such seasons stood first and foremost, as the brightest, the best, the most blessed of our whole lives? Hath aught with such seasons been compared ? Hath any one thing, or hath a multitude of things combined, served even in the leastwise to eclipse or to blot out of remembrance that supernatural vision, with its supernatural blessedness?

This thought, then, may in some faint degree help us with regard to what "the glory that is to be revealed" must be. If nothing, amid all the changes and vicissitudes of this evervarying life, could obliterate the mere supernatural vision and supernatural indulgence of it may be half-a-century gone by, what must be the glory, where "the city hath no need of the sun neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof?"

Regret.

How grieved I am, most blessed Lord, that I should e'er distrust thee.

I re

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gard my sin as far more heinous and flagrant than the want of faith upon the part of those who have seen far less of Thy most merciful and gracious dealing than have I. Much of their sin is in ignorance, whilst mine is against light and knowledge. My acquaintance with Thee, most blessed Lord, is not that of mere hearsay. It is not simply that I have heard or read of Thy dealings with my fellow men; but I have proved Thee-tested Thee! Sure I am that if one poor creature more than another could say, "Thou hast known my soul in adversities," I am that poor creature.

With truth, most blessed Lord, I can testify, "Thou art my hope, O Lord God; Thou art my trust from my youth. By Thee have I been holden up from the womb: Thou art He that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of Thee."

Oh, Lord, and well indeed may I add; "I am as a wonder unto many, but Thou art my strong Refuge."

Further Pleading.

BUT, blessed Lord, it is under these circumstances that I am-and well may I be so deeply humbled. I am bound to declare, that never, in a single or a solitary instance, hast Thou been unmindful of me. Whatever may have been my trials, or however critical or complicated my position, Thou hast always given heed to my cries. In perplexities so oft-in positions so critical-so frequently at perfect loss to know what to do; Thou (adored be Thy name!) hath always been my Helper and Deliverer. But yet, alas! alas! in spite of all this, how ready am I to distrust Thee, when fresh perplexities arise, or new difficulties present themselves. At once, in great measure, if not altogether, I lose sight of the past, in regard to the succour and deliverances which have characterized it; and, contemplating renewed complications, am wont to exclaim as the patriarch did, "All these things are against me."

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What becomes me?

INSTEAD of cherishing the fear, or even for a moment indulging in the Jacobspirit to which I have just alluded, did I regard matters as it behoves me to do, I should construe fresh troubles or perplexities into indications that the Lord was again about to display His wisdom, power, and love, in some renewed proof of His divine condescension and Fatherly care.

Elijah-Lessons.

SHOULD I not be justified in believing that new difficulties were only introductory to fresh deliverances? I think SO. I quote one instance in proof. Had the prophet continued to hide himself by the brook Cherith; had there been no drying up of its waters; and had the ravens continued to have brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, would not he, and would not the Church of

God since his day, have been considerable losers, rather than gainers, thereby? What about the widow and her son in connexion with whom "the barrel of meal wasted not, nor did the cruse of oil fail, until the Lord sent rain upon the earth?"

Most clear it is, and, beyond all question, most certain, that, by the drying up of the brook Cherith, and by the discontinuance of the ravens' visits to the prophet, the Lord Jehovah not only showed that He had other objects upon whom to bestow His love and favour, but to prove likewise His divine omniscience, the boundlessness of His wisdom, the infinite diversity of His operations, and the omnipotency of His power.

Hence did I, or others of His children, place a right construction upon new trials and fresh perplexities, we should regard them as signs and tokens that the Lord was again about to "make bare his arm," and to show afresh, in some most timely and appropriate way, what His goodness, what His faithfulness, what His divine all-sufficiency.