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THE MOTHERS' PORTION.

away together gathering sticks-some to use now, and some to add to that neat pile of wood which must be got ready against the coming winter.

The little feet have been running about so eagerly over mossy cushions and bright-leaved wood-sorrel; the little hands have had such a gleeful look in them as they pounced down on one stick after another and carried them off to mother, whose whole face is lit with love as she takes them from her busy, laughing little pet. But now it is time to go home. Father will be coming back, and of course they must be quite ready for him, and give him the joyous welcome which he knows will never fail him. While the sticks are fastened together in a firm bundle, cannot you hear the little voice pleading: "Mother, please let me carry some!" And she is too wise and loving not to respond to her child's request. She has some idea of the happiness she puts into that little heart by allowing her "to help mother." I think that desire, encouraged and strengthened, will, by God's grace, mean a great deal of fruit byand-by, a great deal of gladness, both in the home and beyond it.

Will you let our picture say something to you, dear mothers? "Let your little ones help you!' Even if they do it very awkwardly, even if their "help" means more trouble to you in the end, do not quench a desire which God has surely put as a blessed instinct into children's hearts. They love "helping," and if the early joy of it is cherished, will they not ever be more and more on the eager, unselfish watch to see how they can help others? And when they find that father and mother will trust them with some share in the daily work, it does fasten their hearts with another fresh link to the dear parents and home.

way

The Lord Jesus was so full of love and in the grace He allowed others a part in some of His great miracles (Jo. xi. 40-44). He could have done the whole Himself perfectly, but the disciples would have lost the joy and privilege of a share with Him in His work. And the inspired title for every true servant of God is, "Workers together with God." He hath left. us an example that we should "follow His steps."

BEHIND MY BACK.

“BEHIND MY BACK.”

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BY M. E.

S God behind my back? or are my sins behind the back of God?

Could we put such a question as this, could we use such words-words so remarkable-so forcible-if they were not Bible words, God's own words? Surely not.

A message of judgment was sent by God to that ungodly King Jeroboam, whose sins are over and over again mentioned in the Bible as not forgotten by God. The message spoke of

sin and of terrible judgment, and it seems as if the secret of all the sin is to be found in the words "Thou hast cast Me behind thy back" (2 Kings xiv. 9). Jeroboam was ready for any sin when once he had cast God "behind his back." With God before him he dared not have sinned thus, but with God out of sight he could turn to his own way unchecked, and he turned his back on God. Is not this in reality the position of every unsaved soul? God is behind such a soul. Thoughts of God which will come sometimes and haunt the soul are cast aside, cast "behind the back." The man who turns his back upon another does not wish to own him as an acquaintance, he determines neither to see him nor to speak with him.

Is it possible that this is my position with regard to God? Ah! poor soul who has not yet received Christ, and who art clinging still to thine own way of sin, it is just this which is thy position, thou hast cast God behind thy back, and in casting God behind thee thou hast cast behind thee Love, for He is love; Holiness, for He is holy; Glory, for He is the "God of Glory." Thy position, then, how dark is it!

But reverse the picture, and what a wonderful fact is before us! The words are in the writing of the godly King Hezekiah," when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness." For something better far than recovery from sickness Hezekiah sang when he wrote, "Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back." Most

blessed words! Sins put out of sight by God Himself. holy eyes, those eyes that are as a "flame of fire," from nothing is hidden, turned away deliberately and for ever fro sight of "my sins," "all my sins."

Is this my position if I am a believer in Jesus? Most cer it is. God has turned His back upon thy sins; those sin have so often caused thee shame and distress, God has ma end of them; they are gone, He will look upon them no they are behind Him. The quaint and simple language of a labourer, who only in the later months of his last illnes sought and found the Saviour, expressed his sense of this truth: "It is a blessed job there isn't any sin," he said, lay breathing heavily, not long before he passed away. washed away and put away, is it not ?" said the friend who s side him; and he bowed his head in peaceful confidence. was "nothing between " the soul and his God, for all the si "cast behind." The dying bed was "blessed," and the hope be was blessed," no sin-stain seemed left to cast one shadow th How great the contrast! Which way is it with you? you who have put God behind your back? or is it your sins w are behind God's back?

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WHITE ROBES.

BY M. MOORE.

OME time ago, a lady was sitting in her drawing-r an open letter in her hand, and the tears coursing other down her cheeks. Her little girl, a child tween three and four years old, coming in and won ing to see her mother crying, asked what she was crying for? Dear cousin Nannie is dead," replied her mother. Mary has written to tell me so."

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The little face clouded over and for a few moments looked solemn, then raising her eyes she said to her mother: "Mamma, next time we see cousin Nannie she'll have on the white robes!

The mother dried her tears, glad to think that her child's earl thoughts of death should be associated, not with corruption decay, but with the white-robed throng who are washed in Blood of the Lamb.

OUR BIBLE CLASS.

OUR BIBLE CLASS.

BY A. ST. G. C. NUGENT.

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HE month of August very specially brings before us God's great gift of food in harvest. Let it suggest our briefly tracing this subject of food through His Word. He has laid great stress upon it, constantly teaching us about it in direct facts and gifts, and in type and parable, from Genesis to Revelation.

The first facts on this subject that meet us at the opening of the Bible are, His power of creating food, and His gracious preparation of it to suit man (Gen. i. 11, 29). And He still uses this power and grace throughout His world in giving both natural and spiritual food.

The next recorded fact is a very solemn one-man's ruin through eating the one forbidden fruit. But God in His infinite mercy at once gave His fallen creatures the promise of a Saviour; and to feed by faith on this Saviour is life everlasting (Jo. vi. 51). The Children of Israel's life of freedom from the bondage of Egypt, and of service to God, began with a feast, under the shelter of the sprinkled blood (Exod. xii.). The Lamb slain must be our food and strength, as well as our security. Three of the principal ordinances which God commanded Israel were feasts. Notice the emphasis which God, in type, thus lays upon eating as a necessity of spiritual life. He does so again in the gift of manna, which day by day sustained Israel for forty years. Christ teaches us Himself that He is the substance, the Bread of Life, of which the manna was the shadow. It was "little, round, and white," typifying, it has been noticed, Christ in His humiliation, His eternity, and in His purity. Let the manna teach us a yet unfinished lesson-gather! (Psa. civ. 28), and gather daily, freshly. The "Land of Promise "" was a land of wheat and barley, and vines, of fig trees and pomegranates; a land of oil, olives, and honey, a land "wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; thou shalt not lack anything in it"; type again of all the varied supply there is in Christ for His church (Col. i. 19; Jo. i. 16). "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it." There are about eleven miracles in connection with food in the Old Testament, each with its own special teaching.

Then we come to the New Testament. Christ shows Himself to be

the food foreshadowed in so many ways through the Old Test: He is the Bread of Life; He has become this at terrible cost. “ཀ verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the groun die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." has been the seed sown, He has been bruised, He has gone throug furnace, He has been broken (Isa. viii. 5; Matt. xxvii. 46; Lu. xxi that He might be the Bread of Life to the returned prodigal as w to the saint. "He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me" (Jol 57, 58; Rev. iii. 20). He institutes the feast of the New Testa "Take eat," "Drink ye all of this," and as we partake by faith are made one with Christ, and He one with us." He has given u Word also as a great means of our feeding on Him (Job xxiii. 12 xv. 16).

The only miracle recorded by all the four Evangelists is the fe of the 5,000. There are three other food-miracles in the New T ment, and several of Christ's parables are on the same subject.

Let us be more daily obedient to His invitations, His comman eat (Isa. lv. 1). Will you search for others? In my Father's there is "bread enough and to spare." And "as after eating the strength and vigour (Psa. civ. 15, the staff of life), the desire sati the body recruited, made able for work and burden; so upon believi i.e., feeding there follows spiritual strength, peace, comfort, joy, ab for duty, walking with God, working for God." Let us close with promise for present and future," To him that overcometh will I to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of G (Rev. ii. 12; xxii. 2-14).

DAILY BIBLE THOUGHTS FOR THE MON ON THE UNION NEW TESTAMENT READINGS.

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BY E. ST. B. HOLLAND.

Lo, I come to do thy will O God; yea thy law is within my heart. UGUST 1.-John ix. 25. Experience past and present. C pare Eph. ii. 12, 13; v. 8; 1 Pet. ii. 10. Can you give a testimony? Notice also the grand "I know," 1 John iii. 14, and tr this assurance through chaps. iv, and v. of same Epistle.