seeth, we should be overwhelmed by the view of human depravity.

Whilst Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Law, written with the finger of God on two tables of stone, the people were corrupting themselves, by making a golden calf and dancing round it with idolatrous worship. The Almighty acquainted Moses with this act of rebellion, and threatened to destroy them instantly. Anxious for the honour of God and the preservation of Israel, he interceded in their behalf, and prevailed.

But no sooner did Moses descend from the mountain, and become himself a witness to their abominations, than his anger waxed hot against Aaron and the congregation. He cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the Mount; he ground the golden calf to powder; and in the name of the Lord God of Israel he commanded the sons of Levi to slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

How far beyond our conception is the forbearance of God, who beholds, at one glance, all the evil which is perpetrated, yea all the evil which is devised, by all the millions of human beings throughout their successive generations!

Truly his mercy his infinite. He is God and not man, therefore we sons of men are not consumed. But the Lord is also a God of judgment, who will by no means clear the guilty; for he hath declared by his prophet, that "the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God."

We live in a day of rebuke and blasphemy; in a day when the judgments of God are abroad in the earth; a day in which the enemies of Christ are awake and active. Infidelity is unfurling its standard, and spreading its poison. Satan is mustering his forces against the saints of the Most High.

now.

If ever the people of God were called upon by the voice of Providence to be up and doing, it is This is not the time to slumber, when the foe is in the breach; it is not the season for rest, when the Lord calls his soldiers to the spiritual combat. The weapons of our warfare, though despised by the world, are mighty, through God, to destroy the empire of Satan and to establish the kingdom of Christ upon earth.

O that the Spirit of love may descend upon us from on high. Then will ministers and people, like the early Christians, labour for the conversion of sinners; cultivate personal religion; sit loosely to the world; and gladly suffer the loss of all things for Jesus' sake.

What the great Apostle of the Gentiles cheerfully endured out of love to the souls of men, and for the sake of his Redeemer, would appal the stoutest heart if destitute of Gospel principles. Nothing but Divine Love, shed abroad in the heart, could have produced such astonishing acts of patience and self-denial; such cheerfulness in suffering; such preparedness for death.

When writing to the Corinthians, he says: "I think that God hath set forth us the Apostles last, as it were appointed to death, for we are made

a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. Even unto this present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with our hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we intreat we are made as the filth of the earth, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day."

Where is the worldling who would endure such accumulated sufferings and contempt, for any promises of good beyond the grave? Worldly men will bear many privations, connected with some earthly advantage, which they hope ere long to enjoy it is the true Christian only, who can suffer for eternal glory. Much consolation was mixed with the Apostle's tribulations; he could therefore say: "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."

Following the steps of his Divine Master, who endured the cross, despising the shame, he told the Corinthians: "In all things we approve ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings. By honour and dishonour; by evil report, and good report; as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well known; as dying and behold we live; as chastened and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

As if this weight of suffering were insufficient to manifest the strength of his faith and patience, there were teachers in the church of Corinth, who, through envy, sought to undermine his usefulness, by insinuating doubts respecting the validity of his claim to the office of an Apostle.

This aspersion excited a holy indignation in the breast of Paul; for nothing could be more abhorrent to a heart hating dissimulation, than such a false assumption of character.

With peculiar energy, he thus writes to the Corinthian Church: "Am I not an Apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? If I be not an Apostle unto others, doubtless I am to you; for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord." "I am become a fool in glorying, ye have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you; for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest Apostles, though I be nothing."

What a striking instance is this, of self-abasement. While he was compelled to magnify his apostolic office, he beautifully invests it with the robe of humility. Then he adds: “Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you, in patience, in signs, in wonders, and mighty deeds."

Referring to his traducers, he says: "Are they ministers of Christ (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings

was meek and lowly in heart; and who hath commanded us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and follow him.

"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." Do we then study the character of our blessed Lord as revealed in the Gospel ; and pray without ceasing, that our souls may be transformed into his holy image? The more we drink into the spirit of Jesus, the more we shall experience peace and rest in our souls.

Suffering is the lot of all, but the afflictions of the righteous are sanctified afflictions; they conduce to their growth in grace, and mark out the way to the heavenly kingdom.

St. Paul knew this well; for Jesus had told him, what great things he must suffer for his name's sake. In the midst of the furnace, his Saviour stood near him, giving him the blessed assurance that if he suffered with him, he should also reign with him. Hence, soaring on the wings of faith and love above this darkened scene, he could exclaim with holy triumph: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

When Jesus drew near to the time of his crucifixion, how sweetly did he comfort his little flock: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.