night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee."

But, once more: thoughts concerning the omnipresence of God naturally bring us to others that have reference to His omniscience. The one glorious attribute necessarily flows from the other. He who is everywhere, from Whom nothing can be hid, must of necessity see, hear, know, what is passing everywhere. The wants of all His creatures, their tears, their sighs, their groans of distress, their prayers, all rise to His compassionate heart-not like a confused, indistinct medley of sounds, only some few of which may make themselves clearly intelligible; but all these voices of a sorrowing world are understood as fully as though there were only one speaker. This must ever be a mystery to us while we are in the body; but oh how full should it be of precious consolation to the Christian of childlike faith and trust in God! And why should such an one tremble at the idea that God knows the

innermost thoughts of his heart? The Bible furnishes us with plain proofs that God is full of tender love and mercy towards all, even though they can hide nothing from His view. The Lord Jesus, God Incarnate, startled the guilt-stricken woman of Samaria, by telling her "all things that ever she did." He turned over the pages of her sinful life, and exposed them to her view more correctly than the powers of her own memory could

have recalled them. But did He also overwhelm her with His wrath and indignation? No; He spoke to her of Himself as the living water, and as the expected Messiah. He knew the thoughts of His disciples, but did He thereupon visit them with righteous vengeance? Oh no, my brother. These are the days of Gospel grace. But for this, we might well have shrunk back from the heartsearching God. But now, because of the precious sacrifice of Christ, we need not fear, though still "all things are naked and open to Him with Whom we have to do," so long as we do not wantonly encourage thoughts, words, or works of evil in ourselves. "For He knoweth whereof we are made; He remembereth that we are but dust." Let me earnestly ask you to lay these things to heart. Seek to think, to feel, to act henceforth as one owning, "Thou God seest me." But, at the same time, seek to know, day by day, that you are one with Christ; seek, through His grace, "to purify yourself even as He is pure"; be, through His precious sacrifice and intercession, "perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"; and then let not your failings, no, nor even your backslidings, while you are earnestly striving after that which is good, confound you, for "there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.'

دو

Prayer.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful God, Who art everywhere present, Who seest and knowest even our most secret thoughts, to Whom the darkness and the light are both alike, we would heartily praise Thee that hereby Thou assurest us that all our wants are known to Thee, who alone canst supply them. And we would heartily bless Thee, that although Thine all-piercing eyes, beholding in every place the evil and the good, cannot but continually see in us all things most offensive in Thy sight, Thou hast provided a Ransom for us, through Whose precious bloodshedding Thou lookest upon Thy people as their loving, compassionate, longsuffering Father. Visit, we pray Thee, oh Lord, this our sick brother, with Thine abundant mercies in Christ Jesus. Cause him to have a horror of sinning against Thee, not only from a sense that Thou art "about his path, and about his bed, and spiest out all his ways," but chiefly from a sense of Thine election of him to eternal life through the merits of the Redeemer. Grant that he may love that which Thou commandest, and desire that which Thou dost promise, that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, his heart may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found. And in this his sickness

grant that he may feel fully content and glad to suffer as a faithful servant with his heavenly Lord, knowing that Thou, Whose name is Love, art nigh, and that they that trust in Thee the Lord, shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. Yet, oh Lord, vouchsafe unto him a deep and constant humility, springing from the knowledge that his heart, in common with those of all Thy children, is evil in itself, and that he is saved only through Thy grace. Hear us, we beseech Thee, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, to whom with Thee and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

XXIII.

THE LORD JESUS IN GETHSEMANE.

ST. LUKE Xxii. 39-46.

OUR adorable Immanuel, when He tabernacled among us in human flesh, frequently resorted to the Mount of Olives, and, for the most part, He went

thither alone. It was His sanctuary of private prayer. There, while the pall of darkness rested upon the world, while friends and enemies alike were locked in the embrace of sleep, His "head was wet with dew, and His locks with the drops of the night." There, beneath the temple-roof of the great and glorious heavens, His own handiwork, "He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared." Prayer with Him was not, as it is with us too often, an unwelcome, unenjoyed, formal, spirit-wearing exercise. It was precious communion with His Holy Father. It was the staff which, as having taken upon Himself perfect Manhood with its keen sufferings, and its powerlessness to endure them unaided, He used for the support of His feeble steps: and as an Example to us, that in sickness as well as in health, in sorrow as well as in joy, we might persevere in seeking to hold heartfelt communion in a similar way, with His Father and our Father, His God and our God.

Gethsemane is supposed to have been a small, enclosed spot, wherein were planted eight olive trees, that lay between two paths, which were branches from a broader path, just over the dry bed of the brook Cedron. Both these paths led to the village of Bethany, one over the Mount of Olives,