JANUARY 29.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.-JOHN Xv. 7.

WHAT an unlimited promise! and with what perfect reliance may we rest on him that made it for the performance of it. Jesus Christ, "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," the same faithful, promisekeeping Saviour, who never failed any that put their trust in him. Lord, receive our faith, and enable us to look unto thee for some of the benefits contained in this promise; for more faith and increasing gratitude; for thou givest more grace; and this is one of those things we desire may be done for us; that our hearts may be enlarged with a sense of thy love, and that our persons being justified, we may live in a continual sense of our acceptance with thee, and may have constant access unto thee, to make known our requests by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving; and thus living in friendship with thee, we may not doubt of dying also in the same friendship, and in the full assurance of faith; having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. This is the petition that we have asked of thee, and we doubt not that we shall obtain it, through the prayer of faith, and the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus our Lord.

JANUARY 30.

And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. LUKE XXIV. 53.

It was no doubt a season of great refreshment to the spirit of the Apostles and of the disciples of the Lord generally, after their great disappointment by his sufferings and death, to have seen him alive again, and to have handled, as it were, the word of life, and after having witnessed his ascension, to tarry at Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Spirit: No wonder that they were inclined to be continually in the Temple, the type of Christ's body, and that at such a season, all their "work was praise." In proportion to the depth of their disappointment, would be no doubt, the height of their exultation and joy. Thus it is also with the resurrection of our hopes towards God. When they have laid dormant for awhile in the grave of unconcern or forgetfulness, and are raised again from the dead by a fresh application of the promises, it becomes a season of renewed joy, and our time is spent in joyful communion with God. Nor are we disappointed of our hope," For blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness," and wait for the descent of his Spirit. "He shall come as the early and the latter rain, and there shall be showers in their season, even showers of blessing." Thus it was with the Apostles, and thus will it be with all who love his appearing.

JANUARY 31.

Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.-DEUTERONOMY ix. 6.

THE Lord does not bestow his benefits upon us with reference to our own merits; he does not look at what we are in ourselves, but at what we are in Christ. He considers us as totally without strength, and without help, when he vouchsafes his grace towards us,—as the Apostle says, "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." There is no merit, no ground for boast, all is of grace; and God bestows whatever he bestows, freely, and therefore liberally. His motives are from himself, and are therefore above and beyond our merits. What return can we make, or what can we give in exchange for the gift of his Spirit and therefore he bestows his Spirit upon us only for asking, not that we deserve aught by asking, but he would have us express our dependence in this way. Nor need we to inform God of our wants; for he knows beforehand what we stand in need of; and he will supply all our need according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus. What a rich fund of consolation therefore have we in Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness, and we are filled in him. To him be glory for ever and ever, Amen.

FEBRUARY 1.

He that followeth after righteousness and mercy, findeth life, righteousness, and honour.-PROVERBS XXI. 21.

"He that

THIS is a counterpart of that promise, followeth after me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." For Christ himself is both the righteousness and the mercy of God. In him was manifested the grace of God, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his own grace he saved us; and therefore to follow after righteousness and mercy, is to follow after Christ. And he that followeth after Christ, shall have life, righteousness and honour. "Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to " and the fruit of righteousness is peace. come; So that the Scripture every where is true to itself; and as in the water face answereth to face, so one Scripture to another; the Scriptures of the Old Testament to those of the New, and both to each other; all testifying of Christ, as the end of the law for righteousness: and of righteousness as the foundation of all blessedness. Thus it is that we learn to see Christ in all things, and to look upon him as the channel of all our benefits, both temporal and spiritual. While we do so, we are happy: nor can we cease to be happy, but by looking away from him who is the fountain of all happiness.

FEBRUARY 2.

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.-HEBREWS xii. 5, 6.

WHAT an encouragement is this, under our several exercises, of what sort soever they be, that they are of the Lord's own appointment, and that they are sent in love; however bitter and unpalatable to nature, yet are they tokens of his love, and proofs of his fatherly affection. If we shrink from any thing in his service, he will make us feel that very thing in some other way, and shew us that it is not intolerable, and that we have nothing to fear. "Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, or of the son of man that shall be as naught, and rememberest not the Lord thy Maker." What can man do unto us-nothing that can hurt us indeedhe may curse, but so long as God blesseth, it matters little for the curses of men. We perhaps never enjoy more perfect communion with God, than under the frowns of the world. It is when our friends and our neighbours stand afar off, that Christ makes himself known to us, as he did to the blind man, when they had cast him out of the synagogue. In short, whatever we are called upon to sacrifice for the sake of Christ, he restores it an hundred fold in peace of mind, and in that sunshine of spirit, which we call cheerfulness-nor unfrequently he restores it in kind.

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