At evening time it shall be light. Zechariah chapter 14 verse 7. Often times we look forward with forebodings to the time of old age, forgetful that at eventide it shall be light. To many saints old age is the choicest season in their lives. A barmy air fans the mariner's cheek as he nears the shore of immortality. Fewer waves ruffle his sea. Quiet reigns, deep, still, and solemn.

From the altar of age the flashes of the fire of youth are gone, but the more real flame of earnest feeling remains. The pilgrims have reached the land Bula, that happy country, whose days are as the days of heaven upon earth. Angels visit it, celestial gales blow over it, flowers of paradise grow in it, and the air is filled with seraphic music. Some dwell here for years, and others come to it but a few hours before their departure, but it is an Eden on earth. We may well long for the time when we shall recline in its shady groves and be satisfied with hope, until the time of fruition comes.

The setting sun seems larger than when aloft in the sky. and a splendor of glory tinges all the clouds which surround his going down. Pain breaks not the calm of the sweet twilight of age, for strength made perfect in weakness bears up with patience under it all. Ripe fruits of choice experience are gathered as the rare repast of life's evening, and the soul prepares itself for rest.

The Lord's people shall also enjoy light in the hour of death. Unbelief laments, the shadows fall, the night is coming, existence is ending. Ah no, crieth faith, the night is far spent, the true day is at hand. Light is come, the light of immortality, the light of a father's countenance. Gather up thy feet in the bed, see the waiting bands of spirits. Angels waft thee away. Farewell, beloved one. Thou art gone. Thou wavest thine hand. Ah, now it is light.

The pearly gates are open. The golden streets shine in the jasper light. We cover our eyes, but thou beholdest the unseen. Adieu, brother, thou hast light at eventide, such as we have not yet.

Woe is me that I sojourn in Misek that I dwell in the tents of Kedah Psalm 120 verse 5 As a Christian you have to live in the midst of an ungodly world and it is of little use for you to cry woe is me Jesus did not pray that you should be taken out of the world and what he did not pray for you need not desire better far in the Lord's strength to meet the difficulty and glorify him in it.

The enemy is ever on the watch to detect inconsistency in your conduct. Be therefore very holy. Remember that the eyes of all are upon you and that more is expected from you than from other men. Strive to give no occasion for blame. Let your goodness be the only fault they can discover in you. Like Daniel, compel them to say of you, we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

seek to be useful, as well as consistent. Perhaps you think, if I were in a more favorable position, I might serve the Lord's cause, but I cannot do any good where I am. But the worse the people are among whom you live, the more need have they of your exertions. If they be crooked, the more necessity that you should set them straight, and if they be perverse, the more need have you to turn their proud hearts to the truth. Where should the physician be, but where there are many sick? Where is honor to be won by the soldier, but in the hottest fire of the battle? And when weary of the strife and sin that meets you on every hand, consider that all the saints have endured the same trial. They were not carried on beds of down to heaven, and you must not expect to travel more easily than they. they had to hazard their lives unto the death in the high places of the field and you will not be crowned till you also have endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ therefore stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong There is sorrow on the sea, it cannot be quiet. Jeremiah chapter 49 verse 23 Little know we what sorrow may be upon the sea at this moment. We are safe in our quiet chamber, but far away on the salt sea the hurricane may be cruelly seeking for the lives of men. Hear how the death fiends howl among the cordage, how every timber starts as the waves beat like battering rams upon the vessel. God help you poor drenched and wearied ones. My prayer goes up to the great lord of sea and land that he will make the storm a calm and bring you to your desired haven. Nor ought I to offer prayer alone. I should try to benefit those hardy men who risk their lives so constantly. Have I ever done anything for them? What can I do? How often does the boisterous sea swallow up the mariner? Thousands of corpses lie where pearls lie deep. There is death-sorrow on the sea which is echoed in the long wail of widows and orphans. The salt of the sea is in many eyes of mothers and wives. Remorseless billows, ye have devoured the love of women and the stay of households. What a resurrection shall there be from the caverns of the deep when the sea gives up her dead! Till then there will be sorrow on the sea. As if in sympathy with the woes of earth, the sea is forever fretting along a thousand shores, wailing with a sorrowful cry like her own birds, booming with a hollow crash of unrest, raving with uproarious discontent, chafing with hoarse wrath, or jangling with the voices of ten thousand murmuring pebbles. The roar of the sea may be joyous to a rejoicing spirit, but to the sun of sorrow the wide, wide ocean is even more forlorn than the wide, wide world. This is not our rest, and the restless billows tell us so. There is a land where there is no more sea. Our faces are steadfastly set towards it. We are going to the place of which the Lord hath spoken. Till then we cast our sorrows on the Lord who trod the sea of old, and who maketh a way for his people through the depths thereof. Evening Wolves. Habakkuk 1.8. While preparing the present volume, this particular expression recurred to me so frequently that in order to be rid of its constant importunity, I determined to give a page to it. The evening wolf, infuriated by a day of hunger, was fiercer and more ravenous than he would have been in the morning. May not the furious creature represent our doubts and fears after a day of distraction of mind, losses in business, and perhaps ungenerous tauntings from our fellow men? How our thoughts howl in our ears, where is now thy God? How voracious and greedy they are, swallowing up all suggestions of comfort and remaining as hungry as before. Great Shepherd, slay these evening wolves, and bid thy sheep lie down in green pastures, undisturbed by insatiable unbelief. How light are the fiends of hell to evening wolves! For when the flock of Christ are in a cloudy and dark day, and their sun seems going down, they hasten to tear and to devour. They will scarcely attack the Christian in the daylight of faith, but in the gloom of soul conflict they fall upon him. O thou who has laid down thy life for the sheep, preserve them from the fangs of the wolf. False teachers who craftily and industriously hunt for the precious life, devouring men by their falsehoods, are as dangerous and detestable as evening wolves. Darkness is their element. Deceit is their character. Destruction is their end. We are most in danger from them when they wear the sheep's skin. Blessed is he who is kept from them.

For thousands are made the prey of grievous wolves that enter within the fold of the church. What a wonder of grace it is when fierce persecutors are converted! For then the wolf dwells with the lamb, and men of cruel, ungovernable dispositions become gentle and teachable. O Lord, convert many such! For such we will pray tonight.

I will sing of mercy and judgment Psalm 101 verse 1 Faith triumphs in trial. When reason is thrust into the inner prison with her feet made fast in the stocks, Faith makes the dungeon walls ring with her merry notes as she cries, I will sing of mercy and of judgment. Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. Faith pulls the black mask from the face of trouble and discovers the angel beneath. Faith looks up at the cloud and sees that tis big with mercy and shall break in blessings on her head. There is subject for a song even in the judgments of God toward us.

For first, the trial is not so heavy as it might have been. Next, the trouble is not so severe as we deserved to have borne, and our affliction is not so crushing as the burden which others have to carry. Faith sees that in her worst sorrow there is nothing penal. There is not a drop of God's wrath in it. It is all sent in love. Faith discerns love gleaming like a jewel on the breast of an angry God. Faith says of her grief, this is a badge of honor, for the child must feel the rod. And then she sings of the sweet result of her sorrows, because they work her spiritual good.

Nay more, says Faith, these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So, faith rides forth on the black horse, conquering and to conquer, trampling down carnal reason and fleshly sense, and chanting notes of victory amid the thickest of the fray.

All I meet I find assists me
In my path to heavenly joy,
Where, though trials now attend me,
Trials nevermore annoy.

Blessed there with a weight of glory,
Still the path I'll near forget,
But, exulting, cry it led me
To my blessed Saviour's seat.

This man receiveth sinners Luke chapter 15 verse 2 Observe the condescension of this fact. This man, who towers above all other men, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, this man receiveth sinners. This man, who is no other than the Eternal God, before whom angels veil their faces, this man receiveth sinners. it needs an angel's tongue to describe such a mighty stoop of love that any of us should be willing to seek after the lost is nothing wonderful they are of our own race but that he the offended God against whom the transgression has been committed should take upon himself the form of a servant and bear the sin of many and should then be willing to receive the vilest of the vile this is marvelous This man receiveth sinners. Not, however, that they may remain sinners, but he receives them that he may pardon their sins, justify their persons, cleanse their hearts by his purifying word, preserve their souls by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and enable them to serve him, to show forth his praise, and to have communion with him.

Into his heart's love he receives sinners, takes them from the dunghill, and wears them as jewels in his crown, plucks them as brands from the burning, and preserves them as costly monuments of his mercy. None are so precious in Jesus' sight as the sinners for whom he died.

When Jesus receives sinners, he has not some out-of-doors reception place no casual ward where he charitably entertains them as men do passing beggars but he opens the golden gates of his royal heart and receives the sinner right into himself. Yea, he admits the humble penitent into personal union and makes him a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. There was never such a reception as this.

This fact is still most sure this evening. He is still receiving sinners. Would to God, sinners would receive him.

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. Psalm 112 verse 7. Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings. Because if you are distressed by them, what do you more than other men? Other men have not your God to fly to. They have never proved his faithfulness as you have done. And it is no wonder if they are bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear.

But you profess to be of another spirit. You have been begotten again unto a lively hope, and your heart lives in heaven and not on earthly things. Now, if you are seen to be distracted as other men, what is the value of that grace which you profess to have received? Where is the dignity of that new nature which you claim to possess?

Again, if you should be filled with alarm as others are, you would doubtless be led into the sins so common to others under trying circumstances. The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God. They murmur and think that God deals hardly with them. Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do?

Moreover, unconverted men often run to the wrong means in order to escape from difficulties. And you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present pressure. Trust in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Your wisest course is to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, stand still and see the salvation of God.

For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you will be unable to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty and sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward? Saints have often sung God's high praises in the fires. But will your doubting and desponding as if you had none to help you magnify the Most High?

Then take courage and relying in sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your covenant God let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.

bring him unto me mark chapter 9 verse 19 despairingly the poor disappointed father turned away from the disciples to their master his son was in the worst possible condition and all means had failed but the miserable child was soon delivered from the evil one when the parent in faith obeyed the Lord Jesus's word bring him unto me

Children are a precious gift from God, but much anxiety comes with them. They may be a great joy or a great bitterness to their parents. They may be filled with the Spirit of God or possessed with the spirit of evil. In all cases, the Word of God gives us one receipt for the curing of all their ills. Bring him unto me. Oh, for more agonizing prayer on their behalf while they are yet babes. Sin is there. Let our prayers begin to attack it. Our cries for our offspring should precede those cries which betoken their actual advent into a world of sin.

In the days of their youth, we shall see sad tokens of that dumb and deaf spirit which will neither pray aright nor hear the voice of God in the soul. But Jesus still commands, bring them unto me. When they are grown up, they may wallow in sin and foam with enmity against God. Then, when our hearts are breaking, we should remember the great physician's words, Bring them unto me. Never must we cease to pray until they cease to breathe. No case is hopeless while Jesus lives.

the Lord sometimes suffers his people to be driven into a corner that they may experimentally know how necessary he is to them ungodly children when they show us our own powerlessness against the depravity of their hearts drive us to flee to the strong for strength and this is a great blessing to us Whatever our morning's need may be, let it, like a strong current, bear us to the ocean of divine love. Jesus can soon remove our sorrow. He delights to comfort us. Let us hasten to him while he waits to meet us.

And they follow me. John chapter 10 verse 27 We should follow our Lord as unhesitatingly as sheep follow their shepherd. For he has a right to lead us wherever he pleases. We are not our own, we are bought with a price. Let us recognize the rights of the redeeming blood. The soldier follows his captain, the servant obeys his master. Much more must we follow our Redeemer to whom we are a purchased possession. We are not true to our profession of being Christians if we question the bidding of our leader and commander. Submission is our duty. Cavilling is our folly.

Often might our Lord say to us, as to Peter, What is that to thee? follow thou me. Wherever Jesus may lead us, he goes before us. If we know not where to go, we know with whom we go. With such a companion, who will dread the perils of the road? The journey may be long, but his everlasting arms will carry us to the end. The presence of Jesus is the assurance of eternal salvation. Because he lives, we shall live also. We should follow Christ in simplicity and faith because the paths in which he leads us all end in glory and immortality.

It is true they may not be smooth paths. They may be covered with sharp flinty trials. But they lead to the city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth and to such as keep his covenant. Let us put full trust in our leader, since we know that, come prosperity or adversity, sickness or health, popularity or contempt, his purpose shall be worked out. And that purpose shall be pure, unmingled good to every air of mercy.

we shall find it sweet to go up the bleak side of the hill with Christ and when rain and snow blow into our faces his dear love will make us far more blessed than those who sit at home and warm their hands at the world's fire to the top of Amarna to the dens of lions or to the hills of leopards we will follow our beloved Precious Jesus draw us and we will run after Thee

I will rejoice over them to do them good Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 41 How heart-cheering to the believer is the delight which God has in his saints. We cannot see any reason in ourselves why the Lord should take pleasure in us. We cannot take delight in ourselves, for we often have to groan, being burdened, conscious of our sinfulness, and deploring our unfaithfulness. And we fear that God's people cannot take much delight in us for they must perceive so much of our imperfections and our follies that they may rather lament our infirmities than admire our graces. But we love to dwell upon this transcendent truth this glorious mystery that as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride so does the Lord rejoice over us. We do not read anywhere that God delighteth in the cloud-capped mountains or the sparkling stars. But we do read that he delighteth in the habitable parts of the earth and that his delights are with the sons of men. We do not find it written that even angels give his soul delight. Nor doth he say concerning cherubim and seraphim thou shalt be called Hephzibah for the Lord delighteth in thee. but he does say all that to poor fallen creatures like ourselves debased and depraved by sin but saved exalted and glorified by his grace in what strong language he expresses his delight in his people Who could have conceived of the Eternal One as bursting forth into a song? Yet it is written, He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. As he looked upon the world he had made, he said, it is very good. But when he beheld those who are purchased of Jesus' blood, his own chosen ones, it seemed as if the great heart of the infinite could restrain itself no longer, but overflowed in divine exclamations of joy. should not we utter our grateful response to such a marvelous declaration of his love and sing I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalm 61 verse 2 Most of us know what it is to be overwhelmed in heart, emptied as when a man wipeth a dish and turneth it upside down, submerged and thrown on our beam ends like a vessel mastered by the storm. Discoveries of inward corruption will do this if the Lord permits the great deep of our depravity to become troubled and cast up mire and dirt. Disappointments and heartbreaks will do this when billow after billow rolls over us and we are like a broken shell hurled to and fro by the surf. Blessed be God, at such seasons we are not without an all-sufficient solace. Our God is the harbour of weather-beaten sails, the hospice of forlorn pilgrims. Higher than we are is He, His mercy higher than our sins. His love higher than our thoughts. It is pitiful to see men putting their trust in something lower than themselves. But our confidence is fixed upon an exceeding high and glorious Lord. A rock He is, since He changes not. and are high rock because the tempests which overwhelm us roll far beneath at his feet. He is not disturbed by them, but rules them at his will. If we get under the shelter of this lofty rock, we may defy the hurricane. All is calm under the lee of that towering cliff. Alas, such is the confusion in which the troubled mind is often cast, that we need piloting to this divine shelter. Hence the prayer of the text, O Lord our God, by thy Holy Spirit, teach us the way of faith, lead us into thy rest. The wind blows us out to sea, the helm answers not to our puny hand. Thou, thou alone can steer us over the bar, between yon sunken rocks, safe into the fair haven. How dependent we are upon thee! We need thee to bring us to thee. To be wisely directed and steered into safety and peace is thy gift and thine alone. This night, be pleased to deal well with thy servants.

I sleep but my heart waketh. Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 2. Paradoxes abound in Christian experience and here is one. The spouse was asleep and yet she was awake. He can only read the believer's riddle who was plowed with the heifer of his experience. The two points in this evening's text are a mournful sleepiness and a hopeful wakefulness.

I sleep. Through sin that dwelleth in us we may become lax in holy duties, slothful in religious exercises, dull in spiritual joys, and altogether supine and careless. This is a shameful state for one in whom the quickening spirit dwells, and it is dangerous to the highest degree. Even wise virgins sometimes slumber, but it is high time for all to shake off the bands of sloth. It is to be feared that many believers lose their strength as Samson lost his locks while sleeping on the lap of carnal security. With a perishing world around us, to sleep is cruel. With eternity so near at hand, it is madness. Yet we are none of us so much awake as we should be. A few thunderclaps would do us all good and it may be unless we soon bestir ourselves we shall have them in the form of war or pestilence or personal bereavements and losses. Oh that we may leave forever the couch of fleshly ease and go forth with flaming torches to meet the coming bridegroom.

My heart waketh. This is a happy sign. Life is not extinct, though sadly smothered. When our renewed heart struggles against our natural heaviness, we should be grateful to Sovereign Grace for keeping a little vitality within the body of this death. Jesus will hear our hearts, will help our hearts, will visit our hearts. For the voice of the wakeful heart is really the voice of our beloved, saying, Open to me. Holy zeal will surely unbar the door. O lovely attitude! He stands with melting heart and laden hands. My soul forsakes her every sin and lets the heavenly stranger in.

Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. Deuteronomy chapter 33 verse 29 He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable is himself an utter stranger to it. It was strange indeed if it made us wretched, for see to what a position it exalts us. It makes us sons of God. Suppose you that God will give all the happiness to his enemies, and reserve all the mourning for his own family? Shall his foes have mirth and joy, and shall his home-born children inherit sorrow and wretchedness? Shall the sinner who has no part in Christ call himself rich in happiness, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless beggars? No, we will rejoice in the Lord always and glory in our inheritance for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father

The rod of chastisement must rest upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable fruits of righteousness. And therefore, by the aid of the divine Comforter, we, the people saved of the Lord, will joy in the God of our salvation. We are married unto Christ. And shall our great bridegroom permit his spouse to linger in constant grief? Our hearts are knit unto Him. We are His members. And though for a while we may suffer as our head once suffered, yet we are even now blessed with heavenly blessings in Him. We have the earnest of our inheritance in the comforts of the Spirit, which are neither few nor small. Inheritors of joy forever, we have foretastes of our portion. There are streaks of the light of joy to herald our eternal sun rising. Our riches are beyond the sea. Our city, with firm foundations, lies on the other side of the river. Gleams of glory from the spirit world cheer our hearts and urge us onward. Truly, it is said of us, happy art thou, O Israel. Who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord? My beloved put his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 4 Knocking was not enough, for my heart was too full of sleep, too cold and ungrateful to arise and open the door. But the touch of his effectual grace has made my soul bestir itself. Oh, the long-suffering of my beloved to tarry when he found himself shut out and me asleep upon the bed of sloth! Oh, the greatness of his patience to knock and knock again, and to add his voice to his knockings, beseeching me to open to him. How could I have refused him? base heart, blush and be confounded. But what greatest kindness of all is this, that he becomes his own porter and unbars the door himself? Thrice blessed is the hand which condescends to lift the latch and turn the key. Now I see that nothing but my Lord's own power can save such a naughty mass of wickedness as I am. Ordinances fail. Even the gospel has no effect upon me till his hand is stretched out. Now also I perceive that his hand is good where all else is unsuccessful. He can open when nothing else will. Blessed be his name. I feel his gracious presence even now. Well may my bowels move for him when I think of all that he has suffered for me and of my ungenerous return. I have allowed my affections to wander. I have set up rivals. I have grieved him. Sweetest and dearest of all beloveds, I have treated thee as an unfaithful wife treats her husband. Oh, my cruel sins! My cruel self! What can I do? Tears are a poor show of my repentance. My whole heart boils with indignation at myself. Wretch that I am to treat my lord, my all in all, my exceeding great joy, as though he were a stranger. Jesus, thou forgivest freely, but this is not enough. Prevent my unfaithfulness in the future. Kiss away these tears, and then purge my heart, and bind it with sevenfold cords to thyself, never to wander more. I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him and would not let him go. Song of Solomon chapter 3 verse 4. Does Christ receive us when we come to him notwithstanding all our past sinfulness? Does he never chide us for having tried all other refuges first? And is there none on earth like him? Is he the best of all the good, the fairest of all the fair? Oh, then let us praise him! daughters of Jerusalem, extol with timbrel and harp, down with your idols, up with the Lord Jesus. Now let the standards of pomp and pride be trampled underfoot, but let the cross of Jesus, which the world frowns and scoffs at, be lifted on high. O for a throne of ivory for our King Solomon! Let him be set on high for ever, and let my soul sit at his footstool and kiss his feet, and wash them with my tears. O how precious is Christ! How can it be that I have thought so little of him? How is it I can go abroad for joy or comfort when he is so full, so rich, so satisfying? Fellow believer, make a covenant with thine heart that thou wilt never depart from him, and ask thy Lord to ratify it. Bid him set thee as a signet upon his finger and as a bracelet upon his arm. Ask him to bind thee about him, as the bride decketh herself with ornaments, and as the bridegroom putteth on his jewels.

I would live in Christ's heart. In the clefts of that rock my soul would eternally abide. The sparrow hath made a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, Where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. And so too would I make my nest, my home, in thee, And never from thee may the soul of thy turtledove Go forth again. But may I nestle Close to Thee, O Jesus, my true and only rest.

When my precious Lord I find, all my ardent passions glow. Him with cords of love I bind, hold, and will not let him go. Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved. Song of Solomon chapter 7 verse 13

The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has all manner of pleasant fruits, both old and new, and they are laid up for our beloved. At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us survey our stores. We have new fruits. We desire to feel new life, new joy, new gratitude. We wish to make new resolves and carry them out by new labors. Our heart blossoms with new prayers and our soul is pledging herself to new efforts.

But we have some old fruits too. There is our first love, a choice fruit that, and Jesus delights in it. There is our first faith, that simple faith by which having nothing we became possessors of all things. There is our joy when we first knew the Lord. Let us revive it. We have our old remembrances of the promises. How faithful God has been. In sickness, how softly did he make our bed. In deep waters, how placidly did he buoy us up. In the flaming furnace, how graciously did he deliver us. Old fruits indeed. We have many of them. For his mercies have been more than the hairs of our head. Old sins we must regret, but then we have had repentances which he has given us, by which we have wept our way to the cross and learned the merit of his blood.

We have fruits this morning, both new and old, but here is the point. They are all laid up for Jesus. Truly those are the best and most acceptable services in which Jesus is the solitary aim of the soul and his glory without any admixture whatever the end of all our efforts. Let our many fruits be laid up only for our beloved. Let us display them when he is with us and not hold them up before the gaze of men. Jesus, we will turn the key in our garden door, and none shall enter to rob thee of one good fruit from the soil which thou hast watered with thy bloody sweat. Our all shall be thine, thine only, O Jesus, our beloved.

He will give grace and glory. Psalm 84 verse 11. Bounteous is Jehovah in his nature. To give is his delight. His gifts are beyond measure precious and are as freely given as the light of the sun. He gives grace to his elect because he wills it. To his redeemed because of his covenant. To the cold because of his promise. To believers because they seek it. To sinners because they need it. He gives grace abundantly. seasonably, constantly, readily, sovereignly, doubly enhancing the value of the boon by the manner of its bestowal. Grace in all its forms he freely renders to his people, comforting, preserving, sanctifying, directing, instructing, assisting grace. He generously pours into their souls without ceasing, and he always will do so, whatever may occur. Sickness may befall, but the Lord will give grace. Poverty may happen to us, but grace will surely be afforded. Death must come, but grace will light a candle at the darkest hour. Reader, how blessed it is as years roll around and the leaves begin again to fall. To enjoy such an unfading promise as this, the Lord will give grace. The little conjunction and in this verse is a diamond rivet binding the present with the future. Grace and glory always go together. God has married them and none can divorce them. The Lord will never deny a soul glory to whom he is freely given to live upon his grace. Indeed, glory is nothing more than grace in its Sabbath dress. Grace in full bloom, grace like autumn fruit, mellow and perfected. How soon we may have glory, none can tell. It may be before this month of October has run out, we shall see the holy city. but be the interval longer or shorter, we shall be glorified ere long. Glory, the glory of heaven, the glory of eternity, the glory of Jesus, the glory of the Father, the Lord will surely give to his chosen. Oh, rare promise of a faithful God. two golden links of one celestial chain, who owneth grace shall surely glory gain. The hope which is laid up for you in heaven Colossians chapter 1 verse 5 Our hope in Christ for the future is the main spring and the mainstay of our joy here. It will animate our hearts to think often of heaven, for all that we can desire is promised there. Here we are weary and toil-worn, but yonder is the land of rest, where the sweat of labour shall no more bedew the worker's brow, and fatigue shall be for ever banished. To those who are weary and spent, the word rest is full of heaven. We are always in the field of battle. We are so tempted within, and so molested by foes without, that we have little or no peace. But in heaven we shall enjoy the victory, when the banner shall be waved aloft in triumph, and the sword shall be sheathed, and we shall hear our captain say, Well done, good and faithful servant. We have suffered bereavement after bereavement but we are going to the land of the immortal where graves are unknown things. Here sin is a constant grief to us, but there we shall be perfectly holy. For there shall by no means enter into that kingdom anything which defileth. Hemlock springs not up in the furrows of celestial fields. Oh, is it not joy that you are not to be in banishment forever, that you are not to dwell eternally in this wilderness, but shall soon inherit Canaan? Nevertheless, let it never be said of us that we are dreaming about the future and forgetting the present. Let the future sanctify the present, the highest uses. Through the spirits of God, the hope of heaven is the most potent force for the product of virtue. It is a fountain of joyous effort. It is the cornerstone of cheerful holiness. The man who has this hope in him goes about his work with vigor, for the joy of the Lord is his strength. He fights against temptation with ardor, for the hope of the next world repels the fiery darts of the adversary. He can labor without present reward, for he looks for a reward in the world to come. A man greatly beloved. Daniel chapter 10 verse 11. Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah, has your unbelief made you forget that you are greatly beloved too? Must you not have been greatly beloved to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot? When God smote his only begotten son for you, what was this but being greatly beloved? You lived in sin and rioted in it. Must you not have been greatly beloved for God to have borne so patiently with you? You were called by grace and led to a savior and made a child of God and an heir of heaven. All this proves, does it not, a very great and super abounding love. Since that time, whether your path has been rough with troubles or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs that you are a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened you, yet not in anger. If he has made you poor, yet in grace you have been rich. The more unworthy you feel yourself to be, the more evidence have you that nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to save such a soul as yours. The more demerit you feel, the clearer is the display of the abounding love of God in having chosen you and called you and made you an heir of bliss. Now, if there be such love between God and us, let us live in the influence and sweetness of it. and use the privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as though we were strangers, or as though He were unwilling to hear us, for we are greatly beloved by our loving Father. He that spareth not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Come boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of Satan and the doubtings of thine own heart, thou art greatly beloved. Meditate on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love this evening, and so go to thy bed in peace. He himself hath suffered being tempted. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 18. It is a commonplace thought and yet it tastes like nectar to the weary heart. Jesus was tempted as I am. You have heard that truth many times. Have you grasped it? He was tempted to the very same sins into which we fall. Do not dissociate Jesus from our common manhood. It is a dark room which you are going through, but Jesus went through it before. It is a sharp fight which you are waging, but Jesus has stood foot to foot with the same enemy. Let us be of good cheer. Christ has borne the load before us, and the blood-stained footsteps of the King of Glory may be seen along the road which we traverse at this hour. There is something sweeter yet. Jesus was tempted but Jesus never sinned then my soul it is not needful for thee to sin for Jesus was a man and if one man endured these temptations and sinned not then in his power his members may also cease from sin Some beginners in the divine life think that they cannot be tempted without sinning, but they mistake. There is no sin in being tempted, but there is sin in yielding to temptation. Herein is comfort for the sorely tempted ones. There is still more to encourage them if they reflect that the Lord Jesus, though tempted, gloriously triumphed. And as he overcame, so surely shall his followers also. For Jesus is the representative man for his people. The head has triumphed, and the members share in the victory. fears are needless for Christ is with us armed for our defense our place of safety is the bosom of the Savior perhaps we are tempted just now in order to drive us nearer to him blessed be any wind that blows us into the port of our Savior's love happy wounds which make us seek the beloved physician. Ye tempted ones, come to your tempted savior for he can be touched with the feeling of your infirmities and will succor every tried and tempted one.

He had married an Ethiopian woman. Numbers chapter 12 verse 1. Strange choice of Moses, but how much more strange the choice of him who is a prophet like unto Moses and greater than he. Our Lord, who is fair as the lily, has entered into marriage union with one who confesses herself to be black because the sun has looked upon her. It is the wonder of angels that the love of Jesus should be set upon poor, lost, guilty men. Each believer must, when filled with a sense of Jesus' love, be also overwhelmed with astonishment that such love should be lavished on an object so utterly unworthy of it. Knowing as we do our secret guiltiness, unfaithfulness, and black-heartedness, we are dissolved in grateful admiration of the matchless freeness and sovereignty of grace. Jesus must have found the cause of his love in his own heart. He could not have found it in us, for it is not there.

Ever since our conversion, we have been black, though grace has made us comely. Holy Rutherford said of himself what we must each subscribe to. His relation to me is that I am sick, and he is the physician of whom I stand in need. Alas, how often I play fast and loose with Christ! He bindeth, I loose. He buildeth, I cast down. I quarrel with Christ, and he agreeth with me twenty times a day. Most tender and faithful husband of our souls, pursue thy gracious work of conforming us to thine image. till thou shalt present even us poor Ethiopians unto thyself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Moses met with opposition because of his marriage and both himself and his spouse were the subjects of an evil eye. Can we wonder if this vain world opposes Jesus and his spouse, and especially when great sinners are converted? For this is ever the Pharisee's ground of objection. This man receiveth sinners. Still is the old cause of quarrel revived, because he had married an Ethiopian woman.

Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? Numbers chapter 11 verse 11. Our Heavenly Father sends us frequent troubles to try our faith. If our faith be worth anything it will stand the test. Guilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not. The paste gem dreads to be touched by the diamond, but the true jewel fears no test. It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable. But that is true faith, which holds by the Lord's faithfulness when friends are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed, and the light of our Father's countenance is hidden. A faith which can say, in the direst trouble, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him, is heaven-born faith.

The Lord afflicts his servants to glorify himself, for he is greatly glorified in the graces of his people, which are his own handiwork. When tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, the Lord is honored by these growing virtues. We should never know the music of the harp if the strings were left untouched. nor enjoy the juice of the grape if it were not trodden in the wine press, nor discover the sweet perfume of cinnamon if it were not pressed and beaten, nor feel the warmth of fire if the coals were not utterly consumed. The wisdom and power of the great workman are discovered by the trials through which his vessels of mercy are permitted to pass.

Present afflictions tend also to heighten future joy. There must be shades in the picture to bring out the beauty of the lights. Could we be so supremely blessed in heaven if we'd not known the curse of sin and sorrow of earth? Will not peace be sweeter after conflict and rest more welcome after toil? Will not the recollection of past sufferings enhance the bliss of the glorified? There are many other comfortable answers to the question with which we opened our brief meditation. Let us muse upon it all day long.