Spirit which beareth witness with our spirits; there is a God who "is not far from any one of us;" there is a "Light which lighteth every man which cometh into the world." Do not be unnaturally humble. The thought of your own mind perchance is the Thought of God. To refuse to follow that may be to disown God. To take the judgment and conscience of other men to live by, where is the humility of that? From whence did their conscience and judgment come? Was the fountain from which they drew exhausted for you? If they refused like you to rely on their own conscience, and you rely upon it, how are you sure that it is more the Mind of God than your own which you have refused to hear?

Look at it in another way. The charm of the words of great men those grand sayings which are recognized as true as soon as heard is this, that you recognize them as wisdom which passed across your own mind. You feel that they are your own thoughts come back to you, else you would not at once admit them: "All that floated across me before, only I could not say it, and did not feel confident enough to assert it, or had not conviction enough to put into words." Yes, God spoke to you what he did to them: only they believed it, said it, trusted the Word within them, and you did not. Be sure that often when you say, "It is only my own poor thought, and I am alone," the real correcting thought is this, Alone, but the Father is with me," therefore I can live by that lonely conviction.

66

There is no danger in this, whatever timid minds may think no danger of mistake, if the character be a true one. For we are not in uncertainty in this matter. It has been given us to know our base from our noble hours: to distinguish between the voice which is from above, and that which speaks from below, out of the abyss of our animal and selfish

nature. Samuel could distinguish between the impulsequite a human one - which would have made him select Eliab out of Jesse's sons, and the deeper judgment by which "the Lord said, Look not on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature, for I have refused him."

Doubtless deep truth of character is required for this: for the whispering voices get mixed together, and we dare not abide by our own thoughts, because we think them our own, and not God's: and this because we only now and then endeavor to know in earnest. It is only given to the habitually true to know the difference. He knew it, because all his blessed life long he could say, "My judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him which

The practical result and inference of all this is a very simple, but a very deep one: the deepest of existence. Let life be a life of faith. Do not go timorously about, inquiring what others think, and what others believe, and what others say. It seems the easiest, it is the most difficult thing in life to do this - believe in God. God is near you. Throw yourself fearlessly upon him. Trembling mortal, there is an unknown might within your soul, which will wake when you command it. The day may come when all that is human man and woman will fall off from you, as they did from him. Let his strength be yours. Be independent of them all now. The Father is with you. he will save you.

Look to him, and

HALL

HRISTOPHER NEWMAN HALL, a noted English Nonconformist

CH

divine, was born at Maidstone, Kent, May 22, 1816, and was educated at Highbury College and London University. Entering the Congregational ministry he was from 1842 to 1854 the pastor of a Congregational church in Hull, and in the latter year was called to the Surrey Chapel in London. His London congregation subsequently built a great church in Westminster Bridge Road, in Early English Gothic style, its tower, two hundred feet high, being erected in memory of Abraham Lincoln with funds collected in England and the United States. At the opening of the Civil War in America, Newman Hall warmly advocated the cause of the North and subsequently made two extended tours in the United States, lecturing in many places, in the endeavor to bring about international good feeling. Since 1893 he has been paster emeritus of the Westminster Bridge Road congregation. He is not only widely known as an eloquent preacher, but has had an extended influence as a religious and devotional writer as well, his famous tract, Come to Jesus" (1846), having been translated into more than twenty languages. Other works by him are "The Land of the Forum and the Vatican" (1855); "The Christian Philosopher Triumphant Over Death;" "Garlands for a Mother's Grave;" "It Is I;" "Antidote to Fear; "Memoir of Rowland Hill; " "Sermons " (1868); From Liverpool to St. Louis (1870); "Mountain Musings;" Pilgrim Songs in Cloud and Sunshine " (1871); Gethsemane;" "Prayer: Its Reasonableness and Efficacy (1875).

SERMON: CHRISTIAN VICTORY

"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."-Rev. ii, 17.

HE Christian life is often compared in Scripture to a

ΤΗ

warfare. Followers of Jesus are "soldiers." They

are exhorted to put on "the whole armor of God." They "fight the good fight of faith." Some of you have long been engaged in the conflict: others have more recently entered upon it. But, whether young or old in the Christian career, all find it necessary to be constantly stirred up to watchfulness against the never-ceasing assaults of the foe. It

(7638)

is not enough to put on the armor and to commence the battle. He that overcometh, and he alone, will receive the salutation, "Well done, good and faithful servant," he alone shall "lay hold upon eternal life."

As

But we are not left to fight without encouragement. generals before a battle go in front of their troops to stimulate them to valor, so Christ, the Captain of our Salvation, leads on the consecrated hosts of his elect; and having himself set us a glorious example of valor and victory, animates us to follow in his footsteps by the "exceeding great and precious promises" of his Word. Christian warrior! - let your eye be lifted up to him. Behold him beckoning you onward. Listen to him, as from his throne of glory he exhorts you to persevering valor against the foe; and pray earnestly that his promise may be fulfilled in your case: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." Let us consider first, the promise; then, the condition attached to it.

I. The Promise.

This is twofold, the Hidden Manna and the White Stone.

1. The Hidden Manna.- God fed the Israelites in the wilderness with manna. A portion of this was laid by in the ark, and thus was hidden from public view. It is here referred to as a figurative representation of the spiritual blessings bestowed upon the victor in the heavenly fight. Christ, speaking of the manna as a type of himself, said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." The manna in the wilderness sustained the life of the Israelites.

But there is another life more important than that of the

body. By sin the soul is dead, dead toward God. By the Holy Spirit, the "dead in trespasses and sins" are "quickened," or made alive. As the life of the new-born infant cannot be preserved without food, so the new spiritual life, which God imparts, needs continual support. Both the life, and the nourishing of it, come from Christ, and Christ alone. By his sacrifice that life becomes possible; and by his Spirit working within our hearts that life becomes actual. He sustains as well as imparts spiritual vitality. He is the food of our faith: "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." He is the food of our love: "we love him because he first loved us." He is the food of our obedience: "the love of Christ constraineth us." He is the food of our peace: for when "justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord." He is the food of our joy: for if "we joy in God" it is "through Jesus Christ our Lord."

The manna which sustained the Israelites was evidently the gift of God. And so this "hidden manna" is from heaven. It is no contrivance of man-no philosophy of human invention. It is a divine plan for the salvation of our ruined race. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but should have everlasting life." That manna in the wilderness was sweet to the taste; yet they who fed on it grew weary of it. But the more we eat of the bread of life, the more we relish it—the greater is our appetite for it. That manna in the wilderness was needed daily. And so with this heavenly bread. Yesterday's supply will not suffice for to-day. The prayer is as needful for the soul as for the body: "Give us this day our daily bread." But if that manna was needed daily, so it was supplied; none went in