plenty. So is it with believers when God commands "the blessing, even life for evermore." The mind is illuminated; the affections are warmed; faith, and hope, and humility, and holiness, and joy, all are made to grow. Even the wilderness and the solitary place become glad; the very desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose. May this heavenly dew descend copiously on my soul, that all my graces may be quickened, and that I may bring forth abundant fruit to the Divine glory!

This heavenly influence let me find
In holy silence of the mind,
While every grace maintains its bloom,
Diffusing wide its rich perfume.

Nor let these blessings be confined
To me, but poured on all mankind;
Till earth's wild wastes in verdure rise,
And a young Eden bless our eyes.

SEPT. 2. "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." PSAL. xxxii. 5.

E may notice THE CONFESSION THE PSALMIST MADE. It was confession to God; who alone can grant absolution. It was confession that had been long delayed. A child of God may, in a backsliding state, continue long without acknowledging his guilt; but, sooner or later, he will be brought to repentance and tears. It was confes sion frank and full. The repentant backslider will not try to shift the blame from himself to others, as Adam did. He will not attempt to evade the matter as Cain. He will not deny his sin as Gehazi. The whole roll of guilt is out

spread before the Lord. It was confession coupled with penitence. Not like Cain's, which was a mere acknowledgment of the weight of Divine displeasure. Nor like that of Judas, which was only forced from him by remorse and apprehension of woe. It was that of a child to his offended father, and was expressive of affectionate sorrow. This is the confession of every holy soul. It was confession that recognised the sacrifice of Christ. Confession only fits us to receive and enjoy the blessing. Let us place all our sins by faith on the atoning Lamb; then we shall enjoy THE BLESSING THE PSALMIST REALIZED. It was the blessing of forgiveness. It was complete forgiveness. How beautiful and expressive are the varied terms employed in Scripture to set it forth! Our sins are said to be blotted out as a cloud. As the strong wind chases away the dark cloud from the sky, so that not a trace remains, thus God scatters our sins, and nothing is left, but the sunshine of his favour on the soul. God says, that he will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. As a rock thrown into the deep ocean is seen no more, so our sins shall sink out of sight. God is even said to forget the sins of those whom he forgives. We sometimes say, that we can forgive, but we cannot forget. God does both. "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." It was forgiveness freely bestowed. The Lord" delighteth in mercy." What he gives, he gives bountifully, and without fee or reward. It was forgiveness associated with fatherly chastisement. The Psalmist's child was to die. The sword was not to depart from his house. This chastisement was a proof of love. The afflictions of returning

penitents are means of mercy. It was forgiveness that secured peace. You have seen, when a child has been forgiven of its parents, how sullenness has been supplanted by smiles. Sorrow, with a pardoned sinner, changes into joy. All is peace within, and blessedness without. Calamities are borne with patience; health and prosperity are received with praise. "Blessed is he whose trans

gression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." May this blessedness be mine!

All-gracious God, thy love I praise,

And, prostrate at thy feet,

My soul in penitence would wait,
Forgiveness there to meet.

SEPT. 3. "Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 TIM. i. 10.

go

HINDOO was lying upon his bed, expecting soon to die. He was full of thought where his soul would after death. He had been wholly given to idolatry, and now he felt that he was not happy. A priest came to see him, and the dying man said, "What will become of me?" "Oh," said the priest, "you will live in another body." "And where shall I go then?" he asked. "Into another." "And where then ?" Into another, and so through thousands of millions." The thoughts of the dying man, darted across all these many changes, as if they were but the work of an instant, and cried, "Where shall I go last of all ?" The priest could not reply, and the unhappy ido later died with no one near him to answer his anxious question. But come and gaze upon this other scene. A little Burman girl was near death.

Lifting her dim eyes to a kind lady who was her teacher, she said, "I am dying, but I am not afraid to die; for Christ will call me up to heaven. He has taken away all my sins, and I wish to die now that I may go and see him. I love Jesus more than any one else." The unhappy Hindoo was dying under the dark cloud of heathenism. The happy Burman girl had heard and believed that gospel through which life and immortality are brought to light. Glory be to God for his Revealed Word!

Our raging passions it controls,
And comfort yields to contrite souls:
It brings a better world in view,

And guides us all our journey through.

SEPT. 4. "And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook."

xvii. 6.

1 KINGS

HO else was it but the God of Elijah,

who, only a short time ago, in our neighbourhood, so kindly delivered a poor man out of his distress, not indeed by a raven, but by a poor singing bird? You are acquainted with the circumstance. The man was sitting early in the morning at the house-door. His eyes were red with weeping, and his heart cried to heaven, for he was expecting an officer to come and distrain him for a small debt. And whilst sitting thus with his heavy heart, a little bird flew through the street, fluttering up and down as if in distress, until at length, quick as an arrow, it flew over the good man's head into his cottage, and perched itself within an empty cupboard. The good man

who little imagined who had sent him the bird, closed the door, caught the bird, and placed it in a cage, where it immediately began to sing very sweetly, and it seemed to him as if it were the tune of a favourite hymn, 'Fear thou not when darkness reigns;' and as he listened to it, he found it soothe and comfort his mind. Suddenly some one knocked at the door. 'Oh,

it is the officer,' thought the man, and he was
sore afraid. But no, it was the servant of a
respectable lady, who said that the neighbours had
seen a bird fly into his house, and she wished to
know if he had caught it. 'Oh, yes,' answered
the man, 'and here it is;' and the bird was car-
ried away. A few minutes after the servant came
again. You have done my mistress a great ser-
vice,' said she; she sets a high value upon the
bird, which had escaped from her. She is much
obliged to you, and requests you to accept this
trifle, with her thanks."
The poor man received
it thankfully, and it proved to be neither more
nor less than the sum he owed! And when the
officer came, he said, 'Here is the amount of the
debt; now leave me in peace, for God has sent it
to me.'"-Krummacher.

Such are God's schemes of providence,
And methods of his grace,

That I may safely trust in him
Through all the wilderness.

SEPT. 5. "That they all may be one." JOHN xvii. 21.

HILIP HENRY, once preaching from this text, made the following pithy and beautiful remarks, as illustrative of the Saviour's prayer, which he regarded as already answered :-" Not