temptations which God permits from which there is no hope at all of being saved, then you are providing the enemy of your soul with a point of attack which makes your failure certain. Make yourself thoroughly acquainted with the Divine warrant for expecting to be delivered out of every temptation. Be thoroughly certain that triumph in every conceivable case is possible. Do not wait to reason as to how it is to be brought about, but occupy yourself with the Scripture warrant which leads you to expect a complete protection and a safe deliverance out of the power of the enemy. Take, for instance, that passage in 1 Cor. x. 13. Now, what is it that God engages to do for the tried believer? "He will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." Then God fixes the limit. He knows exactly how far to permit the trial to go. He is able to adapt it to our strength or power of endurance.

Again, God promises that with every temptation He will "make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it." What the believer has to do at such seasons is simply to rest on the faithfulness of God, and obey the leadings of His Spirit. Satan will endeavour to lead us to question the one and hold back from the other. But let us not be ignorant of his devices-i.e., his thoughts (2 Cor. ii. 11). It is by getting us to reason and entertain his thoughts that he succeeds in making us wanderers from God. Let us, on the other hand, have God's thoughts filling our minds; let the Word of God dwell in us richly, and the evil will be kept out. It is not by negatives that

the believer lives.

"When they wanted wine."-John ii. 3. THIS is the first miracle recorded of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He was at a wedding feast; and this was the turning-point of the feast-" they wanted." This is the turning-point in every soulfeast. There must be a felt want, there must be known emptiness, before even God can satisfy. And this want is created, not by ourselves, not by circumstances, but by the Holy Ghost. The Lord Jesus always recognised the working of the Holy Ghost. Without speaking of Him, He instantly recognised Him wherever He saw Him at work in any soul, stirring the faith which made Him able to heal. Whenever He said, "Thy faith hath saved thee," He was recognising the Holy Ghost.

This incident brings out how fond the Lord Jesus is of giving joy to His children. He is always aiming at filling them with joy. But this is not first. The joy springs from peace, which branches out of the root of faith. Then there follows this blessed bright blossom of joy. God was always bringing joy. Holy Scripture begins with a wedding day, when God Himself united Adam and Eve in the Paradise Garden of Eden, and Scripture ends with a bridal feast-His own marriage supper,

* Rev. Hugh Macmillan.

"the

Address at the New Year Devotional Meetings at Richmond.

of His Gospel, in the central hinge of His Book, He appears at a wedding feast, where He provides for every want, even the commonest household want.

I. If you would know what it is to have wine at your feast, the first condition is-put Christ in the first place. He must be "in the midst;" He must have the central place. He was invited as guest first; but when He had entered He took His place as Host, and to Him they went with their want. He must be Host where He is admitted as well as guest. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in unto him, and sup with him, and he with Me." He must have the first, the central place, and every want must be brought to Him. Do you want the wine of joy? Is it only glow you want? You have got peace, but you have no glow; you do not look like a Christian yet; you do not look like one who has looked at the Lamb of God, and has seen Him bearing away your sins; but He can give even that. Have you ever looked at the sun setting, and seen its light falling on a river, burning it with its own glow until it looked like a second sun? He wants us to glow thus in His light. Even on Sinai, among the shadows and sternness of the Law, Moses' face so shone that he had to hide his face. There is not much need for us to veil ours. Oh, that the Lord Jesus had more cheery-looking, bright, hearty friends, who live in His radiance, now, always receiving it, and not only living in the remembered smile of years ago.

II. The second point is that we must spread out the want before Him- the confession of want. “They wanted wine "—the blessed, rich fruit of the vintage of Calvary. It will be given in fulness soon. He yearns for that day when He "shall drink it new with you." The joy of Jesus is a vine which clusters round His Cross; every branch of it has grapes enough and to spare. He longs to crush them for you who "want" it. Do you know what a rich Christ you have?-so willing to give you of the joywine which was broached on Calvary. When you have a "want," do you spread it out before Him? When you see obstacles before you, and difficulties, and the stone, which is very great, not rolled away, go and say to the dear Master, "I have no wine." Or if you see your brother has none, say for him, "he has no wine." It is not an eloquent prayer, it is not long; but it is the fullest there could be. Ah!

how much using of habitual words, which mean so little! It is the voice which is choked with want which reaches the heart of God. Our Father is rich, He is yearning to give to us. Other fathers feel the pressure at not being able to give, but the pressure God feels is that He cannot get hearts ready to receive, ready to open their needs to Him. He listens for the cry "I have no wine!" He is yearning to hear what it is we do really want, that He may satisfy. III. What next? "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." You say you have put Him in the first place; you have put your want before Him, but you do not find the answer comes, and the want is not filled. Yet God does always answer every true prayer. But you must learn to wait. True prayer is like hard cash which you want to invest. You take it to the banker, and give it over to him. He puts it into the bank for you 1; he invests it for you in the best way, in the way in which it will produce most. And you receive it, not as you put it in, but in the way which the banker knew would bring you most profit. Go on praying, my dear friends, who have dear ones for whom you have prayed for years, go on; God does not forget, He treasures every cry. It shall have response; it shall have an answer; you shall have return from it as He pleases.

He is speaking to many like this, "Mine hour is not yet come." "Not yet"-that is hopeful; when He says, "Not yet," it means, "But it will soon." Blessed hope which He secretes for His praying, believing child! "My Lord Jesus says not yetthen I will watch until He does." Your child says to you, "May I, father? may I?" and you answer, "Not yet, my child;" and the child knows what you mean, and watches your face like a clock, and when the hour strikes on it, he says again, "May I now, father?" He wants to have His children trust Him. He wants us to believe in His SOVEREIGN GRACE. We do not all believe it fully, though we talk about it. To believe it, means that we spread our wants before Him, and then leave them there, and trust Him to do as He thinks best. He wants to bring us into a condition of simple, absolute trust in Him: where we shall say, "All is closed around me; I see no way out, but I will trust." Do you know anything of this? Like Hezekiah, do you turn your face to the blank wall, no opening before you, no window to see out of, and there pray to

the Lord against the blank, unresponsive wall of His unrevealed will? You shall have a rich return.

We do want to know more about sovereign grace. We are in the habit of stirring up our feelings about the answers. We are stirring the fire at the wrong end, instead of fixing faith on the Pentecostal fire at His end, in implicit trust in whatever He will do. God works as He pleases, and when He pleases. We often put a brisk speaker to the front, when it is simple, perhaps, broken words which are needed. Sovereign grace is not going to be interfered with. Give Him your faith, your prayer, then commit all, and trust alone, waiting for the answer of fire from Heaven. Lay the wood all ready, prepare everything to attract it, and then wait for the fire to fall. You plot and you plan, and lay everything so well, and you think it is all perfect. So it would be, if there were the fire from Heaven. We have often done this, made all our plans so well, and want to keep them all in our own hands, and it all ends in failure, terrible failure, because we have not depended alone upon Him. Often, have we not seen our best-laid plans end in inextricable confusion? But at last He has revealed His prepared highway, cutting right through all our failings and contrivings. Suddenly His grand highway breaks through all, interrupts all, and we see His way plain, and Himself upon it going before us.

IV. There is a further important point. When that holy woman, that woman of faith, had heard Him say, "Not yet," and had looked right into His eyes and read the coming answer there, she turned to the servants and said, "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." He is going to speak to you, He is going to work. He has a way. He is sovereign grace. He has the kingly will. It is not for us to fathom it; it is for us to wait. "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour!"

Could we act thus? when He seems to withdraw Himself and to refuse us, could we turn and say, "Whatsoever He saith unto me I will do it"? It was wonderful faith in Mary, for as far as we know He had done nothing miraculous as yet; He had not shown forth His glory before this. This is the next thing necessary—obedience to His word. How this would end all our perplexities, if when He seemed to refuse we simply turned and said, "Whatsoever He saith do it"! Servants of God, are you

ready to do His Word? Wait and listen! Watch, my Lord is going to speak, wait and hear what He has to say. I believe in silent waiting upon Him. Strange how few do! Have you not noticed that if a pause is made for silent prayer, that after the first moment or two people get restless, as though God was not there unless a brother were audibly praying? We want to cultivate the habit of silence before God. We want to be waiting at His gates, waiting at the posts of His doors, of His lips, listening, until the gates lift up their heads, and the King of Glory shall come out in all His kingly majesty and power! Ah, we know all this, and yet we don't act it out! God's holiest servants feel the need of more of this silent waiting upon Him to renew strength." Talking with Him may be waiting, but waiting is not always talking. It is the old friend that knows who is willing to wait. It is the little child who is restless. There is something grand, something majestic, in waiting: like the boy who stood at the helm of the burning ship, when asked why he did not leave it, said, "My father bid me wait here till he came." There is something very blessed in waiting. It brings out our faith and submissive trust. When one loves, one waits, and waits. What a glorious testimony it is to those around. "My Lord is worth waiting for!" And it ought to plead to the One waited for. There was a poor woman in Paris, always haunting one place in the public gardens, and when asked why she waited there, she answered, "He told me he would meet me here; he told me to wait for him here." And her poor brain was turned, as she waited for years in vain; but still she waited. My dear Lord never forgets; He is sure to keep His appointment. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." He is very precise, always punctual to the moment. Do you know where you are sure to find Him? You are always sure to meet Him at one place. At His PROMISE. He is certain to come back there. It may be long, but take some definite promise, and hold on there, and say, "I will not leave this until He meets me here." As a young man, one of the things which drew me most to my Lord, was the way in which I found Him true to His promises. I took them quite simply, and never thought I was doing anything foolish when I stayed by one, and knelt on it, saying, "Lord, Thou hast promised this, and I mean to have it." Oh, friends, have you grown so clever as not to believe that He means what He

says? Take one of His promises, and kneel by it, and say, "I will wait here until He comes."

And He will come: He will speak. The dear Lord does not mean us to be kept at a distance like slaves. He does not keep anything to Himself: He has no secrets from His children, if they are ready to hear them.

V. Then, after obedience to His Word, there comes the obedience of faith. If you are watching for His Word, He is sure to speak. Now He says, "Fill the waterpots with water." They were sure to be there because the Lord wanted them; but no one knew the purpose for which they were there. You may be waiting unused-you may be on the shelf, put aside-you may be empty, but if it is in His Presence, you are only waiting to be used; and if you are empty, you will be used. "Fill with water." It was very simple, it was an old familiar thing, nothing new; there was no charm about it, but He bids you. Do it because He bids you in the simplicity of faith. He says "Fill;" do not answer, "It is not looking like wine, the wine I want, and it makes the vessels heavier, they cannot be moved about so easily." And perhaps you stop and do not fill "to the brim," and so you lose the fulness of the blessing. Ah, go on, "Fill!" Your congregation, or your class, or your meeting; go on as if you had never done it before. Begin with the story of Abraham, if you like, the father of faith, who went out not knowing whither he went, but knowing with Whom he went. Begin where you will, but go on filling.

VI. Then there comes the obedience of hope: "Draw out now!" That is just where so many stop; it is just this that so many dare not do. They wait and they fill, but they do not draw out. They fill, but no more with any idea that wine could come of it than if the Lord had never bid them "Fill." They preach, and speak, but they do not "draw out ;" and there is a kind of death in their tone, even when they are telling His most glorious truth of new life, as if they did not half believe it. Do you? Is there death in your tone when you "fill"? Remember the emancipation day in America. The night before, hundreds and thousands of slaves, who knew and believed that it should bring them freedom, crept up the highest hills and watched with hungering eyes for the dawn of the day which was to set them free. Is that the way you watch for the dawn in the souls you "fill"? Do you

"draw" in the obedience of hope; hope, which is faith in the act of expectation.

VII. Then, as here, you will find continual surprises of love. When you have tasted, you can tell it is wine-His wine, the wine of the kingdom. All doubts are gone; there is no more uncertainty; every mist has evaporated. "The servants knew." They knew, who had had all the pain and weariness, and the labour. Yes, they know, who have watched through dark nights with Him, and have waited for the slow breaking dawn on the highway to the glory. They know best His wine, who have been through the toil of the want and the waiting.

The governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, "Thou hast kept the good wine. until now." Blessed, unselfish Lord! When it is He who has turned the water of weakness into the wine of strength, and the tears of sorrow into the wine of angels, He yet permits the miracle to be He stands there, patient in attributed to others. His wondrous, kingly dignity, allowing all the praise to go to another. He stands aside, and hears it attributed to another. "Thou hast kept the good wine until now."

He shall have all the praise one day. But even then, when the day of the blessed wedding-feast dawns, and He receives us at His table-our Kingly Host, and heaven opens back into heaven, and when all the ranges of eternity are revealed before Him, there in sight of angels and archangels, He shall meet each faithful child with, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" But it was Thou! All the done!" And yet He will give all the credit to His glory is Thine dear Lord, it is Thou who hast "well failing, faltering children, who have not half trusted Him as they might have done, not even as they "WELL DONE!" hoped they would have done.

Admit Him every

Oh, friends, love Him more. where, at the feast or the funeral. Have Him more about the house; not in one room only, nor even in all but one. If you know anything of the dear Lord you will yearn to give Him the best of everything; you know that He will give you the best, the "good wine," and that His presence is filling now, satisfying now. Give Him of your wine in return. Christ says, Oh, give Me souls to drink!

I thirst for souls.

"At once I should have answered, O Lord, drink!
Drink from me, Lord, where sin so often sips;
Drain out the poison with Thy sinless lips.
Thus having cleansed me, quickly brim me o'er
With living water from Thine unseen store.
Let the King drink! my heart, Lord, be Thy bowl;
Drink to Thy glory from my brimming soul!"

Let us bring our broken brimming souls to Him now! Drink from every heart now, Lord Jesus, to Thy glory, Amen!