desperate cases. So desperate, so far beyond the reach of mercy was he thought to be, that the sainted Ananias argued the point of his conversion with the Lord. This disciple thought that Saul, in his mad attempt to destroy the Church, had feigned conversion to get Christians into his power; and in so doing had even deceived the Great Head of the Church, who commanded Ananias to visit Saul at Damascus.

Jesus alone can cast out demons, break chains and fetters, and clothe the desperate men of the world in their right mind, and place them at his feet. If their sins be as scarlet, he can make them white as snow. The triumphs of the cross are seen in this, that in all ages and climes men mangled and desperate are saved. The world looks on with wonder, as did the people of Gadara, to see such wrecks of humanity restored. No longer a foe to themselves, or a terror and shame to their friends, but happy in their homes, happy in God, and happy in salvation.

How difficult it is to reform, all can tell. Impossible is it without divine aid. The soul must be occupied from which the demon is temporarily driven. If not, and the house is left empty, the exorcised demon will return with sevenfold force, and the "last state of that man will be worse than the first." The reformed man must take unto himself a ruling principle, or he will be repossessed by the great passion he thought was conquered. The demon of gambling goes not out by the power of mere resolution. Let the sudden, the exact temptation come on him, and the man will fall. But if Jesus, the Son of the most high God, commands the demon to depart, he goes

out never to return, for Jesus comes into the soul to abide. Down the steep declivity the demon is hurled, and he is choked in the sea. Men may throw down the cup, but the demon lurks around, knowing but too well that, unless Jesus keeps the citadel, the hour will come when vigilance from within will cease, and his opportunity to retake possession will come. He can bide his time. But let divine grace enter the soul, and the tempter departs, never to come back, as when Jesus resisted him on the mountain; and, as then, the angels of God will sustain the tempted one. Men who are victims to lusts, to intense passion, or other strong impulses, resolve to reform. But the master power within them will not loose their hold, nor down at their bidding.

Gadara gives us hope when we labor for the good and the salvation of the so-called desperate and perishing classes. The Holy Spirit can go, and does go, where man will not. No eye but that of the Omniscient can tell when the soul is tender, and where lies the soil in which the seed of truth can be lodged, and not be lost. Not only in the palaces of the great, nor in the homes of plenty, among families educated, refined, and moral, does Jesus walk to heal, to scatter blessings, and save souls. He often leaves the favored homes of men, where truth and ordinances are fragrant and abundant, where men hear with willing ears the words of truth, and, as at Gadara, he seeks the lost, the abandoned, and desperate; he finds them in the wilds of the world, amid the habitations of cruelty and the abodes of death, and, taking souls from the depths of infamy, vice, and

despair, bids them go and "tell what great things

God has done for them."

"Oh! methinks I hear him praising,

Publishing to all around,

'Friends, is not my case amazing?
What a Saviour I have found!''

14*

XXXIX.-HOME OF THE LORDLY; OR, HELL A REALITY.

"Can you stand in that dread day

When he judgment shall proclaim,
And the earth shall melt away

Like wax before the flame?

Sinners then in vain will call,

Though they now despise his grace: 'Rocks and mountains, on us fall,

And hide us from his face.'"

In the closing part of the sixteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel there is a narrative of impressive brevity. Drawing near to the close of his public ministry among men, the Divine Teacher, for the first and last time, lifted the curtain that hides eternity from man, and bade the world look on the agony of a lost soul. It is a view that few contemplate and feel at ease. It was presented by one who knew the height of heaven and the depth and horror of hell. He uncovered the dark world of the lost, to teach what it is that makes death to the sinner awful. The picture is drawn by the pencil of a celestial artist. brief and graphic.

The story told is

One was very rich;

Two men lived in one city. the other, very poor. One was in full and robust health; the other, full of sores, One lived in a palace; the other lay on the rocky pavement, without bed or roof. One sat daily at a sumptuous table;

the other took, thankfully, of the crumbs that fell from the table of the full-fed rich man.

Both died. In the halls of splendor, amid tokens of opulence and grandeur, the rich man laid himself down to sleep his last sleep. He had lived amid purple, fine linen, and abundance. He was sordid and hard-hearted. But all his wealth and magnificence could not keep death from his couch, nor woo angels to bear his departing soul to the paradise of God. The beggar died; died at the gate of the rich man; died in destitution and suffering; but not unknown at the court of the blessed, for angels stood at his dying couch to carry his soul to God.

Both the beggar and the rich man beheld each other in the region beyond the grave. Both had a conscious memory of their life on earth. The rich man knew the beggar as he lay in Abraham's bosom, as well as when he lay at his gate asking a few crumbs of food. Lazarus knew the rich man as well as when he spurned his petition, and laughed to see the vile dogs of the street cool with their tongue the burning fever of his sores. The change of condition between those men was great. Both felt it.

Selfish still, the rich man first of all asks relief from torment. He fed Lazarus with crumbs. He asks at the hands of Lazarus a drop of water. In stern tones justice awakes the conscience of the suf ferer by that impassioned sentence: "Son, remember." Relief for himself is impossible. He invokes aid for those dear to him at his father's house, that in their lifetime they may repent, and so avoid that place of torment. But justice again replies that all the