Whether he knocks or rings, it is with the most trustful confidence and heartiness, for it is his father's house; and enter when he may, he knows assuredly he can count upon a welcome. It is even so with the children of God. They have ever the freest and most intimate access to the Lord, and can at all times pour into their Father's ear and heart every anxiety of their souls and every petition of their lips.

This, believers, is your privilege; and rest assured that, if you are once put into God's family, you will never again be put out of it. Though, in wondrous grace, outcasts innumerable have become children, yet not one of the real children has ever become an outcast again. There may occasionally, it is true, be not a little waywardness among them, and even grievous and humiliating backsliding; and because of this there may be the hiding of God's face and the losing of assurance, and perhaps even bitter and prolonged chastening before the healing comes again. But in no case will there ever be a final disownment or severance; for having loved His own from the beginning, He loves them to the end. Never, therefore, should they cease to say, with all filial confidence, "Abba, Father."

The night before his death, Dr. Chalmers, while walking in his garden, was overheard, by one of his family, saying, in low but very earnest tones, "O Father! my heavenly Father!" Sweet close to so noble a life.

Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.-GAL. iii. 26. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.-JOHN i. 12.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is.-1 JOHN iii. 2.

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May 18.

USUALLY, AS OPPORTUNITIES ARE IMPROVED,

THEY MULTIPLY.

FTER giving the general counsel to the believers in Galatia, "Let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not," the apostle immediately added the special one: "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." With such words before them, none need despair of usefulness who have any of the spirit of Robert Hall, when he said, "How ardently I long to do something which shall convince the world I have not lived in vain."

No one can do everything in Christian service, because no one has all the talents or all the opportunities; yet, if but willing, all, even the humblest, have talent enough to do more or less for the honour of their Lord and the salvation of souls. If this something, however little, be only done with single eye and resolute purpose, what was said of old will be graciously said again, “She hath done what she could."

Not unfrequently, when it seems as if we had no opportunities of usefulness, it is just because there is a want of the watchful eye to see them and of the loving heart to embrace them.

In times of quickening, when faith brightens and love revives, it is marvellous to see how difficulties vanish, how spheres enlarge, and doors that once seemed hopelessly shut become widely open; and to see also how the very

humblest and obscurest become lights and blessings to those around them.

That devoted Christian, Harlam Page, spent most of his life in a quiet New England community, toiling from day to day at the carpenter's bench; and yet, before his death, he knew of more than a hundred souls converted through his instrumentality. Under God, all this was accomplished simply by doing good unto all men as he had opportunity. As one said of him, he made every day tell in the work that held the first thought and place in his heart. "To meet a neighbour was an occasion to do him good. To hear of a wanderer was sufficient to enlist his soul in efforts to reclaim and save him. By words written and spoken, by tract, and consecrated example, in every way he sought to do good. He had caught the spirit of his Lord and Master; and every action said, ‘I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.''

What a different world in purity and peace would this soon be, and how much of heaven might be enjoyed on earth, if all who bear the name of Christ had a similar spirit and a like devotedness!

"Finish thy work, the time is short,

The sun is in the west,

The night is coming down; till then
Think not of rest."

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.-ECCLES. ix. 10.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.-1 COR. xv. 58.

May 19.

THEY ARE FREE INDEED WHOM THE TRUTH SETS FREE.

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OOKED at from a distance, the service of Christ some

times seems a hard bondage; but when honestly and heartily entered on, it is ever a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. A worldling is bond anywhere, but everywhere a true Christian is free. To Adam even paradise was gloomy when guilt had filled him with fear; whereas to Paul even the prison was bright and joyous when grace had loosened his bonds and poured peace into his soul.

"He is the freedman whom the Truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides."

This freedom which the Lord gives to his people has nothing spurious in it, and therefore, though freed from the penalty of the law, they are not freed from its precepts. They are no more under its curse, but, to their delight, they are still under its conduct. "The law," says John Flavel, “sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us to the law to be regulated." Accordingly, every believer gladly says with the Psalmist, "Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!"

But more than this: when once made free by the Son, we become free to every privilege and blessing his blood has purchased-free to enter his house, to sit at his table, to rejoice in his smile, and to draw without limit from his inexhaustible fulness. No freedom, therefore, could be more blessed than this; and, happily, it has its beginning the very moment we believe.

"In a foreign harbour," says Dr. Moody Stuart, "a slave followed the footsteps of her mistress into our ship; and I remarked to the captain that on reaching England she would be free. No,' he replied; she is free already. The Queen of England has no slaves; the moment she set her foot on the planks of this ship she was a free woman, and her mistress cannot now bid her return to the shore without her own free consent.' It was a grand thought—no, it was a glorious fact that this dark daughter of Ethiopia, a helpless bondswoman one moment before, was now as free and as safe as our Queen upon her throne; and that until all the guns of England were silenced, and her fleets sunk beneath the waves, not a hair of her head could perish."

So is it with the spiritually bond. No matter how many the years of their bondage, or how intense their bitterness, the very instant they put their foot, as it were, on the plank of grace, and make Christ their trust, they become as free, and safe, and uncondemned as if they were already in heaven. "There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."

If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.-JOHN viii. 31, 32.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.-2 COR. iii. 17. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.-GAL. v. 1.

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May 20.

WHOM WE LOVE WE LONG TO SEE.

N writing to his friend, the well-beloved Gaius, the Apostle John said, "I had many things to write, but

I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: but I trust