mand, if not the letter, and therefore | Eunice put her fingers in her ears I will punish you. Go to your room, | and went away. . and stay there, on bread and water, Next day Benjamin was restored till to-morrow morning. If you ever to favour, and all the week was go near the Christians again, a worse treated with so much tenderness thing will befall you."

that he had a great struggle in his All day long Benjamin remained heart as to whether he should stay in his room, in disgrace. He was at home or go to school. On the usually an obedient boy, and had one side was his father's command; not been punished in several years; on the other, Christ and the plan of and he felt mortified and ashamed salvation. He thought of it on Saturas he remembered his father's look day, as he sat by his father on the and tone. But his mother's cold men's side of the synagogue, listenness went to his heart, and tear after ing to the mournful recitative of the tear dropped from his eyes as he rabbis. He reflected on it before he thought it was the first time she had went to sleep on Saturday night, ever refused his kiss. He heard and as soon as he awoke on Sabbath merry voices downstairs; his cousins, morning. Then there came into his coming in, called for him, and he mind these words :-"He that loveth knew that they were being told that father or mother more than Me is he was a prisoner; and whenever a not worthy of Me," and he decided silvery laugh floated upward to his to go. ear, he fancied that his sisters were He had expected to have some making fun of him. Then came the surveillance exercised over his acsound of dinner, the faint rattling of tions this morning, but there was dishes,and the odour of savoury food, none. When the bells rang he put very appetizing to a hungry boy. on his hat and walked away, and no But no dinner was sent to him, and one called to him or stopped him; the long hours wore slowly away, but as the door closed behind him until the sun went down and dark. his mother clasped her hands, and ness stole into his little room. He said to her husband, had opened and read his Testament, “Ah, Simeon! he has gone again. and had knelt and offered up a little Why did you not let me bid him prayer to the dear Jesus, who had stay?" borne His sufferings so meekly, and No, Sarah,” said Mr. Rosenblatt; something like peace was stealing “the lad goes with his eyes open: over him, when his elder sister came but I'll find a way to cure him. You in, and not unkindly offered him his know the wise man hath saidA supper. She said,

whip for the horse, a bridle for the “This has been a sad day, brother ass, and a rod for the fool's back.'”. Benjamin; but father says he hopes Tears dimmed the mother's eyes, it will be a lesson to you.”

but she said nothing. When Benja. “Sister Eunice,” said he, " if you min came home he was beaten had ever been there, if you knew how severely, but he bore the infliction loying and kind the teachers are, without a murmur. Again and again, and how like heaven the singing is, as the weeks went on, his mother you would not all feel as you do.” pleaded with him, and his father

“But, Benjamin, if it is wrong to punished; but to everything he said go at all, it is even worse since the but this : place is made so pleasant."

" When I did not know anything "Ah! to hear of Jesus is so sweet, about Jesus, I thought as you do; Eunice,--how He loved sinners, how but now I am sure He is the Messiah, He healed the sick, raised the dead, and I don't dare disobey Him, for suffered on the cross-—"

Ho and the Father are one."

At last there came a stormy night, I changed for dry. That night he when the father felt that all his slept for the first time under a efforts were in vain. The rabbi had, Christian roof. been there, and talked with him; his Kind friends soon provided a home mother had expostulated; his sisters for the young convert, and found had wept. The constancy of this work for him to do. A few Sabboy of thirteen was not to be shaken. bath evenings later he attended the So the mother, with a breaking monthly meeting for prayer,at which heart, no doubt, but outwardly calm, it was customary for teachers and made his clothes up into a bundle, scholars, who were prepared, to reand went away, out of sight and cite a few verses of Scripture or hearing, while her husband turned poetry. Many who were there knew out of doors their only son, and her į the troubles that had come on the daughters spit in their brother's little Jewish boy because of his de. face.

votion to the school and the Saviour; “Dog of an unbeliever," said the and there were few hearts unmoved father, “go and see whether your when he rose in his place, and reSunday-school will take care of you cited the old hymn, now !” Poor Benjamin! The winds were

" Jesus, I my cross have taken,

All to leave and follow Thee; chill, the night was pitch dark, and

Naked, poor, despised, forsaken, the rain was falling in torrents. He Thou from hence my all shalt be." sat on the door-step, bewildered, and half resolved to go in again, confess Years have passed since then, and his errors, and promise to obey, and Benjamin is a man. He has never remain a Jew. He needed but to say crossed his father's threshold since, a word, and his father's and mother's though he has made many overtures heart would relent, and their arms | towards reconciliation. But someopen to enfold him. But then he times at dusk, just as the shadows thought of Christ, scourged and spit are losing themselves in the night, upon, bearing His cross, and it came a veiled figure steals hurriedly to his to him with comfort in the thought door, and Benjamin knows that his -" This is my cross!”

mother has come to see him. Not An hour later, somebody pulled even the deadly sin which she thinks the bell of the superintendent's her boy has committed, has been house. Wondering who had come able to dull in her soul the un. to pay a visit on such a night, Mr. quenchable mother-love. And he

went himself to the door, and prays for her, and for the hour when the light from the hall lamp fell blindness shall be lifted from all eyes upon a youthful figure, shivering and dear to him, and when God's ancient wet to the skin.

people shall return unto Him who He brought him in, and recog has torn them grievously, but who nized, with surprise and sorrow, poor I will heal with loving-kindness. Benjamin Rosenblatt. His story wasMeanwhile, he goes on his way, soon told, and his wet clothing ex. I working for the Crucified.

A MISINTERPRETED TEXT.
BY THE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, LATE OF NEWPORT, MON.

" Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone."--Hosea iv. 17. ORDINARILY this text has been viewed in the light of a command to the prophet to take no further pains to bring Ephraim to repentance,

because his wickedness had become incorrigible; and many a sermon has been preached from this text to show that certain sinners at a certain stage of their downward course have been so left to themselves that their destruction has been inevitable—their salvation impossible; and thereby many an awakened sinner has been driven to the fear that his was “ a desperate case”-that because of his very great and long-continued wickedness he had been given up of God to live and die without hope. .

To the above view of the text there are two or three very strong objections.

1. There is a doctrinal objection to it. We believe that no man, so long as he lives, whatever his past conduct has been, is abandoned of God to despair, or left without the means for being brought to repentance and salvation; that no man is given up to helpless ruin until he dies and is sent to hell. It is only in the place of unending punishment that the wail of dreadful despondency is heard : “The harvest is past, and the summer is ended, and we are not saved!”

"As long as life its term extends,
Hope's blest dominion never ends :
For while the lamp holds out to burn,

The greatest sinner may return.” “That the sinner may harden himself into insensibility till he is 'twice dead," past feeling,'' having his conscience seared as with a hot iron,' and committing all uncleanness with greediness ; defiant of God and even regardless of men; so that though God's love, and Christ's grace, and the Spirit's strivings, and a free pardon, and the gift of righteousness, and, in short, salvation, be as much God's gracious provision for him and be as much pressed upon him as ever, we may say, and even God may say, 'Bis is a very hopeless case,' cannot be denied. And further, it is maintained that if we misuse privileges and opportunities, God may withdraw some of them in His judicial wisdom, as in the contrary case He may enlarge them: for the principle is, To him that hath shall be given ; while from him that hath not shall be taken away that which he seemeth to have.' Behold in this the goodness and severity of God! His goodness : for by this He gives us à powerful stimulus to improve our opportunities; His righteous severity: for what more clear than the right of a landlord to withdraw his land from a faithless tenant who is neglecting or wasting it? or of a mercantile firm to withdraw their consignments from a faithless agent who is compromising their interests? These and other truths of the like awful significance are undoubted, and they are as solemn as they are indisputable. Let them be frequently pondered to have their due practical effect” (Evangelical Repository, June, 1868). But that it is only when the sinner has persistently let God alone that God lets him alone, is the clearly and frequently taught doctrine of the Divine word. It was only after the antediluvians for one hundred and twenty years had rejected the preaching of Noah that God brought upon them the all-destroying flood. It was only after years of persistent un

belief that God gave up the Christ-rejecting Jews to their fearful doom. Man can become hopeless only by his own voluntary and constantly cherished unbelief,-only when the sinner utterly and for ever abandons God, does God utterly and for ever abandon him. Let no sinner who feels the need of, and longs for, salvation, despair. He may be sure that by God's grace, through the merits of the Saviour's precious blood, there is a full, free, and present salvation for the chief of sinners-for him!

“ O'er sins unnumbered as the sand,

And like the mountains for their size ;
The seas of sovereign grace expand ;-

The seas of sovereign grace arise." 2. As a matter of fact, God did not " let" Ephraim " alone." He followed him by most solemn and earnest calls to repentance, enforced by most precious promises of pardon and revival (see chaps. xi. 8, 9; xiv. 1-8).

3. The context shows that a different interpretation must be given of the passage from the usual one. Evidently the demand is, that Ephraim keep back from participating in the idolatry of Judah. “Let him alone ; " have nothing to do with him in his idolatrous practices. “Ephraim is joined to idols;" see to it that you do not company with Ephraim in this soul-debasing, God-dishonouring course. Just as the Lord when denouncing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees said to the multitude, “Let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind” (Matt. xv. 14)—that is, keep away from them, avoid their company, Test you fall into their sin—so God by the prophet here says to Judah, “Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone.” Shun him, don't associate with Ephraim, lest you fall into Ephraim's sin. :

Thus, instead of throwing out dark and discouraging views of God's treatment of sinners, the text contains a necessary and wholesome caution against keeping bad company. God would have Judah avoid all fellowship with Ephraim in his “ work of darkness," as He will have all who are to secure their own moral safety shun the company of those by whose example and influence they would be likely to be led astray from the right and good way. .

“Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." Be * Ephraim” who he may-scoffer, sceptic, gambler, drunkard, sensualist, fop, liar, the crafty and deceitful man, or false professor-he is joined to “his idols, LET HIM ALONE!”

Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand, July 8th, 1869.

CHRISTMAS IN THE FOREST.

A CHRISTMAS LEGEND FOR THE YOUNG. It was Christmas morning, but | too, so that I kept the fire up all no gift-laden tree or well-filled stock- | night." ing awaited Dick, when he awoke “ Did you have wood enough, soon after dawn and thought what mother p" asked Dick, beginning to day it was. Christmas once was dress and shiver at the same time. as merry for him as for other chil “Yes; but my boy must hurry dren, but the years since then had and get more. It has been snowing been full of poverty and trouble, a little, and looks like a storm.” which had made them very long and “Then I'll fetch in a lot,”said Dick. ageing to poor little Dick. Lying on “We should be very thankful his straw pallet, and winking at the that the snow has kept off so long, cold light as it struggled through the | and left the wood uncovered. Now, cracks of the wall as well as the low say your prayers, Dick. We must window, the boy thought of those | remember it's Christmas, and the happy times, and wished they could Good Gift that came to-day, even if return. His father was strong, we haven't as many blessings as we then, earning by honest toil all | had once.” needful comforts for his family, So they knelt down in the cold, and on Christmas-day-that day of and gave thanks that Christ was all the year-providing a dinner of born--and rose comforted and goose and plum-pudding, fit, they cheered. thought, " to set before a king.” Dick brought in a good many And the simple gifts that were armfuls of faggots, and made the as sure to come, gave them more fire burn as well as it could with pleasure than costlier ones often such damp, frosty fuel. While his give the children of the rich. All mother boiled the water for the this was sadly changed by the mush that was their only food for father's receiving a terrible injury the day, he took the pail, and went that crippled him for life, and threw out to milk. the whole care of the family upon “I'll be off to sell the milk as the mother. They were forced to soon as I have my breakfast," he leave the pretty cottage in the vil said, "and then I'll buy some potalage, and come to their present home, toes to roast in the ashes, and we'll but little better than a hut, in the have nuts, and make believe it's a edge of a forest. Here cold and fine dinner-won't we, mother?” hunger had been frequent guests, Before many minutes Dick was and of late had seemed disposed to 1 back in the kitchen with a troubled take up their constant abode, in spite face. of the good woman's efforts to drive " What do you think, mother the them off.

cow has gone off again. I thought Dick had not been awake long she was fastened in, but the wicked when his mother came to his bed. thing has got away." “ Merry Christmas, mother!” he "Poor Bossy found her shed cold, cried.

and I guess she remembered the “Hush, Dicky," she whispered, grass she used to find last summer, stooping to kiss him, and showing and wanted to find more. But I eyes red with watching and weeping. am very sorry my little man must "Don't wake your poor father, he hunt for her this bitter day.” has had a bad turn, and only just “Never mind me, mother, I will got to sleep. Conny cried with cold, I bring her home in no time.”