previous excitement visible in both of his parishioners arose not from mistrust, but the very reverse; they believed in the for-ever providence of God as truly as in His yesterday and to-day providence, which had helped them hitherto. And their simple minds having grasped the idea that the future help was to come through this Timothy's Legacy, they were elated beyond themselves at the possibility of its being so

near.

“Well, my friends, what are we to do? What is our next step?"

"Sir, we don't wish to be in any unmannerly haste, but it seems to us that there isn't nothing next to do but to take the benefit which the good Lord has brought to our very doors !"

"And we never knew it!" sobbed poor old Mary.

"Ah, my dear friends, isn't that just the way with God's great gift to us? The grace of God that bringeth salvation' through Christ is near us, so very near that we have only to put out our hands and take it; and yet we do not heed it, though, alas, too many poor sinners know that it is so-but not with that saving knowledge which is as life from the dead to the burdened soul."

"Truly I can say 'Amen' to that, sir! For years I groped in the dark for something or someone that would bring me happiness, when all of a sudden I found that it was close to me in the adorable person of Jesus, but that I needed the Holy Spirit to open my poor blind eyes before I could see Him, and unloose my tongue before I could hail Him as my Lord and Saviour; but when the blessed Spirit lightened up my candle, and made the blind to see, then, ah, then, sir! you can guess the rest-power to cry for pardon seemed to come with the power of sight. And just as 'tis with this here Timothy Trust, I found that it was all done for me, I had only to go in and take. Ah, if poor selftrusting sinners could only see things as the Lord has prepared them for 'em, there would be a sight more happiness!"

1 Titus ii. II.

Old Jacob was right. The happiness he and his dear old wife experienced on finding that their pastor had been at work for them in this Timothy's Trust, is nothing to the happiness that you, my reader, may experience in regard to an interest in the Heavenly Trust! For you may know at once, to your endless comfort, that Jesus is working for you, pleading for you, preparing for you, and only waiting to make you a partaker of all the rich blessings which He purchased for you by His death upon the cross: blessings for soul and body, in the redemption of one from the power of the grave, and the salvation of the other from the second death.

In the grand concern of everlasting life, Christ is not only our Intercessor, but also our Saviour.

The Heavenly Trust is in the bestowing of One who is more ready to give than you are to ask. That One is God, who for Jesus' sake gives eternal life to all who seek it through the leading and teaching of the Holy Spirit. Seek it at once; no interloper can creep in and deprive you of it, or set the great Giver up "against you," as the worldly saying is but death-death may come between your intentions and God's appointments! Another New Year may dawn upon your neighbours, but will it upon you? Christ, in His twofold character of Saviour and Intercessor, is ready to do all for you to-day that will ensure you a glorious partaking in the benefits of this Heavenly Trust; but to-morrow-ah, whoever saw a to-morrow to tell you upon what basis you may found any hope from its promises, or its power to help?

Let me beg you to seek an interest in this Heavenly Trust. It is free to all seekers; none are too poor, none are too young, none are too old, and, oh, mark this well, none are too sinful, for

"Not the righteous, Sinners Jesus came to call."

X. Y. Z.

N

Never Despair!

EVER despair! never despair!

Is the word of Jehovah everywhere.
It comes in the beams of morning light;
It comes in the hush of stilly night;

It comes on the pale star's flickering ray;
It comes in the blaze of bright noonday;
It comes when the shadows of evening fall;
In the gloom of the midnight's darkest pall;
In the trees aspiring heavenward;
In the lowly daisy-sprinkled, sward;
'Tis borne in the flowers' perfume along
It sounds in the glad birds' evensong;
It comes in the cool, refreshing rain,
In the rustling ears of the golden grain;
It cometh from out the misty cloud;
'Tis heard in the shrill wind piping loud;
It sounds in the summer zephyr's breath,
And sparkles bright in the snowdrift's wreath;
It cometh along with the gentle breeze,
With the storm that lashes the angry seas;
'Tis seen in the bright and golden sky;
In the storm that rages wrathfully;

When the dark'ning cloud o'ershades the land,
'Tis seen in the flash of the levin brand;
When the rolling thunder rends the air
And shakes the earth, 'tis uttered there;
'Tis written clear in life's history's page,
From infant hours to hoary age;
In every page of life's chequered scene,
In joy and sorrow the work is seen;
And in the leaves of that volume old
'Tis writ in letters of burnished gold;

From creation's dawn down the course of time, It stands in characters sublime.

'Twas heard from the lips of angels when

They burst on the gaze of those watching men; 'Twas heard in that last sad bitter cry That came from suffering Calvary.

Never despair! never despair!

From earth and ocean, and sky and air;
From the flowery breast of nature fair;
From her rocky bosom cold and bare.

And in the record of men's lives, there
'Tis found. In God's great love and care
For man's salvation sweet and rare:
The voice comes to us everywhere:
Never despair! Never despair.

E. S. H.

The Go-between.

ou have dangerous work here, my friend," said a gentleman to a workman who was engaged in cutting out a portion of a steep embankment.

"Rather, sir,” replied the labourer quietly. "I think of it every morning before I come to work when I am looking ahead for the day."

"And not afterwards?" questioned the gentleman with a smile.

Not arterwards," returned the other (whom we shall call Jim), with a nod. "You see, it would not do to be jobbing away in a sort of dread, like, or expecting trouble, when the work requires one's attention. I know it's all right."

The gentleman was a Christian, and he paused for a moment while he reflected on the meaning of the words he had heard. "How can one have a heart to do anything while a secret dread is oppressing him ?" he thought. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.' Is this a contradiction? No, the salvation is your own, the 'fear' must be the dread of offending a Holy God while engaged in His service; not of sudden destruction or sure judgment." He did not express his thoughts aloud, however, but spoke again after a time.

"What do you know is all right, my man ?"

"I know where I am going to, sir, if anything should happen; and that's what all in the world don't know, and it is a grand secret to have."

"I understand you," replied his questioner; "you mean you are sure of heaven; but, my friend, you are a sinner." Jim looked fully up into the face of his companion, and

a smile of singular intelligence broke over his sunburnt, rugged features.

“Ah, sir, can it be as you don't know there is a gobetween ?"

It was simple faith, and yet true philosophy. The poor unlearned labourer knew he was a sinner meriting God's wrath, but trusted in another, who had met all claims against him by enduring the punishment due to sin, and dying, "the just for the unjust," upon the cross.

It is this principle of a go-between, or, in other words, of a mediator, which makes the plan of salvation such a mighty conception, worthy the great mind of God, and yet, as told to us, a simple story which a child can receive and understand. It is the strong point of the gospel, or good news to man, for instead of fanaticism it is, as we have said, sound philosophy, which "cannot be gainsaid or resisted."

The same principle rules in nature as in grace. God governs by fixed laws, which are never infringed or set aside save in rare cases, as by a miracle. The same necessity for something to stand as a shield between us and impending danger, strong enough to bear its full brunt without being destroyed, is apparent everywhere. For example:

When there is a strife of the elements, and the storm rages without, you could not endure its fury if exposed to it for some time; but when enclosed in well-built walls, round which the wild wind howls in vain, you sleep securely. The ship tossed on the bosom of the ocean has no chance of escape unless her timbers are strong enough to resist the surging billows. Only something fire-proof can remain unharmed amid the action of the devouring flames.

God gave to mankind a law; man disobeyed and broke it, and so must die under its curse. God's justice demanded full satisfaction; He was merciful, but He was also strictly just. His Son came into the world to stand in the sinners' place. He came between the poor fallen guilty one and justice. He fulfilled the law and "made it honourable," yet died under its curse as an evil-doer. He met the full