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subdued to the submissiveness of a little child, and say are we not warranted in asserting that the first step of the returning sinner to God is the acknowledgment of His glorious sovereignty, and that we detect a great distinguishing mark of true conversion in the words of our text, when in reply to the Lord Jesus, "he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do?"

II. Our text suggests another point of considerable importance, more especially to those who are established in the love of Christ. I cannot conclude without mentioning it.

It is that a forgetfulness of this submission to the Divine Sovereignty is a frequent cause of unfruitfulness, and therefore of unhappiness in the Christian.

Having seen that an expansive power is a property of divine grace —that the Christian must have something to do--some work in God's kingdom, you will remark that the fact of engaging in a work does not necessarily prove him to be a fruitful servant. It is not every work which is the proper sphere of every man. The Christian life is a state of discipline. If there be no discipline in the soul, we may be sure that there is something wrong with it.

Supposing a young Christian with all the ardour of first love, determine to do something for God, there are certain conditions to be satisfied before he ought to start upon his enterprise.

First, Let him ask is he fitted for the work in view? God rules in His own kingdom, and appoints one man here and another there, and when His own time comes that He will have him take up the work, he will be sure to open a door in front and shut that which is behind. No man can read his Bible and say that God does not raise up men for particular purposes; and when this has been the case we have generally found that there has been a previous training, or at least that there is a peculiar fitness for such position. The man is fitted exactly for his work. Moses had all the qualities of a great leader-qualities and training which were particularly suitable for his exceptional case. Brought up in a court, learned in all the wisdom of Egypt; conspicuous for meekness, and for love both to his God and his people, and marvellous in his great faith. These were the qualities most fitted to guide the Israelites safely, and at times to stem the current of rebellion in that most stiffnecked people. Similar fitness we perceive in such characters as Joshua, Saul, and David. Most conspicuous is this truth in the character of St. Paul. His indomitable energy and perseverance-his intimate knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures-his great boldness-his patient endurance-these were just the qualities most requisite for the successful accomplishment of the great work to which he was called. There is no question that a man of less learning and less talents, and of a timid disposition could never have successfully planted the banner of the cross and with equal rapidity. And if God educates men for high positions-since a general unity of design is conspicuous in his dealings-must we not infer that He educates likewise for lowly positions-though we must not always judge God's estimate of what is high or low by our

own.

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Second, Now with this adapting the instrument to the work as a part of God's moral government, we give you another instance of the conditions of discipline we have mentioned.

Supposing you have found your right sphere and have hit upon your proper work; you may still be an unfruitful servant, if you forget that every step in your progress is to be exactly the same as at starting. Every measure adopted in the carrying out of this work is to be viewed as a fresh work, and therefore you must equally ascertain whether it be the right measure.

It

It must be God's work at the commencement, and God's work throughout. It must be "begun, continued, and ended in Him.” Otherwise if the first step be right and the second wrong, you will still be an unprofitable servant. Hear this, Christian brethren. is very important that the prayer of our text should ever be most frequent upon your lips. Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do." I say your fruitfulness depends upon this, and in confirmation I have only to point to the example of King Saul.

No man ever set out with brighter prospects. Placed in the highest position by Divine election-the very election proving that he was exactly qualified for the office; he forgot that the sovereign power which planted him there was as necessary to uphold him there, and by his self-confidence he forfeited God's favour, and his own kingdom. The acknowledgement of God's sovereignty in every act of your life is necessary if you would be redeemed from the curse of sterility. Upon the face of Scripture there is no affection attributed to the Divine character which is more conspicuous than that of jealousy. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." Go forward in your own strength, i.e., forgetful of the Divine Sovereignty, and he will withdraw His preventing grace, and perchance, in love to you, will send you back in confusion. If God accept a gift, it must be one of His own bestowal, originally. You may be sure you cannot go far astray, when the spirit which leavens your conduct is such as is continually breaking forth such prayers as "Lead me and guide me for thy name's sake. "Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do."

III. Laying now these two points together, that you be fitted for the work you undertake, and that every step of it be carried on with God's sovereignty full in view, you are in the right way both to fruitfulness and happiness. We need hardly remind you of the connection between the two. But there is one remark more with which I wish to wind up this part of the subject. Although the heart may acknowledge the divine sovereignty, and preventing grace be ever the burden of its most earnest prayer, still there will be times when God will discipline the mind most severely. He will allow difficulties to perplex it. Remember, the greater the proficiency the sharper the discipline. Now, it is a moot point among theologians whether in those passages where it is said that God hideth Himself, the cause resides in the Deity or in man. Some maintain that the cause is always in man; that by sin he grieves away for a time God's spirit; and thus, by the loss of his consolations, is led to conceive of the Deity as hiding His face, but that he by his own act clouds the sky.

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Now, we do not dispute that these texts are generally to be thus interpreted; but we do most firmly believe that God Himself, for the purposes of discipline, does sometimes spread a dark curtain over the sky of the soul, or that he sometimes withdraws the pillar of cloud and fire, in order that the soul, perplexed as to what direction it should take, may realize more strongly its dependence upon Him ; that, being brought to a momentary standstill, it should see no method of extrication but to cast itself in more chastened and vigorous faith upon Him who seeth the end from the beginning, and who, though man be unable to pierce the mysterious veil that hides his Father's face, sees through that veil, and is ever watching His child with tenderest care, according to His own irrevocable promise, "I will never leave nor forsake thee." Now, the man who tells me that in his religious career he meets with no difficulties or mysteries tells me in the same breath that his experience is very shallow. If you give yourselves heartily to God, and desire to be moulded after the image of His Christ, He will certainly sit upon your soul as a refiner and purifier, and will submit it to a severe discipline in order to purge and purify it of dross. And one method of discipline, I believe, will be that he will bring you, like he did Israel at the Red Sea, into difficulties, that you too may be taught to stand still and see His mighty arm stretched out to deliver and direct, and that thus you may be brought to acknowledge more heartily his divine sovereignty. Your work may be begun "looking unto Jesus," continued "looking unto Jesus," but you will often find that, before its successful issue, clouds will have received him out of your sight, and a mysterious feeling of loneliness will creep upon your soul, and it will be apt to murmur," What shall I do, for God hideth away His face?" You will feel inclined to stop in your work, to be downhearted, to be wondering whether it be according to the will of God. But oh! be not faithless, but believing. You cannot turn back. If you would unravel the mystery, and hew down the difficulty, imbue your minds more deeply still with the spirit of submission that breathes in the prayer of Hear the Lord's direction, "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." Yea, clothe yourselves with courage inspired by those last words to Daniel, "But go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." Mysteries there are, and difficulties, but " go thou thy way."

our text.

Remember that the Church has its Head-alas that we should ever forget it!-that the Father "hath put all things under His son's feet, and given Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all," a living Head, a present Head, controlling and ordering the affairs of the Church now- that He hath received infinite riches to impart to every member of His body-treasures of wisdom and knowledge for the ignorant and simple, supplies of strength for the weak, of consolation for the afflicted, and of peace for the troubled, of grace to restrain and to encourage, to assist and to direct. Yea, hear ye that this God is our God for ever and ever that difficulties are for Him, the Mighty One, to meet :-simple obedience for us. Like as a child when

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in trouble instantly seeks the help of its parent, or like as the nation when agitated by a mysterious whisper of complicated relations abroad instantly turns to the Executive, and anxiously canvasses its every move, or when its internal organizations are thrown into disorder, as now by the stoppage of supplies of material from our distracted sister country, and famine, with gaunt form and haggard visage, stalks grimly through parts of our land; the first thoughts of the suffering country are directed to the anticipated sympathy and assistance of the Supreme Power: so let the Church of Christ, whether as a body or individually, acknowledge in all difficulties the supremacy of Him who in all things must have the pre-eminence, and then before His almighty power, wielded gloriously in times past in every hour of her need, and now to be equally gloriously employed at the magic touch of prayer, "every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain," when we, her faithful sons and daughters, emptying ourselves of pride and self-dependence, shall be found working upon that system of perfect faith in the sovereignty of our Great Head taught us by the Apostle when, with limbs trembling and gaze astonished before that awful and magnificent spectacle of glory, he enquired, in his abasement, "Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do ?"

And what shall I say more? Thoughts crowd upon my mind. I cannot dismiss you without a word to some of you whose hearts know not the Lord. Would that time would stay its ever-revolving wheel that I might reason with you and try to win you to pure and undefiled religion. Did you ever calmly, seriously, meditatively, in the solitude of your chambers, repeat such a prayer as that of our text? Did you ever realize that you were alone with God, talking with the Eternal? Or I may ask, What have you done for Christ as an evidence of a living faith? Where and when was, or is, that work carried on? Ye wordly wise, who are never satisfied in the ordinary relations of life without proofs, will ye make the immortal interests of your souls an exception? I tell you solemnly that if you are united to Christ by a saving faith it will have purified you, a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Perish for ever the thought that a mere inoperative, historical faith will avail you. It is but a phantom light danced by a devil's hand before a deceived people, drawing them on gradually towards the dark morass, where the gulph of perdition will swallow their victim souls. Thousands are thus allured to destruction. Go, then, ye who have never entertained a serious thought-ye who have never trembled before a just God-who have never been astonished at the glory of the Redeemer; go and be just to your souls this night; go and seek the evidences of your conversion, and if after a sincere and honest search ye find them not, then begin at once at the right beginning. Cast yourselves unhesitatingly on the mercy of God; kneel at the foot of the cross; implore the aid of the Holy Ghost; and when you have explored something of the depths of Divine mercy, when you have felt the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, when you have had tangible evidence of the sanctifying power of the Spirit

of promise, then will you be able to understand how it was that the Apostle, at that most critical period of his life, " trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt THOU have me to do ?"

NOTICES.

In

The Reformatory and Refuge Journal* is a little publication issued. quarterly, regarding the means employed for the recovery of persons who have fallen into gross debasement, or been subjected to criminal procedure, from the consequences of their guilt; and their restitution to a place in society wherein they may earn their daily bread in honesty and sobriety. This purpose has been found practicable in many cases by the grace of God operating through educational and industrial processes, conducted in conjunction with and under the influence of religious teaching. All merely secular instrumentalities, and secular means alone, have failed to accomplish the raising again of the fallen. Their failure has been so conspicuous that they are not now tried. Philosophy and secular science have no remedy for the moral disease of mankind. Alone they are powerless to "stay the plague." the number of this periodical for April we find several interesting contributions; and the sketch of a Reformatory Labourer, by the Rev. D. B. Nichols, of Chicago, is one of these paper, which goes at once to the root of the matter. "The Bible," he writes, "declares that we can do nothing without faith; that all things are possible to him that believeth. Every person engaged in a reformatory as a helper ought to remain at Jericho until he believes every word of this text-until his spirit drinks in the spirit of confidence. No one need expect success in this field unless he have faith. The reformatory work is emphatically a work of faith." The ways of Providence are curiously illustrated in this sketch. A boy stole a canary bird, and a young advocate's first brief was for the boy's defence. The lad was acquitted by the advocate's appeal to the jury against the contaminations of a prison; but the young advocate did not, when he put aside his brief, forget the case. A canary bird led to the institution of the American reformatories. We commend this little publication, remarking that the only means by which the fallen can be raised to the level of good citizenship must also be the best means of keeping mankind from declining beneath even that platformnamely, religious teaching; and that the necessity for refuges and reformatories can only be overcome by bringing vital Christianity to every hearth, and introducing its faith and practice to all homes.

*Refuge Union, 118, Pall mall,