believe in the danger, nor take the means appointed to avert it? He might have been the descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; he might have been full of knowledge, active in works of usefulness, respected, honoured, beloved; but neither his descent nor his works could have saved his home from the destroying angel.

Our Christian

Thus is it with us, my friends. name, our Christian privileges, nay, our works of charity and love, cannot save us in the great day of wrath. There is but one appointed means of salvátion-faith in the atoning blood of the Lord.

And again, see how faith wrought obedience. Had the Israelites said that they believed the word of Moses, yet had neglected or delayed to obey his directions, where had been the use of such lifeless faith? With them faith and obedience were closely united, as it is written in the Scriptures, The people bowed the head and worshipped; and the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded.

And at midnight there arose an awful cry, the wail of a nation in anguish-the piercing laments of bereaved mothers mourning their first-born suddenly stricken down in their youth and strength. For the angel of death had passed through the land, and in every house there lay a corpse, every house that bore not on its door the sign of redemption. And Pharaoh rose up in haste, the crushing blow of be

reavement had fallen also on him, and he called for Moses and Aaron at once; he dared not wait for the morning.

Rise up, cried the bereaved father, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as ye said.

There was hurrying to and fro on that eventful night; not more eager were the Israelites to escape from bondage than their late oppressors were to hurry them forth. The Egyptians brought their jewels and their gold, and whatsoever was needed by the children of Israel, thus making some tardy return to their bondsmen for many long years of service unrequited. The multitude went forth from the land where they had toiled so long and suffered so much, bearing with them the revered dust of the patriarch Joseph. Men trod the dusty way, driving their flocks and herds before them, with their kneading troughs bound on their shoulders; children ran by the side of dark-eyed mothers, who bore their last-born babes in their arms. Oh! what deep joy and thanksgiving must have thrilled through the hearts of those parents, as closer they clasped those babes to their bosoms, rescued, redeemed, heirs of the Land of Promise! Never should their children know the yoke under which their parents had groaned, never should they feel the tyrant's lash, nor eat the bitter bread of bondage! Farewell, and for ever, land of sin and of sorrow, God himself shall

guide His redeemed to a home!

fairer and happier

That was, indeed, a night much to be remembered, and by the express command of the Lord, the yearly feast of the Passover was ordained at this time, to be from thenceforth a perpetual remembrance of the great deliverance of His people from bondage. In this feast we have a type of the Lord's Supper, the memorial appointed by Christ himself of the greater deliverance of His people from the bondage of Satan and death. It is in that solemn and sacred feast that the Christian soul feeds by faith on Him whose death was our life, whose blood was the price of our salvation! In that feast we renew our resolution to turn away for ever from the Egypt of sin, to cast from our souls, in the strength of our Lord, the heavy yoke of Satan, and seek an abiding home in heaven, of which we are made the heirs through faith!

A

CHAPTER XVI.

JUDGMENT.

ND what did you think of Mr. Eardley and his lecture?" inquired Mrs. Bolder of her husband, as the two sat together at supper in the little back parlour behind their shop.

"Mr. Eardley is a very well-meaning man, and a very hard-working man,—I've nothing to say against him," observed the grocer in the decided tone of one who feels that he has both the capacity to form, and the right to pronounce a judgment; "but I don't think much of his preaching. To my mind he makes dangerous mistakes."

"What kind of mistakes, my dear?" asked Mrs. Bolder, a quiet little woman, who looked up to her husband as the impersonification of wisdom.

"Well, in the first place, he was not practical enough," said Tychicus, "he did not say a word against drunkenness, which is the very curse of our age, and the root of all sin. Did you ever hear what a row there is going on outside?" said the grocer, interrupting himself, "a set of tipsy wretches shouting at the top of their voices !"

"But did not Mr. Eardley speak against sin?" asked Cecily Bolder. She had to repeat her question, for the noise without was so great that her husband could hardly hear her.

"Yes, sin in general. He spoke of it as Egyptian bondage, something that we had all been born in, and that we were all to break from. But that's just what I object to," continued the grocer. "Mr. Eardley put us all together, good and bad; every one in danger of eternal destruction, every one to be saved by faith, or not saved at all! Now are we to suppose," Tychicus raised his voice, and used a good deal of action in speaking, as if arguing a disputed point with his wife, though she never dreamed of contradicting him, "are we to suppose that a man like-like Robert Holdich, who never told a lie in his life, nor defrauded a man of a penny, was ever -could ever have been in the same danger as a fellow like Ford? Why, that unprincipled villain, as you know well enough, tried to be the ruin of Holdich, and almost succeeded in his wicked design; when he dared not attack the steward as a wolf, Ford played the part of the crawling adder! Now will you dare to tell me," continued Tychicus, striking the table with his fist, "will you dare to tell me that without faith the one man could lose his soul, or that if the other had faith he could escape the justice of God?"

Tychicus had made the error so common to fallen