without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof...Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Tim. iii. 1-5, 13). "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times men shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits" (1 Tim. iv. 1). These varied passages seem to intimate that, towards the end, the Christian and the Antichristian, the true and the false, the evil and the good, shall not only be found in energetic action at one and the same time, but that the Antichristian element may, for a brief season at least, prove itself the master power. There is not a little in this, doubtless, to depress and sadden; nevertheless, if we are true and watchful believers, there is much also in it to sustain and cheer. Things such as these may be dark as events, and yet be very bright as signs. Our Lord, accordingly, expressly says, "When ye see these things begin to come to pass, look lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.” up, "The bursting glories of spring," one says, come directly out of the bleak winter; the darkest hour is said to be that which immediately precedes the day: and the Scriptures teach that so it will be in the ushering in of the great consummation. The sun must darken, and the moon withhold her light; and then shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?-MATT. xvi. 3. The children of Issachar... were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.-1 CHRON. xii. 32. November 1. THE VEIL RENT, AND THE WAY OPENED. S soon as Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up AS the ghost, "the veil of the temple," we are told, “was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." The veil was the thick and gorgeously wrought curtain which was hung between the holy place and the holiest of all, shutting out all access to the presence of God as manifested above the mercy-seat and between the cherubim. Into this holiest of all none might enter; not even the high priest, save once a year, and then only with the blood of atonement in his hands, which he sprinkled on and before the mercy-seat, to signify that access for sinners to a holy God is through atoning blood alone. So it continued to be with the veil so long as the only blood shed and sprinkled was that of bulls and goats; it debarred only, and prevented access. But all became changed the very moment the reality of sacrifice took the place of the shadow, and the great Victim so long prefigured expired on Calvary. The veil of the temple was then without hands mysteriously rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The rending began at the top, as if to intimate that unless the Lord himself had rent it, in rich grace and by his own hand, it could never have been rent at all. Yes! salvation is wholly of the Lord. When the river of life begins to flow, it is never from any mere earthly source, but always from the throne of God and of the Lamb. So complete and thorough was the tearing asunder of the veil, that straightway the whole mercy-seat stood open to the gaze of every eye, as if to tell us that now there was freest access for all through the blood of the Lamb. How marvellous the change! for while formerly it was death to any sinner to go in, now it is death for any sinner to stay out. Happily for us, what was rent then remains rent still. The veil has never been rehung; and never shall be, because Christ's work was a finished one, and has such infinite sufficiency that it needs no repetition. If any, therefore, miss salvation, it will not be because there is no open way, but because there is in themselves a shut heart and a shut will: "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life." He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.-EPH. ii. 14. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.-JOHN X. 9. November 2. THOSE OFT IN JOURNEYINGS SHOULD BE OFT IN PRAYER. N these days much has been said and written about IN the place and power of prayer, and the things that may or may not be presented at a throne of grace. Paul had no difficulties regarding this matter, but ever carried out to the full the blessed command, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." He prayed for things spiritual as few before or since have ever done. But if they were needed, he equally prayed for things temporal. In sore hungering, he prayed for bread; in cold and nakedness, he prayed for shelter; in perilous storms, he prayed for safety; in bonds and imprisonment, he prayed for escape and liberty; and very markedly, too, in hindered journeyings he prayed for providential guidance, as when he said, "Now, God himself, and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you." So should it be with us. In all our ways, and specially in all our journeyings, the Lord should be acknowledged by us, and with full expectancy that he will direct our steps. This should be done not merely in connection with all movements and outgoings of a directly missionary nature, like those of the apostle, but also in connection with the ordinary visits and journeyings of daily life, even though business and friendship may be the main end of them. All the more should this be done considering how much often depends on a single journey, and that none assuredly know when may be the going out from which there is to be no return; yet, even in such a case, it is always well with those who are the Lord's. When once comforting a deeply sorrowing father, who had lost a son far from home, Samuel Rutherford said, "Dying in another land, where his mother could not close his eyes, is not much. Who closed Moses' eyes, and who put on his winding-sheet? For aught I know, neither father nor mother nor friend, but God only. And there is as fair and easy a way between Scotland and Heaven as if he had died in the very bed in which he was born. The whole earth is the Father's, and any corner of our Father's home is good enough to die in." Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.-PROV. iii. 5, 6. Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.ISA. xxx. 21. November 3. IT IS NOT LITTLE BUT LARGE PETITIONING THAT THE LORD MOST DELIGHTS IN. IT T may not always be safe to ask very largely at the hands of men, for human resources are limited; or to ask too often, for human generosity is more limited still. In pleading with them, therefore, under-asking in the beginning usually succeeds better than over-asking. But at the throne of grace the rule is otherwise. Those best succeed there who are large in their asking, provided they are humble and expectant as well. It is even as one of the most familiar of the Olney hymns puts it:— "Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring; The Apostle Paul was never afraid to open his mouth wide and ask great things. "We desire," he said, "that ye may be strengthened with all might, according to his |