limited to three hundred men. Under such circumstances, the temptation of the Jewish generalissimo would be to think that an attack by such an unequal, fearfully disproportionate host would result in defeat. What, then, does he require ? A conviction to the following effect:that in the impending conflict numbers will count for nothing. He needs a belief that, with God on their side, the few will vanquish the many. It will not be a question of "big batallions" against small ones. And that is exactly what, in a singular and indeed grotesque style, the dream teaches him. The barley-cake flung against the tent upsets it, stakes, pole, canvas, and all. Gideon gratefully accepts the omen, and, from that moment, he fears nothing: he returns to his troops resolute and trustful, a new man.

Divine communications were in the old time often called "the burden of the Lord," and we may well say that not only "the back is fitted to the burden," but the burden to the back. See Jacob: a perfidious fellow, he flees from home lest his life should pay the penalty of his lie. We loathe his base duplicity, and perhaps it has been a mystery to us how "the God of all truth" should have tolerated the hypocrite as he did. Ay, it is just because He is the God of truth that He does not abandon the dissembler; He hates sin so utterly that He will not leave the sinner until He has chastised or wooed the sin out of him, blessed be His great name! Therefore He puts Jacob to sleep, and shuts his eyes that he may see (the Lord often does that, and in more ways than one). There, aloft, is the celebrated sight the ladder reaching from earth to heaven-and, better still, from the top comes the voice of Jehovah. And what does it reveal? The very messages that the miserable wayfarer needs. He is very guilty and wants pardon; accordingly, it is assured him, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" a generous, royal mode, that, of telling a man that all is forgiven: the promise is tantamount to a pardon. He is very lonely, and wants a companion in his wilderness journey. A comrade is given him, or rather comrades, for angels move up and down the ladder, showing him that the most isolated have invisible friends and helpers. Besides this the voice, "I am with thee, and will keep thee.' He is leaving home and native land, and we can well imagine how welcome to him would be the prospect of some day returning thither. Even this shall not be witheld; he is told, “I will bring thee again into this land." Well may we pause to admire this exquisite adaptation of Divine revelation to human requirements. Look at Moses: he is called to be the deliverer of oppressed Israel. By him thousands of men, women, and children must be conducted towards the land of promise. Onerous undertaking! How are they to be kept alive? Food will surely be hard to find: heathen hosts will not fail to harass them: pestilence may overtake them. But God knows all about this, and He reminds Moses of it at the very outset of his mission. Yonder flames an acacia bush in the bleak,

bare desert, but, though the fire rages, it does not consume it. Even so, though trial and temptation may assail the hosts of Israel, they shall live a charmed life, secured from harm.

The ascended Redeemer has " gifts for men," not one gift but many, and none shall seek a suitable gift in vain. In a certain Austrian city there is a bridge in the parapets of which stand twelve statues of the Saviour. He is represented in various relationshipsProphet, King, Priest, Pilot, Physician, Shepherd, Sower, Carpenter, and so forth. The country people coming into the city in the early morning with produce for the market, pause before the Sower or Shepherd Christ, and offer their worship to Him. Two hours later, the artisan, coming to his workshop, bends before the Carpenter. Later still, the sailor prays to the heavenly Pilot. And in the warm sunlight of the forenoon, the invalids, creeping out to enjoy the fresh air, rest and adore under the image of the Great Physician. Of course the superstition connected with image-worship is worthy of of all condemnation; nevertheless, there is a glorious truth taught by the custom just described :-Christ has a manifestation of Himself to fit all human needs. Indeed, what is true of Him holds good also of the whole Bible: it is adapted to all: whatever our peculiar circumstances, we may find in it something to meet them. To quote from a certain author:- "Are you a worldling? There is the book of Ecclesiastes. Are you a saint? There is the book of Psalms. Are you afflicted? There is the book of Job. Are you a backslider? There is the epistle to the Hebrews. Are you a preacher? There is the letter to Timothy. Would you study Providence? There is the book of Esther. Are you engaged in a great undertaking? There is the book of Nehemiah."

Who were the instru

God teaches us to get help from the enemy. ments of Gideon's encouragement? Not allies but adversaries: the reassuring voices came not from an Israelitish home but from a Midianite tent. Unwittingly, the heathen arrayed against him proved his timely stimulus.

Here is another valuable lesson for us: make your very foes your aid. Satan is an enemy. Learn from him and his artifices where much of your moral strength is to be found, namely, in the Bible. "The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose," says Shakespeare, and on the best possible authority. We all recollect the strategem: "Cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; they shall bear thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." But, for once, the prince of darkness had found his match: his craft was outweighed by the wisdom of the Prince of Peace. In a moment our Lord snatches the weapon of the evil one from his grasp, and dealing a well-aimed, mighty blow with it, sends him vanquished from the scene. "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." In all spiritual and ecclesiastical battles the sword of the Spirit is our real security: "there is none

like that, give it me." A careful, painstaking, sympathetic knowledge of Scripture is the grand panacea for heresy and the true palladium of our faith. Argue against Rationalism, if you like; beard the beast of Ritualism in its very den, if you think well; but, above and beyond all other things, get men to know the Bible. To understand the book is to admire, and often to admire is to submit to it. When people become Berean in their study of the word, they will become Berean in their practice of its precepts. Temptation is a foe, otherwise we should never have been taught to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." What conflicting thoughts and emotions it arouses! how loud are the waves and billows that roar when its impetuous blasts sweep across the sea of the soul! Albeit, it is often one of our best friends. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." Vanquish it and you are mightier than you were before. The ancient Scandinavians believed that the power and the prowess of each foe they felled to the dust entered into them, and, unquestionably, new courage and fresh zeal are the portion of him who overcomes sin. Again: St. Paul speaks of those as "enemies of the cross of Christ" "who mind earthly things." The worldly are foes of the gospel; whether they mean it or not, they retard its glorious progress. Yes: but what a lesson those "enemies of the cross" read us who are believers in it! Their intelligence and earnestness about business, education, pleasure, may well put to shame the slow advances that we make, with heaven itself in view. "The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." The race for riches, honours, and influence is eagerly contested; shall our feet, then, be laggard in the spiritual arena ? "They do it to obtain a corruptible -crown, but we an incorruptible."

Only

But, after all, we have not hit the bull's-eye of our target: we have struck the circumference rather than the centre. My brethren, let us take the word enemy literally, and the statement with which we have been dealing obtains with equal, nay, with augmented force. Have we enemies? Most likely; few are happy enough to escape malice from somebody. Well, be assured that in the finest sense imaginable such may be made a friend to our best interests. let fairness, forbearance, "sweet reasonableness," mark your dealings with your foe, and, oh, can you name a brighter triumph of grace than is thus secured? Nay, verily. For our own sakes, then, as well as for theirs, we may well be Christ-like to our adversaries. Thereby we are made "partakers" of that sublime "Divine nature" which is "kind to the unthankful and to the evil.”

Colombo, Ceylon.

THE MOTHER'S PRAYER,

FOR THE YOUNG.

กา

LITTLE Johnny was the only boy a fine thing to begin life for him in a large family, the pet and dar-self and be his own master; but, if ling of his kind parents and his so, he was much mistaken, and seven sisters, who all tried hard to soon found out that by disobeying make him happy; but yet, strange his mother's wishes he had only as it may appear, Johnny never brought on himself misery and sor seemed to be a really happy boy. row. So it was with a heart full of How was that? With every- fears that she at last consented to thing he could possibly want let him go to sea; and with many plenty of playthings, plenty of prayers and many tears she said pocket-money, kind sisters, and good-bye to him as he started on his little friends for playfellows-how first journey alone. Yes, this was his was it that Johnny's rosy face often first journey quite alone; he must looked cross and sulky, his voice go without his mother; and now was so often peevish and grumb-this father, with whom before his ling, and every day he grew more journeys had all been made, was discontented, and miserable ? I gone; but there was One who will tell you how it was. Johnny would willingly have gone with was a very naughty, selfish boy, that orphan child, would willingly who never thought of any one's have comforted him in his loneliwishes but his own, who never ness, and helped him in all the minded how much sorrow he might cause his mother if he could but get his own way.

troubles which so soon overtook him, had he only gone to Him and asked Him to be with him. But Now it happened that when he he would not do so. So all alone was very young his father died, he set out; and at first the rememand his mother and her eight brance of his mother's tears, her children went to live in a beautiful gentle words of loving advice, and country village. She was a very her earnest entreaty that he would good woman, who loved and served God; and it was her great desire and prayer that all her little ones, whom she loved so dearly, might learn to love Him too. And now little Johnny might have been a great comfort to his poor mother in her very great sorrow, if he had tried; but, instead of doing so, he grew wilder and more disobedient than ever.

read the Testament which was her parting gift to him, all this saddened him, and made him half regret his past undutiful conduct.

But these thoughts soon passed away; he was going to be a sailor in that beautiful ship his mother had taken him to see; he was going to be a man, and begin life for himself; he had said good-bye to his hated lessons for ever; and was not all that delightful?

He had set his heart on being a sailor, and going to see distant It was with such bright dreams lands; for, like most naughty boys, of happiness that he sat on his little he hated lessons, and thought trunk at the railway station, waitschool the most miserable place ing for the train which was to carry in the world. I dare say he him away from home and all who thought that on board a ship he loved him; and as it was rather a should have nothing to do but to long time coming, he fancied he amuse himself, and that it would be was getting very hungry,

so out

came a large parcel of cake, which answered; God did not hear my the loving care of his eldest sister earnest cry." And so it seemed; had provided for his long journey; but God never does break His and with a little help from a very word, and the poor widow found lean hungry dog which was wan- His promise true at last. "Ask, dering about the station, he soon and ye shall find; knock, and it made the parcel a good deal shall be opened." smaller.

One day, some time after she And now, having seen Johnny had heard the captain's bad account off by the train full of bright hopes of her son, a poor sailor, almost and sunny expectations, we will go naked, and looking half-starved, back to the house he has just left; knocked at her door, and begged and what shall we see there? His for a few pennies to buy bread. little room empty, the floor strewn The sight of a sailor always inwith pieces of paper, and all in dis-terested her, and, coming to the order just as he left it; the loving door, she began to inquire about sisters with sorrowful faces, yet his history. trying to look bright and hopeful; and his mother, where is she? Kneeling by the window in her own room, trying hard to leave her darling to the care of her heavenly Father, asking Him to take pity on her fatherless boy, to watch over him in all the dangers of the life he had chosen; and most of all did she pray that He would at last bring him to that land where there is no more sorrow or parting, because there is no more sin.

Years passed away, and nothing was heard of Johnny. His mother was growing old, and oh how she longed for some tidings of the lost one! But still no letters came. At length one day she met with a captain who knew the ship in which her boy had sailed, and from him she heard sad news.

The poor fellow was very grateful for her kindness; he told her of many troubles he had gone through

how he had been wrecked several times, and especially at one time, when he and one young lad were the only ones who were not drowned with the ship. "We were cast on a desert island," said the sailor, "and he was very ill. I could find very little to eat, but I nursed him for seven days, aud then he died. Poor fellow! I shall never forget him-he was so grateful for everyhing I did for him, and so gentle and kind. He read all day long out of a little book which he told me his mother gave him. It was the only thing he saved from the wreck; and oh, how he loved it! He talked of nothing else but of his book and his dear mother; and just before he died he gave it to me with many thanks for my poor services, and died so peacefully."

The ship had been wrecked, and he did not know whether her son was drowned or not; but he told her, what she had all along feared, This was the sailor's story. You that of all the wicked lads he had know, I am sure, what the mother ever known he was the worst, and was thinking about; she that it would be well for the rest of wondering could this have been the crew if he had been drowned, her son; it might be, but how that he might not lead other young

men into sin.

This almost broke the mother's heart; she went home to weep; and many a time she thought to herself, "My prayer has not been

was

could she find out? "Is this all true ?" she asked the sailor. "Yes, madam, every word of it," he answered; "and here's the very book, too."

She seized the book; it was

"