offered prayer, he "kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation." (2 Chron. vi, 13.) When Jesus prayed for the cup to pass from him, "he fell upon his face." (Matt. xxvi, 39.) We think it was the usual custom of our Lord and the early Christians to bow down upon their knees when they prayed. (Luke xxii, 41; Acts vii, 60; xx, 36; xxi, 5; Eph. iii, 14.) Kneeling is certainly an attitude becoming to every suppliant at the throne of grace.

PERFECT OBEDIENCE.

The perfect keeping of nine commandments will not atone for breaking the tenth. St. James says that if we keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, we are guilty of all. The law of God is an endless chain, every link of which sustains a vitally important relation to all the rest. If one link be broken, the severance is just as complete as if five were destroyed. The violator of one commandment may not be as heinously offensive to the great Lawgiver as the violator of ten, but he is a violator just the same, and guilty. Moreover, if his violation be deliberate and reckless, it may serve quite as completely to sever his soul far from God as the most general wickedness. As a rule, the conscience that is educated to respect and observe the Divine 'requirements, and does so in the main, is apt to feel more keenly the consequences of one deliberate moral lapse than the less sensitive soul in the midst of constant transgression. God requires the whole heart.

"He abhors the sacrifice

Where not the heart is found."

The soul may pay its vows to him in the spirit of general obedience, but the one willful refusal to obey at a given point, where peculiar sacrifices are required, will involve in condemnation and spiritual darkness. When the test of God's law is applied to every act, it must be pronounced by itself an act of obedience or disobedience; it can not be both at the same time, and there is nothing to apply to an act of willful disobedience to moderate its guilt or make it otherwise than what it is. There are no works of supererogation. There can be no accumulation of virtue in any life for use in a moment of spiritual dearth. In the natural world men may lay by in store against times of famine and want, but not so in the moral. Every day brings its own duties. Every hour is freighted with its own obligations. In prosperity the Christian is to be true; in adversity he can not be false. In the life of religious service there are no vaca

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tions. God metes out to no man more time than is necessary to do his whole work. None may hope to accomplish in the first or second half of life what God knows will require the whole life to do, and then expect to be excused for idleness and indifference to duty. that endureth to the end shall be saved. Obedience to-day is right, no more than right, no less than right, and obedience to-morrow will carry its own and the same environments. But, under grace, obedience is easily possible in all things. And only by grace is perfect obedience possible to any. It is a mistake to suppose that none could obey the law without such a change of nature as would enable the soul to remain holy without any further influence from the Spirit of Christ. We doubt whether such a state is possible of realization. The Christian is always dependent on Christ and the Holy Spirit. Perfect obedience is nothing else than a condition of entire dependence upon Divine help, where Divine help is needed and promised. It is that state in which the mind throws itself wholly upon the supporting grace of Christ, saying, I will do what is required of me, God being my helper.

STRENGTH TO STAND.

No Christian is worth much to the Church who has not power to stand alone. As well might a man with a weak back attempt to rear a stone wall. He must have strength not only to lift, but to assume the attitude of a builder of stone. The Christian is one of God's building. He is called sometimes to serve, and sometimes to stand and wait. Paul contemplates this attitude in that beautiful sixth chapter of Ephesians, wherein he says: "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." We need faith in Goda faith that is clearly defined and direct-an unwavering confidence in his existence, personality, and providence. We need to think of him as a judge and rewarder, as taking cognizance of our words, thoughts, and actions here much the same as we observe the actions of one another. We need to feel that he seeth in secret, and understandeth our thoughts; that every moment we live he is inevitably marking our conduct, and will call us to account. The consciousness that God really sees us is a powerful deterrent from evil. No person who really believes that God's eye is upon him can rush headlong into evil. If he ever had such a belief he must first learn to doubt before he can deliberately sin. Persons of strongest faith in God are

strongest to withstand evil. Especially is this true if there be, with it a clear understanding of the Divine will. This comes from the study of the Word and the enlightenment of the Spirit. To know God, to believe in him, to understand his will, these are elements of spiritual power. A sound conversion, a prayerful life, a watchful spirit, give strength in the evil day. The worldly wise, the self-confident, the lovers of ease and pleasure, like Solomon when he had forgotten the God of his father David, lapse easily and quickly into sinful lives. The spirit of a man crops out in his conduct. By their fruits shall ye know them, is an infallible rule. Grapes grow not on thorns. Thistles produce no figs. The worldly spirit yields no spiritual strength. The husks of sin impart no moral vigor. The pillars of the Church are not made out of such weaklings as skepticism and immorality produce. They are the men or women who have been strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power which worketh in us. Every one may be a partaker of the Divine nature . to such an extent as to be quick and strong to resist sin, ready and able to do good, and vigorous and resolute for a long life-service. Every Church needs such members. Every good cause requires such supporters. The grand harvest-home and the promised millennium could be proclaimed centuries earlier, if only the people of God would learn the secret of power. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Thus endowed, we are to help others, in accordance with our Lord's direction to Peter: "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

CHRISTIAN ACTIVITY.

In Christian activity dwells security. There is no security otherwise. There is no place or condition in which unconsecrated and idle souls are safe. Amid the inactivity and pleasure of Paradise, Adam fell; in the personal presence and influence of his Master, Judas, by transgression, fell; even in heaven, where all is holy, angels kept not their first estate, but fell from the Divine presence. Hence God ordained work. Since banishment from Eden's garden home, man eats his bread by the sweat of his brow; he is secure only when toiling; Satan finds mischief for all idle hands. So, after the sufferings and death resulting from the betrayal, Jesus enjoined work. "Go and preach." "Proclaim liberty to the captives." Call on men to "repent and believe the gospel." "Baptize the nations." "Watch and pray." Christian discipleship is a school of self-denial, cross-bearing,

and work for God. An idle soul hath no part with Him who went about continually doing good. Heaven itself is not a lazy rest, as some appear to imagine, but a glorious temple wherein the saints serve him unweariedly, day and night. This is their joy. It is the joy of all saints, whether in heaven or on earth. If any man hate religious labor, he is not a saint. His tastes, inclinations, and ambitions have not been weaned from self and the world. He is yet in his sins.

When Christians are active they are influential and powerful. The world respects the faith that prompts to good works. Sinners feel the force of a belief that leads to earnest effort in their behalf. Never does the Church appear so beautiful as when engaged, harmoniously and zealously, in religious labor. When Christians bestir themselves in revival efforts the unconverted begin to think and speak. Some revivals become the one theme of conversation in the community. People can talk about nothing else. They know that such work is of God, and it worries them. They feel that God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty. A working Church is a divine power for the salvation of souls. When the Church is alive Satan is troubled, but when Christians sleep he is as happy as he can be. "The devil," says Luther, "held a great anniversary, at which his emissaries were convened to report the results of their several missions. I let loose the wild beasts of the desert,' said one, on a caravan of Christians, and their bones are now bleaching on the sand.' What of that?' said the devil; their souls are all saved.' 'For ten years I tried to get a single Christian asleep,' said a third, and I succeeded, and left him so.' Then the devil shouted," continues Luther, "and the night stars of hell sang for joy." The old adversary of souls can tumble the unwary into the pit fast enough to suit him when ministers lack earnestness in the pulpit and Christians are wanting in holy endeavor. A listless ministry and indifferent laity make jubilee in perdition.

In religious activity there is reward. Work implies wages. Hence God proclaims that judgment in the great day will turn on works. He knows that work is a just and accurate test of faith. The faith that saves is a faith that works. Any other is dead and worthless. If your faith does not move you to diligent effort for God and the Church, it won't stand in the judgment. You are not living in the Lord, you will not die in the Lord, and you will not be crowned by the Lord, if you have no labors to rest from, and no works to follow you. There is no blessedness in such a life, and no bliss in such a death.

PERSEVERANCE.

We all believe in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saintssome in the perseverance of necessity, others in the necessity of perseverance. It is not enough that we begin well; rather is it more important that we end well. Judas and Demas began well, but ended badly. Paul began ill, or at least he inspired little confidence among the Christians whom he had persecuted and scattered; but he ended grandly, his life becoming more and more of a triumph as it neared its close. In him we have a beautiful illustration of the Savior's words to the Jews which believed on him: "If ye continue in my Word, then are ye my disciples indeed." Without perseverance, other graces go for naught. Of what avail is the faith that saved us, if we make shipwreck of it? or the hope that anchored us, if we cut off the chain? or the love that warmed us, if it decline and wax cold? Repentance, obedience, patience, humility, charity, all are lost if we continue not steadfast unto the end. The crown of life is promised only to those who are faithful unto death. How sad is the lot of those who run well for a period, perhaps for the most of life, and then faint and fall by the way! They are like voyagers who weather a stormy sea, and suffer shipwreck in the harbor. They lose their reward just as they are about to receive it. They keep Satan, who desires to have every one of us, at a distance until the last hour, and then permit him to devour their souls and snatch away their bliss. For want of a little final resolution they hopelessly surrender all that makes life worth living, or the future worth striving for.

But perseverance is essential all the way along. Not only shall we fail of heaven without it, but we shall fail to accomplish any thing that would make heaven glorious. Perseverance is the secret of every worldly success, and of every work which God approves and proposes to reward. It discovered to Newton the law of gravitation, and to Columbus the pathway to the New World. It made Wellington the hero of Waterloo, and Washington forever famous as the Father of his Country. It revealed to Stephenson the plan of the locomotive, to Morse the secret of the telegraph, and to Field the hidden bed of the Atlantic cable. All discoverers, inventors, great leaders, and renowned workers, have been men of perseverance. The name of Wilberforce is the synonym of philanthropy, chiefly because, in spite of determined opposition in the British Parliament, he continued for twenty years to press to an issue the bill for the abolition of the