these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.” A spirit like this is ever one of the surest signs of grace, and is never found save in a regenerate heart.

An aged Christian, in great distress of mind, was once complaining to a friend, of his miserable condition, and among other things said, "That which troubles me most is, that God will be dishonoured by my fall." His friend hastily caught at this, and used it for the purpose of comforting him. "Art thou careful of the honour of God, and dost thou think that God has no care of thee and thy salvation? A soul forsaken of God cares not what becomes of the honour of God: therefore be of good cheer; if God's heart were not toward thee, thine would not be turned to God or toward the remembrance of his name."

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God?-Ps. lxxix. 9, 10.

Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.-1 SAM. ii. 30.

If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.-JOHN xii. 26.

January 12.

FIRST LOVE IS SO PRECIOUS THAT WE MUST

YOUNG

BEWARE OF LOSING IT.

OUNG disciples are sometimes lightly told that the joyous love they have when first they close with offered mercy in Christ is never long retained, and that

sooner or later a time of darkness and lukewarmness is sure to come. But such a statement is wholly unwarranted. There is no evidence to show, nor is there any reason whatever to believe, that John ever lost his first love, or Paul or Timothy theirs; or Epaphroditus, who for the work of Christ was nigh unto death; or Priscilla or Aquila, who for Paul's life laid down their own necks, and unto whom not only he gave thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Nay, on the contrary, their love to Christ, though not always, it may be, so visibly emotional as at first, yet became year by year warmer and more intense, till in the end there was nothing they would not gladly have done or suffered for his sake.

Doubtless from unwatchfulness and over-intimacy with the world, and the manifold cares and conflicts of life, too many lose in part their early and blessed experience. There is, however, no "must be" in such a declension. This is very manifest from the way in which our Lord addressed the church of Ephesus. He spoke of their losing their first love, not as a misfortune merely, but as a grievous blemish in their character, as a dangerous symptom, as a sin to be confessed and deplored, and one that called for loving yet earnest rebuke. True, they served and laboured, and were commended for so doing; but as service with decreasing love can never satisfy Him who said, "My son, give me thine heart, there was rebuke as well as commendation. "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

It should ever, therefore, be our resolute and prayerful effort, through grace, to keep the love that was warm at the first warm to the last. It was said of Moses that even when an hundred and twenty years old, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated; and so has it been from time to time, spiritually, with not a few aged believers. It was noted by his friends as one of the grandest things about Dr. Cappadose that, long as he lived, he never lost the ardour of his first love. Indeed, ever and again, as his thoughts turned to the Lord who was so dear to him, his heart seemed to burn.

"Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear,

It is not night if thou be near;

Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise

To hide thee from thy servant's eyes!"

Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I re member thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.-JER. ii. 2. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.-MATT. χχίν. 12.

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.-REV. iii. 4.

January 13.

NOTHING SO SWEETENS SUFFERING AS FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST IN IT.

A

LL who are called to endure suffering for righteousness' sake, not only rejoice in the midst of it, but rejoice also expressly on account of it, because it links them more closely to their blessed Lord, and greatly brightens their future; for "if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him." Indeed, the oneness of the Redeemer and his people is such that they have fellowship

alike in joy and sorrow; and believers are even said to "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ."

This does not, of course, mean that the atoning sufferings of Christ in Gethsemane and on Calvary were not of themselves sufficient for redemptive ends, without the added sufferings of his saints. No! for, so far as expiation was concerned, everything was done and borne by Christ himself with such absolute completeness that nothing was left for others to supplement. The afflictions referred to, therefore, were not the afflictions of atonement, but the afflictions of sympathy; and so full, close, and tender is that sympathy, that all the afflictions of his people are virtually his own afflictions also.

This blessed truth has been a sweet sustainer of suffering saints in every age. In former evil days in Scotland, Margaret Wilson, a girl of eighteen, along with an aged widow of sixty-three, was adjudged to die because she refused to acknowledge the supremacy of any other but Christ in the Church. The sentence pronounced against them was, that they should be fastened to stakes driven deep into the oozy sand that covers the beach at Wigtown, and left to perish in the rising tide. The stake to which the aged female was fastened was farther down the beach than that of the young woman, in order that, being sooner destroyed, her expiring sufferings might shake the firmness of faith of Margaret Wilson. But they had no such effect; for when a heartless persecutor asked, "What think you of your friend now?" she calmly and nobly replied, "What do I see but Christ in one of his members wrestling there. Think you that we are the sufferers? No; it is Christ in us-he who sendeth us not upon our own charges." Thus we see, to injure the saints is to

injure their Lord.

Witness his memorable words, "Saul,

Saul, why persecutest thou me?"

Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.-PHIL. i. 29.

I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.Ex. iii. 7.

In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.-ISA. lxiii. 9.

то

January 14.

COMFORT IN THE WILDERNESS.

believers, this world is not a home, but only a place

of sojourn; a wilderness through which, as pilgrims, oft weary and faint, they are passing onward to their eternal rest. But this is their comfort-if it is a wilderness, they are not to be long in it. When a few brief years at most have passed away, they will be out of it, and their weary sojourn in it be but a fading memory.

But, better far, they are not alone in it. A Friend is near on whom they can lean day by day-a Friend so mighty that he can uphold to the uttermost, and so precious that he is pre-eminently the Beloved. "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" With ordinary friends we can only go a certain length in this dependency. If we lean too heavily on them, or too long, they are apt to get wearied of us. But with our blessed Redeemer, if there is complaint at all, it is not that we lean too much on him, but that we lean too little. When he is the object of it, we can never exceed in trustful dependence. Even permission so to lean would be much, but we have far more; it is not only his desire, but his express command, that day by day as