To entertain such notions, is, to say the least, | abandoned all that is good and pure in life, and to have a very superficial knowledge of the true sown to the flesh with all his might and main. condition of things. In a similar way one who But this principle goes further. It says simis ignorant of the laws of natural life might ply, “If we neglect. Any one may see the conclude that a plant whilst manifesting the reason why a notoriously wicked person should activity of vigorous growth is absolutely free not escape; but why should not all the rest of from the influence of those powers which tend us escape ? What is to hinder people who are to reduce it to a condition of death and decay. not notoriously wicked escaping-people who In other words, that so long as the plant is in never sowed anything in particular ? Why is it the vigour of life all tendency to die is des- such a sin to sow nothing in particular? There troyed, or non-existent-that the only power must be some hidden and vital relation between then in operation in fact is the power of life. these three words, Salvation, Neglect, and Escape This would be the popular view of the matter. -some reasonable, essential, and indissoluble But it would not be an accurate conclusion. connection. Why are these words so linked Now, when a similar mistake is made in the together as to weight this clause with all the matter of our spiritual condition, the conse- authority and solemnity of a sentence of death? quences, as we can well perceive, are most “Theexplanation has partly been given already. serious. It lies still further, however, in the meaning of Never in this life are we absolutely free from the word salvation. And this, of course, is not the presence of sin—the tendency to sin and at all salvation in the ordinary sense of forgivedeath is ever with us. As with the plant so ness of sin. This is one great meaning of salwith the holiest saint, the vital principle has vation—the first and the greatest. But this is only to be withdrawn for a moment, and the spoken to people who are supposed to have had natural tendency is at once apparent. Apart this. It is the broader word, therefore, and from Christ as our In-dwelling Life even the includes, not only forgiveness of sin, but salvamost advanced believer would at once relapsetion or deliverance from the downward bias of into his former condition, because the tendency the soul. It takes in that whole process of to evil would no longer be counteracted. rescue from the power of sin and selfishness This teaches us that in ourselves we have that should be going on from day to day in nothing to glory in—that our holiness does not every human life. We have seen that there is consist in a state of purity which we can possess a natural principle in man lowering him, apart from Christ. Nor that our blessedness deadening him, pulling him down by inches to arises from any supposed freedom from the the mere animal plane, blinding reason, searing natural tendency to sin, but rather from the conscience, paralysing will. This is the active glorious fact that Christ is stronger than Satan destroying principle, or sin. Now, to counteract and sin, and that when He takes full possession this, God has discovered to us another principle of the soul He so completely overcomes all the which will stop this drifting process in the soul, evil and meets the force of its power that the steer it round, and make it drift the other way. believer is no longer hindered in his progress, " This is the active saving principle, or salvaor robbed of his peace. tion. If a man find the first of these powers The same writer just quoted, commenting on furiously at work within him, dragging his the words, “How shall we escape if we neglect whole life downward to destruction, there is 80 great salvation,” observes:—“Now why should only one way to escape his fate—to take resosuch fatal consequences follow a simple process lute hold of the upward power, and be borne like neglect ? the popular impression is that a by it to the opposite goal. And as this second man, to be what is called lost, must be an open power is the only one in the universe which has and notorious sinner. He must be one who has the slightest real effect upon the first, how shall a a man a man escape if he neglect it? To neglect it is That fair home's high simplicity—the step, — to cut off the only possible chance of escape. The light elastic step heard now no more... Salvation is a definite process. If The firm will sheathed in gentlest courtesyrefuse to submit himself to that process, clearly That high pale brow, that spiritual light he cannot have the benefits of it. “As many as That dwelt there like the perfume in the flower received Him to them gare He power to become Unbound, yet by no wind of circumstance the sons of God.'” Dislodged, -and all the halo of that life, Here is the secret of a life of continual That passing in and out cast everywhere Its own white shadow unsuspectingly deliverance from the power of evil. It is to To linger in the darkness, and to light receive Him into the soul. “The soul, in its In other hearts the likeness of his own, highest sense, is a vast capacity for God. It is To God's high praise ! For well did he engrave like a curious chamber added on to being, and His own fair epitaph abidingly somehow involving being - a chamber with In other lives, which thus became his lips, elastic and contractile walls, which can be When his, alas, lie silent in the dust, expanded, with God as its guest, illimitably, To tell his Master's message unto men, , but which, without God, shrinks and shrivels And wake the Christ within us. until every vestige of the Divine is gone, and Strange indeed God's image is left without God's Spirit” That last long week we spent in Conference What the life is to the plant Christ is to the Between his death-bed and his open grave,soul. There is a fulness of power in Him to That long week of strange twilight betwixt Time counteract the whole tendency of evil. He And God's Eternity, when all seemed hushed, dwells within, not as a temporary endowment, As some unearthly Presence unperceived but as an eternal principle. To be brought Had come and stood among us, and the door into union with Him is to have the “ power of Of the Unseen stood open at our side And none dared shut it! an endless life.” Strange to us, indeed, That he should lie by his loved Conference All that long week of silence and speak not, And yet no voice was sounding in all ears BY THE GRAVE OF CANON BATTERSBY. Like his-the absent leader, teacher, friend, Yet there's no change in Nature ! As of yore Father, and counsellor, presiding still The mighty hills couch grandly in the glow With that persuasive calm, and silvery smile Of evening's splendour; yea, Heaven's sunset gates Of saintliest silence, like some lone high tarn : Westward, slow kindling into pomp, henceforth Trod by the riven cloud's tall slanting rays Break open daily at thy feet, O Friend, In mystic stillness—till The Tent's frail walls, Loved Friend, here laid in thy last resting place, As by some sudden tide of glory pierced, Beside the trembling lake thou lov'dst so well, Before Faith's vision faded noiselessly, With all its bays and purple promontories, And mortal with immortal in one band, And wooded isles that float in liquid light, Like one unbroken family of light, Asleep on their own melting images In awful fellowship seemed blended now In conscious peace ! Before the immediate presence of The ThroneBut we, alas, we mourn There where the unveiled vision of High God That sacred Form withdrawn into the Light- Made Earth's dim outer court commingled now Our loved one vanished from his own fair lake Even with The Holiest, one for evermore ! Thus he in meekness proved himself to be, Throughout long years of lowly ministryAs more than aught about him else betrayed (Bear witness, ye ungrudging Brotherhood His bosom's living Inmate—Ah, we mourn Of kindred souls linked round his open grave !) 1883. One of God's mountain messengers of light, Keswick Convention. The Keswick Convention was held this — its The fearful flock, and tempt to breezy heights ninth year-under circumstances of great solemnity. And thymy pastures sweetened by the sun ! The familiar form of him who had so regularly preThus nobly did'st thou set thyself, high Soul, sided at its meetings was absent. A serious illness, From Doubt's cold chilling tenure and decay, thought at first to be but a passing indisposition, Truth's waste crown-lands to reclaim for the King,— assumed a mortal form, and he died on the moming Thyself unworthy to thyself, but all of the day on which the Convention assembled. His The consecration of the kingdom thine, ministry-of thirty-four years, as Vicar of St. John's Church-was thus closed under remarkable circumThou meek apostle of God's highest Truth, Unrecognised defender of the Faith, stances. Of hinı it may be truly said that no one Who scorning ease, preferment, and high placo, was more fitted, by the simplicity and purity of his All reputation to thy God resigned,– life, to take a prominent part in seeking to re awaken the Church of God to live the life of Him Wearied with wrangling schools that, still unfed, who is its Head. Ready at any time during these Unwearied wrangle o'er the bread of Life,– Thyself alone struck up the steep ascent many years of faithful service, his summons-at such a moment, when Christians, craving for more And white peaks of far Holiness untrod, And followed where Christ led, Heaven's light thy knowledge and power to live the Christ-life, were law! assembling from all parts of the kingdom-overCHARLES A. Fox. shadowed the Convention with the consciousness of a Great Presence. All hearts seemed to be hushed with the expectation of an unusual blessing from the " CONSIDER THE LILIES HOW THEY GROW !”. Lord; and it came in overflowing measure. Five Full surrender to the infallible supervision of an days later the whole of the Convention assembled, all - wise Providence is the one thought taught with the parishioners of St. John's, to unite in here! And is not this just the position for the committing the remains of their beloved friend to child of faith! He, our Father, through Jesus, works all things after the counsel of His own will,” Under an almost unclouded sky, the and He would have us submit and surrender our vast assembly silently took their places, filling the wills and ways, our purposes and preferences, all up church and almost the whole of the churchyard, too. to His sanction and all-wise disposal. And can we Several hymns were sung, and a spirit-stirring do better? So far as He is concerned, He never address was delivered at the grave by Mr. Webbmakes a mistake! Infallibity rules all along the line of His action, both in providence and grace. Peploe. Such a burial has scarcely been witnessed All the laws of nature, however in our contracted for many a year. views they seem sometimes to clash, yet we are The text selected by Mr. Fox for one of the sure that they are all working with as much harmony sermons preached on the following Sunday expressed as the wheels in Ezekiel's vision, though, to the timid prophet, they seemed terrible in their position, very truly the character of the departed servant : and fearfully complex in their wonderful intervolu "He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, tions. And in the growth of the lilies, storm and and of faith” (Acts. xi. 24). sunshine, thunder and rain, snow and hail, are all The teaching at the Convention was deeper, fulfilling His word, and the lilies live and grow more seaching in its character, and more instrucand blossom through it all. Thus our God and “ Careful for no tive, than ever before. Father would have us live, The tide of blessing thing!” Just trusting Him for all things, the is rising all over the land. The Spirit of God least and the largest, and like the little feeble is doing great things in the conversion of souls, plants of earth, just receiving all that comes in the and in leading the Church onward to a truer order of His grace and providence, as the lily bends walk of purity and fellowship with the Lord. under the storm, and lifts its slender leaf to the dew and the sunlight; No half“for we know that all Progress was very manifest this year. things work together for good to them that love heartedness, no spirit of questioning, or doubt was God, and are the called according to His purpose” shown. The great assembly filling the Tent from ' (Rom. viii. 28).-Rev. IV. Firth. the carly prayer meeting, at seven in the morning, the grave. to the after meeting which closed the day at 9.30 It was when the alabaster box was broken that each evening, during which scarcely any left their the whole house was filled with the odour of the places, showed increasing interest from day to day. ointment: so our dear brother is the alabaster box, The singing of the hymns, the prayers that were so which has been broken by death. On that the frequently offered, the addresses, the Bible readings whole Convention might be filled with the fresh -all formed a continued stream of blessing, which odour of his sacrifice; that there might be such a flowed onward without interruption. To the praise sense of the presence of God, such a sacred sense of the Lord let it be recorded that throughout the of the nearness of God, that every heart might be Convention no jarring word was heard—no ele- overcome by the power of the very present God ! ment of discord, seen. The Lord was there over- Surely it will be our prayer throughout the whole shadowing each meeting by His presence, and Convention not only to ask special blessings for our carrying home to many hearts the instruction, the selves, but for that bereaved house, that he being guidance, the deliverance they were seeking. dead might yet speak, and that the odour might fill It was a noteworthy feature in this Convention that house, and that every room in it might be filled that those who gave their testimony-and they with the fragrance of the nearness of Jesus : and were many-gave it from hearts broken by the sense with the precious savour of His servant's faithful of the Lord's goodness, and filled with the con- life, so that every child in it should follow, and fill sciousness of His presence. “Not I, but Christ” | his place as a ministering servant, and that He was the tone throughout. would fill them with power from on high, and guide There was the evident knowledge in almost every and keep them all. The circumstances of the case, that it was an oblation they had offered to Funeral, solemn as they are, are but the putting Christ in presenting themselves to Him, accom-away of the poor clay clothes into the wardrobe of panied by the awe which the acceptance of the earth, whence they shall be brought forth one day Sacrifice uniformly inspires. all transfigured, and transformed suddenly into the All this calls for deep gratitude, much humilia- likeness of His glorious body. Let us solemnly tion, and increased watchfulness that the adversary glorify God for His call. Let us make use of it to gain no advantage, but that such blessings may live a more Christ-life. I know what was in his abound on every side, until the whole Church is heart, that we who gather here should accept the brought back to that state of consecration and fulness of Christ, and have the strength He gives. devotion to the Great Master which niarked the I was permitted to see him several times in London, early days of the Pentecost. and saw his entire patience, the perfect peace and Most of the old helpers were there, with some sweet rest on his poor wasted face and wasted frame. additions to their number. May the Lord multiply There was the same quiet saintly smile, and, though these additions greatly! The call for labourers is knowing how ill he was, and of the meetings where great, the stream of applications for meetings increas- he could not be, there was still the same calm smile, ing Will all who are pressing onward help by as if he were already in Heaven; and indeed he was their prayers, their sympathy, and their testimony? so near that it might be said of him, as of another It is not possible to re-produce the proceedings man, that he always lived so near Heaven that of the Convention in full, so a selection of the when God called him he had not far to go. addresses only is given in the following pages. Now I would just add one word from Zech. x. 1. H. F. B. Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in BRIGHT CLOUDS. the field," so appropriate to us all here. “Ask ye of the Lord." You see the whole thing depends We have been invited to the feast: and now the upon that—" Ask ye :" and if we are to have any head of the house himself has left us and gone within. blessing here, it must be by asking: and I do He is in the brighter light of the glory, and we beseech you that there should be a deep platform are still in the shadow, but it is the shadow cast by of prayer this week, that there should be a solid Christ Himself, who stands between us. basis of prayer in all our meetings, not only herë BY REV. C. A, FOX, If bat aione all through this week. Let us lie low blessings, know it by His Word. Our glorified before God in supplication, and then He will open brother saw them, and knew they were to be had, us the windows of heaven. Then the heart of our and believed and received far beyond most, and brother will be rejoiced by secing that his people many another now above believed and saw. are receiving blessing even by his very absence. But do not be satisfied with “bright clouds," with Pray then, first, with deep humiliation of spirit. seeing these bright visions of peace and holiness. There is not any other effectual prayer : there is Many are, and they go away saying, “O yes, I see not any other prayer heard in Heaven, but the there are such blessings. I am quite convinced of prayer with the sacrifice of a broken spirit. Let it.” But God also promises showers of rain. Now us see to it that we pray from a position sufficiently do not be frightened at showers. Do not be terrilow from which to appeal to Him. Then, not only fied at a darkened heaven, and heavy clouds. pray with humiliation, but with expectation, as if your own heart is opened up to you, and you see God were very near, and as if He were going to do things you little dreamt of, do not shrink from it; great things for us. You know what it is in a it is a sign of God's near Presence. I believe that house where one is lying dead; God seems so near; the deepest blessings are the crushing blessings you always feel as if God were in every room, and which break us down, and lay us low, and make us you move about in hushedness of spirit, not only ready for whatever He sends. hushed by the presence of death, but by the First, He will show us the bright clouds and presence of God. He has been so near, and visions, and then the darkening of all the land with fetched His child away Himself, and left such an heavy clouds ; but after the visions, and the peniatmosphere behind Him. Let us bury ourselves in tential tears, He gives the " "green grass." And this " the dust at His feet, and beg Him to reveal is for “ every one.”. Each of you must have this. Himself to us here. “Said I not unto thee, that, Not only penitential tears, but the "grass in the if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the field,” which means resurrection life, new deep life; glory of God ?" God is here, and He has promised which means Heaven itself, God come down to earth, we shall see : let us believe to see, and now, this living on earth with us : and all this for the good very night, that we shall see the power and the of others, for the pasturing of the flock of God; presence of God. Let it be a believing night. that friends should see, and be the better for it ; And again, not only must it be a prayer in humilia- that the world should see the sign of God about us, tion, and with expectation, but it must also be the and should draw round to see. prayer of appropriation. Let us put both hands It is for everyone. Then leave not to-night, I , out to take. Let us be like a child, who sees its beseech you, without resolving by the grace of God father with bread, and it runs up to him, “ Father, that “there shall be green grass for me." He has give me a piece !” with both hands stretched out. promised, and I will not let Him go, and there shall It does not put its hands behind, when it says, be green grass in my field to glorify Thee, O God “Give me.” So let us put out our hands without a our Father ! shadow of doubt or hesitation, and let us run up to Him and ask Him because He is present, and because WHAT WILT THOU? we believe He has promised. You see we are to ADDRESS BY DR. J. ILDER CUYMING, OF GLASGOW. "ask,” because He has promised. “Ask ye of the Read Mark x. 47-50. Then comes the verse I Lord rain in the time of the latter rain.” Do not want to press on your attention, the 51st—"And say, “ There is no need to ask, because He has Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou promised.” Nay, my brother, ask just because it is that I should do unto thee ?” And another passage the time of the latter rain ; ask with simplicity of in this chapter, vers. 35-41. Now it strikes me faith, and with determination of desire. that at the beginning of our Conference it may What has God promised? “So the Lord shall well to fix your attention upon this question-the ? " make bright clouds ”—bright visions of hope, of question which the Lord puts both to the blind man perfect peace, and holiness and purity, such as we and to His apostles who were prepared to ask an did not believe could be had down here. You can extraordinary thing of Him, " What wilt thou that not get them, unless you know that there are such | I should do unto thee ?” In other words I should be |