again and again to say, from painful experience, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world." But amid all these dangers believers have much to cheer them. They know, for one thing, that neither against Christ nor against any of his people could Satan have any power at all, unless it were given him from above for special and all-important ends. And they know, moreover, that his power is under absolute control, and that their faithful, loving God will not suffer them "to be tempted above that they are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it." Besides, and best of all, they have the sure and express promise, that "the God of peace shall bruise Satan under their feet shortly." Yes; if Satan is strong to hinder, the Saviour is ever infinitely stronger to help.

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.2 PETER ii. 9.

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.-REV. iii. 10.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.-REV. xx. 2.

July 18.

THE ARROW THAT NONE CAN ESCAPE.

EATH has an inexhaustible quiver, and never misses
ATH

DEA

his aim when the fated hour has come; hence the question put, "What man is he that liveth and shall not see death?" Wherever men build houses, they must dig

graves; and so numerous are they now, that tread where the living may, the silent dead are beneath their feet. Is, then, death inseparable from God's handiwork? Has it always been so in the past, and will it ever be so in the future? Had we been left to mere human teaching, we could have got no answer to such inquiries, and the whole matter would have remained an inscrutable

mystery. God himself, however, has graciously lifted the veil; and now we know that when God first made man in his own image, enlightened, pure, and blessed, he made him to live, and not to die, to rejoice, and not to weep.

How, then, has death entered? The apostle tells us in these words: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." From this statement, which, it is to be observed, speaks of men only, and not of other orders of creatures, it is plain that death is not to be referred either to physical necessity or to arbitrary will, but to a judicial decree, announced from the beginning by God as Judge against man as a transgressor. Yes; death is the fruit, the wages, the penalty, the end and consummation of sin.

When standing in the Père la Chaise, at Paris, a young man once said to me, "Should it not be a first and a last thing with us to hate death with a perfect hatred?" and then he added, "O death, death, how I hate you!" I said in reply," Would it not be wiser to fix the eye rather on sin than on death? for without the demerit of the one, there would have been none of the sweeping desolation of the other." And I added, Would it not be better still to fix the eye and heart on

Christ? for then death would have no sting to us, and the grave no victory, just because he died and rose again for our redemption."

A firm faith in the Lord Jesus can give sweetest songs even in the valley of the shadow of death. "Why do you say this is a bed of suffering?" said a saintly dying woman not long ago. "I never had such joy in all my life, as I have had while lying on this bed. No words can be

found to express my joy in the Lord."

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.-Roм. vi. 23.

If by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ....That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.-Roм. v. 17, 21.

IT

July 19.

WHAT THE LORD BEGINS HE COMPLETES.

is a brief sentence, but an encouraging one: "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." In so writing to the Thessalonians, the apostle virtually said: If your sanctification depended solely on your own wisdom and energy, it could never be yours; or if it depended mainly on the power and efficacy of my ministrations, it would be equally unattainable. It depends, however, on neither, but on the Lord alone, who, having graciously begun this good work in you, will not fail to complete it. "He will do it." This was his uniform teaching in all his epistles, whether his aim was to convince sinners of their utter inability to be their own saviour, or to remind saints,

for their encouragement, that the Lord will graciously perfect all that concerns them.

The good work begun in effectual calling never terminates there, but goes progressively on till perfected in glory. The many sweet and precious promises, all of them Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus, are given expressly to help and cheer us in pressing on to higher attainments. It is thus written: "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." He may indeed take his own time and way to fulfil these promises, but fulfil them he will, for "faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." "Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"

Purpose, promise, and fulfilment, through unchanging faithfulness, love, and power, make such a chain that nothing conceivable can ever sever it. It is therefore the privilege and joy of every believer to say, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Whatever befalls them is made to work together for good. As an old writer says: "Every wind, though it blow ever so cross, speeds believers to their port; not a stone thrown at them, but it is to them a precious stone; not a thorn in their crown, but it turns into a diamond."

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.-JOHN vi. 37.

The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever.-Ps. cxxxviii. 8.

NOT

July 20.

GRACE SEEN IN MARTHA.

OT a few have dwelt so exclusively on the Saviour's gentle though merited rebuke of Martha, as almost entirely to overlook the many excellences in her Christian character.

She had uncommon faith. Whatever may have been the misgivings of others, such was her confidence in the tender love of the Lord Jesus, and in his ability to save, that she never for a moment doubted that had he been present during the illness of her brother, he both could. and would have spoken the healing word. True, we trace an imperfect recognition of Christ's omnipotence in her limitation of it to his presence: "Lord, if thou hadst been here." Yet, on the other hand, there is an immediate acknowledgment of his ever-prevailing intercession: “But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." And when Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"-"Yea, Lord," she replied: "I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world." Could she have said more? Truly, even Peter's confession was not nobler than this.

But Martha had love also as well as faith. Towards the close of our Lord's public ministry, it became a somewhat dangerous thing for any one to befriend him. But love unfeigned-and such was Martha's-knows no fear, and therefore to the very last she openly welcomed Jesus to