what God did then for Jacob, he has since done again and again in every age for his trusting people. Amid all their wanderings and perplexities in this vale of tears, he keeps them, guides them, provides for them, blesses them, and never leaves them till he has finally brought them to their heavenly inheritance. In the length and in the breadth of it, the whole earth is the Lord's, for it is the creation of his hand; and, therefore, dwell where his people may, they are never out of his territory, or beyond his loving eye.

Just because of this, when sending his servants to do his work, our Lord asked no man's permission. "Go ye," he said, "into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;" "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

"When on the mighty deep,
He will their spirits keep,
Stayed on his word;
When in a foreign land,
No other friend at hand,
Jesus will by them stand,
Jesus their Lord."

"O my God, give me but thy presence," said a good man once, "and I will not ask thee what road I shall travel, nor dare nor desire to dictate to thee, whether th path shall be rough or smooth. If it be smooth, I may blessed with thy smile; if it be rough, thou hast 'shoes of iron and brass,' and the result is n doubt."

The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade u Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall pre shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.

They shall fight against thee; but they sha I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver th The Lord shall deliver me from every unto his heavenly kingdom.-2 TTM. iv.

L

April 4.

WE MAY DO LOFTY SERVICE EVEN IN A LOWLY SPHERE.

HERE are few counsels of the Word less heeded than

TH

that given by the prophet, "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." Instead of not seeking such things, greatness in one or other of its forms-a great name, a great position, a great income, a great sphere seems with many to be their all in all. Yet neither peace nor usefulness is in any way dependent on it. Indeed, in choosing his instrumentality for carrying out his grand and saving designs, it is the feeble rather than the strong, the mean rather than the mighty, that the Lord selects. "God," says the apostle," hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

that

ld glory in his presence."

uently happens that the Lord is more e positions than in elevated ones. The nhere may be a main thing with us, but ain thing with the Lord. Accordevant in the great sphere that is he last, but the faithful one in est. "Well done, thou good and t been faithful over a few things, er many things: enter thou into

our work we have nothing to do.

That is arranged for us from the first. Our only business is to shine where we are. And he whose consistent holy life and simple loving words make him the light of his own family, of his own village, of his own fellowworkmen, of his own fellow-servants, is doing work for Christ in which Gabriel himself would consider it an honour to be employed."

"Be brave, my brother;

He whom thou servest slights

Not e'en his weakest one.

No deed, though poor, shall be forgot

However feebly done;

The prayer, the wish, the thought,

The faintly-spoken word,

The plan that seemed to come to nought,

Each has its own reward."

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.-MATT. xviii. 4.

Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.-1 PETER v. 5.

And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her?......She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.-MARK xiv. 6, 8, 9.

April 5.

THE LORD'S-DAY IS EVER A LOVED DAY WITH HIS PEOPLE.

HERE was a Sabbath in Eden; and if needful then,

THERE

how much more now, amid all the manifold toils and conflicts of our present fallen condition! If even with such a day we are so prone to sink into carnality and earthliness, what would we be if entirely deprived of its divine and ever helpful influence? It is well, when at

any time tempted to its violation, to bear in mind that the Sabbath, unlike mere Jewish and temporary ordinances, has a central place in the ten commandments; and that these commandments alone had the marvellous honour put upon them of not merely being twice written, by the very finger of God, on tables of stone, but of having been proclaimed, by his own voice, in the hearing of thousands. What could more emphatically intimate the binding obligation of the Sabbath, or show that it was designed, not for Jew only, or for Gentile, but for man in all ages and in all climes?

Doubtless, to many the Lord's-day is often a weariness. They are grieved when it comes, and glad when it goes, just because, their eyes being unopened and their hearts untouched, they have no spiritual tastes, no intimacy with God, and no realization of divine and eternal things. But it is not so with those who, through faith in Jesus, have passed from death unto life. They love everything that is his, and therefore they love his day. It is to them the sweetest day of all the seven. Every hour of it is dear to them, and they readily join with the Psalmist in saying, "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

"O day most calm and bright!

The week were dark but for thy light-
Thy torch doth show the way."

"A world without a Sabbath," says one, "is like a man without a smile, like summer without flowers, like a homestead without a garden." Truly, then, whatever it may be to others, the Sabbath of the Lord is a delight to the saints a true joy, a type of heaven-and brings sweetly to mind their risen Lord, the home he is preparing for

them, and the rest eternal on which they are so soon to enter. "I was born on a Sabbath," says David Brainerd; " and I was new-born on a Sabbath; and I hope I shall die on a Sabbath-day. I long for the time. his chariot so long of coming!"

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.-Ex. xx. 8.

Oh, why is

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable......then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.—Isa. Iviii. 13, 14.

April 6.

EVEN IN THE DARKEST VALLEY GOD CAN GIVE LIGHT.

OME through fear of death are all their life-time.

SOME

subject to bondage. They fear the mystery of it, the loneliness of it, the possible conflict and suffering of it, and the unknown experiences that follow it. Yet, strange to say, not unfrequently when these trembling ones come to the dark valley, and are about to pass through it, they are not disturbed by a single cloud, and of dying struggle they sometimes know absolutely nothing. A brother minister once said to an old Christian, who through this fear had been always more or less in bondage: “Your Lord will either graciously sustain you in the last conflict, or he will save you from all conflict whatever." So it proved in the end. One morning, on inquiring for his old friend, the housekeeper said: "O sir, my master is gone! I called him in the morning, when he spoke to me. About an hour later I went into his room. He was lying calm and