The Four Instalments.

"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah liii. 5).

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OUR times the crimson purse of His great heart
Was opened to our need. First, by a scourge

Rudely 'tis rent, causing its wealth to start, As stroke by stroke they beat the solemn dirge: Then by a thorn 'tis pierced, till every nerve Thrills with a painful tremor; next, the nails Rend it still deeper; then its last reserve

The spear demands, and the rich treasure fails. Behold the first instalment! Canst thou tell

The value of each drop that lash demands? Each drop would buy a world-a world excel;

But yet, how freely fall they where He stands! Behold the treasure rendered to a thorn!

(Type of the curse for which His life is given) Each ruby globule, nations yet unborn

Redeems from sin's desert with wealth of Heaven. Behold the third instalment, from His hand

Taken by force, with woundings rude and rough, As if among some cruel robber band,

Who from their victim cannot take enough.
All has been paid! "Tis finished!" He has cried.
But His free heart, bent on redeeming us,
With wealth to spare, pours from His opened side,
Rent by the soldier's spear, an overplus.

Go, follow step by step that blood-stained way:
Count up those drops of innocence and woe;
Then sitting down beneath His shadow, say,
"It is enough to cancel all I owe."
And since this wealth is infinite, confess
How infinite thy sin; and in thy love

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we cannot. Therefore, I pray you, get more Divine love in your souls; come into fuller and warmer communion with Christ. It will be hard to enforce the negative, "Love not the world," except through the action of the positive and powerful impulse of per

sonal affection to Christ. In Christ crucified we see love conquering love-the love of God, which gave His only-begotten Son for the world-conquering the love of the sinner, and making him willing to give up the world for that only-begotten Son of God. Hence, the Cross has taken a holy revenge on the world. The world crucified Christ; but Paul, looking up to that Cross, exclaims, "By which the world is crucified unto me." So it is, that inveterate appetites for sin, and unconquerable affections for pleasure, are found to disappear, as by magic, when we become absorbed and possessed by the love of Christ. "Where is

my

old passion for gay amusements-my old love for sinful indulgences ?" asks one who is all taken up in adoring and praising the Lord who hath redeemed him. "What held me like a fetter seems to have vanished like a snow-flake, in the warmth of this new life." So have I heard many say, as they have told the experience of their new life. That their old evil love may not come back to them, I do not say; it will come back, unless the soul be kept full of the Heavenly affection.-Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D.

IF a sculptor, having chiselled a marble figure, could inspire it with sense and feeling, would it not prostrate itself before its maker and offer all to him? Shall not we, the handiwork of Infinite Wisdom, bow lovingly before our Maker, who has formed

our bodies and fashioned our souls, and give Him ourselves-a reasonable service? Augustine.

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"I, even I, am
* HE*

THAT BLOTTETH OUT THY TRANSGRESSIONS

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FOR MINE OWN SAKE,

AND

WILL NOT REMEMBER THY SINS."

ISAIAH lxiii. 25.

A Mother's Power.

MOMENT'S work on soft clay tells more than an hour's labour on brick.

So work on hearts should be done before they harden. During the first six or eight years of child-life, mothers have full sway; and this is the time to make the deepest and most enduring impressions on the young mind.

The examples of maternal influences are countless. Solomon himself records the words of wisdom that fell from a mother's lips; and Timothy was taught the Scriptures from a child by his mother and grandmother.

John Randolph, of Roanoke, used to say, "" 'I would have been a French atheist were it not for the recollection of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hands in hers, and make me say on my bended knees, 'Our Father, who art in Heaven.""

"I have found out what made you the man you are," said a gentleman one morning to President Adams; "I have been reading your mother's letters to her son."

Washington's mother trained her boy to truthfulness and virtue; and when his messenger came to tell her that her son was raised to the highest station in the nation's gift, she could say, "George always was a good boy."

A mother's tears dropped on the head of her little boy one evening as he sat in the door-way and listened while she spoke of Christ and His salvation. "Those tears made me a missionary," said he, when he had given his manhood's prime to the Lord.

Some one asked of Napoleon what was the great need of the French nation. Mothers," was the significant answer.Canada Christian Advocate.

As

in one corner of his dominions. sembling an army of trusty followers, he soon met his foes in the field, and utterly routed them. Many were slain as they fled before the victorious troops; and of the ringleaders not a few were caught alive, and shut up in prison. In due time they were convicted of high treason, and doomed to death.

Ere yet the day of execution arrived, the king sent his only son, the heir of his crown, with an unheard-of message of clemency. Without the walls of the prison the prince set up the royal standard. He ordered every gate and door of the jail to be thrown wide open. Then he caused the heralds to sound their trumpets, and to announce, in words that might be heard in every cell of the condemned, the proclamation of the king. It was

A DECLARATION OF FREE FORGIVENESS, and of restoration to all their forfeited estates, on the simple conditions that every rebel should come out from the prison, and on his knees, before the prince, confess his crime, and ask pardon for his offence.

The good tidings were music in the ears of some. They hastened, with tears in their eyes, to the prince's feet; they acknowledged their transgression; they besought mercy; they kissed the feet of the king's represen

tative, and were welcomed as his friends.

There were others within the prison, however, who would not thus humble themselves. They would rather die than confess they had done wrong. They hated the king and all his house intensely. Submit to ask his pardon ! Never! Yet there was nothing to hinder them. No material obstacle lay between them and the prince. The way was clear. in their impossibility was hearts. They could not, because they would not. They each died a traitor's death, rather than yield to receive pardon from their king.

The

own

It was just dislike of God and hatred of His Son to which Jesus referred in the texts quoted above, and which this old parable illustrates. The same inability, because of unwillingness, exists still.

Pardon to the guilty is proclaimed by the Gospel,

ness."

By the death which Jesus suffered on Calvary, and by the proclamation of free forgiveness on that account, the Father is now, indeed, drawing us to His Son. The Saviour Himself is calling us to come to Him, that He may give us rest. Judge, then, my reader, who will be to blame if we refuse Him that speaketh. If we come not to Christ's feet, and thus secure the free gift of eternal life, the fault will be our own. The can not" will, in our case, be truly a will not," and we shall have to lament for ever, because of our wickedness in refusing to embrace the opportunity of salvation.-H. K. Wood (a Glasgow Merchant).

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Complete in Christ,

"Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 CORINTHIANS i. 30).

T was a time of conflict, for there came

A path before me that was not made plain.
Faith looked and looked, yet could not see the way:
Faith carried it, by prayer-it open lay
Before our "Abba, Father." I tried to feel—
The Lord doth know, is a sufficient seal :
Still did the weariness overcome the strength.
Weeping sad tears, I poured it out at length-
Asking some fresh, new view of Jesus' love,
That it might gently fall, and lift above

A heart so earth-bound. God in pity heard :-
A ray of light, reflected from His Word,

"Wisdom," and "righteousness"-the care is laid

Is

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In the completeness of His work I trust.
Lord, take my will, and crumble it to dust,
If so it please Thee. Nowhere in Thy Book
precept given to stop, and pore, and look
On our shortcomings:-I look to Thee,
Guilty, but Thou art "righteousness" to me:
No rag of holiness have I to plead.
Thou art my "sanctification," and no need
Is there for us to dwell upon our guilt,
Because Thy precious blood, when it was spilt,
Declared Thee sin's "redemption." All of care
About the way is turned into a prayer:
Lord Jesus, make me in Thyself "complete ;"
Wash Thou my head, my heart, my hands, my feet!
Not to see self, but to see more and more
I am dim-sighted-Lord, my sight restore;
All that Thou art. I thank Thee for the grief
That made me press close to Thee for relief.
Blind children must be guided, day by day;
Yet Thy blind child is taught by Thee to pray
For clearer, brighter views of Heavenly love.
Christ is "the hope of glory," and above,
No mists of earth will dim the pilgrim track.

Perchance, if o'er our life we turn us back

To look, the spots where we deemed left and lost,
Will then stand out as teaching us the most
They led from self: Thy voice called us "apart
Into a desert place. So if we start,

Or if we stay, according to Thy mind,

We'll press towards Thee, and leave the care behind.

E. J.

MEN often confound what the sinner gets after coming to Christ, with what he is to bring with him. What is he to obtain after coming? Everything that is good and holy and blessed. What is he to bring with him? Nothing but his sins; and if any man preaches that the sinner is to bring something better, he misleads the wanderer.Rev. H. Bonar.