"Faith," says one, "is nothing else but the soul's venture. It ventures to Christ in opposition to conscious guilt and legal terror, and it ventures for Christ in opposition to all difficulty and danger."

O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?-MATT. xiv. 31. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?-JOHN xi. 40.

Verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.-MARK xi. 23.

January 6.

WE MUST NEITHER MISPLACE REPENTANCE

NOR EXCLUDE IT.

HERE is not and cannot be any antagonism between

THERE

faith and repentance. Both are enjoined in the Word, and the divine Giver of the one is the divine Giver of the other; for while it is said, "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God," it is also said, "He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."

But though there is no antagonism between them in the Word, there is often a serious misplacement of them in actual life. It is no unfrequent thing with anxious inquirers so to put repentance before faith as to make a positive hindrance of it. When urged to look to Christ, and at once accept his freely-offered salvation, they virtually say, "No; we are not yet worthy of it. Our convictions must be deeper first, and our repentance truer."

By such unbelieving hesitancy, they not only grieve the Spirit, but often lose their convictions altogether.

But if some err by making repentance a hindrance to faith, others err as seriously by setting it aside, as something entirely legal, and with which believers have nothing whatever to do. They forget that gospel repentance always includes, not only grief and contrition, but an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ; and they forget, too, both the great command, "Repent, every one of you," and the sad fact that those who never repent of their sins soon and surely return to them again. None, therefore, who really trust and love the Saviour can ever make light of repentance, or fail themselves to exercise it, when there is a need be.

Their tears as penitents, however, should always have sweet as well as bitter in them, because being in Christ, and therefore children accepted in the Beloved, they are privileged to look on all the discipline and trial their backslidings have occasioned as needed and gracious tokens of wise and fatherly love. Though the remembrance of their sins may well keep them humble and watchful, yet when there is such blood to cleanse and the Spirit to help, it should never be allowed to keep them doleful and doubting. Were it otherwise, their repentance, instead of being true and evangelical, would have a Popish taint in it, and show that, to their Lord's dishonour and their own injury, they were only half - believing in a halfforgiveness.

This would be to resemble Joseph's brethren, who, in spite of all his loving assurances and gracious acts, were ever fearfully brooding over the past, and unworthily saying, "Peradventure he will yet hate us."

Nothing wounds the Lord like such suspicious fears in his children, or so perpetuates gloom in their own souls. When at any time memories of the past awaken fear and disquiet conscience, the only way of relief is a fresh and believing application to the blood of the Lamb.

And he said unto them...that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.-LUKE xxiv. 46, 47.

Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance...for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death.-2 COR. vii. 9, 10.

That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done.-EZEK. xvi. 63.

January 7.

TRUE LOYALTY TO CHRIST HAS NO RESERVES.

WHEN

HEN all others around them proved false and faithless, it was the grand distinction of Joshua and Caleb that they followed the Lord fully. Though thereby they imperilled all that was dear to them, and were nearly stoned to death, yet they swerved not a hair'sbreadth from the path of duty.

It was the same with Ruth the Moabitess. While her sister kissed Naomi, and departed,-for "a little entreaty," as one says, "will serve to move nature to be good unto itself," she resolutely said, "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but

death part thee and me." Nothing could move her; love so true could abide both fire and anvil.

So, too, was it with Paul and Barnabas. They were true men, who in serving their Lord and Master had no reserves, and made no conditions; hence the testimony borne to them, "Our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." "In our love to God," says an old writer, "we but crack and vaunt in vain if we cannot be willing to suffer for him."

Such whole-hearted consecration is often regarded as an uncalled-for extremeness. But never do true Christians so view it. And why? Because Christ is not only their divine Master, whom they are bound to serve, but also their adorable Redeemer, whom they cannot but love, for he laid down his life for their sake; and therefore even to suffer shame for his name they reckon one of the highest of honours.

Such faithful servants have always more or less of present as well as of future reward, and are often the happiest of men even in sorest extremities, for they have a good conscience, a bright hope, and the spirit of glory and of God resting upon them. When Richard Cameron, one of the noblest of our Scottish martyrs, had fallen mortally wounded on Airdsmoss, he said: "I am dying, happy, happy; and if I had a thousand lives, I would willingly lay them all down one after another for Christ. Oh, he is near me; I think I see him! I am just coming, Lord Jesus.” And he added: "Tell my parents not to weep, but continue steadfast in the faith, and not to fear a suffering lot for Christ."

Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.-REV. ii. 10.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.-REV. xii. 11.

What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. -ACTS xxi. 13.

January 8.

THE CHAIN OF REDEEMING LOVE HAS NO WEAK LINK.

IN

N spite of manifold tokens of helpful kindness in the past, believers often give way to fears about the future, especially when they reflect on their own inherent weakness, and all the might and malignity that ever confront them. There would be good grounds for such fears were salvation merely of man, an earthly device, planned and schemed by human wisdom only; but this is not its character, for we are expressly and repeatedly assured that, alike in its beginning, middle, and end, it belongeth wholly to the Lord. He is not more surely the Author than the Finisher of our faith.

Man's acts of kindness arise often from mere bursts of momentary feeling; but all such acts in God spring from wise, holy, and deliberate purpose, and no purpose of his can ever fail. Therefore, no matter how great may be the difficulties in the way, how intense the opposition, sore the discouragements, or crushing the seeming defeats, yet in the end all that the Father hath given to the Son shall come unto him.

The apostle sets this vividly before us when he says: "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he