as God is true) they shall be "helped" likewise-yea, all through their lives-to the very end of their time-state-such shall most assuredly be the case. They shall be brought off "more than conquerors through Him that hath loved them;" but, at the same time, there shall be no more cause for creature-pride or self-sufficient boasting, than there was for those who voyaged with Paul, and respecting whom we read, "And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land."

Ah, beloved, how often we think personally, if it should please our God to grant us to get safe at last, to adopt the figure here before us, upon what a very small piece-by what a mere fragment-we shall escape. Just enough-and only enough-to keep our head above water, and float our poor shattered, tempest-tossed frame into the fair haven; and then, beloved, we shall sing-and you will sing-as we look back upon life's little history, with all its chequered scenes and hair-breadth escapes and deliverances, "Oh, I was marvellously helped!-marvellously helped! and to Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be all the glory!"

Marvellously helped!" Dear reader, cannot you imagine both Old and New Testament saints saying so, as they glance at their wilderness journey?

"I was marvellously helped," says Noah, "with wisdom and strength and perseverance to build the ark. The sneers and the taunts and the threats of the surrounding ones had no effect upon me. And, when at its completion, I saw two and two of every creature moving together from all places, to enter the ark, I gazed and wondered and adored, but felt no dismay nor alarm. Calmly, too, at length I entered; and, when the Lord shut me in,' I was 'marvellously helped,' for I felt He was there, too. So that, when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the clouds of heaven poured down their mighty torrents, until at last that vast fabric, with its numberless and so dissimilar occupants floated upon the face of the deep, I knew what it was to rest in God without fear or apprehension. Yea, I was marvellously helped.' Nor less so, when, at Jehovah's bidding, I came forth from the ark, and not a single living creature was to be seen. A death-like silence prevailed, so in contrast with the scenes before the flood; yet even then I was 'marvellously helped,' as I built an altar unto the Lord, and offered Him thanksgiving and praise."

"Oh," says Abraham, "I was 'marvellously helped' on that memorable occasion when the Lord called upon me to go to a certain mountain which He would tell me of, and there offer up my Isaac. I was so 'marvellously helped,' as to be kept as calm and deliberate as possible even at such a juncture, and in such otherwise agonizing circumstances. I knew it was the Lord's will and the Lord's way; and its very strangeness and singularity caused me to feel confident that in some equally strange and singular manner He would appear

for my succour and deliverance. And so it was; and never before had I so glorious a view of that great offering which, in the fulness of time, should be made in the only-begotten Son of God."

"I was marvellously helped,'" says Jacob, "in that never-to-beforgotten scene by the brook Jabbok. Oh, how intense was my anguish, when I heard of the coming forth against me of my brother Esau, with his four hundred men! I saw nothing but destruction before me. Wives and children and self were as so many dead creatures in my view; but, after all the pains and precautions I took for their safety, how wondrous was the power which came over me, and how 'marvellously was I helped' to wrestle with the Angel! I felt I neither could nor would let Him go until He blessed me; and He did bless me there.""

"How marvellously helped' was I," exclaims Moses, "notwithstanding my previous fears and objections, when Aaron and I went in before Pharaoh. I was in no wise intimidated, but as selfpossessed and fearless as possible. I felt that it was the Lord's errand upon which I went, and that He would stand by and succour me. And so it was time after time when I went in before Pharaoh with heavy tidings and dismal threats. So when judgment after judgment came, I was not in the least dismayed nor terrified. And marvellously was I helped,' too, the night the first-born of the Egyptians were slain; and when we came cut of Egypt; and when at the Red Sea the Lord said, 'Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.' I had no fear, but as calmly as possible led that mighty host between the smitten waters, as they stood up a wall on our right-hand and a wall on our left-hand. I had not so much as a trembling thought about their re-flowing or breaking in upon us ere we had all passed over."

"I was marvellously helped,'" says David, "when I went forth to meet Goliath of Gath, in the midst of the assembled hosts of the Philistines and of Israel. Not the semblance of fear possessed me. I was as sure of victory as when I stood upon the giant with his sword in my hand, and struck off his head. I knew-and rejoiced in the fact that the Lord saved not with sword or spear; that the battle was the Lord's, and that He would give the enemy into our hands."

"I was marvellously helped,'" says Elijah, "when I stood before Ahab, and the false prophets called upon their gods to come down and consume the burnt sacrifice. Oh, how the Lord stood by and strengthened me then as I defied them, and then, in the midst of their disappointment and mortification, called upon God to prove that He was verily the living and true God, and that I was His servant, and that I did all by His sanction and approval. Oh, yes, I was marvellously helped' then."

6

"I was marvellously helped,' says Joshua," as I bade the sun and moon to stand still, in order that the battle against the armies of Israel might be prolonged."

"I was 'marvellously helped,'" exclaims Gideon, "as I went forth against the Midianites, who lay round about their camps like grasshoppers for multitude; but oh, how perfectly calm and self-possessed was I, notwithstanding!"

"I was marvellously helped,"" declares Daniel, "in the face of all that my foes did to secure my destruction. What a blessed night was that I passed in the den of lions! Not a calmer ncr a happier nor a more fearless season did I ever experience."

"How' marvellously helped' were we," say the three Hebrews,"even though the burning fiery furnace was heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated. Ah, what a companionship was ours in that furnace! What communion was that when Jesus, the Son of God, walked with us and talked with us in the midst of the fire; when our bands brake, and not so much as the smell of fire passed upon us, and when not a hair of our head was singed! Marvellously helped,' indeed."

"Marvellously helped" was the martyr Stephen, when he cried, "I see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God;" and when, too, with his dying breath he exclaimed, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."

"Marvellously helped" was Peter in prison, when the next day Herod would have brought him forth, and put him to death.

"Marvellously helped" was Paul, in his "deaths oft," in his perils in the city, in his perils in the wilderness, in his perils in the sea, in his perils among false brethren.

And, reader, what dear child of God but is prepared to testify to the fact of how "marvellously helped" he has been in the ten thousand dangers and entanglements and besetments with which he has been familiar, and in connexion with which his Lord has supported and sustained, defended and delivered him? But, mark you, in all his experiences, the Lord has ever kept prominently in the foreground, that it has been by His help and not the creature's strength, by His wisdom and not by human knowledge, foresight, or skill, His own dear ones have been guarded and guided in their life, in death, and finally brought to that kingdom where they shall ceaselessly sing, "I was marvellously helped' in all and through all until at length I was brought to this blessed inheritance." St. Luke's, Bedminster, March 9, 1872.

THE EDITOR.

THOUGHTS ON GENESIS-THE TOWER OF BABEL. "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven," &c.-GEN. xi. 4—7.

WE may learn a lesson from these verses of the pride of the human heart. We would have our name perpetuated by some Babel act or other, and it is not the men of this world alone who would build themselves a city and a tower," for is there not amongst the people of God sadly too great

a tendency to rear up something which shall redound to their own honour and glory? Even the lowliest of them are prone enough to try to build an edifice with the "wood, hay, and stubble" of their own self-righteousness, like Capernaum of old, exalting themselves unto heaven. Oh, what need for each of us, as individual Christians, to be on our guard in this respect, and watch as well as pray lest we enter into temptation! When the Lord is pleased to magnify His grace in us, and by us, in any degree whatever, how quickly does the arch-enemy of our souls take advantage of this to harass and torment us with the insinuation that we are superior to many we see around us of our fellow-Christians! "Did you not do that well?" or, "Did you not shine on such an occasion?" are injections into the mind which many truly Spirit-taught disciples cannot be unfamiliar with, if they would candidly confess it. At such times how earnestly does the poor soul struggle to get free with a "Get thee behind me, Satan," which avails nothing until we fly to the Strong for strength, even to Him who can put all the armies of the alien to flight, and is "able to succour them that are tempted." How hard it is to learn that best lesson of all, and the one which comes nearest to our Saviour's own likeness-the lesson of true humility! Perhaps another lesson we may draw from this paɛsage is, the facility with which we attempt to form our own plans. We, in effect, say, "To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year," &c., which is only another form of Babel-building; but the Lord comes down and puts all our schemes to flight, and our plans into confusion, scattering our ideas, and making our devices of none effect. "A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps." In what numberless instances has this been exemplified in the writer's own case! How needful, then, to seek counsel of the Lord, and say, "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that."

These builders had all one language at first, and the language of the world is still the same: "Go to, let us build;" but "the lofty looks of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." No amount of carnal building will enable a man to get to heaven; nothing can be added to Christ's work, nor anything taken from it, and the plan was for ever settled before the foundations of the world were laid; it is all order, without any confusion, and is accomplished like the work of a wise master-builder without any mistakes. He says, "My purposes shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Every stone shall be nicely fitted in, and not one be wanting, for the building must be fitly framed together that it may grow into a holy temple unto the Lord, until its completion, when the top-stone is brought with shoutings of "Grace, grace unto it!"

How earnest should be our inquiry: "Am I built up into Christ? Am I taken out of the quarry of nature, and made a polished stone in His spiritual temple? If so, what can I render to the Lord for all His benefits unto me?" Nothing, it is true, in payment, but surely something by way of return. The Psalmist says, "I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." "I will shew forth His salvation from day to day."

"Be all my heart and all my days
Devoted to my Saviour's praise;
And let my glad obedience prove
How much I owe, how much I love!"

W.

Wayside Notes.

LIFE LESSONS.

"Thou shalt see greater things than these."-JOHN i. 50.

THE expiration of another month bids us again take up the pen to write our "Notes by the Way" for the family of God. The work is important -the flock want feeding-the lambs want tending. Feeling its importance, we look up to the throne and cry, "Oh, for the unction of the Holy Spirit! Oh, for fresh unfoldings of a precious Christ! Oh, to write as for eternity!" and as we put up these aspirations, that portion of our blessed Lord's declaration drops upon our heart, "Thou shalt see greater things;" and are we not, beloved, constantly learning strange lessons in the school of Christ-things that prove contrary to our calculations and ideas? Are we not being led from chamber to chamber in God's house, discovering thereby the frailty of human nature, and the all-sufficiency, excellency, power, love, and mercy of Jesus?

In early

We did not have such lowly views of human nature once. experience we calculated that the saints of God must be most spotless, amiable beings; the tender plant of divine grace burst forth under the influence of the sweet rays of the sun of righteousness; the spices became fragrant on the mountains of Zion; there was a charm about the early buddings forth of the new life, and the babe in grace, thinking no evil, calculated, "Oh, what godly people God's people must be; how holy their lives; how sanctified their conversation; how hallowed their society. Oh, that I could creep into their company, it must be a little heaven below to be in their midst; but, alas! does he find it so? nay, will he not find that, with the best of them, the old Adam nature is there still, and that they are far from being such amiable creatures in temper and conduct as he had been led to expect? A Christian, known to us, had greatly profited by the ministrations of an eminent servant of God; and, in the fulness of her heart, said, "I must go to him and tell him what the Lord has done for my soul," but, being of a nervous, timid disposition, she feared to do so, till, encouraged by a fellow-Christian, the two proceeded to the vestry together. The great man being surrounded by members of his congregation, they waited outside for some time; presently he issued forth with flowing robes. "Oh, sir," said the trembler, "I want to tell you what the Lord has done for my soul." "Glad you know it," said the great man, and passed on. Oh, how cut to the quick was that child of God. Yet did she learn the lesson-that the best of men are but mortals. We recollect experiencing in younger days a similar rebuff. We had desired to tell a minister of the work of grace upon our heart; we sought an interview, and gained it; yet, while we went into his presence warm hearted, we came out chilled and wounded. We know it is not always so, and there are some gracious men ever ready to listen to the lispings of the babe in grace, cheering and encouraging such on the way; but still we meet with enough to show us that we shall look in vain for such a thing as perfection in the flesh-the only perfect One who trod this earth of ours being the Lord Jesus Christ.

P