a knowledge of what his loss is, and at last to magnify the grace which breaks the net and delivers him. It is well if such an one can say at last, "my soul is escaped as a bird out of the net of the fowler, the net is broken and I am escaped." But how much better to be so on the wing that the decoy, as well as the net, are put before us in vain.

THOUGHTS FOR THIS DAY.

MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT AS YOUR THOUGHTS.

Ir is evident that there must be only one true way of seeing everything as it is in itself. There may be endless relations in which any particular thing stands with respect to other things; but there must be only one light in which everything is seen by God. I may truly see how a thing relates to me but then I am regarding it from my own point of view, and exclusively in its relation to myself. The great question is, not whether I see a certain thing,

and how it stands in relation to me, but do I see it as God sees it, and as it stands in relation to Him? The tendency with man is to judge of everything as it affects himself, and because this is a veritable judgment, that is, it is real in his own mind, it is difficult to alter it, for he cannot alter it sincerely, until he changes his position. He judges as it refers to himself, this is the light in which he sees it; and this is so real to him that it must continue, until he sees it from a new point of view, and then it will be again real to him though quite different.

Nothing is more patent or more remarkable than how differently people will see the same thing. Each one is convinced that he is right, and he is sincerely convinced, because he has judged of it from the way it stands in relation to himself, and of what it is really to him. The simple and all important point is to judge of everything entirely apart from oneself, and as God judges of it, for our thoughts are not as His thoughts. How differently one would speak of what is

called a happy incident and a painful one, if one had seen that the first was a bait to the greatest sorrow, and the latter a check to an intended folly.

The real cause of our inability to see things as God sees them is our own minds. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto him. The first thing then in order to be able to judge of things as God judges of them, is to have the mind of the Spirit. It is the lack of the mind of Christ which is the cause of the inability of the best intentioned to judge as He judges. How can I see things as He sees them if I have not His mind? But "we have the mind of Christ;" and as we judge of things in His mind, we judge rightly. If there were no rival mind all would be easy enough: but the carnal mind hinders according to its strength, and if not subject to the Spirit of God it will lead contrary to God. Thus we often find that when there is most natural mind in a saint, unless it is under the control of the Spirit, there will be most error in

divine judgment. It is not that having a dull mind makes a person judge better; but such an one will not be able to influence others so much as a man with a powerful mind. The natural mind can be, and is, used by the Spirit of God to convey the light, and to communicate the thoughts of Christ. It does not enable one to grasp truth, though it does to communicate it to others. The natural mind cannot assist the mind of Christ; the superior must necessarily demand the subjection of the inferior. The thoughts spring from the mind, therefore the first thing to ascertain about any thought is, Does this come from the mind of Christ, or from the natural mind? The most acute natural mind cannot in any degree reach the mind of Christ, simply for this reason, that each forms a judgment from entirely different and opposite stand-points. The natural mind, however acute, makes man its centre, its point of departure and its return; the mind of Christ makes God the centre, everything springs from Him and concentrates in Him. Now it is

on account of this rivalry between the natural and spiritual mind that it is said that the matured are those who by reason of habit, have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. (Heb. v. 14.) There is no ability in a man to see what evil really is in the sight of God, until he has seen what good is. It is as he learns good, that he can distinguish it from evil, otherwise he is not skilful in the word of righteousness, he is a babe. It is therefore seldom, unless when walking in communion with Christ (which is common mind with the Lord) that one sees things at first as the Lord sees them. Man's mind cannot rise beyond himself, and this becomes very marked when he attempts to judge of divine things apart from the mind of Christ.

The mind of Christ is the new creation, and this is not helped by the natural mind, but by the Spirit of God; hence the mind of Christ will judge wisely for a saint, even as to natural things, and better than the natural mind, which will judge quite in a different way, and not at all according to the