frequent use, and the articles which little to pack away in a cedar closet. caused me so much care were not In my opinion God's providence is needed twice a year. I then thought far from encouraging extensive acof Sophy Baker, with her large cumulation either of money or family and sick husband. They had possessions, especially among Chrisbeen burned out the spring before, tians. Fire and food, drought, and were just entering upon a cold, mildew and moth, stand ready to long winter of poverty. I sat down, rebuke that spirit of covetousness, and, writing her a note, sent two which the Lord abhorreth.” feather-beds and four blankets, and “Surely, Aunt Julia, you wouldn't an old-fashioned coverlid,' that have mo give away the new furs you very day; and two more blankets gave me yourself last winter ?” I despatched to a poor old rheumatic “No, my child; but let us examine neighbour, whose destitution had | for a moment this moth-eaten pile. never occurred to me before. I then Here are three coats of your husbegan to breathe freely; and before | band's which he never could wear another week two more blankets were again.” gone to comfort tired limbs and aching "Those are for fishing, Aunt," hearts. The cast-off coats, cloaks, and “ How often does he fish?” old pieces of carpeting which had long “Once in four or five years, perlain in my garret, were given to the haps,” said Anna, looking slightly deserving poor. A bag of woollen discomfited. stockings and socks, which had been “Well, here is a bag of out-grown, kopt for cleaning brass, were sent shrunken socks and stockings, and to a charity institution, never again these old dresses of Ada's, and those to become a temptation to the moths. overcoats of the boys, that I heard I inquired particularly the next you say were unfit for wear, even in year, and found the beds and the play-ground; and besides, I blankets were in such excellent think you remarked that the whole preservation, that I cheerfully laid difficulty originated in an old carpet, up more of my surplus property in which has been harbouring moths heaven,' and out of the way of moth many years, when it might have been and mould. My cedar closet and out of harm's way upon some poor trunks hold all I wish to preserve, widow's floor." and when they begin to run over I “Well, Aunt, I believe you are half commit more articles to the keeping

right.” of my widowed and fatherless ac *Try my rule, Anna; not after quaintances.”

your property is ruined, but when “But, Aunt, yours is a peculiar you find you can spare it-eyen at case. You had the home-made out the risk of sending some of your treafit of a rich farmer's daughter, and sure to heaven before you have obcould not expect to make use of it; tained all you could from its use. besides, the Bible don't encourage Many an old garret have I known to wasting our goods extravagantly." be infested with moths, ruining hun

“I do think the Bible leans to dreds of pounds' worth of valuable what is called the extravagant side. articles, when the whole evil might The rest of the chapter following the be traced to an old coat, or carpet, verse I have quoted gives little selfishly or carelessly withheld from encouragement to much forethought, the poor. We are God's stewards, either in food or raiment, and in and our luxuries are not given us to another place says, 'He that hath food a 'covetousness which is idoltwo coats, let him impart to him atry,' but are talents which may be that hath nono.' This rule leaves | increased ten times before the great

day of final account. When people ask 1. hom, Depart in peace, be warmed me how to prevent moths, I always and filled: notwithstanding yo give long to say, 'Lay up your treasures them not those things that are needin heaven,' because I have found ful to the body; what doth it profit ?” from experience it is a sure and con “But whoso hath this world's goods, venient way."

and seeth his brother have need, and “Well, Aunt, I own I never shutteth up his bowels of compassion thought much about it before as a from him, how dwelleth the love of matter of Christian duty. I will try, God in him?" before another year, to confine my Brothers and sisters, in the name case to the articles I need, and shall of Him who has commanded, “ when hope for better success.”

thou seest the naked, that thou cover

him, and that thou hide not thyself How many thousands of garments, from thine own flesh,” in the name new and old, are lying idle in the of Him who at the judgment day wardrobes of Christian families, while shall say to some, “I was naked and multitudes of those for whom Jesus ye clothed me," and to others, “I died are suffering or perishing for was naked and ye clothed me not,” lack of necessary covering! Brothers we pray you attend to this matter. and sisters, these things ought not so Look out what yo really need, and to be. “Let him that hath two coats put the rest where it will be useful to give to him that hath none." Be some one else. ware of the woo of God upon the But remember, do not give the rich. To them James says, “Go to Lord that which no one can ever use ! now, ye rich men, weep and howl for Do not send ragged clothing, when your miseries that shall come upon you have time to patch them; and you. Your riches are corrupted, and do not send boxes or barrels which, your garments are moth-eaten. Your when received, would not be worth gold and silver is cankered, and the the expense of transportation ; and rust of them shall be a witness do not burden the poor distributors against you, and shall eat your flesh with the expense of carriage, when as it were fire. Yo have heaped you are abundantly able to meet treasure together for the LAST DAYS.”. such charges yourself. They have Again the Apostle says, “If a brother burdens enough to bear already; let or a sister be naked, and destitute of us work in such a manner that we daily food, and one of you say unto | may help and not hinder them.

THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

Eph. iii. 19. BY THE REV. W. C. JONES (LYMINGTON). All knowledge is useful. It makes the possessor a monarch among kings, a cedar amongst thorns. It gives power, victory, and wealth. It wins the secrets, gathers the treasures, and yokes the forces of earth, and sea, and sky. It weds the present with the past, and bids reason and imagination walk, hand in hand, adown the avenues of all future times. Men wear it as a crown, and sway with it as with a sceptre. But, when earthly, its proudest triumphs fail to benefit the soul. It cannot make the crooked straight, or the evil good, It cannot make the law of God a

Grin, JP "31171 his wrath into an ile tale. It cannot banish death from the world, md judgnent from the future. The earth it girds with iron roads, and rdges the ocean with swift ships ; but these cannot carry you to a land where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at nat, la death, especially, its consolations are few and small. Before the wo grow ton dim to behold the “ spangled heavens," and the ear too dull to match the words of dearest friends, the soul will need light, and music, and glory from the heavenly world. Only this knowledge of the love of Christ, can, in such an hour, light up the eye with love, make a man go with boldness to the river's brink, enter without a shudder, and shout in mid-stream, that the flood doth not carry him away.

Though this theme, higher than the heavens, deeper than the sea, is too Vast for us to grasp, we may touch it, as our hand may the mountain. Though it surpasses all human power to understand its mystery, we may fill our hearts with its blessedness, as the ocean the rivers with its tides.

I. Is not our understanding baffled by the very freeness with which this love of Christ was bestowed Who ever sought it, asked for it, cared for it? Not the man, Adam, who possessed, despised, and lost it. Not his children, who so unanimously gave their service to Satan, their hatred to their Maker. Not the Jew and Gentile, who fought against the goodwill of God, and, with brand and execration, crucified his Son. None deserved, desired, expected it. Free as the winds, and boundless as the light, came this love of Christ. Nor came it to beings excellent in nature, noble in soul, whose virtues were only dimmed, whose sin was their calamity, whose rebellion the sole crime of another. We were foul as the sing we loved could make us. Transgression was the staple of our obedience; murmurings the music of our gratitude ; hating the Lord with all our heart, and soul, and strength, the way in which we kept the first and great commandment. Yet unto such beings has the love of Christ come.

That friend should love friend, mother her child, is not strange; that benevolence should pity destitution, and sympathy assist the unfortunate, is not strange ; to such acts, nature and education will conduct us. But to see wisdom consorting with folly ; beauty choosing deformity ; to see the gentle visiting the cruel, the pure the unclean, for the reform and happiness of men—the more repulsive from contrast to their ministering angels--proves such strangeness and self-sacrifice to spring from higher principles than nature has to give. Such strangeness is there in the love of the holy God. Such strangeness in the love of Christ. On fornicators, idolaters, and blasphemers, has it been bestowed, that by its incomprehensible mystery, its spontaneous freeness, boasting from the best, and despair from the worst, might be alike taken away.

II. Does it not pass knowledge, when we contemplate the sufferings he bore to render his love of benefit to us? It was love that brought Him from the bosom of the Father to this world, in the gloom and winter of its misery, in the interval preceding its doom. It was love that made him put on affliction as a garment, and wear sorrow as a crown. It was love

that turned spotless righteousness into an offering for sin, and infinite blessedness into a curse. From the cradle to the cross Christ's life was one of suffering, and, therefore, one of love. An infant fugitive from Herod's sword; an exile from his own land ; stigmatised in life as a man gluttonous and drunken ; associated with the wicked one as the basis of his wonder-working power; hated for his gracious words ; feared for his mighty deeds; they seek him as a robber and a thief; they deny him justice, the common right of man; and, though it sink their souls to hell, they plot and clamour for his blood. Briefly survey his sufferings; view him agonising in the garden ; the soldiers' butt and jest in the judgment hall. See him sinking beneath his heavy cross. See him nailed to it. Hear his piteous lamentation, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?."

“ See from his head, his hands, his feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down."

Jesus! Saviour ! Never was shame, never sorrow, never agony, never death like thine, and, therefore, never love like thine !

« The children of the rich have not their bread to win ;

They hardly know how labour is the penalty of sin;

E'en like the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin." But Christ, through his love, became poor to enrich us, burdened to relieve us, despised to cheer us, and slain to redeem us.

III. Does it not pass our knowledge, when we are assured these sufferings were endured to deliver all who believe from death and hell ? Wherefore this waste ļ said the thief who bore the bag; and, Wherefore this sacrifice ? ask the thieves who would steal from Christ the glory of his titles, and from his blood the virtue of a ransom. This was the need. Sinners are declared worthy of tenanting the gloom of that pit which is bottomless ; of becoming brethren in misery of the spirits which are accursed and lost. And from this prison-house of the condemned, this abyss into which the apostate angels have sunk; from these dark chambers, where no one dries another's tears nor heals another's anguish; from this hopeless hell, whero the worm never dies and the fire is not quenched, Christ died to make deliverance possible to all who hear his gospel, and certain unto all who make him their Saviour and trust him with their souls.

IV. Nor has He died to deliver those who love Him only from hell; He gives them a place in heaven.

Grateful should sinners, worthy of death, have been for the least of mercies, never raising hopes for the greatest favours. But, “ Love divine all love excelling,” transcends all earthly precept and pattern. The love of Christ disdains comparison with the love of man. Our highest is lower than Christ's lowest. Christ's is the ocean, man's the dewdrop, which the Wind scatters or the sun exhales. Amongst us! Pardon the wretch that, serpent-like, has stung the hand that fed him, and none will cry, Add

fiction, or turn his wrath into an idle tale. It cannot banish death from the world, and judgment from the future. The earth it girds with iron roads, and bridges the ocean with swift ships ; but these cannot carry you to a land where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. In death, especially, its consolations are few and small. Before the eye grows too dim to behold the “spangled heavens,” and the ear too dull to catch the words of dearest friends, the soul will need light, and music, and glory from the heavenly world. Only this knowledge of the love of Christ can, in such an hour, light up the eye with love, make a man go with boldness to the river's brink, enter without a shudder, and shout in mid-stream, that the flood doth not carry him away.

Though this theme, higher than the heavens, deeper than the sea, is too vast for us to grasp, we may touch it, as our hand may the mountain. Though it surpasses all human power to understand its mystery, we may fill our hearts with its blessedness, as the ocean the rivers with its tides.

I, Is not our understanding baffled by the very freeness with which this love of Christ was bestowed ? Who ever sought it, asked for it, cared for it? Not the man, Adam, who possessed, despised, and lost it. Not his children, whoso unanimously gave their service to Satan, their hatred to their Maker. Not the Jew and Gentile, who fought against the goodwill of God, and, with brand and execration, crucified his Son. None deserved, desired, expected it. Free as the winds, and boundless as the light, came this love of Christ. Nor came it to beings excellent in nature, noble in soul, whose virtues were only dimmed, whose sin was their calamity, whose rebellion the sole crime of another. We were foul as the sins we loved could make us. Transgression was the staple of our obedience; murmurings the music of our gratitude; hating the Lord with all our heart, and soul, and strength, the way in which we kept the first and great commandment. Yet unto such beings has the love of Christ come.

That friend should love friend, mother her child, is not strange; that benevolence should pity destitution, and sympathy assist the unfortunate, is not strange; to such acts, nature and education will conduct us. But to see wisdom consorting with folly ; beauty choosing deformity ; to see the gentle visiting the cruel, the pure the unclean, for the reform and happiness of men the more repulsive from contrast to their ministering angels--proves such strangeness and self-sacrifice to spring from higher principles than nature has to give. Such strangeness is there in the love of the holy God. Such strangeness in the love of Christ. On fornicators, idolaters, and blasphemers, has it been bestowed, that by its incomprehensible mystery, its spontaneous freeness, boasting from the best, and despair from the worst, might be alike taken away.

II. Does it not pass knowledge, when we contemplate the sufferings he bore to render his love of benefit to us? It was love that brought Him from the bosom of the Father to this world, in the gloom and winter of its misery, in the interval preceding its doom. It was love that made him put on affliction as a garment, and wear sorrow as a crown. It was love