with the Son, and are admitted into the secrets of their Lord through the unction of the Holy Ghost." When we read such promises as these,"Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward”—“ Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it to thee,”-it is well to remember that it is not Abraham only who has an interest in these and like promises, but all his spiritual seed, the faithful in Christ Jesus. They too shall inherit the earth, even as it is written: "The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” And they Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.-MAL. iii. 16, 17. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.-Ps. lxviii. 19. November 18. MIGHT ALONE COULD NOT HAVE DELIVERED US. To deliver needed love on Christ's part as well as power, a love that could not merely teach and serve for the objects of it, but suffer and die. It bodes ill for the future or any church or people when they begin to ignore such loving substitution, and to speak contemptuously of blood and atonement; for if there be one thing on earth surer than another, it is that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin, nor any hope of needed salvation. No utterances could be more express than these: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." These precious words, as clearly revealing the divine method of redemption, may well yield the richest comfort to every sin-burdened and anxious soul. "When the iniquities of us," says an old writer," are by the Lord laid upon Christ, they cannot be upon us and upon Christ too: if they be reckoned to Christ, they are not reckoned to him that doth receive Christ." When the chief captain learned that Paul was a Roman, he said, " With a great sum obtained I this freedom." But the redeemed obtain theirs with an infinitely greater price,-not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of God's own Son. This blood has had a marvellously redeeming efficacy in every age, and shall never lose its cleansing power till the very last of the countless multitude of the redeemed has been savingly washed in it. Our case may be seemingly the most hopeless imaginable,— "Yet not the less that blood avails To cleanse away my sin; And not the less that cross prevails The history of the Church of Christ abounds with striking exemplifications of this. In his "Fulfilling of Scrip ture," Mr. Fleming relates the case of a man who, after a career of appalling wickedness, was condemned to death in the town of Ayr. He had been so dull and brutish that all who knew him thought him entirely beyond the reach of all ordinary means of grace. But while the man was in prison the Lord wonderfully wrought on his heart, and in such a measure discovered to him his sinfulness, that, after much serious exercise and sore wrestling, a most kindly work of repentance followed, with great assurance of mercy; insomuch that, when he came to the place of execution, he astonished all the onlookers, for he could not cease crying out, under the sense of pardon, “Oh, He is a forgiver,—a great forgiver; and perfect love hath cast out fear. Nothing now can be laid against me, for Jesus Christ hath paid all; and those are free whom the Son makes free" Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.-JOB xxxiii. 24. The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.-MATT. xx. 28. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.-ISA. xxxv. 10. November 19. THE FRUIT OF CHASTENING. HOUGH affliction's rod is often heavy and hard to THOUGH bear, yet, to those who are exercised by it, it becomes like that of Aaron, and buds and blossoms and brings forth fruit, not abundant only, but most precious—even "the peaceable fruits of righteousness." In itself it has not this tendency, but rather the very opposite; for in fallen man the natural fruit of affliction is not righteousness and peace, but increased rebellion and deeper misery. When lovingly controlled by God, however, the very thing that would naturally sour and harden men is made to minister to their highest life and spiritual growth. When, therefore, they are brought to kiss the hand that smites, there is cheering evidence that not nature only, but grace, has been efficaciously operating. Though the rod of affliction, however, is fruitful, it is not always so at once. The rod of Aaron in a single night not only bloomed blossoms, but yielded almonds. It is otherwise with the fruits that spring from the chastening of the Lord; for the apostle tells us that it is not immediately, but afterwards they appear. One of the most precious fruits of sanctified affliction is a growing submission to the will of God, and a cheerful saying from day to day, "Not my will, but thine be done." But for our alienated nature, this should not be difficult; for the Lord's will is not more sovereign in its nature than loving and wise. "The will of God," it has been said, "is a perpetual calm; for there are no cross tides nor contrary winds in it; and the tempest-tossed soul that puts into it, as into a harbour, becomes both safe and blessed." Other fruits of chastening are, a growing tenderness of conscience, delight in the Word, deepening sympathy with the sorrowful, and a fuller energy in every work of faith and labour of love. Sanctified afflictions may well, therefore, be viewed as an evidence of adoption; for we do not prune dead trees to make them fruitful, nor those which are planted in the desert, but such as belong to the garden and possess life. "I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be a pleasant road; Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.— Ps. cxix. 67. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.-HEB. xii. 11. November 20. RIGHT GLORYING AND WRONG. HE church in Thessalonica was poor, persecuted, and THE despised; yet the apostle, so far from being ashamed of it on this account, only prized and loved it the more. "We ourselves," he said, "glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure." The patience they showed was not the stubbornness of mere natural courage, but a blessed fruit of faith. They were patient, because, in spite of all their trials, they believed that God loved them, and would preserve them, and make all things work together for good. Faith," says an old commentator, "patienteth the heart by putting the head into heaven beforehand. It says to a suffering saint, ‘Be of good courage and of good carriage under the cross.' It wraps itself in the promises, lays the soul upon Christ, and maketh the weak to become strong. Whatsoever cross cometh upon it, faith is either a wreath betwixt the burden and the shoulder, that it wring not, or else a |