which rests on your future. God only can lift it, and He bids you wait till He sees fit to do so. You don't know the way by which He is leading you; but it is enough that He does lead you. Trust Him. Be assured that nothing can happen save by the permission, the appointment of His loving wisdom, and that "He will never, no, never, forsake you."

66

Through waves, and clouds, and storms
He gently clears thy way:

Wait thou His time, so shall the night
Soon end in joyous day.

Still heavy is thy heart?

Still sink thy spirits down?

Cast off the weight, let fear depart,

Bid every care be gone.

Leave to His sovereign sway

To choose and to command,

So shalt thou, wondering, own His way,
How wise, how strong His hand."

But if you are to enjoy John Brown's comfort and peace, you must have his faith in the Lord Jesus. Do you think you have it? Perhaps you have to reply to that question, 'I am afraid not." No wonder, then, if you are in trouble, that you find it very hard to bear. Do you not see that it was sent for the very purpose of making you feel your need of a better comforter than you can find in all the world? And the Lord is even now waiting to be your comforter. Go to Him, confessing what a sinner you have been, and how much you need His mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ died for you, that you might have life. Believe in Him. His blood will cleanse away all your guilt, and His Holy Spirit will renew your heart and make it holy. As one of God's own children, you will then have a right to trust in His fatherly love, and you may be as certain as that you live of this, that whether He sends you sorrow or joy it will be all for the best.

GOD makes a way for his people where they cannot find one : that hath mercy on them shall lead them."

"He

Trials being sanctified, increase faith; and faith being increased, is again put to the trial.

God out of Christ must always be terrible to a sinner. What a mercy it is that we have nothing to do with him in such a character! "Fury is not in me."

God's providence rules our lot, and his word should rule our desires : "Seek not great things for thyself."

If God permits sin, he never sanctions it: it is always and everywhere the abominable thing which he hates.

Holiness is the fruit of election, the evidence of everlasting love, and the end of redemption. An unholy sinner is a stranger to these doctrines.

Where Providence calls you, the God of providence will be with and preserve you: "I will guide thee with mine eye."

God's sons are all Christ's servants, and they serve him from love, cheerfully, and to the end of their days.

Christians are often employed in digging wells to find comfort, and the deeper they go the darker they get; the Fountain of life, salvation, and comfort is above. Call upon thy God, and look up, and the light of His love will soon cheer thee.

Look not behind thee; there is nothing there worth having: look still before thee, and press toward the mark.

Love to God cools as love to forbidden objects prevails, or love to lawful objects becomes inordinate.

He that cannot find enough in Christ for a day, how can he expect to find enough in him for eternity!

Rescued.

IN America, as in England, thoughtful and pious persons are filled with anxiety for the future as they observe the decline of parental authority. In both

countries young people begin to earn their own living at so early an age that they often become independent of their parents before they have wisdom or knowledge or decision of character enough to choose their own companions or to decide upon their own course. The following extract

from one of the publications of the American Tract Society, contains a truthful narrative of a youth whose "feet were almost gone, his steps had well nigh slipped" from their course. His danger and deliverance may prove a salutary warning to some similarly tempted in our own land.

"I think, when a fellow earns his own living, he might be allowed to stir without three or four to watch him. Mother sits up till I come in, and if the clock has struck eleven her face is as long as my arm. I am tired of living so."

It was not from a desire for dissipation that Edward Norton made the above speech. He was arriving at the age when a boy often resents his mother's loving control. She seemed much less a friend than Jake Hurd, who stood by his side on the piazza of the hotel, where he had been lounging away an hour after the closing of the store, watching games of billiards.

"So I say, Ned. Take another cigar; it is only ten o'clock. I left off boarding at home because I wouldn't stand being treated like a baby. Now, nobody knows when I go to bed, and when I get up. I am only responsible to Edgar and Williams, who are satisfied with me, and pay my salary regularly. Mother's letters give me the blues, though. I took an agency through Missouri last year, and thought I'd escape curtain-lectures and mother's apron strings. I stopped over a sabbath at St. Joseph, and there in the post-office were four letters from my mother, lecturing me for my wild ways. She had found out my address from my employer. I

gave up in despair; but to board at home, and be trammelled by rules and regulations like a twelve-year-old boy, is a thing I won't bear."

"No boy of spirit would,” replied Edward. "If I am capable of earning my living, I think I can be trusted with my evenings. If mother supported me, it would alter the case. As things are, I am my own master, and won't stand being snubbed every time I come in late any longer.”

“I like your spirit, boy," said Jake. "Tell your mother to-night just what you have told me, and she'll give in. Mothers will go through anything rather than have a son leave home. I don't set up for being pious, and don't mean to; and the sooner my mother makes up her mind to it, the better it will be for all concerned.”

Edward winced a little at this, for one short year before he had taken his place at the Lord's table, and professed Christ to be his Master. His neglected Bible and unbent knee gave him moments of sharp uneasiness, but the company of Jake Hurd and a few kindred spirits did much to quiet his fears, and Satan seemed about to succeed in tearing him from his mother's arms of love and prayer.

He walked home in company with Jake, who lived near. His eye unconsciously turned to the second-storey window, where the gas always burned while his mother waited. All was dark. Jake read his anxiety in his quickened step, and said, “Don't get excited, Ned. The old lady has given it up. I broke my mother in just so. Good-night.”

Edward hurried in and up the stairs. The sound of his night-key had always brought footsteps to the banisters and the question, in the familiar voice of his mother, “Is that you, Ned?" but now all was still. His heart beat strangely as he groped his way to his mother's room, and lighting the gas, found a note directed to him, saying she had been sent for to her mother's dying bed, and requesting him to close the house the next morning and join her. He wandered through the deserted rooms where his three brothers slept, and back where his little sister's shoes and dresses had been

thrown down in haste in her empty crib as they prepared for their sad journey. He felt oppressed. His father's portrait hanging over the mantelpiece seemed to look him through, and the last words that issued from those lips, pallid in death, "Edward will be a protection and support to you, my poor wife," rang in his ears.

Instead of helping her bear smoking, and serving Satan own master, as you call it, Suppose you should never What then?”

He went to his room, but could not sleep. His conscience whispered, "How could you let your mother pass through such a scene of agony alone? her sorrow, you were lounging, with Jake Hurd. You are your to-night. How do you like it? hear your mother's voice again. "I haven't done anything so I am a hard worker, and need a little fresh air and recreation. This telegram was unfortunate. I earn my living, and must have some rights."

very wrong.

Edward could not quiet his stern accuser in this way. "Think of your Saviour, your King and Creator, who could at any time command legions of angels at His bidding, whose wisdom at twelve years old confounded the wise men in the temple; think of His obedience and submission to His sinful earthly parents. Never till His helpless feet and hands were nailed to the cross did He cease His filial care and love. Are you His follower; and because you earn a few dollars each week, have you joined idle fellows in deriding a mother's love? Beware lest death end her night watches, and leave you 'your own master.’”

Edward tossed restlessly upon his pillow, exclaiming, "What a wretch I have been! what a short-sighted fool to let Jake Hurd influence me against my mother! She must have sent to the store for me. I wish she had scolded me in that note. I shouldn't feel half so bad. I am glad our little Ben did not catch me where I was."

The large hall-clock struck twelve. As it re-echoed through the deserted house, Edward could bear it no longer, and arose to walk the floor. "After all, mother is unselfish, and