a "natural man," God's sovereignty will be no excuse for any one in the day of judgment. The voice of that great assize will be," Noah and others were willing to receive Christ, and you would not come to Him that you might have life," John v. 40; iii. 18, 19. Oh! "to-day, while it is called to-day," flee to Jesus from "the wrath to come." Q. Give another instance of the strong faith of Noah.

A. (iv) An exemplary readiness "in all his ways to acknowledge God," Prov. iii. 6. He had learnt, by the Spirit's teaching, how prone he was to stray from the right path; therefore he endeavoured to look to God at every turn. As with David, so with Noah; he learnt to say, "Remember the word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou has caused me to hope," Psalm cxix. 49. Is he to enter the Ark, or to leave the Ark? He waits for the word "Come thou," "go forth," before he will stir a step, Gen. vii. 1, 7; viii. 15, 16, 18. Does his heart rojoice to be once more safe on dry ground? Then, the first thing he does is to build an altar, and worship, and praise the great Giver of all these benefits, Gen. viii. 18, 20.

Having thus endeavoured to set forth the nature and extent of Noah's faith, we proceed briefly to call attention to

III. HIS CONSEQUENT PRIVILEGES.

Q. What privileges did Noah enjoy by faith?

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A. (i) A comfortable persuasion of God's favour. In Gen. vi. 8, we read, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Now, grace" signifies "free undeserved favour;" and it refers to God's sovereign election of His people to eternal life and when Noah is said "to find" this grace, it is meant that he knew his name to be in God's book of life. This holy patriarch had been predestinated to be adopted as God's child, (Eph. i. 5); and "if a son, then an heir of God through Christ," Gal. iv. 7. Therefore it is said, Heb. xi. 7, "By faith...he became (ie., turned out to be, proved himself) an heir of" this covenant blessing— righteousness.' For to as many as receive Christ to them gives He power (margin, "right" or "privilege ") to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name, John i. 12. Oh! what an unspeakable blessing for a sinful creature by simple faith in Jesus' blood, to find that he is an "heir of God!"

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But those who are predestinated, called, and justified, are also "glorified:" (Rom. viii. 30) they are His vineyard, which He watches night and day, Isa. xxvii. 3. So with Noah. God did not leave him; but we are told that "God shut him in," "God remembered him," God comforted him by "promise and oath," Heb. vi. 17, 18; Isa. liv. 9, 10.

God also will honour him, and all believers at the last day: for this is the second privilege we will mention.

(ii) God's open recognition of His name.

This took place at his birth, by prophecy, Gen. v. 29. Also he is most honourably mentioned in Ezek. xiv. So too in the New Testament, the days of the flood are called by his name, "the days of Noah," 1 Peter

iii. 20. But above all, he is "written among the living in Jerusalem;" (Isa. iv. 3) and his name, with that of every believer, will be confessed by Christ before His Father, and before the angels," (Rev. iii. 5, and for the "overcoming" in this verse, see 1 John v. 4, 5.) Let each one say,

"Since 'tis Thy work alone,

And that Divinely free;
Send down The Spirit of Thy Son,

To work this faith in me.

THERE are two words in God's Book containing_infinite sweetness, and which are of vast concern to us. The one is, the word GRACE, the other, SALVATION. The first shews us the cause from whence all blessings flow; the latter, declares how this is openly shewn, made known, and discovered to us in our fallen, guilty, sinful state and case.-S. E. PIERCE.

E are indeed in a storm,—the whole earth seems to reel and stagger like a drunken man; but yet our souls may rest in the infinite skill and wisdom of the great Pilot of the whole creation, Who steers all things according to the counsel of His Own Will-OWEN.

A CHILD of God may be sorely tossed in a troublesome sea but

that ship shall never be shipwrecked, where Christ is the Pilot, the Scripture the compass, the promises the tacklings, hope the anchor, faith the cable, the Holy Ghost the wind, and holy affections the sails, which are filled thus with the gales of the Spirit. Isa. xlv. 11.-CHR. LOVE.

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UGUSTINE says, Lord, I have done enough to undo me for ever, but Thou hast yet enough to make me happy for ever. acknowledge the debt, that is all I can do.-TRAPP.

A sanctified heart is better than a silver tongue.-BROOKS.

My soul is like a besieged city: a legion of enemies without the gates, and a nest of restless traitors within, that hold a correspondence with them without; so that I am deceived and counteracted continually. It is a mercy that I have not been surprised and overwhelmed long ago: without help from on high, it would soon be over with me. How often have I been forced to cry out, O God! the heathen are got into Thine inheritance: Thy holy temple have they defiled, and defaced all Thy work. Indeed it is a miracle that I still hold out. I trust, however, I shall be supported to the end, and trust my Lord will at length raise the siege, and cause me to shout deliverance and victory.-NEWTON'S LETTERS.

I have had many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have been able to place in GOD's, I still possess.-LUTHER.

None can be alive to Christ who are not dead to themselves.

S. E. PIERCE.

ONFESSION of sin lies not barely in acknowledgment of the fact, but in a submission to the punishment which is the due desert of it. The poor publican, when he prayed to God for mercy, owned himself the most unworthy of it. He stood afar off, and smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner, Luke xviii. 13. A soul that is affected with a sense of his sin, owns that God might justly behold him for ever afar off, and send him into a state of eternal distance from Him. He comes, as Benhadad's servant of old did, with a rope about his neck, and says, "Lord! it is a righteous thing with Thee to condemn me for ever. I have nothing but what I deserve, if I never taste a drop of mercy. I must take part with God and justice against myself, though I should lie in hell to all eternity."-GLIGHT.

Thoughts of sin a man cannot have, who is under the convincing power and condemning sentence of God's Law, nor slight thoughts of the Law by which sentence is passed. For the Law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good, Rom. vii. 12. So the sinner looks upon it, so he esteems it in his heart, and, by making confession of his own vileness and the desert of his sin, he gives glory of God. God never makes a soul a sharer in the riches of his grace, but He first brings him to acknowledge and submit to the rights of His Justice.-JOHN HILL.

"THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED."

"Fear not..

"THE Saviour lives, no more to die,
He lives our Head, enthron'd on high;
He lives triumphant o'er the grave:
He lives eternally to save.

"He lives to still His people's fears;

He lives to wipe away their tears;
He lives their mansions to prepare ;

He lives to bring them safely there."-S. MEDLEY.

I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.' —Rev. i. 17, 18.

"Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”—John xx. 20.

E have read how, in olden times, Christians used

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to salute one another with the joyful wordsCHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!" And well they might, for THE RESURRECTION of our Lord is one of the foundation stones of the Gospel. "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain...ye are yet in your sins.' But "the Lord is risen indeed "-the broken seal-the stone rolled away-the empty tomb-the clothes wrapped up-the angels' words, "He is not here"-all prove this glorious truth. "Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord." Let us try to find out why.

They were glad, because His Resurrection was the fulfilment of His Promise in the sixteenth chapter of St. John, " I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice.' On that Promise they had staked their all. Believing His Word, they had left their homes and friends, and followed Him. If Christ did not rise, they were of all men most miserable. No wonder they were glad.--Their most ardent longings were realised. The clouds of darkness had all gone-the winter was over-the night was past-and now the Sun of Righteousness arises with

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healing in His wings. "Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.

was the proof of God's It was the proof that He Let the Christian look at remember it is the grave of

Besides, the Resurrection acceptance of Christ's work. had paid His people's debt. that open grave, and let him all his sins. Let him look at the risen Saviour, and in His wounded Hands and Feet let him behold the signs of his perfect redemption.

Again, His Resurrection shewed that Christ had conquered death. He had swallowed up death in victory. The sting of death is sin, but He had put away sin, and therefore death has no sting, and the grave no terror to those who believe in Jesus, for He is "the Resurrection and the Life." Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me❞—and Jesus having conquered Death, we shall be "more than conquerors" through Him.

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And more-His Resurrection opened Heaven to all believers. For His people are risen with Him, and He has opened to them the gate of glory, that where He is, there they may be also. To see the risen Saviour now, with the eye of faith, is the spring of all our gladness here, but what will it be to see the glorified Saviour face to face in the world to come? How blessed a meeting! How sweet to see Him as He is, and praise Him as we ought. Then will all His disciples be glad indeed, when they thus see the Lord.

If there is one who reads these lines, who feels the burden of his sin, and who longs for peace and rest, we point such an one--not to a dead Christ hanging on a Cross, where He was nailed eighteen hundred years ago, but TO A LIVING, LOVING, RISEN SAVIOUR, ABLE TO SYMPATHISE, AND ABLE TO SAVE. Reader, may God's grace draw you to Him, and may you know Him as your personal Redeemer, and He will manifest Himself to you as He does not unto the world, and like the disciples of old, you will be glad when you see the Lord.-The Editor.