forth the Eternal arms for our upholding. Think how He feels for us, on account of our sufferings, and troubles; and in all our afflictions He is afflicted. The things which do but vex and disconcert our happiness touch His tender, pitying heart of love, in a way that it is not possible for our minds to conceive.

In His Word!

Where then can we go to talk with God? If He knows our frame, and remembers that we are but dust, where may we hear His voice? There may we see Him, and there may we talk with Him. His voice we discover there, not only in all He speaks, but in all He does. There is, perhaps, more power revealed to our hearts in the Saviour's tears, shed beside the grave of Lazarus, than in the utterances which called him from the dead. There is more meaning in the look, which He cast upon the falling Peter, than in any parable He spake: and more tenderness in the question. which afterwards

He put to the same disciple, "Lovest thou Me?" than in the miracle of feeding five thousand. It is in these instances that Jesus tells us what is in His heart of love towards every one who flies for refuge to His compassionate arms.

In His word, then, let us continue to converse with the Almighty. Lady Jane Grey was asked how she could consent to forego the pleasures of the chase, and prefer sitting at home reading her Bible. She smilingly replied, "All amusements of that description are but a shadow of the pleasures which I enjoy in reading this Book!" Of Roger Cotton it is related that he read the whole Bible through twelve times a year; and of the pious Romaine, it is said, that he studied nothing but the Bible for the last thirty or forty years of his life. It is in this-His revealed will-that we can talk with God; and it is here that He condescends to talk with us. Oh! what compassion is this!

XXII

Talking of God.

"THEN they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name."-MALACHI iii. 16.

"GOD is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all-sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."2 CORINTHIANS ix. 8.

THOUGH vine nor fig-tree neither

Their wonted fruit should bear;
Though all the field should wither,
Nor flock nor herd be there;

Yet God the same abiding,

His praise shall tune my voice

For while in Him confiding,
I cannot but rejoice!

TWENTY-SECOND DAY.

D°

we agree in saying, that one great felt want, in the Church of Christ, is more earnestness? That if there was the due proportion of such earnestness, there would be an increased interest felt in the spiritual welfare of souls? Even so. Then, with all the means at our command, let us labour more- -and pray more —and yet hold more firmly to the truth that the real influence must come from God. This is not a work intended for a few, merely, but it is a talent entrusted to every believing disciple. He is to talk of God, and to speak for God. None who search the Scriptures can be ignorant of this. What is this, but an acknowledgement, that the world needs a wider diffusion of the truth as it is in Jesus? Precious seed, the seed of the kingdom, has been sown; but, has it been sown with weeping and with prayer? To talk

of God, except we know Him, is indeed vain; and to tell of the Gospel, and not to ask the Holy Spirit's influences to accompany that Gospel, is likewise vain.

We own that the sun and the rain are both indispensable to the production of vegetation, and that air is equally as essential to support animal life; and yet, how often do thousands forget to plead for a shower of Divine blessings upon their daily toil. How different was it in the days of Luther, when crowds, as they hung upon his lips, were melted into contrition and tears; yea, went forth from the services with the resolve to throw their worthless works to the winds, and trust for justification through the blood of Jesus Christ alone. In the hands of such men as Whitfield and Wesley the instrumentality of preaching the Gospel became a mighty power; and going through the length and breadth of the land, they showed themselves "ambassadors fo Christ," as though God did, by the