the wise man is master of the tongue, but the tongue is master of the fool.

"Look at that great fool Rabshakeh we read of in the Second Book of Kings. Read the vile talk that rushed out of his mouth like a torrent of pitch and slime. Rabshakeh, didn't your tongue break its chain when you delivered that foul speech which ought to make you blush through all eternity? Oh, for consecrated tongues!

"The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.'

Adam and Eve, who saw you in the garden? Hagar, who saw you in the desert? Abraham, who saw you on the mountain? Achan, who saw you in the tent? Ezekiel, who saw you on the plain? Belshazzar, who saw you in the palace? Nathaniel, who saw you under the fig tree? Peter, who saw you on the housetop? Lydia, who saw you by the river-side? Paul, who saw you in the tempest? Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, godly Lydia and ungodly Belshazzar, all cry out with Hagar, Thou God seest me!' Can any man hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.'

"O wondrous knowledge, deep and high,

Where can a creature hide?

Within Thy circling arms I lie,

Beset on every side.'

"A wholesome tongue is a tree of life; but perverseness therein is a breach of the spirit.'

"Let your speech be seasoned with salt, then your words will not only be harmless, but helpful and wholesome. Too often our tongues are like a thorn-bush, piercing, pricking and hurting everything they come in contact with, instead of a tree of life, affording refreshing fruit to pilgrims weary and discouraged by the way. May it be with us as it was with the Blessed Master, when the people marvelled at the gracious words which fell from His lips.' The day is coming when the thorn-bush will be nowhere, and the tree of life everywhere. Let us help it on.

"A fool despiseth his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.'

No man likes to be called a fool-anything but that—but what a world of fools this is after all! Remember, a fool's bolt is soon shot, and he pays dear, very dear, for his whistle in the end. Fools men may live, but fools they cannot die.'

« If God reproves your folly in this book, for your soul's sake don't count Him your enemy, but regard His plain words as the best counsel of a loving friend.

"In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is much trouble.'

"There are treasures and treasures. Gold is good as far as it goes, but grace is better, for it goes a great deal farther. Lazarus hadn't much of a house as he lay at the rich man's gate, but he had treasure sufficient to outweigh the wealth of the world. Paul speaks about being poor, yet possessing all things. There's something in that for both rich men and poor men to think about. "The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the foolish doeth not so.'

"How can it be otherwise.

If

You cannot take from a man what he hasn't got. You may as well expect to gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles, as gather knowledge from a hollowhearted, empty-headed fool. From nothing, nothing comes. knaves are the dead-beats, fools are the dead-blanks of society. "The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but He loveth him that followeth righteousness.'

"Not much encouragement to the wicked man in this verse. What an awful thing to be a living abomination in the sight of God!

"Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way, and he that hateth reproof shall die.'

"None of us like the rod, but what selfish, wayward children we would be without it. Manasseh had more reason to thank God for his fetters than for his crown; for his dungeon than for his palace. David deserved a good thrashing, and Nathan didn't spare him. Far better feel the smart of the rod than live and die in sin.

"Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more the hearts of the children of men.'

"Terrible thought! The eye that pierces through the 'blackness of darkness' can follow me everywhere.

"A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him, neither will he go unto the wise.'

"A bad boy who has done a bad deed does not usually go to his father and ask for a flogging. A burglar who has robbed a store doesn't run to the magistrate and ask him for five years of hard labour at the penitentiary, no more does the scorner ask for the reproof of the wise man. The scornful Scribes couldn't stand the plain words of Christ.

"A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.'

"Save us from sour-faced Christians! If the heart is full of joy, the face ought to be full of sunshine. The Gospel gives

beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Praise the Lord! It's our privilege to be always living on the sunny side of the hill.

"The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.'

"Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is power. A wise man will learn from any teacher. The Queen of Sheba travelled across a weary desert to learn from Solomon; Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and Cornelius opened his house to receive instruction from Peter. There are many kinds of knowledge, but the best kind is to know our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

"Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith.'

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox, and hatred therewith.'

"Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long.' "It's not the golden cage that makes the bird sing. A good man's little is better than a bad man's all. Jacob's ladder, which reached to Heaven, often has its foot resting in some poor widow's cottage. "The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns.'

"Idleness is hard work for those who are not used to it, and dull work for those that are. Nothing is so hard to do as to do nothing. God's world is a busy world, and a lazy man earns the contempt of the universe.

"He that is greedy of gain, troubleth his own house.' "Brother Lot, why did you pitch your tent toward Sodom? Because I was greedy of gain. What followed? Family trouble. Joshua, why are you going to stone that man Achan? Because he was greedy of gain. Samuel, why is Saul to be rejected as King over Israel? Because he was greedy of gain. Elijah, why are you going to curse Ahab? Because he was greedy of gain. Elisha, why are you going to smite Gehazi with the terrible curse of leprosy? Because he was greedy of gain. Ten thousand homes are wrecked to day from the very same cause. May God save us from the greedy eye.

"The Lord is far from the wicked, but He heareth the prayer of the righteous.'

"What a blessed promise that is to the Christian. Every good man is a praying man. The prayers of a good man avail much. Joshua, you know all about that. Elijah, you proved that in Carmel. Paul and Silas, from the innermost dungeon your prayer was heard. Brethren, let us batter the gates of Heaven with storms of prayer.

"The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honour is humility.'

The Valley of

climb the

"The cross always comes before the crown. Humiliation' must be gone through before 'Delectable Mountains.' We must lose our life before we can find it. Suffering and sacrifice here is the king's highway to the sceptre of power and the song of triumph.

"Who suffer with our Master here,
We shall before His face appear,

And by His side sit down ;
To patient faith the prize is sure,
And all that to the end endure

The cross shall wear the crown.'

"Praise the Lord! We're on the winning side!”

After the singing of a stirring hymn to some bright, breezy tune, old Robert Lightup, lifting up his spectacles to the top of his forehead, and looking seriously over his congregation, says: Brethren, pray for me while I draw the bow at a venture to-day; pray that I may have grace to speak plainly, and pray that God may give you grace to receive the truth, even though it should sting like a nettle and prick like a thorn.

"You can find the text in John's Gospel, ii. 5. Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.'

any account.

"This was spoken by Mary, the mother of Jesus, at a marriagefeast in Cana of Galilee. She understood Jesus better than the disciples did. Though she was His mother according to the flesh, yet He, no doubt, taught her many a lesson unknown to the others, and which she pondered in her heart. She felt sure something special was going to happen through the wonder-working power of Jesus, so, like a wise and prudent woman, she took time by the forelock, and going quietly to some of the servants, she said: Now I want to give you a hint, which you must not forget on You see Jesus sitting yonder? Oh, yes, we know Him quite well. Very well, keep your eyes and ears open to all He says and does. He is of more importance than all the rest of the guests, and whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. They took the hint, and we know what followed. They had the most delightful marriage-feast ever held in Cana; first, because Jesus was there, and second, because they did what He told them to do. "Brethren and sisters, the key-word of our text is obedience'do it.' Obedience is the keystone in the arch of Christian character; without that all else would tumble into ruin. The first great law of Christian life is to obey. A disobedient Christian is

a contradiction of terms.

You may as well talk about a hot frost,

a cold fire, a dry rain, or slow thunderbolt. No obedience-no Christian. Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?' Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life.

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Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it!'

"Unless I have misread and misunderstood this old book, God has sometimes told His children to do some very strange things; things, in the doing of which they would be subjected to all sorts of ridicule and jesting. Look at old Noah. What lots of fun the boys had with him while he was building the ark. How the young scoffers, ay, and the old ones, too, gathered round him day after day, and said:

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Well, old man, how's ship-building getting on to-day? When do you expect your contract will be finished? What do you get for the job? How do you expect to get the thing launched? Have you arranged any special programme for the occasion? What are you going to call her? Wouldn't Noah's Folly' or the 'Deluge Floater,' be a good name for her? Is your ship for water or dry land? She looks more like a barn than a barque. I see you have no arrangements for a rudder; how are you going to steer her when she does get afloat; if ever that should happen? You've been hammering away at this old tub, and talking about a deluge for more than a hundred years, but the skies are as clear, and the sun shines as bright as ever. If you haven't preached and ham. mered your wits entirely away, you had better gather up your tools and bid a long good-bye to this old hulk.

"And so the tongues of the unbelieving wagged in wanton jests from year to year.

"If some of you are tried for an hour, or a day at most, then you think a great and sore test of your faith has befallen you; but look at this old antediluvian hero, one hundred and twenty years amid the taunts and jeers of the world, yet faithful amid it all. Through all these years he kept at his task, nailing spar to spar, and plank to plank. According to all that God commanded him, so did he.' Well done, Noah! Thy record as the ark builder is all aglow with the one word 'obedience!' example shines as bright to-day as it did 4,000 years ago. "To obey is better than sacrifice.'

Thy

If ye know the will of God, happy are ye if ye do it.' "Obedience! Abraham, what are you doing here? Building an altar. What are you building the altar for? To offer up a sacrifice. What kind of a sacrifice are you going to offer? A burnt sacrifice. But where is the victim? I see nothing here on