immediate and miraculous interference to bring about this issue, we cannot determine. But He has the power, and what He has said He will do what He has foretold He will fulfil. O it is this certainty, in connexion with this glorious cause which, amidst abounding difficulty, animates the faith of Christ's people. Heart and flesh would often fail-but, happy thought! God's word can never fail. The heavens may be rolled up as a scroll, and the earth be destroyed with a great noise-but the word of the Lord endureth for ever! Our world must yet live through a Saviour every where being lifted up on his Cross, all shall know him from the least to the greatest, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth all shall rejoice, in "the Lamb that was slain!"

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SELF-APPLICATION.

One of the greatest difficulties, dear reader, in contemplating the Cross as thus set up for the whole world is, lest we should lose sight of it for ourselves. Self-application, indeed, is a task, which the depravity of the heart ever drives into the distance. Let the wrongs of others be dwelt upon, let the darkness of heathenism be depicted, let the horrid cruelty which is every where to be found in connexion with idolatry be described, and our sympathies are immediately awakened, our hearts bleed, and readily do we stretch out our hand to aid, in sending the gospel to the perishing abroad. We are not so much affected by, it may be, almost equal destitution and spiritual death, at our own door and under our own eye. But to feel for ourselves, this is the hardest work of all. To understand that we ourselves are sinful, dark, and dead; to know that we are utterly undone; and to remember that we must

for ourselves look to the Cross and livebelieve in the Saviour or perish, this is a duty which demands divine grace to accomplish a branch of spiritual instruction which can only be understood by the enlightenment of the Spirit of God.

The Cross then, dear reader, is set up for you. We call upon you, first and most earnestly, to look to the Saviour for yourself. Survey the past, bring up before the soul the sins of childhood and youth, the transgressions of maturer years. One sin, remaining unpardoned, will prove fatal to your salvation for ever. Why will ye die? O come and live! There is no other Saviour but Christ. We are dying creatures. This is the hour-the moment; the only hour, the only moment promised. "Now is the accepted time-now is the day of salvation.” To-day, "if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call to-day his own;

He who secure within-can say,

To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived to-day

In hea

But suppose the reader to have looked to the Cross, and to have found peace. Still we must not forget, that the christian below, is not like the saint above. ven the followers of Christ are "saints made perfect." "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." On earth, alas! infirmities cleave to the best of men, and passions, inflamed into lusts by the fiery darts of Satan, require to be withstood by all. What then, think you, would the Israelite have done who had been stung and healed, if stung again? Again he would have looked to the brazen serpent and been made whole. Nay! what would he have done if he had been stung a third time, and a fourth, or even daily? Daily would he have looked, that he might be daily saved; till, passing beyond the wilderness of Edom, he had entered the promised land. Christian! this lesson is yours. Rejoice, yea! hourly be grateful, that you have a Saviour lifted up to whom you can always look. O never forget this privilege. Yea! never abandon this duty, till, passing through life's wilderness, you have entered into life's Paradise; til!,

H

Leaning on his dear faithful breast,
You have resigned your breath;
And in his soft embraces rest,
Beyond the vale of death.

Still, to this our personal salvation, there is a duty incumbent upon every believer on earth, from which he must not shrink; a work which in this world he can do, and which cannot be done in heaven. This is to point out the Cross to others, his perishing fellow-men; to tell to others what wonderful things God has done for his soul. How willingly the healed Israelite must have aided his suffering kinsman, to the place where he might look upon the brazen serpent? So constantly must the true christian be ready to speak of his Lord, to shew men their need of Him, and to direct them in the way of his peace. For this very purpose has Christ left his people in the world. They are the lights of the worldthey are the salt of the earth. O had the Church of God, in every age, instead of turning its powers against itself—one portion against another-been led out in all its members, and with all its sanctified gifts into an united mission for the world's salvation, what multitudes now, ignorant of