were not, it would be impossible that the Holy Lord Almighty, should invite the sinful to come to Him. From the entrance of sin into the world, were not innocent lambs and oxen slaughtered for man?—a most forcible and humbling method of teaching him that the ground of pardon was not in himself! And their flesh burning on the altar of God and ascending to Him, as "a sweetsmelling savour," was a most affecting way of teaching the sinful creature that his life had ceased to be a sweet savour, and that, consequently, there was no ground in himself of his acceptance with God. Where then was it? Was it not in God Himself? Have not lambs and oxen in them somewhat of God's own innocence and goodness? Sacrifices were for man, but they had relation to that in God which is the eternal ground, whereby He can justify the ungodly.—God had from eternity, in His Bosom, His own Son, Who was in spirit and in purpose, "from the foundation of the world," a Sacrifice unto God for His creature's sin. The revelation of this fact is as old as the revelation of pardon. The first woman, the first time she became a mother, exclaimed: "I have gotten" (the promised seed) "the man-Jehovah." (See Heb. text.) The dear mother of us all was bitterly disappointed; but it clearly shews that the expectation of the

Jehovah-Saviour was coeval with Adam's sin.

God will provide Himself a Lamb for a burntoffering." "All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him" (on His own Lamb) "the iniquity of us all." However it be explained, the Lord has had to suffer for His creature's sin The sin and sorrow of mankind have been " made to meet in Him."

The ground of pardon then, is neither in man, nor in the Eternal Love of God, apart from sacrifice, but in the Love of God in Christ, the Jehovah-Man. The Spirit of Love is the Spirit of Sacrifice. Love is sacrifice, for Love gives itself to another. "Christ hath loved us, and (therefore) hath given Himself for us, an Offering and a Sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour."

But though our death unto sin and our new life unto God are not the grounds of pardon and acceptance, they are inevitable effects, flowing from union and communion with our Crucified and Risen Lord. We are saved indeed! for "we are sanctified, through the Offering of the Body of Jesus." If the new Human Stock is Holy, then all the branches which are set into Him must become holy through His Holiness.

IF a man has not the whole of himself with himself, he ought to inquire into it; for it is hard to be a man and not to have the enjoyment of a man. There is always a peculiar charm about the man who lives wholly and heartily while he lives. The man himself has the first enjoyment of this charm. Heaven and earth make one in a man's life, when he has the consent of his whole nature for what he is, and for what he does.

WHAT a melancholy contraction is a selfish human heart! What a noble, divine organ, is an enlarged human heart! What genial influences radiate far and near from one such heart! A God-filled heart is a sun to many hearts :-might I not say, to many ages? The influence of such a heart as David's, Paul's, John's, can never cease to warm, quicken, and comfort other hearts.

THE least actions and the softest words of those who do little things, with depth and fulness of spirit, are unspeakably greater than the greatest works, done in the shallow world-spirit. That alone

is great in which God is. May God so reveal to us the grandeur of the human life,-yea the grandeur of it when it is ever so retired, quiet and humble,that we may do our least actions as we sow small seeds, knowing that a self-multiplying power is in them. Dorcas is no more, but the influence of her example is gone into all the earth. Instead of working with one pair of hands in her solitary room, she is now sitting in a thousand places, making garments for the poor with many thousands of hands. The fame of a pot of ointment, which an obscure individual once devoted to the Lord's feet,

is

gone into all the world. And we are assured that, if we only give a cup of cold water, with an intensity of spirit, that is, with Christ in the Spirit, the act will spring up in Eternity, and return to us again with wondrous increase.

THE VIRGIN MARY.

IT may be that Protestants, disgusted with the vain flattery, not to say idolatry, of Rome, do not assign to the Virgin the rank that is due to her. The angel Gabriel salutes her as one "full of grace," as the woman among women, saying, "Blessed art thou among women." And Elisabeth, "filled with the Holy Ghost, cried out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" This was no small honor to be paid to her, by one who was herself "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless." And observe, that the angel Gabriel in Heaven, and Elisabeth on earth, pay the same testimony to her, which is strictly the testimony of God; for they spake not from their own will and thought, but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Indeed, apart from the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is very emphatic, the medium through which the Lord came into the world, must have been a pre