to the work and the love of the Redeemer. For us He did come down, and He made satisfaction for our guilt on Calvary, and He has gone up to the right hand of Majesty, able to save to the uttermost. Nothing remains but for you to believe on His name-to take God's gift!

It is like Mary at the sepulchre. Earnestly seeking for her Lord, she does not know Him when He speaks to her! Behold the business of faith —not to fetch an absent Saviour from afar, but, since He is nigh, to recognise Him, receive Him, rest and rejoice in Him.

It is like Hagar in the wilderness. She is faint from drought, and her boy Ishmael is in the last agonies. Yet, unknown to them, there is a well of water a few yards off. God opened her eyes, and she went and drew, and gave to the lad drink, and both lived.

It is like this:-A vessel, after crossing the Atlantic, arrived in the mouth of the Amazon, without being aware of the locality. The voyage had been tedious, and the water was all spent, and those on board were ready to perish. Sighting another ship, they signalled, "Water! we are dying for want of water!" Imagine the surprise and delight of the almost despairing crew when this answer came back, "Dip it up; you are in a fresh water river!"

O, dear anxious soul! down with the bucket of faith. The water of life is nigh thee, all round, fresh and free! Dip it up. There is no hindrance. Jesus is here, with pardon, peace, paradise, all ready; though you may have thought that it was only the salt sea that compassed you about! Nay, reach forth to the Saviour, and take abundantly at His liberal hand. No money is wanted, no merit, no preparation of thine. Enough that thou art in need. Jesus is for such as thee. God says, "Ho,

every one that thirsteth;" "Hearken, I bring near My righteousness, and My salvation shall not tarry."—Rev. J. C. Herdman, D.D., Melrose.

"Is not this the Carpenter?”

MARK vi. 3.

THOSE words of derision have come

down, as it were, along the telephone of the ages, to the ear of every working man and working woman to whom the Gospel has come, or ever shall come, announcing Jesus to them as one whose heart would ever sympathise with them in their trials and in their rightful triumphs. Thanks to the enraged and contemptuous Nazarenes for this evidence that Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, was one of the working classes, a mechanic, a carpenter! They could have uttered no words which would

have better told the working classes of every age and clime, that the Christianity which this despised and rejected Nazarene

came to found would be a true friend to them.

20

H

"Jesus" First.

A WORD TO YOUNG CHRISTIAN MOTHERS.

AD you looked into the nursery of a comfortable suburban villa, as I did some twenty-three years ago, you might have seen a young mother walking backwards and forwards with her first-born baby in her arms, and had you watched and listened, you would have seen her ever and anon bend down her head over her little darling, and have heard her whisper gently into its ear, the words, "Jesus," "Jesus." Do you ask, "Why was this?" I will tell you. That mother was a Chrisyoung tian. She loved her Saviour fervently; she loved her precious babe; and the great desire of her heart was that the Name which should be first received and remembered by the opening consciousness of that dear child should be, not the name of its father, though that to her was the most precious of earthly names, but the name of HIM who for years had been in her esteem "the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely," and "whose banner over her (she felt) was love."

And what of the dear babe, for whose early devotion to the Saviour this young mother yearned so fervently? Were these longings, these prayers, unsatisfied, unanswered ? No. That infant has now grown to womanhood; but early in life she gave her heart to Him whose Name was so often lovingly whispered in her baby ear, and of whom she heard from her earliest recollections and she is now, though conscious of frequent infirmities and failings, rejoicing in God her Saviour, and seeking as she has opportunity to lead other little ones to the blessed Jesus.

And now, dear young Christian mothers

and nurses, let this little anecdote remind you that you cannot begin too early to speak of Jesus to your babes. We know not how soon the infant mind receives impressions. And if we wait till we think our little ones

understand us, the evil one may have been beforehand with us, and have written other words and other names than that of Jesus on the fresh and plastic hearts of our household treasures.-A. M. I., Croydon.

What Should We Do Without Jesus?
KNOW that the many go thoughtlessly on,
And prize not the Name of my King;
They know not the triumphs His strong arm has

won,

They dream not what wealth He can bring: And yet, even they, in their short, giddy day, Were Love's intercession one moment to stay,

Oh, where would they be without Jesus? But, oh! there are others who love His dear Name, And value the jewels He gives;

Who think of their sorrow, their sin, and their shame,
And the blessing faith ever receives :
Such gratefully say, as He sends them away
With riches for those who have nothing to pay,—

"Oh, what should we do without Jesus?"
When conscience is whispering death in our ears;
When burdened with guilt and despair;
When sadly perplexed with bewildering fears,

Bowed down beneath trouble and care;
When trembling we lie, with our weeping ones nigh,
Alone, by the dark rolling river to die,

Oh, what should we do without Jesus? We have Him! we have Him! thank God for His gift! A Friend who will ever be near,

Our sins to forgive, our sad burdens to lift

Oh, dry up each sorrowful tear! For we have not to say, as we grope on our way, "Oh, what shall we do without Jesus?" Nay, nay; Heaven's mercy has given us Jesus.

WILLIAM LUFF. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable GIFT" (2 Cor. ix. 15).

راعة

21

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,

OME years ago, in the month of August, a lady and gentleman set off upon ponies, on an excursion from Margate to Ramsgate, in England, attended by two lads, the one named William, about seventeen years of age, the other George, about thirteen, both natives of that place, who were engaged,

according to the practice there, to whip the ponies forward.

In the course of this employment, William, who had been much given to swearing, repeatedly swore at the ponies for being so slow in their motion, and by the oaths he uttered, shocked his companion greatly. The party had only proceeded to Chapel Hill, a

mile distant from Margate, when they were overtaken by a dreadful storm, attended with tremendous peals of thunder, and awful flashes of lightning, which obliged the lady and gentleman to dismount, and have recourse to a neighbouring cottage for shelter.

George and William placed themselves against a wall at the roadside for protection. George was much alarmed, and trembled at the scene, when William called him a coward, uttered blasphemous expressions against the violence of the storm, and, alas! when, with a dreadful oath, he loudly exclaimed to his companion that he was resolved to push forward to Ramsgate in spite of it, a terrible flash of lightning came down, burnt his clothes, and struck him dead on the spot!

He was carried home to his afflicted parents, when it was found that his skull was fractured, and he was next day committed to the grave. The horror of the scene cannot be fully described. Thousands repaired to the spot, where the living God had thus put forth His almighty vengeance; and it is now marked out by the following inscription, as a warning to all passing that way :—

"READER, PREPARE THOU

FOR ETERNITY!

A BOY WAS STRUCK DEAD HERE

WHILE IN THE ACT OF SWEARING."

Dear reader,-You see from the above awful story, which I have copied for you, that the Most High God sometimes punishes the breakers of His law even in this life. Profane swearing insults and provokes the Three-One God; and if He should not execute judgment on the profaners of His Name in this life, yet their doom is to come; God will not let them pass, but will deliver them to Satan, to torment them in the prison of hell for ever and ever.

Every profane swearer proclaims to all who hear him that he is a child of the devil. Does he not? What did God write with His own finger on a table

of stone on Mount Sinai? "THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN; FOR THE LORD WILL NOT HOLD HIM GUILTLESS THAT TAKETH HIS NAME IN VAIN."-See Exodus xx. 7.

Seck grace to keep the door of your lips, that you offend not with your tongue. Do all you can to check

swearing wherever you hear it. You can do much in this way, by speaking kindly to swearers, putting tracts on the subject in their hands, and by praying for them.

See to it that you yourselves look constantly to Jesus Christ, whose blood alone can cleanse from all sin. I remain, yours affectionately,

66

PETER DRUMMOND.

The Lord's My Shepherd." CORRESPONDENT of an Edinburgh newspaper, in giving an interesting sketch of his summer holiday, spent in some of the fishing villages in Scotland, concludes as follows:

But our holiday was coming to a close. We shall think pleasantly of these busy men and women. Like Asher, they "will continue by the sea-shore." We must return home, all the better for having become acquainted with them, and of having inhaled the fresh and invigorating breeze along "the margin of the sounding deep." It was our last Sunday among the

fisher-folk.

The days were beginning to

get short and cold, and in the evening we were at the old church. The sermon was over; the shadows were darkening the place, when a psalm is given out, but the precentor does not commence the tune. At last he looks up to the minister, and says, "It's dark down here, sir, but we can a' a' sing, 'The Lord's my Shepherd." What a pleasant remembrance and lesson! With all, life's little day is wearing through "the night is at hand," and the darkness may soon be upon us; yet how sweet if we are able, like the fisher-folk, to sing among the deepening shadows, "The Lord is my Shepherd!"

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