under two years of age in Bethlehem and all the coasts thereof, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him, so that he took the young child and his mother by night and went into Egypt, so that he was not slain. And then, sometime after, when Satan led wicked men to crucify and slay the Lord Jesus, God raised Him from among the dead, and hid Him in the glory. The wicked world would not have the rightful King, but wanted to have it all their own way, like Athaliah; but soon Jesus will come forth again from where He is now hidden from the sight of the world, aria then they, too, will be judged like her.

But how beautiful, dear young readers, to see the love of Jehoshabeath to the hidden king; I wonder if your hearts beat with love to Jesus; I wonder whether you believe that Jesus is the true King, and that He will come forth to reign; I wonder whether you can say with the apostle, “We see Jesus.” He is out of sight now, hidden in the glory of God; but all who truly believe on His blessed name are washed in His precious blood, can see Him by faith at God’s right hand, and look forward, like Jehoshabeath did for Joash, to the time when He shall be owned as the great King; and our life is hid with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:3, 4).

But the wicked Queen Athaliah did not have it her own way long; for in the seventh year, when the little hidden one was seven years old, Jehoiada strengthened himself and took the captains and gathered the Levites; and all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said unto them, “Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as the Lord hath said.” And then when Jehoiada had arranged that the Levites should compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand, and told all the congregation where they were to be, and the captains with their spears, and bucklers and shields, in their place; then they brought out the king’s son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king; and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him and said, “God save the king.”

And what is God doing now, whilst the world is reigning like Athaliah, and Jesus is hidden? He has sent down His Holy Spirit, and He is leading the hearts of poor sinners, both old and young, to this precious Saviour; and preparing them for that wonderful moment when He shall come forth from heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords, and all who are looking for His appearing, when He shall reign over all the kings of the earth, will surround Him at that glorious day like the Levites surrounded the young King Joash. For before that glorious time shall come Jesus the Lord Himself shall first descend into the air with a shout, and all His saints who sleep in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth, and those who are alive and remain shall be changed, and all caught up to meet the Lord in the air, so forever to be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15-18); and thus, all who know His love, who believe on His precious name and serve Him now, will share the glories of His exaltation at that day, when He shall be crowned with a crown of pure gold (Psa. 21:3). Thousands and tens of thousands of children will be amongst that glorious happy throng, but will you, dear little one, be one of them?

Around the throne of God in heaven

Thousands of children stand,

Children, whose sins are all forgiven,

A holy happy band.

Singing, Glory! glory! glory!

In flowing robes of spotless white

See every one arrayed,

Dwelling in everlasting light,

And joys that never fade.

Singing, Glory! glory! glory!

Now, when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord. And she looked, and behold the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with, instruments of music, and such as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, “Treason, treason!” Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, “Have her forth of the ranges; and whoso followeth her, let him be slain with the sword.” For the priest, said, “slay her not in the house of the Lord.” So they laid hands on her, and when she was come to the entering of the horse-gate by the king’s house, they slew her there (vss. 12-15).

What a contrast, those who loved the true king, exalted with him, sharing the joys and glories of the day when He comes forth to take the kingdom, rejoicing, sounding the trumpets, singing, with instruments of music, praising, and crying “God save the King;” but Athaliah, the wicked queen, she cannot share the general joy; her sin had found her out, and the day of the appearing of the rightful heir, the young King Joash, is the day of her downfall and death.

In vain she cries, “Treason, treason.” She was the one who was guilty of treason, and now, without mercy, she is led forth to be slain, and whoso followeth her is to be slain with the sword also. What a dreadful picture is this, my dear young readers, of the fearful end of the wicked. God hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead (Acts 17:31). The world are having their day now, living without the fear of God, careless about the future, no thought scarcely about the hidden Saviour in the glory, some even denying Him altogether; but whoso followeth the world will surely be judged and punished eternally (Jude 14,15). It will be too late to cry for mercy at that moment when Christ shall come forth as King of Righteousness, when He will judge the wicked nations of the earth, and claim the kingdom as His own (Matt. 25:31, 32). “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” but soon, very soon, will the day of judgment come. Where will you be at that day? Will you be amongst the mighty throng of the redeemed who shall compass the King round about? Or are you amongst those who are following the world? Are you for Christ, or against Him? If the latter, most surely must you be judged like Athaliah. Oh! take warning then, dear young friends, and ere it be too late, come just as you are, to the precious Saviour, trust in the hidden King, and you shall sing His blest praises forever, making the vault of heaven ring with the glorious strains of that new and everlasting song: “Thou art worthy, for Thou hash redeemed to God by Thy blood,” &c. (Rev. 5:9). Come now, in the words of the little hymn, saying: —

“Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee;

O Lamb of God, I come.”

And remember also what Jehoiada did, as we read in the 10th verse. “He made a covenant between his, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the Lord’s people.” Now, if you have truly believed on the Lord Jesus, you are among the Lord’s people; and the Lord wishes His people to walk so as to please Him, “to be imitators of God, as dear children” (Eph. 5:1). Even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure, and whether it be right (Prov. 20:11). And then at that glorious day, when you and all who love the Lord Jesus shall go to be with Him forever, there will be a bright crown for you also.

Dear little ones think, is it nothing to you

The tale of His wonderful grace?

When He comes in the clouds, will you joyfully view

Or tremble to look at His face?

Oh! think of the Lamb who on Calvary died,

And died for such sinners as we;

Of the thorns on His brow and the spear in His side,

When He suffer’d and bled on the tree.

When He cometh back in His glory so bright

The wicked may well have despair;

But children who love Him will rise with delight

To meet their dear Lord in the air.

Oh! think of His Love, when He gave up His life

For sinners so guilty as we;

‘Twas for them that He finished the conflict and strife;

‘Twas for them that He bled on the tree.

E. H. C.

Thirst Assuaged; or the Deep, Deep Well.

IF I were to ask my young readers— “Where is the first mention of a Well in Scripture,” who would be sufficiently acquainted therewith, or enough versed in biblical history to tell me? I hope there are many, but for the sake of those who have not made so good use of their Bibles we will turn to the sixteenth chapter of Genesis, where, at the fourteenth verse, we read, “Wherefore the land was called Beerlahai-roi,” which means “The Well of Him that seeth me,” so called because Hagar was by its side when God spoke to her, when flying from her mistress; and she said, in joyful surprise, “Thou God seest me.” By water from that same Well was poor little Ishmael’s thirst assuaged, and his life preserved, as we are told in the twenty-first chapter.

At Bethlehem there was another Well whose waters David so much loved. “Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethlehem,” cried he, when he was surrounded by his enemies on the rock in the cave of Adullam. Read the interesting story, and how he got it, and what he did with it. You will find it in the eleventh chapter of the 1 Chronicles and at the fifteenth verse.

But if we go to the fourth chapter of the gospel by John, we may there read of another Well, on which the Lord Jesus, being weary with his journey, sat, and conversed with the woman of Samaria. It was called “Jacob’s Well,” but as we do not read of Jacob’s digging any Wells, it might have been much older than Jacob’s time; but, coming into his possession, was given by him to the people, who afterward claimed it. Consequently, it must then have been nearly two thousand years old; and it was a deep well, beside being an ancient well. Jacob himself drank of it. But a greater than Jacob was there then, even One who could say, as never could Jacob, “Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” Dear children, have you gone to Jesus, and received of Him this “Living Water.”

But I want now to tell you a little about the celebrated “Well of Carisbrook Castle,” a nice view of which is kindly given to our readers, with the patient donkey trundling its ponderous wheel. How many have drank of its waters during the last seven hundred years—from the highest to the lowest of the land—no one could possibly say. Oh, it is so sweet, and so cool I remember being there once with a crowd of little children at one of their annual treats. The house in which the Well is has only small openings for windows, but, to prevent more children crowding in, the door was shut. There we were, almost in darkness! The large bucket had been let down, and the donkey, who, for almost forty years, has turned the wheel, had began to turn it again, to bring the bucket to the top once more. How amused the dear children were to see, by the little light which came in, the plodding donkey—though somewhat stubborn—trudging away, yet getting no further forward; and the large wheel revolving, and the rope creaking as it wound itself over the shaft above! At last it came to view, and we were reminded of Him who said to the woman, “Give me to drink.” We had all been playing in the hot sun, and oh! the clamour for the sparkling water.

It was long before all were satisfied; at length they were, though many drank and drank again, it was so refreshing! Then the lamp was lighted, and let down the Well by the unwinding of the cord from the small wheel seen in the engraving; and down, down it went. Then we thought it was at the bottom; but no! it had only struck the side of the Well; and down, down again it went, until a loud bang told it was now floating on the water’s surface. How the children struggled to see the tiny spark, so very far down; and how anxious we were lest some little one should accidentally fall over. But now the light is drawn up, and perfect quietness gained. Drops of water are turned over into the Well—time passes on—when up comes the loud report of the drops as they fall into the waters below! A glass of water increases the volume of the sound. Once pins were thrown down, though now forbidden; and even the falling of a pin was distinctly heard, as, after a long time elapsed, it fell into the water, one hundred and ninety feet below, cut almost through solid rock! What a labor! But, then, how essential water is, — the water of earth for time, the “water life” for eternity.

But now, refreshed from the crystal stream, and all having our thirst assuaged by its cooling water, we left the Well, as others were wishing to inspect it; but often the dear children returned for more; for as the Lord Jesus said of all who drink of earth’s waters, they “thirst again.”

I know, dear little ones, that if you have never seen this famous Well, you will be anxious to do so, if ever you visit the Isle of Wight. And when you do, think of the “waters of life,” and the ever flowing fountain of God’s grace. “The Well is deep,” said the poor woman to our Lord at Sychar’s Well, but ah! she soon discovered a deeper spring of joy in Him whom she so addressed, for He gave her of “living water.” May each dear child drink thereof; and be enabled to sing with the heart and with the understanding—”

“O Christ! He is the Fountain,

The deep, sweet Well of Love;

The streams on earth I’ve tasted,

More deep I’ll drink above.

There, of an ocean fullness,

His mercy doth expand;

And glory, glory dwelleth

In Emmanuel’s land.”

A. M.

Timothy.

2 Timothy 3:15.

THE aged apostle Paul, in the very last letter he wrote before he went home to be with Christ, said to Timothy, “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.” Timothy had a godly mother and grandmother, and they had taught him to love the Word of God, but you see it was not being their child that saved him. They were persons of faith (ch. 1:5), but it was not their believing in Christ that could save Timothy. They could point him to the Scriptures, but it was the Scriptures themselves that could make him “wise unto salvation.” And then, when he read them, it was not confidence in his mother who had put them into his hand, but faith in the Lord Jesus Himself, whom he read about in those Scriptures, that was the means of his becoming thus wise unto salvation. Now I want, my dear young reader, to say a few very plain and simple things to you on this subject, and I pray that the Lord may so write the words of the verse itself upon your minds and hearts that you may never forget them. The last verse of the chapter speaks about a “man of God,” which Timothy had now grown up to be. He appears to have been a very useful man too, much beloved and valued by Paul, as we see almost every time Paul speaks of him (Rom. 16:21, 1 Cor. 16:10, Phil. 1:1, 2:19-22, 1 Tim. 1:2, 2 Tim. 1:5). And Paul tells him that the man of God could find all the instruction he would need for his work in the service of God, in those very same Scriptures that he had known from a child. You see there was first being made “wise unto salvation,” and then, being saved, there was being fully “furnished unto all good works” as a man of God and a servant of God in this world. These are the two great things we desire for our dear young friends who read the “GOOD NEWS,” that they should be saved, and know it, and then that they should be the willing and able servants of the blessed One who has saved them. Do not stop short of being saved, and do not be satisfied with being merely saved. Never suppose that the only thing worth knowing about Jesus is that He has saved you, or that the only thing He looks for from you is that you should come to Him for life and forgiveness, and then do your own will afterward. Some appear to think that to be saved by Christ is about all we have to do with Him, and they can think about that when they are just about to die. But when Paul wrote to Titus about “the grace of God that bringeth salvation,” he said that it teaches us how we should live “in this present world,” which shows that God’s grace is not a thing for us only when we are about to leave the world, to secure our being safely landed in another world. No, no, the Lord wants to have a people in this world who will confess before all that they are not their own but His, that He has bought them with His own blood; that He has died for them that should not live henceforth unto themselves, but unto Him, their living Lord and, Master in heaven. It is true that someday He will fetch us out of this world and receive us unto Himself. So He says “Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.” But, before that, He said “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world;” and again, “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17: 24, 18, 15). So then if we are saved from “this present evil world” so that we do not belong to it, we are sent into it again that, until the Lord comes, we may live in it to please Him, who has saved us from our sins, and is coming to take us to be where He is. A man who thus lives to please and serve the Lord, Paul calls “a man of God,” and he tells Timothy that it is in the Scriptures that such a man will find all he needs for teaching and the other things he names. So you see the same precious book through which we are made wise unto salvation, at the beginning, is the same we need for the Lord’s service to the end, and it is sufficient for us. We shall never get beyond the need of it, or find that it is not enough for us in our need; and the servant of the Lord who will best serve Him will be the one who has most respect for, and the most complete knowledge of the “Holy Scriptures.”

But the first great matter is, that we should be saved from our sins; and with regard to that, I want you to observe that the Holy Scriptures themselves can only make us wise unto salvation, “through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” It is a good thing to know for certain that we have found the right book to guide and teach us. For of all the multitude of books there are, to give us knowledge of almost every sort of subject, there is but one which can make us wise “unto salvation.” But even when we have the right book to look into, we must never forget that we can only be saved by faith in the living Saviour Himself, of whom the book teaches us. You can learn all that is to be learned from almost any other book, and know nothing of the person who wrote it; but not so with the Bible. It is said to be the “Word of God which liveth, and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). And if it is the living Word of the living God, we must not only study it like we would any of man’s books, but hear it as God’s own voice addressed to us. If God speaks to us, it is to turn our thoughts to His Son, the Lord Jesus, as He said to the disciples on the mountain top, “This is my beloved Son: hear Him.” So now, if the Holy Scriptures are given to us by “inspiration of God,” we can only learn from them aright when we look in faith to Christ, owning that we are nothing but sinners in ourselves, helpless and lost but for Him. The Jews, in the days when Jesus was here on earth, “searched” the Scriptures, but they would not believe in the very Person whom they were all about, and they would not come to Him that they “might have life” (John 5:40). So that, although they read and searched the Scriptures, and boasted in having them, they were not made “wise unto salvation.” I pray that you may not follow their example, but learn more and more to value the book; and believe in and love the Person the book speaks of (John 1:45), so that you may be made “wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” W. Ty.

The Touch of Faith.

Mark 5:25, 34.

SHE came behind the Saviour,

And she touched His garment’s hem;

Though numbers thronged around Him,

She dared the press to stem;

In faith she touched His garment,

And, lo! her issue stayed,

And from that happy moment

She felt she whole was made.

She hastened from her Healer,

Glad in her new found health;

But Jesus stays her footsteps,

And calls her to Himself,

To own the love which healed her,

Of which she stood the proof,

And, lowly in His presence,

“She told Him all the truth.”

“The truth,” ah! this was, surely,

What Jesus loved to hear,

Told out in words, or groanings,

Or e’en the falling tear;

“The truth”— heartfelt, and simple,

Then from her lips He heard,

As there she owned His power,

And there confessed her Lord.

And now, in heaven appearing,

The touch of faith He knows,

And yearning o’er the helpless,

The needed help bestows;

Still bids the sad and burdened

On Him their cares to roll;

And still the touch believing

Makes wounded spirits whole.

A. M.

Tricie's Star.

EVERY evening after sunset there may be seen a very bright star which rises over a lofty hill in the south-west of England. Perhaps, if you look in that direction some summer’s night you will see it yourself. It is so large and shines so brightly that you cannot mistake it, for all the other stars look dim beside it, and as it was first pointed out some years ago by a little girl named Beatrice her friends call it “Tricie’s Star.” Thus you see it is connected with a person to begin with. Then there is another thing, it never fails to rise, nothing can hinder it. The winds may blow wildly over the hill, the rain may fall heavily, yet there it is, so still, so bright, so unmoved amid the rush and roar of wind and storm that it is very plain to the beholder that it is above them all. Clouds may sometimes hide it from view but it is there for all that, and even on a cloudy night those who live on, or near the hill-top over which it ever rises, may get a glimpse of it, and if accustomed to look in the right direction may know that it is shining by the halo shed around it. Now I don’t know whether you see what all this reminds us of, but if not, I will tell you, and. I hope you will turn to every passage of scripture I refer to. There is One who speaking of Himself says “I am the bright and the Morning Star” (Rev. 22:16). Who is this? It is the Lord Jesus Christ who once walked on this earth as the “Man of Sorrows” and was “acquainted with grief,” and who having glorified His Father thus, went to the cross and there “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Then, “being raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,” He went up into heaven and sat down on the right hand of God, a real MAN glorified, having “flesh and bones as ye see me to have,” as He said to His disciples when on the evening of the day of His resurrection, He came and showed Himself alive to them in spite of the power of death and their unbelief and of closed doors and the enmity of the Jews and everything else (John 20). Now “this same Jesus will so come in like manner” as the disciples saw Him go up, that is, He will come personally, just as He went and “He will come with clouds and every eye shall see Him” (Acts 1:11; Rev. 1:7). But before “He comes with clouds,” and before every eye shall see Him glorious as “the Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings” (Mal. 4:2). He will come into the air, and all who have believed in Him up to that moment, all who are His own by faith, whether they are in their graves or living and going about in this poor sinful world, will be raised or changed in a moment and “caught up together... in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” on His way from heaven to earth (1 Thess. 4:17). So you see that as He appeared to His disciples alone, unseen by the world, after His resurrection, and “was seen of them forty days” without the world knowing anything about it (Acts 1:3), so will He first of all reveal Himself to those that love Him by coming for them to “receive them unto Himself” (in the air above the clouds) as He promised to do before He went away (John 14:3). Thus, before the day, in all its brightness, bursts upon an astonished world, He comes as the “Morning Star” to those that love Him. Are you one of these? If not, you are yet in your sins, but, if you “love the Lord Jesus Christ “His blood has washed you “clean every whit,” and you can look for the rising of “the bright and Morning Star” with hope and joy. In the meantime, by living very near Him, by reading His word, and thinking often of Him; by looking up to Him, and “waiting for Him from heaven” (1 Thess. 1:10), you will know what it is to have “the day dawn and the Morning Star arise in your heart” (2 Peter 1:19), and thus, in the power of faith and love, you will see that bright Star even when others cannot see it; neither clouds nor storms will hide it from your view; it will shed its calm sweet light upon your path in spite of everything, but most of all when “on the mount with God,” for it is there, on the hill-top, that it shines the brightest, like “Tricie’s Star.”

Two Pictures.

A PICTURE chalk’d on pavement,

By humble artist wrought,

Who sits a boon expecting,

A theme, how fit for thought!

A waste, it looks, of labor,

A course extreme and odd,

To draw such pleasant pictures

Where feet will soon have trod.

To gain each day a living,

The draftsman takes such pains,

And, should the crowd give freely,

His object he attains.

But all the taste and beauty

His drawing may display,

Are soon defaced by trav’llers

Who tread the public way.

How like this is to worldlings,

When sketching out their plan!

Their aims reach not to heaven,

They start and stay with man,

They picture hopeful prospects,

And dream of future bliss;

But, Christ on high rejecting,

Their fond pursuit they miss.

They may be rich and noble,

And bear a noted name;

Or, graced with gifts and talents,

May wear the wreath of fame;

But all their deeds of glory,

Their works of skill and taste,

Must, like the pavement-picture,

Be ruin’d and debas’d.

For Christ, the Lord, from heaven

To judgment will return,

And earth, with flames consuming,

And all its works, shall burn.

Then worldly fame and glory

Shall melt and pass away;

While Christless souls will tremble

With terror and dismay.

Now, view another Picture,

Sublime, and great, and grand!

Not fill’d with man’s conceptions,

Nor sketch’d by human hand;

But drawn by God the Spirit

In lines of life and light,

With hues and tints of beauty,

Beyond the rainbow, bright.

Behold! you realm of glory,

That region heavenly fair,

Where brightness is unfading,

Unclouded by a care;

Where fresh and living water,

As clear as crystal, flows;

And fruits forever blooming,

The tree of life bestows.

See! myriads, there, of angels,

Unutterably bright;

And ransom’d hosts, unnumber’d,

In robes of stainless white:

And, mark ye well, The Center,

The Lamb upon the throne,

In full redemption-glory;

Whom all in worship own.

This is no fancied picture,

Fictitious, or ideal;

It is, though but an outline,

Substantial, true, and real.

Oh! hath its charms no beauty?

Attracts it not thine heart?

Would’st thou not have, forever,

In all its bliss a part?

Then, paint not thou thy pictures

On earth’s illusive scene;

But view the heavenly landscape

With vision clear and keen;

Yea, gaze thou on The Saviour,

The Living Lord, who died;

That, thou, in blissful glory,

With Him may’st e’er abide.

Watts on Dress.

Why should our garments, made to hide

Our parents’ shame, provoke our pride,

The art of dress did ne’er begin

Till Eve our mother learned to sin.

When first she put the covering on

Her robe of innocence was gone;

And yet her children vainly boast

In these sad marks of glory lost.

What a Dumb Girl Said About Prayer.

A LITTLE deaf and dumb girl was once asked by a lady, who wrote the question on a slate, “What is prayer?”

The little girl took her pencil and wrote the reply, “Prayer is the wish of the heart.”

And so it is. All fine words and beautiful verses said to God do not make real prayer, it must be the desire of the heart; and it is well also to remember that God has said, He will not hear the prayer of him who regards iniquity in his heart. Psa. 66:18.

“Behold the flowers 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?” ―Matt. 6:26.

What Can I Bring to God?

A LITTLE one I am,

What can I bring to God?

Can I bring lovely fruits and flowers

Up to His high abode?

Not these, my child.

O what, then, can I bring—

The labors of my hands?

For surely one who bringeth these

Loved and accepted stands;

Not so, my child.

No fruits or flowers avail

To please the Holy God;

Remission is by blood alone—

The Saviour’s precious blood;

‘Tis this, my child.

No labor of your hands

For sin can e’er atone;

The Bible says salvation is

By faith in Christ alone;

Not works, my child.

Believe what God declares,

Believe in Christ and live,

For all who trust His precious blood

Eternal life receive.

Believe, my child.

A. M.

Wisdom Cries.

“Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets.”— Proverbs 1:20.

“WISDOM cries,” but what is Wisdom?

Mercy, love, and truth combined, —

Fear of God, and dread of evil, —

Happy they who Wisdom find!

“Wisdom cries,” but where is Wisdom?

Where the love of God is known;

Where the heart, by Christ attracted,

Is the loving Saviour’s throne.

“Wisdom cries,” but who is Wisdom?

Christ himself, and none but He;

God’s delight, and man’s Redeemer,

He whose death has set us free.

“Wisdom cries,” but what its promise?

Happiness, and peace, and love;

Here below God’s help and blessing,

And eternal joy above!

A. M.

The Woman in Simon's House.

Luke 7.

To Simon’s lime she came,

An uninvited guest;

For O she bore a heavy load,

Within her aching breast.

She, kneeling at Christ’s feet,

With tears bedewed them there,

The weary feet of Him she loved,

And wiped them with her hair.

Indignant, Simon saw

The woman at His feet—

The Saviour and the sinner thus

In happy concord meet.

He could not understand

A wondrous scene like this;

For she,” thought he, “who touches him,

An open sinner is.”

But Jesus knew his heart;

“Which loveth most,” sail He,

“The one who much or little shall

Frankly forgiven be?”

“The one who owed the most,”

The Pharisee replied;

And Jesus to the sinner then

His answer well applied—

“This woman loveth much

For much has been forgiven,

Go thou in peace,” to her He said,

Whom Simon hence had driven.

And so the vile was saved,

By love so vast and free,

While Simon was content to live

A haughty Pharisee!

A. M.

You Must Be Born Again.

(John 3:3.)

SOME years ago I visited Ireland, and remained for some time in one of its loveliest counties. During my stay I went with a friend to see a gentleman’s mansion and grounds, which stood on the borders of a beautiful lake, embosomed in the surrounding mountains. As I, with my companion, approached the gate, which led to a view of the lake and the exquisite scenes beyond, we saw a lad of about eleven or twelve years of age, stationed at the entrance. Though but poorly and partially clad, there was about him an air of politeness and deference that at once engaged the attention and won him favor. He was without shoes and stockings, and had no covering for his head; but his countenance was mild and cheerful, his bright eyes beaming with intelligence. During the intervals of his employment, he was reading a book which he held in his hand.

Knowing well the fluency of the Irish tongue, and the readiness of the peasantry to answer any questions put to them in a kind and courteous manner, I did not hesitate to put it to the proof on the present occasion. Having gained his attention, I inquired, —

“What book is that in your hand?”

“Sure,” said he, “it is the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

“How came you by it?”

“It was given me, your Honor, by the gentleman of the mansion, who is a Protestant, and has caused us all to be taught the book, and has made a present of one to each of us.”

“Can you read it?”

“To be sure I can.”

“And do you understand what you read?”

“A little.”

“Let us hear you;” and I turned his attention to the third chapter of the Gospel of John, which he seemed readily to find, and said, “Now read.”

He did so with a clear, distinct, and unembarrassed voice: “There was a man of the Pharisee; named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi,”— “What does that mean?”

“It means Master.”— “We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.”—

“What is a miracle?”

“It is a great wonder.”— “Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee.”

“What does verily signify?”

“It means, indeed!”— “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

“And what is that kingdom?”

He paused, and with an expression of seriousness and devotion which I shall never forget, placing his hand on his bosom, he said, ― “It is something here!” and then, raising his eyes, he added, “and something up yonder!” Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20.

I cannot convey the impression made upon us by the whole demeanour of the boy; but his devout intelligence on the subjects of the discourse he had been reading from the New Testament, made us thankfully believe in that secluded spot the great Teacher had met with this young lad, and revealed Himself unto him.

Zacchaeus.

(Luke 19)

ZACCHEUS, when he left his home,

Left all his wealth behind him,

For he had heard of Jesu’s fame,

And he went forth to find Him.

And, short of stature though he was,

No obstacle could stay him,

His purpose was to see Him then,

And nothing could delay him.

High on the tree, in haste, he climbed

To see the wondrous Stranger;

There lodged amongst the branches wide, —

He knew no sense of danger.

He comes—the Stranger—lo, He stops!

And hark! we hear Him call him.

Zaccheus hears the Stranger’s voice,

But it doth not appal him.

He hastens from his lofty seat,

His heart is all confiding;

And lo, the Stranger, at his house

This day must be abiding.

And now he hears the self-same voice

Repeat this declaration: —

“Zaccheus, to thy house is come,

This day, a free salvation.”

Zaccheus speaks; his heart is touched,

And lo, in many a sentence,

He proves the Stranger’s grace and love

Have led him to repentance.

How wonderful the ways of Christ,

Hearts thus toward Him turning!

To taste the love which, to bestow,

His heart is always yearning!

A. M.

Good News for Young and Old: Volume 19 (1877)

Table of Contents

Abijah.

Absalom.

Ahab in Naboth's Vineyard

All My Sins.

Angels' Charge.

The Angels of Little Ones Who Believe in Jesus the Son of God.

Answer to Bible Enigma for January.

Answers to Bible Enigma for February.

Answers to Bible Enigma for March.

Answers to Bible Enigma for May.

Answers to Bible Enigma for September.

Answers to Bible Enigma June.

Answers to Bible Questions for April.

Answers to Bible Questions, for August.

Answers to Bible Questions for February.

Answers to Bible Questions for January.

Answers to Bible Questions for July.

Answers to Bible Questions for June.

Answers to Bible Questions for March.

Answers to Bible Questions for May.

Answers to Bible Questions for November.

Answers to Bible Questions for October.

Answers to Bible Questions for September.

Answers to Enigma February.

"Behold the Lamb of God!"

Believers Are Crucified With Christ.

Bible Enigma April.

Bible Enigma February.

Bible Enigma for February.

Bible Enigma for January, 1877.

Bible Enigma July.

Bible Enigma June.

Bible Questions.

Bible Questions for April.

Bible Questions for August.

Bible Questions for February.

Bible Questions for July.

Bible Questions for June.

Bible Questions for March.

Bible Questions for May.

Bible Questions for November.

Bible Questions for October.

Bible Questions for September.

"Blessed Are the Peace Makers."

Books of the New Testament.

Books of the Old Testament.

The Children's Text.

Ching Ting.

The Clock and the Book.

Come and See.

Come Now.

A Contrast, yet No Difference.

The Daisy.

"Dear Child."

A Debtor for Life.

The Fire of the Lord.

The Flood.

The Flood.

The Flood.

"Forbid Them Not."

"Forget Me Not."

Four Little Boys.

Fragments From the German.

Friendship of the World is Enmity With God.

From a Bible Colporteur in New Zealand.

Go Thou and Do Likewise.

"God Knows!"

The Gospel.

A Great Flood.

A Happy New Year.

How is it With You?

"How Little Lily Was Saved Out of the Well."

I Am Happy Now.

"I Am the Sinner, Then He Died for Me."

"I Don't Want to Go."

In the Fire and yet Not Burnt.

Innocents.

Jesus Is Precious.