his brethren, or David and Goliath, or such like. I never really thought about my soul. I had been in my little lifetime, for the most part, like one in a dream, but then I began to wake. It was a gradual work with me, coming to myself. I had no wonderful conversion. It was like the gentle dawn of day. The sun did not come forth all at once like broad noon, out gently rising over the horizon of my heart, lit up by degrees the moral and spiritual landscape.. But why do I talk thus? You have compelled me! The return of a sinner from his wayward follies is as real a journey, as any journey that was ever taken. .... If you become a prodigal again, after your first return from sinfulness, I will not attempt to describe -he thorny path that you must tread; nor the terrible ufferings you must endure on your travels, before you find your father's home again, if ever you do. Backsliding is a dreadful wilderness; and to lose one's _rst love entails of necessity a woeful experience. When a sinner comes to himself, he talks to himelf, he examines himself, he tries himself and his ways. Beforetime he was ignorant of himself, not caring to now. When a sinner comes to himself, he unburdens himelf in the presence of his Father. With tears of godsorrow he lays down the burden of his sins at the pot of the cross, and exclaims-" By God's grace I'll arry you no longer." N When a sinner comes to himself, he clothes himself with the raiment of Christ, from the wardrobe of His Church. He humbly begs the Spirit of holiness and grace to make him a meet partaker of the mysteries of salvation, and fit him for the inheritance of the saints in light. When a sinner is a prodigal he cares for none of these things. He knows not what spirit he is of. He knows not the way that he takes. He moves on blindfold to the precipice of death, and then takes a leap in the dark. His way is folly, and his end is shame. May the gracious Controller of the destinies of man, the only Ruler of the wills and affections, be pleased so to sway us by His mercy, so to lead us by His goodness, so to constrain us by His love, that we may none of us continue prodigal, but be saved among His people, and be made partakers of His eternal and glorious kingdom. CONFIRMATION. EXODUS xii. 26. "What mean ye by this service." SUCH was the question, it was supposed, that children would ask their fathers, in after days, concerning the Passover. And Moses supplied them with an answer. Through 1,500 years this strange and striking feast vas observed by the descendants of Abraham, and, of course, had become ingrained in the very fabric of their national history and experience. The feast of the Passver was as much part and parcel of the Jews' religion, is the Lord's Prayer is a part of our every-day's devoion. And indeed we keep on the feast, for Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, and from that notable lay, the most notable in the Calendar of the world's istory, when Jesus suffered at Calvary, until this resent time, the fact of redemption through bloodhedding has been set before the eyes of the world ; eople must be blind not to see it. Easter (as we call t) is Passover time, and every year as time rolls on, |