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of their life to try "to help those to right that suffer wrong," or at least to comfort the weary sorrowful ones under oppression; but the only One who can do it perfectly, and who can deliver from the oppression which is at the root of all the system of wrong, is the Deliverer mentioned by Peter,1 "Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." When He was on earth, the obstinacy of a malady was no bar to the exercise of His healing power. It mattered not of how long standing was the infirmity, whether eighteen (as in the case of this poor bowed-down woman) or thirty-eight years (as in the instance of the poor man lying at the pool of Bethesda), whom Jesus knew "had been now a long time in that case."2 It needed but the reassuring words, "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity," but the putting forth of the healing power, and the miracle was wrought. It needed but contact with Jesus; "He laid His hands on her: and immediately she was made straight." And it is the same now. Not always manifestly for our bodies, as it may not always be good for us to lose the teaching reminder of the thorn in the flesh, but always most certainly for our souls.

Truly the state of this poor woman is a fit picture of ours. "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions;" and now we are bent double, with eyes fixed on the ground, on earthly things, and we can in no wise lift up ourselves. That is one of the first lessons we have to learn-our inability to lift ourselves, to look above the deadening influences around us. We hear a great deal about elevating the masses, and raising ourselves, but we can do no good thing of ourselves," we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves," and until Jesus gives us the power we make only vain efforts. See how some are tormented, bowed down by the power of a bad habit, which they are continually resolving to overcome; a bad temper, which they determine not to give way to ; a spirit of sloth, which ruins their prospects for life, or the temptation to 2 John v. 6.

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1 Acts x. 38.

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indulge the body, to give way to the drink, for which they loathe themselves in their sober moments. Can we break through these things, or any other which is our besetting sin ? It is out of our power, and we don't begin to struggle rightly against them until "strengthened with all might by His Spirit in the inner man," and then the cry is often heard, “To will is present with me, but how to perform I know not," "for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that

ye would.” So we know only where we must lose the heavy burden of sin which crushes us down and prevents us from walking uprightly; where Christian, in the Pilgrim's Progress, lost his-at the foot of the cross of Christ. When he reached that point in his journey his burden fell off, and he went on his way rejoicing. If we have not got so far as that, if we have not yet been taught by the Spirit of God to say, "He loved me and gave Himself for me;" if by faith we cannot yet rest our hopes of acceptance with God on the atonement made by Christ crucified for men, no wonder that we go mourning, saying, "Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me;" for "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me." Satan likes to keep a soul looking down; he cannot bear that we raise our eyes to look unto Jesus. But look up, faint heart; ask for the help and teaching of that Holy Spirit whose office it is to "take of the things of Christ and show them unto us." Hear the word, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;" and if you wish to be saved from your sins, to be loosed from your infirmity, from the bondage of sin and Satan, it shall be even as you will, for God "willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should repent and live.”

M. S. P.

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The Shower and the Rainbow.

ow I wish it didn't rain," said a little fellow to his "It always rains when I want to be in

father.

the garden."

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No, no, not always," answered the father. "Remember how long a time you were out this morning."

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Yes, but you weren't with me then; and now that you could come and help me it has begun to rain."

"Never mind, my boy, it will leave off by-and-by. Now let us go into the tool-house and put it tidy; that will do nearly as well as being in the garden, won't it?"

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Oh, yes, papa! that will be nice," answered the child brightly and cheerfully; and in a moment he had entirely forgotten the disappointment caused by the shower.

After a little while, as the rain passed off and the sun began to shine, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky.

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'See, my boy," said the father, "what a splendid rainbow there is; we shall soon be able to go out and do some gardening."

"Oh, how pretty! how pretty!" exclaimed the child, pointing to the bow in the sky. "Now I am glad that it rained, as we should not have seen the rainbow if there had been no rain."

"No; but a little time ago you were vexed that there was a shower."

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'Yes, papa; but I didn't know it would bring such a beautiful rainbow."

There was not very much in what the child said; but there was quite sufficient to teach some of his elders a lesson. Let us see if we can draw one from it.

Are not some of us very much inclined to make the most of our troubles, and to forget that,

"As health to bodies bitter draughts impart,

So trials are but physic to the heart"?

Sometimes a small disappointment is magnified into a great trial, while, if we did but know it, that same disappointment was really for our good. As there would be no rainbows if there were no rain, so our pleasures would lose half their joy if we never experienced troubles great or small.

Who is it that is most thankful for the blessings of health and strength, and is most likely to thank God that he is well? Is it not the man who has known sickness, and understands what suffering is? Most certainly. The sickness was a trial while it lasted, but if it was the means of teaching a lesson of gratitude, and thus bringing a soul into loving communion with the Father of all mercies, it has yielded precious fruit.

"Nothing could have happened more unfortunately,” is an expression often on some persons' lips, but in most cases this is a very great exaggeration, and no more to be believed than the child's hasty exclamation, "It always rains when I want to be in the garden." Very possibly the event, than

which "nothing could have happened more unfortunately," will prove a real good, and, like the disappointing shower, be the means of producing a beautiful rainbow.

"Many of the trials of good men," says one writer, "look like miseries, which yet, on the whole, appear to have conduced greatly to their happiness; witness the many prayers which they poured out in those calamities, the many seasonable and shining deliverances which succeeded them, and the many hymns of praise they sang to God their deliverer; so they seem to have been cast into the fire on purpose that the odour of their graces might diffuse itself all abroad."

We all know that some persons are naturally of a more cheerful temperament than others; to them nothing seems to come very much amiss; they make the best of everything, and seem always happy and contented. Very thankful should such persons be that this is the case with them; and very careful ought they to be, too, that they do not judge with too great harshness their less happily constituted brethren; for what to one person may appear but a passing shower, to another may seem a terrible storm.

But while we would judge our more desponding neighbours very leniently, and make all allowance for natural temperament or constitutional weakness, we would give them a word of kindly counsel.

In a great many cases this tendency to look at the dark side of every circumstance, to be always fearing the worst, and to be constantly imagining that something dreadful is going to happen, might be lessened, if not entirely overcome, by keeping the body and mind actively employed.

All the while the little boy stood looking out of window, doing nothing but watch the rain-drops as they pattered against the glass, or fell upon the thirsty ground, the little shower appeared a very heavy one, and he fancied that it always rained when he wanted to be out; but as soon as other employment was found, he forgot the rain, and at once became happy and cheerful, and very shortly was in

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