face, that pierced him like a sword; that look he could not stand: "he went out and wept bitterly." It was the Saviour's love that had broken his heart.

Reader, that was repentance; it was a sorrow for, and a hatred of, sin; it was a bitter mourning for having grieved the Lord of Life.

And now I have a question to put to you before we part. Have you denied your Lord? do you deny Him? "Nay, how can we do so?" I think I hear some of you ask. I will tell

you.

When you are with those who make light of the gospel

news, do you pretend to set no value on it either? When When you

hear men laughing at religion and at the means of grace, do you join them? When you hear people take God's holy name in vain, do you rebuke them? or do you sometimes do the same? God forbid! But know, assuredly, that if you do these things you practically deny Him, and as deeply wound the blessed Spirit as Peter did! Yet oh, if you have ever been betrayed into Peter's sin, like him repent! The same look of intense love is fastened upon you; say, do you not feel its power? And remember that a

broken and contrite heart God will not despise.

"O sinner, lift the eye of faith,
To true repentance turning;
Bethink thee of the curse of sin,
Its awful guilt discerning;
Upon the Crucified One look,
And thou shalt read, as in a book,

What well is worth thy learning.

"O sinner, mark, and ponder well
Sin's awful condemnation;
Think what a sacrifice it cost

To purchase thy salvation;
Had Jesus never bled and died,
Then what could thee and all betide,

But uttermost damnation."

IV.

THE NEARNESS OF GOD.

"Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you."-JAMES iv. 8.

HIS is a marvellous truth; and it is a very precious promise for the soul to rest on. We can scarcely realize the extent of its meaning, for it is almost beyond our finite comprehension; but I am sure that if we fervently believed it, as we cught to do, our thoughts, our deeds, our words, our prayers,

and our whole lives would be far different.

Here we have the distinct assurance that whenever we approach our Maker, He comes near to us! Have you ever thought of this, dear reader? and does it not strike you as being almost too strange and too beautiful to be true? Yet our blessed Lord, in that touching story of the prodigal son, taught us the very same thing. When the poor spendthrift of the parable began to yearn for his father's love and his father's home, and to retrace his steps, while he was yet a great way off his father saw him, and ran