Knowing that they cannot outrun them, the fleetest horse cannot do that," They just take a match," says Mr. Moody, "and light the grass around them, and let the fire sweep it; and then they get into the burnt district and stand safe. They hear the flames roar; they see death coming towards them; but they do not tremble, because the fire has passed over the place where they are, and there is no danger, there is nothing for the fire to burn. There is one mountain-peak that the wrath of God has swept; that is Mount Calvary, and that fire spent its fury upon the bosom of the Son of God. Take your stand here by the Cross, and you will be safe for time and for eternity."

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.-GAL. iii. 13.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.-2 COR. v. 21.

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.

July 27.

THE LORD'S TOUCHING BEWAILMENTS.

OT a few sometimes speak as if it were a matter of

NOT

little concern to God whether men were wise or foolish in their actings, saved their souls or lost them. Nothing, however, can be more contrary to truth than such a thought, as is abundantly evidenced by his manifold bewailments over their sin and folly. Who can read such touching passages as these without realizing this?— "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always,

that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!"-"O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea"-"Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries...and should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee." And if more were needed to illustrate the Lord's compassionate interest, we have it, in its most moving form, in the tears and lamentations of our adorable Redeemer when looking down upon Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives: "If thou hadst known," he said, "even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." It was not for himself he poured out these tears, but for the city-not for him who was to be crucified, but for the crucifiers; and not for the woes merely of time that would befall them, but for the deeper woes of eternity. But we have more even than tears to point to in evidence that the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the sinner; we can point to Gethsemane and to Calvary, and show there a forgiving and redeeming love, whose height and depth, and length and breadth, are altogether immeasurable. Yes, verily, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." .

"I will bless the Lord," said Samuel Rutherford, "that ever there was such a thing as a free ransom given for captive souls. Only, alas! guiltiness maketh me ashamed to apply to Christ, and to think it pride in me to put out

my withered hand to such a Saviour. But it is neither shame nor pride for a drowning man to swim to a rock, nor for a shipwrecked soul to run himself ashore upon Christ."

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.-2 PETER iii. 9.

O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin...For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God.-EZEK. xviii. 30, 32.

W

July 28.

CALLS FOR HELP.

HEN for the first time Europe was, in the rich mercy of God, and through the ministry of Paul, to be made a partaker with Asia of all the fulness of gospel blessing, it was by special vision that the call was given to the apostle. In the night season, a man wearing the dress and speaking the dialect of a son of Macedonia drew near and pleaded earnestly for needed aid. "Come over and help us," was his urgent cry. Such a scene could not fail deeply to interest the great evangelist in Macedonia, and make him resolve to go thither at

once.

This vision would have all the more power with the apostle because it was so seasonable. At the time it was given it was a night season with him, both literally and figuratively; for he knew not where to turn his steps, or to what fields he should next go forth to sow broadcast and with liberal hand the good seed of the kingdom. The vision would thus virtually be to him both a fulfilment of

the promise, “Unto the upright light ariseth in the darkness," and an answer to his prayer for needed guidance. Accordingly, immediately he and those who were with him "endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called them for to preach the gospel unto them."

Nor would the apostle be less impressed by this call when he found that the man who stood before him in the night season was in truth no real man at all, but a mere fleeting phantom. No, never till divinely awakened do lost and perishing men cry for pardoning mercy and saving help. It is their condition that cries, not their lips. In reality, therefore, it was the Lord himself who made the touching appeal which the sacred historian records, and so it ever is more or less. If we begin to seek him, it is because he first sought us. Our following is ever the result of his gracious drawing. From time to time the Lord, by his word and providence, still makes like appeals; and the more true and loyal his Church and people are, the more promptly and heartily will they respond.

Churches and men possessed of the true missionary spirit are ever alive to such calls; and when the call has been heard, they are animated by the like spirit. When referring to the time when he was solemnly set apart for mission work, the great missionary Williams said: "I shall never forget how good Dr. Waugh, with heaven beaming on his benevolent countenance, and the big tear of affection glistening in his intelligent eye, said,'Go, my dear young brother: and if your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, let it be with telling poor sinners of the love of Jesus Christ; and if your arms drop

from your shoulders, let it be with knocking at men's hearts to gain admittance for him there.'”

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?-ROM. x. 14, 15.

God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.-2 COR. iv. 6.

July 29.

THE TIMING OF EVENTS.

VENTS not being left to mere blind chance, but

EVENTS

guided and overruled by an all-wise Providence, they have all necessarily their definite times and seasons. "To every thing," says Solomon, "there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." This was emphatically true of the first Advent; for not till the fulness of time had come did God send forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And it will be equally true of the second Advent, the most blessed of all our hopes; for God hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained.

It is natural to us to be interested in the predicted events of the future, especially when, like those just mentioned, they are not only glorious in their own nature, but have a direct and practical bearing on ourselves. Nor does the Lord frown on such a spirit, or discourage in any way prophetic inquiry. On the contrary, in spite of all the seeming mystery of the Book of Revelation, and the