great things for God, one who wielded, wherever he might be, a very powerful Christian influence.

"It is a very short and simple text," he continued, with a smile : "Yet not I.' The words occur twice, you will remember, in St. Paul's writings: 'I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' 'I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.''

Yes, of course I knew the words well; but I never thought over them before as I did that day, and many a day since; and especially when entering on any new stage of life's journey, as we are doing this New Year's Day, when tempted to anxiety or fear concerning the trials that may be before me, these words, so simple, yet so full, come home to me with fresh help and most practical teaching.

For they tell a truth, which realized takes away all such anxiety and fear connected with our own weakness and shortcomings. Well may he who can say with the apostle, Yet not I, but Christ in me," say also, like him: "I take pleasure, I will glory in my infirmities."

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"Yet not I," we then may say, in the daily, hourly witness-bearing for God to which the Christian is called. It is alone by the shining in our hearts of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, that our light can so shine before men that they may glorify our Father which is in heaven. "Fair as the moon," glorious with reflected sun-light, the Church of Christ is said to be. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation ye shine, holding forth the Word of life."

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"It is

Are we called to testify in word for our Lord? not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you," said our Lord to His disciples, called to bear witness to Him, 66 even beforetimes."

"Yet not I," in the trials and difficulties of active service for our God: "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” "Without Me ye can do nothing" but "is anything too hard for the Lord ?"

"Yet

not I," when called to meet some of the many claims of
want and sorrow wherein this earth abounds. He under-
takes it all for us, even as when He said to penniless and
perplexed Peter: "That take and give for Me and thee."
"Yet not I," when in the hour of prayer I feel cold and
dead and prayerless. "His Spirit maketh intercession for
us."
"Therefore, however it go," says the holy Leighton,
"continue praying . and forget not that the ready
way to rise out of this sad state is to be much in viewing
the Mediator, and interposing Him between the Father's
view and thy soul. He hath declared it: 'No man cometh
unto the Father, but by Me.'"

....

"Yet not I," in the conflict with our fierce and untiring foes, the world, the flesh, and the devil. "Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's." How are we sinners to reach this safe and blessed standing-place? Even by learning to say, with true penitence and faith, "I have sinned; yet not I;" "He became sin for me, who knew no sin;" "He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” in this His full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, it is our glorious right to say yet further: "Not I, but Christ for me, stands in the presence of God; for I am become the righteousness of God in Him." "Perfect through His comeliness which He hath put upon them," do His ransomed brethren appear in His Father's sight.

From the hour we rest our hearts

"So dear, so very dear to God,

Dearer they cannot be;

For in the person of His Son
They are as dear as He."

Therefore is this precious "Yet not I" a shield of faith
from all fear, not only concerning the trials of the present
and the sins of the past, but the solemn prospects of the
future; the hour of death, the day of judgment.
"Have
you no fear at the thought of appearing before God ?" one
asked a poor old Christian negress on her death-bed

"No; no fear," she replied. Jesus Christ."

"I shall just get behind

And if all fear and failing of heart is dispelled by this "Yet not I, but Christ," how utterly is also boasting excluded from the Christian life. How can any of His people glory in spiritual attainments, in power, or success, save "in the Lord"? Or how can we glory in men? how put our dependence in any, even the highest saint of God, so as to feel, if parted from such, we are in want; since all that we truly love and reverence in them is Christ Himself, and "Christ is ours"?

St. Paul teaches us in many passages of his epistles, notably in Romans vi., how practically to realize the privileges attending this our blessed relation to our crucified and risen Saviour: it is by "yielding ourselves" unto Him, putting away all those sinful corruptions to which in His death we died, every hindrance which could check the inflowing of His Spirit into our souls; giving up our will to Him in entire submission and trust. Yet does not this aspect of the Christian life, as might at first appear, destroy individuality and independence of character in a child of God. There is no resemblance whatever between this blessed union with his Lord and the self-effacement which some religions and philosophies, ancient and modern, have held up as the standard of perfected humanity. The Gospel has been fitly called "the safeguard of individuality." "If we would know," says Alexandre Vinet, “of what value in the Master's eyes is the winning of each separate soul, let us remember how there is joy among the angels over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance. A being endowed with a free will is, in a sense, complete as God, and is of more value in God's sight than an irresponsible universe; and to use his independence to do willingly what God's universe does mechanically-to unite himself to the Divine life, and lose self in Him-this is the glory of man, and his only perfect happiness."

IMOTHY RANDELL was our village shoemaker, and a good and clever workman he was; no boots from the largest manufactory were better or lasted longer than those that came from Tim's little workshop; as to repairing, Tim used to say-and I believe he spoke truly that there was not a man in England who could put on a neater patch or cobble a shoe better than himself.

Tim might have made a good living and been comfortably off but for one great failing: he was always putting off doing his work till he was really driven to it by the importunities of his customers, or by the fear of offending them. If Tim had made up his mind to a particular motto, and had modelled his life to that motto, I think it would have been, "Never do to-day what can be put off till to-morrow."

If a customer asked Tim how soon he would have a pair

of boots mended, Tim's reply was always the same—“ You shall have them to-morrow." But when the next day came, and the customer called for them, Tim generally had an excuse that he had been very busy and really hadn't had time to see to them, but "you shall be sure and have them to-morrow." And this sort of thing would go on till his customer would threaten to go elsewhere in future; and then Tim would set to work and finish, perhaps in an hour, what had been waiting to be done for weeks. Some of Tim's customers were often put out by his want of punctuality, and more than one had carried his trade to his rival at the next village; others had reasoned with him on his foolishness, and tried to persuade him to conquer his indolent habit, but nothing seemed to impress upon him the importance of doing each day's work in the day.

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Tim," said my father, one day, as he met him in the lane close by his cottage, are my boots done?"

66

"Not quite, sir; but you shall be sure and have them to-morrow."

"To-morrow! you are always talking of to-morrow; that's what said a week ago."

you

"You shall have them to-morrow, sir, without fail.”

"Can't you send them home to-night, Tim?"

"No, I can't indeed, sir. I am so busy that I have not a minute to spare to-day."

"Ah! Tim, you are a foolish fellow. I shall have to go somewhere else in future; and I am a good customer to you."

"Yes, sir, you are, and I really beg your pardon for not having done your boots before; but I hope you will look over it this time." And Tim made a note in his mind that Mr. Lucas's boots should be the very next job.

That evening when we were sitting at home, my father reading, my mother working, and us boys learning our lessons, there was a knock at the door, and to my father's surprise, he was told that Tim had brought home the boots.