But he has only to look to the uplifted serpent, and he can do this in a moment. We may die any hour, and that invalid whom we saw this morning will, in all probability, be dead before the sun has set. If he had many works to perform before he could become an heir of grace and of glory, alas, alas, for him! But he has just to believe in Christ, and, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, He can do this at once. Is not this good news, that the sinner can be purified and pardoned, even when he is hanging on the verge of eternity! 4. To believe in Christ is the only way in which we can be saved, because this plan is adapted to every one. If so much money were demanded for salvation, or if so much learning were required ere any one could receive salvation, there are thousands and tens of thousands who would be lost, for they have neither the one nor the other. But, by the blessing of the Lord, every one can believe. Salvation, by this method, is therefore placed within the reach of all who hear the Gospel. The poor man as well as the rich man, the unlearned man as well as the learned man, and young people as well as old people can be saved, since the only thing required is faith in the once crucified and now risen and glorified Saviour. Can you have any reasonable excuse to offer, then, my dear young friends, if you are not saved? No, you have not; no, you cannot. The serpent of brass was lifted up on the pole for all the wounded Jews, and Jesus was lifted up on the cross for every one of you. They were to receive health by locking to the serpent, and you are to receive salvation by believing in Jesus. If you are not saved, therefore, from sin, it is because you are not believers in Jesus. And why are you not believers in Jesus? It is because you do not feel your need of Him. When you are thirsty, you do not require to be urged to drink water, that your thirst may be quenched; you ask for it, and when it is placed before you, you take it at once. When you are cold, no one has to draw you to the fire to be warmed, you run to it as fast as you can, and feel glad if it blazes brightly. In a similar manner, if you felt your need of Christ you would all come to Him just now, and believe in Him as your Redeemer with all your hearts. This is the great want in young sinners, and in old sinners, too; they do not feel their need of Christ. I cannot supply this want, and no human being can, but the Holy Spirit can supply it. Let me, therefore, put up this prayer to Him, and let me entreat you to ask Him to answer it. O divine Spirit, come and create in every unsaved sinner's heart in this congregation a deep anxiety for salvation, and lead every one of them to Jesus, that by faith they may receive it from Him. This is Christmas Day, the day on which it is supposed Christ was born. If you believe in Christ to-day, then you will be born again, and it will be the most blessed Christmas you ever enjoyed. All your sins will be forgiven; you will become very happy; you will begin to live very useful lives in this world; and heaven will be your home for ever and ever. Nor is that all. If you believe in Christ to-day, you will make your parents, and your teachers, and your ministers, and all your Christian friends very happy, for they earnestly wish to see you as lambs in the Saviour's fold. Besides, you will cause the angels in heaven to sing over you, for Jesus has said that "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." May the Lord bless what has been spoken, and make you all His adopted children, and to His name shall be all the glory. Amen.-Christmas Sermon. THE DEVIL'S BEANS. "I HAVE heard of Rowland Hill," says the Rev. J. P. Chowan, of Bedford, "that he began his sermon one morning by saying: 'My friends, the other day I was going down the street, and I saw a drove of pigs following a man. This excited my curiosity so much that I determined to follow. I did so, and to my great surprise I saw them follow him to the slaughter-house. I was anxious to know how this was brought about, and I said to the man, "My friend, how did you manage to induce these pigs to follow you here?" "O, did you not see?" said the man; "I had a basket of beans under my arm, and I dropped a few as I came along, and so they followed me." 'Yes,' said the preacher, and I thought, so it is the devil has his basket of beans under his arm, and he drops them as he goes along, and what multitudes he induces to follow him to an everlasting slaughter-house! Yes, friends, and all your broad crowded thoroughfares are strewn with the beans of the devil."" "THAT MAN THAT LIKES ME." How dear to the heart of the receiver are little wayside kindnesses, especially to the hearts of children. Who cannot remember in his own childhood some bounding of the heart at an unexpected favour of this description? How happy the possession of some trifling gift made us for days together, and that by no means in proportion to its intrinsic value. Children do not weigh all their possessions with silver and gold in the other scale. What a pity they learn to so soon! A lady said that one of the pleasantest memories of her childhood was of resting one day on a grassy bank, when a fair hand was reached out from a window just above her, and a sweet voice said "Would you like some strawberries, little girl?" at the same time placing a handful of very large ones in her lap. She never forgot the thrill of childish delight which that little gift, accompanied by the loving tone, gave to her heart. Strawberries could never taste like those a second time in her life. Ah, there is a little hidden tablet in every child's bosom in which things are noted down. I think it good praise of a faithful pastor I know of, that a little girl who cannot speak his name, always calls him "That man that likes me." Miscellaneous. HOW ARE YOU DOING IN THE WORLD? Some are doing well for both worlds.-They fear God, love Christ, and walk in the way to heaven; temperate, industrious, provident, they seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and the promise of godliness relating to this life and that which is to come is largely fulfilled in their experience. In all respects they are doing well. Some are doing well for this world, but not for the next. They have health, position, property, and worldly prosperity, but no grace, piety or good hope of eternal glory; they cling to earth, but let God, their Saviour and salvation go; then, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Some are doing ill for this world, but well for the world to come.Bereaved like Jacob, afflicted as Job, or poor as Lazarus, or like Gaius, with a healthy soul in a sickly body; but the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed," so they "Count their present trials small, Some are doing ill for both worlds. -Indolent, profligate, intemperate, reckless, they squander their substance, waste their time, ruin their health and reputation, and thus plunge themselves into a state of want, misery and infamy. Reader, how are you acting in this matter? how ought you to act? If wise, and it be practicable, you will desire and endeavour to do well for both worlds; but if not well for this vain, short-lived and evil state, yet well for that real, blessed and everlasting world that is to come. But by pride, luxury, neglect and sin, to 66 .Throw up your interest in both worlds, First cursed in this, then damned in that to come," is a mad course, and a horrid case of unmitigated and everlasting misery. HOW WAS THE LAST SAB BATH-DAY KEPT? In what way should the Sabbathday be kept?-It should be kept holy, with reverence and delight, in the fear, love, worship and service of God, according to the Commandment, "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." How was the last Sabbath kept by some?-In prayer and praise, searching the Scriptures, attending the Lord's house and ordinances, instructing the young, distributing tracts, visiting the sick and dying, learning and walking in the way to heaven. How was the last Sabbath kept by others ?-In working, lounging, visiting, travelling, pleasure-taking, but in neglect of God, His house, His word, and His great salvation. How did you keep the last Sabbathday?-With thousands it was their last Sabbath spent upon earth, and it may prove your last. Was it spent as you would spend your last in this world, and so as to introduce you to the everlasting Sabbath in heaven? Repent of mis-spent Sabbaths, forsake Sabbath-breaking : nothing shows the present state and future prospect of a man more than the way in which he keeps the holy Sabbath-day. BELIEVE THE GOSPEL. What is the Gospel that must be believed?-Good news from a far country. Glad tidings of the _way of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ; "for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This is the true Gospel which must be believed. What is it rightly to believe the Gospel?-1. You must be assured of the truth of the Gospel as "the faithful saying," not a fable, but the very truth of God. 2. You must approve of it as the suitable, sufficient, and the only plan whereby you can be saved. 3. You must receive it into your heart with a willing mind by the grace of the Holy Spirit, for "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." 4.-You must rely on it for salvation, trusting in Christ, in Christ alone, for pardon and peace, righteousness and eternal glory. 5.-You must act accordingly; for true faith always produces good works, and leads to holiness of life. Who should thus believe the Gospel? -All who have precious and immortal souls-all lost and ruined by the fall of Adam, and condemned by the law of God for actual transgression-all who have to die and appear at the bar of God in judgment, who desire to escape the pit of hell and attain to the kingdom of heaven, including the whole family of man without exception-all should and must believe the Gospel. Why should we thus believe the Gospel? Because of its truth, its infinite importance and its everlasting consequence. Because "he that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be dammed." Then believe, believe the Gospel. Cabinet. MY OWN WORK. BY REV. HORATIUS BONAR, D.D. ALL great deeds in the church have been done by one man. All great eras in the church have been marked by the impress of one individual mind. Common eras are the product of many minds; great eras the product of one. 66 Such is God's method. Such is the way in which His purposes have hitherto developed themselves. Thus does He hide pride from man," as He did from Israel, when he set aside the gathered hosts and put a sling into the hands of the young shepherd of Bethlehem, bidding him go forth against the giant in "the unresistible might of weakness." It is not bands of men, nor confederate nations, nor proud alliances, that have done great things for the world; it is solitary individuals, wielding simply, but in earnest, the force of their own individual minds, bringing to bear upon every one around them the power of that special gift with which God had endowed them. It is not large associations, wealthy societies, or well-knit combinations, with the vast machinery which these can call into play, that have wrought great things for the church of God, and won victories to be remembered over her enemies; it is individual men like Luther, or Calvin, or Knox. That a man can do nothing save in connexion with a society or scheme, is a ruinous fallacy-an idea forged by Satan for the purpose of cunningly counteracting God's great plan of operation. It sears the conscience. It lulls the soul asleep. It checks the exercise of those special gifts which God makes use of in each of His own. It leads to a suppression of individualities, and so to an extraction of the very pith and point of personal character or mind. It makes us forget that we have a work to do which no man can do for us-nay, which no man can help us in doing—a work which God expects at our hands, and a work which assuredly we shall be enabled to carry out, if we will but use the individual gifts conferred on us in their natural and healthy way. "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.” It was thus that the Apostle went forth alone to do the work of VOL. XIX. E God. There is much in these words to show us our true standing and our real strength. One with Him who died and rose again, what may we not do, if we will but take our stand upon that oneness, and count upon the strength which it was meant to impart? One with Him to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, what great things may we not be sure of accomplishing for God, if we will but betake ourselves to this source of strength, and act upon it in all that we undertake, whether great or small? To sink the man in the society is at once our sin and our weakness; but to sink the man in Christ is our strength and our success. Only one thing can be permitted to absorb our personality, and that is the Incarnate Son of God. Wrapt up in His righteousness, we stand before Jehovah accepted and complete. Identified with Him, we are recognized as "partakers of the divine nature." So, girt with His might-nay, filled with the spirit of divine strength, we are equipped for any enterprise, be it the most difficult, or perilous, or vast which the church of God was ever called upon to engage in. What is there that a man thus dwelt in by the Spirit of Christ, and walking in fellowship with God, need fear to undertake? What peril can he fear? what enemy can he flee from? what work need he shrink from? "God is with him, who can be against him?" It is his connexion with Christ, not his connexion with a society, that makes him strong, fits him for his work, and secures his success. Strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus," and leaning on the love that has bought and saved him, he goes forth to work or to fight for God, calmly and confidently, as when our brave soldiers climbed the cliffs of Alma, not counting it possible that he can be baffled or overthrown. 66 ་་ Go, then, in this thy might," is God's charge to us. And with this as our watchword, let us advance: the work to be done is great, and there is little time to do it in. There is work for all of us. And there is special work for each. It is work not for societies or alliances, but it is work for individual minds and hands. It is work which I cannot do in a crowd, or as one of a mass, but as one man-acting singly, according to my own gifts, and under a sense of my personal responsibilities. There is, no doubt, associated work for me to do; I must do my work as part of the world's great whole, or as member of some body. But I have special work to do as one individual, who, by God's plan and appointment, have a separate position, separate responsibilities, and a separate work-a work which, if I do not |