ness which has followed, and may yet follow. Sitting, as I did, under the shadow of that dark cloud, absolutely losing myself in the sweet will of God there, and thus "learning obedience from the things which I suffered," and beingbecause I was through all that period consciously sustained by a power not my own-" more than a conqueror through Him that hath loved us," I now, as a witness for Christ, have an absolute assurance of the all-sufficiency of divine grace, an assurance otherwise impossible to me. When God at length very unexpectedly took me by the hand, and led me out from under that cloud, and set me again in "a large place," I very soon understood why God had afflicted me. There is one grace-the most valuable of almost all others—one grace in which we can be disciplined and perfected but in "the furnace of affliction." When "patience has had her perfect work" there, then the mind becomes possessed, as it otherwise could not be, of "everlasting consolations and good hope through grace," of " assurances of hope," assurances of faith," and "assurances of understanding," of divine fellowships and fruitions, and of "fulness of joy." Reader, "despise not thou the chastening (parental discipline) of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” Remember, also, that they only are blessed, and counted happy, "who endure temptation;" that when the hour of trial comes, then and there is the time and place when and where the " corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die."

The final conclusion to which all the above facts and elucidations conduct us is, the absolute assurance with which we may intrust all our mortal and immortal cares and interests to Christ. "Because I live, ye shall live also." When intrusted to Him by an unwavering faith, our wellbeing is iust as safe as His. There is not a condition of

existence in which we can be placed in which there is any necessity that we should be anything less than " more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us." When Christ is in us, and we in Him, as He is in the Father, and the Father in Him, we shall be as secure and blessed in Him as He was in the Father, and temptations, in whatever forms they may come upon us, will have no more power over us than they had over Him. "He that abideth in Him sinneth not." In this relation to Christ, into which all may, and all are absolutely bound to enter, we can have nothing less than an "all-sufficiency for all things," and cannot but be "abundantly furnished for every good work," and can do nothing less than "all things through Christ which strengtheneth us." "Great fights of affliction," "divers temptations," "fiery trials," and "resistance unto blood, striving against sin," are eras in "the hidden life," not for inglorious defeats, but for glorious victories and triumphs, through the blood of the Lamb and the Word of His testimony." The reason, and the only reason, why any believer, the feeblest as well as the strongest, does not "stand in the evil day," is that he expects to fall, and hence " casts away his confidence." The reason, and the only reason, why I, as above stated, "remained steadfast and immovable" during the long years in which that dark cloud hung over me, was that I expected Christ would "keep me from falling," and held to Him as with a death-grasp. In my absolute and unlimited consecration of myself to Christ, the corn of wheat had fallen into the ground;" and now, I said to myself, "the hour is come" for it to remain and die there, and by the grace and power of Christ it shall thus remain and die. During all that dark period my faith heard the voice of Him, for whose sake I regard it as an infinite privilege to suffer all that He wills, calling to me as

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from heaven, "Hold the fort, for I am coming;" and my whole inner being, with all the "little strength" I had, responded, "By grace I will." And now, reader, having not only "counted," but found, "Him faithful that hath promised," I say to you, and Christ also authorises me to say, that you need not fall when you are tempted. On the other hand, "the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried in the fire, may be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." "If thou wilt believe, thou shalt see the glory of God.". "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might;" and at all times, and under all circumstances, expect to be "more than a conqueror through Him that hath loved you." Then shall you be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth for ever."

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CHAPTER XI.

THE INTERCESSORY FUNCTIONS OF THE SPIRIT.

IN I John ii. 1, Christ is revealed as our " Advocate with the Father." "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." In John xiv. 16, 26, xv. 26, and xvi. 17, the same original word that is rendered Advocate in the passage above cited, is rendered Comforter, and is applied exclusively to the Holy Spirit. In a very important sense, therefore, we have two Advocates with the Father, each to act in His own special sphere-two Advocates, namely, Jesus Christ the Righteous on the one hand, and the Holy Spirit on the other. In Rom. viii. 26, 27, we have a revelation of the nature of this peculiar function of the Holy Spirit. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." As I have never yet heard this subject satisfactorily explained to my own mind, I will dwell upon it for a few moments. In the promises, two things are absolutely pledged to the faith of the believer-perfect security against all real evil on the one hand, and the possession of all real good on the other. As examples of the first class of promises, I need only cite the following:-" There shall no

evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." "I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil." That prayer is an absolute promise to our faith. Of the other class of promises, the following will suffice :-" No good thing will He withhold from them who walk uprightly." "But my God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus." "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" The promises to prayer have but one limit-our capacities to receive. "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." So far the will of God is distinctly and absolutely revealed to us. So far we may ask, knowing assuredly that what we ask is agreeable to the will of God," and that, "asking in faith," 66 we shall have the petitions that we desired of Him." And here we have the real meaning of our Saviour in the words, "Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." What every true believer wills and asks for when he prays is, that he may be kept from all that would be to him an evil, and not a good; that he may receive everything which would be to him not an evil, but a good; and that "God will supply all his need," until "his joy is full."

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Now, when we come to particulars, and would specify this or that particular object, here come in " our infirmities," and we do not "know what we should pray for as we ought," because we do not know whether particular objects would be to us a good or an evil. Here, also, the Spirit is present to "help our infirmities," and becomes our intercessor for "things which are agreeable to the will of God." What we may not know at all the Spirit knows perfectly, namely, what particular objects would be good, and what objects would be evil to us, and knows, consequently, what