the body of this death; but not by 'mortifying the deeds of the body,' or by 'crucifying the flesh;' in one word, cure me, but not by medicines; however necessary, yet bitter or disagreeable to flesh and blood, nor by any operations painful to the flesh!" And thus, alas! we fear, many a man argues in his heart who has light enough to see the danger of his sin, but no heart to part with it. "Save me from selfishness; but permit me always to gratify self. Save me from filth; but let

me wallow in the mire.

Save me from intoxica

tion; but let me drink on. Save me from covetousness; but let me keep my gold. Save me from sloth; but give me nothing to do. Save me from my bad temper; but let me indulge it. Give me strength, but not exercise; daily happiness, but not daily duty; patience, but nothing to try it; faith, but nothing to shake it; zeal, but nothing to engage it; weanedness from the world, but no sorrows or cares to produce it. I wish light, comfort, and peace, without secret or earnest prayer at a throne of grace; without the Spirit of God being asked and obeyed; without hearing, reading, or believing the truth. I wish to be a partaker of all the benefits of redemp

tion, to share Christ's glory, Christ's inheritance, Christ's throne: but not to share Christ's holiness and self-denial, Christ's sufferings and cross:in one word, I wish by the grace of God to be saved, when I die, from punishment, but not while I live, by this grace, from sin!" And is this the way in which dying, perishing sinners treat the blood-bought remedy, and receive the offer of eternal life! Is this the way they deal with the Saviour? arguing and disputing as if He were an equal; insulting Him with offered compromises between his awful commands and merciful invitations, and the desires of our own corrupt and evil hearts ?

Oh! where are the souls who are in earnest about salvation! where the upright souls who will meekly believe God's Word, and humbly and reverently do his will-where are they who will put their trust in the Physician, and, instead of prescribing to Him, be administered to by Him? Where are they who will truthfully go to Him in confiding prayer, saying,-" Lord Jesus, we have tried many physicians, and they could not heal us; we now come to Thee! We are dead in trespasses and sins, poor and needy, blind and naked. The

harvest is past, and the summer ended; yet we are not saved. But we are spared; and we have heard the glad tidings that there is balm in Gilead, and that Thou art the Physician there, able and willing to save to the uttermost all who come to Thee. Our hope is in Thee. We believe; help our unbelief. Pardon all our sins through thy precious blood; and through thy Spirit help us to die to sin and to live to Thee. We give ourselves, soul, spirit, and body, into thy hands. Send us adversity or prosperity, life or death. Give to us what remedies seem to thy love and wisdom best suited to us, and humble hearts to receive them; but oh! for thy great mercy, save now and for ever our poor perishing souls!"

May the Spirit of God, without whose teaching man's teaching is vain, open the eyes of our understanding, that we may know the truth as it is in Jesus; and open our hearts to receive it in love; that believing in Christ, and receiving his Spirit, we may be saved!

PUBLICANS AND SINNERS

HEARING CHRIST.

WE

"Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him," &c. &c.-ST. LUKE XV. I, 2.

E are told in the Gospels that "the common people" heard Jesus "gladly." We need not wonder at this. He was one of themselves; for though "He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor." His parents and kindred were common people; and for years He himself laboured as an ordinary artisan in a small country village. His apostles were poor fishermen. He instructed the common people in every-day language which they could all understand, and taught them when familiarly walking with them along the highway, or seated by the sea-shore, or on the hill-side. He visited them in their towns and rural hamlets.

He sympathised with all their wants and feelings as human beings. He cured their sick, their blind, their maimed, their deaf, and touched with healing hand even their loathsome and outcast lepers. He took the children of the poor into his arms and blessed them. Above all, He preached the Gospel to the poor, and revealed God to them as their merciful Father, through Himself their merciful Saviour. And all this He did with such untiring diligence, profound sympathy, enduring patience, and tender considerateness, that they could not but hear Him gladly, if they would hear Him at all.

The common people now-a-days who do not wish to hear Jesus, or about Jesus, are thus very unlike their fellows who knew Him and heard Him gladly when He was on earth. Alas! there are many in our country, and in our great cities, who never heard of Jesus except in oaths; and there are many who dislike Him, because they do not know Him. The Jesus who is in their thoughts is quite a different person from the Jesus whom men were acquainted with long ago, and listened to, loved, and followed; and whom all true Christians know and love as they do no one else. Let me therefore