Then, O, my fellowGod, while you have Need we say more "He who spared not

for the unjust, to bring us unto God. sinner, do not say you cannot come to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life! to make men feel that "God is Love!" His own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, freely give us all things?" And He WILL give us all things that we ask through faith in Christ. He will give us through Him a free access to His footstool, for before His cross the mountain of our provocation is made low, and the midnight of the soul is changed into meridian day, if we look to "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

God is Love. He has shown it in a thousand ways. He showed it in His mercy to our erring parents, in promising an antidote to the disease they had incurred-in His guidance of His ancient people to the promised land-in His dealings with those holy men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. He showed it in the provision He has made for the supply of man's returning wants; in the regular return of seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, and in the drapery of abundance with which he clothes the earth from year to year. But the quality of love which thus serenely played in these gentle scintillations around His people, did not burst forth in all its sublimest proportions until the exhibition of the mystery of godliness-God manifest in the flesh until it became incarnate in the man Christ Jesus; just as the myrtle leaf-although it perfumes all the grove, and lends its fragrance to every passing breeze, while waving in full life and verdure-gives forth its sweetest odours when bruised, and crushed, and torn; so Christ, bruised at Calvary with our iniquities, gave forth the fragrance of Deity, in sweeter and more grateful exhalations, by His dying love, than even by His living tenderness.

God is Love. The character belongs to Him more than any other; it becomes Him better than any sterner name. If God nad been justice in the same sense that He is love, O, my fellowsinner, what then would have become of you and me? And even if He had suffered justice to take its even course, and blast each child of Adam with an eternal curse, it would not have been inconsistent with His love; but when he appeases justice

by a sacrifice, and that sacrifice His only Son, where is the heart that does not melt with gratitude for the unspeakable gift of the God of Love?

God is Love. His whole dealing, since man fell, has been one constant attempt to restore him to his lost estate. Man fell of his own act, and of his own accord. God has been working to recal him. Some are ready to point to the records of His vengeance which we have, to refute this statement. We have already shown how these are traceable to love. Treating mankind in the mass, God has, to effect the restoration of His creatures to Himself, treated individuals with a seeming severity; but this was not because He delighted in judgment, but because justice insisted on being avenged on those who despised the propitiation. Do not, then, while that propitiation is available, set it at nought, nor cherish doubting thoughts towards Him who swears by Himself, because He can swear by no greater, "As I live, I delight not in the death of a sinner, but rather he would turn from his wickedness and live!"

God is Love. How necessary, then, that we who profess to serve Him should cultivate this sentiment, not only towards Him but towards one another; for in His presence love reigns supreme. There are no heart-burnings there, no jealousies there. In God's presence is fulness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures for evermore. And the more we love God the more we shall love one another. We may almost measure our love to God, by our love to our neighbours; and yet many Christians would hesitate to do so, and well they may. Churches would not be so disturbed by personal jealousies as they are, if there were more love to God, more likeness to the Saviour. Let us, then, cultivate this divine attribute; let us trace it imaged in our crucified Immanuel, and seek the Spirit's power to stamp that image on our hearts; let us never have a cold hand to stretch out to our brother, but, forgetting all distinctions in our earnest union in the cause of the Redeemer, let us, by our spirit of charity and love, try not only to leave the world better than we found it, but bearing clearer traces of the coming dawn of that millenial day, when all qualities and attributes, now dissonant and jarring, shall attune together into harmony and peace, when

philosophy shall see the perfection which she thought a fable; when vanity, pleased with a good conscience, shall crop her feathers; when falsehood shall lay aside his many-folded robe, and bow to truth; when treachery shall come up from his mining plots, and walk above the ground with faith; when revenge shall drop his dagger, and kiss the hand of mercy, and anger clear his cloudy brow, and sit with peace; when envy shall blush and smile on worth; and pride and humility go hand in hand; when covetousness shall unclench his sinewy fist, and open wide his door to charity; when lust shall wash his miry hands, and, wedded, lean on chaste desire; when sloth shall woo the morning-light with industry; folly turn to wisdom, and hatred be lost in love!

God is Love. the displays of it.

There is no one here who is not daily tasting Each breath we draw is a token of His love. Are there any who, while thus receiving the love of God, have never recognised it, but are daily, not only forgetting it, but outraging it? My careless fellow-sinner, let me close by an appeal to you. You have, it may be, a warm heart. Have you a friend or relation you love most dearly-one in whom you have, it may be, garnered up your soul? Try, if you can, to multiply that love a thousand fold, and you will not then have fathomed God's love for you. Try to imagine the object of your love in danger, beyond your reach, and almost beyond the sound of your warning voice, you could not call to your friend to turn with one thousandth part of the earnestness with which Christ calls you to take refuge at His cross. He wants ALL men to be saved; and don't you believe any one who would tell you this is not true. This doubting of the largeness of the Redeemer's heart, this timorous limitation of the depth of His love and the riches of His compassion, is a rock on which millions founder. He is not willing that any should perish, and there is not an ulcerous leper out of hell who has not a mansion in the skies, if he will but take it; there is not a guilt-stained criminal, this side the blackness of darkness for ever, to whom the promise cannot reach: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool; though they be red like crimson, they shall be whiter than snow." God wishes all men to be saved. He has never

made a distinction between His own people and those who will not come to Him. He has caused His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and His rain to descend on the just and the unjust. He has called to all alike. It will not be because Christ did not die for all, that all will not be saved; but because, despite His overtures, despite His cross, despite His intercession, men would not come to Him that they might have life. Does it follow, because the sinner rushes on his own destruction, in thankless defiance of the offers of mercy, that God does not love him? Does the ungrateful rejection of a freely offered gift detract from the beneficence of Him who offers it? My friends, if you or I are found walking on the broad road to hell, we shall leave upon our track footsteps stained with the blood of the covenant we trampled under foot. If we are found at God's left hand, it will be because we deliberately chose it, and not only chose it but would have it, because we deafened our ears to the invitation which called us to His right—if we are lost it will be because we would not be saved; because we quenched the Spirit, because we stifled conscience, because we restrained prayer, and spurned the great salvation. Well, then, seeing that it is not God who keeps you back, seeing that it rests solely with yourself, let me plainly ask you, my fellow-sinner, "why will you die?" Here is a well of love from which you may draw, and yet you will not come to it. Have you any better friend than Jesus? O, take warning by the rushing of the wings of time, and the nearing shadows of eternity, and come to the fountain set open for uncleanness! and as you wash your robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb; as you feel your bounding heart unfettered by the chains of sin; as the scales of darkness fall from before your illumined eyes, and show you the glories of the upper sanctuary, O, let the silent language of your life, and the spoken precept of your lips proclaim to trembling, doubting, downcast sinners, that which you have found so true-that " God is Love!"

WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?

HESE words stand in connection with a prediction, by the

prophet, of certain wars and invasions which awaited the cities and lands about Babylonia, and in divers parts of Arabia. He has been foretelling an incursion by the Elamites and Medes upon the adjoining frontier, and sounds the note of warning and of preparation, bidding them prepare the tables, and set watchmen upon the towers. Dumah, which is mentioned in the verse containing the text, was a nomadic tribe of the Ishmaelites upon the borders of Arabia; and it is these people whom the prophet represents as demanding, in their restlessness and trepidation regarding coming events, "Watchman, what of the night?"

Leaving it to private research, however, to study the historic associations of this sentiment, we propose to apply the figure it suggests, to our own spiritual condition.

Ever since the introduction of sin into the world the prospects of the church of God have been overcast by the shades of night. In all ages, even in its brightest times, it has seen no daylight, but has been illumined by the pillar of fire gliding fitfully before it. In its earlier times the darkness was indeed intense, scarcely relieved by a glancing ray from any source of light. But by degrees, where sin abounded, grace began also to abound, and holy men were raised up as torchbearers before the ark of God. There seemed to be but little light from heaven, until the starlight of that evening orb arose which twinkled over Bethlehem's stable. Then, certainly, the clouds did clear from off the sky, and leave the blue expanse undimmed. But still it was the sky of night-a night whose shades were not just yet to yield before the rising sun, for soon the clouds again begin to film the canopy, and hide the firmament from view. The face of nature darkens more and

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