many Christians leave off the quotation, as though the following lines had been torn out of their Bibles; whereas they ought simply to say, "Here endeth the first lesson." Now let us go on to the second, as the Lord proceeds in these words, "I counsel thee to buy of Me, gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." He does not want His people to be a set of paupers in rags, but to be rich and well clad. Otherwise, what will the world think of them, and of Him they call their Father? What would we think of a man supposed to be immensely wealthy and whose children would be seen wandering about the streets hungry and naked? Surely we would doubt either that he was truly rich, or that he was indeed their father. Thus do we not only harm ourselves, but dishonour God, when we fail to possess and to manifest the abundance of peace, of strength, of holiness, of happiness, with which He is ever ready to supply all our need, "according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus." Let us, then, take heed to the Lord's counsel, and buy of Him. But why should He speak of buying, when we can do nothing more than to ask, to receive, to take freely, when the buying, in short, must needs be "without money and without price"? The point brought out by the word "buying" is, it appears to me, the necessity of coming to a definite decision. All shopkeepers understand this perfectly. You enter, for instance, into one of the shops, numerous in this place, where a great variety of views of the Lake district are to be found. You look them over, talk them over, compare the one with the other, go into ecstasies, pronounce them beautiful, admirable, exquisitely lovely, and move out without having bought anything. I doubt whether the shopman will be as pleased with your long and amiable visit as with that of a rough customer, it may be, who hastily walks in, points out a picture, hands over the price, and carries it off. He may have been undemonstrative, but he has thought the thing worth the price, and has bought it. come to the point of letting go our hold of ourselves, and taking hold of Christ. O! will we now buy of Him? What does He ask but ourselves-our guilty, polluted, helpless, blind, naked, miserable selves? And what does He give but Himself, the very brightness of the glory of God? He gives gold for garbage, and white raiment for filthy rags. It costs us nothing (for surely we are not paying Him when we cast ourselves at His feet); it cost Him Gethsemane and Calvary. It was there His gold was "tried in the fire;" and it stood the test. That gold He now counsels us to buy of Him that we may be rich. SAVE ME FROM ITS GUILT AND POWER.' If there be one here that is not at peace with God, I would simply tell him that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." What have you, then, to do? Just to take hold of what Christ has done-" Be ye reconciled to God." So about the power of sin. How are we separated from sin? By the death of Christ. "If one died for all, therefore all died." Then what have you to do in order to die to sin? To take hold of that fact, to believe it; believe that Christ by His death has created a separation between you and your sin; that the old man (that is the man you used to be) is on His cross, and the new man is fully free to be used for God by His Spirit. To re And then, what shall we have to do? member that He has redeemed us from all iniquity, and purified us unto Himself (Titus ii. 14). He has redeemed you unto Himself, to be His especial property, and you have no more right to take yourself out of the hand of Christ as your Redeemer, than out of the hand of God as your Creator. We belong to Him, and all we have belongs to Him, and it is a perfect shame that we should take hours and days to decide whether He shall have us or not. We belong to Him, and all things belong to us. We take our abode in Him, or rather we refuse to leave it; for He has said that it is our place "I am the vine; ye the branches: abide in Me and I in you.” Let us, then, remain one with Him in simple faith; He will fill us with His love and make us fruitful Thus with the treasures offered to us by the Saviour. We may gaze at them, admire them, desire them, talk and sing, and rejoice in nice addresses, nice books, nice conventions on the subject, to His glory. while we finally buy nothing-that is to say, we part with nothing, and obtain nothing; we do not How did the Apostle Paul enter the Christian life? In Acts ix. we read that Saul of Tarsus, having resisted the first strivings of the Spirit (for the Lord reminds him that he had been "kicking against the pricks"), falls upon the earth, and hears a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" and he says, "Who art Thou, Lord?" How encouraging this is for us all! The very man who was afterwards to say that he counted all things but loss for the knowledge of Christ, inquires, when Jesus Himself speaks to him for the first time, "Who art Thou, Lord?" Whoever you may be, then, the very weakest of believers, if you even hardly know who the Lord is, He can yet make an apostle of you. Then he goes on to say, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" In Acts xxvi. we find a more full account from Paul's own lips. "And I said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." Did he at once, after hearing that magnificent programme of his life's work, start on his mission as the Apostle of the Gentiles? Was there nothing between? Look at Acts xxii. 10, and see what intervened. "I said, What shall I do, Lord?" As much as to say, "I understand that I am to be the ambassador of Christ to the Gentiles, but it is a great task; where shall I begin?" The answer is, "Arise, and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee all things which are appointed for thee to do." How simple the Lord's method: Go on to Damascus, pursue the very journey which thou hast undertaken, although thou shalt now enter the town in another spirit and with another purpose; yea, and not as an honoured Pharisee, the delegate of the high priest, at the head of his escort, but as a blind man-no uncommon sight in Eastern countries(unable to see, he tells us, from the glory of the light with which he had been dazzled)-thou shalt enter it, as a little child led by the hand. This, then, was the thing, the only thing, for him to do at present. The next thing was to remain in Damascus three days, neither seeing, nor eating, nor drinking; but not without praying (Acts ix. 9, 11). Then he heard the door open, and hands were laid gently upon him, and an unknown voice addressed him as "Brother Saul." He recovered his sight, was baptised, was filled with the Holy Ghost, "received meat and was strengthened," and "straightway preached Christ in the synagogue of Damascus, that He is the Son of God." Thus, at the time of his conversion, and ever afterward, the Lord showed him, from day to day, "the things appointed for him to do." The Lord will not deal otherwise with us. He has great things for us to do (ought we not to say that there is true greatness in anything that is done for God?); and while we try to view our work as a whole, we are likely to be perplexed and disheartened. Let us, then, confine ourselves to the one question: Lord, what wilt Thou, upon this day, at this hour, have me to do? The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. The appointed task and the appointed grace will be found ready. TO EVERY MAN HIS WORK. (Mark xiii. 34.) The Lord appoints to every one his work, and the measure of grace needful for it. It is a common mistake, and a grievous one, for Christians to be claiming a blessing that is not ready for them because they are not ready for it, or in need of it. In a large household, does every child receive the same food? Do the parents give the same portion to the babe, the boy, the lad of fifteen, the youth of twenty? If they did, would not there be suffering, either from lack, or from excess, of nourishment? So does our Heavenly Father know what kind or measure of grace we are fit to use, and therefore able to receive. While coveting earnestly the best gifts, and ever reaching forth unto the things that are before, let us trust our Father's love and wisdom to feed us with food convenient for us, and thus go on from strength to strength, not in the footsteps of our brethren, but at the bidding of our Lord. CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUAL WEALTH. REV. C. A. FOX. This beautiful world is is ours; it belongs to us. more justly ours than the worldling's; these hills, they are all my Father's works-these beautiful Yes, the blessed Lord is like one bringing Divine hills, blooming with the bloom of God; they are wares to the very door of our hearts, "Behold I all ours. The evil world is ours, even the devil, stand at the door and knock," and as this Divine the Prince of this world. "Simon, Simon, behold Pilgrim stands at the threshold He counsels us, "I Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift counsel thee to buy of Me." It is Divine advice. Will you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy you take advice at the hands of Jesus to-night? or faith fail not." The sifting of the devil is only at will you look coldly at His wondrous wares? He the permission of Jesus. Satan's sifting and purging says, "Thou mayest be rich! Thou mayest be of the saints is only at the permission of the Son of clothed!" "Buy of Me"-"buy without money God. Life is yours; and eternal life is begun and without price,"-yet buy with the only price already, going on brighter and brighter. What a you can bring exchange yourself for God! Blessed blaze of glory will that be when you meet Jesus on exchange! Give yourself away! Let it be done the threshold of Eternal Dawn! "Life and death" to-night. Listen to His moving voice, "I counsel are ours; the gloomy portal of death is the golden thee !" portal of the eternal Presence of Jesus: and spiritual death is ours, even the death of ourselves on the Cross of Christ is ours. It is His richest gift. "Things present and things to come" are ours also. What a splendid inheritance our God hath bequeathed to us poor vile sinners! Shall we not claim it? We lose half the blessing because we do not believe Jesus is here, we do not believe that He has now all His wares and property with Him. He is an experienced traveller, who never leaves them behind. He is ever travelling between Jerusalem and Jericho with oil and wine, with means of conveyance and money. He longs for faith to rob Him! He cannot travel without His Home; He cannot leave Home without bringing His Home with Him -and this for you! Will you not have Jesus and His wares with Him? Will you not have the whole, and Himself with the whole? "All things are yours." It was so at the beginning. Adam had all things, but he could not keep them. God gives to us a better Eden than the first, a more perfect Eden,-even heaven and earth in one! They cannot again be separated. There is this difference between the first and second Eden. Adam had all things but he could not keep them. God again gives us all things and keeps us with them. Don't be afraid of being too rich, lest you should excite the cupidity of the evil hosts; Christ holds you and all the riches also which He has endowed you with, "and ye are Christ's!" All His wealth is yours, and better still, we are all His wealth! "All things are yours." This is a sublime chain let down from the throne of God to the poor fallen sinner in the dust and up to the throne again. "All things are yours," whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas;" that is, all human instrumentalities are yours—all ministers and ministries, all books, all sermons, all helps from age to age that any Christian has, or ever has had, is yours. And "the world" God puts us into the new creation, which is entrenched round with a moat of blood. Even the devil cannot pass over it. Just as running water used to be thought all-powerful to check any spell, so the running water of the Spirit and the Blood is able to check any dark spell of the Spirit World; no evil can cross it. As He brings us into the inheritance of the new creation He says: "All things are yours, . . . and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." It is more blessed to be His than to have all things for my own. "And ye are Christ's." He thinks me worth having! And Christ Himself is the wealth of God! Let me put before you one or two plain principles on which we may have all things," and realise our wealth. The first is I. Faith and the Word. The reason why we do not use our property is because we do not believe, because we do not search God's Word-we do not claim it; we do not fasten our whole affection on the Scriptures. We must fasten on the promises of God. Tarry at a promise till Christ comes by and meets you there, for He always returns by the way of the promises. "Faith embarks her all Upon some ancient promise of the Word, Blind sense discarding." Embark all upon the promises of God. Can you? You have, if you are a believer, embarked your whole being for time and eternity on some simple word of God. Dare you do it again now? A young clergyman said to me lately, "But you can't increase your own faith"? Yes you can grow your own faith, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing cometh by the Word of God." You can grow your own faith by definitely appropriating Holy Scripture, and then what a crop of faith would spring up! you would soon embrace all the impossibilities of God! Faith is first all ear to hearken to the Word; then faith becomes all hand to receive, and she puts out her whole being through her hand to clasp the Divine verities, and then faith becomes all heart fully to enter upon-to embrace-to fasten her affection on-to enjoy all that God calls her to, and as soon as that is true, faith becomes all feet | to run the way of God's commandments. This is God's will and way concerning us-faith, then, is all ear to hear, all hand to grasp, all heart to enjoy, all feet to run the blessed way of His commandments. Now we come to this further principle- This is a very important point. I know the confusion and the cavillings there have been on it, and I can only say what God has revealed to me through His Word by years of deep experience. Death there must be; death with Christ. On the Cross Christ has cut off the entail of sin by one stroke. For God's sake let there be no confusion by attempting to live two lives at once. Have done with your own life, as you acknowledge in theory. Christ's life is the only life you should live now. There must be death in connection with the will. If I have died with Christ on the Cross, I am to account myself as dead, to act as one dead. To me it is a moral fact to all intents and purposes that I am dead. If we are thus dead, then the life of Christ rushes in in all its fulness: When there is a death in any house, the blinds are all drawn down in front, but the windows at the back of the house are left open. So must there be a death in our house, the death of myself, and in front the blinds of Nature are close drawn, but behind the golden dawn of the Divine life, breaking over the hills of Time, is streaming in, not seen by the passing world outside. "Ye are dead," but I am not able to separate from this the command repeated over and over again" Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." Act as one dead-keep in the place of death towards those things which are not pleasing to God. We cannot take out power over sin on any other ground. Teach us what is Thy truth, O God! "Ye are dead; . . . . mortify, therefore." I do know that there is a power over sin in these blessed words, that we may all embrace even in this present human experience. With this death of the will there must also be a surrendered will. Christ surrendered His in Gethsemane before the cross. And there is a Gethsemane at the foot of every cross. We must die in Gethsemane before being crucified on Calvary. Let us surrender ourselves to God. However perfect our will may be, a submitted will, a will that offers itself for God's free use, is further needful. "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." How often Christians miss a good meat meal, secreted thus in His will, because they do not do His will, because they evade it. Oh to submit because it is His will! To accept because God commands! To "finish His work," instead of always attempting to begin our own! Open the dark husk of the Divine will, and out of it you shall eat and drink to His glory. Besides these two principles, there is this further one III. Love and the Life. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Lose your life for Christ's sake. It is a grand experiment. It gives honour to God. Do all "for my sake." Love gives itself away. As St. Augustine wrote, "You live where you love." Do you love? Then live in the Lord you love. Oh, the power of love! If you love, you lose all the self part of your life, but you shall find Him, and feast on all His gracious promises, on all the precious things of God. God gave one commandment. He has only one. He could not make another. He never attempted another, "Thou shalt love." And when He came to the New Testament He had still only one command to give. "Thou shalt love." He gives a new command to love, and a new power to love with it. He gives a new Person to Is love; He personifies love. How do you love? that the power of your life because you love? He feels so much the want of love. Think of Peter, how much he must have pained Him; but after the resurrection he comes to plead with the poor guilty Simon. "You have denied me; you are the defeated, disgraced Simon; but now I ask you again, Do you love me? I want your love." And that humbled man lifted up his face by grace and said, "Lord, thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee!" Can we say that when He comes to each one of us, "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee!" Now one concluding thought. "All things are yours;" but only by the verifying principle of action. IV. Daring and the Spirit. Dare out into experience. Friends may smile; even your Christian brethren may smile, but, Spiritled, dare out into the deep of God's blessed dark promises. Go out with Him. For the present and the future give yourself away to the Lord Jesusleave all, launch out, and follow Him. If we would know "all things are yours" we must have this daring out into experience "Nothing before, nothing behind The Steps of Faith; Fall on the seeming void, and find We must first have faith in fact; faith in the fact of all Gospel facts; but, after that, faith in act. Even when it is true that you cannot see any way, at the command of God, "go forward." Even if there be a Red Sea before you, "go forward"; or some blank wall, "go forward," and you shall say, "By the help of my God I have leaped over a wall." Can you dare out into the dark with Jesus? Nay, into the light, into the blessed dawn of His presence, into the songs of deliverance that surround Him ? Is it such a terrible thing to trust God? It is only those who are led by the Spirit who are the Sons of God-" as many as." How blessed! We trust Truth. God is Truth, and we are trust. God is all truth; let us be all trust. Will you trust Him to-day, henceforth, and for ever? Shall we take Him now "for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey till death us do unite," in the fulness of His divine meaning, till, face to face with the glory of God, we stand in the fulness of eternity? Will you dare to give yourself away; will you go home without yourself to-night? I know what it is to have cares; I know what it is scarcely ever to speak without almost a miracle. With all your cares, give yourself over into the hands of Jesus; trust Him now, and you will trust Him more tomorrow. Trust Him in little things-in your class, in your visiting, in your business, in your writing, and this is an age of writing for the Master. Let Him keep the door of your lips. Let Him answer the door, and give the answer. And when sorrow comes, go into your room and meet Him there, and share with Him the solemn bereavement; abandon yourself to Him as completely under your sorrow as you did at the first under your sins. He stoops from the heights of eternity, and bows His stainless shoulders to your darkest needs. And now, Lord, Thou art here again! and as we have cast our sins upon Thee, Thou Lamb of God, we would cast also our cares to-night! Thou blessed Burden Bearer, dear Lord Jesus, we have seen Thee, we have proved Thee in the darkest day that Thou art able to bear our sorrows, our cares, our failures, our falls. Thou art able to bear our faults, our defeats, our sins of omission as well as our sins of commission. Do you know that you have a High Priest on the Throne? Grace is enthroned! He waits to hear all the complaints of burdened souls, and He heals our sorrows, and releases every captive wing. He is the High Priest pleading in the Presence of God with uplifted Hands. He pleads, "Father, look on Me and forgive them;" He hides us in the snowy folds of the vesture of His own Righteousness; He buries us in Himself. Do not go away without trusting Him to-night. Every one who leaves this tent without trusting Him will have grieved His heart to-night. Will you prove the reality of His Presence? and say, "Lord, I will trust Thee now; I see Thee here and dare not pass Thee by!" THURSDAY. THE PRIVILEGE OF SONS OF GOD. BY CANON BATTERSBY. (John i. 1-18.) (Canon BATTERSBY referred, at the beginning of his remarks, to a petition sent in that morning for a brother "who is converted, but laughs at consecration.") The low standard of life among Christians has |