be found in John xv. 14. In verse 13, thou readest the highest proof of His friendship toward thee, so that doubt whether He is willing to be thy friend, would be the most shameful sin. For if any one die for me he cannot be my enemy, cannot withdraw his hand from me, if I will lay hold on it. Go to His cross, and look into thy Friend's heart; what dost thou read?

OCTOBER THE TWELFTH.

"These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.". JOHN Xvii. 16, 24. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."-Ps. cxvi. 7. "The disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost."-ACTS xiii. 52.

HE true joy and the everlasting peace that

THE

cannot be destroyed, comes only into the heart of man, when the Holy Spirit enters, when the Lord Himself speaks to the heart and does it good. The ungodly and unbelieving, the unconverted or lukewarm Christians have no peace, and no pure abiding joy. Discord and unrest are in all hearts in which the God of peace, in which Christ does not dwell by faith. The believer also loses peace, as soon as he departs from faith, or becomes lukewarm and indolent, so that he does not abide in Jesus, and Jesus is lost to sight and heart. Therefore come all ye hearts, who seek peace and joy, come to Jesus, the Prince of peace, receive Him into your hearts by faith in love. He will erect there his tabernacle of peace, will

come into you, and bring you pure joy. Him heaven enters into your soul.

With

But as long

as we live here, we are in danger. We carry the treasure in fragile vessels, and must be very watchful and diligent not to lose it. If it be taken from us for a time, with or without our fault, by the wise purpose of the Lord, we must not on that account be dismayed, but only retire the more into our heart, wait the more eagerly at His door, until He again have mercy on us.

OCTOBER THE THIRTEENTH.

"Who art thou ?"-JOHN i. 19. "Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits."-ROM. xii. 16. "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself."-GAL. vi. 3.

WH

THO art thou? asked the priests and Pharisees of John, and they would have done better if each had put this question to himself. For every man should give himself this question to solve seven times a day, and there would be less conceitedness, more humility and love among Christians. Who art thou? Art thou something in thine own eyes? then thou art not only nothing, as we all are, but thou art also a puffed up fool and self deceiver, or deceived. Consider thyself in the light of the example of Christ and his dear followers, the apostles, martyrs, and other distinguished godly men, and thou wilt find that thou art still far behind. Consider thyself only

with regard to the Christian duties of thy station and calling, and thou wilt surely know thyself to be a great offender and transgressor. Least of all do such know themselves, who strive after high things, high knowledge, deep insight, and strange matters that others do not know; for these ascend so high that they cannot find the way back to themselves. Take care; gaze not on the heights yonder! God knows what is there; and, if thou art to see and know it, He will show thee more in a moment than thou canst find out in a hundred years. Strain not after high things, look into thyself! descend to the humble and the lowly, and remain down in the valley of self-knowledge and self-abasement, and God will exalt thee and reveal things to thee that thou couldst never find on giddy heights, unless He revealed them to thee in the way of humble faith.

OCTOBER THE FOURTEENTH.

"As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work: so am I made to possess mouths of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me."-JOB vii. 2, 3. "Thou makest darkness, and it is night."-Ps. civ. 20.

E must reject the guidings of all the heroes

WE

of faith and patience, if we will not tread in their footsteps, if we do not wish it to hold true that even the enlightened, believing Christian must fall into these nights and darknesses, in order to become truly enlightened and experienced. Was not Job a man who pleased God,

and whom the Lord led? Hear him, what he can tell thee, how it was with him for months long. No hireling longs so much for rest, no labourer in the heat of the sun for the shadow, as the soul walking in dark ways longs for light and consolation from the Lord. Mark these words of Job's: Wearisome nights are appointed to me. These were not such nights as the man of passion, the avaricious man, the man who is troubled about earthly things, has, whom numerous cares of avarice, or unbelief, whom revenge and other impure inclinations torment and make sleepless. No, the misery of these nights consisted in inward struggles with darkness of spirit, because the Lord hid Himself and His light, and left the soul alone in it, till it sighed out of the darkness, and penetrated it with prayer and supplications, and the clear brightening countenance of the Lord again shone on it. David says: The Lord maketh darkness, and it is night. He gives light and withdraws it, for wise reasons. He makes the soul dark and bright, that it may know where to turn for light. Lord, cause thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved.

OCTOBER THE FIFTEENTH.

"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."-REV. ii. 10. "Behold, I come quickly : hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."-REV. iii. 11.

10 be faithful is a matter which is profitable only to ourselves, and by which God gains nothing; and yet He promises us a crown for it.

Notwithstanding, few esteem this crown.

Also this faithfulness is not possible to us without His grace, and unless He produce it in us, and yet He crowns it as a work that we had done. So kind and faithful is the Lord! Does He not deserve fidelity? He was faithful even to death on the cross for us; now there is surely nothing more reasonable than that He should require such fidelity from us, which is yet to put a crown on us. But, my unfaithful heart, that daily breakest faith and covenant, where wilt thou get faithfulness even to death ?—Where I get all grace and virtue; from the faithful God, who has promised me all things, and, as He is faithful and true, will give me daily, and if I need it, a thousand and a thousand times every day, without upbraiding. He has made and kept faithful to the end all His faithful servants and handmaidens, who have ever been. He abides faithful, although we become untrue. He can much less forget and forsake us than a mother can her child, or a hen her brood. If this confidence dwell in thy breast, this zeal to pray to the Lord as often as thou art in want, thou wilt keep what thou hast and no man shall take thy crown, for the Lord has other crowns for others. Maintain thou thine, which the Saviour has won for thee so hard, and which thou must ascribe, not to thy own fidelity, but to His grace. And He will certainly give it thee. O crown, in the hand of our Mediator! shine often in our eye, that we may lay hold on thee, keep thee, and not let thee go. Lord! strengthen the weak.