great truths not a matter for mere intellectual credence, but a proffered experience of every believer. "To as many as received him gave he power to be come the sons of God." Perfect peace through atonement: "There is no more condemnation." Perfect character through the work of the Spirit: "We shall be like him." Immortality assured: "6 This is life eternal, to know God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent." THE FULNESS OF TIME. When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son.-Gal. iv: 4. Fulness of time. (a) Time appointed -70 weeks of Daniel. (b) Time of expectancy among God's people-Holy men "waited for the consolation of Israel." "Waited for the kingdom of God." (c) Time when the world was ready to confess its need of such a Savior. Take this for theme. I. The world was fully conscious of its ignorance, and longed for a Divine teacher. Socrates: "I know that I do not know." Anaxagoras: "Nothing can be known, nothing is certain; sense is limited, intellect is weak, life is short." Aristotle: "I have entered a world full of sin. I have lived in ignorance: I die in perturbation. Cause of causes pity me!" So the world to-day confesses its hopeless ignorance of all spiritual things. Spencer's philosophy: "Every honest heart confesses the need of a teacher sent from God.' Behold the Teacher!" II. The world at the time of Christ's advent was fully conscious of its sinfulness and longed for a Redeemer from sin. The golden age of Augustus the crimson age of vice. Paul's description in Epistles to Romans and Corinthians. The expurgata of ancient classics. So the world to-day. So every conscience testifies that the cup of guilt is full. Behold the Sin-Bearer! III. The world at the time of Christ's advent fully realized the reign of death and longed for a life-bringer. The armies of Rome trod all countries into graves. The fashion of suicide at the time. So to-day death reigns. So every man's face blanched with the fear of death. Behold the Life-Giver! APPLICATION: Let the fulness of need be the fulness of joy, since Christ has come to every one of us. Let Christ be formed within us. THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. The star... went before them.--Mark i: 9. The star of Bethlehem guides (1) To truth. "I am the Truth." (2) To peace. "There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." (3) To comfort. "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me." (4) To purity. "Christ, who of God is made unto us sanctification." (5) To life. "I am the Resurrection and the Life." ful anticipation is the mist light which gives to small and near objects the illusion of vast and distant ones. He only who has paced the ground knows it. His life was a short one in view of the eternity opening before him. A venerable Christian dying, said: "I am a little child, so little and feeble; an infant of days, indeed, as I am now being taken into the arms of the Father of Eternity." Life's true measure is not years, but epochs of progress toward the ideal which the Creator has set before us. As the tree's chronicles are its rings, so those of the soul are its definite expansions. In heaven they have the seniority of attainments, as "one star differs from another in glory;" so as the angels see us on earth. I. Ask yourself, how far am I advanced in my knowledge of truth! Not merely intellectual information, but heart knowledge. Do I know God yet? Has my soul so apprehended Providence that it rests in confidence of the Divine care? Have I attained to the sense of Divine childhood? Do I know Christ and Him crucified? Have I learned the secret of divine commun. ion? Do I discern spiritual things, or am I yet but a babe "crying for the light?" Ah! gray heads who are still learning the principles, the A B C, of Christ. (Heb. vi: 1.) II. How much have I developed in character, grown in spiritual size, toward the stature of the perfect man in Christ Jesus? My soul has often been melted by outward trial; what new forms of Christ-likeness were then impressed upon it? I have thrown off what besetting sins; gained self-command over what passions; am able to assert my Christian manhood above what old and once crushing temptations? III. What record have I made in my Lord's service? Veteran means old; but the soldier attains the title not by years rather by the campaigns and battles in which he was found faithful. What noble fights have I made against evil in my neighborhood? What service rendered the needy? What com fort brought the sick? What help to discouraged souls? How many have I delivered from the power of temptation by my words and prayers? Into how many camps of wickedness have I broken to rescue captive souls? What moral dungeons entered with the lamp of life and the writ of liberty? With greatest spiritual acquirements, the Christian here is only a child about to enter upon eternal development. But there is also a growing in evil. What vices and misery may have accumulated upon an old sinner, as he has grown strong to hurt himself and others, and weak to protect and help. Yet the most terribly experienced in sin and its suffering in this world, is but a little child to grow forever in wickedness. What will such an one be when eternity has furrowed the soul with the ceaseless experience of the damned? Some one says that a holy experience is God's birthday kiss with which He reminds the soul of its having once been "born again." May our thoughts at the turning of the year realize to us this salutation of our heavenly Father; for we may all be His dear children. RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. iii. 13, 14. I. The Christian's attitude toward the Past Forgetting 1. Past sorrows. God remembers them: that is enough. "Put thou my tears into thy bottle." "Our light affliction worketh for us a weight of glory." Why brood? 2. Past mistakes. A military critic says that Bonaparte made more mistakes than most generals, but that he surpassed others in the quickness with which he let the mistakes go, and tried something better. 3. Past sins. If you believe in Christ they do not attach to you; why should you attach yourself to them? Are you distressed at the debit page when the credit page outfigures it? "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." 4. Past attainments. A little early prosperity has ruined many a man. So the conceit of spiritual knowledge, virtue, usefulness. II. The Christian's attitude toward the Future. 1. Purpose of attaining. "Reaching forth" suggests the position of the runner, with body thrown forward beyond the centre of gravity; must go on, or fall. We must get off our do-nothing centres of gravity. Give self the propulsion of (a) a Christian vow, (b) Christian fellowships, (c) the beginning of some Christian work 2. Strenuous exertion to attain. "I press toward the mark." 3. Singleness of purpose and concentration of effort. 66 Toward the mark." 4. Glowing hopefulness. "For the prize," etc. THE DAY OF SETTLEMENT. The books were opened.-Rev. xx: 12. Time of year for taking account of stock; scan life's ledger. As an incentive to honest and thorough inspection, think of the great day when God's books shall be opened. 1. Memory revived: perhaps nothing irrevocably forgotten that ever impressed us. 2. Conscience revived: every first just judgment we have passed upon our actions will stand ultimately 3. Memory's record augmented by the Divine omniscience: exposing motives which we had not estimated. For who knows himself? 4. Conscience's decisions supplemented by those of the Divine righteousness. 5. The judgment public: all souls will see straight through each. Nothing hid that shall not be revealed." 6. "Another book" opened: Christ's book of grace, in which are the bloodwrit names of those whom He has redeemed from their sins. NEW-YEAR THOUGHTS. It was a beautiful custom of an English king to head every letter and every new page of ... ... "Nought treads so silent as the foot of time: Hence we mistake our Autumn for our prime."-YOUNG. "Year chases year, decay pursues decay, Still drops some joy from withering life away; New forms arise, and different views engage, Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage."-DR. JOHNSON. "What though on her cheek the rose loses its hue, Her ease and good-humor bloom all the year through. Time still as he flies brings increase to her truth, And gives to her mind what he steals from her youth,"-MOORE. "We may all be young again. Though we cannot thread our way back through the ruined years to start afresh at the old homestead, we can press on to our heavenly Father's house. We cannot have the old flowers; but we do have the old sunshine of God's love, and that will make new flowers to bloom over the landscape of the soul. The wrinkles will not leave the brow, but the hope of Immortality will take away every shadow-line of care and grief and weariness from our spirits."-LUDLOW. What a countless throng of human beings have been marching across the narrow plane of earthly existence during the past year! According to the usual estimate, not less than 31,500,000 of probationers since the first of January, 1885, have gone down to the grave and entered eternity! Place them in long array, and they will make a moving column of more than 1,300 to each mile of the world's circumference ! What a spectacle, as they move on-tramp, tramp, tramp-upon this stupendous dead march! Nearly 100,000 souls in this vast cavalcade drop out and die each day of the year J. M. SHERWOOD. MISCELLANEOUS SECTION. THE MISSIONARY FIELD. BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D., PHILADELPHIA, REV. J. HUDSON TAYLOR is its founder and director. Thirty-one years ago he went to China as the first English missionary of the Chinese Evangelization Society in London. He soon cast himself on the Lord for support, for his conscience would not allow him longer to receive aid from a society that frequently ran into debt. In six years failing health obliged him to return to England, where he remained seven years till his health permitted his return. While at home he aided in translating and printing the New Testament in the Ningpo dialect, and visited churches to present China's needs and claims. He urged missionary societies to enlarge the work in China and send laborers to the inland provinces. Failing to get a satisfactory response, such was his anxiety that he could neither eat nor sleep. At last, committing his burden to the Lord, he resolved to undertake the work which he could not get others to do. He asked of God a band of devoted disciples, inspired with a passion for souls, who would cast themselves in faith entirely on God for support. In 1865 the mission was formed, and more than twenty laborers came to China the next year. Fifteen years later, there were about one hundred. Some three years since, Mr. Taylor and a band of missionaries in a city six hundred miles from the sea-coast, spent an evening in prayer that God would within three years send them seventy other consecrated and competent workmen, and supply the means for their outfit and passage. It was also proposed that at the end of the three years another meeting should be held for praise and thanksgiving, so confident were they that their prayers would be answered; but as it might be impracticable for them to meet together after being so widely scattered, they decided to hold the praise meeting then and there, which was done in accordance with 1 John v: 15. They covenanted together to pray daily for this object. The prayer has been richly answered. More than seventy have sailed for China within the time, and others are waiting to go. They represent almost every evangelical denomination. A few are university men, but the majority have no classical training. In China, where vast multitudes are ignorant and illiterate, there is abundant work for persons of mediocre ability and attainments if they know the Bible, live by faith, and will spend their lives wholly for Christ. Each person is a probationer for the first two years. If progress in the language is satisfactory and there be evidence of fitness for the work, the workers may marry and rank as full missionaries. Each is allowed to baptize and organize churches in accordance with the views he believes most Scriptural. More than a score provide for their own support and receive no contributions. The others receive their share of whatever is sent without personal solicitation. None must go in debt. All must dress in Chinese costume, shave the head, wear a cue, and live plainly. This band of devoted and apostolic missionaries are now working in every province except two, where there were no missionaries before the formation of this mission. Last year contributions were sent to the amount of $90,000, in sums varying from a sixpence to $5,000. This Mission has a native membership of about 1,500, and more than one hundred native preachers. Its history is full of direct answers to prayer for specific objects and of God's providential leading and gracious presence. Not a few have been in peril from persecu tion and violence. Their houses have been burnt, and they have been compelled to flee; but God's blessing is conspicuously upon this Mission. The visit of Mr. Moody to the English universities, during his labors in England, made a deep and lasting impression on the gifted and influential young men there assembled, and gave a mighty impulse to foreign missions. Ten years ago, a Mr. Studd, a sporting man, was led to Mr. Moody's meetings; he was converted, and became an enthusiastic Christian worker. His two sons entered Cambridge, and became famous as cricketers, one being captain of the university eleven. At Mr. Moody's late visit to Cambridge they became ac tive in religious work. Their attention was turned to the needs of the heathen, and they devoted their time and talents to rousing missionary enthusiasm among their fellow-students in England and Scotland. About forty of the finest students decided to become missionaries. Mr. C. T. Studd selected China Inland Mission, paying his own expenses, and with Mr. Stanley Smith, "stroke oar" in the Cambridge boatclub, is now in the field. His brother is to become a missionary in East London, assisted by a daughter of Lady Beauchamp, whom he has married, and whose brother has devoted his life likewise to China. PART II. MISSIONARY TEXTS, THEMES, ETC. At the 71st Anniversary of the American Baptist Missionary Union, Dr. Edward Judson said some noteworthy things, which will bear to be engraven on our memories; for example: The Christian instinct impels us outward. A band of missionaries and native teachers in the Indian Archipelago proposed to establish a new station on an island not yet explored. The natives of the island in question seemed bent on intimidating the teachers. They said, "There are alligators there, and scorpions, and centipedes." One of the native teachers asked, "Are there men there?" "Oh, yes," was the reply, "there are men; but they are dreadful savages, and will devour you." "That will do," was the heroic answer; "wherever there are men, missionaries are bound to go." On one of the New Hebrides, in the South Pacific, is the lonely grave of a Presbyterian missionary, the Rev. John Geddie. A marble slab bears the following inscription: When he came here, An artist represents a train of wounded soldiers filing past a group of mounted officers. The officers bare their heads in the presence of their shattered comrades. The picture is entitled "Salut aux Blessés" (The Salute to the Wounded). How deep and instinctive our homage as we behold these returned missionaries, whose forms have been shattered by heroic endeavor in the Master's service! An English Colonel remarked, "I have been in India for many years, and have never seen a native convert." Some days afterwards the same colonel, in relating his hunting experiences, said that he had shot thirty tigers. "Did I understand you to say thirty, colonel?" asked a missionary. "Yes, sir, thirty." "Well now, that is strange," said the missionary. "I have been in India for twenty-five years, but I never saw a wild tiger all that time." Good reason why," said the colonel; "you did not go where the tigers were." "Perhaps that is so,' said the missionary; "but may not that be the reason you never saw a native convert? Perhaps you did not go where the native converts were." 66 If you follow the oak-tree down from the summit to the base, you see the leafy crown, twig, branch and trunk, until you arrive at the earth, where the oak seems to stop; but, if the opaque ground should become transparent, you would see another tree below. Above, you have the oak of branches; below, the oak of roots; and the tree above ground depends helplessly upon the inverted tree below. Just such a relation of dependence exists between our Missionary Societies and the Churches. The only way to strengthen these soci |