"Casting all your care upon Him" (1 PETER V. 7). are still in your offer. If you choose to accept, you may now serve yourself heir "to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you." You have only to receive cordially the gift of our Father in Heaven, to insure for your own head a crown of glory; for "this is the record, that GOD HATH GIVEN TO US ETERNAL LIFE, and this life is in His Son." Close with the offer, and you shall be saved from both wrath and sin. Welcome Christ as your portion, and now and for ever you shall be "satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord."-H. K. Wood ("A Glasgow Merchant"). Thoughts on New Year's Eve. IS the last sad day of the old year's life; The low wind is chanting a funeral lay, Let us pile the logs on the blazing fire, 3 And disappointments have crossed our path, The blessings that thronged our way! Oh, help us to enter on this New Year Filled full of Thy love Divine. Lord, speak as Thou didst to Thy children of old,- In the untrodden ways of the year to come Onward and Heavenward, until we reach Thy glorious promised land. E. BEDDARD. IF we Christians could but remember that God is our Father, and that we belong to His household, what an end to care and anxiety there would be! A rich father provides for the wants of His children in every respect; and our God, who is infinite in love as well as in wealth, will not come behind any earthly parent. He bids us cast all our care upon Him, reminding us that He does all the caring for us. Oh, let us give Him our anxiety, and He will give us His peace; let us leave with Him our business burdens, our domestic burdens, our spiritual burdens-yes, all our burdens, and He will fill our hearts with Heavenly rest and joy. Let us believe that God is our Father, and realise that we are His children, and be content to let Him provide for us. 4 "Our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage" (Ezra ix. 9). A "Made Free" in Prison. the providence and the mercy of God. It is when the soul is "brought into the wilderness," and made to see its sinful and helpless condition, that it looks to God for deliverance. And how wonderful the dealings of God, for the purpose of leading men to consider their ways! Have you, by "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," been enabled to hate sin and "love God?" If not, you are yet the prisoner of Satan, and under his control; and if you continue in your impenitent state your doom will be the everlasting prison, out of which there is no deliverance! BOUT twenty-five years ago a man was imprisoned on a charge of which he was innocent, having been falsely sworn against. His sentence was a year's penal servitude. When he entered his solitary cell his spirit sank within him as the door was locked, and for the first time in his life he felt alone,-separated from father, mother, brothers, sisters, fellowworkmen, and the world. At that moment he recalled to his mind what a lady, who devotes herself to the work of promoting the spiritual welfare of navvies and similar labourers, had told him of a little girl who said in her cot one night, "A person wants but three things in this life: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to make him holy;ING the love of God, to make him happy; and the communion of the Holy Ghost, that he may always be in good company." "Then," said the condemned man, "by the grace of God I will seek to get these three things in my lonely cell, and it will be the beginning of Heaven to me." By the mighty working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart he was convinced of his sinful and lost condition, and enabled to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. He came out of that prison cell a freeman of Christ; for proof being brought that he was innocent of the crime charged against him, he was set at liberty. But he always blessed God for that time in prison, for it was there his new life began. Thenceforth he sought to win souls to the Lord who had bought him with His own blood; and he was honoured of God in bringing not a few of his fellow-workmen to accept the Saviour. Reader, see in the above true narrative Fleeting Hoar-Frost. Frost had been strewing, through forest and field, Ten thousand bright sparkling gems, That were daintily flung, And gracefully hung, Upon grass-blades, boughs, branches, and stems. It seemed that a spring-time of blossom had come, The promise of summer's fair fruits; I But a wind whistled by, In a shower to those winter-bound roots. have seen a young character richly bedight A decking as bright As the ransomed in light, But no warmth and no life have been there. It was but the crystallised breath of an air Beware of a beauty that comes from without! In an hour it is born, Leaving nothing to gladden our sight. Thy beauteous adorning must spring from within, All else will depart WILLIAM LUFF. 6 "They are out of the way through strong drink" (ISAIAH XXViii. 7) HOW THE SHIP WAS LOST. A NEW YEAR'S LETTER TO THE YOUNG, by the late PETER DRUMMOND. "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."-ECCLES. xii. 1. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, WISH you a happy New Year, and a long and useful life, if it is the Lord's will to spare you; but you can never be truly happy, or really useful in the highest sense, until you come to Christ. Be persuaded, then, to seek Christ now; constantly cry for grace to love, serve, and labour for Him. At this season of the year you are exposed to many snares and temptations, and perhaps to none more than to indulge in intoxicating drinks. Ah! how this sin of intemperance is ruining thousands of our young people! Should not you set your face as a flint against this foul blot on our national character, and help, by your abstaining, and efforts, and prayers, to sweep away such an evil from our beloved land? Allow me to transcribe an interesting story for you, bearing on the subject : Some years ago, the ship Neptune, carrying thirty-six men, sailed from Aberdeen on a fine morning in May, with the fairest prospect of good weather and a prosperous voyage. About eleven o'clock the wind rose from the east, and swept over the sea with overwhelming violence. In about an hour she was seen standing in, but under such a press of sail as, considering the gale, astonished all on shore. But on she came, now bounding on the top of the sea, and then almost engulphed in the foaming cavern. The harbour of Aberdeen is exposed to the east, and formed by a pier on one side, and a breakwater on the other, and so narrow at the entrance as not to admit two large ships abreast. All saw that something was wrong on board. One attempt was made to shorten sail, but the ship was then within a cable's length of the shore, and urged on with a force which no human power could withstand. The wives and families of the men who were thus hastening to death had assembled near the pier; but all stood in silent horror-a silence which was broken in a moment by the cry, "She's lost !" as the vessel, lashed on by the tempest, passed to the outer side of the breakwater, and struck with awful violence between two black rugged rocks! The cries of the victims were most terrible. The dreadful crisis had come, and they were lost indeed! A few brave men on shore endeavoured to man the lifeboat, and take it round the breakwater, but it was unavailing. One heavy sea rolling over the wreck for a moment concealed her, and when the people looked again, she was gone! Her crew and timbers were hurled against the rocks, and with the exception of one man, who was washed up and lodged on a projecting ledge, none escaped of the thirty-six who had that morning left the shore in health and vigour! From the man who was saved, the melancholy truth was learnt, that THE CREW WERE ALL INTOXICATED, AND COULD NOT MANAGE THE VESSEL ! "O satisfy us early with Thy mercy" (PSALM XC. 14). OF GOD." And where, O where are they consigned to? Watch and pray against intemperance and sin of every kind. May the Divine Spirit guide and keep you, this New Year, and evermore !-Yours affectionately, PETER DRUMMOND. is his master. The precepts of the Gospel are his rule. He that is not willing to serve Christ, has no evidence whatever that he is interested in Him. The Christian was purchased to be a servant. He is converted that he may devote his powers to the Lord. Let us then inquire, Is Jesus our Master? Do we view Him as such? Do we consult His will in all we do? Do we act as under His eye? Do we often ask ourselves the question, Will this please my Master? Do we look to Him for our supplies, for our orders, and for our reward as servants should? O may the Holy Spirit daily impress these thoughts upon our minds,—I am Christ's servant. He is my wise, holy, and generous Master. My one business is to please Him. My one object should be to secure His approbation. The world can have no claim upon me. Satan has no right to me. The flesh ought not to rule in me. Have I been serving Jesus to-day? Have I consulted His Word? Have I sought His grace? "My will, not Thine, be done," turned Paradise into a desert. "Thy will, not mine, be done," turned the desert into a paradise, and made Gethsemane the gate of Heaven. A New Year's Morning Vision. "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." HERE is silence up in Heaven, THE 'Mid the white-robed angel band, As they rest their snowy pinions, And before their Saviour stand. 7 "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."-HEBREWS X. 17. |