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Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.—HEB. iii. 1.

We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.-HEB. iv. 15, 16.

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August, 29.

NONE ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE REFUGE

WHO SEEK TO ENTER IN.

N ancient times only some could enter a city of refuge and find safety. There were conditions of entrance; and one of them was, if not the absence of sin in the entrant, yet at least little sin, and a clear establishment of the fact that there was neither purpose nor malice in his manslaying, but accident only and lamented mistake. The kind of involuntary murder for which refuge was provided is thus detailed: "Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past; as when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live." All others were excluded, and especially those who smote their fellows in cherished enmity. Even if a deliberate murderer could pass through the gate into the city, it I would be no defence to him. He could be followed and seized, and at once dragged out again and slain on the spot.

But, blessed be God, it is not so with the true Refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ. Before coming to him, and sheltering in him, we have not first to prove a comparative innocence on our part, or that our sins are venial

only, and not mortal. On the contrary, let our sins be the worst and vilest that ever burdened this earth with their guilt, we have but to come as we are to the real Refuge, and mercy's gate will swing open to let us go in.

Some time ago, it is said, an Englishman visited some Italian brigands whom the law had laid hold of. In one room there were a hundred and twenty of them, nearly every man a murderer in purpose, at least, if not in act. Now, of old not one of these men could have got within a city of refuge, even though, Esau-like, he had carefully sought the privilege with tears. But with the great gospel Refuge it is wholly otherwise; for such is the grace of Christ and the infinite efficacy of his atoning blood, that not even the vilest of them would be rejected, if he came in faith, saying, with the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Such chief of sinners, when made monuments of grace, will, on entering heaven, be the very chief of singers in praise of the Lamb that was slain.

Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.-ROM. v. 20.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.-EPH. i. 7.

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August 30.

SHALL THE DEAD LIVE AGAIN?

HEN the question is put, "If a man die, shall he live again?" not a few in our times reply, "No, never; death is a sleep from which there is no awaking, and every cherished hope of immortality is but a delusion-a dream. How can the mouldering dust of past generations," they ask, "ever again be refashioned and spring up living,

thinking, rejoicing men?" It could not be, doubtless, if it depended on the creature; but is anything too hard for the Almighty Creator?

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In so judging of possibilities, men err like the Sadducees of old, and for a like reason-"not knowing the Scriptures," as our Lord tells us, nor the power of God." When the grain is put into the earth it dies and rots, but from the decomposed kernel there spring up the blade, the ear, and the ripe and yellow corn, beautifying the field and filling the reaper's heart with joy. Why may it not be so also when the dead are laid in the grave? But in this matter we are not left to mere conjecture, or probability, or beautiful emblem; beyond all this we have the sure and unerring testimony of the Word of God on which to rest our hopes. More cheering still, we have in addition the grand and undeniable fact of Christ, our resurrection. After his passion, he showed himself alive to his disciples by many infallible proofs-being seen of them forty days, in all variety of place and circumstance; for they sat with him, and walked with him, and conversed with him, and ate with him, and touched the very print of the nails. Ever after, accordingly, they bore clear, harmonious, and joyous testimony to Christ's resurrection, not as an opinion or conscientious belief firmly held by them, but as a fact which their own eyes had fully and unmistakably witnessed. And this they continued resolutely to do till their dying hour, in spite of all the obloquy and scourging it brought upon them.

We have thus the very amplest evidence to prove that the apostles were neither deceived nor deceivers when witnessing to the resurrection of our blessed Lord. Their testimony, therefore, is worthy of all acceptation, and may

well be rejoiced in with joy unspeakable; for his resurrection is the grand earnest and pledge of the resurrection of all his people. When Henry Otto, one of the Bohemian martyrs, was condemned to die, he said, “Kill my body, disperse my members whither you please, yet do I believe that my Saviour will gather them together again, so that with these eyes I shall see him, with these ears I shall hear him, with this tongue I shall praise him, and rejoice with this heart for ever."

Take comfort, then, bereaved saints. The loved ones in the Lord ye mourn are not lost, but only gone home a little earlier, nor is the time of separation from them long; they are in the happy harbour of God's saints, on the sweet and pleasant soil.

"You laid them down to sleep,

But not in hope forlorn;

You laid them but to ripen there,
Till the last glorious morn."

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.-JOHN v. 28, 29.

The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.-1 THESS. iv. 16, 18.

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August 31.

HOWEVER SLOW IN COMING, DELIVERANCE WILL BE MARVELLOUSLY COMPLETE WHEN IT COMES.

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N spite of diversity of sphere and social position, there is in the experience of all God's children in relation

to their heavenly Father a remarkable similarity. Having

manifold wants and trials, they all alike need his sympathy and aid. To this there is no exception. Saints that never have a sorrow nor shed a tear shall everywhere be found in heaven, but assuredly never are they seen anywhere on earth.

And as they all alike need his help, so they all alike seek it. There are no dumb children in God's family. Even the feeblest of them can say, "Abba, Father," and open their lips in prayer. In measure, too, all of them receive as well as ask-little at one time, it may be, more at another, but with overflowing fulness in the end. We have sweet and varied exemplification of this in the Psalms, and very specially and fully in the thirty-fourth. It is there written, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears "-" The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles"-" Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." In the way of deliverance nothing could be more complete than this,from all fears, from all troubles, and from all afflictions.

Meanwhile, it is true, the deliverance is only partial. Sunshine is soon followed by cloud, smiles by tears, the rest of to-day by the toil of to-morrow. Nevertheless, partial though it be, it is a sure earnest of the complete, joyous, and everlasting deliverance yet to be experienced by all the saints. But even here and now, to help them on their homeward way, the assurance is given, that as their day so shall their strength be. "He," says an old writer, "that freely opens the upper, will never wholly close the nether springs. There shall be no silver lacking in Benjamin's sack when Joseph has it to throw in. When the best of Beings is adored, the best of blessings are

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