preach, and the most devout attention we can give to His service-all the He claims, all these the gracious heart cheerfully yields. "My soul, wa thou only on God." Let the aim and effort ever be to yield the best f God. He gave His best, His only Son to die for us, and the heaven of H presence is to be the eternal home of our souls. All true worship is real an "offering," and, unless it has these features, it is not acceptable in H sight. II. THE OFFERING SALTED.-The symbol is expressive. 1. SALT, t Symbol of Covenant Engagement. "The salt of the covenant of thy God "it is a covenant of salt for ever." (Numbers xviii. 19). "The Lord God ga the kingdom to David and his sons by a covenant of salt." (2 Chr xiii. 5.) Compare such passages as these with the fact that God condescend to enter into covenant with Israel, 'established a covenant" with the through the medium of types and sacrifices, said by the Psalmist, "Gat. my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me sacrifice" and now, in the worship that redeemed sinners present, as the come to the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling we see in the symbol of salt the necessity of faith in the atoning bl "Without faith it is impossible to please God." "Through him we b have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Every true and acceptab worshipper is one who has been "washed in the blood of the Lamb," and hi whole and sole dependance for eternal life is through faith in Christ. N human merit, no priestly rites, no ceremonial observances, no costly vest ments, no wafted incense, can avail; to the cross, or we are unsaved; to th cross, or our offering is not accepted; the "burden " will not "fall from o back" at the "gate"-no, not even at the "Interpreter's House;" we m bear it till we get to the cross, and there, as we "look" by faith, it falls of and rolls into the sepulchre. Brought into covenant relationship through ti "blood of the cross," we "draw nigh," and "find grace to help in time need :" "Nothing in my hand I bring, 2. SALT. It denotes Intelligence.-"Let your speech be alway with gras seasoned with salt, that ye may know how," &c. (Col. iv. 6.) Blind supe stition befits the service of the blind idolater; custom is the authority o the unthinking professor; the usual practice, "our plan," is the text of th formalist; Ritualism belongs pre-eminently to the weak and erring; but t the truly spiritual, the savingly renewed, no service will be delighted i which does not approve itself to the mind and judgment, as compared wit the written Word. "If they speak not according to this word, it is becaus there is no light in them." The service that is all heart and no intellect, al fire and no thought, will soon exhaust itself. "Faggot fire soonest ge out." The service that is all intellect and no heart may be as clear as th moonbeams, but they are as cold. The service which includes the sanctific exercise of the mind, and the sanctified affections of the heart, will be a cepted by Him and blest to us. Have the authority, "Thus saith the Lord, all we do, and "whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not into men;" "for ye serve the Lord Christ." 3. SALT. It denotes Sincerity, Incorruption.-Nothing is more abhorrent God's sight, nothing was denounced in stronger terms by our Lord, than sincerity. It was He who compared insincere professors to "whited sealchres." The first act of deception in the early Church cost the devers their lives, "they kept back part of the price," and they "fell dead the Apostles' feet." The most withering words Peter spoke were adssed to Simon Magus, who, under pretence of superior sanctity, offered cey that he might receive the power of the Holy Ghost. Salt is known its preserving properties, it keeps from corruption that, which would therwise decay. Personal godliness cherished in our hearts, and true incerity in all our worship, are indispensable in order to serve God aright. The Jews were forbidden the use of leaven and honey in their sacrifices : eth tended to corruption and decay. Let us offer "the unleavened bread sincerity and truth." It is the living service, not the dead form-the heartelt love, not the lip service, which He who is of purer eyes than to behoil iniquity will accept. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts." 4. SALT. It denotes Fidelity.-A stranger in oriental climes sought shelter and sustenance, and was welcomed; he trembled lest the hospitality hould not be genuine; the host thought, the stranger may prove a foe. At the evening meal the salt is placed on the table, they both partake, and all fear dies away. 'Tis the pledge of fidelity. Treason against the throne accounted a deadly crime. The darkest act recorded in Scripture is that of the traitor who sold his Lord, and then said, "Hail, Master, and kissed him." The unfaithful servant is the unprofitable servant, who will be cast into outer darkness." Fidelity in worship. Fidelity to our vows. Every Christian is a pledged man. "Thy vows are upon me, O God." Fidelity to our deep and increasing knowledge and responsibilities. Fidelity to Christ. Have we not given to Him our hearts, our service? Have we not been "baptized into Christ ?" Are we not devoted to Him till life's last bour? To be unfaithful in such a cause, and to such a Lord, is the deepest disgrace, and the deadliest dishonour! How terrible the threatenings recorded against the unfaithful! Behold Him on the middle throne! He speaks. Hark to His voice, more sweet than the songs of Seraphim,— "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." "With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt." III. THE SALTED OFFERING PRESENTED.-Apply these principles. 1. In preparation of heart and mind for His service. The altar was cleansed the evening before the Sabbath dawned. The spices were brought before the Sabbath day to embalm the Lord's body. The salted offering in the retirement of the closet, is the earnest of acceptable and profitable service in His house. To the hearer as well as to the preacher is the proverb applicable, "You will not reap in the pulpit (or the pew) unless you plough in the closet." Have the Salt ready; then "bring an offering, and come unto his courts." 2. To the Service itself. Be constant. Declining piety in ol times said, "What a weariness;" and in modern days it often says, “One ser vice in a day is enough." Earnest godliness says, "Awake up psaltery an harp, I myself will awake right early." "We will not forsake the house our God." Be in time. There can be no excuse in these days of active life of railway travelling, of time tables, of clocks and watches set by "Green wich time," for late attendance. It is a triple evil. It robs the worshipper himself, it distracts the minister, it sets a bad example to the young, and t the unsaved. Do you think that THAT late offering is salted? We fear not DO YOU THINK THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS EVER LATE ? "God never is before His time, 3. To Personal Effort. Every disciple has, at least, one talent, and tha one is to be accounted for and employed in His service. Every Christian should be a labourer. "Would to God all the Lord's people were prophets The Saviour says to each, and to every disciple, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" Let us then each "draw nigh" with the salted offering of per sonal service, and He will say, "Ye have done it unto me." Prove all we have said, test it, by the worship which the "redeemed from among men" render in heaven. They make no mistake. They never weary in the service of the Lord. Every offering is a salted one. Love prompts it, it is freely given, they give the best. Why the best thing they wear is their crown, and that they place at His feet, saying, "THOU ART WORTHY. They recognize the Atonement, "Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood." In the sevenfold light of heaven where they "know even as they are known," their worship is as intelligent as 'tis devout; their sincerity and fidelity who will question? Heaven's worshippers fulfil the spirit of our text. Let us His disciples do so too, and with all our worship, all our "offerings, offer salt." CONSOLATION DURING PESTILENCE. BY REV. T. R. STEVENSON. "See that ye be not troubled."-Matt. xxiv. 6. SOMETIMES God seems to demand impossibilities. Ever and anon religion wears the aspect of anything but a "reasonable service." It was so when Christ said to His disciples, They need not depart; give ye them to eat." How strange! Feed more than five thousand with five loaves and two small fishes? How could that be? What a mysterious command! Not more so, however, than some that are given to us. To wit: God seems to demand an impossibility when He tells us to " rejoice evermore." Evermore" Not only when He gives, but when He takes at the birth and the death of privileges: in sickness and in health. But who can do that? Again: God seems to demand an impossibility when He tells us to "pray without ceasing." Surely that is beyond our reach. Thomas de Quincy, in one of his essays, mentions a family in Huntingdonshire who, about the year 1630, Lule the attempt to keep up perpetual rship. Having a chapel and choir I their own, their scheme was that bapel services should always be going a by means of successive reliefs, as i camps or watches at sea. Come hen you might, twilight, dawn, on, or night, you might always on hearing through the woods theblare of the organ, the penitential of the solitary choristers, or the triumphant burst of the full char." It need hardly be added that 66 soon came to an end. How amid the business, pleasure, and domestic duties of life we can maintain anything approaching continual suppli is a problem to not a few. Hardly less perplexing is the precept, "In everything give thanks." We all know that there are occasions on which it is easy to do this; nay, there are seasons wherein the difficulty is not to be grateful. When we feel the heavy burden fall off at the cross, and we re disposed almost literally to take those "great leaps of joy" that Bunvan describes: when, on our journey heavenward, we are met by the three Shining Ones; or when we behold and raw nearer, every hour, to the Detable Mountains, we may well ise and laud the name of our God. bat when we are in the dark dungeon of Doubting Castle: when we sink in the Slough of Despond: or en we have to encounter the Fecious follies of Vanity Fair, how cult is it to "give thanks." The ext is another case in point. It seems as if the incarnate God demanded an Impossibility of His disciples, by say See that ye be not troubled." To what does He refer? To a period of unparalleled terror and suffering. He has in view the destruction of Jerusalem and the tragic close of the Mosaic worship and economy. So dreadfal would be the calamities which Would occur that Christ declares "there shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be." And yet he says, "See that ye be not troubled." Only think of it: Jesus affirms that the earth never had been and never would be the witness of such misery as was to be shortly experienced. Nevertheless, He distinctly and deliberately enjoins them, "See that ye be not troubled." This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" 66 Be Albeit, things are not what they seem." Whatever may appear, we may be perfectly certain that God never does expect impossibilities. Thus we shall ever find it if we reconsider the difficulties which baffle us at first sight. For example: not long did the order, “Give ye them to eat,' sound absurd to those who received the message. With a beautiful and child-like trust in the Master's power and love, they take the scanty store and begin to distribute it, when, lo! it multiplies in their hands, and the crowds did all eat, and were filled." We can, to return to another illustration, "rejoice evermore." If we cannot always rejoice in men, we can always "rejcice in the Lord." earth never so barren, heaven is perpetually fruitful in springs of happiness -happiness, too, which flows forth irrespective of outward vexations and calamities. Deep down beneath the surface of the old ocean all is calm. Not a ripple disturbs those silent fathoms. Storms that wreck gallant vessels, tempests that destroy brave and noble navies may rage at the surface, but under all is unbroken quiet. Such is the Christian's experience: at any rate, such it may and ought to be. Whatever may be his external circumstances, however sharp and severe his trials, deep down in his soul is the eternal peace of God. We can, too, "pray without ceasing." What some of us have delighted to hear the devout bard sing about those who in this loud, stunning tide of care and crime" carry music in their hearts" wherever they may go, is true. We can maintain an habitual spirit of prayer, and that is what is meant by the apostolic precept. We may be in such a state of mind as often to ejacu 66 late earnest and effectual supplication. Have you ever noticed how often the word" Selah" occurs in the book of Psalms? It is used no less than seventy-four times. There has been not a little polemical pugilism and philological fighting about its significance, but the most probable, and certainly the most beautiful explanation, is the following: it means Raise," "Lift up," and it is supposed that "it marks a break or interval in the inspiring influence of the Holy Ghost." The prophet or psalmist is enjoying the full rapture of the vision, or imbibing the full stream of the doctrine, when now, on a sudden, there comes a pause in the cherished communion.” Therefore the prayer is offered, brief, but eager and prompt, "Lift up again -Raise; raise back to the lofty elevation of thought which I have lost." Now, brethren, we can all cry" Selah.” It occupies no great time; it involves no cessation from the daily duties which we may be about. In the shop, the study, the parlour, or the marketplace, when tempted to some sin, we may cry inwardly, "Selah-Lift up, O God; keep thy servant high above the low level of this evil." If we do so our selah will be our safety. We can "in everything give thanks." If we can do no more, we can be grateful that, in the midst of our troubles, we are not worse off. Bishop Hall quaintly remarks, "For every bad there might be a worse, and when a man breaks his leg let him be thankful it was not his neck." When Fenelon's library was on fire, “God be praised," he exclaimed, "that it is not the dwelling of some poor man!" And, as in these instances, so with the text; Christ did not demand an impossibility when He said, See that ye be not troubled." He taught facts and revealed truths which were equal to the work of giving them peace and confidence in the midst of the dreadful catastrophes which they were soon to witness. Nor is it otherwise with us. In the event of great national disasters of every kind, there is ever abundant reason for trust and never justifiable reasons for harassing care and alarm. We may see this exemplified in that publ calamity which has hardly yet passed away from us-pestilence. There are certain great consolatory doctrines which we shall do well to remember as a preventive of panic, should cholera return, as well during national tribulations. 1. "See that ye be not trout led for national calamities work out God purposes. In the context and the paralle passages in the other Evangelist, find such phrases as "the coming the Son of Man" and "the day of the Lord." What do they mean? The the famines, battles, and pestilence worked out His ends, and were over ruled for great and good purposes. would be easy to prove that this was done by the occurrences connected with the fall of Jerusalem. By war, the world was delivered from many hopelessly wicked men, whose lives were a Scourge; and by the destruction of the Temple, the Jewish hold upon the old dispensation was shaken. The fearful plague which has of late been in our midst has worked out Divine ends. Cholera is undeniably a 66 visitation of God," a Divine punishment. But let us be careful. Many are strangely illogical and unscriptural in their explanation of the matter. They remind us of the old man who tried to account for the existence of the Goodwin Sands by the building of Tenterden church-steeple. Now of what is cholera a chastisement? "The Maynooth Grant," "Essays and Reviews," "High Churchism-such ar some of the replies given. We cannot thus explain the pestilence. There is, usually, a correspondence between the nature of a sin and its punishment. David sinned in numbering his soldiers, and he is punished by thousands of them being destroyed. Again, King Jeroboam, sins with his hand, and his hand is instantly withered. We believe that cholera is a plague inflicted on us for neglecting the laws of health. By the body we have transgressed; by the |