blessed One, thou hast bought me; thou deservest to have me all. Thou hast paid for me ten thousand times more than I am worth."

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.-1 PETER i. 8. We love him, because he first loved us.-1 JOHN iv. 19.

July 24.

LABOURERS ARE NEEDED, AND HOW TO GET THEM.

S God has never yet left himself without a witness, so he has never left his Church or people without pastors to cheer them in sorrow, and, through the Word and Spirit, to build them up in faith and holiness. Accordingly, with their varied gifts and graces, they are ever reckoned part of the prized possessions of the saints: "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's."

The ministry is sometimes spoken of as a mere human arrangement a thing to be continued or abolished at pleasure, and which depends for success solely on the talent and genius of the men who discharge its duties. In reality, however, it is a divinely appointed instrumentality, an ordinance of Christ. The vessels may be earthen, not golden, yet they are God's vessels notwithstanding; and he has been pleased, in the riches of his grace, to put the treasure therein for saving ends. This ministry is not a priesthood, and no priestly function is

ever ascribed to it. The ministers of Christ do not mediate between God and men; they are never said to offer sacrifices for sin; and they have no power as intercessors that does not belong to every believer. All believers are priests in the only sense in which men are priests under the gospel; that is, all have liberty of access to God through Jesus Christ.

A true, living gospel ministry of this nature is so needed in this dark world, that our Lord bids us pray for it: "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." Yet perhaps there is no duty in which Christians more sadly fail than in thus earnestly and continuously pleading for a Godgiven ministry; and very much just because they fail to realize the fact once expressed by John Newton, that only He who made the world can make a minister of Jesus Christ. Were there more of such wrestling prayer, how soon might we have our pulpits at home and our mission stations abroad filled with men of God, steadfast in the faith, and yearning for souls.

Some years ago, as a young missionary, after bidding farewell to all the loved ones of his family, was passing the threshold of his home, possibly never to recross it, his heart began to fail him, till, looking upward to the heavens, he remembered the words of Daniel, “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever."

The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.-MATT. ix. 37, 38.

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified.-2 THESS. iii. 1.

Praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ.-COL. iv. 3.

July 25.

THE GOSPEL IN POWER.

10 multitudes the gospel comes in word only. It is a mere unmeaning sound to them, that awakens no interest and makes no impression, but leaves the soul, as before, in all the darkness and misery of nature. Nay, even after hearing it for years together from many lips, its real character as a gospel of grace often remains wholly unknown to them, and they neither believe it nor receive it. Widely different was it with the Thessalonians in the days of Paul, for the gospel came to them not in word only, but in power. It not only reached the ear, but the understanding, and the conscience, and the heart, till their whole nature within and their whole life without became influenced by it. And all this, we are told, was associated in their minds with "much assurance." They did not half believe the gospel merely, as if a measure of doubt still rested on it, but with firmest conviction they heartily embraced it as the very truth of God.

"A true and enlightened believer," says an old writer, "doth as plainly judge of the Word of God, and try out the truth thereof, from the devices and doctrines of men, as a man of clear sight is able to judge of colours, and to know one colour from another: yea, and with more certainty, because colours fade and alter, and often one colour fadeth into another; but the truth of God doth never alter. It continueth one through all ages; it is the word of everlasting life. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but one tittle thereof shall not be lost."

It is even so. Nevertheless, the Word itself is not

enough for the conversion of souls, however gifted may be the preacher who expounds or applies it. Whence, then, the power? It was the energy of the Holy Spirit; for what says the apostle?" Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost." Believers, therefore, cannot too earnestly or believingly plead for his presence and power. It is said that an evangelist who has been greatly blessed was so deeply anxious about himself and his work that he was constantly begging his friends to pray for him. There were two very aged saints, in particular, of great faith, to whom he used to go, like a broken-hearted child, and ask them to teach him how to trust wholly in God. This proved a part of the Lord's blessed preparation of him for his great work, by which, through the Spirit, the gospel came, in mighty and saving power, to thousands of souls.

My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.-1 COR. ii. 4.

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.-1 THESS. ii. 13.

W

July 26.

THE COMING DAY OF DAYS.

HEN of old the high priest said to the Lord Jesus, "I adjure thee, by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God," he solemnly replied, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." The angels, too, immediately after our

Lord's ascension, said to the men of Galilee, "This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." The blessed hope of this predicted advent has cheered the saints of God in every age, and Scripture is full of it. Paul often refers to it in his epistles. He does not, indeed, always expressly name or define it; but even when, as is frequently the case, he simply says "that day," none can mistake his meaning. In utterances like these, we can think of but one day: "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day”—“ I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day”— "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." And as that day was so much in his thoughts, it should be much also in ours; for it is the day to which all other days point, of which all the prophets have sung, and for which every believer intensely longs, as the completion of their redemption and the perfection of their joy.

To all who now receive and welcome Christ, that day, when it comes, will be the day of days for brightness, joy, and glory; but to those who now deliberately reject him, it will as certainly be a day of deepest gloom and terror. It is still possible, however, even for the chief of sinners to find refuge and safety from the wrath to come, for the day of grace is not yet ended, nor is the offer of mercy yet withdrawn; but even an hour's delay may be perilous.

When the prairie grass catches fire, and the wind is strong, and the flames hasten onward twenty feet high, what do the frontier men do when they see them coming?