T. C.

In speaking of our Lord, Paul says, In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him; Jesus, our High Priest, has entered within the veil, and, having reconciled us to God, we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of i need.

It is easy to know the knock of a beggar at one's door. Low, timid, hesitating, it seems to say, I have no claim on the kindness of this house; I may be told I come too often; I may be dismissed as a troublesome and unworthy mendicant; the door may be flung in my face by some

surly servant. his return from school, the loud knocking, the bounding step, the joyous rush of the child into his father's presence; and, as he climbs his knee and flings his arms round his neck, the bold face and ready tongue with which he reminds his father of some promised favour? Now, why are believers bold? Glory to God in the highest! It is to a father in God, to an elder brother in Christ, that Faith conducts our steps in prayer; therefore, in the hour of need, bold of spirit, she raises her suppliant hands, and cries, O, that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and come down!

How different, on

I think I see a sneer curling on the sceptic's lip as he says, How absurd! What presumption! as if it were not below the dignity of the Supreme Divinity to come at a king's or peasant's, a prince's or pauper's call. Should the lofty purposes of the Eternal be shaped by your petitions? Creature of a day, child of the dust! what are you that

the universe should be steered, its helm moved this or that way for your sake? Well, no doubt the language is bold; yet with God a Father, our Father in heaven, my Father in Christ, I dare be bold and confident in prayer. I know a parent's heart. Have I not seen the

quivering of a father's lip, the tears start into his eye, and felt his heart in the grasp and pressure of his hand, when I expressed some good hope of a fallen child? Have I not seen a mother, when her infant was tottering in the path of mettled coursers, with foam spotting their necks, and fire flying from their feet, dash like a hawk across the path, and pluck him from instant death? Have I not seen a mother, who sat at the coffin-head, pale, dumb, tearless, rigid, terrible in grief, spring from her chair, seize the coffin which we were bearing away, and, with shrieks fit to pierce a heart of stone, struggle to retain her dead? And if we, that are but worms of the earth, will peril life for our children, and, even when they are mouldered into dust, cannot think of our dead, nor visit their cold and and lonesome grave, but our hearts are wrung, and our old wounds bleed afresh, can we adequately conceive or measure, far less exaggerate-with fancy at its highest flight-the paternal love of God? Talk not of what you suppose to be the dignity of Divinity. Talk not of the calm, lofty, dignified demeanour which befits a king. He who sees his child borne off by the stream that sweeps his palace wall, sinks the king in the father. Divesting himself of his trappings, casting away sceptre, robe of gold,

and jewelled crown, he rushes forth to leap into the boiling flood. Lives there a father with a heart so dead as, at the sight of a child washed overboard, and struggling with death, would not back every sail, and whatever might be the mission on which his ship was bound, whatever the greatness of the peril, would not put up her helm, and steer for the wild waves where his boy was sinking?

Child of God! pray on. God's people are more dear to him than our children can be to us. He regards his poorest saints with more complacency than all the shining orbs of that starry firmament. They were bought at a price higher than would purchase the dead matter of ten thousand worlds. He cares more for his humblest, weakest child, than for all the crowned heads and great ones of earth; he takes a deeper interest in the daily fortunes of a pious cottage, than in the fall and rise of kingdoms.

Child of God! pray on. By prayer thy hand can touch the stars, thy arm stretches up to heaven, Nor let thy holy boldness be dashed by the thought that prayer has no power to bend these skies, and bring down thy God. When I pull upon the rope which moors my little skiff to a distant and mighty ship, this feeble arm may not draw its vast bulk to me, but I draw myself to it -to ride in safety under protection of its guns, and enjoy in my want the fulness of its stores. And it equally serves my purpose, and supplies my needs, that, although prayer were powerless to move God to me, it moves me to God. If He

does not descend to earth, I ascend to heaven.

Child of God!"pray on. Were it indispensable for thy safety that God should rend these heavens, it would be done; a) wondering world should see it done. I dare believe that; and I am not mad, most noble Festus. Have not these heavens been already rent? Eighteen hundred years ago, robed in humanity, God himself came down. These blue skies, where larks now sing and eagles sail, were cleft with the wings and filled with the songs of His angel train. Among the ancient orbs of that firmament, a stranger star appeared travelling the heavens, and blazing on the banner borne before the King, as he descended on this dark and distant world. On Canaan's dewy ground, His lowly bed, the eye of morning saw the shape and form of the Son of God; and dusty roads, and winter snows, and desert sands, and the shores and very waves of Galilee, were impressed with the footprints of the Creator. By this manger, where the kingly babe lies cradled, beside this cross, upon whose ignominious arms the glory of God's universe is hung; by this silent sepulchre, where, wrapped in bloody shroud, the body reposes on a bed of spices, and while Roman sentinels walk their moonlit round, Death-a bound captive-sits within, so soon as the sleeper wakes to be disarmed, uncrowned, and in himself have Death put to death. Beside these inspiring, affecting scenes, Faith can believe all that God's word has revealed, and confidently hope for all that it has promised. Reading on

that manger, on that cross, deeply lettered on that rocky sepulchre, these glorious words, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" she lifts an eagle eye to heaven, and soars aloft on the wings of prayer.

Faith, bold faith, the promise sees,

And trusts to that alone, Laughs at impossibilities, And says it shall be done.

NOT SAVED.

THERE is no one who would like for his epitaph the two words "not saved." The most hardened could not but shudder at the bare idea that another less sad would be an inappropriate inscription for their grave-stone. Yet multitudes are going the way to die in their sins, and leave the impression on the minds of survivors that they have gone down to the grave unsaved. Perhaps, "reader, you are a stranger to God's salvation? If so, how culpable and perilous is your condition!

Not saved, and the Lord able to save you! In Jesus there is no lack of ability to deliver sinners from the guilt, power, and doom of sin. Through His expiatory death He has opened up the way for God to pardon and accept the transgressor, and for the Spirit to renovate the transgressor's nature. Having given His life a ransom for sinful men, He can redeem mankind from the criminality, thraldom, and punishment of iniquity. "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins."

The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin." "And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Then the persons who have reached heaven are represented as having overcome, through the blood of the Lamb; as having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and as being before the throne of God on account of the blood of the Lamb. Further, while Jesus was on earth prosecuting the work of man's redemption, He pardoned, sanctified, and saved some of the worst of characters, and even wrought miracles in proof of His power to forgive, purify, and save. Now were there no such Saviour, you might justify yourself in remaining in your perishing state. As, however, Christ is mighty to save, you have no such justification for continuing in your ruined plight.

Unsaved, and Jesus ready to save you! Christ's sayings, doings, and sufferings, unitedly demonstrate His willingness to deliver you from your utter ruin. Would He have come from heaven and taken our nature upon Him in order to become our substitute, had He not been desirous to recover you to God and happiness? Could He have foiled Satan, magnified the law, endured the law's curse, and triumphed over death in our nature and on our behalf, and yet be unwilling to make you the recipient of His saving grace? Did He when on earth readily save the vilest of sinners, and can He now be indisposed to save you? Does He invite you to himself for salvation

all the while He is unwilling to

receive you to His arms of love and compassion? Impossible. His humble birth, His gracious addresses, His terrible conflicts, His compassionate behaviour, His expiatory death, His glorious resurrection, His appearing in the presence of God for us, all conspire strikingly to prove His readiness to effect your redemption. You cannot, therefore, truly affirm that your being unsaved is owing to the disinclination of Jesus to save you. No, no;-it is to be feared that Christ will have to say to you as He said to the Jews, I would have saved you; but you would not be saved by me. How sad! Jesus willing to save you, and you unwilling to be saved. Surely you must see your utter inexcusableness.

Christ waiting to save you, and you not saved! All the time you have lived, the Lord Jesus has waited to deliver you from your undone condition. He has restrained His just displeasure at your sins and kept from cutting you down, not that you might go on in your evil and ruinous course, but that you might have the opportunity of going to Him and obtaining salvation. "Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you." How you would apologise if you had kept your medical adviser waiting only a little while for you; and yet you can keep Jesus waiting days and weeks, months and years, to save you, without even caring to go to Him to be saved. As to a word of apology, that is quite foreign to your thoughts. Well, it is out of your power to advance the excuse that Jesus waited not to see whether

you would apply to Him for needed mercy.

The Lord at hand to save you, and you not saved! He is present everywhere. There is no place where He is not; He is in your home; He is about your path. Indeed, you cannot get where He is not. "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." He is a Saviour afar off and a Saviour near. Hence you cannot say that you are unsaved because Christ is at so great a distance that you have no means of reaching His abode. You have but believingly to ask Him where you are to save you, and He is so near that He will be able to hear your cry for mercy, and be prepared to answer your prayer of faith.

Jesus offering to save you, and you not saved! Yes: the Lord offers to secure your salvation. You have

not to go and beg and press Him to deliver you from coming wrath; He actually comes to you by His word, by His Spirit, and by His servants, and urges you to look unto Him and be saved. To the very Jews who crucified Him, He sent His apostles with the message of mercy. Yea, He bade His followers preach the Gospel to every creature, beginning at Jerusalem. In fact, He comes to you himself. Behold," He says, "I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Wherefore, you cannot adduce as a reason for being unsaved, the fear that it would be an intrusion to go and lay your case before Him; for

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He again and again welcomes you to His gracious arms and loving bosom. Our Redeemer requiring of you no price, and you not saved! On no consideration does He make a charge. All He expects of any going to Him, is to feel that they have by sinning ruined themselves, and to believe that He can and will save them. "Ho! everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat; yea; come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst, Come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Though salvation cost Christ His life, we may have it by believing on His name. Had the Saviour demanded a great sum of money for deliverance from transgression, you might have mentioned the greatness of the charge as an excuse for remaining unsaved; but as you can be saved by simply depending on Jesus to save you through His expiatory blood, you cannot advance any such pretext. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

You not saved, and Christ Jesus warning you of the danger of delaying your salvation! He apprizes you of the uncertainty of your life, by comparing it to things noted for their uncertain duration and speedy decay; by declaring that death will