thy departing hours, and constraining thee to exclaim, "Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory ?"

But an "abundant entrance" into the glories of the invisible world will not be the less thine, though in His sovereign wisdom God may choose that, as thou leavest this world, thy body may be racked with pain, or thy mind beclouded with doubts and fears. Jesus' love knows no change.

"He knows what sore temptations mean,

For He has felt the same."

In His youth He endured those temptations for forty days, and through the whole course of His life the devil never left Him but for a season. Ever with His people, in all their afflictions He was afflicted. Like unto them, He was beset with infirmities-"tempted in all points like unto them"-and when in the agonies of death, His body racked with torture, and His soul bowed down under the weight of the sins of His church, then a horrible darkness came over Him, so that in His agony He was fain to cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Truly, "there is no discharge in that war." But, dear child of God, dying believer, "Did Jesus thus suffer and wilt thou complain ?" Yes, complain thou must, and thou shalt. Be it in health or in sickness, be it in life or in death, when temptations beset thee cry mightily to the Lord. Art thou in darkness? Cease not to cry till the clouds be removed, and the light again return. Is it winter with thy soul? Still let thy voice be heard pleading for a return of the Sun of righteousAnd though at the last all may seem dark to the soul-though the manifest presence of Jesus may be gone, and the enemy may whisper in thy ears that God hath forsaken thee, that thy God hath forgotten thee-yet fear not! Jesus deemed Himself forsaken of His Father, but it was not so; and soon you shall awake to find it all friends, and all light. The river thou shalt have passed over-thou couldst not sink, for Jesus had removed the burden from thy back and placed it on His own-He endured the cross, He suffered in thy stead -and now, living or dying, "there is no condemnation" to thee; for, beheld in Jesus, God seeth no iniquity in thee; though black in thyself, thou art comely in Him; and so there is power in the day of death, and there is discharge in that war.

ness.

"The law gave sin its damning powers,
But Christ my Saviour died."

J. F. P.

Let others prattle of their works, and one sinner praise another, I will sing of the mercy of the Lord for ever and ever. Thanks to my God for giving me an appetite for this heavenly manna, and a taste of it. His mercy endureth for ever. How sweet the sound, how rich the food, to a gracious soul! A pleasant thing it is to be thankful, and saints will feel a pleasing, growing debt of gratitude for ever, which will fill the heavenly courts with everlasting hallelujahs. May you and I attend and join the choir.-John Berridge.

THE FRUITFUL BOUGH.

An old servant of the Lord, who is still in the body, gave the following ancedote concerning God's use of his ministry, which may encourage some whose spirit and language at times may be similar to the prophet's-"Surely I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought and in vain."

Being engaged to supply for a few Sabbaths in a city where he had no personal friends, he went for a day's recreation on foot some miles out of town into a neighbourhood remarkable for beautiful scenery. Wearied with his long walk and dismal meditations, which bore very close upon the prophet's words just quoted, he stopped at the first cottage he saw to make some enquiry about his road. The woman received him kindly, invited him to set down and rest, which he was glad to do, and before long he dropped a word, as was his wont, to find out where the woman stood as to divine things. Her ready and warm response soon convinced him she was among the Lord's living family, and he then drew from her the story of her conversion. She said "I was living in my native place, far away from this, in Suffolk, thirty years ago, dead in trespasses and sins, when I was induced to go and hear a stranger preach of the name of ***. He never came again, but that once brought the blessing to me. God opened my eyes to my state, and the truth was brought home to my heart; and having obtained help of God, I continue to this day. But dearly should I like to see the man of God again." The reader may judge her surprise when she was told the stranger was that man. He never preached in that county but once, and upon that occasion he went with great reluctance, and left under deep discouragement. The use God made of his testimony there was hid for thirty years, and at last discovered in such an unexpected way that divine sovereignty marked every step. "O that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men."

About 1800 years ago, a Traveller journeying through Palestine on foot, weary and hungry and thirsty, rested upon the low wall that protected a well, to which a woman came with her pitcher to draw water. The Traveller asked her for a draught to slake His thirst. His accent betrayed that He was a Jew. The woman promptly said, "How is it that Thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." From Jacob's well, that he gave to his son Joseph, the Traveller said, "Give me to drink." But the Samaritans were Gentiles, gathered by the king of Assyria from divers nations, and placed in the cities of Samaria instead of the Israelites. See 2 Kings xvii. 24. And the nature of their worship we have described thus (ver. 29)"Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt." Hence it is not to be wondered at that "the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans," and that no greater reproach could be attached to a Jew than that cast upon our

Lord-"Say we not well that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" John viii. 48. But Christ left His home of glory in the bosom of the Father, to seek and to save the lost, therefore He must travel from Judea to Galilee to find them out, and He must needs go through Samaria. The fields in Samaria were now white to harvest (John iv. 39), and the blessing pronounced upon Joseph-that wondrous type of Christ-nearly 1700 years before His advent, was now about to be fulfilled-Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall." That wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, which Christ by His death broke down, was set forth by the rending asunder the vail of the temple, whereby the way into the Holy of Holies was opened, and the rent flesh of Christ was made the way for sinners to approach God, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, and enter into the fold of Christ. By the preaching of the gospel the branches were to run over the wall; and the first fruits of this mystery, which had been hid for ages (Eph. iii. 1--6), was unfolded by the ingathering of the most unlikely subject-an ignorant, hardened, and profligate woman. Such was the first convert from among the Gentiles to the gospel of grace and salvation. Said the prophet Isaiah, "The Gentiles shall come to Thy light." Said the prophet Jeremiah, "The Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth." Said Hosea, "I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art my God." These predictions were now about to be fulfilled, and the time was come when this fruitful bough was to run over the wall. In all God's dealings with fallen man we read grace; the first and last stone alike proclaim grace; and all the subjects of it are taught feelingly to cry, "Grace, grace unto it." A few points in the history given us of this woman illustrate the power, and preciousness, and effects of grace, which are common to all the called family of God. As, first, her condition—sinful and ignorant. The practice of sin in which she lived, only proved the nature of sin which she derived from Adam. The practice of sin, more or less, depends upon temptation and opportunity. The absence or presence of these make all the difference before men, but before God all are equal. This poor hardened sinner, living in adultery, and having got rid of five associates in her guilt, had no worse nature than the most virtuous of Abraham's daughters. Sprung from the same stock, we all inherit the same evil heart, out of which our Lord declared (Mark iv. 23) "proceeds every evil thing." This is common to all the whole human family. The murderer and the philanthropist, the miser and the benevolent, the strict religionist and the atheist, are all upon the same level-" shapen in iniquity, born in sin," Psa. li. 5-and "fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind," Eph. ii. 3. As said the Psalmist, "There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one," see Rom. iii. 11-14. This is the condition universally of all the human race. Education and the absence of temptation make a and in God's goodness to man, for social comfort, there are

difference;

differences in disposition and temperament, as there are in talent, ingenuity, and the like; but this has nothing whatever to do with regard to man's nature, and his fallen condition Godward, and the great fact which every day's observation proves—the total depravity of man. We have this set forth in scripture by statements and solemn illustrations, both in the called and the uncalled; therefore in all we see and hear in daily life we can but confess if men were better the Bible would not be true. The heart, the will, the motives, the understanding, are all depraved, and from this corrupt source our evil actions spring. Hence the need of a new man, created after the image of God. But this woman was a type of the ignorance that belongs to the whole human family; therefore our Lord addresses her thus-" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." Her ignorance was proved at once. She knew nothing of Christ, nor of the gifts He could bestow, so she asked not; and this again is but a common feature in humanity. They have no value for Christ, for their soul, for heaven, so they ask not. Here our Lord sets before this woman the evidence of her fallen natureshe did not know Him, she did not ask. We get here a truth that is shelved or denied in our day, that in order to ask man must know, and man must want; and this is life begun; for with life comes prayer. No one imagines that in nature the cry precedes life, neither is it true spiritually. Life and the cry are simultaneous. This is God's order in grace, and the youngest babe gives proof of the power there is in the feeblest cry; as said our Lord, "If thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." The way in which this woman tried to elude conviction is but the type of every sinner who is in the grasp of Satan. When the Lord told her to call her husband, she says, "I have no husband"-a disgraceful fact, known to the Searcher of all hearts, and exposed to the woman's view in all its wickedness; but when the Lord told her, she adroitly makes use of the knowledge of this Wise Man to settle the vexed question where the Jews ought to worship. So now, and in all ages, sinners trifle with the truth of God, and would for ever push away the solemn conviction of their state before God. But sovereign grace must win the day, and souls that are secretly loved of God and chosen in Christ must be brought by the power of the Spirit to see themselves as lost and ruined in their nature, but found in Christ; time of discovery must come when Jesus says, "I that speak unto thee am He." This is a time of revelation, a time of love, when the sinner sees Jesus as the God Saviour, the I Am, the Amen, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Now there are two points mentioned in this little history that, as results of a divine discovery of Christ, are common to all the church of God. The first is, the woman hasted to return home, in order to get her townsfolk to come and see Jesus. This is the sure result of a heaven-born religion. By this way God spreads His gospel; and when the kingdom of grace is set up in the heart of one member in a benighted family, often the Lord makes use of that indi vidual to be a blessing to others in the household. Grace is

the

likened to the ointment on the hand, that bewrayeth itself; and the Lord says of His saints, "Ye are My witnesses," hence their oft-told tale is like the Psalmist's, "Come, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul;" and "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word (or voice) of God." Another family feature we have marked out in this circumstance, and that is reality. Absorbed by all she heard and saw, she hastens back to the city without her water pot either she forgot it, or she purposed to return again to hear more of that gospel which divine power had preached into her heart—either way we discern reality, an unfailing attendant of a work of grace on the soul. We have an abundance of the imitation in our day under the term earnest; and however false the religion may be, it is of no importance, if only zeal and effort are put forth. Whether it be in the line of music, millinery, wool-work, painted windows, and church restoration and decoration, earnestness is considered the main thing in our day; and in the more useful aud commendable line of benevolent exertions for the poor and afflicted, earnestness is approved of and applauded, till at last Popery has its admirers and advocates on the ground of earnestness. Here we have the sham; but when God begins with a soul it is in reality, and they feel it. In the present day of superficial religion we see but little of this. Mixed doctrine produces a mixed practice, hence we have among our female professors the love of dress, croquet, light literature, worldly amusement, united with Sunday-school teaching, prayer meetings, Bible readings, and often a self-satisfied mental assurance of interest in Christ, and a contempt for those who go a step or two beyond them, and are termed worldly people. But where is the difference? Where is the reality? When God begins a work of grace the foundation is laid in reality. Conviction, like a barbed arrow, fastens upon the heart, and all attempts to draw it out only increase the wound. The hand that smites must heal. Mr. Huntington, of blessed memory, was sent for by a lady who described herself as under deep anxiety about her soul. Mr. H. started off directly to see her, and on being introduced found her at the piano, playing a popular tune for dancing. "Madam," said he, "if your convictions can be quieted by a jig, you had no need to send for me." There was a deal of rough truth in this remark. Many expend their feelings in talk about the state of their souls, whose life betrays that there is no reality in their words. Conviction and anxiety are not seen so much in constancy as in kind; but the nature of Spiritgiven conviction has in it something solemnizing and weighty, something that engrosses the affections, and re-appears however pressed down, and drives the thoughts, desires, and pursuits, as well as words, into a new channel, which proves new creatureship, though poor souls see it not. But sinners under the tuition of the Spirit shall advance in knowledge, and the grace that gives the spirit of conviction shall in due time give the spirit of adoption, whereby the poor doubting, trembling sinner shall say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His," the blessed and unfailing result in reserve for all those who are taught to say, "He told me all that ever I did." Gospel reality is not to be judged by nature's standard of success or failure. It is not actions,