Now in this we see the compassionate tenderness of our Lord. He lays no over-heavy burden on his people; or if he seems to do so, he then graciously perfects his strength in their weakness. It is even as the old proverb says, "He tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." Moreover, even if conflict were far sterner than it is, there is this grand fact to cheer-it is limited to time, to the vale of tears the saints who have gone home know nothing of it; they have now rest with their Lord.

"Rest without broken dreams,

Or wakeful fears,

Or hidden tears,

That shall be thine

All well with thee:

O would that it were mine!"

"It needs," says Lady Powerscourt, "a great stretch of faith sometimes, when the enemy comes in like a flood, to believe that God is as much at peace with me, through Christ, as with those already above-that Abraham now in heaven is not safer than I." Yet it is even so; if Christ is in the ship with us, we are just as safe in wildest storm as in stillest calm.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.-EPH. vi. 12.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.-ROM. xiii. 12.

June 22.

HEALING AND HELPING.

BY profession Luke was a physician, and a kindly and

skilful one, too, we may infer from the warm and

loving way in which the apostle speaks of him. At first

he was but a physician of the body; but as soon as grace touched his heart he became, in addition, a wise physician of souls-a loving evangelist, who turned his healing art to saving account; and thus in him we have, as it were, an incipient exemplification of the medical missionary. An evangelist of this kind, who can both teach and heal, has many advantages, and often finds an open door and a warm welcome when others, strive as they may, can find neither.

In connection with this healing and helping of Luke, it is well to remember that, specially gifted as the apostles were, it was not given them to work miracles of healing when and where it pleased them. Even Paul could not always heal, however much he might desire it, else he would not in all likelihood have said, "Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick;" for, at the time, he not only loved him as a brother, but urgently needed his companionship and service. And as he could not always heal others, so neither could he always heal himself; and very probably, in seasons of infirmity, he needed, from time to time, not merely the helpful sympathy but the healing skill of Luke, the beloved physician.

Happily for us, however, though the servants may sometimes be helpless, the great and blessed Master never is: his skill is never baffled; and it is when our need is greatest that he is ever nearest. "Let us get well acquainted with our Physician,” said one; “let us come in the simplicity of sickness, in the helplessness of want: to trust is to be healed."

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.-JER. xvii. 14.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.-Ps. ciii. 2, 3.

W

June 23.

TRIED YET JOYOUS RECEIVERS OF THE WORD.

HEN the apostle said, in one of his epistles, "Our gospel came unto you not in word only," it was not because he was the author of it, for it is God's gospel and not man's, nor because he was the subject of it, for he preached not himself but Christ Jesus the Lord. No; his main reason for so speaking was, because he himself needed it, and believed it, and had, in varied experience, fully tested its truth and felt its power. This gospel of the grace of God he proclaimed with such assured faith and blessed efficacy, that he could say, when addressing them, "Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost."

In those early times it was no easy thing for men to become Christians, for their doing so often involved them in much persecution and trial. Nay, more; not unfrequently they had to forsake father and mother, brethren and sisters, houses and lands, for Christ's sake and the gospel's.

In a favoured land like ours, the hearers of the word may not be exposed to such severity of trial; nevertheless, it is still more or less true of all real followers of Christ, that it is through much tribulation they enter the kingdom. But, happily, the much tribulation does not hinder the much peace, because there ever comes with it the much grace to help and the many promises to cheer.

"When you come to the other side of the water,” said Samuel Rutherford, " and have set down your foot on the

glorious shore of Eternity, and look back again to the waters and to your wearisome journey, and shall see, in that clear glass of endless glory, nearer to the bottom of God's wisdom, you shall be forced to say, If God had done otherwise with me than he has done, I had never come to the enjoyment of this crown of glory. Verily, then, whether God come to his children with a rod or a crown, if he come himself with it, it is well."

The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. -ACTS xx. 23, 24.

June 24.

THE ONE OFFERING of the ONE PRIEST.

THE sacrifices under the law, being only types, though

offered year by year continually, had no real atoning efficacy. Even as the continued application of many and varied medicines gives clear evidence of their powerlessness to heal, so the great variety of Old Testament sacrifices, and their frequent repetition, clearly manifested their utter inefficiency to take away guilt. When, however, in the fulness of time, the true High Priest appeared, the Lord Jesus Christ, with the true offering, all became changed. Nothing more was required; for when he himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree, what he did was once for all, because his offering so fully met every demand of law and righteousness as to be allsufficient for atoning and justifying ends. His finished work on the cross, therefore, needs no additions on our

part, and it is perilous to attempt them. What we have to do is simply to rest on the atonement already made, and to wear the robe of righteousness already woven, a robe offered freely, not to the worthy, but to the worthless, and lovingly pressed on their acceptance. It is from forgetting this that many have remained so long in spiritual darkness.

"Many years ago, in a time of spiritual inquiry," says Dr. Moody Stuart, "a stranger, having an air of superior intelligence, called on me, in distress of mind. In speaking to her, I was brought to a stand by her thorough knowledge of the letter and doctrine of the Scriptures; and finding I could add no instruction, I asked no further questions, but briefly opened and pressed the words, 'Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,' and ended with prayer. While I was speaking, a stream of silent tears began to flow, and she looked relieved, but was silent. A week after, she returned, with her face bright with joy, to tell me that she had found that peace with God which she had before been vainly seeking. I asked her, 'Why did you weep when you left last day?' 'I wept for joy.' 'And what gave you the joy?' 'I saw, as you were speaking, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' But you knew that before?' 'No.' 'Then what did you think?' 'I always thought that Jesus came into the world to save saints; and I wept for joy when I saw he came to save sinners.'

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.HEB. ix. 28.

But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God...For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.-HEB. X. 12, 14.