But while chastening is thus a privilege of adoption, it is one that most men would willingly forego. Nay, even the holiest have instinctive shrinkings when it is approaching them; for "no chastening for the present se meth to be joyous, but grievous." Nevertheless, the Lord's chastenings are always wisely timed and tenderly administered. He has no pleasure in afflicting his children, but would rather, were it possible, break the rod than use it. Moreover, if he smites with the one hand, he heals with the other, and into all our bitter he drops many a sweet. He never forgets his own promise, " As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

"Child of my love, lean hard,

And let me feel the pressure of thy care.
I know thy burden, child; I shaped it-
Poised it in my hand-made no proportion
Of its weight to thine unaided strength;
For even as I laid it on, I said,

I shall be near, and while she leans on me
This burden shall be mine, not hers."

Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.-PROV. iii. 12.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. -REV. iii. 19.

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.-Ps. xciv. 12.

October 20.

THE GREAT FAITH WHICH HONOURED GOD, AND THAT GOD HONOURED.

WE

HILE the father of the faithful possessed in sweetest harmony not the true and the just only, but the lovely and gracious as well, yet the grace for which he

was most of all distinguished was faith. Its great and preeminent strength in him was manifested in a twofold way.

First of all, it could patiently wait. The Lord's promise of a son, in whom so many bright hopes centred, came to him at a comparatively early period, and probably he expected an early fulfilment. But instead of this, year after year, yea, and decade after decade passed wearily away, without any sign of the longed-for blessing. This was more than Sarah could bear; for she fretted and murmured at the delay, and took forbidden courses that only added to her sorrow.

But though her faith failed, Abraham's did not; and while it patiently waited for the promised fulfilment, it could at the same time resolutely ignore every difficulty in the way. When in his ninetieth year, and while the son of promise was yet unborn, the Lord appeared to him and said, "Thou shalt be a father of many nations; and I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and kings shall come out of thee," he did not say, as multitudes would have done, "The thing is inconceivable; it cannot be." On the contrary, ignoring all the strangeness and unlikelihood and even seeming impossibility of such a thing, he proved strong in faith, and "against hope believed in hope." "It is enough to Abraham," one says, "that God hath said it. He sees not the means, he sees the promise; and he feels assured that God would rather raise him a seed from the stones that he trod on than himself should want a large and happy issue." So it always is when faith is strong; nothing staggers it. Beholding the promise,

"May I walk," said Thomas Chalmers, "in the footsteps

of faithful Abraham, and, like him, believe the word of God in the face of the strongest unlikelihoods of nature and experience; and though against hope, in the hope that all which God hath said he will infallibly make good. It is a strong unlikelihood that I, a worthless creature, should be taken into gracious acceptance by a God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Yet let me do homage to God's faithfulness by believing in his word that it is even so. It is another strange unlikelihood in the eye of nature that this carnal and earthly heart of mine should give up its rooted ungodliness, and that I, divinely quickened, should, by the power of a new birth, become a new creature in Jesus Christ my Lord; nevertheless, like the father of the faithful, let me do homage to the truth of God, and pray without wavering for that holy impregnation which is the chief of all those promises that are Yea and Amen in Christ."

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.-Roм. iv. 20, 21.

With God nothing shall be impossible... Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.-LUKE i. 37, 45.

IT

October 21.

THE SURE AND THE DEFINITE.

T is strange that definiteness and certainty should be so greatly prized in scientific research and commercial transactions, and yet be so little valued in what pertains to the very highest interests of men. Mere appearances and plausibilities will not be accepted as sufficient

securities where property is concerned; but anything seems to satisfy in connection with Godward relationships and the world to come. While quite ready to hear in a general way of the Redeemer and his work, they will yet take no real interest in the definite teachings of Scripture regarding him.

Very different, however, is it with them when, through the Spirit, they become convinced of sin, and realize danger, and the great question becomes a personal one,— "What must I do to be saved?" Mere generalities will not satisfy them now; nor will they intrust the keeping of their soul to any one that offers, but must have a Redeemer who can save to the uttermost, and to whom, like Thomas, they can say, "My Lord and my God." Verily, then, when guilt and danger are so real and definite, and the day of grace so brief, nothing should ever satisfy us but the salvation in Jesus Christ so definitely set forth in the Word.

Dr. Bonar tells us of a friend getting into conversation with a workman, whom she found to be a happy Christian. "How long have you been thus rejoicing?" she asked. "Six months ago," he said, "I heard an address on the words, 'Whosoever believeth hath everlasting life.' I would not take it to myself," he said; "but when I went home that night, I dreamed that 'whosoever' meant me. I got bang out of bed, and got the Bible to see the words, and there was 'whosoever." "But you knew it was in the Bible, didn't you?" "Yes; but I wanted to see it with my own eyes, and I have been happy ever since."

We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.-JOHN vi. 69.

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.-2 TIM. i. 12.

October 22.

THE PRAYER OFFERED ON THE night of NIGHTS.

OTHING so intensifies prayer as deep trouble, and

never was this more strikingly illustrated than in the garden of Gethsemane. The prayer of our Lord there came, as it were, from his whole being. It is thus written: "He went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." Again the second time, and then a little after, the third time, "he prayed the same words." Nothing is here said of his weeping, but the Epistle to the Hebrews makes it very evident that his prayers were mingled with strong crying and tears. As an old divine affectingly puts it," He filled the silent night with his crying, and watered the cold earth with his tears, more precious than the dew of Hermon, or any moisture next to his own blood that ever fell on God's earth since the creation."

But never, even in the darkest moment, did he lose filial confidence or let go his hold. To the last he could still look up from earth to heaven, and trustfully say,

Abba, Father." At first, indeed, the words, “O my Father, let this cup pass from me," would seem to indicate that the greatness of the agony in Gethsemane brought about a faltering in purpose with him, a begun regret that he had ever undertaken to be the sinner's Substitute, and to purchase redemption for the perishing at such a cost. But it was not so, as two words in the heart of the petition itself clearly show, namely, the "if" and the "nevertheless"-"O my Father, if it be possible, let this