{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24242/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24242","id":"gutenberg_24242","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24242","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life -- Methodist authors","Meditations"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1888 \"Joyful News\" edition by David Price,\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n\n\n\n\nBROKEN BREAD\nFROM AN\nEVANGELIST'S WALLET.\n\n\nBY\nTHOMAS CHAMPNESS.\n\n\"JOYFUL NEWS\" BOOK DEPOT, ROCHDALE.\n\nMDCCCLXXXVIII.\n\nB. Wrigley & Sons, Limited, Printers, Acker Street, Rochdale.\n\nTo\n\nELIZA M. CHAMPNESS,\n\nMY WIFE AND TRUEST FRIEND,\n\nTHIS\n\nCOLLECTION OF FRAGMENTS\n\nIS OFFERED\n\nBY HER YOKE-FELLOW IN THE GOSPEL.\n\nROCHDALE,\nSeptember, 1888.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThis is a book made up of fragments.  The Master once said \"Gather up the\nfragments that nothing be lost.\"  It may be that victuals will be found\nhere that may feed those who cannot sit down to a meal.  Many of the\narticles have appeared in _Joyful News_ already, but, perhaps, are none\nthe worse for that.  We send out this little book in the hope that both\ncrust and crumb will be eaten!\n\n\n\n\nI.  SPIRITUAL FARMING.--NO. 1.\nDRAINING.\n\n\nIf the men who farmed England in the olden time could return, few things\nwould surprise them more than the condition of the land.  Many a field\nnow bearing good crops each year, was in \"the good old times\" moorland or\nfen.  Sheep and cattle graze where once only wild birds could live.\nDrainage has made the change.  The land, once too cold and wet to allow\nanything valuable to grow, has been by grips and drain pipes, made to\nproduce food for man and beast.\n\nIs it not so on God's farm?  \"Ye are His husbandry,\" and just as the\nfarmer knows that if he cannot have his wet land drained, his seed will\nbe starved, or the young corn perish with the cold, so we who toil in the\nLord's fields need to learn that in many places the first thing to be\ndone is to\n\nDRAIN THE LAND.\n\nDo any of our readers complain that they cannot get an answer to their\nprayers for a revival, and that all the preaching and teaching seem to be\nwasted?  Let us advise them to look under the surface.  Are there not\n\nCAUSES FOR THE FAILURE?\n\nWould it not be well to try what draining the land would do?  Are the\nmost influential men cold and unresponsive to the call of the Spirit?\nWhat sort of people take the lead in the prayer meetings?  Are they left\nto the zealous poor?  Does every man of wealth and culture hurry home and\nleave the preacher to shift for himself?  Who are the stewards?  Are they\nmen who will do their utmost to welcome strangers, or does their example\ntell on others so much that a visitor never has a word of welcome or a\ngrip of the hand?  What is the singing like?  Is it of the colourless,\ntame style, whose only sign of life is the rapid gallop which kills\ndevotion in so many places?\n\nHow is the Bible read by the preacher?  Does he confine himself to the\nnarrow round which he has read so often in the ears of the people that it\nhas lost its charm--or does he seek out that which will be sure to\ninterest; and does he read as if he believed it?\n\nWe think our readers know some congregations in which there can be no\nrevival until the drainer has been at work, and that which starves the\nseed removed.  What we want is to have the question asked at the next\nleader's or quarterly meeting.\n\nWHAT WILL IT COST TO GET SOME DRAIN-PIPES?\n\nA GOOD SHILLING IS\nBETTER THAN\nA BAD SOVEREIGN.\n\n\n\n\nII.  LITTLE MOSES.\nSERVE THE CHILDREN FIRST.\n\n\nThe story of Moses teaches us that LITTLE FOLKS ARE VERY HELPLESS.  There\nhe is in that basket.  He cannot care for himself.  He is in the power of\nthe king's daughter.  If she liked she could have had him killed, for it\nwas plain to be seen that he was one of the Hebrew children.  When you\nwere in your cradle how weak you were, how helpless.  If your mother had\nnot cared for you, my dear boy, you would never have troubled the tailor\nto measure you for your new suit.  Do you ever think how much you are in\nyour mother's debt?  When you were hungry she fed you, when you were cold\nshe warmed you, when you were sick she nursed you.  And you can pay her\nback.  Not in money, for when you are old enough to earn gold you will\nnot be rich enough to do that; but you can reward her by obedience, by\nlove, and by letting her know by your kindness that you do not forget\nwhat she did for you years ago.\n\nLITTLE FOLKS ARE WATCHED BY GOD.  The crocodiles could have swallowed up\nthe little chap at one mouthful, but they never even saw him.  God\nsteered the little bark, and brought its voyage to an end in a safe\nharbour.  If anyone but the kind-hearted lady who became his second\nmother had seen him, the story of his life might have been very short.\nAnd the same God watches you, my dear child.\n\nThere is an Eye which never sleeps; and in the night, when even your\nmother has closed her eyes, God does not shut His.  Do you ever think\nthat in the darkness the eye of God can see you just as well as in the\ndaylight?  If it had not been so, you would not have grown in your sleep,\nas you have done every night.  There have been many dangers near to you\nwhich you never knew, but God did, and has watched over you for good all\nyour life.  Thank Him, for even your mother could not have helped you, if\nGod had not done so.\n\nLITTLE FOLKS MAY BECOME GREAT MEN.  That baby became one of the greatest\nmen in Old Testament history.  And how was it?  He stuck to his book.  We\nread that \"Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.\"  This\ncould not have been if he had scamped his lessons, could it?  Then he\nleft the company of the wicked, though it cost him a great deal, and he\nchose to be one of the people of God.  The boy and girl who will follow\nhis example will do well for themselves, for the life of Moses was one of\nthe greatest honour, and, though he had to pay the price which must be\npaid if we would win the smile of God, he has been rewarded.  Honour has\ncome to him that never came to anyone else; for we learn from the Book of\nRevelation that in heaven his name is greatest of the great, for the\nsaints sing \"The song of Moses, the servant of God,\" and\n\nTHE SONG OF THE LAMB.\n\n\n\n\nIII.  SPIRITUAL FARMING.--NO. 2.\nPLOUGHING.\n\n\nThere have been during the last few years great improvements in the\nconstruction of the plough, but no one dreams of any substitute for it.\nPloughing is as necessary as sowing; that is to say, the land must be\nstirred and prepared for the seed.  In heavenly husbandry there are some\nwell-meaning folk who would dispense with the plough, and preach faith\nwithout repentance, but only to find that the birds of the air get most\nof the seed!  If there is to be an abiding work there must be conviction\nof sin, and knowledge of guilt, and for this end there is nothing better\nthan a plough, made of Sinai steel and wood grown on Calvary.\n\nThere are some directions given in the Old Book which it will pay our\nploughmen to study.  One is as to the choice of the team.  Don't yoke an\nass with an ox (see Deut. xxii, 10).  In your motive power see to it\nthere is no mixture of vanity with duty.  You will not succeed in\nconcealing the fact.  A donkey is one of the worst of animals to hide.  IT\nWILL TALK!\n\nLet there be no stopping at home because the wind is in the east.  \"The\nsluggard will not plough by reason of the cold.\"  If the ploughman means\nto succeed he must count on suffering; and if the devil cannot find\nanyone on his side to oppose, he will raise up some imbecile Christian to\ndo so, who by some sneer or cold criticism, will try to keep the plough\nidle.  Instead of looking which way the wind blows, get to work.\n\nThere must be no looking back.  Mark the Master's words in Luke ix, 62.\nKeep your eye on the mark, just as the ploughman looks at the staff he\nhas fixed as his guide.  Keep looking unto Jesus.  Many a preacher, who\ncould make hell tremble for its own, has, by looking back, become\nrespectably commonplace.  So the fine promise of his youth dies ignobly,\nand is laid in the grave of Demas!  Whether it be a bag of gold, or a\nfair face, or a pillow of down, thou art called to look back upon, do as\nthe Master did--set thy \"face toward Jerusalem.\"\n\nKeep a good heart on it.  \"He that ploweth should plow in hope.\"  What is\ncalled success does not mean reaping only.  The plough is as honourable\nas the sickle, though they may not make a feast, or dress thy team with\nflowers!  Whistle at the plough, and in time thou shalt be bidden to the\nharvest supper.  John Baptist was a ploughman, and that was all; yet\nthere are some reapers who would gladly exchange places with him, badly\npaid as he was.  In these days too often the honour is paid to the\nsuccessful evangelist, and those who ploughed and sowed are forgotten;\nbut the time is coming when the promise shall be fulfilled--\n\n\"THE PLOUGHMAN SHALL OVERTAKE THE REAPER.\"\n\n\n\n\nIV.  A SHORT HOME MISSION SERMON.\n\n\n   \"_The Iron did swim_.\"--2ND KINGS, vi, 6.\n\nDID IT?  THEN SUNKEN THINGS MAY RISE.\n\nThe axe had fallen into the river, to the great sorrow of the man who had\nused it.  He was an honest man, for he mourned over the fact that it was\nborrowed.  \"It has sunk to rise no more;\" and yet it swam!  Why lose hope\nof the fallen and degraded?  They are no lower down than the axe head was\nwhen at the bottom of the Jordan.  \"The iron did swim.\"  How? for\n\nSUNKEN THINGS DO NOT RAISE THEMSELVES.\n\nIf the axe had been let alone, it might have been at the bottom of the\nriver now.  The man who felt its loss called on a higher power than his\nown.  He told his sorrow to one who had sympathy for him.  Do we cry unto\nGod about those who have sunk out of our reach?  The lapsed masses, as we\ncall them, were not all born so.  Many of them have been Sunday scholars,\nand some of them church members.  How do we feel about them?  Does the\nthought of their degradation ever bring an \"alas!\" from our hearts?\nElisha's God is nearer to us than the prophet was to the man who lost the\naxe.  \"Call on Him WHILE He is near.\"\n\n\"The iron did swim.\"  How was it done?\n\nSOMEBODY SHOWED IT THE WAY.\n\nAn example was put before it.  A stick was thrown in, and the iron\nimitated it.  O, the power of a godly example!  Let us who work among the\nungodly show them the way to live.  Let the churches move over the places\nwhere the degraded lie.  We shall never lift them while we remain in our\nbeautiful churches and chapels.  Only this week we saw the iron made to\nswim, by the personal contact of ministers and well-dressed people taking\nhold of the street folk, and cheerily inviting them into God's house.  A\nman may be only \"a stick\" when in the pulpit; but in hearty personal\ndealing with the degraded, he may be one who can make the iron to swim.\n\n* * * * *\n\n\n\n\"LIVE IT.\"\n\n\nA good man, the other day, was advising Ministers to preach more on the\ndoctrine of \"Entire Sanctification.\"  One of them replied,\n\n\"LET US LIVE IT, THAT IS THE BEST WAY TO PREACH IT.\"\n\nPerhaps both were right; one thing is certain, that the way to make the\ndoctrine more popular is, to have more of those who believe it to \"live\nit.\"  We might greatly increase the number of preachers, for every\nChristian might preach.  Women as well as men, we might preach every day,\nfor every duty would be a pulpit, and every trial an oration.  No one\nwould complain the sermons were too long; for all people are willing that\nyou should never cease to do them good.  What say you reader!  Will you\nenter the ranks of this Ministry?\n\n\n\n\nV.  THE BATTLE OF THE BEANFIELD.\n2 SAMUEL, xxiii, 11, 12.\n\n\nWhat a picture is here!  A field of ripe beans, just ready for the\nharvest, and then the leaves and pods all blood-stained or trampled down!\nThose Philistines liked to fight rather than to work, preferring plunder\nto ploughing, so they would cross the border and carry away the results\nof the farmer's toil.  But they made a mistake in coming where Shammah\nlived!\n\nHE STOOD!\n\nHave not many of us to complain that the enemies of God's people still\nlike to plunder our harvest fields?  How Satan grasps at our elder\nscholars!  He is not content with gutter-children.  He likes to take our\nyoung men and women, and so we hear drunken men quote scripture, and\nbloated women hum psalm tunes!\n\nWhat shall we do?  We read, \"The people fled from the Philistines.\"  Shall\nwe leave the results of our Sunday school work in the hands of the enemy?\nIs it not time that we made a stand?  The thing is becoming monotonous,\nso much so, that in some places it is thought not worth being grieved\nabout, that the young men and women, who have passed through our schools,\nnever attend the chapel, and are lost to us for years, if not for ever!\n\n   \"Soldiers of Christ arise!\"\n\nIf a lad enlists, and is sent to Aldershot, we soon put the chaplain on\nhis track, and shall we not do something for those who are carried away\nby those sons of Anak which we call the theatre and racecourse?  Would it\nnot pay us to have a holy band of men and women to hunt up our lapsed\nscholars, and to fight for the harvest we sowed and have waited for so\nlong, only to see it carried away by the Philistines?\n\nIn all our large towns there are neighbourhoods where the enemy of God\nand man is strongly entrenched.  And yet there are churches and chapels\nin those streets.  The few who attend those places pass houses, once\nrespectable, but now given up to vice.  Homes where there was once family\nworship, are now, to use the words of the Wise man, \"The way of hell,\ngoing down to the chambers of death.\"\n\nWhat is to be done?  \"There are not many members now.\"  \"There is no one\nto work.\"  So it might have been said in the bean-field; the people were\ngone, all gone but Shammah.  He stood, and God showed, then, as now, that\nHe was prepared to stand by the minority, if it were loyal to Him, for He\nwrought a great, not an ordinary one, but a great victory!\n\nThere are yet great victories to be won when we turn on our pursuers.\nDon't be carried away by bad example.  We go with a multitude to do evil,\nwhen we refuse to fight for the results of past work done by ourselves or\nour fathers.  Shammah seems to have said, \"If I am to die, I will die\nhere among the beans.  Better so than pine to death for want of them.\"  Is\nit not true that with the harvest of our toil they carry away our faith\nin God, and in His word?  Much of the Bible is lost to those who flee\nrather than fight.  A great deal of our hymn book is for\n\n\"BELIEVERS FIGHTING.\"\n\nThose battle songs cannot be enjoyed by men who never leave the barracks.\nNo wonder the old tunes are not sung by craven hearts.  Let those of us\nwho have left Shammah to fight alone, rejoin him, then we shall have the\njoy of conquest, and the gladness of those who divide the spoil.\n\n* * * * *\n\n\n\nWAITING AND READY.\n\n\nThe other day, looking out of a train, as we stopped at a country\nstation, I saw a row of buckets painted red, with the word FIRE on each\nof them.  There they were, waiting to be used, if occasion required, and\nI noticed that each of them was filled with water.  Only a humble kind of\nagent is a bucket, yet being full of water and near at hand, it is easy\nto see that in the event of fire breaking out there, it is more than\nlikely it would be put out without doing much damage.\n\nAre we,--Ministers, Local Preachers, Sunday School Teachers,\nClass-leaders, and other workers--are we ready for use?  It is not enough\nthat people can tell by our appearance that we are separated for\nservice--are we ready?  It did not suffice the man in charge of that\nlittle station to have those buckets on the stand, and it is not enough\nthat we are in the pulpit or the class-room.\n\nARE WE FILLED?\n\nWe can be filled with that which will put out the fire, and if we are not\nfull, who is there to blame but ourselves?  Those buckets might have been\nneglected till the hoops dropped off, and the power to hold water was\ngone, all because they were not kept full, and if so, they would be an\napt illustration of some who have ceased to be the men they were, and\nonly that they fill the same place, we should not dream of them being\nused at all.\n\n\n\n\nVI.  \"HIS CHAINS FELL OFF.\"\nACTS xii. 7.\n\n\nIN ANSWER TO PRAYER:--Do you know any one tied and bound?  Have you\nprayed for them without ceasing?  Are you conscious of the enemy putting\nYOUR hands or feet in fetters?  Are you unable to reach that purse which\nwas at one time always within your grasp, so that now you do not give to\nthe poor as you once did?  Are your feet prevented from going on errands\nof mercy?  Do the manacles keep you at home on Sundays, instead of\nwalking muddy lanes to preach?  If so, how do you like it?  Do you not\nthink you should cry to God?\n\nWe know a godly and cultivated minister who got into Doubting Castle,\nsome years ago.  He was losing hold of God, and his duty was becoming\nirksome, so he cried unto the Lord in his trouble.  \"I let them all go to\nbed,\" said he, \"and had an all-night of prayer,\" and his chains fell off.\n\nVERY QUIETLY.  Not a single soldier was awakened.  God can speak in\nloudest tones, as at Phillippi.  He can bring His people out without\nanyone knowing, till they tell the tale themselves.  It has often been\nthe case, that some gentle, quiet preacher has been the instrument of\ndeliverance to the Lord's chosen ones.  There has been a revolution in\nnature.  What a blessed change!  How the chains of winter have fallen\noff, and that surly east-wind jailer been dismissed without noise or\nclamour.\n\nWhen free, Peter went to tell those who had prayed him out.  He found\nthem in a state of great surprise.  How good of God not to limit our\nsuccess in prayer by our faith, or the want of it.  In this also He does\n\"exceeding abundantly.\"  Still they did not fail, depend on it, to praise\nthe Lord.  Herod soon found it out, and was abashed.  He would not dare\nto meet a Christian in the street, for the smile on the believer's face\nwould say, \"His chains fell off.\"  Do not let us who can pray be ever\ndiscouraged.  We can touch the heart of God, so let us sing--\n\n   \"The Lion of Judah shall break every chain,\n   And give us the victory again and again.\"\n\n\n\nISAIAH I.\n\n\nI.--Feed an ass once, and he will know the place again.  Feed a sinner\nall his life, and you only make him more capable of rebellion (verses 2\nand 3.)\n\nII.--There are no wounds smart like those given by God's rod (verses 6\nand 8.)\n\nIII.--Sin manufactures dunces so stupid, that even God's rod cannot mend\nthem (verse 5.)\n\nIV.--Religion without piety sickens God (v. 11, 14.)  There are folk in\nchurch and chapel more hateful to God than those in the public-house.\n\nV.--Sin is dirt (verse 16.)\n\nVI.--God can bleach even crimson-dyed hands (v. 18.)\n\nVII.--Those who are strong to sin shall burn in a fire hotter than their\nlusts, and more quenchless than their hatred to goodness (verses 28 and\n31.)\n\n\n\n\nVII.  LEAPING AND PRAISING.\nACTS iii, 8.\n\n\nLittle did the lame man's friends think that this was the last time they\nshould ever carry their dear one to the spot where he begged his bread.\nPerhaps you have offered your last prayer to-day for some one's\nsalvation.  He may come home to say, \"Carry me no more, but let me walk\nwith you to heaven.\"\n\nNo one could blame the poor fellow for being excited.  He had never\nwalked before, and the delight he felt made him use his new found\nstrength.  You see he has dropped his crutches.  Anyone could light the\nfire with them now, he needed them not.  Reader, do you still use\nspiritual crutches?  Why not look for the fulfilment of the prophet's\nwords, \"Then shall the lame man leap as an hart.\"\n\nHE ENTERED WITH THEM.\n\nHe could not have been persuaded to leave them; indeed, we read of him\nfurther on standing with the apostles when they were brought before the\nmagistrates.  It is a good sign when men stay with those who were made a\nblessing to them.  If Methodism had with her to-day all she has lifted\nfrom poverty and degradation, she would need neither testimonials nor\nbenefactors.\n\n\n\n\nVIII.  \"THE LORD HATH NEED OF HIM.\"\nMARK xi, 3.\n\n\nWhat! of an Ass?  Yes, \"God hath chosen the foolish things of the world.\"\nHe gets renown to Himself by \"using things which are despised.\"  Let us\nnever despair of the most foolish of men, if he become the servant of\nJesus.  It is said of the great John Hunt, that when a young man, he gave\nno promise of the talents he shewed in the work of the Ministry.  We have\nspoken with one who knew him before his conversion, who made us smile as\nhe described his gait and style of life.  Yet this ungainly ploughboy\nbecame a man whom to know was to admire.  It was in Christ's hands,\nthough, he improved so greatly.\n\nDOES THE LORD REALLY NEED AN ASS?  Yes.  The Scriptures foretold that\nJesus should come \"riding upon an ass.\"  Is it not beautiful to think of\nthe poor despised Ass fulfilling so grand a prophecy?  \"The knowledge of\nthe Lord shall cover the earth.\"  We may help that on.  Will the young\nmen and women who read this bear in mind that no one ever used this ass\ntill Jesus did?  Why should He not be the first to use you?  \"What!\" say\nyou.  \"Do you compare us to an ass?\"  Well, if we do, the Bible is before\nus.  \"Man be born like a wild ass's colt.\"  And, if you have not\nremembered the claims God has upon you, the poor ass has the best of it,\nfor the Lord says \"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his Master's\ncrib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.\"  Have you\nnoticed that unconverted men and women are pictured in Exodus xiii. 13,\nwhere you see a young ass with his neck broken?  The Lord needs you that\nHe may redeem you from your fate, and that you may be spared to bear his\nyoke.\n\nIs not the best way to elevate men, to let the Lord have the use of them?\nHowever coarse and mean we are by nature, He can refine and elevate us.\nAnd any part of our life that is in danger of baseness may be lifted to\nbeauty and blessing by putting it under the Christ.  What a change came\nover this animal in one short day!  An ass in the morning, but the\n\nTHRONE OF GOD\n\nbefore the sun went down!\n\n* * * * *\n\n\n\nIN THE WILDERNESS SHALL WATERS BREAK OUT.\n\n\nIs not that good news for you?  After being so long without a revival,\nwould it not be welcome?  Welcome you say--welcome as water in a desert.\nYes, and that is just what is promised.  A revival in THE MOST UNLIKELY\nPLACE IN THE CIRCUIT, where even the raciest of preachers seems to be\ndull, and where there is a monotony which would shame a prison.  Yes,\nthere, right there, look out for the water, not stagnant, but water that\n\"breaks out.\"  \"Then shall the lame man leap as the hart\" that finds the\nstream it needs, and the \"dumb shall sing,\" for this living water shall\nquench his thirst, and loosen his dried-up tongue.  When shall it be?\nYoung local preacher, why not when thou preachest the next time?  Look\nfor it to the throne of God and the Lamb.--Rev. xxii., 1.\n\n\n\n\nIX.  TWELVE BASKETS FULL OF FRAGMENTS GATHERED FROM THE MIRACLE OF CHRIST\nFEEDING THE MULTITUDE.\n\n\n1.--MAN NEEDS HELP.  \"They have nothing to eat.\"  (Mark vi. 36.)\n\n2.--GOD IS BETTER THAN GOOD MEN.  \"Send them away,\" said the disciples.\n(Mark vi. 36.)  \"They need not depart,\" the Lord replied.  (Matt. xiv.\n16.)\n\n3.--MINISTERS SHOULD ALWAYS BE ON THE LOOK-OUT FOR THE CHILDREN, THEY\nGIVE HELP AS WELL AS TROUBLE.  Andrew said, \"There is a lad here.\"  (John\nvi. 9.)\n\n4.--YOUTH CAN GIVE TO JESUS WHAT NO ONE ELSE POSSESSES.  \"There is a lad\nhere which hath five barley loaves.\"  (John vi. 9.)\n\n5.--UNBELIEF WOULD FAIN CRAMP THE LOVE OF JESUS.  \"What are they among so\nmany.\"  (John vi. 9.)\n\n6.--\"ORDER IS HEAVEN'S FIRST LAW.\"  The crowd must sit down in companies\nof fifty before Jesus would feed them.  \"He commanded them to make them\nall sit down by companies.\"  (Mark vi. 39.)\n\n7.--CHRIST WOULD NOT HAVE US EAT WITHOUT ASKING A BLESSING.  \"Looking up\nto heaven he blessed.\"  (Matt. xiv. 19.)\n\n8.--CHRIST'S HANDS CAN DO NO MORE THAN OURS.  It was His touch that\nmultiplied the loaves.  If the disciples had kept the one basket, there\nwould have been many faint by the way.  Faith is the truest economy.\n(Matt xiv. 19.)\n\n9.--THE USE OF THE CHURCH IS TO PASS IT ON.  \"Gave the loaves to the\ndisciples, and the disciples to the multitude.\"  (Matt. xiv. 19.)\n\n10.--EAT WHAT GOD SENDS.  You cannot be saved by knowing the doctrine any\nmore than looking at bread will satisfy hunger.  \"They did all eat, and\nwere filled.\"  (Matt. xiv. 20.)\n\n11.--WHEN GOD IS THE HOST THERE WILL BE PLENTY FOR EVERYBODY.  \"As much\nas they would.\"  (John vi. 11.)  \"Enough for each, enough for all, enough\nfor evermore.\"\n\n12.--OMNIPOTENCE DISLIKES WASTE.  \"Gather up the fragments.\"  (John vi.\n12.)  \"And they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets\nfull.\"  (Matt. xiv. 20.)  A basketful for each apostle.\n\n\n\nWAIT HERE FOR THIRD-CLASS.\n\n\nPassengers on the London \"Underground\" have often seen the sign-boards,\ntelling the travellers where to wait for the class they mean to travel\nin.  And there is sure to be a large group near one--the notice for third-\nclass passengers.  It is so in the road to heaven.  Forgetting that the\nMaster has paid first-class fare for us, too many ride third, meaning,\nwhen they get to the station where tickets are collected, to change into\nthe first, for all want to die happy.  Live holy.  Be first-class\nChristians, and then God will see to it that you die so as to bring\nhonour to Him.\n\n\n\n\nX.  SPIRITUAL FARMING.--NO. 3.\nCULTIVATION.\n\n\nWe have already called the attention of our readers to the subject of\nploughing, but we feel we have not pressed upon them with the force it\ndeserves, the necessity of what the Bible calls \"breaking up the fallow\nground.\"  What the plough and spade do for the land we must have done for\nthe minds of those who sit in Methodist pews.  Unsaved men and women must\nbe compelled to look the truth in the face.  Farmers know that so long as\nthe land is hard and cloddy, the seed has no chance to get the\nnourishment by which it lives; besides by turning it over, the plough\nexposes that which has been hidden to the light of day, and it is by\nturning it up that it gets the benefit of the atmosphere.  The nitrogen\ncontained in the air is filled with that which the growing seed requires\nto find in the land, if it is to do well for the worker.  Have we not\nthirty-fold crops where we ought to have hundredfold, for want of better\nploughs?  The heathen who spoke of preaching as \"turning the world upside\ndown\" hit on the truth; and those of us who fail to turn up the soil are\nnot likely to reap all we might do.  The other day we heard an\nintelligent man tell the story of his conversion.  He was awakened under\nthe preaching of Mr. Robinson Watson.  He said, \"I never used to listen\nto sermons, I sat in the corner of the pew and thought of business, or\nany machine I was planning, and did not hear a word, but Mr. Robinson\ncompelled me to think and act.\"\n\nDoes not this man represent many?  Are these people to be allowed to come\nand go, without, in some way or other, being compelled to listen?  Let\nevery one of us, from the top to the bottom of the Plan, say, God helping\nme, I will break up the ground.  Indifference shall become difficult.\nSome of us can remember listening to men whom we feared when they opened\nthe hymn book, for if they began the service with one of the hymns in\n\"Exhorting sinners to return to God,\" we knew there would be difficulty\nin getting to sleep, either in the pew then, or in bed, hours afterwards.\nPerhaps the greatest want of the church to-day is men who can, by\nhandling the Bible like a gardener does his spade, cause it to be said\n\"The sinners in Zion are afraid, tearfulness hath surprised the\nhypocrites.\"\n\nBETTER FEED A\nFAT PIG\nTHAN A PUBLICAN.\n\n\n\n\nXI.  SPIRITUAL FARMING--NO. 4.\nSOWING.\n\n\nThose of us who live in the country are reminded, as we see the springing\ncorn, that some one has been at work--the blade comes from the buried\nseed.  Honest work has been done before there can be seen the appearance\nof good.\n\nLet those of us who work for the great harvest, be\n\nMINDFUL OF WHAT WE SOW.\n\nLet us have nothing in the seed-basket that cannot be termed what Jesus\ncalled \"The word of the kingdom.\"  There will be no difficulty in\nobtaining that.  Farmers don't stint the sower, and God will not withhold\nseed from His labourers.  Let the youthful preacher be encouraged, for\njust as you have seen the sower fill his basket from the sack, so there\nis, in the Bible, enough for each, enough for all, enough for evermore.\n\nSow BIBLE IDEAS:--\n\n\"Put the Bible into them, my brother,\" said an earnest Scotch divine to\nus many years ago, and there is nothing grows as well, or yields as much,\nas the Bible, used as seed.  People may tell you that they want something\nelse, something more attractive and pleasing.  Yes, but they won't say so\nin the time of harvest.  You may plant your field with flower-seeds, sow\ntulips, marigolds, mignonette, &c., those will look very well in June and\nJuly, but how about September?  The very people that asked for them in\nspring will curse you for them in autumn.\n\nBIBLE IDEAS ABOUT GOD:--\n\nHis love of righteousness, His hatred of evil; His love of man, but His\ndislike to sin; His delight in benevolence, but His determined hostility\nto wrong-doing.  We need to show not only God's pity for sinners, but His\ninflexible justice, which did not spare His well-beloved Son, when He\nbore our sins.\n\nBIBLE IDEAS ABOUT CONDUCT:--\n\nNever mind being called legal, if you can back your preaching by the\nBible.  Put the truth into the people about honesty, industry, and self-\ndenial.  Let others spend their time in talking of the angels with bright\nwings of gold; let us teach men how God means them to live in this world.\nThose of us who wish to learn how to sow, should study Jesus and Paul.\nThey are examples of what sowers should be.\n\nBIBLE IDEAS ABOUT REPENTANCE:--\n\n\"These things teach and exhort.\"  One secret of the want of lasting\nsuccess, is that we do not preach repentance.  Men need to have right\nideas on this subject.  Those who have not repented cannot believe unto\nrighteousness; they can believe unto feeling, but not to right doing!  It\nis not a question so much of tears, as of turning away from sin.  The\ngreatest of penitents said, \"I turned my feet unto thy testimonies.\"\n\nBIBLE IDEAS ABOUT JESUS:--\n\nThat He died for us according to the scriptures.  When the Master wished\nto take away the sadness from His disciples, as they walked to Emmaus,\n\"He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning\nHimself.\"  This is what we must do.  Put the truth, as it is in Jesus,\ninto the hearts of the people.  Let us show from the word of God, that\n\"By His stripes we are healed.\"  Nothing gives abiding peace like the\nthought, Christ has died for my sins.  This will lead to loving Jesus,\nwith the kind of affection which will not be tempted to grieve Him by\ndoing that which is evil.  Let us see to it that we get the seed in.\n\nIT IS NOT ENOUGH TO GET IT ON THE LAND, WE MUST PUT IT IN.\n\nNo preacher has done his work thoroughly who does not use the harrow.\nThere are some so-called teachers, who don't know what the gospel harrow\nis.  This is why the catechism is not taught.  The ancient plan of\ncatechising in the church ought to be more general than it is.  Why\nshould we not hide the word of God in the hearts of our hearers, by\ncausing them to think over what we have said?  We may not be able to get\nthem formally to answer questions, but we may make them think.  Some\npreaching is like raking with the teeth upwards.  It may be easier and\nmore speedy, but it is not so likely to hide the seed.  It is a good\npractice for those who have been listened to by others, to talk to\nthemselves after the sermon or lesson is over, and to say, Soul, what\nhast thou done to-day?  How many Bible truths hast thou put into the\nhearts of the people?\n\nDIDST THOU PUT THEM IN?\n\nIf thou didst, never fear but thou shalt see harvest some day.  His word\ndoes not return void.  This is not true of thy word, or of anyone else's,\nbut \"the word of the Lord abideth for ever!\"\n\n\n\n\nXII.  \"AND WE WILL--\"\n\n\nThe prophet Micah was struck with the energy and devotion of the heathen\nto their gods.  He saw the grip these idols had of their votaries, how no\nexpense was spared, no sacrifice withheld, for the sake of a filthy lie\nembodied in a stone or golden image.  While he listened to the songs of\nthe heathen, his heart warmed as he thought of the greatness of Jehovah,\nand so he cried out--\"All people will walk every one in the name of his\nGod, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and\never.\"--Micah iv. 5.\n\nWhy should we not serve Jehovah with the same intensity that the heathen\nshew in their worship?  Why should not holiness to the Lord be as\nenthusiastic and powerful in the lives of Christians as sin formerly was?\nWhy should not men be as much moved by the indwelling Spirit, as they\nwere when full of drink?  For instance, you may see, when a man is half\ndrunk, how his pocket is opened; he will stand treat all round; every one\nin the room may have whatever he likes to order, \"Give it a name!\" says\nthe drink-inspired heart.  Now, we ask, why should not those who are\nunder the power of the Holy Ghost go to some poor widows and \"stand treat\nall round,\" by taking the fatherless children to some shop where their\npoor naked feet shall be well shod?\n\nShall we not have a shout over the perseverance and patient continuance\nof the converts?  See the worshippers of the race horse, as, whipped and\nspurred, the winner draws out from the ruck and passes the post first!\nHow the mad votaries of the gambling idol make the air ring with their\ncries!  And shall not we be as interested as we see men and women contend\nsuccessfully for \"the prize?\"  Is not the cant sometimes on the side of\nthose who are so anxious for what they call decorum?  Let us like Micah,\nsay, \"WE WILL,\" too.  How hard it is to win the heathen over to leave\ntheir false gods!  And shall we not walk for ever and ever in Jehovah's\nname?  Why should not Satan and all who help him regard efforts to make\napostates as a forlorn hope?  O for a strong grip of God!  Do some of our\nreaders feel their weakness, and tremble lest they should go back to the\nassemblies of the heathen?  Let us remind them of the promise--\"I will\nstrengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in His\nname.\"  (Zech. x. 12.)\n\nMost of those who serve the devil mean to forsake him before they die.\nThey are self-deceived in many cases, and die as they live.  Let us\ndetermine that \"for ever and ever\" shall be our motto.  \"Signed for\nlife,\" as the teetotaler sometimes says.  \"This God is our God for ever\nand ever.  He will be our guide even unto death.\"  We need a guide all\nthe way, till we come to the other side of Jordan.  After then, no\npossibility of falling or loss; but though we shall need no guide, we\nshall delight in the Lord for ever.  When this paper comes into the hands\nof our readers, the CONFERENCE will have begun its Sittings.  Let every\nMethodist, from Dan to Beersheba, say, \"We will sustain the new President\nwith our prayers, as we did the man of God who went before him.\"  And the\nLord whom our fathers served shall rejoice in the energy and patient\ncontinuance of His people.  He shall not complain that we worked harder\nand sacrificed more for the Gods we served before, than we do for Him;\nbut the heathen shall see signs of the greatness of Jehovah in the\nenthusiasm and perseverance of His people.\n\n\n\n\"AS LONG AS HE LIVETH HE SHALL BE LENT TO THE LORD.\"\n\n\nTwo things are worthy of notice here.  First, Hannah brought her son to\nGod's house and left him there to minister.  In this she kept the vow she\nhad made (see verse 11).  If all promises made in days of trouble were\nkept as this woman kept hers, there would be some wondrous changes.  We\nmust not suppose that Hannah did not feel the removal of her beloved son\nfrom her own home, but she made the sacrifice, and God honoured her to\nall time by recording her gratitude in the Book of books, and made her\nson a national blessing.\n\nSAMUEL STAYED WHERE HIS MOTHER PUT HIM.\n\nHe began to be a minister when a child, and he continued to be so to the\nend of his life.  Few lives have been so honourable and honoured as his\nwas.  But it would not have been so if he had not continued to serve the\nGod of his mother.  Are there not some of our readers who are tempted to\nleave the Bible and Sunday school, and to turn their backs on the\nreligion of their parents?  Remember that to turn your back on the God of\nyour mother is to hoard up dishonour and misery for yourself and those\ndear to you, for what Hannah sang is yet true,\n\n\"THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH ARE THE LORD'S.\"\n\n\n\n\nXIII.  \"IT IS THE KING'S CHAPEL.\"\nAMOS vii. 13.\n\n\n\"Go somewhere else and preach, you ignorant peasant!  What do you come\nhere for, spoiling our enjoyment, and keeping us awake at nights?  Don't\nyou know this is no common conventicle?  It is the place where the king\nsays his prayers!  Away with you, or we will take off your head!\"  So\nsaid Amaziah, the priest, and so says many a one to-day.  Cannot you let\nus rest in the enjoyment of our sins?  You seem to forget that our god is\nmade of\n\nGOLD!\n\nWe are not common pot-house people!  Preach against drunkenness, if you\nlike; that is a sin which increases the rates!  Preach against\nprostitution, for we are afraid our sons will be entrapped some of these\ndays.  Preach against love of dress, or anything else that costs money,\nfor we have to pay sadly too much to tailors and milliners for our\nchildren and wife; but let us alone, for our god is GOLD.\n\nNow, Amos, what do you say to that?  Won't you go home to Tekoa, and\nspend the rest of your time looking after the cattle?  \"Nay, verily, but\ntill I die, I will make Jeroboam howl with rage and vexation of spirit,\nfor he follows the sins of the man who made Israel to sin.\"  It is the\nwork of the preacher to bring hell within sight of those, who, by their\nselfish love of gold, make others to sin.  Let the king know that I will\nmake him feel as though his crown was red hot.  His honours shall burn\nhim, and his food shall scorch his tongue.  It is in the king's chapel\nwhere I will preach as I never preach anywhere else, for it is Jeroboam\nagainst whom I am sent.\n\nO! Amos, lift up thy voice with strength against these worshippers of\ngolden calves!  Remember thy spiritual ancestry.  Forget not the prophet\nthat came from Judah many a year ago.  How he testified against that\ngolden god, and how Jeroboam's arm was paralyzed when he would have had\nthe prophet slain.  Why are we so mealy-mouthed in denouncing these\ngolden-idol men?  Is not the worship of money the hidden nourisher of\npublic sin?  Could the gin-palace exist but for the worship of Mammon?\nCould those streets of bad houses in London and other large towns flaunt\ntheir shame, were it not for high rents?  They pay well!  As sure as\nthere is a God in heaven, shall these, who make money out of the sin of\nothers, gnash their teeth in endless torment.  Amos!  He is in thy\ncongregation!  Do not preach to him of Heaven! but HELL!  Thou art not\ntalking to the prodigal son, but to those who have got his portion in\ntheir iron safe!  Let them feel that hell is moved to meet them, and that\nthey are listening to one who has the Word of the Lord in his lips, which\nis--\n\nPREPARE TO MEET THY GOD!\n\nAnd you who would stop Amos--Hear ye the Word of the Lord!  There is an\nheritage of shame waiting for you.  Amaziah! wouldest thou send the rough-\ntongued prophet away?  \"Thy wife shall be an harlot, and thou shalt die.\"\nShame while thou dost live, and a dishonoured grave, for this is the\nportion of those who would hinder faithful preachers from speaking the\nWord of the Lord to the men who are setting up GOLD FOR GOD.\n\n\n\n\nXIV.  \"ENCOURAGE HIM!\"\nDEUT. i. 38.\n\n\n\"Encourage\" who?  Why, your new Minister.  He will need it.  No one but\nGod knows how much some men suffer in leaving old friends and going among\nstrangers.  One of our most popular preachers told us that when he goes\ninto a new circuit, he feels like a tree that has been transplanted, and\nfor a time seems nearer death than life.  And it is more than likely the\nman who has just come to your place is feeling acutely the separation\nfrom old friends, and the strangeness of everything around him.  Do not\nbe surprised, then, if he is not as friendly at first, as the man was who\nhas gone away.\n\n\"ENCOURAGE HIM!\" for there will be plenty to do the other thing.  The\nenemy of souls, when he is not able to turn back God's soldier, will do\nall he can to wound him, and if he can hire some fool of a Christian to\ndo it, all the better for his purpose.  It will be easy to discourage by\nquarrels, jealousy and fault-finding.  In fact, it requires so little\nmental ability to find fault, there is no difficulty in finding someone\nto do that, but don't let it be you.  Someone else will see to it that\nthe new Minister has not too easy a time of it.  But do you try your\nutmost to make him feel that he has come where all he does will be\nappreciated, and that he will never need to go out of his own circuit to\nfind those who will love him for his works' sake, till they know him well\nenough to love him for his own.\n\n\"ENCOURAGE HIM,\"--by being at the services regularly, and in time, and\nespecially at the Prayer-Meeting.  Stay to the Sunday night one, and go\nto the one held in the week.  What a comfort for the Minister to see the\nvestry filled when he gets to the Weekly Prayer-Meeting! and when you are\nthere, or on your knees at home, pray for him; for if Paul needed the\nprayers of the Church, much more do the Preachers to-day.\n\n\"ENCOURAGE HIM!\" by taking the advice he gives you when he is in the\npulpit.  A doctor would feel it if his medicine was treated as many\nsermons are.  What would the medical man think if he saw the bottle of\nphysic poured down the sink, or left in the bottle untasted, till there\nwas a cupboard full of bottles?  He would not feel like preparing any\nmore.  How a preacher is encouraged to make fresh sermons, when he sees\nthat his last was taken into the heart and life of some of his hearers.\n\n\"ENCOURAGE HIM!\" by letting him know of anyone who has received good from\nhis preaching or visits.  You need not be afraid of making him proud.  He\nhas had enough of the other kind, or, as we sometimes say, he is sure to\nhave \"a stone in the other pocket.\"  We remember visiting one of our sick\nclass-leaders one Monday, who said, \"Who was the young man who preached\nhere last night?\"  \"Why, that was the new Minister!\"  \"Well, you must\ntell him a woman was converted.\"  It will \"ENCOURAGE HIM,\" and James\nsays, \"If one convert him, LET HIM KNOW!\"\n\n\n\n\nXV.  \"WE HAVE NO MIGHT.\"\n2 CHRON. xx. 12.\n\n\nYET WE NEED IT VERY MUCH.  We are in great weakness, and we need power,\nfor there is a great multitude come against us.  It is not the wisest\npolicy to ignore the strength of our enemy.  Jehoshaphat did not.  It is\nwell for us to know the strength of our foes, but let it not lead us to\ndespair.  Who shall number the host of the foes against whom we must\nfight?  They come to rob us of our inheritance, and if we submit, we\nshall be enslaved.\n\nWE have no might, but WE KNOW WHO HAS.  The pious king said (verse 6),\n\"In Thine hand is there not power and might, Art not Thou God?\"  Is there\nmore than one God?  Some Christians talk as though the Lord had been\nobliged to give up some of His power to Bradlaugh & Co.  Where is the\nsign of a divided kingship?  Could all the host of God's foes have\nprevented the earthquakes?  Do they know when the next will take place?\nIt is still true that God \"shaketh the earth and the pillars thereof\ntremble\" (Job ix. 6)\n\n   \"This awful God is ours,\n   Our Father and our love.\"\n\nWE KNOW HOW TO GET MIGHT, FOR WE CAN PRAY.  Jehoshaphat did not first of\nall review his troops, he called a meeting for prayer.  The nation fasted\nand prayed, and the king led the devotions of his people.  What a prayer!\nHave you noticed the four questions he puts to his God?  And with what\npathos he says \"Our eyes are upon Thee!\"  Shall not the people of God\nimitate Judah?  \"They gathered themselves together to ask help of the\nLord.\"  Why should we not make this the motto of our weekly prayer\nmeetings--\n\nTO ASK HELP.\n\nNot only the men, but the women and children came to the meeting.  Would\nnot the mothers and the little ones pray?  They knew that their foes\nwould carry them away captive, if God did not help.  Would it not be well\nto encourage our children to cry to the Lord?  Would He not hear them,\nthink you?\n\nPromise of the needed help soon came.  The Holy Ghost fell upon one of\nthe sons of Asaph, and he soon told his message:--\n\n\"THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS, BUT GOD'S.\"\n\nHe always makes His people's cause His own, when they trust Him.  Shall\nwe not live so that our lives shall become part of the divine estate?  So\nthat we cannot be hurt without its injuring the Lord of heaven?  \"The\nLord will be with you on the morrow.\"  Is some preacher reading this on\nthe Saturday night?  It may be some young Minister, or Local Preacher,\nwho is fearing for his reputation, or for the ark of God.  Brother, read\nover with care this address of the Levite, v. 15-17.  Then, like the\ngodly monarch, shew others how to praise the Lord.  It is well to notice\nthat the people, led by their ministers, stood up to praise the Lord, and\non the next day, before the victory, they praised the Lord.  What a scene\nit must have been!  How the angels would keep time with their harps, as\nthe choir sang the anthem, \"Praise the Lord! for His mercy endureth for\never.\"\n\nTHEY NEEDED NOT TO FIGHT.\n\nThe Lord did that.  He sent His hosts, and all that Judah needed to do\nwas to gather the spoil.  When shall we spoil our foes?  When shall we\nloot the devil?  How one's fingers itch to take his goods!  The time is\ncoming when we shall gather the wealth and power he now possesses, when\nthe hosts of darkness shall come against the people of God only to be\nslain; and when there shall be no difficulty in raising money for good\nobjects, for the devil's coffers shall be at our service.  Let us not\nlose sight of the fact that the same week the great multitude came\nagainst the Lord's inheritance, there were more precious jewels than\ncould be carried away, and the place where the foe was encamped came to\nbe called\n\n\"THE VALLEY OF BLESSING.\"\n\nPOVERTY IS HARD,\nBUT IT MAKES\nA GOOD GRINDSTONE.\n\n\n\n\nXVI.  \"BE PERFECT.\"\n2 COR. XIII. 11.\n\n\nWhy not?  What possible objection can there be to perfect Christianity?\nYou like perfection in other things.  You like your watch to keep\n\"perfect time.\"  If you are measured for a coat, you like \"a perfect\nfit.\"  You like other people to be perfect in their actions, so far as\nyou are concerned.  You wish your children to obey you; your wife to love\nyou without ever wavering; those who owe you money to pay up twenty\nshillings to the pound; your servants to do their work according to\norder; in a word, if you served God as you wish everybody to serve you,\nyou would be a perfect man.  Is that so?  Then why object to \"Christian\nPerfection?\"  You say,\n\n\"I DON'T BELIEVE IN SINLESS PERFECTION.\"\n\nWell, we wish to be practical and to do you good, and so we will take\nlower ground.  Do you believe that it is possible for God to make you a\nvery much better man than you are?  O yes!  Then why not allow Him to\nhave His own way?  Is this not the reason why some men are not striving\nafter \"Perfection?\" They like to be as they are.  Going forward means\nsuffering, self-denial, a struggle,--\"There are giants in the land.\"\n\nSome other time we will try to encourage those who are really anxious to\npossess the good land, by shewing that Joshua and Caleb were right in\nsaying of the sons of Anak, \"They are bread for us.\"  \"The bigger they\nare the more there is for us to eat;\" but just now, we are anxious to\nshew these non-believers in perfection, that, till they are all God is\nprepared to make them, they must not say a word against our doctrine.\n\nMay you not be speaking against God's power to heal, to make whole?  Is\nit not a reflection on the Divine Workman, to say that he cannot restore\nman to be so that He can say once more, \"It is very good?\"  It behoves us\nto speak with bated breath here, but we may venture to say that the grace\nwhich made an Enoch, can make a nineteenth century saint, so lovely in\nhis character, that all men shall say, \"This is God's own work, and is\nlike all things which come from His hand.\"\n\n\"BUT MANY OF THESE WHO PROFESS TO HAVE OBTAINED THIS BLESSING ARE SO\nMANIFESTLY MISTAKEN.\"\n\nYes, we agree with you there.  Before long we shall have something to say\nto those who believe in \"Christian Perfection,\" but we are dealing now\nwith those who do not.  We think that those who are \"perfect,\" will often\nbe the last to profess it.  Any way, they will have very little to say\nabout themselves, though their mouths will be filled with the praise of\nGod, who has done great things for them.  We almost always suspect those\nwho have too much to say, and wish we could make them to see how their\nloud talk and small deeds tell against the doctrine.  One proof that a\nman is not perfect, is his censoriousness concerning those who do not see\nthings as he does, or call them by the same name.  But of these we will\nspeak at another time.  What we are now concerned about is that we should\nstrive to be all that God has promised to make us, and thus become living\nexpositions of the ability of the Lord to answer Paul's petition:--\n\n\"I PRAY GOD, YOUR WHOLE SPIRIT AND SOUL AND BODY BE PRESERVED BLAMELESS.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVII.  \"MAKE THIS VALLEY FULL OF DITCHES.\"\n2 KINGS, iii., 16.\n\n\nWhat for?  To receive that without which they must perish.  We read in\nverse 9 \"There was no water.\"  Application was made to the prophet\nElisha, who declared that there should soon be plenty, but that the army\nmust at once make channels for it to flow in.  This was done, and during\nthe offering of the morning sacrifice, water came in abundance, and\nfilled the ditches.\n\nLet us be ready for great blessing.  We need an outpouring of the Spirit,\nbut are we ready for it?  Would not a great revival surprise many\nChristians?  In London, Messrs. Moody and Sankey will soon begin their\nwork, and the Christians of that city should be on the look-out for great\nresults.  Doubtless there are committee meetings, and much organization\nis going on, but the work must not be left to organizations.  Let every\nChristian in London make a ditch to bring the living water to his own\nhome.\n\nWe hope to hear that in Liverpool, where Mr. Hughes is so soon to begin\nwork, and in the places where the other connexional evangelists are\npreaching, the gospel channels will be dug by Methodists' hands.  All\nthree of these devoted men wish that our people should prepare the way,\nand thus have the stream of blessing flow to their hearts and homes.  The\nDistrict Missionaries also are needing help.  Let us make it easier work\nfor them, by opening the way.  We know digging means work, and some\nChristians are so very respectable, they would feel insulted if God asked\nthem to become one of His navvies.  On the other hand, there are\nthousands of our people who would be glad to help if only some one would\nshow them the way.\n\nBut what is laid upon our hearts most of all is, that something more\nshould be done to assist Circuit Ministers and Local Preachers to\nevangelize.  If nothing is effected besides what is done by the men set\napart as evangelists, we shall have a large portion of the country\nunwatered.  \"Make the valley full of ditches.\"  Let every Methodist feel,\nthat till every impediment is taken out of the way, and every thing done\nto help on a revival in his own circuit, and in his own chapel, his work\nis not finished.  If each does his best, there will soon be a flowing of\nwater.  Do we hear some say, \"There are so many among us who will not\ndig?\"  Just so, and therefore some of us must dig night and day.  Get the\nspade called \"Prayer,\" and keep it bright.  Let the prayer meeting become\n\nA GANG OF EXCAVATORS!\n\nLet us not be satisfied till we are sure that, when the revival comes, we\nshall be ready.\n\nLet our Class-leaders make enquiry how many of their members are praying\nand working for a revival.  Let everything be done to make our ordinary\nservices very attractive.  Let our Choirs, and those who have charge of\nthe musical part of the services, do their part to make the singing\npleasant and lively.  It is a grievous thing to note how slovenly this\npart of the service is in some places.  For instance, in many chapels\nwhere they have a chant-book, the run is on three or four.  It is a\nsymptom of inertness when STELLA is sung as though it were the only 6-8's\ntune.  Will someone see to it, that a ditch is dug to every singing pew\nin Methodism?\n\nWe repeat the question.  Are we ready for an outpouring of the Spirit?\nHave we all the channels cleaned out which our fathers dug, and are we\ndigging fresh ones?  Do we look as if a revival would be welcomed?  Does\nthe enemy know that he may expect an attack, or is he chuckling over our\nrusty spades and swords?\n\n\n\nA WORD TO PARENTS.\n\n\nBrother Moses Welsby was speaking with me at some Open-air Meetings at\nRadcliffe, the other day, and he told of seeing a lad being taken to\nprison, and as he was going his father called out, \"Keep thy spirits up,\nlad, it will soon be over,\" but the lad replied,\n\n\"I SHOULD NOT BE GOING NOW IF YOU HAD SHEWED ME A BETTER EXAMPLE.\"\n\nWhat sort of a model are you?  Can your children copy you with safety?\nAre your actions what you would like to see over again in your boys and\ngirls?  Perhaps some who read this are in danger of being driven from God\nat the last day.  If so, shall you be chained to your children, and will\nyour punishment be all the greater because they say,\n\n\"WE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN IN HELL IF YOU HAD SET US A BETTER EXAMPLE?\"\n\n\n\n\nXVIII.  \"THERE IS A SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN.\"\n1 KINGS, xix. 41.\n\n\nSo said the man of God.  Rain was much needed, for famine stared them in\nthe face.  Even Ahab himself had walked many weary miles to seek grass\nfor his horses; other men's cattle had perished, and if the drought had\ncontinued, everything would have died.  Still, it was not Ahab who heard\nthe sound of the rain.  There was no sign of it.  The heavens were as\nbrass, the sky was without a cloud, everything was burned up with dry\nheat, and yet, said Elijah, \"There is a sound of abundance of rain.\"  It\nis so in the spiritual world.  There are those who know of a coming\nRevival long before there is any sign.  They have felt their prayers\nbeing answered, and have heard the cry of the penitent sinner, though, as\nyet, he seems to be as hard and careless as ever.\n\n\"So AHAB WENT UP TO EAT AND TO DRINK.\"  Not so Elijah, he went up to the\ntop of Carmel.  The man of God \"CAST HIMSELF DOWN ON THE EARTH, AND PUT\nHIS FACE BETWEEN HIS KNEES.\"  Those who would procure blessings must not\nexpect to win them at the table of luxury and ease, but by climbing the\nhill of difficulty, and in the humbling of self.  If we would bring the\nblessing down, we must be prepared to say, \"No,\" to our own likings, and\nto refuse that which would gratify flesh and blood.  If we would prevail\nin prayer, we must be alone with God.  The priests who fed at Jezebel's\ntable could not bring rain, or they would have saved themselves from the\nsword of Elijah.  We need not to look toward the sea till we have bowed\nbefore the Lord, then we may expect some sign of the coming Revival.\n\nWe must not be discouraged if the servant tells us \"THERE IS NOTHING!\"\nMasters see more than servants can, or they would not be masters.  \"Go\nagain seven times,\" as though he said \"Do not interrupt me with thy\n'Nothings!'\"  Come and tell me when there is \"Something;\" and the seventh\ntime he saw the \"little cloud.\"  Some of us have looked from the hill,\nover the sea, in a far off tropical land, and have seen that same little\ncloud many a time, as it spread all over the sky, and soon there was rain\nenough to stop the traveller.\n\nAND SO SHALL IT BE IN METHODISM ERE LONG.\n\nIf we mistake not, last Sunday's work among our young people is the\nresult of many earnest prayers, and the sign of coming prosperity.\n\nSome will be ready to say \"It is nothing to make a stir about.  They were\nonly children.\"  \"A little cloud!\"  Only the size of a man's hand.  Yes,\nbut what man?  \"The man Christ Jesus.\"  \"Ahab, get thee down, that the\nrain stop thee not.\"  We shall not be surprised to hear of Revivals like\nsome we have known, which turned other meetings into soul-converting\nagencies.  Tea Meetings, and Missionary Meetings, where the people have\ncome in crowds, not to applaud eloquence, but to ask--\"What must we do to\nbe saved?\"  We expect news of this sort, and that, ere long.  May the\nhand of the Lord be on Elijah, then shall he run before Ahab, and prayer\nshall be mightier than the power which moves those who eat and drink!\n\n\n\n\nXIX.  A CLEAN TONGUE.\n\n\nOne of the first things the doctor does when he comes to see you, is to\nask to look at your tongue, and one glance will tell him how much\ndifficulty he has to contend with.  If the tongue is foul, he knows that\nthere is inward mischief, and he must lose no time in cleansing that of\nwhich the tongue is but an indicator.\n\nAs we pass along our streets our ears are assailed with language of the\nmost horrid description.  If one needed any information as to the state\nof public morals, the foul-mouthed men and boys, aye, and we regret to\nsay, too often, women and girls, would tell of the state of heart into\nwhich many thousands of our country people have been corrupted.  And in\nmany cases, this has become habitual, and what might be termed natural.\n\nCan nothing be done?  Is the name of the Divine Being and that of our\nSaviour to be profaned constantly without any check?  If so, it will grow\nworse and worse, until we may expect national sin to bring down national\npunishment, and we shall have to say, \"Because of swearing the land\nmourneth.\"\n\nThose who have charge of the education of our children might help, by\nconstantly speaking against bad language, and by punishing those who\ncontinue to offend.  Parents, also, should check the slightest tendency\nin this direction.  We have heard of a good woman, who, overhearing one\nof her boys using what she called \"dirty words,\" took him to the sink,\nand washed out his mouth, not sparing the soap!  Sometimes when we have\nheard men defiling their tongues with filthy talk, we have wished their\nmothers had served them the same.\n\nNor is this offence against God and good taste always confined to the\nignorant.  There are those who have been well taught--men of ability, and\nsome who make a profession of religion, who indulge in unseemly language,\nand delight in stories which are termed \"smutty.\"  We know how farmers\ndislike the \"smut\" in their wheat, how an otherwise good crop will be\nlowered in value, because the black grain will, when ground, darken the\nflour.  Is it not so with these men of unclean lips?  The filthy\nallusions and improper stories which pollute their conversation make\ntheir life infectious, and their companionship dangerous.  Let us reprove\nthem, or at least avoid them, as we would the plague.\n\nIf we would keep a clean tongue, we must pray \"Create in me a clean\nheart, O God!\"  This can be done, and the Lord, who has told us that He\nwill not admit into His heaven that which worketh abomination, will\ngladly cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of His holy\nSpirit, then shall our tongue glorify Him continually.\n\nShould this fall into the hands of one of those whose foul tongue shews\nthat his heart is corrupt, we would ask him how he would like to have his\nconversation reported by a short-hand writer, and printed in the\n\"Standard,\" or \"Daily News,\" with his name attached?  But is it not a\nfact, that his words are being taken down, and when the books are opened\nbefore an assembled universe at the last day, will not his soul tremble,\nas he finds that God has listened all the time, and the language used\nyears ago, is to control his destiny, for He who will come to be our\nJudge has said to the swearer and filthy speaker--\n\n\"BY THY WORD THOU SHALT BE CONDEMNED.\"\n\n\n\nA WORD TO FATHERS.\n\n\nHave you ever thought how it is that in the prayer we call our Lord's,\nGod is spoken of as Father?  Do you not see that your child calls you by\none of the names--the Christ-chosen name of the Devine Being?  Is there\nnot a sermon in that to everyone of us who has children of his own?\nPerhaps you have never given the matter a thought that for some of the\nearly years of you children you may be giving them a caricature of God in\nyour ungodly conduct.  Let us lay this to heart, and strive, by God-like\nactions, to teach our little ones what God is like.  By long suffering\nand gentleness towards ignorance and weakness;--by stern denunciation, in\nlife as well as word, of everything that is mean and deceitful;--by\ndelighting in mercy, and readiness to give to those who need, to our\nchildren, \"Our Father,\" may become a stepping stone to the knowledge of\nGod.\n\n\n\n\nXX.  THE RED LAMP.\n\n\nTravelling by express train the other day, we found that we were stopped\na long distance from the station where we were timed to stop, and looking\nout of the window, saw a red light ahead.  That accounted for it, we knew\nthere was something in the way.  The driver knew what he was about, and\nthough anxious to go on, did not move until the red light was changed to\nwhite.\n\nSome of those who read this paper are living in sin.  To such, the Bible\nspeaks out in plain terms, and, like the Red Light, would stop them.\n\n\"THE END OF THESE THINGS IS DEATH.\"\n\nYou cannot go any further without danger.  Why run the risk?  That Red\nLamp seems to say, \"If you will come on, you will be slain.\"  What should\nwe think of any one who urged the driver to go on, in spite of the\nwarning?  Would you not call him \"fool\" and \"madman?\"  Just so, and you\nwill do well to call those who urge you to despise the warnings of the\nBible, by the same names.\n\nWe should not think much of the wisdom of any one who said of the Red\nLamp, \"Why take any notice of that old-fashioned thing?  We have outgrown\nthese childish ideas!\"  Would not your reply be, \"Danger is danger, and\nsafety is safety!\"  We have not outgrown death and the grave, and it is\nstill true, in spite of the march of science, that a train coming into\ncollision with another means suffering to those who are in it.  Sin is\nyet sin, and we cannot break the Commandments of God without having to\nsuffer.  And as for the Bible being old-fashioned, we feel, that which\nkept our fathers from hell shall keep their sons also.\n\nHere is one of the Red Lamps of the Bible, which young men would do well\nto consider--\n\n\"HER HOUSE IS THE WAY TO HELL!\"\n\nYoung man, there is the Red Light!  Stop!  Do not go one step further!\nThere are plenty of fools to tell you that\n\n\"THIS IS SEEING LIFE.\"\n\nThe Bible says--\"The dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of\nhell.\"  If everything had to be called by its right name, just as sign-\nboards tell us what is to be procured within, like \"Furniture Dealer,\"\n\"Boot and Shoe Maker,\" fancy the sign-board that would have to be put\nover the house of the \"strange woman.\"  Here is a suitable inscription,\nwhich we take from the Bible.--Prov. ii. 19:--\n\n\"NONE THAT GO UNTO HER RETURN AGAIN.\"\n\nThis is putting a Red Lamp over her door, is it not?  Will you heed the\nwarning?  Or do you mean to be one of those of whom the Bible speaks,\n\n   \"AND THOU SHALT MOURN AT THE LAST, WHEN THY FLESH AND THY BODY ARE\n   CONSUMED, AND SAY, 'HOW HAVE I HATED INSTRUCTION AND MY HEART DESPISED\n   REPROOF?'\"\n\n\n\n\nXXI.  A SERMON ON THE BOAT RACE.\n\n\nIn finding illustrations for our teaching at the river-side, we shall be\nin good company, for that manly preacher, Paul, had seen wrestlers and\nrace-runners.  It is true that then, athletics had not been disgraced by\nbetting; and it is only of very late years that the struggle on the\nThames has been polluted by gamblers.\n\nThere are not a few who read our paper, who will be on the lookout to\nknow as soon as possible, whether\n\nDARK OR LIGHT BLUE\n\nhas won.  For ourselves we care not, but we are anxious to make use of\nthe contest as a parable, before the race is forgotten.\n\nIf you would row as to obtain, you must mind certain things, and these\nare pictures of what we must do, would we gain the heavenly prize.\n\n\n\nI.--WE MUST KEEP THE BODY UNDER.\n\n\nSo thought Paul.--See 1st Cor. ix, 25 and 27.  Those sixteen young\nfellows who will pull the oars in the race, have, for months, been\nundergoing strict physical training.  This means abstinence from all that\ncould be said to weaken the frame, or lower the action of the heart.\nThere are only certain things they may eat and drink.  They must have the\nright amount of sleep, and no more.  Exercise of the most bracing kind\nthey must take every day, and eschew every practice that could weaken the\nnerves or muscles in the slightest degree.\n\nAnd he that would win the heavenly race must say \"No,\" to self, and \"flee\nyouthful lusts,\" and \"endure hardness.\"  He whose soul can be mastered by\nhis body has lost the bridle, and cannot wonder if he lose the prize.\n\n\n\nII.--WE MUST SECURE A GOOD START.\n\n\nJust before the Starter gives the word to go, the men paddle till the\ncord which the coxswain holds at arm's length is tight, and every man has\nhis oar ready for the dash into the water and away.  To lose time at the\nstart is to find that a chance has been thrown away.\n\n\"Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.\"  \"They that seek Me\nearly shall find Me.\"  He who would be a first-class Christian, must\nbegin betimes.  Time lost is lee-way, that cannot be recovered, strive as\nwe like.\n\n\n\nIII.--WE MUST BE WELL STEERED.\n\n\nIn the picture parable you can see who is steering.  Don't let him come\naboard you!  Proverbs iii. 6, tells you whom to trust with the tiller\nropes.\n\n\"HE SHALL DIRECT THY PATHS.\"\n\nIf young men would only let the Bible \"coach them,\" they would be saved\nfrom many a blunder and defeat.  It is important to have, as steersman,\none who knows the currents, and just when to alter the course.  The\nyoungster who steers the University boat has been up and down the river\nmany a time, till he has learned everything he needs to know.  Let me ask\nyou, \"Who steers?\"  If SELF-WILL does, you are undone.\n\n\n\nIV.--NEVER CEASE STRIVING TILL YOU HAVE WON.\n\n\nYour adversary will not.  He will pursue you till you have gained the\nprize.  \"He who to the end endures,\" is the saved man.  It is very\ninstructive to note how many backsliders there are among professors of\nmature age.  The most grievous cases of falling away are not from the\nranks of young disciples, but from those who ought to have been safe\nexamples for them!  If you have lived to be grey-headed, remember your\nsilver hair may make a fool's cap yet!  There are other lessons, but they\nwill keep till another year.  We will end our Sermon with some lines of\nCharles Wesley's, not known to all our readers:--\n\n   \"But did the great apostle fear\n      He should not to the end endure,\n   Should not hold out, and persevere,\n      And make his own election sure?\n   Could Paul believe it possible,\n      When all his toils and griefs were past,\n   Himself should of salvation fail,\n      And die a reprobate at last?\"\n\n   \"Who then art thou that dar'st reject\n      The sacred terms, the humbling awe,\n   As absolutely saved,--elect,--\n      And free from an abolished law?\n   DOST THOU NO SELF-DENIAL NEED,\n      NO WATCH, OR ABSTINENCE SEVERE;\n   In one short moment perfected!\n      An angel--an immortal here?\"\n\n\n\n\nXXII.  GOOD-FRIDAY.\n\n\nOne wonders how it came to have that name!  We cannot help feeling, that\nif other titles were as well-deserved, it would be a blessing to the\nworld.  For instance, if Nobleman, Gentleman, Reverend, &c., were as\ndescriptive as this day's name, there would be many happier people than\nthere are.\n\nNo wonder that it should be called \"Good,\" for it helps us to look back\nto the time when the best action the world has known, or can know, was\ndone.  We gaze upon the Cross, and we thank God for His unspeakable gift.\nOne knows not which to admire the most: the Love that could smite the\nWell-beloved, or the Love that could, for the sake of enemies, bear the\nblow?\n\nHow do our readers mean to spend the day?  We have no right to bind any\nman's conscience, and seek to have others do as we do, except they are\nled in the same direction, and yet we wonder how those who observe the\nday at all, can allow themselves to spend it in dissipation.\n\nWe are no admirer of those who make the day one of sadness and gloom.\n\nIT IS GOOD-FRIDAY,\n\nand we cannot understand how men can allow themselves to act as though it\nwere Bad Friday, as though they could hear the hammer nailing Christ to\nthe cross.  A high churchman's conscience is a wonderful thing, and in\nnothing is it so surprising as this, that it can allow itself to act as\nthough Jesus were slain and in His tomb!  Has not the Lord Himself\nspoken?  Let us listen to Him who speaks in rebuke to those who would\ndarken our homes and places of worship, and cheat themselves into a\nsentimentality which again sees the corpse of Jesus laid in Joseph's\ngrave.\n\n\"I AM HE THAT LIVETH AND WAS DEAD, AND BEHOLD I AM ALIVE FOR EVERMORE.\"\n\nIt cannot be pleasing to Jesus to be spoken of as though He was once more\nin the hands of His enemies.\n\nWhile we regret that so many people in our country should make this day\none of rioting and extravagance, we are sure that it is in some degree a\nreaction from the usages of those who would have us spend the day in\nsorrow.  That which is unreal must in time become unsatisfactory, and\nthose who would compel us to live over again the sorrows of Calvary, may\ndrive us to football, or that which is worse!  Let men once think that\nthe church has turned actor, and they will say, \"No, we will go to the\ntheatre, for there the acting is better done.\"\n\nEVERY DAY we should visit in spirit the cross of Jesus, for every day we\nneed the merit of the atonement, and the stimulus of that example of self-\nforgetfulness.  Let us turn away from the so-called realism which would\nhang the world in black, and, at the same time let us avoid those who\nwould make this a day of revelry.  There is a middle path, one upon which\nChrist smiles, and a path we can tread any day, and thus make it GOOD--we\nmean the\n\nPATHWAY OF SELF-SACRIFICE.\n\nFor the joy of blessing others, let us be willing to endure shame or\npain.  There is always pleasure to be earned by those who are willing to\npay the price,--the pleasure of unselfishness,--but this cannot be tasted\nexcept by those who seek their highest joy in the wellbeing of others.\nOur risen and glorified Lord tastes this joy every day, Good-Friday not\nexcepted, and we think it will lead us to spend the day according to His\nwill, if we seek for ourselves all the blessings He purchased with His\nblood, and none more earnestly than that sanctifying Spirit who will help\nus to follow His blessed example, and, by caring others,\n\nMAKE EVERY GOOD.\n\nTHE CROWN CANNOT BE\nINDEPENDENT\nOF THE SPADE!\n\n\n\n\nXXIII.  PETER THE PREACHER.\n\n\nYes! the Preacher! for it is in this way he has earned the right to be\nremembered.  Perhaps his sermon at Pentecost was more remarkable in its\nresults than any sermon has been since.  The question arises in the minds\nof thinking men, \"Is there any reason why preaching now should be less\neffective than it was when men first began to preach the Gospel of Jesus\nChrist?\"  One thing is certain, human nature has not improved, and hell\nis as great a fact now as then.  God's love for men has not decreased.  He\nis still interested in the human race, and the promise, as Peter put it,\nis \"to all that are afar off.\"--Acts ii. 39.\n\n\"WHY, THEN, DO WE NOT SEE THE SAME RESULTS?\n\nWe do in kind, but not in number.  Why not in both?  Is not the answer to\nbe found in Acts i. 14?\n\n   \"These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.\"\n\nIs not the Church of to-day weak in the knee?  Do we pray as the men and\nwomen did who waited for the promise of the Father in the upper room?\nPeter would pray.  He had all the instinct of a preacher, and would feel\nhis heart bound at the thought that he was to be a witness of God's\nreadiness to pardon.  His prayer would differ from many others.  How he\nwould plead for the power that would crown him with the diadem of a\npreacher!  There was a time when he had prayed--\"Depart from me, for I am\na sinful man.\"  Now, his cry would be--\"Come to me, let not my sins cause\nThee to stay, but come quickly.\"  There are many of us who feel we need\nto cry to Peter's Saviour and Lord, for we have allowed doubts to hide\nHis face, or self-indulgence to fence Him about.  Let every preacher who\nreads these words unite with us in pleading for a Pentecost that shall\nrenew our commission, and make all men to know that a risen Saviour is\nour King, and a promised Comforter our portion,\n\nWHAT A BLOW TO SOCINIANISM, BOTH OF IDEA AND WORD, WOULD A 'SECOND\nPENTECOST' BECOME!\n\nWe do not here mean to dwell on the example shewn to the Church by the\naccord in prayer, the many pleading, so differently, and yet in harmony;\nwe are writing now for preachers, knowing that hundreds of workers will\nread every line we write, and we are thus led to enquire further--\n\nHOW FAR PETER'S SERMON IS LIKE THE SERMONS WE PREACH?\n\nSome who have read it, as it is printed, have said, \"We should not have\ninvited such a preacher to our circuit:\" but such people forget that the\naccompaniments of preaching cannot be printed.  Who can write down the\nspiritual atmosphere?  Who can reproduce the tone of voice in which Peter\nspoke?  How can he describe what some of us have felt--the unction--the\nnever-to-be-forgotten emotions of the soul?  Depend upon it, these were\npresent in a remarkable manner.\n\nBut beside all this, there are the Bible facts.  Peter knew his Bible and\ncould quote it.  How familiar he must have been with the Old Testament!\nCould he have found, in any part of the book, passages more telling and\nmore suitable?  If we knew our Bible better, we should not need to do as\nthe manner of some is, round off common-place ideas of our own, with\npretty poetry of someone else's!\n\nThen, the preacher was not afraid to tell the congregation what sins they\nhad committed.  Many of them were what is called \"good sort of people,\nwent to place of worship, and paid their way,\" &c.  But it was true,\n\"Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God, ye have taken, and by wicked\nhands have crucified and slain.\"  Let us who preach, cry to God to give\nus His Spirit, that we may tell those who hear us of their sins.  How are\nthey to be convinced of sins, if they are not told of them?\n\nNor was Peter satisfied with the good feeling, or even with seeing the\npeople moved.  It was not enough for him that his hearers were pricked in\nthe heart, he would have them do more.  Would he not have said to many of\nthose who have gone into the inquiry-room, \"I am not satisfied that you\nare in earnest.  You want God to save you in your sins.\"  Repentance is\nimpossible to those who are not conscious of guiltiness.  And, without\nrepentance, faith holds the cup of water to one who was never thirsty.  Do\nyou wonder that it is loathsome?  He might drink if it were not so pure,\n\nBUT IT TAKES THIRST TO RELISH WATER!\n\nThis is a tempting subject, we could say much more, but we will only add,\nthat the last word in the chapter, which tells of \"Peter the Preacher,\"\ngives the result of such sermons as his--\n\n\"SAVED!\"\n\n\n\n\nXXIV.  \"WHEN SOLOMON WAS OLD.\"\n\n\n   \"_It came to pass when Solomon was old_, _that his wives turned away\n   his heart after other Gods_.\"\n\n   1 KINGS xi. 4.\n\nWho could have predicted that this would come to pass?  And yet it is\noften so, for it is still true that\n\nNO AMOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE WILL SAVE FROM BACKSLIDING THOSE WHO REFUSE TO\nLISTEN TO GOD.\n\nWe learn from verse 10 that God had taken pains to save Solomon from\nidolatry, (see 1 Kings vi. 12, and xi. 6).  But what good is it for even\nGod to try to save a man who will have his own way?  And yet one would\nhave thought that a man who knew what Solomon knew, would have not bowed\ndown to gods of wood and stone!  It is not always at our weakest place we\nfail!  It is well for us to be aware of this.  Who would have expected\nMoses to fail in his temper, or Elijah in his courage?  Solomon must have\nhated himself when he bowed before these graven images, and must have\nlooked with loathing on those filthy idols before whom he was prostrate,\nand yet he went on in his evil way.  How the priests who offered the\nidolatrous sacrifices would rejoice in their illustrious pervert!  Will\nany of us ever give the foes of God cause for exultation?  Do not tell me\nthat you are too well instructed!  Are you wiser than Solomon?  \"Let not\nthe wise man glory in his wisdom.  Let him that glorieth glory in this,\nthat he understandeth and knoweth Me.\"--Jer. ix, 23-24.  You are safe\nonly as you are willing to be led by the word of God.\n\nWHAT IS THE BIBLE TO YOU?\n\nIs it a lamp to your feet?  Not merely a lantern to keep you out of the\nmire, but a treasure like that miner's lamp; a light by which he is not\nonly guided, but able to walk in the shadow of death.  All around him is\nthe gas that would slay him, and yet by that lamp he walks to the place\nof safety!  This is what the Bible must be to you, or it is nothing.\n\nMind you, it is not enough for you to know the Bible.  We have heard\ndrunken men quote it with correctness, but it had not saved them from the\ndemon which haunted them.  It is an instructive thought that the man who\nwrote some of the Bible, who is spoken of in the pulpit as \"The Wise\nMan,\" the author of the Book of Proverbs, was led away into sin and\neternal disgrace.  In fact, it matters not what we know, if we are not\nled of the Spirit we shall come to grief.  The more deeply a ship is\nladen, if she gets aground, the more likely she is to become a wreck.  It\ntakes the wisest of men to make the fool Solomon became.  Perhaps the\nmost serious aspect of this story is, that it was not while the king was\nyoung, but when grey-headed, that he wandered from God, and this leads me\nto say that\n\nTHE WORST CASES OF BACKSLIDING ARE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE NO LONGER YOUNG.\n\nWe should not have been surprised if Solomon had been led away by\nyouthful passion or indiscretion, but we are shocked to find that it was\nwhen he ought to have been venerable that he became vicious--\"When\nSolomon was old.\"  We should have expected history would have told us of\nthe power he exerted over the people; how the nation saw in his silver\nlocks the crown of glory he had spoken of in his book.  It would have\nseemed natural to have read of great gatherings of the people of\ndifferent nations, listening to his wondrously wise words.  Instead of\nthis, the news spread far and wide that the wise king had stooped to\nfolly of the worst degree.\n\nMy brothers! what sort of old men shall we make?  If we are allowed to\nremain among our fellows, shall we live the life that shall make men\nthank God for our length of days, or will they wish we had died in our\nyouthful prime?  There are men whose youth was like the mountain stream,\nwhich cheered everything it touched.  Born among the mountains, and\nwedding other brooks and streamlets, uniting them in a river, clear and\nlovely, along whose banks children loved to play.  But later on, as it\nbecame broad and deep, taking in pollution and garbage, until the clear\nand joyous river is changed into a great sewer, filling the air with\nnoxious smells, and defiling the face of nature with its liquid\nblackness.  Such is life to some men--Solomon was one, perhaps the worst.\n\nOne is ready to ask--Can this be the man to whom God spake in large\npromise?  Is this he whose prayer brought into the temple the manifested\npresence of the Almighty?  Can it be possible that this hoary idolater\nhad been the favourite of Jehovah?  Alas! it is only too true.  More than\nonce we have known men whose prayers could bring heaven to earth, and\nlift earth to heaven, but who have lived too long, and ere they fell into\na dishonoured grave, brought shame to the cross of Jesus, and gave the\nenemies of God food for laughter.  Let those among us who are no longer\nyoung, see to it that we are not among those who fall more deeply into\nsin than it is possible for young disciples to do.\n\nWhat should we think if Westminster Abbey became a gin-palace?  If all\naround its gates lewd men and dishonoured women stood and cracked their\nfilthy jokes; if from its lovely choir the drunkard's song was heard?\nVerily, you say, \"It is nigh to blasphemy to imagine such a thing.  We\nhad rather that it had been burned to ashes when the fire of London\ndestroyed St. Paul's.  Would that it had reached far enough West to\ndestroy the ancient pile rather than it should be so polluted!\"  Aye,\naye, you are right, and yet to see a man who, in his youth was a\nChristian, but in his old age has become an apostate, is a more sorrowful\nsight still.  Alas! that it should be so common.\n\nHow did it come about?  What scheme of hell led to this?  What\ncombination of men and fiends accomplished this tragedy?  It was\nlove--affection, infatuation, for that which ought not to have been\nloved, \"King Solomon loved many strange women, besides the daughter of\nPharaoh,\" as the margin puts it.  And this leads me to say that\n\nA MAN'S FEMALE FRIENDS FRAME HIS FORTUNES.\n\nSolomon began wrong; he allowed his affection to fasten itself on a\nstranger--an Egyptian.  It is a question worth considering, whether we\npreachers say enough to the people on this question of matrimony.  A\nman's marriage is sure to tell on his history.  He can never be the same\nagain he was before.  He may wed one who shall help him to be good, whose\nvoice shall be like church bells calling him to prayer.  Or he may fasten\nhimself to one, who, like Jezebel, shall stir up her husband to deeds of\nshame and cruelty.  Sometimes we have felt, when we have seen some\nmarriages, that it would have been a fitting thing if a hearse had been\namong the carriages, for there lay DEAD HOPE on its way to a grave from\nwhich there could be no resurrection!\n\nYoung man! what woman is it you like the best?  Who is her god?  Fashion?\nPleasure?  What is the name of the deity she worships?  If it is anyone\nrather than Jehovah, beware!  Before you die, she shall turn you as\nSolomon was turned.  What is that you say?  You are not such a fool!\nWell, that remains to be seen.  Are you one of those who trust in his own\nheart?  If so, remember what he is called.  See Prov. xxviii. 26.  Is not\nthe helm of your life in her hands now?  Would you love her as you do, if\nshe had not the reins of your soul in her grasp?  If Solomon had known\nall that was to follow when he first looked on the daughter of Pharaoh,\nhe would have died before he would have made her his bride.  Let not this\nsad story be in any way a prophecy of your future.  There are plenty of\nwomen whom to know is to be elevated, and whom to wed would be to\nforetaste the companionship of heaven.  Wives are often the architects\nand the husbands the builders.  See to it, that the woman you love does\nnot make you lay out the foundation of a jail.  She may tell you it is a\npalace, but neither of you have yet seen the elevation.  She only draws\nthe ground-plan.\n\nThere is yet another scene in this tragedy.  Solomon, by his folly, lost\nhis son's estate.  God said, \"I will surely rend the kingdom from thee.\"\nRehoboam was the poorer for his father's sin.\n\nOUR CHILDREN BECOME THE HEIRS OF OUR CRIMES.\n\nSome other day, it may be, we will take the story of the son.  Let it\nsuffice to-day that we learn the lesson the Bible would teach us.\nSolomon's sun went down in a cloud.  It is a disputed question whether\nSolomon repented in time to save his soul.  There ought to have been no\nquestion as to whether he was in heaven or no.  As it is, we don't know\nthat David has one of his children with him, except the baby boy who died\ndespite his father's fasting and prayer.  Surely no one more than David\nwill need to have that promise fulfilled--\"God shall wipe away all tears\nfrom their eyes.\"  It may be that David has needed to be comforted,\nbecause the builder of the temple is among those who died in idolatry.\n\nLet every father among us bear in mind, that when we neglect prayer, or\ngive up devotion, because we want the time for seeking gold or any other\nidol, we are mortgaging our children's future.  Giving up religious\nexercises is like cutting down the trees on an estate, the next heir will\nknow the want of them.  No man can be said to be a good father, who, for\nthe sake of any worldly good, impoverishes the souls of his offspring.\n\"Turned away his heart after other gods,\" means turning away the kingdom\nof Israel.  Sin cannot be separated from sorrow, and this is as true to-\nday as it was in the days of Solomon.\n\n\n\n\nXXV.  ABRAHAM AND ISAAC.\nGENESIS xxii.\n\n\n1.--\"After these things.\"\n\n\nWhat things?  See verse 33 in preceding chapter.  After Abraham had given\nhimself to prayer.  It often happens that grace is given for grace.  God\nprepares his own for trial and suffering by revealing Himself.\n\n\"GOD DID TEMPT.\"--Like a workman who is conscious the work is well done,\nfears not the scrutiny which waits his labour.  When the smith has put\ngood work into the iron cable, he does not then fear the strain of the\ntest put upon it, and God knew what He had done to Abraham in the grove\nat Beersheba.  If we have a Beersheba, we need not fear Moriah.\n\n\n\n2.--\"Isaac, whom thou lovest.\"\n\n\nGod has a right to the best.  He does not ask us to do what He has not\ndone Himself.  \"He gave his only begotten Son.\"\n\n\n\n3.  \"Rose up early.\"\n\n\nAbraham was prompt.  Where there is a task to be performed, lose no time.\nWork does not grow easier by delay.  Do not fritter away strength in\ntrifles; begin at once upon the duties which call for instant obedience.\nWe do not read that Abraham asked Sarah's advice, the command was plain.\nShe might not have been willing.  Never ask advice from those whom God\ndoes not trust.\n\n\"CLEAVE THE WOOD.\"--He did not act as some do, take no pains in\npreparation.  The Holy Ghost is not to act as brains in an empty skull.\nGet ready, then go.  Some would have climbed the hill, and then, because\nthere was no one near from whom they could borrow an axe to cut the wood,\nwould have come back with an excuse, and in so doing picture not a few\nwho fail, because they are not able to sing--\n\n   \"READY for all Thy perfect will,\n   My acts of faith and love repeat.\"\n\n\n\n5.--Abide ye here with the Ass.\"\n\n\nThe young men would have hindered Abraham from binding his son on the\naltar.  Whatever would interfere with prayer, when we retire for that\npurpose, or with sacrifice, when we make the effort, should be left\nbehind.  Leave hinderers with the ass, they will be in congenial society!\n\n\n\n6, 7, 8, 9.--\"The Knife,\" \"The Fire,\" \"The Wood.\"\n\n\nWhere is the lamb?  Isaac's words would pierce his father's heart.  How\ncame it the young man yielded?  Was there a struggle?  Did Abraham bind\nhim by force?  There is no indication in the story of any resistance.  Do\nthe words of Jesus cast any light,  \"Abraham saw My day, and was glad?\"\nReceived him in a figure\" (Heb. xi. 19.)  Did father and son see what was\nto occur in the distance?\n\n\n\n10.--\"Took the knife to slay his son.\"\n\n\nGod tries us to the full.  His tests are no shams.  Before the Hall-mark\nis put on the metal, the acid proves it genuine.\n\n\n\n11 and 12.--\"Lay not thine hand on the lad.\"\n\n\nNo one spoke to God when it pleased Him to bruise His Well-beloved.\n\n\n\n13.--\"A ram caught in a thicket.\"\n\n\nGod cleaves His wood, He is ready, always prepared.\n\n\n\n14.--\"Call the name of that place,\n\n\nTHE LORD WILL PROVIDE.\"\n\nWhat would he have called it before his deliverance?  Let us not be too\nquick to name events.  It may be we shall want to alter if we do.\n\n\n\n15-18.--\"OBEYED.\"\n\n\nObedience is the joyful mother of children,--children that are born to\nbless.  He who can always obey will find every step leads to a\nthrone.--Rev. iii. 21.\n\nThese are a few lessons which I shall not do more than name:\n\n\n\nI.--GOD'S FRIENDSHIP DOES NOT EXCLUDE TRIAL.\n\n\nThe man who is called the friend of God was told to slay his son.\n\n\n\nII.--GREAT JOYS CONTAIN GREAT SORROWS.\n\n\nThe name of this son was Laughter.  The more we enjoy a Gift of God, the\nmore we shall feel it when we are called to part.  Hold joys with a slack\nhand.\n\n\n\nIII.--IN GREAT EXTREMITIES LOOK FOR GREAT DELIVERANCES.\n\n\nThe ram is in the thicket all the time.\n\n\n\nIV.--GREAT TRIALS WILL YIELD SWEET MEMORIES.\n\n\nNone of Abraham's journeys cost him so many tears as this, and none were\nso pleasant to recall.\n\nPERHAPS CALVARY IS THE SWEETEST SPOT ON EARTH TO GOD.\n\n\n\n\nXXVI.  OIL FOR LAMPS.\nMATTHEW xxv. 1-13.\n\n\nGod's kingdom is imperfect as yet, for it is not said to be like five,\nbut ten virgins.  It is worthy of our careful thought that it is to be\nmade perfect by contraction, not expansion.  The King is to say \"Depart!\"\nas well as \"Come!\"\n\nWe do not attempt anything like exposition of this solemn and yet\ncharming parable, but rather to notice some of the most easily perceived\ntruths it discovers.\n\n\n\nI.--A Light is better than a Lamp.\n\n\nAll the ten took their lamps.  Very likely there was variety in the shape\nand material of the lamp, but only five of them had lamps that kept\nalight, for some of them had no means of replenishment.  For anything we\nknow, the lamps of the foolish were as good as the others, may-be better,\nbut the flame and not the frame is the important matter.  We cannot have\nthe power without the form.  Grace must have the human material, but we\nmay have the human without the Divine.  Our Bibles, our Prayers, our\nHymns, all these are channels of grace, as the lamp and the wick are\nessential to the flame, but the lamp may not be lighted, or it may have\ngone out!  It is not a question of John Keble, or General Booth, but is\nthe singing from the heart?  The \"Amen\" may be shouted or intoned, but if\nnot real, it is worse than smouldering wick.\n\n\n\nII.--We may as well be without oil as not have enough to endure to the\nend.\n\n\nAll ten lamps were at one time burning.  In the margin of verse 10, we\nread, \"Our lamps are going out.\"  What a lesson to the backslider!  You\nonce were a burning and a shining light, but you did not seek grace to\nhelp in time of need, and your lamp is gone out.  Better never have made\na profession if there be not grace to sustain the flame.  Aye, and\nperhaps you, with a lamp which has gone out, you have been a preacher, or\na teacher, and have, before now, enforced this very lesson on your\nhearers.  If there is a sight in this world over which angels might weep,\nit is a preacher without a light.  Better go to hell from a race-course\nthan a pulpit!\n\n\n\nIII.--The gates or the palace may be shut while we are calling on the oil\nseller.\n\n\n\"While they went to buy, the Bridegroom came.\"  There is an old saying,\nthat \"praying breath was never wasted.\"  But this parable does not teach\nthat lesson.  There are not a few who think they can atone for the sins\nof a long life by crying with their dying breath, \"Lord, have mercy on\nme!\"  But the truth is, there may be the fear of punishment without any\npenitence, and cries for dread of hell may not be the sacrifice of a\nbroken and a contrite heart.\n\nLet us not put off our repentance too long, or while we are sending for\nthe minister to instruct us, death may claim us for his prey.  Or while\nwe are saying to the teacher of religion, \"What must I do to escape\nhell?\" the fetters may be fastened on our soul.  The palace-gate may\nswing to before we can make the oil-man hear.\n\n\n\nIV.--That which lets the five wise in to the palace, keeps out the five\nfoolish.\n\n\n\"The door was shut.\"  The five were in, and then came the other five, to\nfind the gate closed.  Then they begin to cry \"Open to us!\" but in vain.\nThe door makes all the difference.  If you enter, it is by the door; if\nyou are shut out, it is the door that closes against you.  \"I am the\ndoor,\" said Jesus, and it is yet true.  \"No man cometh to the Father but\nby Me.\"  Yes, Jesus is the True and Living way, and the only one.  But if\nwe are lost, it will be the aspect of Jesus which will slay our last\nhope.  It is the wrath of the Lamb which is so dreadful.  Have you ever\nthought of it, my brother, that Christ is to be Life or Death to thee?  If\nhe does not shut thee into heaven, He will shut thee out.  Shall you ever\nbe one of the group which cry, as their last prayer, \"Lord!  Lord! open\nto us!\"\n\nDO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE\nWHO PRAY LIKE ABEL\nAND\nLIVE LIKE CAIN.\n\n\n\n\nXXVII.  \"CAST A STONE AT HER!\"\nJOHN viii. 7.\n\n\nCast a stone at whom?  At a woman!  Why not at a man?\n\nTHERE WAS A MAN, WHY NOT STONE HIM?\n\nJust so, but then the Scribes and Pharisees did not bring him.  It is so\neasy to punish the woman, and yet it is not proved that she was worse\nthan her paramour.  But is it not the way of the world to make the woman\nbear all the shame and all the suffering?  We say, \"She is a fallen\nwoman;\" and yet we speak of a man who breaks the seventh commandment as\none who is \"sowing his wild oats!\"  Why is he not called a fallen man?  If\na woman falls, we put her outside our sympathies and our regard, and we\nmay be right is so doing.  But at the same time we don't put the man\noutside.  He can come into our drawing-rooms.  He may dine at the same\ntable with our daughters.  If we saw them speak to the woman, we should\ncry out with loathing, \"Come away from her!\" but\n\nWE DON'T CRY OUT WHEN THEY LAUGH AT THE JOKES OF A MAN WHO HAS FALLEN!\n\nWhy is this?\n\n\"Cast a stone at her!\"  Who shall stone her?  \"He that is without sin,\nlet him be the first to pick up a stone.\"  Now, then, reader, why don't\nyou throw a stone?  Nay, but I have no right, say you, I am not without\nsin.  Is this to be the rule, none are to punish the fallen but those who\nhave never tripped?  Why, this would silence many who are very ready to\nspeak against these unhappy sisters.  We make no apologies for the crimes\nof those who have yielded to temptation, but we do ask, is there room for\nour rebukes when we are not without sin?\n\nPerhaps this book may be read by our sisters who have gone astray.  To\nsuch, we say, in the words of Jesus, (verse 11.)\n\n\"SIN NO MORE!\"\n\nYou are not obliged to do so.  No one is.  There is always a way made for\nthose who truly repent.  Call upon Jesus, the Friend of sinners, and He\nwill open a door of hope for you.  To persevere in sin, is only to ruin\nsoul and body too.  Perhaps you have parents living, who long to see you,\nand who would be glad to take you to their hearts.  Give them the joy of\nhaving you near them once more.  Is it not in your power to answer their\nprayer--\n\n\"O GOD!  GIVE ME MY DAUGHTER ONCE MORE!\"\n\nIf you are absolutely friendless, so far as earth is concerned, you have\nyour Heavenly Father.  He is always within call, and He has said, in His\nword, \"Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will\ngive you rest.\"  On the other hand, there is the \"Father of lies.\"  He\nwho tempted the first woman, and led her astray, and taught her to lead\nthe man wrong.  This evil one is whispering in your ear--\"There is no\nhope.\"  \"It is too late.\"  \"Better have a short life and a merry one.\"\n\nHEED HIM NOT, SISTER!\n\nHe is a liar!  He means thy destruction!  God calls, and calls thee to\npardon and peace.  Obey Him, and hope shall spring again, and LIGHT\nRETURN TO THY POOR HEART.\n\n\n\n\nXXVIII.  \"OFFER IT NOW UNTO THY GOVERNOR.\"\nMALACHI i. 8.\n\n\nWe beg to suggest to those who want a new text that will strike and\nstick, that they should look through MALACHI'S book.  There are plenty of\ntexts like splinters therein.  The words that head this article are part\nof an appeal to the people on the question of right service.  The prophet\nwas indignant with his country people, who wished to combine prayer with\nparsimony, and worship with worldly policy.  He complained that they dare\nnot offer to their superiors what they sent as a sacrifice to God.  Might\nnot some Christians be asked the same questions?  Would the \"Governor\"\naccept the present God was supposed to be glad to get?  Who would think\nof trying to get into the good graces of any one by sending a spavined\nhorse, or a cow with foot-and-mouth-disease, as a present?\n\nIn the matter of prayer, for instance.  Take a congregation supposed to\nbe asking God to pardon their sins, and to give them all the blessings\ntheir souls and bodies need.  Mind you, they are people who say they\nbelieve that \"he that believeth not is condemned\" already; that \"the\nwages of sin is death,\" and yet, listen how they pray!  We will suppose\nthe man in the pulpit is in earnest and means all he says.  Look around,\nwhat do you see?  Scores of people who dare not sit in the presence even\nof the Squire, to say nothing of the Queen, but there they sit, as though\nthat was the proper position for prayer!  One of them is taking the\npattern of a new dress, or the trimming of a bonnet; while another is\nwondering, not whether there will be an answer to the prayer, but whether\nthe man who is leading the worship will keep on much longer, and ask for\nsomething else, for already he has been praying ten minutes!\n\nSupposing a petition is to be drawn up to the Queen, asking for a pardon\nfor one of the family, who for his crime, is under sentence of death;\nwhat thought would be given to it?  Even the very paper, pens, and ink,\nwould have to be of the best quality.  But hear yonder father praying for\nhis children's conversion.  His son is old enough to have rejected the\ngospel, and is condemned already; but how listless the prayer!  \"Offer it\nto thy Governor.\"  Would the Queen be expected to deign to notice such a\npetition?  Is it any wonder such prayers are unanswered?\n\nLook into this vestry!  There is a meeting for prayer.  It is held with\ngreat regularity, so that it is well known that a number of persons meet\nat a certain hour to ask blessings from One who has said \"Knock and the\ndoor shall be opened.\"  Considering that this is the case, one would have\nexpected the room would be too small; but no, there is never a large\nmeeting.  You see it is only a prayer-meeting.  If the Rev. Timothy\nFlowerpot was going to preach, there would be a crowd, for he is popular,\nand he says things which are supposed to be very superior to the Bible;\nbesides his prayers are eloquent, very different to what are usually sent\nto the throne of grace.  He is very sensitive, though, in the matter of\ncongregations, he will not go a second time where there is only a handful\nof people.  His work is to speak to large audiences, and he would be very\nmuch offended if the vestry were prepared for his service.\n\n\"Offer it to thy Governor.\"  If the Reverend Gentleman would not accept\nthe congregation that meets for an audience with God, can it be expected\nthat the Lord of heaven will be well pleased with those who care not to\ncome when prayer is made?\n\nWe shall be glad if these plain words cause some of our readers to look\nat the sacrifice before they offer it, and ask, would this kind of thing\nbe acceptable to man?  If not good enough for my equal, will my Superior\nlook with favour on it?  Listen once more to the rough, but sensible\nwords of the Hebrew prophet:--\n\n\"IF YE OFFER THE BLIND FOR SACRIFICE,\nIS IT NOT EVIL?\nAND IF YE OFFER THE LAME AND SICK,\nIS IT NOT EVIL?\nOFFER IT NOW UNTO THY GOVERNOR; WILL HE BE\nPLEASED WITH THEE, OR ACCEPT THY PERSON?\nSAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS.\"\n\nFAITH MAKES THE GRAVE\nA CRADLE.\n\n\n\n\nXXIX.  \"WHAT MEAN THESE STONES?\"\nJOSH. iv. 21.\n\n\n[_Preached at a Sunday School Anniversary_.]\n\nThis is a children's question.  God does not wish the boy to be snubbed\nwhen he wants to know.  There is a kind of curiosity which is like the\nscent in a hound--a Divine instinct--and must not be checked, for that is\nwaste.  If you chill your child when he comes to ask, you may break the\nlink which binds him to you, and never be able to weld it again.  There\nwill be a time come when you will long to have the lad come to your side,\nbut it will be too late.  \"When your children shall ask their fathers . .\n.  Then ye shall let your children know\" (21-22.)\n\nOBEDIENCE TO GOD'S COMMANDMENTS WILL CAUSE OUR\nCHILDREN TO ASK QUESTIONS WHICH WILL BE A\nBLESSING TO THEIR LIFE.\n\nThis is very different to what is called \"questionable conduct.\"  We\ndon't want your son to say \"I cannot understand how my father makes his\nledger square with the Bible;\" or the girl to say, \"How does mother make\nthis love of display harmonise with the class-meeting?\"  No, no! this is\nnot it; but, \"What mean these stones?\"  As the little girl said to her\nsister, \"What is it makes mother's face shine so after she has been in\nher chamber so long?\"  That mother had been praying to her Father which\nseeth in secret, and He had rewarded her openly.  If we live lives of\ncheerful obedience, the children will say, \"What is the Sacrament?  What\ndo you do at the Class-meeting? &c.  Why cannot I go with you?\"\n\nThese stones are very suggestive.  There are sermons in them.  Some\nlessons which will occur to every one; others that need to be thought\nover again and again.  For instance, there are twelve,\n\nA STONE FOR EACH TRIBE.\n\nThey all came out of the bed of Jordan, and yet, there are no two alike!\nJudah's is not like Napthali's, and yet both came from the same place,\nand are in the same heap.  We are not alike, though we be the children of\nthe same Father.  You and I are very different, yet it is \"Our Father.\"\nYours as much as mine.  John Bunyan knew this, for he makes his pilgrim\nband to consist of very great contrasts.  Mr. Valiant for-the-truth, as\nwell as Mr. Despondency.  And they all get across the stream.\n\nIt has been a favourite dream, in all ages, to have a church of one\npattern.  Uniformity, that is, all of one shape.  God does not make the\ntrees which bear the same kind of fruit of one shape.  You can make\nartificial flowers by the shipload, all one tint, but the bees won't come\nround your ship when you unload it!  In a town where I have preached many\na time, there is a place of worship at each end.  As you come from the\nrailway station, there is one which begins the town--a Baptist Chapel,\nplain and convenient, but right on the street, with the busy traffic all\nround; while at the other end of the town there is a church with a spire\nthat makes you look up and think it is an anthem in stone!  All around\nare old-fashioned houses, with gardens filled with flowers, and green\nlawns, while beyond there is a real country lane, with May in the hedges,\nand the music of larks and blackbirds.  What a contrast!  Yet if the ark\nof God were in danger, there would be brave hearts come from both places\nto die for the truth.  No! let us have done with this wish to have all\nthe same.  It will become monotony.  Go down into the Jordan and fetch\nyour stone!  Aye, aye, and one will pick the heaviest, one that will make\nhis knees totter; and another will choose the squarest, and yet another\nthe smoothest, but each man lays his in the heap, and it is well done!\n\n\"What mean these stones?\"\n\nWHY, THAT IT IS SAFE TO GO WHERE THE ARK GOES.\n\nThat chest is the sign of God's presence.  There is the blood on the\nmercy-seat, and there are the angels of gold looking at that spot of\nblood.  All the time the ark stood still in the bed of the river, the\npeople could pass in safety.  There are many Jordans for some of us to\npass, but we need not to fear if God is there.  There is the Jordan of\nPOVERTY.  It is a deep stream, and the water runs fast: yes, but if the\nark goes first, thou shalt not be overcome.  Does Providence call on thee\nto go down in the world?  Never fear! the Ark is there.  \"I will never\nleave thee.\"  We are thinking now of a friend of ours, not sainted, but\nsaintly, who has seen great reverses of fortune, yet her life has been a\npsalm.  She reminds me of a robin, for, like him, her song has been\nsweeter than ever in the dark days.  You may have to cross the river of\nPERSECUTION, but the Ark is there.  When the three brave men preferred\nthe furnace to idolatry, they found the Son of Man in the flames waiting\nfor them, and so shall you.\n\nAnd when it comes to the Jordan of DEATH, we shall know the Ark has gone\non before.  Some of you lame ones will step it out bravely when you see\nthe Ark.  Don't you remember, that good old \"Ready to Halt\" left his\ncrutches on the bank?  It was because he could see the Ark in the bed of\nthe river.\n\nDo not these stones teach that\n\nGOD HONOURS FAITH?\n\nBrave Levites!  Who can help admiring them, to carry that Ark right into\nthe stream; for the waters were not divided till their feet dipped in the\nwater (ver. 15.)  God had not promised aught else.  This is what is\nneeded--what Jabez Bunting was wont to call \"Obstinate faith,\" that the\nPROMISE sees and \"looks to that alone.\"  You can fancy how the people\nwould watch these holy men march on, and some of the by-standers would be\nsaying, \"You would not catch me running the risk.  Why, man, the ark will\nbe carried away?\"  Not so, \"the priests stood firm on dry ground.\"\n\nWe must not overlook the fact that Faith on our part helps God to carry\nout His plans.  \"Come up to the help of the Lord.\"  The Ark had staves\nfor the shoulders.  Even the Ark did not move of itself, it was carried.\nWhen God is the architect, men are the masons and labourers.  Faith\nassists God.  It can stop the mouth of lions and quench the violence of\nfire.  It yet honours God, and God honours it.  O for this faith that\nwill go on, leaving God to fulfil His promise when He sees fit!  Fellow-\nLevites, let us shoulder our load, and do not let us look as if we were\ncarrying God's coffin.  It is the Ark of the living God.  Sing as you\nmarch towards the flood.\n\nThese stones we can see, remind us of other stones we cannot see (verse\n9.)  \"And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the\nplace where the feet of the priests which bare the Ark of the Covenant\nstood, and they are there unto this day.\"  Will these stones ever be\nfound?  More unlikely things have happened.  Any way, they serve us as a\nlesson.  There are things unseen as real as things we look on every day.\n\nORDINANCES ARE SIGNS AS WELL AS REMEMBRANCERS.\n\nWhat do you call that piece of wood there?  Why, the communion rail, to\nbe sure.  Communion? what does that mean?  It is only a piece of wood,\nand yet it makes us think of Him Who, the same night that He was\nbetrayed, took bread, saying, \"Do this in remembrance of Me.\"  Kneeling\nat that rail, we may, by faith, take hold of the Man who died for us.\nRightly used, the Lord's Supper may be manna--angels' food.\n\nWhat is this day?  The Sabbath.  The Rest Day.  The toils of life are\no'er for a little time.  Ah! this is another of the stones we see, which\ntell of stones we cannot see.  There is a Sabbath that has no week-day;\nthere is a world where there is no toil, no anxiety, no tears!\n\n   \"O, long expected day begin!\"\n\nWhat do you call that sweet noise?  Music?  And what is that but another\nof these stones we can see, which tell of others we see not as yet.  Dr.\nWatts said of sacred music--\n\n   \"Thus, Lord, while we remember Thee,\n      We, blest and pious grow;\n   By hymns of praise we learn to be\n      Triumphant here below.\"\n\nWhile I hear those children's voices I seem to catch the sweeter strains\nof my children in heaven, singing their joy.  Those deep, manly bass\nvoices remind me of the psalms up yonder--like the sound of many waters.\nWhy, the very crape some of you wear reminds me of some who sat by your\nside, and who are now clad in garments \"whiter than snow.\"\n\n\n\n\nXXX.  \"HE THAT SLEEPETH IN HARVEST IS A SON THAT CAUSETH SHAME.\"\nPROVERBS x. 5.\n\n\nWe shall always be in debt to Solomon for these wise sayings, and for the\npains he took to have them preserved.  The words which head this form a\npicture.  It is harvest-time, and the old folks have been depending on\ntheir able-bodied son getting in all their corn, but they are doomed to\ndisappointment.  He sleeps when he should work.  When others are toiling\nhe is snoring, and his corn rots in the field because he does not carry\nit while he has fine weather.  How ashamed his father is!  Other men have\ngot their corn well housed, but his is still where it grew, because the\nson he has reared is lazy and self-indulgent.  One feels that no language\nis too strong for this indolent young man.\n\nBut what has this to do with us? some will ask.  We reply--Is not this\nthe harvest time of the church, when the days are closing and the nights\nlengthening?  Have we not been used to hear of special efforts being made\nfor the rescue of perishing souls, and ingathering of those who are in\ndanger of dying unready?\n\nARE YOU ASLEEP IN HARVEST?\n\nLet every Methodist who reads this ask--What am I doing?  Am I sleeping\nor harvesting?  What am I doing to gather in the ripe corn?  If I am\nindolent I shall cause shame to the people who count me one of\nthemselves.  If we sleep now that we should work, at the March Quarterly\nMeeting our place will be down in numbers, and as there are others of the\nsame indolent sort, our circuit will be down at the District Meeting, and\nperhaps the District be down, and there will be the shame among the\nchurches if Methodism is down.\n\nOther churches are used to look to us to shew them how to do the reaping.\nO, let us be up and doing!  How shall we dare to meet our Lord if we\nsleep when we should sweat?  How shall we bear it, if the members of\nother religious societies tell us that our bad example corrupted them?\nWhat will be our shame, if we find that those who expected us to gather\nthem in accuse us of slothfulness, and destroying their souls by our\nneglect?\n\nCAN WE EXPECT TO KEEP OUR CHILDREN, IF THEY SEE\nOUR FARM POINTED OUT AS THE FIELD OF\nTHE SLUGGARD?\n\nWill not very shame drive them from their own home to find one among\nthose whom we once taught the way to reap?\n\nWe wish that we could do with all drowsy Methodists what Jonah's captain\ndid with him.  We should dearly like to give them a good shake and say,\n\"Awake, O sleeper!\"  We think of towns and villages, where, not very long\nago, there was the song of the reaper, but now, alas! he has gone fast\nasleep.  Shame will be the inheritance of those who are drowsy when they\nought to be at work.  Why have contempt poured on thee, when glory is to\nbe won by work?  Grasp the sickle and go out among the standing corn, or\nthe rust on thy reaping hook shall eat into thy soul for ever!\n\n\n\n\nXXXI.  \"THE AXE IS LAID TO THE ROOT.\"\n\n\n   \"_And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees_.\n   _Therefore_, _every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn\n   down and cast into the fire_.\"\n\nIf we want to preach, it will be wise for us to study the examples of\npreaching given in the Bible.  John was filled with the Holy Ghost, and\ntherefore taught of God: and it is easy to see that the man's nature was\nallowed full play.  The Holy Ghost does not destroy character, but uses\nit, and these words of the Baptist are natural to him.  Rugged strength\nis in every figure of the speech he uses.  But I am not preaching to\npreachers, but to sinners, as John was, and in using the great Baptist's\nwords, I would have you to visit\n\nTHE DEVIL'S ORCHARD.\n\nThis is not the only time in the Bible when wicked men are compared to\ntrees.  There is a notable example in Nebuchadnezzar, who, in his dream,\nsaw a tree great and high, and saw an angel come down from heaven, look\nat it and then cry out--\n\n\"HEW DOWN THE TREE!\"\n\nBut in his case it was not said, \"Cast it into the fire,\" but leave the\nstump with a band of iron and brass.  You will remember this dream was\nfulfilled, and the king of Babylon lost his reason, and became like a\nbeast, but the tree was allowed to grow again.  Not so with these: John\nis speaking about the trees to be burned.\n\nBut we may be asked--What are the trees in the devil's orchard?  They are\nmen and women whose lives are wrong.  You may see what Paul says in the\nletter he wrote to the Christians in Galatia--Adultery, Fornication,\nUncleanness, Lasciviousness, Idolatry, Witchcraft, Hatred, Variance,\nWrath, Strife, Seditions, Heresies, Envying, Murders, Drunkenness,\nRevellings, and such like.\n\nNOW, DOES THIS LIST INCLUDE YOU?\n\nWell, you say, I am not a murderer.  But are you envious?  Do you grieve\nbecause someone more worthy than you is enjoying something you would\nlike?  Do you not see that is like what the devil felt when he saw Adam\nin Paradise?  You can, by envy, soon become a destroyer.  You say you are\nnot an Adulterer, but are you lascivious?  Do you like to think of\nunclean things?  Do you delight in filthy pictures or \"bawdy\" songs?  If\nso, you are fitting yourself for the fire where the Sodomites are.  You\nsay you are not as bad as some; perhaps you have not been growing as long\nas they have.  Hatred and Variance are the trees on which the devil\ngrafts Murders.  Do you notice the last words in that sentence of Paul's--\n\n\"AND SUCH LIKE.\"\n\nIf not a Drunkard or a Reveller, yet going in that direction; having a\nliking for evil companions and Sunday pleasuring.  Am I looking on some\nof the saplings which Satan means to graft before next year?  Christmas\nand New Year will soon be here.  The dance and the ball-room are the\nplaces where\n\nREVELLERS BECOME FORNICATORS AND ADULTERERS!\n\nAre you a tree in the devil's orchard?  If so, you may see your future in\nthe words \"Cast into the fire!\"\n\nIn the crowds of people who listened to John, there were numbers of\nreligious folk.  Some of them were teachers.  All the devil's trees don't\ngrow on his estate, therefore I want you now to look at\n\nTHE DEVIL'S TREES WHICH GROW IN GOD'S ORCHARD.\n\nJUDAS was one.  He had the advantage of Christ's friendship, and might\nhave become one of the first missionaries, but he was covetous.  DEMAS\nwas the companion of PAUL, and might have been another SILAS, but he\n\"loved this present world.\"  ANANIAS and SAPPHIRA were growing side by\nside among the beautiful trees in the early church, but they were selfish\nand deceitful, and after telling a lie, they were both cut down and cast\ninto the fire.  You notice it does not say every tree in the devil's\norchard shall be cut down, but \"every tree which bringeth not forth good\nfruit.\"  How is it with you?  Judgment has begun at the house of God.\nWhat are you?  What is the product of your life?  Is your influence\nbeneficial?  Does the result of your life shew that you are born of God?\n\nA HOLY LIFE IS THE ONLY WAY TO ESCAPE\nTHE FIRE OF HELL.\n\nDo not say you do no harm; that is not enough, you are to bear fruit unto\nholiness.  Your life must be profitable to God, or you cannot escape the\naxe.  A man does not plant apple trees to look at, but to gather fruit\nfrom.  Have you paid God for all He has expended on you?  Remember you\nare British, you live where there are Bibles, Ministers, Sunday Schools.\nPublic opinion is on the side of right.  It is easier to be good here\nthan anywhere else in the world.  The husbandman will not be satisfied\nwith leaves or blossoms, there must be\n\nFRUIT OR FIRE!\n\n   \"The axe is laid to the root of the trees.\"\n\nYes, you will do well to consider that there is a power of destruction\nwhich may be called into action any moment.\n\nLook, then, at\n\nGOD'S WOODMAN.\n\nIt is his duty to remove the trees when the time comes.  Mark you, he\ndoes not cut all down.  The trees which bear good fruit he transplants to\ngrow for ever in THE PARADISE OF GOD.  Yes, death differs in his action,\nand those of us who live a holy life need not to dread him.  He is rough,\nbut he means well by us, and though we may feel it when he pulls us up by\nthe roots, it is to grow in better soil, and under fairer skies.\n\nYou, though, who bear evil fruit, YOU DO WELL TO FEAR DEATH.  Keep good\nfriends with the doctor, so that you may have no difficulty in getting\nhim day or night, but remember that he is useless when the woodman aims a\nblow at the root.\n\nTHE WISEST AND MOST SKILFUL OF MEDICAL MEN\nCANNOT TAKE THE AXE OUT OF DEATH'S HAND!\n\nThere will be no escape when the woodman gets his orders.  Mark you, the\naxe is at the root this time.  He has lopped off some of the branches.  I\nsee in the graveyard, headstones with names of infants low down, and\nspace left for the father's and mother's names.  Yes, he will come for\nyou next.  What will you do then?  THE TREE IS HELPLESS, IT CANNOT GET\nAWAY FROM THE AXE!  Blow upon blow descends, there is no help for it, and\nso it will be with you.  What is it that your heart says,--\"I will send\nfor praying people?\"  Yes, and if they come, what then?  Perhaps God will\nhear, and say to the woodman, \"Put up thy axe for another year or two.\nLet us see if he will keep his word and bear fruit.\"  One wonders at the\nforbearance of God!  There are some in this place, who, when in\naffliction, sent for the godly, and promised if only they were spared,\nthey would bear good fruit.  But alas! they are worse than ever now.  Let\nsuch hardened sinners remember where the axe lies.  The woodman can pick\nit up any moment, and it will be useless to pray then.  Can you not hear\nthe step of the feller of trees?  He is on his way with orders which\nbrook no delay, thy hour is at hand, and thou shalt fall, to be cast into\nthe fire!\n\nI look around, and ask the question--\n\n\"WHO AMONG US SHALL DWELL WITH THE DEVOURING\nFIRE?  WHO AMONG US SHALL DWELL WITH\nEVERLASTING BURNINGS?\"\n\nDare you look at the fire?  Come, be a man, and see thy future.  The tree\nis in the blazing pit.  It cannot get out of the fire, any more than it\ncould escape the axe.  Did you ever think of the illustration of the\ntext--\n\nWOOD TO FIRE.\n\nWhat more natural?  It is true, it might have been somewhere else, but it\nwill burn as though it were made for the fire.  Mark you, it is\nunquenchable!  Who can extinguish that which God lights?  You hear men\nsay, \"God is too good to burn men in hell.\"  That is not the way to put\nit.  The fire will go out when there is no fuel.\n\nMEN WHO SIN, BURN THEMSELVES.\n\nThat drunkard, for instance.  They say of him, \"He has a spark in his\ninside.\"  What the poor wretch suffers when he cannot get strong drink!\nHow he begs and prays for a penny to get a gill of beer.  Now don't blame\nGod for that!  It is his own doing.  Suppose now, God lets that man have\nhis own way, and die a drunkard, and he wakes up in hell with that\nthirst, and no drink, not a drop, and never will be!  And is the drunkard\nthe worst of men?  Is he worse than the man who grows rich on the other\nman's poverty?  I would as soon have the drunkard's hell, as the eternity\nof those who took his money, and sold him that which is burning away his\nlife and chances of salvation.  Do you see that wicked seducer, and those\nwho dishonour their parents; and those who keep back that which they have\nin plenty, when they might feed the hungry and clothe the naked?  \"These\nshall go away into everlasting punishment.\"  Now what are you going to\ndo?  It is not the axe which is touching you now.  It is the hand of\nJesus, the hand which has been scorched with the fire of God's anger to\nsave us.  Christ suffered (the just for the unjust) to bring us to God.\nDo not tire Him out, for if he calls for the axe, there is no hope.\nJustice may call, and when the woodman answers and takes up his axe,\nprayer may cause the axe to fall from his hand; but when Mercy says, \"Cut\nit down,\" all the men in the world may cry, but nothing can save him from\nthe fire.\n\nNONE CAN STAND BEFORE THE WRATH OF THE LAMB?\n\nWHEN FILIAL LOVE PICKS\nUP THE OAR,\nTHE ALL-WISE FATHER PUTS\nHIS HAND ON THE HELM!\n\n\n\n\nXXXII.  JESUS AT THE WELL.\nA WORD TO PREACHERS.\n\n\nJesus Christ travelled three years in a very poor circuit.  There were no\nstewards to provide for His wants, and at times, we are told, He had not\nwhere to lay His head.  But all the three years He was a perfect example\nto us, whether we are Locals or Itinerants, and, perhaps, never more than\nwhen talking to the woman at the well of Samaria.  From His conduct there\nwe may learn--\n\n\n\nI.--Never be daunted by a small congregation.\n\n\nIt is very nice to have a crowd, but then that is not the lot of us all,\nand we must not keep our best sermons for large audiences.  It may be\nthat the few are able to appreciate our best efforts.  Jesus Christ said\nsome of His best things to individuals.  John iii. 16 was not said to a\ncrowd, but to one.  Indeed, if we were to take out of the gospels what\nJesus said to small audiences, we should rob them of their choicest\nportions.  So, if, when we get to the chapel we find that there are more\npews than people, let us preach to those who are there.  Why grumble at\nthe few who have come, perhaps a long way?  Let us feed these with the\nchoicest of the wheat.  It may be an historic time for anything you know.\nThere may be someone there whom your sermon may lead to Jesus, and who\nhimself may become a preacher.\n\n\n\nII.--Interest your Audience.\n\n\nHow skilfully Jesus went to work to lay hold of this giddy woman!  He\nspoke of what to a native of the East must have been a surprise, and a\ndelightful idea.  He goes on to tell of being delivered from that plague\nof those hot climates, thirst, and excites her wonder by speaking of a\nwell of water springing up in a man!\n\nTo our younger brethren, let us say that it is not easy to succeed if we\ndo not make what we say interesting.  We do not love sensationalism, but\nwe do love savouryness.  Let all your sermons be seasoned with salt.  Not\na few of us fail because we forget to make what we say savoury.  Let us\nexcite the imagination of those who listen to us, and then we may pour\ninto the attentive ear that which will be of solid benefit.  How\nshopkeepers strive to strike the eye of the passengers by skilfully\ndressing their windows, so as to catch the attention!  Shall it be said\nthat they take more pains to sell their goods than we do to get the\ngospel into the hearts of our hearers!\n\n\n\nIII.--Make your hearers conscious of the supernatural.\n\n\n\"Sir,\" said the woman, \"I perceive thou art a prophet.\"  And this we can\nall do.  We can every one be on such terms with heaven as to make those\nwho listen to us know that we hold commerce with the skies.  We may not\nbe eloquent or learned, but we may be prayerful and impassioned.\nPreaching is unlike all other kinds of speaking.  We have no business in\nthe pulpit except when under the direct influence of the Holy Ghost.  We\nknew a man who, for some years of his ministry, was dull and unpractical,\nbut there came upon him a baptism of power, and then we heard his\npreaching described as \"white heat.\"  Why should not this be in every one\nof us?  It is not possible for us to be alike, nor is it desirable, but\nwe may all make our hearers say, \"This man comes from God.  His prayers\nand his preaching convince us that he is owned by the God of Elijah.\"\n\n\n\nIV.--Set your converts to work.\n\n\nWe read \"The woman then left her waterpot, and went into the city,\" and\nsoon there was a crowd round the Saviour.  It is not said that Jesus told\nher to do so, but she had heard words that were like fire in her bones.\nShe had been convinced of sin, and knew that God had spoken to her.  Is\nnot this the way to fill our chapels?  Say things that wake up the\nconscience, and alarm the sinner, and he must tell about it.  Or shew the\ncross so plainly that the anxious one finds the Lord, and is able to\nrejoice, and very soon there will be an unpaid agency at work.  Of course\nit will not obtain to the same extent in every case.  We are among those\nwho have to mourn that our preaching is not as effective as it ought to\nbe, but we are taking our own physic, and can testify that since we have\nacted on the lines we have laid down, God has been pleased to give us\ngreater power over our congregations, and we have seen greater results\nfollow the preaching, poor as it is.\n\nFOR PREACHERS WHO MAKE THE\nPEOPLE THINK.\n\nTHE GRINDSTONE IS THE MOST\nUSEFUL TOOL IN THE\nCARPENTER'S SHOP.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIII.  ANSWERED PRAYER.\n\n\n   \"_And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah_.\"--1 KINGS xvii. 22.\n\nYes, and He will hear your voice if you are as much in earnest as he was!\nWhy should not God hear the voice of William, or Robert, Sarah or Edith?\nHe is no respecter of persons.  Is it not written over the door of mercy,\n\"Knock, and it shall be opened?\"  Aye, and the knocker is so low a\nchild's hand may reach it.  St. James tells us that Elijah was \"a man of\nlike passions.\"  He was a human being like you and me, but he had faith\nin God.  Why should we not believe in God as much as the prophet did?  Is\nHe not God yet?  Have any of these sceptics removed Him from His throne?\nIf He is still there, let us come with boldness as Elijah did.\n\nThis was not the first time God had heard the voice of His servant, and\nanswered his prayer, and there is no reason why we should not have\nrepeated and continuous replies in answer to our requests.  Had Elijah\nthe same wealth of promise we have?  JESUS CHRIST has spoken since those\ntimes, and has said things which ought to fill us with hopefulness\nwhenever we pray.  What wonderful words of cheer He said in those last\nfew days of His life, such as \"Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy\nmay be full.\"  Look up the references to that verse, and you will feel\nyou must kneel down and ask for something.\n\nBut is there not suggested by that word \"Ask,\" the secret of so much\nfailure?  Do we ask?  How often, in what is called prayer, there is\nlittle or no supplication?  We are to make our requests known.  Listen to\nElijah: \"Lord, let this child's soul come into him again.\"  Why should we\nnot pray in the same direct style?  Our prayers would not weary others by\ntheir length, if, before we knelt down, we thought\n\nWHAT IS NEEDED, AND NEEDED NOW.\n\nWhat a scene when the child began to breathe again! and when the anxious\nmother was summoned to receive her boy from the dead.  \"Now,\" said she,\n\"I know thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth\nis truth.\"  When the church fights its battles on its knees, it prevails.\nOnly let us, who say we believe in God, put our faith into petition, and\nobtain answers, then Infidelity will hide its head.  Mr. Finney tells\nthat when he first began to attend a place of worship, it was as an\nhonest inquirer after truth.  The members of the church noticed his\ncoming to the prayer meetings with regularity, and presently it occurred\nto them that the young man might be anxious about his soul.  Accordingly\nthey asked him if he would like them to pray for him.  He somewhat\nroughly declined, for, said he, \"You don't get any answers to your\nprayers for yourselves.  You have been for months praying to be revived,\nand you are not any better.\"  Perhaps he was right, though rude.  We may\nhave in our midst those who would believe the Bible if they saw that we\nhad only to ask to receive.\n\nLet every father bear this in mind when he leads the devotions of his\nfamily.  Nothing is so likely to save our children from infidelity as\ntheir knowing that we receive when we ask, and that our knock brings an\nopen door.  If only the family altar were the meeting place between God\nand man, Atheists might sneer and chatter, but they would never be able\nto cause our children to listen, for would not they say, \"I know my\nfather is a man of God, and the word of the Lord in his mouth is true.\"\n\nReader, is the family altar at your house a bridge from earth to heaven,\nor is it a sham, and a helper to those who say, Prayer is an exploded\nsuperstition?\n\n\n\nPREACH REPENTANCE.\n\n\nIs there any truth in the allegation that we do not preach Repentance as\nmuch as we ought to do?  There is a soft sort of preaching abroad which\nwe Methodists should abhor, namely, a gospel which has no dread of hell\nin it.  We do not say that we should spend much time in proving the\neternity of punishment, but certainly the thought of the fate of the\nimpenitent should be in solution in the preacher's mind, and then, like\nthe bitter herbs eaten with the Paschal Lamb, penitence will make the\ngospel relishing.  We have little doubt that\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS IS AND MUST BE, TASTELESS TO THOSE WHO DO NOT\nSORROW FOR SIN.\n\nThose who preach repentance are in good company.  He who fails here does\nnot tread in the steps of Jesus, who said, \"Repent ye, and believe the\ngospel.\"  Is human nature any better now than it was then, that we should\ncease to say to the people what Christ said?  Depend upon it, He knew\nwhat to preach.  None of the New Testament preachers said as much about\nhell as He did, and yet, forsooth! we are told that such preaching is\ncoarse, and behind the age.  When the age is astray, the farther we are\nbehind it the better for us.  It is sickening to hear men talk as though\nthey were more refined than was the Son of God!  Such preaching is like\nraking the garden with the teeth upwards.  You may as well have no rake\nat all, if you do not use the teeth.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIV.  HOW DAVID PREVAILED.\n\n\n   \"_So David prevailed over the Philistine_!\"--1 SAMUEL xvii. 50.\n\nYes, he did, but he would not have done so if he had remained as quiet as\nthe other Israelites.  David was one of those who could not be easy so\nlong as the enemies of his country were in the ascendant.  To see a\nPhilistine strutting about, defying the armies of the living God, was\nmore than he could bear.  Is not this the spirit which should animate\nChristians to-day?  It is not one GOLIATH merely, there are many.\nDRUNKENNESS, PROFANITY, SUPERSTITION, INFIDELITY, and a host of others\nare not only defying us, but destroying us.  Is it not true that the\narmies of the alien are robbing our families and churches, plundering us\nof the results of years of toil?  Think, in one department alone, how we\nare spoiled.  We refer to the Sabbath school.  What a small percentage of\nthose who pass through our schools become stable members of the church!\nWhat crowds of our children become the slaves of sin!  How long do we\nmean to bear it?  When shall we, like David, say, \"THY SERVANT WILL GO\nAND FIGHT WITH THIS PHILISTINE?\"\n\nWe read that \"David hasted, and ran towards the army to meet the\nPhilistine.\"  He was aggressive.  There is a great deal to be said in\nfavour of what is called \"working on the old lines,\" but\n\nDAVID DESPISED THE OLD LINES.\n\nHis countrymen had remained too long there; he would dare and do,\ntherefore ran into the lines of the Philistines.  Is it not too true that\nwe stay in our entrenchments too long?  Why should we not carry the war\ninto the enemy's country?  WESLEY and his fellow-labourers would not have\nhad the success they had, if they had not, like David, run towards the\nenemy.  It was time, for the sake of his country's prestige, that he ran\nwith his face towards the foe.  Shall we not imitate him, and dare\nsomething for God?  Saul's army had too often showed their backs to the\nenemy.  When a man runs towards his foe, he looks bigger every stride,\nwhile if he runs away, he looks less, and becomes more contemptible the\nmore active he is!\n\nDavid prevailed over the Philistine with very simple weapons, but\n\nTHEY WERE HIS OWN.\n\nIf he had gone in Saul's armour, he might have perished.  He was no match\nfor the giant if it came to a sword fight.  The long reach of the giant's\narm would have ended the conflict very soon.  On the contrary, the sling\ngave David an immense advantage.  He could strike a blow, and be out of\nGoliath's reach.  Have we not known some men more mighty, and more often\nvictorious when they were plain and unlettered, than they were after\nyears of culture?  How is it?  Perhaps because they, knowing their\nignorance, were more earnest in prayer.  We know that some of us feel,\nwhen we have preached;--That was a good sermon, the arguments were\nirresistible, the illustrations were beautiful, and so the people ought\nto have yielded, but they did not!  Did they?\n\nIf the pictures of this event we often see are to describe the future of\nChristianity, we shall have to be as daring as though God did not fight\nthe battle, and as trustful as though we had never driven the alien army\nback.  When COURAGE is united to HUMILITY, the Philistine may get\nmeasured for his coffin (leaving out the head), and the damsels of Israel\nhave their timbrels tuned, for there will be a procession goodly to look\nupon!\n\n\n\nBURNING THE BOOKS AT EPHESUS.\n\n\nThis was one of the results of faithful preaching.  Paul had declared the\nwhole counsel of God, both in powerful addresses and in visiting from\ndoor to door.  Miracles were wrought, but what seems to have impressed\nthe writer of this account most of all, was not the healing of the sick,\nor the casting out of devils, but men parting with that which was worth\nso much money.\n\n\"THEY BROUGHT THEIR BOOKS TOGETHER, AND BURNED THEM BEFORE ALL MEN; AND\nTHEY COUNTED THE PRICE OF THEM, AND FOUND IT FIFTY THOUSAND PIECES OF\nSILVER.\n\nSo mightily grew the word of God and prevailed!\"\n\nHas our religion been costly to us?  Have we given up anything?  These\nconverts gave up their money-making sins publicly; and their public and\ncostly repentance was made a great blessing.  We wish every Christian who\nis engaged in any business that has made money for him at the expense of\nanother's morals, would see it his duty to make a bonfire of it!  We have\nno doubt there are numbers of Christians whose consciences now and then\ngive them a goutlike twinge.  We do not doubt their religion because they\ndo not obey their consciences; but we do say the word of God cannot grow\nmightily, it is stunted, and in consequence they are religious dwarfs,\nwhen they might have been giants in righteousness and holy influence.\n\n\n\n\nXXXV.  THE WAY TO PREACH TO THOSE WHO SLEEP IN SIN.\n\n\n   \"_Nathan said to David_, _Thou art the Man_!\"\n\nBut this was not the first thing he said.  He approached the subject very\ncarefully.  David would not have allowed anyone to bring that subject\nhome to him without resenting it.  It is more than likely that very few\nwere in the secret.  Crafty Joab was not the man to let that story get\nout.  It gave him power over the king all the time it was his secret, so\nthat he could put pressure on David whenever he liked.  We read, \"The\nLord sent Nathan unto David.\"  If we would know how to deal with our\ncongregations, we must have the Lord's commission.\n\nMEN MAY BE ON THE CIRCUIT PLAN, AND GOD LEAVE THEM WITHOUT APPOINTMENTS!\n\nLet us never set off to preach without a message from God to the people,\nthen we shall make folks say, what a plain Yorkshire Methodist said of\nStoner, \"Yon David's varry thick with the Almighty.\"\n\nIf the Lord send us, He will teach us how to talk, and most likely He\nwill take us off the pulpit track.  Some of us have given up the old\n\"three-decker\" style of preaching, feeling that it is as useless as last\nyear's almanack.  Our hearers often knew what was coming, they heard the\nheads of the discourse, and began to see the end before we got there,\nwrapping themselves in a habit of indifference which shielded them from\nthe convictions we had hoped to produce.  What \"CALIFORNIAN TAYLOR\" calls\n\"Surprise Power,\" ought to be in every discourse.  David had no idea what\nthe prophet meant to do before he had ended his story, and we should wait\nupon God until He has given us, not only the subject of our sermons, but\nthe skill we need to TAKE THE SINNER EITHER BY STORM OR HOLY SUBTILTY.\n\nThe charming story with which Nathan began his address is instructive to\nthose who wish to succeed as preachers.  How interested the King became\nas he heard of the rich man's greed and the poor man's loss, until he was\nso stirred that he threatened the death of the tyrant!  May not we\npreachers learn something here, that is, to interest our hearers, in\norder that we may profit them?  Do we sufficiently care for this matter?\nWould it not be well, in the preparation of our addresses and sermons, to\nmake sure that we are so interesting that our hearers cannot fail but\nlisten?  We should not be content with soundness of faith, or\ntruthfulness of doctrine, but be so interesting as to command the\nattention of our audience.  It is a question whether any man, who cannot\nmake the people listen, should not be content to take his place in a pew.\nIt is better to be able to heat or light the chapel well, than to wear\nout the patience of a congregation by prosy preaching, and it will be\nmore to our eternal advantage to have been AN INDUSTRIOUS CHAPEL-KEEPER\nTHAN A DULL PREACHER!\n\nNathan brought David to a stand.  The royal hearer fell before the\nfaithful preacher.  He confessed his sin and deeply repented.  Well might\nthe prophet rejoice over his illustrious convert.  It was indeed success\nto hear the king acknowledge his fault.  We do not read that he praised\nthe sermon, but he condemned himself.  It is a small reward to hear it\nsaid that we have preached a beautiful sermon, but it is delightful to\nlearn that a sinner has been convinced of his guilt and danger.  Let all\nof us who preach, determine that we will not call that service a success\nwhich either allowed our hearers to be drowsy, or won their applause,\nwithout causing a saint to be cheered on his pilgrimage, or an enemy of\nGod to lay down his weapons and sue for peace.\n\n\n\nOLD FASHIONED DOCTRINE.\nJEREMIAH, viii. 21 to ix. 16.\n\n\nI.--He who is loyal to God is the truest patriot.--ch. viii., v. 21, ch.\nix., v. 10.\n\n\nJeremiah's distress disfigured him, and he felt that tears were not\nsufficient to mark his sorrow for his country.  Sinners against God\nshould never profess to be politicians; they are unworthy to be classed\non either side.\n\n\nII.--Idolatry is the mother of all other sins.\n\n\nCount up the different crimes these Jewish idol-worshippers were guilty\nof--as lying, slander, adultery, &c.  He who breaks the first commandment\nhas pulled down the fence, and can easily break the others.  What an\nargument for Missions!\n\n\nIII.--If God acts consistently, He must punish sin.--ch. ix., v. 9, 10,\n15, 16.\n\n\nHell is as necessary as Heaven to a perfect God.  Queen Victoria could\nnot be safe in her palace but for prisons, where felons are bound!\n\nHe who fears to preach future punishment is either an ignorant man or a\ncoward.\n\n\n\n\nXXXVI.  SELFISHNESS AND PRAYER.\nA CONTRAST.\n\n\n   \"_So Ahab went up to eat and to drink_.  _And Elijah went up to the\n   top of Carmel_, _and he cast himself down upon the earth_, _and put\n   his face between his knees_.\"--1 KINGS xviii. 42.\n\nWHAT A CONTRAST!\n\nAnd yet, both men were perfectly consistent.  It is in each case what you\nwould expect, and yet how differently it might have been.  What a\ndifferent story it would have been if only Ahab had listened to the\nteaching of God!  How often we see men having chances of turning round\nand beginning a new life; failing to do this, they seem to become the\nworse for the lesson of Providence and the advice of those who warn them!\nHas it ever been so with you?  Can you remember a time when God stopped\nyou, and made you think, thus giving you a chance of reformation?\nWretched Ahab! he had just seen which is Master.  How contemptible Baal\nseemed now!  The heavenly fire, which leaped in answer to Elijah's\nprayer, disdained to notice the victims on the altar of the idol, while\nthe blood of the false priests dyed the waters of the brook Kishon, a\nsacrifice to their own wickedness and deception.  One would have thought\nAhab's good sense would have prevailed, and that he would have said,\n\"Elijah, I will go with thee, and on Carmel's top will unite with thee in\nprayer.\"  Alas for the history that might have been!\n\nBut some of you will say, \"Did not Elijah say to Ahab, 'Get thee up, eat\nand drink?'\"  Yes, he did.  A few hours before, he had said, \"If Baal,\nfollow him.\"  Does not God allow us to be tempted continually?  Did He\nnot, in His wisdom and goodness, place the tree which bare forbidden\nfruit in the garden of Eden?  Does He not say, by natural appetites and\npropensities, enjoy yourself?  There was nothing wrong in eating, but if\nAhab had but\n\nDENIED HIMSELF AND GONE WITH ELIJAH TO PRAY,\n\nthe rest of his life would have been different, he might have been\nconverted then.  How often it happens that we hear a powerful sermon,\nperhaps on the first Sunday night of a Mission, but we have something to\nattend to on Monday, something that might be left without injury, or it\nmay be a party or a concert, and so we do not go to the meeting next\nnight.  If we had done so, our whole life might have been changed!\n\nEat and drink!  One wonders it did not choke him, for were not his\nsubjects starving?  The famine was sore in the land; men and women pined,\nchildren died of hunger, cattle and sheep perished in the fields, but all\nthis, what had it to do with the king?  He was hungry, and would eat and\nwould be jolly, never mind about the poor people!  Remember, my hearers,\nyou cannot turn your back on God and be the same man you have been.  Each\ntime you say \"No,\" to God's grace, you become less fit for His kingdom.\nIf men could but see their souls--\n\nIF SOME OF YOU COULD HAVE A MIRROR THAT WOULD SHEW YOUR SOUL,\n\nYou would look as though you had seen a ghost!  We have portraits of\nourselves years ago, and we look at them and wonder at the change.  Could\nyou have a portrait of what you were, spiritually, ten years since, it\nwould spoil your enjoyment.  Beware, then, of eating and drinking when\nothers are at prayer.  It is better to be good than to be happy.  Do\nright, though it may mean tears, for the smiles of selfishness are sores\nin the future.\n\nLook at the other man now.  He climbs the hill.  There is nothing to be\nwon from heaven by laziness.  Climb to thy crown!  Never mind the\nsteepness and ruggedness of the way.  God's kings toil and sweat before\ntheir coronation.  How Elijah would laugh in his heart as he thought of\nthe boon he was about to bring down on his country!\n\nPAST VICTORIES ENCOURAGED HIM.\n\nHe had prayed that it might not rain, and for many months the heavens had\nbeen cloudless.  Day by day the sun had scorched and burned on, as though\nthere was to be no more verdure, the trees are but the skeletons of their\nformer selves, and the ground is cracked, and gapes for drink.  Ah! it is\nsoon to alter!  The God who has answered by fire is about to speak in the\nshower, and all nature is to put on a new suit of green at the bidding of\nprayer.\n\nWhy should not the church of God climb the hill to bring down on the\nearth a shower of blessing?  God had said to Elijah, \"I send rain upon\nthe earth,\" and therefore the man of God said, \"I will call upon the name\nof the Lord.\"  Have we no promise?  What do these words mean--\n\n\"WHATSOEVER YE ASK IN MY NAME, THAT WILL I DO?\"\n\nFind the reference to these words, and then look on them as a legacy.  We\nmay receive whenever we apply.  Why, then, do we hang down our heads?  Let\nus climb Carmel, shouting as we go, \"Hallelujah!  The Lord reigneth!\"\nBaal has not succeeded to the throne!  Christ is there!  But see, the man\nof God casts himself down on the ground.\n\nPAST SUCCESS HAS HUMBLED HIM.\n\nIt is well when it is so.  We always tremble when we see a church elated\nover its success.  A year or two ago, we Methodists saw a great\ningathering of souls, and because we had harvest we have let our plough\nrust.  Is there any wonder that we fear a decrease?  It is sure to follow\nelation, and then we shall be told, \"There is always a reaction after so\nmuch excitement.\"  That is a text from the devil's bible.  On the same\nhill top where Elijah won the fight, he falls down, to pray, with his\nface between his knees, and so is most humbled when most triumphant.\n\nAnd now his servant is sent to look for the sign of success.  Mark you,\nhe sends him to\n\nLOOK IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION,\n\n\"Toward the sea.\"  Do not go towards the dry land if you want rain, or in\nother words, if you want success in soul-saving, look not for it from\nthose who get up entertainments and seek to make money by gambling in\nbazaars.  Do not expect conversions from mere eloquence or rhetoric.\nLarge congregations do not always mean abiding success.  Beautiful\nchapels are not always remarkable for attracting those who need a\nSaviour.  Look at the place from whence Wesley, Whitfield, and the others\nwho were to win souls derived their power.\n\nDO NOT LET FAITH BE CHILLED BY WAITING!\n\nIf you wait upon the Lord you have a right to be of good courage.  \"They\nshall not be ashamed that wait for Me, saith the Lord.\"  If our trust is\nin the Lord, we can afford to wait.  The longer He keeps us waiting, the\nmore He will give us.  Never mind if the servant says, \"There is\nnothing.\"  It is not the Master's voice.  Go again.  Don't talk to me of\nnothing!  Go again!  Leave me to pray in peace till there is something to\npraise God for.\n\nI CAN PRAISE HIM FOR THE SMALLEST SIGN.\n\nOnly \"a man's hand,\" sayest thou? but what Man?  It is the same Hand that\nwrote on the wall the sentence of Belshazzar.  It is the Hand of which\nDavid sang \"Thou openest Thine Hand and satisfiest the desire of every\nliving thing.\"  We who look for Jesus remember that when He left us He\ndid not clench His fist at the world that had treated Him so ill.  \"He\nlifted up his hands and blessed them.\"  He has not closed them yet, but\nsends blessings on even the rebellious.  Faith sees in the open hand of\nJesus the promise of great gifts for those who wait upon Him.  We read,\ndirectly, \"the heaven was black, and there was a great rain.\"\n\nIf we pass over a few years we see the end of these men, the end so far\nas this world is concerned.  They both ride in chariots.  He who rose up\nto eat and drink, rides disguised, but is not able to deceive the winged\nmessengers of death.  The murderer is found out, and dies in his chariot.\n\nGOES TO HELL IN HIS CHARIOT!\n\nSo perish those who prefer to eat when others starve, though they might\nunite with those who bring blessings on the perishing!\n\nA year afterwards, the man who prayed walks along the road; there is one\nby his side who watches him with eager glance, and now comes the chariot\nof heaven.\n\nGOD SENDS HIS CARRIAGE TO MEET\n\nthe man who climbed the hill to pray, and soon he is parted from his\nyoung friend; but see! his mantle falls.  Which of us will pick it up and\nwear it?  Elijah's garment will fit any of us, and will always be new if\nwe pray.  It grows threadbare and shabby when worn by those who prefer\nthe table to the altar, and love the pleasures of the world better than\nthe companionship of angels.\n\nMy brothers, shall we not become mighty in prayer?  This is a talent all\nhave received, put it out to interest at once.  Lose no time in its use.\nSatan will gladly lend you a napkin, but then he will have your soul as\nthe pledge.  To cease to pray is to drift towards hell.  Is there not a\nneeds be for crying mightily to God?  Can we look around our\ncongregations and not feel that it is high time we went up the hill to\ncry to God for the rain that means revival?  Let us each ask the\nquestion, Am I most like the man who lived to gratify his desires, or the\nman who lived to pray for others?\n\nWITH WHOM SHALL I SPEND MY ETERNITY, WITH ELIJAH OF AHAB?\n\nIf the angels see us on our face, crying for rain, they will know that\nsome day they will have to meet us and take us home in the chariot of\nfire.  If they see that we are those who eat and drink when they should\npray, they will know that our possessions, like Ahab's chariot, will\nbecome a hearse, and that we are riding to hell in that which we have\nchosen for comfort.\n\n\n\n\nXXXVII.  \"THE WIDOW WOMAN WAS THERE.\"\nI KINGS xvii. 10.\n\n\nOf course she was.  All God's trains meet at the junction.  They don't\nhave to wait for one another.  Elijah had left Cherith because the brook\nhad dried up, and his first request shewed that he was in need of water.\nThe poor widow seems to have been relieved that water was all the prophet\nasked, but he called to her to fetch a bit of bread as well.  This broke\nher down.  \"Ah, Master, we have not so much as a cake.  I have only a\nhandful of meal, and I had come out to gather some sticks that I might\nbake a little cake for me and the lad, and then we shall have to die of\nhunger!\"\n\n\"Never fear, God has sent me, and with His servant there shall come a\nblessing.\n\nMAKE ME A CAKE FIRST,\n\nand then make for thyself, and God will keep on supplying our wants.\"\n\nThe woman did so, and never wanted.  If she had gone on the principle of\n\nTAKE CARE OF NUMBER ONE,\n\nshe would soon have been in her grave, and the lad too, but the way to\nlive is to care for others.  \"He that loseth his life shall save it.\"\nWhile we are writing this, we are thinking of the great number who all\nthrough these bad times have fed the Preachers and their horses.  God\nwill see to it that they do not lose by their unselfishness.\n\nSome will read this who are just on the point of leaving a place where\nGod has cared for them, but they do not see their way in the future.  Are\nyou going on God's errand?  That is, are you in the path of duty?  Then\nnever fear.  Ravens can wait at table as well as any tailed-coated white-\ncravatted serving man.  And widows with only a handful of meal, can keep\nopen house for God's servants.  My God shall supply all your need, and\nthe less there is in the barrel, the more room for God's hand!\n\n\n\n\"IT IS THE BLOOD THAT SAVES.\"\nEXODUS xii.\n\n\nThe Israelites were not saved because they were children of Abraham, but\nbecause they followed the plan of salvation.  Even Moses \"kept the\npassover and the sprinkling of blood,\" or there would have been a dead\nman in the house.  If you and I are saved, it must be by the blood of the\nLamb.  The father who put the blood on his door posts was not ashamed to\nown his need of Divine protection, or that he trusted the word of God.\n\nThere is a false sentimentality that is abroad to-day, which would make\nus ashamed to speak of the atonement.  We are told that it is sickening\nto hear of such terms as \"The Blood of Jesus.\"\n\nWHAT IS THE STANDARD OF TASTE?\n\nWe know of nothing higher than the word of God, and he whose fine\nfeelings are shocked by Bible language, would find heaven not\nsufficiently aesthetic.  May not such be said to count the blood of the\ncovenant an unholy thing?  When the destroyer is abroad, we shall be safe\nwho hide behind the blood.  We rejoice in the blood of sprinkling, when\nwe believe there is wrath for the sinner.  The giving God the lie, when\nHe declares He will punish His enemies, fits the mouth of him who is too\nrefined to speak of the precious blood of Jesus.\n\n\n\n\nXXXVIII.  \"DO MEN GATHER GRAPES OF THORNS?\"\n\n\nThis question was asked by a man who knew more than any one else, and he\nknew very well what the answer would be.  We should suspect a man of\ninsanity who looked for grapes on a thorn bush.  And yet we see numbers\nof both men and women looking for happiness and comfort in the Public\nHouse, and judging from their appearance afterwards, we feel sure they\nwent for grapes and found festering thorns!\n\nIt was our duty, some time ago, to be part of a deputation to support a\nmemorial to the Magistrates at what is called \"The Brewster Sessions.\"\nThere was a number of Ministers and others who represent the Temperance\nmovement, with some ladies like-minded, and we took our places in the\nsame court where the publicans and their friends were.  Some of these had\ncome to transfer licenses, others to seek to have in-beershops, and power\nto sell other kinds of drink.  The Magistrates, however, refused both of\nthe applications for new licenses, nor did we wonder, when we saw those\nwho were waiting to be punished or pardoned, as the case might be.\n\nIn the gallery were a number of the friends of those who were waiting to\nhave their names called upon, and then to appear in the dock.  Besides\nthese, were the usual loafers, many of whom have found, or will find work\nfor the police, after going to seek grapes where thorns grow: and then\nothers, like the writer, who were on the lookout for a profitable way to\nspend an hour or two.  It was a most instructive time, and one wonders\nhow it is that long-headed Englishmen can, after seeing the results of\nvisiting the publichouse, ever be persuaded that grapes are to be got\nthere without trouble.\n\nThe mistake many good people make is looking on drinking as a failing,\nand not as a crime.  It must be a sin for any one to make himself\neligible for doing all sorts of mischief and wrong, as men do who take,\nas they say, \"a sup of drink.\"  It is this sup of drink that gives them\nthe impetus towards cruelty and lust, and we must insist upon it that for\na man to prepare himself for wickedness is a sin against himself and his\nGod.  If this be so, the social element in drinking makes it all the more\ndangerous.  Men and women drink often because it is considered a kind and\nhospitable thing to offer it, and an ungenerous and churlish thing to\nrefuse it.  What is this but calling a thorn a vine?\n\nWhile we were in the court, several cases came before the\nMagistrates--\"Drunk and Disorderly,\" varied by obscenity and quarrelling.\nOne woman told the Bench that she had been teetotal for five and a half\nyears, till she came into the town to pay a debt, and then she had a\nglass, \"and it will be twenty years before I have any more.\"  \"Ah!\" said\n\"His Worship,\"\n\n\"LISTEN TO NO FRIEND THAT WANTS YOU TO TAKE DRINK.\"\n\nAnother poor wretch was \"Drunk and Incapable.\"  She told the Magistrates\nthat she had come to get a situation, that her box was at the station.\nShe had evidently seen better days.  The Chairman said how sorry he was\nto see a woman like her, evidently a superior person, in such a case, and\nshe gladly promised to be a better woman, but she had been more than once\nto the thorn for grapes, and we fear will go again.  There was a young\nfellow brought up for drunkenness and obscenity, whose fine was paid by\nhis mother.  She looked a decent but poor woman, and one could not but\nwonder what she had parted with to raise the money, to keep what one of\nthe Magistrates called a blackguard, out of prison.  But what will not a\nmother's love do!  These are a few of the cases which made us wonder that\nin our town we have so many places, licensed by the same Magistrates, to\nsell that which fits men and women to appear in the court to be punished.\n\nWe wonder how long it will take to make the English people see that so\nlong as we allow drinking shops to abound, there will be a necessity for\npolice and lock-ups, and that it is as easy to gather grapes of thorns as\nto expect peace and quietness and facilities for drinking to exist\ntogether?\n\nGOD'S ANGER IS A FIRE THAT\nIS AS DIFFICULT\nTO STOP AS TO START.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIX.  NO BALLOT-BOX.\n\n\nWe see that certain politicians are busy trying to convince those who\nhave any fear upon the matter, that it is easy for them to vote in such a\nway that no one can possibly find out for which side they have given in\ntheir vote.  It is positively secret voting.  Very likely this is as it\nshould be, still it is a sad disgrace that such a thing should be at all\nnecessary, and does not speak well for human nature.  Why should it not\nbe possible for men to vote openly?  Because some who have done so have\nhad to suffer loss.  Is not this a blot upon our civilization, to say\nnothing of our Christianity?\n\nBut while it may be right that men should have the chance of voting\nsecretly in Parliamentary matters, whether they be Conservatives or\nLiberals, we contend there should be no ballot-box for the election in\nwhich men settle whether Jesus or Satan should govern the world.  There\nare sadly too many, who are like Joseph of Arimathaea, disciples, but\nsecretly for fear.\n\nWE WANT NO SECRET VOTES.\n\nSay right out which side you are for.  If this were the case, there would\nbe a large number of absentees from public worship next Sabbath; whole\npews would be empty because there is not one of the usual tenants who\nloves God, and yet they dare not say openly, I am for the Devil.  On the\nother hand, if some were to say what is in their hearts, they would have\nto leave the dinner-tables where filthy jokes are bandied about, there\nbeing no women present.  And in some workshops and mills, men and women\nwould have to speak out at the cost of ridicule and scorn.  Yes, speak\nout, when they hear that which is opposed to truth and purity made the\nsubject of daily conversation.\n\n\"STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS!\"\n\nwe often sing in our meetings, and yet some who sing these words are\ncraven in the presence of the foe.  We should do well to take the advice\nof the same song when it says,\n\n\"LET COURAGE RISE WITH DANGER,\"\n\nWe should think that man unfit for a soldier's life who was not ready to\nunfurl his country's flag, and let it be known for whom he is fighting.\nWhat is the position of those who read this paper?  Do you, in your\nheart, believe that Jesus has the right to reign?  Then shew it!  Lose no\ntime to put on Christ!  Let all men see that you believe in the\nrighteousness of our cause.  Do not hide the love you have for Jesus.  Let\nnot your chance of being honourably wounded pass by.  In heaven, should\nyou reach it, there will be no opportunity of suffering for Him who loved\nyou to the death.\n\nGIVE YOUR VOTE IN PUBLIC,\n\nthen, when we have won the election, you will not have to regret that you\ncame out too late to be of use.\n\n\n\n\nXL.  \"WHAT CHRISTIANS MAY LEARN FROM POLITICIANS.\"\n\n\nMany a time, during an election, we have wished that we could see the\nchurch of God as much in earnest to send men to heaven as they are to\nsend those they vote for to Parliament.  It must strike some of the\nungodly, when they have Christian men at them day and night\n\nCANVASSING,\n\nnot taking No as an answer, but doing their utmost to win them--How is it\nthat this Christian, who knows that I never attend a place of worship,\nhas not shown one-hundredth part of this zeal to get me to go to chapel\nor to begin to pray?  Is he not likely to think;--after all, he does not\nbelieve his Bible, or he could not be as careless about my soul as he is?\n\nMen of business have no time to seek the souls of the lost; that is\nparson's work; that must be left to Sunday;--and yet, we have seen,\nduring the election, keen, clever business men, up and down stairs,\ncalling on their neighbours, and making sure that they have given their\nvote on the right side, and this in addition to many a visit paid since\nthe candidates were selected, and the time drew nigh for getting them\nreturned.\n\nHow freely they bear ridicule!  Men who would blush to talk of religion\ndo not hesitate to be sneered at for the sake of their party, wearing\ntheir colour and priding themselves on their opinions.  We have nothing\nto say against this.  Men ought to have the courage of their opinions,\nbut why not own up and play the man for Jesus Christ?\n\nWe should like to know what the election has cost for\n\nPRINTING.\n\nMany thousands of pounds have been spent, and spent freely, without a\ngrudge, for placards and cartoons.  Any man who had a new idea in the\nshape of a striking advertisement could have it adopted by his party,\nregardless of cost.  All this, too, we don't object to, but we say that\nif any of us Evangelists wanted to spend a small proportion of this\namount in trying to get men and women to come to God's house during a\nMission, there would be a tremendous outcry against his\n\nEXTRAVAGANCE!\n\nOne interesting feature in this matter is the large number of\n\nPRIVATE CARRIAGES\n\nused to convey voters to the poll.  It was very amusing to see some of\nthe men riding in state, in the custody of the owner of the carriage!  It\nwas good to tell they had not been used to it, and felt that they were on\ntheir good behaviour.  What struck some of us was the readiness of ladies\nand gentlemen to lend their vehicles for this purpose.  We can have no\npossible objection to this, but we wonder what would be said to us if we\ncounselled them to send their carriages to bring the aged and feeble to\nthe house of God?  We should be told that we had no idea of the fitness\nof things.  This would be true if heaven were less than earth, and\npolitics of more importance than religion.\n\nIt is a queer world, and we wonder sometimes if the time will ever come\nwhen men shall believe their Bibles as much as their newspapers?  As we\nhave seen during the last few days, professing Christians of the most\napathetic order, going half wild about Whigs and Tories, we have said to\nourselves,\n\nWHEN THE SON OF MAN COMETH, SHALL HE FIND FAITH ON THE EARTH?\n\n\n\nDON'T FLATTER THE DEVIL!\nACTS, xvii.\n\n\nWe read that the Apostle \"was grieved\" to hear this possessed woman\nspeaking favourably of him and his companion.  He could not bear for it\nto be even suspected that his mission was tolerated by the devil.  Her\nmasters made money by her wrongdoing, and he would not have their\npatronage.  He and Silas were happier in the cell, sore and hungry as\nthey were, than in listening to the praise given by the evil one!\n\nIt is better to have frowns than favour from those who are opposed to\ntruth and righteousness.  Let Evangelists and such like,\n\nBEWARE OF THE FAVOUR OF THE WICKED.\n\nDo not seek the smiles of those who live by wrong doing.  We shall never\ncast out the devil while conniving at his crimes.  It is not by\npopularity that we win our greatest victories.  Paul had no converts he\nprized more than those who formed the Church in the town where he had\nbeen in jail.  Let those of us who love an easy and painless life think\nof his words--\n\n\"IF WE SUFFER WE SHALL ALSO REIGN WITH HIM.\"\n\n\n\n\nXLI.  A SERMON ON A TEXT NOT FOUND IN THE BIBLE.\n\n\n   MR. JUSTICE GROVES.--\"_Men go into the Public-house respectable_, _and\n   come out felons_.\"\n\nMy text, as you see, my dear readers, is not taken from the Bible.  It\ndoes not, however, contradict the Scriptures, but is in harmony with\nsome, such as \"WOE UNTO HIM THAT GIVETH HIS NEIGHBOUR DRINK.\"  Habakkuk\nii. 15; \"WOE UNTO THEM THAT RISE UP EARLY IN THE MORNING, THAT THEY MAY\nFOLLOW STRONG DRINK.\"--Isaiah v. 11.  \"TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES LEST AT\nANY TIME YOUR HEARTS BE OVERCHARGED WITH SURFEITING AND\nDRUNKENNESS.\"--Luke xxi. 34.  \"BE NOT AMONG WINEBIBBERS.\"--Proverbs\nxxiii. 20.\n\nTHE STATEMENT OF THE TEXT IS LIKELY TO BE TRUE,\n\nas it was spoken by an English Judge, and given as the result of long\nobservation, and of hearing evidence given upon oath.  What is more\nlikely to be true than a declaration from the Bench? and as such it\ndeserves the attention of every one of us.  Let us then consider\n\n\n\n(I.)--IF THIS STATEMENT BE TRUE, THE PUBLIC-HOUSE SHOULD BE AVOIDED.\n\n\nWe are quite willing to allow that a certain amount of enjoyment can be\nobtained in these places.  Once acquire the taste, and drink gives\npleasure to the palate, and produces, in a very short time, a kind of\njoy.  Men who are in business difficulties can forget their creditors.\nThose who have lost friends by death can forget the ties of affection.\nScolding wives are left at home, and a smiling face receives the money\nspent, for the landlady is real good to those who have the coin.  But on\nthe other hand, are not these drinkers paying too dear for their\ngladness?  Is it not a kind of delirium that shuts out the facts of the\ncase?  Will not the creditor call for his money?  Will you not wake up to\ngreater loneliness than ever?  Will you have taken the edge off the\nwoman's tongue by spending the money she needs for the family?  Are you\nnot buying temporary insanity at so much a glass?\n\nAre you not running a fearful risk of becoming a criminal?  I know of a\nlittle beershop where murders have been hatched, and that in a quiet\nrural village!  Do not men go primed with drink to rob and slay?  Do not\nwife-beaters get their inspiration at the public-house?  Is not gambling\nfostered in the bar parlour?  Do you tell me that you are not likely to\nbecome a thief, or a murderer?  So others have said whom we have known,\nonce as decent and quiet as you.  Besides, if you keep out of the hands\nof the police, you will have to take your trial some day for robbing God,\nand for soul murder!  In the public-house you learn to do all this.\n\n\n\n(II.)--IF THIS STATEMENT BE TRUE, ALL PATRIOTS SHOULD OPPOSE THE PUBLIC-\nHOUSE.\n\n\nHow can a man love his country, who supports that which is increasing\ntaxation and demoralising his countrymen?  Should we allow any nation\nunder the sun to do us the harm one public-house will do?  Is it not true\nthat nearly all the police are needed by those who frequent the Public-\nhouse?  Is it not this devil's academy that costs the nation so much more\nthan we spend in education?  Would not many of the prisons have to be\npulled down if we could stop the drinking habits of our people?  Answer\nme these questions, and tell me how you can call yourself a patriot, and\nyet help to keep these places going?\n\n\n\n(III.)--IF THIS STATEMENT BE TRUE, WE MUST CLOSE THE PUBLIC-HOUSES.\n\n\nCan it be tolerated that such places should remain open?  Are felons to\nbe manufactured, and men get rich by the process?  We must shut the\nplaces up, even though we ruin places like Burton-on-Trent, and compel\nrich brewers to sell their carriages.  Nothing is so likely to pay off\nthe National Debt as to cause publicans and brewers to enlarge the list\nof bankrupts.  They cannot live but by the nation's loss, and sorrow.  A\nbrewer's dray, as it leaves the yard, carries with it increase to the\ntaxation, and hunger and nakedness for little children!\n\nWhile we do not lose sight of the importance of legislation, and while we\npush the questions of Sunday Closing, Local Option, &c., to the utmost\nextent, it will pay us still better to close the public-house through\nmaking the frequenter of such places see the sin of it.  If there are no\ncustomers, there will be soon a closing of their doors.  We call upon all\nGrocers, Butchers, Tailors, Cabinet Makers, and all decent tradespeople,\nto see, that would they have a return of prosperity, they must have the\nstream of cash which goes into the publican's till turned towards their\ndoors.  Money spent in manufacturing felons would look well spent on\nClothes, Provisions, and Furniture.  Besides churches and chapels would\nbe crowded as the jails were emptied, and heaven would gain what hell\nwould lose by the closing of Breweries, Distilleries, and Public-houses.\n\n\n\nXLII.  GOOD-WILL TO MEN.\n\n\nThat is one of the messages brought to us by Christmas time, and this is\nlinked to \"glory to God.\"  You cannot glorify God more than by publishing\ngood-will to one another.  There is a special need for this just now.\nPolitical feeling has risen so high that friends, and even families, have\nbeen estranged.  Let not another sun go down upon your wrath.  Now is the\ntime to prove that you are a Christian, by giving Jesus the pleasure of\nknowing that His birthday was the burial day of strife.\n\nWhich side shall be the first to move?  Doubtless the noblest; the one\nwho has most of God in him will hurry to say, \"Come, now, let us reason\ntogether.\"  We need not to say that common-place religion cannot afford\nto do this.  Those who live on old manna cannot rise to such dignity as\nto be the first to seek the friendship of those who think themselves\naggrieved.  On the other hand, \"HE THAT HUMBLETH HIMSELF SHALL BE\nEXALTED.\"  Heaven has always been the first to seek reconciliation, and\nthose who are heavenly-minded shew it by making haste to be friendly.\n\nIf you have been the injured one, you have the best chance of succeeding\nin healing the wound.  It is God, sending a message of peace, that wins\nover His foes.\n\nHE DOES NOT WAIT FOR US TO MOVE FIRST.\n\nWho asked Him to offer His Son?  If you take the first step, you will be\ntreading in the footprints of Jesus.  He has shown us how to love our\nenemies, and to do good to them that despitefully use us.  It is true\nthat you would have to make a sacrifice, to be the first to hold out the\nwhite flag.  Yes, and you can afford to do it, if you are the one in the\nright.  It is the man who is in the wrong who is the easiest offended,\nand the last to yield.\n\nWhether we are Conservatives or Liberals, we are Englishmen, and cannot\nafford to be divided.  Whether we want the Church to be Disestablished or\nnot, we are Christians.  Let us be friends once more, and try to think\nthe best we can of each other.  Whether our side has won or not, we are\ncertain that Right will prevail in the long run.  We can afford to wait,\nif we are on God's side, for He wins by losing.\n\nTHE LOSS OF HIS SON WAS HIS GREATEST GAIN.\n\nIf you can rise to this, how you will enjoy singing--\n\n   \"Hark! the herald angels sing--\n   Glory to our new-born King!\n   Peace on earth and mercy mild,\n   God and sinners reconciled.\"\n\nIs there not wondrous common sense, as well as beauty, in the saying of\nSt. John--\n\n\"BELOVED, IF GOD SO LOVED US, WE OUGHT\nALSO TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER.\n\nOne would have thought it would have been--we ought to love Him.  But\nthen we remember further on, John says,\n\n\"HE THAT LOVETH NOT HIS BROTHER, WHOM HE\nHATH SEEN, HOW CAN HE LOVE GOD WHOM\nHE HATH NOT SEEN?\"\n\nIt is well sometimes to ask ourselves the question, \"How will this matter\nlook in heaven?\"  \"What shall we think of ourselves a hundred years to\ncome?  How small all these matters of offence will seem in the light of\neternity!  We should not like to die without being at peace with all men.\nThe way to secure this is to live at peace, and if there is anything\nbetween us and our brethren, let us treat one another as we wish God to\ntreat us.\n\nGOOD-WILL TO MEN!\n\n\n\n\"A FELLOW-FEELING MAKES US WONDROUS KIND.\"\nA WORD TO THE AGED WHO ARE ABLE TO HELP OTHERS.\n\n\nThis is quite true, and we wish there was more of this fellow-feeling.  It\nis likely this will be read by some aged man or woman who has many\ncomforts, and is assisted to bear the infirmities peculiar to old age in\na way poor men and women cannot enjoy.  If you are wealthy, or have\nenough for your wants, should you not have a fellow-feeling for those who\nare poor and need help?\n\nSometimes when visiting aged people, who were well off, a nice fire\nburning all the night through, and perhaps those about them who have not\nallowed them to be many hours without nourishment, I have said to such an\none, \"You have been kept alive by the fact that you can afford it.  If\nyou had been a poor man, you would be dead now.\"\n\nWill you not then, if you have it in your power, give some other old man\nor woman, who is poor and unable to get the comforts you have in such\nplenty, some share of what you have; if you do not, how can you expect\nGod to shew you mercy in that day?  It will be no use to tell Him that\nyou loved Him; He does not believe in professions of affection for Him,\nwhich are not proved by love to our fellows.\n\n\n\n\nXLIII.  OPPORTUNITY: BEING THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR.\nON NEW YEAR'S EVE.\n\n\nWe have heard a story told of a celebrated sculptor who had a statue in\nhis studio of a beautiful veiled figure with winged feet; when asked what\nhe called it, he said \"Opportunity.\"  \"But why is it veiled?  And why has\nit wings on its feet?\"  \"Because,\" said he, \"it is not recognised, and\nnever stays long.\"\n\nHow true this is!  The New Year, which comes to-morrow, brings with it\nopportunities for becoming better, and being of greater use than we have\never been.  But, alas! how few of us will recognise the good chance till\nit has passed for ever.\n\nSome of us have special opportunities for growing better with age.  We\nlive with those who have always shewn us a good example, and have the\nprivilege of listening every Sabbath Day to those who explain the Book of\nGod, so as to feed our souls with bread Divine.  Those of us who are not\nso fortunate, who, it may be, have our lot cast among the ungodly; yet\nwe, though at Patmos, may have revelations which some do not enjoy who\nhave more help from friends and good influences.\n\nBut does not the past admonish those of us who are Preachers and\nTeachers?  How many opportunities are past, to return no more!  How much\nmore useful we should have been had we made use of them!  How we might\nhave preached Christ instead of our own selves!  How we might have\nencouraged and stimulated our hearers, if only we had caught more of the\nspirit of Jesus!  How much power from above there would have been in our\naddresses, if we had spent more time alone; and how many more souls would\nhave been converted, if we had not restrained prayer!\n\n* * * * *\n\nBut the past is past.  The future dawns, and in its kindling light let us\nre-consecrate ourselves to the work God has set us to do.  We shall have\nappointments to preach.  Shall we not look on each appointment, however\ndistant the place, or small the congregation, as\n\nA HEAVEN-SENT OPPORTUNITY?\n\nLet us make the most of it.  Shall not the new opening for usefulness\nfind us prepared to enter in?  Must it ever be said again that the pulpit\nwas open to us, but we were not ready to fill it as it ought to be\nfilled?  Could an angel from heaven desire anything better than the\nopportunity which will come to so many, next Sunday, of preaching, or it\nmay be, of teaching a class of young people out of the Word of God?\n\nIf we need a stimulus, let us ask ourselves the question,--How shall I\nfeel, looking at my past chances of usefulness from the observatory of\nthe sick room and dying bed?  Are we to fill our dying pillows with\nthorns, as we remember Sabbaths when we gave way to indolence and self-\nindulgence, instead of crowding them with well-aimed efforts after\nusefulness, and diligently employed occasions for study and teaching.\n\nTo the unconverted reader we say,--Beware, lest this New Year be wasted\nas its predecessors were.  Is it to be like all the rest?  Is that which\ncomes to thee as a friend, wishing to give thee space for repentance and\nfaith, to become another lash in the scourge which is to punish thy soul\nfor ever?  Is God's ledger still to chronicle thy unforgiven debts;\nunforgiven, not because there was no mercy, but because thou wast too\nindolent to pray.  Rouse thyself, sinner, lest these very opportunities\nshould add to thy doom!  They fly past thee, but where do they go?  They\nare on their way to the bar of God, to witness against thee.  What a\ncrowd of them to testify!  Wouldst thou silence them?  Come, ere this\nyear closes, and the new one begins, to the feet of Jesus, where thou\nshalt find pardon and peace, and where thou mayst receive power to live a\nlife of devotion and holy labour--thus making opportunity thy willing and\ntrue yoke-fellow.\n\n\n\nPRAYER A VITAL NEED.\n\n\nA Poet has said, that Prayer is the Christian's native air.  It seems as\nif some Christians who are doomed to die of soul decline, might live if\nthey would go back to their native air.  Reader, do you need this\nprescription?\n\n\n\n\nXLIV.  THE BRITISH BAYONET.\n\n\nA great deal has been said in the newspapers lately on the subject of\nFaulty Bayonets.  It seems that from some cause or other these arms have\nbeen found out to be faulty and unworthy of trust.  Some of them are\nbrittle, and break, others are soft, and bend, so there are a large\nnumber of those in use which will have to be discarded on account of\nunfitness.  Where the blame lies we don't know, but doubtless some one\nhas been unfaithful to their trust, or the thing could not have been\ndone.\n\nIt set us a thinking the other day--Here is something that no one\ndoubted, has proved unreliable; and the thought flashed across our mind:\nIs there not something like it in the Church of God to-day?\n\nIT IS THE WEAPON OF THE RANK AND FILE THAT IS FAULTY!\n\nIt is not the General's brain, or the Officer's weapon that is unworthy,\nbut the private's!  Does this apply to us?  Is not PRAYER to the Church\nwhat the bayonet is to the soldier--that which the private member has to\nuse?  Those who cannot preach or write books, or even teach in the Sunday\nSchool, can pray.  We ask the question--Are there as many praying-people\nin proportion to our numbers as there used to be?  What is the testimony\nto those who attend our prayer-meetings?  Is not this the weak place in\nour army to-day?\n\nThe bayonet has won the battle many a time over for England, and if we\nare weak here, we are weak where we used to be strong.  In the war with\nthe Arabs in Egypt, the squares were sometimes broken.  Was that the\nfault of the bayonet?  England cannot afford to be weak here; nor can\nMethodism bear defeat where she has won so many fights.  We have many a\ntime\n\nWON THE BATTLE OF THE LORD UPON OUR KNEES,\n\nand if we are to be soft there, we may as well retire from the conflict\nat once.  Many a time, when holding Missions, we have felt that if we\ncould but get the members of society to be often in secret but earnest\nprayer, we should carry the battle to the gate, and more than once we\nhave felt the tide turn, as we have noticed the people get more and more\nin an agony of supplication.\n\nNow that the authorities at the War Office have found out the failing, we\nshall soon have the faulty bayonets cast out and perfect ones provided.\nWe don't want weak-kneed Christians cast out of the church, we want them\nimproved.  And this may be done.  Let every one of our readers ask the\nquestion\n\nAM I AS STRONG IN PRAYER AS EVER I WAS?\n\nIf not, why not?  Or am I one of those who cannot point to direct answers\nto pleading prayer, because I never did plead?  Is there not a cause?\nLook at what James has said in his epistle, iv. 2-4.  Is not this\n\"friendship with the world\" the cause of this feebleness in prayer?  We\nwant all that we can get in pleasure and self-indulgence, and to see our\nchurch become a power also.  The two things cannot be.  This kind goeth\nnot out but by prayer and fasting, and if we wish to see England won to\nChrist we must become reliable in prayer.\n\nWe shall be glad to know that what we have said leads to\n\nAN INSPECTION OF ARMS.\n\nLet our Class-leaders ask the question of their members--Do you pray in\nsecret?  Do you wrestle with God?  How long is it since you had a direct\nanswer to prayer?  This is our weak place.  May we soon be strong where\nwe are now weak, that the prophecy may be fulfilled, \"HE THAT IS FEEBLE\nAMONG YOU AT THAT DAY SHALL BE AS DAVID, AND THE HOUSE OF DAVID SHALL BE\nAS GOD.\"\n\n\n\nA TEACHER OF SIN.\n\n\nFew men have covered themselves with infamy as did Jeroboam, of whom it\nis said often he \"made Israel to sin.\"  And yet what a chance he had to\nhave led the people, over whom God had made him king, in the path of\nrighteousness?  Instead of teaching evil, he might have led his people\ninto the ways of the Lord.  Influence is a talent which brings with it\nenormous responsibility.  Perhaps to none is this more applicable than to\nparents.  Let those of us to whom God has given children, use our\ninfluence to\n\nTEACH THEM HOLINESS.\n\nWe teach them every day by example, if not by precept, and example is the\nteacher whose lessons are followed easiest.  What can be worse for a\nchild than to have a parent who teaches his children to sin?  Perhaps at\nthe Day of Judgment, the most terrible sights will be where children will\nreproach father or mother or both, for shewing them the way to the left\nhand of God!\n\n\n\n\nXLV.  A SERVICE IN THE OLDEN TIME.\nNEHEMIAH viii.\n\n\nI.--The Congregation.\n\n\nAll who could understand were present (verses 2-3).  None should absent\nthemselves from public worship and the preaching of God's word, except\ninfants and idiots.\n\n\n\nII.--The Behaviour of the Hearers.\n\n\nWe are told (verse 3) \"All the people were attentive.\"  There are some\nwho go to God's house, and make such poor use of their ears, that they\nwill wish at the Judgment Day they had been born deaf.  We read also of\nthe reverence of the people.  They \"stood up\" to listen, and joined in\nthe prayer with a great \"Amen!\"  What a scene we have depicted in verses\n5-6.\n\n\n\nIII.--The Preachers.\n\n\nThere was a PULPIT, but not the tub-like thing that we see in some\nplaces--it held more than a dozen.  It would be high enough for all the\npeople to hear and see.  But Ezra had more sense than to have it so high\nthat he and his helpers were separated from their hearers.  Pulpits\nshould help, not hinder the preacher.\n\nTHE PREACHER SPOKE PLAINLY,\n\nverse 8.  They read \"distinctly.\"  We sometimes listen to a man whom we\ncannot hear, and it is a pain and grief to us to see his lips move, but\nbecause he drops his voice when he has anything extra good to say, we\nlose the best.  Such Preachers forget that \"faith comes by hearing.\"\n\nTHE PREACHERS MADE THE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND,\nverse 8.\n\nThis is one of the duties of Preachers, to make their hearers understand\nthe Bible, so that the man who does not teach as well as preach has not\ndone all that he has been called to do.  That is the best kind of\nPreacher, who not only stirs up the people like a poker, but puts fuel on\nat the same time.\n\n\n\nIV.--The Effects of the Service.\n\n\nFirst, there was sorrow of heart.  No one can understand the Bible and\nnot be moved.  The Levites, however, showed their people that God would\nlike them to be happy.  Those who weep over the Bible may well be\ncomforted.  Let those weep who have not listened to God's word.\n\nOne blessed result of the sacred joy which followed the weeping, was the\n\nHELP RENDERED TO THE POOR,\n\"SEND PORTIONS.\"\n\n(verses 10-12).  It would be well if, after every good time we had at\nchapel, we made the poor to rejoice.  If God feeds you with the Bread of\nLife, send a loaf of bread or a bit of meat to some who are likely to go\nhungry!\n\nLET THE GODLY BE GLAD.\n\n\n\n\nXLVI.  KEEP THE FIRE BURNING WHILE THE FROST LASTS!\n\n\nMany railway travellers, besides ourselves, have been often much pleased\nwith the provision made at the principal railway stations for supplying\nthe engines with water.  Water is a necessity of motion to the\nlocomotive, and there are watering stations all along the line.  Every\ndriver knows where these water-tanks are, and he takes care to stop in\ntime, to get his boiler filled.  If he did not look to this, he would\nfind himself stopping between stations, and would have to submit to the\nindignity of being drawn by another engine!\n\nIf such a thing occurred, it would be a sort of picture of some Christian\nworkers, men and women, who in days that are past, were remarkable for\ntheir zeal and push, but who, for want of grace, have had to cease to\nwork, and are now content to be drawn along by other Christians.  We know\nMinisters, Local Preachers, and Class-Leaders, who in their day were\nnotable soul winners, but alas, now, when there is a revival, they cannot\ntake the lead, but they are helped along by others, perhaps of less power\nthan they once possessed!  What a spectacle to men and angels!\n\nBut this is not what we are writing about just now.  During the long\nfrost, which we hope has now passed away for the season, many of us have\nbeen pleased with the pains which have been taken to keep the water from\nfreezing in the pipe which leads from the tank to the supply-spout for\nthe engine.  Night and day, for weeks, a fire has been kept burning, so\nas to have the iron column always hot.  Orders have been given to keep\nthe fire burning while the frost lasts, and these orders have been\nobeyed, or we should have seen some poor driver obliged to wire to send\nanother engine to help on the train which would have been delayed.  To\npursue the analogy, has not God's business been delayed because the fire\nhas not been kept burning?  This is a time of spiritual frost.  What with\nthe political crisis, general election, depression in trade, there has\nbeen spiritual ice in all the Churches of our land.  The very supply\npipes have been frozen, and men of power are at present quiet, because\nthey have not received the Water of Life.  We know men of God, men who\nare earnest, loyal, trustful souls, who are weeping between the porch and\nthe altar, on account of their want of power.  What is to be done?  Men\nof Israel, help!  Come to the rescue!  Let us get the fires lighted.  To\nyour knees!  To your knees!  Bring the promises.  Keep fuel always in\nhand, so as to replenish the blaze, and we shall see the frozen water\nleap out to fill again those who so often have drawn the train\nheavenward!\n\nTHE LARGEST PUBLIC MEETING\nWILL BE THE LAST, AND\nYOU WILL BE THERE.\n\n\n\n\nXLVII.  THE SOWER.\n\n\nOne of the Master's most wonderful parables begins, \"BEHOLD, A SOWER WENT\nFORTH TO sow.\"  There are many lessons in that instructive analogy.\n\nYOU CANNOT SOW WHEAT ON THE PARLOUR CARPET.  You must go forth.  If the\nworld could be converted by self-indulgent theorists, we should have had\nthe Millenium here long ago.  It is impossible to read any Christian,\nnewspaper without coming across some of these drawing-room farmers--men\nwho can sit at their fireside, and show you how to do it!  Ask them where\ntheir barns are, and they will have excuses to make as to why their plans\nhave not succeeded.  We have heard these gentlemen hold forth in a\nQuarterly Meeting, and have had hard work to keep our temper, and have\nnot always been supposed to have succeeded.  We may, however, settle it\nthat Mr. Plan-others-their-work could put all the harvest he ever had in\nhis waistcoat pocket!\n\nWould you need a waggon for your gains, you must leave ease and dignity\nbehind, and trudge over the heavy furrows, seed basket in hand.\n\nSecondly, as the preachers say,\n\nYOU MUST SOW WHERE THE PLOUGH HAS BEEN FIRST.  A great deal of seed is\nlost because the ground has not been prepared.  Of late years the cry has\nbeen \"Believe!  Believe!\"  But what must we believe?  \"Believe on Jesus,\"\nsay they.  Yes, but have they believed what the Bible says about sin?\nThose who do not believe in the guiltiness of sin, cannot believe on\nChrist.  Till men see they have been in the wrong, they will not\nunderstand the \"righteousness which is by faith.\"\n\nLet the ploughshare of repentance make the land ready for the seed, and\nthen there will be some hope of lasting success.  Some other time we may\nhave something to say about the birds, which pick up the seed; but for\nthe present let it suffice that we insist upon the ploughman doing his\nwork before the sower comes to do his.  We have a notion that it would be\nwell if the seed-basket were left at home for a while, and some one were\nto take hold of the plough.  Before to-day we have found, when we have\ngone to begin a Mission, that it was of little use to preach Christ as a\nSaviour.  Men and women who are not convinced of the sins of their life,\nneed to be told of the punishment which awaits those who die with their\nsins unpardoned.  We have been too mealy-mouthed, and have feared to\noffend our hearers; and so the seed has fallen on hard ground, and the\nbirds only have a successful Mission!\n\nTHE BIBLE OUGHT TO BE THE\nKING OF YOUR BOOKS.  IF IT\nIS NOT THEY ARE NOT WORTH\nHOUSE ROOM.\n\n\n\n\nXLVIII.  EIGHT EASTER LESSONS LEARNED AT EMMAUS.\nLUKE xxiv. 13-35.\n\n\nI.--When friends speak of good things, Jesus draws near.\n\n\n\"These things\" which concern Jesus.  Even if men speak sorrowfully, if it\nis of Jesus they speak, He is nigh.  If He were the subject of\nconversation more, His friends would have more of His company.  If you\nare shy of Him, He will be shy of you.\n\n\n\nII.--Unbelief manufactures sorrow for the godly.\n\n\nJesus said they looked \"sad.\"  It is a pity to employ unbelief; he does\nnot know how to make a smile.  When he tries it is a misfit.  If the\ndisciples had believed Jesus, they would have been dancing for joy, for\nthey would have been round the tomb to see Him rise.  We have lost that\npicture, because no one believed the Lord enough to expect His words to\nbe fulfilled.--Mark viii. 31.\n\n\n\nIII.--Never expect infidels to be converted while saints are sceptical.\n\n\nCertain women had told them, but they were \"slow of heart to believe.\"  Is\nnot this tardiness of faith the secret of popular infidelity?  If\nChristians shewed their faith by works, Bradlaugh, and such like, would\nhave no audiences when they lectured!\n\n\n\nIV.--Suffering was the duty of Christ, as the servant of God.\n\n\n\"Ought not Christ to have suffered?\"  Before He could have the wages, He\nmust do the work.  Eternity alone gives space for the payment of what He\nearned in Gethsemane and on Calvary.\n\n\n\nV.--The Old Testament was Jesus Christ's Bible.\n\n\nHas it the place it ought to have in our hearts?  These men had their\nhearts warmed while Christ expounded Psalms and Prophecies.  He will do\nthe same to you, if you will ask Him.  It is a reflection upon the Holy\nGhost to make use of so small a portion of the Bible as some do.\n\n\n\nVI.--Hospitality is a remunerative virtue.\n\n\n\"I was a stranger, and ye took me in.\"  Christ blesses the cupboard from\nwhich wayfarers are fed.  They fed Jesus, and He filled their hearts with\ndeathless joy.\n\n\n\nVII.--Apostates lose the best news.\n\n\nJudas had gone out of hearing when the eleven had heard of a risen\nChrist.\n\n\n\nVIII.--Testifying to grace received brings fresh supplies.\n\n\nIt was while telling what they had seen that they heard the voice of\nJesus speak peace.\n\n\n\n\nXLIX.  WORK FOR BOYS.\n1 SAMUEL iii.\nI.--There is work in God's house for Boys to do.\n\n\n\"The child Samuel ministered.\"  When you sing with feeling you do God's\nwork.  When you see some one without a hymn-book and you take one to the\nstranger, you minister.  When you make room for a stranger to sit by you,\nthen you do the work of the Lord.  When you pray for the preacher, then\nyou are of use.\n\n\n\n\nII.--Boys' bedrooms are open to God.\n\n\nIt was while Samuel was asleep that God stood at his bedside; but He is\nthere before we sleep.  He hears when wicked stories are told, and when\nbad deeds are planned in the dark.\n\n\n\n\nIII.--God does not wait for you to grow up before He calls.\n\n\nPerhaps you have heard Him call and, like Samuel, did not know the voice.\nWhen you felt that longing to be good, then He called.  When you were at\nthe grave-side, and felt awed and silenced by the coffin, thinking that\nsome day people would look down and read your name, He called.  When you\nwere ill and felt unfit to die, He called.  In your class at Sunday\nschool, and while hearing the gospel preached, you were called.\n\n\n\n\nIV.--Boys should answer the first call.\n\n\nSamuel was not like some lads who have to be called many times before\nthey will get up.  \"He ran unto Eli.\"  And in doing this he was the\npicture of the way we should make haste, and delay not to keep God's\ncommandments.  You will never be of greater value to God than now.  Each\nday you delay to serve Him, you lessen your value in His sight.\n\n\n\n\nV.--Boys may be taken into God's confidence.\n\n\nThe Bible tells us, \"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,\"\nand a boy may fear God so as to know His secrets as Samuel did.  If you\nwill listen, as this lad did, you shall hear God speak.\n\n\n\n\nVI.--Boys who do God's will shall have men do their's.\n\n\nSee verse 20.  The whole nation came to hear the mind of God from the boy-\nprophet, for we read in the first verse of the next chapter that Samuel's\nword came unto all Israel.\n\nIF DEATH CAN INJURE YOU\nYOU ARE NOT ENJOYING FULL\nSALVATION.\n\n\n\n\nL.  THE BROKEN OAR.\n\n\nThe other day, when the Oxford and Cambridge men were contesting for the\nmastery, the Oxford boat was behind, but the crew were not willing to\nadmit they were beaten, and were making great efforts to gain the day,\nwhen, all at once, the oar of the best man in the boat broke in two,\nconsequently all hope of winning was gone.  All the rest of the way there\nwere only seven oars, and the weight of the eighth man to carry as well.\n\nIn musing over this, it struck us that there were several lessons to be\nlearned--lessons which the eye that used to scan the race-ground would\nhave made use of, if he were writing an epistle in these days.\n\nIs it not true that the dead weight in the boat hinders the progress of\nthe Church of God?  Up and down the country we hear of those who hinder\nthe work--members of society, and sometimes office-bearers, who if they\nwere in heaven would help more, or, at least, hinder less than they do\nnow.  If this book should fall into the hands of any of these men, we\nwish they would lay to heart the lesson, that if from any cause they are\nnot working, we have their weight to carry in addition, and that we could\nget on better if they were not.  As we write we are thinking of one of\nthese hinderers--smooth of tongue, and sanctimonious in phraseology, who\nis helping the enemy of God by hindering his servants.\n\nThis becomes all the more painful when these unfaithful men are persons\nof power and influence.  Some of them were once very useful, and have\nwielded an influence for good that was of immense use; but, alas! in an\nevil hour they turned aside, and now retard the progress of what they\nonce loved to assist.  We appeal to such of our readers as are doing good\nservice, that they pray to be kept from backsliding in heart, lest their\noars be broken, and they become a dead weight in the boat.\n\nSome of those who are with us, and yet not of us, are accumulating\nwealth.  We appeal to them to bear in mind that their money makes them\ngreater difficulties than ever, and that the more their balance at the\nbankers' grows the greater their dead weight in the boat.  If we could\nonly get rid of these people, how lightly the boat would spring forward!\nSometimes we are ready to wish that these men could lose their money,\nthey would then become manageable.\n\nWhat is to be done?  We cannot but think of Circuit after Circuit where\nmen of talent and influence are keeping the Church of God from coming to\nthe front.  What a loss life is to them!  How much better if they had\ndied in their useful days!  If they do not repent, what a hell awaits\nthem!  How could such people enjoy heaven if they were sent there?  For\nthem to behold the other part of the crew, who did their duty, crowned\nfor their faithfulness, must, as a matter of course, make them reflect\nthat their chances were the same, but that they ceased to toil, and\nhindered those who would have accomplished much for God but for their\nbaneful presence.\n\nThere are other lessons we learned from this same boat-race, to which we\nwill refer at some other time.  Suffice it that for the present we pray,\n\nLORD, SAVE US FROM DEAD WEIGHTS!\n\n\n\n\nLI.  \"WHY COULD NOT WE CAST HIM OUT?\"\n\n\nAnd a very sensible question, too.  When men fail there is a reason for\nit; but we cannot always find out what the reason is.  But these\nfollowers of Jesus, who had not been able to cast out the deaf and dumb\ndevil, asked their Master how it was.  He had given them to see that it\nwas not impossible to cast out even that sort, but THEY could not.  And\nwhy not?  It is worth our while to know, for just now the Methodist\npeople are not succeeding as they wish to succeed, and we are inclined to\nthink, for the same reason that caused the disciples to fail.\n\nJesus said, \"THIS KIND GOETH NOT OUT BUT BY PRAYER AND FASTING.\"  What\ndoes this mean, if not that\n\nMEN WHO LOVE EASE MUST EXPECT THE DEVILS TO LAUGH THEM TO SCORN?\n\nIf we are not prepared to fast, it does not matter how well we do other\nthings--not only abstain from food, or drink, or tobacco, but from other\nthings we like.  We know some men who would do well to fast from having\ntheir own way, and others who would serve God if they would take a back\nseat now and then, and let somebody else talk a bit.\n\nBut it is not to these men we address ourselves to-day.  It is to those\nwho are trying to get as much ease and comfort out of life we would\nspeak.  There are some of us who preach and live by it, who might do more\nto earn our stipend.  We fear the Rev. Mephibosheth Neversweat is too\n\"intellectual\" to read \"JOYFUL NEWS,\" and it is useless saying much to\nhim, or else we should like to ask him to remember that the time is\ncoming when he will be too old to work, and it may be then, when his eye\nis too dim to read his newspaper, he may be compelled to read the proof-\nsheets of his own biography--a book that will be published and read when\nall the world be there to hear it.  We pity him when in old age he\nremembers mis-used opportunities of becoming a blessing to his\ngeneration, or looks forward to the time when he must give account of\nhimself to God!\n\nThe reverend gentleman we have named has some cousins, who are Local\nPreachers; and we should like to have a word with them also.  How about\nthose village congregations that were disappointed of a preacher?  How\nabout those stale and faded sermons?  We wish you would be persuaded to\nmake a sermon on--\"SHAKE THYSELF FROM THE DUST,\" because there would be\nat least one penitent, even before the sermon was preached.\n\nHowever, what perhaps is needed most of all is that the decrease in our\nnumbers as Methodists should lead us to repent, and do our first works.\nWe should as a Church humble ourselves before God, and that without\ndelay.  He waits to be gracious.  We must not lose heart.  Let the\nthousands of faithful workers among us remember that when the disciples\nwere baffled, Jesus was in the company of Moses and Elijah; but He\ndismissed them that He might come to the help of His people.  Whatever he\nmay be doing, we can catch His ear, and bring Him to the rescue.  He\nneeds only that we should cry to Him for help.  We indulge the hope that\nwhen Methodism learns that, in spite of all the earnest work done, we\nhave fewer people meeting in class than we had last year, there will be a\nbowing before the Lord.  Already we see signs of blessing.  There is a\nwaking up to duty, and a longing for purity, that can have but one\nresult.  The Master is coming, and shall soon say,\n\n\"BEING HIM UNTO ME.\"\n\n\n\n\nLII.  MANNA.\nEXODUS xvi. 4.\n\n\nI.--Manna like salvation, because undeserved.\n\n\nThe people murmured at the very first difficulty.  If they had been\ngrateful they would have said, \"The God who brought us out of Egypt, and\nthrough the Red Sea, will not allow us to die of hunger.\"  But instead of\nthis they accused Moses of being a murderer.  And in answer to this God\nsaid, \"I will rain bread from heaven.\"  What an illustration of Romans v.\n8.\n\n\n\nII.--Manna like salvation, because it saved the people from perishing.\n\n\nNothing else would have done in its place.  The people had jewels, but\nthey could not eat them!  They had instruments of music, but they could\nnot live on sound!  Nothing else but Jesus can save the soul from famine.\nSinner, ask thyself the question of Isaiah li. 2.\n\n\n\nIII.--Manna like salvation, because it was plenteous.\n\n\nThere was enough, and more than enough, for some melted ungathered every\nday.\n\nSome Christians dishonour God by their leanness.  \"If any man eat of this\nbread he shall live for ever.\"  John vi. 51.\n\n\n\nIV.--Manna like salvation, because it had to be gathered.\n\n\nIt did not come into their tents.  You might starve within only a few\nfeet of plenty.  Some people are too lazy to be saved.  Whoever got it\nhad to stoop.  It did not grow on trees, but on the ground.  Some are too\nproud to be saved!\n\n\n\nV.--Manna like salvation, because fresh every day.\n\n\nIt was, \"Give us this day our daily bread.\"  There are some who try to\nlive on past religion, and it is like the manna of verse 20.  Is your\nreligion fresh?\n\n\n\nVI.--Manna like salvation, best gathered early.\n\n\nIt was in the morning plentiful, but when the sun rose it melted; there\nwould be a little here and there in shady places.  If you would have\nplenteous grace, young reader, seek it now!\n\nTHE ONLY SORT OF RELIGION\nWORTH HAVING IS INFECTIOUS,\nYOU HAVE NOT GOT IT IF YOU\nDO NOT GIVE IT TO SOME ONE\nELSE!\n\n\n\n\nLIII.  SMITTEN OF GOD.\n\n\nWe read that when Peter was in the prison the angel smote him on the\nside, and raised him up.  But He smote Herod, and he was\n\nEATEN OF WORMS,\n\nand gave up the ghost.\n\nMark the difference between the blows the Lord strikes His own people and\nHis foes.  He smites us, and then lifts us up; He smites his enemies, and\nthen casts them down for ever.\n\nWHICH ARE YOU?\n\nHerod was one of those who gave not God the glory: he was for having the\nglory himself.  Those of us who preach had better be aware that when the\npeople praise us we may fall into Herod's sin, and take God's glory to\nourselves.  This is a dangerous game to play, and many a man has been\neaten by the worm of envy and shame because he allowed the people to make\nan idol of him, until they saw another bigger idol than himself.  Nor was\nthis all.  Some preachers have gone where the worm dieth not, because\nthey gave not God the glory.\n\nBetter far be in jail for Jesus than sitting on a throne, if we are not\non the right side.  If you are one of God's friends, fear nothing; but if\nyou are one of His foes, you do well to fear everything, for you might,\nlike Herod, have to sink from magnificence to loathsomeness, and know\ndeath before you die.\n\n\n\n\nLIV.  THE FAN.\nMATTHEW iii. 12.\n\n\nDo you think John the Baptist knew anything about it?  Do you think he\nwas capable of understanding and appreciating Jesus Christ?  Because if\nso, Jesus Christ has two sides.  There is the barn for the wheat, and\nthere is a _fire for the chaff_.  And Jesus Christ is the great Destroyer\nas well as the great Saviour.  The same voice that says, \"Come to Me all\nye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,\" shall say\nsome day, \"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.\"\n\nYes, Jesus Christ is the great Destroyer.  Now this is the age of the\nfan.  In all times of history there has never been a time like this, when\nGod puts things to the test, and proves them; and everything in this\nworld to-day is on its trial, and if it is not sixteen ounces to the\npound it will go.  I do not care whether it is a king's crown, a bishop's\nmitre, or a parson's white tie, it will have to go if it is not right.\n\"Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor.\"\n\nWhere is Babylon?  The greatest heap of dirt in the world is Babylon!\nWhere is Spain--Spain, that used to make Englishmen tremble?  It is\nnothing; it does not count; it is not put as a cypher in the world's sum.\nWhat is Napoleon?  Eh! what is Napoleon?  The last of the Napoleons died\nunder the hand of a savage when he was where he had no business to be,\nburning his lips with other folks' broth.  The grandest bit of human\nnature in this world, a few years ago, was the Emperor who has just gone\nto heaven.  The grandest man I ever saw.  I never saw what God Almighty\ncould make of flesh and blood until I saw him.  And he has left behind\nhim a man with one arm; the other arm is a sword-arm.  The Emperor\nFrederick said that he wanted to live for peace.  I wish our princes were\nmore like him.  I have been told that I must not say anything about the\nPrince of Wales.  I say \"God save the Queen\"; she is the best monarch\nthat ever sat on the throne.  God bless her, and may she live longer than\nany of them ever have done.  And I say, \"God save the Prince of Wales,\"\nfor racehorses will not save him; gambling will not save him.  The man\nthat is to come to the throne owns racehorses; he has a horse called\n\"Mischief,\" and it is well called.  Why must I keep silent when I see the\nfirst man in the realm encouraging that which is ruining our young men,\nand sometimes sending them to a felon's prison?  I believe a limited\nmonarchy is the best form of government that can be found for England,\nbut the English crown is on its trial, and if it is not wheat, there are\ndark days in store for England.  I want to see the present style of\ngovernment, and I want a man on the throne that _is_ a man, and not one\nthat is trying as hard as he can to set such an example as will send the\ncountry to hell.  I would like the chance of saying it to his face.  You\ncan tell people what I have said.  Let us thank God that the fan is in\nthe hand of Jesus Christ.\n\nYou cannot keep Methodism from the action of the fan.  It has got to be\ntried, and everything in Methodism that is not wheat will go into the\nfire, and serve it right.  Everything must be sown, and must grow and\nbear its fruit, and be gathered, and then winnowed; and the chaff must go\ninto the fire.  The Methodist pulpit is not an exception to it.  If I\ncannot interest people I have no right to be paid for it.  If I cannot\nget the people to come and hear me, and if I do not go and look after\nthem in their homes, I have no right to draw the money for doing it.  And\nno preacher has the right to think that people should come and hear him\nif he cannot preach--he has no right.  I am tired out when I think of the\nthings that put themselves where they have no right.\n\nThe whole Christian Church to-day has got to come under the fan; and\nthere will be some wonderful changes before all your heads are grey.  The\ngrandest thing is that Jesus Christ holds the fan.\n\nThe class-meeting is on its trial.\n\nI do not believe in a class-leader that does not lead, that is not first.\nI do not believe in a man's right to be counted a leader because his name\nis at the top of the book.  I know classes, and you know classes, where,\nif you have a revival, and get twenty new members in the class, they will\nattend it about once or twice, and after that, if you rub the cypher out,\nthat will stand for the increase.  That \"leader\" is guaranteed to lose\neverybody that is in his class, except two or three dear people, and they\ncan keep the meeting on for an hour; and be as dreary as--well, I will\nnot say _all_ that is in my mind.  You see, some people would say it is\nno business of mine.  But no man has a right to be a leader if he cannot\nkeep a meeting all alive.  If a man can get a class of 150 to 200 people\nto listen to him when he speaks, that is the man to lead.  You must not\nsacrifice the new-born babes.  I do not know what the Committee that has\nbeen sitting on \"the class meeting\" thought about it, but depend upon it,\nit will have to come under the fan.  I know places where a man's name is\nkept on the class-book because he condescends to pay the minister for his\nticket whenever he calls, and where another man is taken off that cannot\nafford it.  Why, John Bunyan would have called that damnable!\n\nThe chaff is no good.  You may plant chaff in the best land that ever\nwas, and you will not get anything.  That which is of no use must go into\nthe fire.\n\nThe Sunday-school is on its trial.  Yes! even in Lancashire.  The biggest\nSunday-school system is here in this county.  What is the result?  What\nhas it to show, compared with the amount of patient, faithful work that\nhas been done?  Do you not think that in some places the result is all\nchaff?  The Sunday-school is fast becoming the grandest entertainment\nagency in existence, and places that were built for the teaching of God's\nWord are now places for entertainment, better than any theatre, because\nthey cost nothing.  I saw in Leeds, the other Sunday, that in a certain\nSunday-school \"there will be a _sacred drama_ rendered.\"  It was not a\nMethodist School.  But I know schools where they have \"niggers,\" with\nblackened faces and banjos.  The \"nigger troupe of such-and-such a\nschool!\"  What do you think John Wesley would say if he came to life\nagain?  He would drive them out, as Christ drove out those men from the\nTemple, \"with a whip of\"--well!  I do not think they would be such \"small\ncords\" either.\n\nNow the Sunday-school, \"the greatest thing of this age,\" the grandest\nthing that the Church has seen in the last hundred years, is on its\ntrial: and if we do not mind it will go with the chaff into the\nunquenchable fire.  We cannot play into the devil's hands without getting\nwhat he will get some day.  Now I am talking here to you to-day for the\nlast time.  There will be no services here until after the Conference.\nThere may be some poor, unsaved man here.  God can make wheat out of\nchaff.  He can!  He will if you will come to Him.  He will change your\nlife, and you that are nothing worth, He can make you fit for heavenly\nthrones.\n\nListen to this letter.  The man that wrote it was a football player.  He\nwas in the Bolton Wanderers, in its day a crack club.  He was also a\nsinger in the choir.  And he came to a chapel where I was conducting a\nmission; and this little word got hold of him.  It was not any great\nthing that was said; for it is sometimes \"on boards and broken pieces of\nthe ship that they come to land.\"  This poor lad heard me say this:--\"You\nsingers!\"--I did not know he was there--\"You singers!  If you die out of\nChrist, when you get into the bottomless pit, some of the wicked spirits\nwill come to torment you: 'Sing us a solo!'\"  It got him on his knees.  He\nbecame penitent, and through giving his heart to God he is an evangelist\nin that town now.  He was only chaff, though a wonderful player in the\nfield; and he that used to say, \"Play up, Jim!\" has grown into a man, and\nthe devil hates him now!  He writes:--\"I feel drawn out to write to you.\nMany souls are being saved nearly every day.  A man got saved some weeks\nback; and we went to see how he was going on.  He first came to the\nmission, and although convinced of his wicked life, he refused the offer\nof mercy.  Not being able to rest, he again found his way to the mission-\nhall, and there he found the Saviour.  A few weeks passed, and I went to\nfind him out.  When we got there, they asked us in.  I did not see a\npicture on the wall, only a few almanacks; but they had some bonny\nchildren, and the floor was very clean, and the fireplace bright.  They\nhad not many friends coming to see them.  The father, having changed his\npit clothes, came downstairs.  He said, 'My wife used to pray when I\nmarried her, but I broke her up.'  And then, pointing to the five\nchildren, he said, 'Thank God!  Instead of being cursed to-night, they\nwill all kneel down!  The eldest girl is thirteen, and next Saturday I\nhave got money to buy her a new frock, and on the Sunday she shall go to\nthe Sunday school for the first time.  Sometimes I pick up one of the\nchildren, and say, 'God bless thee, my child; thou wilt not have to fetch\nme from the ale-house any more!'  After he had told us of his changed\nlife, we all knelt down and thanked God.  Last night his wife went home\nrejoicing in the Gospel.--Your son in the Gospel, JAMES ATHERTON.\"\n\nThat poor man was chaff.  And you, wherever you are, you may be just\nabout to be carried away.  Cry to God!  This is my last word--Poor chaff,\ncry to God!  And He will make thee wheat that shall command a rare price.\n\nWE CAN WORK ONLY WHILE IT\nIS DAY, AND NONE KNOW WHO HAS\nTHE SHORTEST DAY!\n\n\n\n\nLV.  \"THE KING KISSED BARZILLAI.\"\n2 SAM. xix. 39.\n\n\nAnd no wonder, for David could appreciate a real man when he saw him, and\nso does David's Lord.\n\nI.--LOYALTY IS PRECIOUS TO THE KING OF KINGS.\n\nIn the days when the son of Jesse had but few friends, it was a precious\nthing to be treated in the style Barzillai and his neighbours entertained\nhim (see 2 Sam. xvii. 27-29).  They were rich farmers, and had land which\nbrought forth with abundance, so were able to act with princely\nhospitality to the fugitive monarch.  But plenty may live with avarice,\nand when that is the case it is not to be expected that men who are\nfleeing for their lives will be received with kind generosity.  In this\ncase, however, the sight of the needy soldiers made the hearts of those\nkingly farmers beat with sympathy, and so the provisions were put there\nfor the men to help themselves.  \"Hungry, weary, and thirsty\" were they,\nbut their hospitable entertainers made them welcome.  Never would those\ndust-covered soldiers forget the halt they made in those green fields.\n\nNone felt, though, as David did.  He had seen one trusted friend after\nanother fall away, and the thought that the chief among the rebels was\nhis own beloved son pierced him to the heart.  It was then he composed\nthe fourth Psalm.  And just then to have this welcome feast must have\ncheered his soul even more than his body.\n\nDo you live among those who are the enemies of David's greater Son?  Is\nJesus in a minority?  Are there those who work with you who delight in\nmaking assaults upon your faith?  Do they insult your God?  Stand up for\nJesus!  Be faithful when others are recreant or hostile.  A working man\nthe other day, who has to win his bread among those who hate the name of\nGod, and who profane the air with their blasphemies, said to one who was\ncursing, \"Draw it mild there, that's the name of my best friend.\"  Let us\nplay the man even though we be alone.  What did Barzillai care for\nAbsalom's popularity?  David is my king, and he shall have the best I\nhave: Sooner or later the king will have the opportunity of rewarding the\nfaithful.  The king kissed Barzillai when parting from him; he had\npressed his friend to go back with him to Jerusalem, but\n\nII.--WE SEE A BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATION OF CONTENTMENT.--They had come down\ntogether after the great battle, and David said, \"Come thou over with me,\nand I will feed thee with me at Jerusalem.\"  It was worthy of them both,\nand we cannot but feel touched at David's gratitude; he would fain have\nthe patriarch spend his last days with him.  \"With me,\" said he, \"I will\nsee thou hast everything thou canst want.\"  \"Nay,\" said the old man, \"I\nwill see thee safely over the river, and then I will return to the green\nfields I love, and when the time comes for me to die I will be laid by\nthe side of my father and my mother.\"\n\nWhen will men learn that it is not their surroundings but themselves that\nmake a place comfortable or not?  Paul could say, \"I have learned in\nwhatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,\" and he said this in a\nletter he wrote to the town where he had sung praises in the jail!  Some\npeople would have jumped to have had this chance of going to live in a\npalace, but this farmer said, \"Give me my farmhouse and my quiet grave\nbeside my mother.\"  Elevation may undo us.  A sparrow could only chirp\neven though in a golden cage.  Barzillai felt, \"A rustic, like I am,\nseems all right among my ploughs and cattle, but I should not fit a\npalace.\"  Many a man has made himself a laughing stock because he left\nthe place he was fitted for, and so looked like a dandelion in a\nconservatory.\n\nIII.--We have in Barzillai's words AN OLD MAN'S VIEW OF EARTHLY\nENJOYMENT.  As though he had said, \"I have lost hearing, sight, and\ntaste; what are all these things to me?  I am soon to be in my grave,\nwhat do I want away from home?\"  It would be well for most of us to weigh\nthese words, \"How long have I to live?\"  To judge from the way we see men\ntoil to get houses and land, you would think they were going to live for\never.  Watch them how they are scraping the money they have; they have\nnone to spare to feed the hungry and clothe the naked; they have poor\nrelatives, but they cannot help them.  Are they not going to be rich,\nlive in a splendid house, be grand folks some day?  Aye, but death cannot\nbe bribed.  I was passing through a splendid estate the other day, and\nwas told of the gentleman that owns it; he is an old man, but he will not\nown to it, and he is quite a fraud, with his dyed hair and wrinkled face;\nhe looks quite ghastly, in spite of all that art can do to pad him and\nmake him up.  I wish some of those who are denying themselves the luxury\nof giving, because they have determined to have a splendid estate for\ntheir children, would think \"How will my mansion look with the blinds\ndown, and a hearse at the door with a coffin in it, with my name on a\nsilver plate?\"  We cannot refuse to help the poor, and hear Jesus say,\n\"Well done.\"  We cannot save money for selfish purposes and go to heaven.\nBesides, to leave riches for those who come after us is the way to have\ndry eyes at our funeral!\n\nIV.--THOSE WHO ARE LOYAL SHALL WIN PROMOTION FOR THEIR CHILDREN.--Although\nBarzillai was not willing to go to live in Jerusalem, he felt that his\nson might enjoy it, and so called the king's attention to Chimham.  Let\nhim go over with my lord the king.  He is not too old to bend.  He can\nadapt himself.  There would be many questions asked by those who had not\nleft the palace when the king returned, as to who this rustic was who was\nin the palace of David, and they would be told, \"This is the son of\nBarzillai.  His father was a faithful friend when friends were few, and\nhis son is promoted to dwell with the king.\"\n\nWhen David gave his dying charge to Solomon, he said, \"Show kindness to\nthe sons of Barzillai\" (1 Kings ii., 7).  Tears had passed since he saw\nthe provision made for him and his men, but he could never forget it.  On\nhis deathbed he could see the bed that was placed by the road side, and\nupon which he had rested his weary limbs when a fugutive, and so he would\nrepay his debt to the children of the aged farmer.  How true it is that\nwe can make futurity our servant and the servant of our children by at\nthe present time caring for our King.  Does God see that we stand by His\ncause when it is weak?  Do we find food and comfort for His fainting\nsoldiers?  Then he shows His appreciation by inviting us to Jerusalem the\ngolden.  We shall not wish to excuse ourselves from going to that blessed\nspot.  Be we young or be we old, we shall not wish to return, but shall\ngo on to find that the singing men and singing women wish us to join\ntheir number and to help them in praising the King, immortal, invisible,\nto whom be glory and honour for ever.\n\n\n\n\nLVI.  \"THEN THE FIRE OF THE LORD FELL.\"\n1 KINGS xviii. 38.\n\n\nIt was fire that came direct from heaven.  It was not the first time it\nhad fallen; we read of it in Leviticus ix. 24 as coming from before the\nLord, and consuming the sacrifice.  It was God's way of showing His power\nand his favour, and it was something that could neither be imitated nor\nproduced by anyone else besides Jehovah.\n\nI.--THIS FIRE CAME AT A TIME OF APOSTACY.  The nation, headed by King\nAhab, had gone very far away from God.  They needed some signal display\nof God's power to win them back again.  It is interesting to notice that\nGod has been in the habit of manifesting Himself in a remarkable way just\nat the time when his foes seem to be triumphing.  The religion of Jehovah\nwas almost forgotten, the rites of unclean idols were popular both in\ncourt and cottage, and it was then that the word of the Lord came to\nElijah.  When Satan can produce Ahab, God can assert Himself by raising\nup the seer who shall put him to shame.  Has it not been so many times\nsince?  When the rulers had put Jesus to death, He proved His\nresurrection by sending tongues of fire on those who kept His word by\nremaining at Jerusalem.  When Popery had placed its iron heel upon the\nhead of Gospel truth, Martin Luther was converted; and later on, when a\ncold rigour was upon Christendom, Wesley and Whitefield felt the fire of\nGod in their very bones, and were sent out to tell of the Jesus that\ndelivers the vilest of men.\n\nMay we not expect in these days of blasphemy and rebuke that the fire\nshall fall upon the Church, and that some shall be so filled with the\nHoly Ghost that the enemies of God shall be delivered to derision and\ncontempt?  Let us not be dismayed by the power and number of those who\nare arrayed against us.  _Elijah was in a minority of one_.  He had the\nking and queen against him; hundreds of well-fed priests opposed him; the\nwhole nation had turned its back on God, and were opposed to this single-\nhanded prophet.  If the fire did not fall, he would become their victim;\nbut they could not prevent the fire coming from heaven.  It is the unseen\nforces that are to be dreaded by the enemies of God.  There was no sign\nof this fire; but there was a needs-be that Jehovah should prove his\nsupremacy, and He did it unmistakably, for the fire of God fell!\n\nII.--THE FIRE WAS SOMETHING BAAL'S PRIESTS COULD NOT PRODUCE.--The\nCreator has a pre-emption on His universe.  He has not given the key of\nHis treasury to any man or angel.  Those heathen priests may have\nbeen--some of them doubtless were--sincere.  They had cried unto Baal for\nhelp; they had implored his assistance; but neither the deaf idol nor the\nlistening devil who had invented idolatry could reach the source of the\nflame which was to come, but not in reply to their desire.\n\nIt is well for us who are sometimes in perplexity because of the power of\nevil to look at the helplessness of sin when in extremity.  These\nshrieking priests of Baal are a picture of many a one since, who has\ncried for help and had no reply.  Let the cholera come a little nearer\nour shores.  As I write these words I hear it is in Spain; it may be in\nLondon before this is printed.  There may be in the printing-office some\ninfidel compositor, but though he sneers at religion and those who\nbelieve the Bible, he cannot keep away from the pestilence as silently it\nsteals along the street where he sleeps!  The cholera would drive\ninfidelity away from many a scoffer were it but to slay a few hundreds of\nEnglishmen.  How powerless are God's foes at such a time!\n\nShould there come a universal drought that meant famine if there were not\nshowers to come copious and lasting, how many would look up to God who\nnow never think of Him!  What could science and skill do for us when rain\nis needed?  A famine would make Bradlaugh very unpopular.  \"If the God of\nthe Christians does not help us by sending rain, what can we do but\nstarve,\" would be the cry.  These prophets cutting themselves and howling\ntheir own shame supply a picture of the powerlessness of sin when\nconfronted with necessity.\n\nIII.--THE FIRE FELL IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.  What a scene is depicted in\nverses 29 and 30!  There were neither voice nor any to answer, nor any\nthat regarded, and Elijah said, \"Yes, if we are on the side of God and\nrighteousness we can afford to wait.\"  There will be a time when even\nthose who have opposed us shall long to see us act.  The prophet waited\nfor his turn, and it came.  How the priests would watch him as he\nrepaired the broken and neglected altar of God?  Digging a trench round\nthe stones he had piled, and then laying the bullock on the wood, he sent\ndown to the shore for water, which he continued to pour on the sacrifice\ntill it had filled the trench.  Ah! if the fire can consume that, it is\nno trick.  Those who live as near to God as Elijah did, can get fire\nenough to conquer all His opponents, and need not fear the issue.\n\nAnd now he is about to pray.  How all would listen as each word smote\nupon their ears.  He puts God to the proof, and asks Him to show who is\nmaster, Baal or Jehovah.  Do we not need more of this kind of prayer?\nWould there not be more of it if there was only greater faith?  Who is\nthe God we serve?  Have we Elijah's Lord to cry unto?  Then how is it we\nallow the servants of Baal to triumph over us?  Prayer is as great a\npower to-day as it ever was, if only we have faith in Him who tells us,\n\"Knock, and the door shall be opened.\"  Dare we put Him to the test, and\nask for that which is sure to bring glory to Him, feeling that if our\nprayers are not answered it is God's name that will be dishonoured more\nthan ours?  Whenever Christians come up to this standard they will\nprevail in prayer, and be able to call down celestial fire.  Pentecost\nwill repeat itself whenever the whole Church will wait on the Lord, as\nthe early Christians did, with one accord.  To believe otherwise is to\nreckon that God has no care either for His glory or for a perishing\nworld.\n\nIV.--THE FIRE CONQUERED ALL OPPOSITION.  The physical difficulties were\nas nothing, it consumed and licked up all.  Flesh, stone, wood, and water\nalike were wrapped in flame, and appeared no more.  Difficulties are fuel\nto the heaven-sent fire!  Opposition is opportunity to omnipotence.  Does\nnot the history of the Church teach this over and over again?  The\nIsraelites crossed the Red Sea \"By crystal walls protected.\"  The three\nHebrew children \"walked unburned in fire.\"  Do not let us be afraid of\nphysical or spiritual difficulties if there is a promise or command.\n\nThe prophet wished to have his countrymen converted, and prayed that\ntheir hearts might be turned back, and this miracle convinced them that\nJehovah \"was alone among the gods, that all their idols were as nothing\nbefore Him.  And what is wanted to bring about moral victories is the\nfire from above, the same fire that fell at Pentecost, tongues of fire,\nwhether we shall see them or not; the people must feel our words to burn\nthem if we have the heaven-sent fire.  Nothing will save England and the\nworld but this, and do we not read, \"Elias was a man subject to like\npassions as we are, and he prayed earnestly?  Why should not future\nwriters say Jones or Robinson, or whatever your name is, was a man, and\nhe prayed, and there was a mighty revival?\n\nAll opposition will fall before the fire.  Neither Sacerdotalism nor\nAtheism can hold its ground before the celestial burnings.  What the\nenemies of Jesus have to fear is for the Church to fall upon its knees.\nThose who bow before the Lord can stand upright in the presence of His\nenemies.  The man who, later on in this chapter, we are told cast himself\ndown upon the earth, and put his face between his knees when he prayed,\nwas wont to say, \"As the Lord God liveth before whom I stand.\"  Let us\nonly be mighty in prayer, and we shall be mighty enough to make wicked\nmen tremble.  HE WHO CAN WIN FAVOUR IN PRAYER CAN WIN VICTORY IN BATTLE.\n\nTHE DEVIL IS A GOOD ANGLER,\nHIS MOST CRUEL HOOKS ARE IN\nHIS NICEST BAIT.\n\n\n\n\nLVII.  A PICTURE OF CONVERSION.\n2 KINGS ii. 19-22.\n\n\nAre not the stories of the Old Testament the parables of the Holy Ghost?\nJesus taught by parables; and the Holy Ghost, the Divine Teacher, who yet\nleads into all truth, has stored doctrine in these tales.  There is a\nkernel inside the shell, if only we have the teeth to crack it.\n\nI.--WE HAVE A PICTURE OF AN UNREGENERATE HEART.\n\n\"_The water is naught_,\" said the men of the city.  Does not that\ndescribe many a life?  Naughty actions influence for evil; for wherever\nthese waters flowed they carried desolation.  The fields through which\nthe river ran were useless to the farmer.  Are there not some whom we\nknow who might be thus described--perhaps someone who reads these lines\namong the number?  First the schoolboy, then the youth, and now the man,\nprofitless and sour, so that all cultivation has been wasted.  Is it so?\n\nAnd, what makes the disappointment the greater, \"the situation is\npleasant.\"  It is just the place where men like to build.  Everything\nlooks so promising.  How true this of many in our midst!  Have we not\nheard some father say, when his boy's beauty has been praised, \"_If he\nwere only as good as he looks_!\"  Is this so with those who are my\naudience?  Is there this combination of beauty and bitterness--men who\nare courageous but proud, women that are beautiful but vain, workmen that\nare industrious but covetous, others who are amiable but\nintemperate--servant girls who are wonderfully clean and active but have\na dreadful temper?\n\nNow, it is well for us to learn that we shall no more cure ourselves than\nthe land around Jericho could bring good crops so long as the water was\nbad.  Education and other appliances are sure to fail.  I dare say the\npeople had tried one sort of cultivation after another, and had dressed\nthe land with different appliances; but all had failed; there was no hope\nof success.  Very likely some of you are disgusted that hitherto there\nhas been no improvement.  There are times when you have really longed to\nbe better, but there has been nothing in yourself to give you hope.  Now\nwhat shall be done?  Are we to remain as we are?  Or shall we, like the\nmen of Jericho, seek help from One who delights to make the barren\nfruitful, and to make the wilderness glad?  This brings me to consider:--\n\nII.--HOW TO CURE A SINFUL HEART; OR, A PICTURE OF TRUE CONVERSION.\n\nThe beginning of better days was when Elisha came to Jericho.  The\nfarmers did not lose a chance.  They would not allow the prophet to leave\nthem without having a proof of his skill.  They told him their trouble,\nand this was all he needed.  Doubtless he as a farmer's son saw the\nbarren fields, and sympathised with them.  And does not Jesus look at us\nwith pity?  Is he not waiting to save now?  But he will not save where\ndesire does not turn to prayer.  If the men of Jericho had left the\nmatter where it was they would still have had to suffer loss, but they\nstirred themselves to call on one who was mighty to deliver.  Is not this\nthe secret?  Are not some of us profitless and barren because we are too\nindolent to pray?\n\nBut let us pause a moment to consider what a lesson there is here to the\npulpit.  Elisha said, \"_Bring me a new cruse_.\"  The dish did not cure\nthe waters, but it had to be used, and therefore must be clean!  God is\npleased to use human beings as the instruments of conversion.  As the\nprophet needed something to contain the healing salt, so preachers and\nteachers convey the saving truth.  We have no description of the dish, as\nto its shape or colour; but being new, it was undefiled.  We have this\ntreasure in earthen vessels, and if we are to be useful, we had better be\ncracked, if clean, than entire, but vile.\n\nMark you, preacher, it is not enough that you are a cruse; you must be\nfilled with that which heals.  Have we salt?  It is not a question as to\nthe quality or style of pottery; it is salt that is needed.  A common\nflower-pot filled with salt was better than a vase of classic mould if\nempty!\n\nElisha did not waste time by trying to heal the stream.  \"He went forth\nTO THE SPRING.\"  What expense and trouble are thrown away by vain\nattempts to heal the water lower down!  We shall never succeed in keeping\nthe tongue from bitter words if the heart is left to itself.  It is\nuseless for men to think blue ribbon will save them from drink if they do\nnot look to God to take the selfishness out of the heart.  It is a wise\nprayer, \"Cleanse Thou the thoughts of our heart by the inspiration of Thy\nHoly Spirit.\"  Is it not strange that men do not see that an impure\nfountain cannot be cleansed by either altering the course of the stream\nor using remedies lower down?\n\nIII.--And then we have THE RESULTS OF CONVERSION.  \"_The waters were\nhealed_.\"  Mark you, the prophet took care there should be no mistake as\nto the cause.  It was neither he, nor the cruse, nor the salt: \"_Thus\nsaith the Lord_, _I have healed these waters_.\"  \"It shall be to the Lord\nfor a name.\"  Let the crown be on the Head.  So the waters were healed.\nWhat a change in a short time!  But the results would not be seen all at\nonce; it would take time to prove the _realness_ of the change, yet each\nseason would only prove the grand conversion that had happened.  If we\nhave received Christ into our hearts, the results will be shown; and\nthere are no evidences of Christianity better than these true\nconversions, which change a man's life, and make it evident that he, like\nthe fields around Jericho, has passed from death unto life.  The other\nday, a Lancashire coal-miner was killed in the pit; only a minute before\nhe was killed he was overheard praising God.  He had been a sad drunkard;\nhis home was wretchedness itself.  Money was in his hands only helpful to\nhellish enjoyment.  But the grace of God changed his heart and life.  His\nhome and family were soon made happy.  He became a preacher, went about\nfrom village to village testifying of God's saving grace.  In one place\nhe said: \"When I was here last, I won 20 pounds by jumping, but my wife\nand children were no better for it; the publican got it all, and I was\nlocked up into the bargain.\"  He was buried with every sign of respect;\nhundreds followed him to the grave, and everyone felt that the world was\nthe poorer now that he was gone.  These are the evidences we want; these\nproofs of the truth of the Bible close the mouth of the infidel and\nscorner.  If you would help on the cause of Christianity, love the truth,\nand make the fields, once barren, bloom with beauty; so shall the name of\nthe Lord be magnified.  Shall we not all join in Charles Wesley's\nprayer?--\n\n   Jesus, Thy salvation bring,\n   Cast the salt into the spring,\n   In my heart Thy love reveal,\n   Nature's bitter waters heal;\n   Let the principles of grace\n   Bring forth fruits of righteousness:\n   Then the barren curse is o'er,\n   Sin and death are then no more.\n\n\n\n\nLVIII.  THE FIRST LIE.\n\n\n   \"_Ye shall not surely die_.\"--GENESIS iii. 4.\n\nI.--WHO WAS THE FIRST LIAR?\n\nThe old serpent, the devil, called elsewhere \"the father of lies.\"  But\nhe had not always been a liar; he had fallen from a position very\neminent, teaching us not to measure our safety by our condition.  The\nhigher we are elevated, the more dreadful the fall.  Some of the most\ndegraded vagrants were cradled in comfort, and have wandered from homes\nof splendour.  Perhaps the vilest of the vile once were ministers of the\nGospel.  In a village, the other day, I was told of a man, once a Sunday-\nschool teacher, but now a professional gambler, and, in a coal-pit I know\nin the North of England, the foulest-mouthed blasphemer was once a\nMethodist local preacher.\n\nWho would have expected that one of God's angels would ever have turned\ntempter, and that one who had lived with God would have the bottomless\npit dug for him and his companions?  \"Let him that thinketh he standeth\ntake heed lest he fall.\"\n\nHow skilfully this lie was told!  It was not to Adam the serpent spoke;\nhe was not cheated (1 Tim. ii. 14.)  It would have been useless to have\nspoken to him on the subject; but Eve had not heard the commandment.  It\nwould be well if, when we are tempted, we said, \"Why do you come to me?\nIs there no one else who understands this question more than I do?\"  If\nEve had only thought, \"Why is not my husband spoken to first?\"  Perhaps\nshe was glad to accept responsibility she had no right to.  Was ambition\npossible to her?  We often see that evil succeeds by using that to pave\nthe way.  Lies do not overcome when contentment rules in Eden, but\nambition is an incipient hell!\n\nSatan has not ceased to lie.  He does not improve with old age!  He still\nseeks whom he may devour.  The most popular lie ever told is at present\ndeceiving many of those who little think where their ideas were born.  It\nis said over and over again in many circles that God will not punish sin.\nWhat is this but giving the Divine Being the lie?  And there are some\nministers who have taken upon them to contradict the Bible, and try to\npersuade their hearers, who too often want but little persuasion, that we\nmay hope when God has said \"Despair!\"  What is this but hatching the old\nserpent's eggs in the pulpit?\n\nII.--WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF THIS LIE?\n\n1.  They are very numerous, and we can only find space to say a few words\non each.  There was _guiltiness_.  Eve believed the devil instead of God,\nand took the forbidden fruit, making herself a sinner.  Her excuse was,\n\"The serpent beguiled me.\"  But she coveted that which God kept back.  How\nmany Edens are lost because we desire that which is forbidden!  Is not\nthis the spring of the so-called social evil?  We may say what we like\nagainst seduction, and our words cannot be too strong, but the woman\ndesiring when God had said, \"Thou shalt not,\" is the true reason of many\nfalls.\n\n2.  The next step downwards is the tempting of another and a loved one.\nSometimes we have found ourselves wishing Eve had died with the fruit in\nher mouth, instead of living to do the devil's work, and lure her loved\nhusband to the same ruin.  Let me say here and with all emphasis, _Never\nfear so much as when the hand of affection offers you that which God\nforbids_.\n\n3.  Now comes Death.  The parents of the human race were separated from\nGod.  Environment is a condition of life.  They have learned to do evil,\nthey have to share the lot of those who had not kept their first estate.\nHeaven was an impossible climate to the apostate angels, and Eden was\nonly possible to those who obey.  It is easy to see that the garden was\nnot now Paradise.  Adam and his wife hid themselves among the trees from\nthe presence of the Lord!  Those trees were not created for that purpose.\nAlas for sin! it poisons food and taints air.  We cannot insist upon this\nwith too much force.  It was true then as now.  \"He that believeth not\nshall not see life.\"  Adam and Eve were poisoned by the forbidden fruit.\nIs it not yet true that Innocence, Chastity, Modesty, are dead in some\nwho are thought to live?  We wonder afterwards to see them cast out, but\nit is, after all, the separation of the dead from the living.\n\n4.  And now comes Suffering.  They must hear the curse pronounced, and\nthen depart into the world which has begun to grow thorns for them.  Yes,\nsufferings after death.  What is history but the story of punishment?\nWhen men scoff at what is called eternal punishment they forget, or,\nperhaps, have never given it a thought, that the punishment of the first\ncrime is going on at the present moment.  Thorns and briars are but\nparables.  They are real, it is true.  Man must wrestle with his mother\nearth for every bit he eats.  She does not feed him willingly; she\nproduces that which he cannot eat.  He must lacerate her bosom with his\nspade ere she will yield him bread, and he must sweat with toil before\nshe will give him his crust!\n\nYet this is but the shadow of something terribly worse.  The non-producer\nwill live, whatever becomes of those who toil.  What is war but one of\nthe many things which rob man of his bread?  The soldier is a consumer,\nnot a producer.  I do not say he is not a necessity.  He is all that, but\nhe must be fed.  What matters it to him what is the price of meat; he\nwill have his three-quarters of a pound of meat every day.  Aye, and he\nearns it too!  Who would grudge the brave fellows in Egypt the stores we\nsend out?  None of us.  Yet we cannot but feel that the sword and\nbayonet, like the thorn hedge, take up soil which might grow corn, and\nthe higher it grows the greater the shadow, and therefore the poorer the\ncrops which are nighest to it.  It is a necessity, but it is an expense.\n\nWhat are the so called dangerous classes?  They live, they do not starve;\nthey live on honest people.  Judges, police, and jailers are fed by those\nwho never trouble them.  Crime is like a leech on the body, it will have\nblood.  The wrongdoers are not the thorn hedge which we need for our\nprotection, but the thistle, which has rare powers of reproduction, and\nuses the wind as its chariot to ride to other lands.  Is it any wonder\nthat wickedness is so difficult to eradicate?  Those of us who have tried\nto keep our gardens free have sorrowed many a time when we have thought\nthat the rain, so welcome to our newly-born flowers, will call into\nvigour the enemy that tries to strangle them.  And this is but a figure\nof the terrible truth that prosperity to a nation always means a growth\nof crime, and that any event, even a public holiday, which should refresh\nand recuperate, means the resurrection of violence and an increase of\nsuffering.\n\n5.  The first lie dug the first grave, and has never ceased to dig\nothers.  We have often imagined the scene when Abel was missed--when his\nmother questioned his murderer as to where he had last seen his brother.\nHow they would listen for his step, until suspense could be no longer\nborne, and the father would go out, only to find the corpse of his\nbeloved child!  Can we not hear the mother cry out, as she touches the\ncold clay--\"Would to God I had died the day I believed the lie!\"  What a\npicture for a painter like Rembrandt would that first funeral be!  And\nwhat are churchyards and cemeteries but the proofs that the devil lied?\nHave you a grave?  Does the clay cover the form once dearer than life to\nyou?  Let it plead with you to believe God and his word, rather than to\ntrust to the old serpent.\n\nLet us be thankful that the seed of the woman is the Saviour of Men.  Eden\nis not all shadow, even after the loss of purity.  There is a promise yet\nto be fulfilled.  \"'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' saith the Lord.\"\nThe devil is to be cast into the bottomless pit, and even those whom he\nhas deceived may go to a paradise where the trail of the serpent shall be\nno more seen.  \"The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the\nworks of the devil,\" and the time is coming when war, slavery, ignorance,\ntyranny, hunger, and sin shall be among the dark clouds that roll away,\nas the sun which shall never set rises above the horizon to make glad the\nchildren of men.  Then shall the prophecy of the poet become history--\n\n   \"In Him the tribes of Adam boast\n   More blessings than their father lost.\"\n\n\n\n\nLIX.  WHAT WAS LEARNED IN GOD'S HOUSE.\nISAIAH vi.\n\n\nNOT SEEN BY EVERYONE THERE.--Isaiah had his eyes opened.  The same awful\nPerson had been present before, but had not been seen, and He is still\nthere, but how few of us are conscious of His presence.  How differently\nthe church and chapel-goers would look next Sunday morning as they come\nhome, if only they realised what had been going on in the place where\nthey had spent the last hour.\n\nI.  A LESSON FROM HISTORY.--\"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the\nLord.\"  The King of Judah was dead, but the King of Saints lives for\never.  Whatever changes go on, whatever crown shifts to another head, GOD\nremains the same.  In no battle is our General slain.  In no national\ndisgrace is He humbled.  Uzziah had died a leper, his brilliant history\nended in disgrace.  Not so with Him whom we delight to honour.  Of Him it\nis more true than of anyone else, \"The path of THE JUST shineth more and\nmore unto the perfect day.\"\n\nII.  A LESSON IN WORSHIP.--We see how the angels behave when in God's\nhouse.  \"Covered his face.\"  Contrast this with the way the average\nchurch-goer acts.  To look at the listless faces, the slovenly way in\nwhich men and women pray, the want of reverence, often in choirs, and\nsometimes in pulpits, makes us think there must be either a want of\nintellect or a lack of faith.  If these people believe there is a God,\nhow limited their power to conceive what He is like!  But, knowing many\nof them to be shrewd in business or personal matters, we are led to think\nthere is often more infidelity in places of worship than is thought for.\nThe conduct of the Seraphims makes us blush for many services we have\nattended.  If the thoughts of our hearts were spoken during our prayers,\nwhat a revelation there would be!  Let us not forget that they are taken\ndown, and are already in print, ready for the day of trial, when the\nbooks shall be opened!\n\nIII.  A LESSON IN MORALS.--Words defile us!  \"I am a man of unclean\nlips.\"  And it is a question if even swearing defiles a man's mouth more\nthan words of prayer which are not meant.  Would not any one of us rather\nbe abused than cajoled?  Who likes to think that men are lying when they\npraise us?  Must we not pray for a watch to be set on our lips?  If there\ncould be a physical effect caused, as there is a moral, would not there\nbe a sad disfigurement?  Men and women with lips blacker than coal!  It\nis a wise prayer, \"Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in Thy sight,\nO Lord.\"  Deceit, flattery, formalism in prayer are abominable to God.  It\nwould be well if, when in church or chapel, we could see it in plain\nletters, \"The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in\nvain.\"\n\nIV.--A LESSON IN GRACE.--Sin may be forgiven and guilt removed, and this\nto the certain knowledge of the penitent.  One of the devil's lies is\nthat either you are too wicked to be saved, or, if saved, you cannot hope\nto know it in this life; the one drives men to despair, the other\nprevents enjoyment of salvation.  Isaiah knew that his sins were\nforgiven, and we have yet to learn that the cross of Jesus has made it\nless possible for us.  It was from the altar the coal came that touched\nthe lips.  It is still true that it is sacrifice that takes away guilt.\nWe have an altar, a sacrifice, a benediction such as Isaiah never knew\nfor himself; we understand his sayings as he could not.  \"By His stripes\nwe are healed.\"  Reader, do you long for pardon, for conscious\nforgiveness?  Wait on the Lord!  Think of what He suffered, and why He\nsuffered, and you shall sing with joyous lips--\n\n         My pardon I claim,\n         For a sinner I am,\n   A sinner believing in Jesu's name.\n         He purchased the grace,\n         Which now I embrace;\n   O Father, thou knowest He hath died in my place.\n\nV.--A LESSON IN THEOLOGY.--\"I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom\nshall I send?  Who will go for us?'  What does this mean?  Is it bad\ngrammar or good theology?  It sounds like \"And God said, Let Us make man\nin our image?\"  \"And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one\nof Us.\"  In John xii, 40, 41, we find that the Son of God, Jesus of\nNazareth, was the Lord who spoke the words we read in verses 9 and 10.  In\nActs xxviii. 25 we are told it was the Holy Ghost who spake by Isaiah.\nWhat does this mean but that the Divine Three in One and One in Three was\nthe Lord whom the prophet saw?\n\nVI.--A LESSON TO WORKERS.--When iniquity is purged away there is a\nwillingness to be sent on God's errands.  The lips that had been touched\nsaid, \"Here am I, send me.\"  If we are not willing to go, it is because\nthere is still need of cleansing.  Let those of us who find our feet slow\nto move on God's errands come again to the place of burning.  We shall do\nwell to say with Charles Wesley, in one of his less known poems--\n\n   Ah! woe is me, immerst in sin,\n   A man of lips and life unclean!\n   How shall I with Thy message run,\n   Or preach the pardoning God unknown?\n   Unless my God vouchsafe to cheer\n   His guilty, trembling messenger,\n   My fears disperse, my sins remove,\n   And purge me by the fire of love!\n\n   O wouldst Thou teach my lips once more,\n   The comfort of Thy grace restore;\n   Assure me, Lord, that mine Thou art,\n   And stamp forgiveness on my heart;\n   Then should I, in my Jesu's name,\n   Glad tidings of great joy proclaim:\n   Of grace, which every soul may find,\n   And glory, bought for all mankind.\n\nCHRISTIAN, YOUR GREATEST DIFFICULTIES\nWILL COME FROM YOUR OWN\nSIDE.  IT WAS NOT PHAROAH WHO\nKEPT MOSES OUT OF CANAAN.\n\n\n\n\nLX.  PAUL AT SEA.\nACTS xxvii. 22-25.\n\n\n\"There's no hope,\" said the captain, \"the ship cannot live in such a\nstorm.\"  \"There's no hope,\" said the military officer, \"we shall never\nsee Rome.\"  \"There's no hope,\" said the prisoners, \"we shall die at sea\ninstead of on the scaffold.\"  One prisoner, however, had hope, and in the\nlong run made all his companions to hope.  Paul cried out,\n\n\"BE OF GOOD CHEER, FOR THERE STOOD BY ME THIS NIGHT THE ANGEL OF GOD,\nWHOSE I AM, AND WHOM I SERVE, SAYING, FEAR NOT, PAUL, THOU MUST BE\nBROUGHT BEFORE CAESAR, AND LO, GOD HATH GIVEN THEE ALL THEM THAT SAIL\nWITH THEE.\"\n\nWhat a ring there is in the words, \"Whose I am, and whom I serve.\"  How\nPaul delighted in the fact that he was the servant of God.  Often he used\nto say, \"Paul, a servant of God,\" or rather \"Slave of God,\" for that is\nwhat it means.  And is it not still true that\n\nSERVICE IS THE BADGE OF SONSHIP?\n\nA man has no right to call himself a child of God who does not work for\nHim.  Was it not so with Christ himself?  Did He not, even when a boy,\nsay, \"Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?\" and the\nwork of God is the delight of the heir of God.  We do not join the church\nmerely for what we can get, but for what we can do.  How is it with you?\nDo you say, \"What can I do?\"  That's the way Paul began--\"Lord, what wilt\nThou have me to do?\"  Too many of us think--How can I enjoy myself?  What\ncan I do to increase my happiness?  If we would prove that we are the\nlegitimate children of God, we must find out the best way of carrying out\nthe wishes of God.  If we set Christ before us as our example--and after\nall He was the best servant His Father ever had, for while He was in this\nworld He went about doing good, and we could have tracked His footsteps\nby the cessation of suffering, and the increase of comfort--let us set\nabout the same work.  It is our business, if we would live godly, to dry\nup tears, and make smiles take the place of groans.  If you are not at\nthis glorious employment, begin to doubt if after all you are one of the\nelect.  There are numbers of low-spirited Christians who would soon be\namong those who dance for joy if only they would look out for the one\nnearest to them who is sad, and who requires sympathy and help.\n\nWhat should you think of a man who wore the Queen's uniform, and yet who\nfought in the rank of her enemies; or if he did not fight against his own\ncountrymen, assisted the foe to get provisions and ammunition?  But this\nis the position of some who call themselves Christians.  If they do not\noppose Christianity in person, they help on the other side, and by the\nway they spend their money, and occupy their time, put all their\ninfluence in the wrong scale.  Depend upon it when wages are paid, we\nshall find that each Master will claim those who served him.  We know\nwhere Paul will be that day.  Let us be in the same crowd!\n\nWhile all this is true, we must not forget that\n\nSERVICE BEINGS STORMS.\n\nIf Paul had been the kind of Christian some of us are, he would have had\na much easier time of it.  However, that was not what he looked for.  He\ndid not want his heaven in this world, and so he had a rough time.  Depend\non it we are not going to have too much heaven down here, if we are to be\ncrowned with immortality some day.  There were in Paul's day not a few\nwho escaped peril by being polite to the devil and all his crew, but that\nis something you and I cannot afford to do.  John Wesley might have\nbecome a \"College Don,\" and have flourished at Oxford, and perhaps if he\nhad been strong enough of body, become an authority as to the quality of\nport wine.  Who knows?  There was a suit of purple and fine linen for\nhim, if he would have worn it, instead of the rusty black cassock he was\nobliged to wear.  But, then, he chose affliction with the people of God,\nand won by hard work a place among the four-and twenty elders who sit\nnearest to the Lamb.\n\nAnd it holds true yet that if we will only be quiet and give Satan a bit\nof peace he will let us alone.  Why could not Paul have been still, he\nwould have kept out of that doomed ship; and so with thee my brother,\nthou mayest have a quiet life if thou wilt only pray less and be content\nto allow sin to have its own way.  What are you most like?  A barge or a\nbrig?  For there are some Christians whose course through life is like a\ncanal-boat's path, smooth and level, with nothing more exciting than a\nlock, while others have to put out to sea and run the risk of tempest and\nwreck.  Yet who does not feel that there is a nobility about a sailor\nwhich a bargeman cannot claim?  Besides there's no room for promotion\naboard a \"flat,\" no more than there is the likelihood of a storm.\n\nAs we read this story we feel that Paul was the true master-mariner that\nday.  His angelic visitor lifted him to command, and this leads us to\nsay,\n\n\"STORMS CANNOT SEPARATE US FROM HEAVEN.\"\n\n\"The angel stood by me.\"  He made no mistake, he flew to the side of the\nreal Commander, and it is sweet to know that come what will, nothing can\ncome between us and the God we serve.\n\nWhat a different man Moses was when he stood by the Red Sea, to what he\nwas when he was before the burning bush.  Here are the sheep patiently\nand quietly browsing, there is the angry mob crying out \"Were there no\ngraves in Egypt?\"  Here there is the sign of God from whence comes the\nvoice, \"I have surely seen the affliction of My people,\" but yonder is\nthe pillar of cloud shewing the way over the waves of the yet undivided\nsea.  How much more noble is the Moses of the people than the Moses of\nthe sheep!  It is true that he had to encounter the storm, but then there\nwas the triumph waiting to succeed the tempest.  He who fears the contest\nshould not covet the crown, but let the man who means to wear the\nconqueror's diadem know that in the fiercest part of the struggle the\nLord Himself shall cheer His man!  Besides,\n\nSTORMS CANNOT ALTER THE PROGRAMME.\n\nGod meant Paul to appear before Caesar.  He was a notable illustration of\nthe saying of Solomon, \"Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he\nshall stand before kings.\"  Paul, the slave of God, made judges tremble,\nand his chained hands ruffled the imperial purple.  If only we sail with\nJesus, storms become our slaves.  The Lord meant to have Christianity\nplanted at Malta, and therefore Euroclydon must drive the wreck to that\nshore, but still _en route_ to Rome.  Take the so-called misfortunes out\nof the history of religion, and you put it back into commonplace.\nPersecution has pushed on the cause it has striven to hinder, and heroes\nare made by hindrances.  \"Why do the heathen rage?  The Lord shall have\nthem in derision.\"  This was never so true as it was when the time came\nfor Jesus to die.  It seems as though Satan would have made a good\nSocinian.  He saw not in the Scripture either the Saviour's Divinity or\nHis atoning work, and so he hastened to have Him slain, and thereby\ncarried out the programme of God.  Have you ever noticed the prayer that\nwas offered when the servants of God returned from jail?  (See Acts iv.\n26 28).  The enemy \"gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy\ncounsel determined before to be done!\"  It shall yet be seen that no one\nhas done so much for the truth as he who was a liar from the beginning!\n\nIT PAYS TO RIDE WITH JESUS CHRIST'S MEN.\n\nThe angel brought the message, and Paul soon gave it out to all abroad:\n\"GOD HATH GIVEN THEE ALL THEM THAT SAIL WITH THEE.\"  It is yet true that\nreligion is a great enemy to waste of life.  Give us men who serve Christ\nto be our servants, and we need less police and a smaller fire brigade.\nLet Christ be King, and hospitals will not be needed as they are now.  If\nJesus is Lord, the alms-house would take the place of the Union.  There\nis less peril where there is piety.  Every man aboard the ship was to be\nsaved, because Paul was there.  Danger waits on the disobedient, but\nProvidence yet says to the good, all shall come safe to land who sail\nwith Paul.","title":"Broken Bread, from an Evangelist's Wallet","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":47805}