Promiser may well cheer him onwards when the way is dark and dreary. They are the stars of hope that glitter above him and bid him look up confidently and press on trustfully. They were made to be fulfilled, and never was one broken. Those who have reached home would, if they could, proclaim to us that they are all true. Shall we name a few? "He will keep the feet of His saints." "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you." "I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand." "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance." He will "deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 66 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' And this leads us to name one more fundamental which will do for us to rest in, namely:— Fourthly. His certain glorification.—If a ray of divine light from the Sun of righteousness penetrates the soul, oh, what a little heaven is produced within! Clouds of doubts and forebodings are dispersed, and a serenity indescribable is realized. But what must glory be, where the harpers are harping with their harps, where the elders fall down before the throne on their faces and worship God, and where the redeemed stand before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palms in their hands! “And shall I there behold Thy face, And bright in glory shine, Will all these pleasures really be "Oh, let me live to praise Thee, Lord, I with the ransomed bend." on Thus have we drawn attention to some of the infirmities of the weak. Are you, dear reader, among those who are doubting whether you belong to the family of God? But if you have been brought to "confession" account of sin—to a sighing for something the world can neither give nor take away-to a simple "clinging" to Jesus-to a constant "crying" to Him for grace and mercy-to a "loathing" the pleasures and vanities of the world—and to loving Christ and His people-why doubt any longer? Put in your claim; and may the Lord the Spirit witness with your spirit that you are a child of God, so that you may have joy and peace in believing! Or does your infirmity take the form of looking too much for evidences rather than a simple looking to Christ? May the Lord remove the scales from your eyes, so that you may see Him as your All and in all! Or are you comparing yourself with others, and thinking that they can give a much greater proof of heirship than you? Oh, depend upon it, their experience is very similar to your own; and they feel, the longer they live and know themselves, that they can trust to none but Jesus. Or is the trouble relative to the dispensations of God's providence? Oh, your Father knoweth all that you have need of. Seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you; and may finished work of Christ," His unchangeable love, His precious promises, His certain glorification, and similar anchor-holds, bring you to peace of soul, that you may be no longer tossed upon the sea of doubts, the but calmly ride in the refuge of a Saviour's love! And we do pray the Lord that these reflections may tend to strengthen the faith of some lambs of His fold-that doubts and fears about their eternal standing in Christ may be removed, and they may be able to say, "Well, if these things be so, and I cannot dispute them, unworthy as I am, I may put in my claim to belong to that happy company whom the Lord is pleased to acknowledge as His own, chosen by the Father, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, and set apart by the Holy Spirit as vessels of mercy for the Master's use. Oh, to grace how great a debtor! Let my heartfelt song be: Ilford. 66 'As helpless as a child who clings Fast to his father's arm, And casts his weakness on the strength That keeps him safe from harm, "So I, my Jesus, cling to Thee! And thus I every hour G. C. THY WILL BE DONE. Be patient, O my soul, Each year its winter sees, Its frosts, and fogs, and rain; We who know wintriest hours Will blooms and harvests bring, From mist and bleakness spring. Of heaven's complete design: W. C. B. WARNING TO PROFESSORS. "For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity."-ACTS viii. 23. HERE we have a true type of the extent to which head-knowledge can lead a man. Simon believed, and was baptized-that is, he was outwardly convinced of the truth of the doctrine Philip preached, concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ," by the effects it produced; but it was not true faith that Simon possessed, for his worldlymindedness soon began to show itself in offering money for the gift of laying on of hands, by which we may fairly conclude he wanted to make a gain of it, being a sorcerer. How many in the present day, like this poor man, imagine the gift of God, which is salvation, can be purchased, if not by money, by their own doings and deservings, being ignorant of the fact that it is a free gift, without money and without price! Like Simon, they have neither part nor lot in the matter; for their heart is not right in the sight of God. Child of God, who made thee to differ? W. Pilgrim Papers. REFLECTIONS. BY THE LATE MR. R. ROBINSON. (Continued from page 186.) "Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe, And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man."-JOHN xix. 5. O MY soul, behold the suffering head of Jesus, wearing the crown of thorns, and ask this question, "Am I planting my dying pillow with thorns that grow out of my uncrucified lusts?" Lord, rather let my way be hedged up with thorns, that I may not find my paths to sin against Thee. O my Jesus, the crown of thorns are mine by merit of my sin; Thy dear temples reek in love's purple gore for me, who justly deserved it in wrath. O my Jesus, Thou hast anointed my head with oil, and the honours of redemption are the crown of my joy. Lay your honours in the dust, ye prostitutes of fleshly glory, boast not of your short day; your withered gourds hang round your shoulders, and your garments are motheaten, ye painted scribes. Behold your painted robe; let me see His sweaty vest that in the winepress trod. "Behold the Man!" thy sinbearing Jesus. Behold His love, without date, leading captivity captive. Behold His gifts, the price for rebels. Behold, He cometh with ten thousands of His saints, "taking vengeance on them that know not God, nor obey the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ." "The mountains and the rocks shall flee before Him," and they that have denied Him shall be deprived of shelter, and they that have despised Him shall be covered with shame, and their best entertainment shall be endless sorrow. "Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”—1 JOHN v. 4. Bitter and sweet can never flow from one fountain; darkness and light cannot dwell together, nor Christ and Belial be united. The life-giving power of the act of redemption in life's regenerating triumphs as far overcomes the world of sin and death as eternity outlives time. Whosoever hath this, "Overcomer" is his title, and ": more than conqueror" tunes his harp. Faith's golden key fits all the wards, so that a freedom of passage gives entertainment as a claim of heirship to all the treasures. The victory of faith is without a blow. The walls of Jericho fell down at her breath, and Rahab the harlot had the two spies for her witnesses, and her deed of gift was signed with the scarlet line. Divine faith never makes friends with the world. Whosoever tries at this committeth treason to faith; and as long as love has vessels in the four poles of the world, faith must fetch them home; and, however long their journey may be, her untired exploits give the signal of victory, and more than conqueror, through Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, gives fulfilment to the victory to surround the throne with delight. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.”—COL. iii. 1. O my soul, if thou art risen, with thy Christ, to newness of life, the pride-stained world of sin, death, and lust is crucified to thee, and thy affections have spread the dying titles as dung and dross. Here, O my soul, is a passage better than Jacob's ladder, and a high-way to the throne of God, where Christ thy treasure and thy unbottomed treasury claims all thy heart-affections upon the high road of holiness, cast up in covenant love and blood divine. Here are pearls without number, and promises hang on pillars of gold. There the feeble walk in safety, and there the needy find supply. O my soul, if Jesus makes the fire thy passage, He is thy treasure there; or the waters thy tribulated path, He is thy treasure there. If bereaved circumstances bind thy girdle, and pain and loss be thy lot, Christ is thy treasure there; if friends forsake and foes unite, He is thy treasure there; if thy heart and flesh both cease and fail, Christ is thy treasure there. When enfeebled nature has spent her stock, and her silver cords are broken, and the silent tones of the grasshopper's leap makes thee to bend, Christ is thy treasureand thy stay; and, when thou art called to leave earth's troubled paths and tread her clods no more, thy Jesus will conduct thee safely home, to leave His throne no more. "Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me."-MATT. xv. 25. This is the top-line of expression of all true worshippers, and the index of vital experience in the soul of all believers, in the courts of Zion—a spiritual necessity asking for temporal mercies. Oh, never-failing grace -a very present help; how sweet the application; how precious the gift, soon taught, soon learnt, and yet some of the wisest scholars in the world that could read the planets have never had this treasure in their hearts. It is never learnt but at the door of heaven, and none but those who have lost their way on earth can be admitted there. Here the portions are handed out with divine freedom; "And be it unto Thee even as thou wilt," is written upon them. So that he that runs may read, and there are none of the needy that are sent empty away. O believer, be not deterred at the dangers of the way; thou shalt surely succeed. Let thy trouble go up in full-lettered expressions; put no fine comments upon it. The Lord gives full portions, and He delights in the largeness of thy requests. Lord, help me. This is turned into a wild mockery by thousands, and will prove their own deception, to be wrought upon their own wheel of self-delusions. A SCRAP FROM A DISCOURSE BY MR. R. My heart and my flesh faileth me; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever."-PSALM Xxiii. 26. Dear fellow-pilgrim, art thou dismayed at the troubles of the way? If thy way be rough, and thou hast a thorny path, iron shoes shall be given unto thee. Thou shalt not want, nor lack, if thou have to pass through deep afflictions. He will give thee all-sufficient strength, and all needful good, as a free gift in Christ Jesus, wherever or whatever may be thy place. Thou shalt have these free gifts; not purchased. No. Christ Himself did not purchase them. They are the free gifts of God, to the purchased of Jesus' blood. Every hour the child of God is dependent on Jesus. Jesus does all for you. Once you knew it not, but Jesus did all for you, when you knew it not. Now He has given you to see that it is He that is doing all for you. "My heart and my flesh faileth me," &c. ; things come close here; heart and flesh and strength, &c., all fail, cut out, and cut off from everything. This is real necessity; none but Jesus can sustain the flesh. Your eyesight and every comfort me are at His disposal, and all by Him will be taken from us soon. Nothing can make up or supply when God takes away. Some of you here present in the house of God know what it is for the flesh to fail. The furrowed cheek, the feeble frame all proclaim this truth. Your strength fails you; you cannot do as you once did; you cannot go where you once did; nor run about as in time past; nature fails-she always did fail in spiritual things. Nature has nothing to do in spiritual things. You that are here within these walls to-day have a soul that will never fail. O child of God, as thy outer man decays, thy soul gets stronger and stronger, ready to break forth and wing her way to the paradise of God. Jesus has sought His people out. It is not them that have sought Him. God be thanked. He has sought out many on beds of afflictions, and manifested Himself to them when all and everything else has failed. 2nd. We notice that which will stand in the place when all else fails, must be strong indeed. What is it? Nothing but the love of Jesus taking hold, and having the sole government over you. What wonders love will do! That which a few moments before you would have despised or disputed, you have been made willing to do, and also to go, where a few moments before you were quite averse unto, and had no desire whatever. The love of Jesus has made such a change, and made you both willing and delighted with the same. "My heart and flesh fails " and oh, what a stronghold is love; it will never lose its hold. Some will say there are times and seasons when the child of God does not feel it; how then? We answer, Love appears in different ways; sometimes it sets the soul a longing, and some are kept here for a long time, in a longing frame. Jesus has a sovereign way in sending messages to His children; He sends messages of love, by what He pleaseth, for His own glory. God will take His own way. When God gives you a longing soul, you wait and listen-like a poor widow that may be sitting, waiting and longing, at midnight for some part of her family. Under painful circumstances, perhaps in the midst of weakness, feebleness, and starvation, she thinks the time long, and longs for the return of those she is waiting for. Now, this is a gloomy subject. Not so with the child of God; this is not a gloomy subject, but there is a longing for Jesus' appearing, and such ere long shall be brought to know what His appearing is. There is one thing that has very much astonished me. I should not like to have the management of all this village, nor even to find them clothes. It would be enough to take away my intellect; I could not do it. But what an infinite Jesus! He supports, supplies, sustains, and takes care of all His numerous family throughout the world. Oh, the depths that are opened up in this sublime subject. How He feeds His Church! He fed Elijah by ravens, and sent him to a widow woman to be sustained in the days of famine. Jesus does all things for the good of His people-you cannot alter anything; He hath ordered all things well, both temporal_and spiritual. But some of the children of God are much tried here. I do not mean those things, in the visitation of the Lord, which a child of God brings upon himself through his foolishness and unbecoming walk as a Christian. These lay sometimes a long while in God's cabinet before the child is brought to know what is connected therewith. But I mean those things in which the Lord has placed His child, in which they shall receive great and instructive lessons. I am sorry to see so many of the children of God live as if they were not characters bound for eternity. How little have I seen this day that has been carried out according to the |