be immediate. Deception in such an important matter is fraught with danger, and delay may end in the loss of the soul. What next? It may be the home of perdition, if you believe not, love not, and obey the Saviour. The call is instant, pressing, urgent. Flee from the wrath to come. Escape for your life. Only believe, and you shall be saved. Nothing but faith in Jesus will avail. Let your chief object be henceforth salvation from sin, sorrow, and eternal condemnation. Satan may suggest bright days are before you, a merry time awaits you; the sunshine of life, gay and glittering scenes of youthful pleasure, brighten up your path, and all around is smiling, inviting, cheering. It is a delusion, a snare, a danger, and if you live one hour without Christ as your Saviour, your hope, and your portion, you walk on a precipice ready to be hurled into endless ruin. "If sinners entice, consent thou not." Turn a deaf ear to the temptations which assault you, and let your motto be"Christ and my salvation." The present moment is one for action. Christ knocks at the door of your heart. He seeks an entrance. who bled for you claims your heart, your soul, your all. He came to seek and to save the lost. He came to seek you; and He waits for you now, with open arms, ready to receive you. Hear His voice appealing to you, Why will ye die? Harden not your heart while it is called to-day. Come now and accept my salvation freely, without money and without price. I paid the price of my own blood to ransom you from eternal death. I bore in my

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own body the suffering for your sin. I arose from the dead to sit at God's right hand, to become your Advocate and Intercessor, to plead your cause. Through my bleeding heart there is an open way to the Father; and him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out."

Can you listen to such language unmoved? Can you refuse to listen to the voice of your Saviour? Can you turn a deaf ear to His gracious entreaty-to His yearning compassion for your eternal welfare? What next? if you will not come to Him to have eternal life, but the fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries?-Heb. x. 26. At the commencement of the new year, let your determination henceforth be to seek the great salvation, with all diligence, perseverance, and effort, in humble reliance on the Spirit of God to lead you into all truth, to become your great spiritual Teacher, and to bring you as a weeping penitent to the foot of the Cross, where alone you can find peace in the pardon of sin, and rest in safety under the shadow of His all-perfect righteousness. F. S. G.

carried on in various ways. For instance, by an interchange of civilities, which is a friendly intercourse; by an exchange of commodities, which is a commercial intercourse; or by an exchange of words, which is a verbal intercourse. There are various ways in which intercourse may be kept up. This may be done by letters, visits, mutual acts of kindness. The godly have intercourse with God, and with Him in the character of a Father. He is our Father, not only by creation, in which sense He is the Father of all, but by regeneration and adoption. This intercourse is founded in the reconciliation which takes place between us and God when we receive the Saviour by a true faith. He is our Mediator, the middle person between God and us, and He has laid the glorious foundation of His mediation in His death as a sacrifice for sin. "Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." The moment we believe in the atonement of Christ for our own eternal salvation, we are reconciled to God, and this reconciliation leads to intercourse, carried on by means of His word, ordinances, and works, aided by the presence, power, and grace of His Spirit.

"Truly our fellowship is with the Father." God, the living, wise, powerful, eternal, ever blessed God, is our Father. He has given us spiritual life. He has renewed our moral nature. He takes a paternal interest in our welfare. He has given us spiritual perception to see the beauties of His moral character, and He has given us a disposition to

love and serve Him. Love to this glorious Being leads us to think of Him, to delight in doing His will, and seeking to promote His honour. And being interested in His friendship, we shall enjoy an interest in the vast blessings of His everlasting love. He will forgive our sins, protect our persons, supply our wants, relieve our sorrows, and give us eternal life. This fellowship will be spiritual, internal, close, abiding, and ever increasing. There is now fellowship of views, feelings, and aims; and this fellowship with the Father will be perpetuated for ever. This will be the privilege of all the redeemed in heaven, and it will be to them a source of unutterable enjoyment. Fellowship with our earthly relations, Christian friends, the redeemed of the Lord, is a source of enjoyment; what, then, must be our enjoyment when we have uninterrupted fellowship with the Father, who is infinite in goodness, power, and wisdom, therefore must be able to confer immense good on the objects of His love? The godly have also fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ. The apostles had fellowship with Christ when He was upon earth. They were His companions. They accompanied Him in His travels, they saw His miracles, heard His discourses, and were eyewitnesses of His spotless life, great sufferings, and glorious ascension to heaven. And now they have fellowship with Him in His glorified state in heaven. They live near His throne. They see His face. They delight to do His will. And it is the privilege of all the redeemed to enjoy fellowship with Christ. They

have fellowship with Him in this world, preparatory to their fellowship with Him in a higher and a better state. "God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." God promised to call His people into His fellowship, and He will be faithful to His engagements. But in what sense have believers fellowship with Christ? They participate in His views and feelings; in His trials and sufferings; and in all the vast blessings of His salvation. They are heirs with Him of the eternal inheritance; and they participate with Him in His expectations, joys, and final triumphs. (Rom. viii. 9; 1 Peter iv. 13; Phil. iii. 10; Rom. viii. 17; Rev. iii. 20, 21.) Christ and His friends are alike in moral character. They are attached to the same truth, live for the same end, and are employed in the same service. And how important is this fellowship! This is fellowship with a spotless character -a being of infinite greatness and goodness; fellowship with the great Teacher, the King of kings, the only Saviour of the world. This exerts a happy influence on the heart and life. This promotes true holiness and true happiness, and gives the soul a sweet foretaste of heaven. Then let us be wise and cultivate this delightful fellowship. The Gospel encourages us to do so, by revealing the true character of God, the love of Christ, the way of access to the holy of holies. Though God is great, and we are sinful and unworthy of His favour, yet through faith in the sacrifice of His Son we may draw near to Him, and make

confession of sin, and sue for mercy, and seek the blessings of His love. He is willing to receive us into His friendship, to treat us as His children, and to make us happy for ever. "Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." These are joyful tidings, for this access to God is essential to our safety, peace, and eternal happiness, Many have found access to God, and are now living in His favour. God has given us His precious word in order to promote fellowship with His Son. This testifies of Him. Here we see His face, His footsteps, His will, His thoughts, His work, His claims, His heart, His purposes of mercy. Here we see what He hates and what He loves, and what is pleasing in His sight. The Scriptures should be studied, read, improved, in order to promote this fellowship with Christ. Then we shall see more of His glory, and desire to be more like Him, to be sure of our interest in Him, and be increasingly fitted for intercourse with Him in heaven. Many read the word of God, yet have no real spiritual fellowship with the Saviour, for they cherish no love to Him, they repose no true confidence in Him, and they have no true sympathy with Him. This fellowship requires an experience of the new birth, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to the soul, and to make Him truly precious.

The word of God is not only read by the true Christian, but read with prayer for Divine illumination, read with a desire to understand the truths it contains, and read with a desire to know and do the will of

God. When the word is thus read, Jesus is seen and felt, and found to be near and precious, and more to be desired than silver and gold. All who cultivate the inner life will find fellowship with Jesus, when they read in His own word of His wonderful visit to this world, His sufferings to save sinners, and His vast promises to His people. The words He has spoken in the Holy Scriptures are the food of the soul; they encourage our hope in Him as our Saviour; and they impress His image upon the heart and life. They have been able to say, as they have perused the sacred volume, "Truly, our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ." They have felt the sweet influence of His word in the outgoings of the soul after Him. This has given them a living hope of eternal life, solid consolation in the day of affliction, and a bright prospect of a better life beyond the river of death; and they rejoice in the word of God, as one that findeth great spoil. And they have fellowship with Jesus in the ordinances of His house. His ministers set Him forth, they preach His unsearchable riches, they tell the wondrous story of His love, and the unfolding of His glory awakens their gratitude, increases their joy, and promotes their love to Him. They find Him present in the preached Gospel, in the hymn of praise, and in the Lord's Supper. He engages their thoughts, fills their desires, wins their affections. Many attend the outward ordinances of religion who have no fellowship with Jesus; for they do not see His beauty, feel their need of His salvation, love

His glorious person. They are not in union with Him, and cannot delight in His presence. Hence it is they derive no spiritual good from the means He has appointed for their benefit. They do not come to His house with any earnest desire to meet Him and to receive His blessing. They are content with the shadow without the substance. And so persons may say their prayers, receive the bread and wine in the Sacrament, and join the visible church, yet have no true fellowship with Jesus. This requires the cultivation of faith in the record God has given us concerning Him, the cultivation of supreme love to His person, and delight in His service. The heart must be in union with Him, and then we shall often get into His presence, sit at His feet, and seek His counsel. The text shows the persons who are true Christians, who may hope to enter heaven, and live near the throne of God and of the Lamb. They have fellowship with Jesus. This supports them in affliction, this strengthens them in temptation, this cheers them in the prospect of death. They know that Jesus is their friend, that He will not forsake them in the hour of need, and that He will give them the final victory. Happy are they who have fellowship with Jesus! They may be tempted, tried, discouraged, but still they are blessed, for they are safe, they are heirs of glory, they are the sons of God.

Let me persuade you to cultivate this fellowship, and to begin in early life, and to persevere until grace is crowned with glory. None will repent of this.

H. H.

WHERE ART THOU?

"And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" -GEN. iii. 9.

O SINNER, where art thou, without thy God? Can you hide yourself from His presence? Can you conceal one sin from His all-seeing eye? Can you darken your path with deeds of darkness, and shut them from the light of Him whose eyes are as a flaming fire? Can you sin with impunity, when all you do will be brought into judgment?

Can

you close your eyes at night to sleep, when you lie under the sentence of condemnation? Can you sin wilfully, deliberately, continually, without dread of future punishment? Can you engage in an unequal conflict with Him who is able to cast soul and body into hell? Let conscience speak solemnly at this moment. Are you not weighed in the balance and found wanting? Existence itself is a blank without God as your friend, your Saviour, your Redeemer. All on earth can afford no joy apart from Him. Nothing can compensate for the loss of His favour. Life is a dark unbroken cloud, if Christ be not loved, obeyed, and adored.

The sweetest pleasures are all as gall and wormwood, if Jesus be absent from the heart. What is your character in God's sight? Not what it appears before men. Much that is current here, will be found counterfeit as base metal hereafter. How do you live? Where art thou in the secret chamber of your heart? Where thy affections, thy desires, thy aim, and the object set before you as the one great pursuit of life?

Every hour tells its tale, and marks your real condition. Are you not a cumberer of the ground, with all the dark shadows of guilt and sin lying on the conscience? Are you not living without God? living to pleasure, to self; a slave to passion, chained down by the bonds of iniquity, and the fetters of depravity? Where art thou without an approving conscience, without the testimony that you are seeking God as the great and supreme object of your existence? There will be no trifling beyond the grave, no unbelief, no daring acts of impiety, no boasting of unrighteous deeds. There are traitors in your bosom ready to destroy you; heart sins, leading to ruin and endless woe, usurping the throne which God claims for Himself. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."-Psalm ix. 17. Have you not forgotten Him, and still forget Him as your Creator and Redeemer? and is not forgetfulness a sin of the deepest dye? Is it not ingratitude for His most unspeakable mercy, in sending His Son to die as a sacrifice for your sins? Is it not rebellion against One who "deserves the supreme obedience and adoration of the soul? Is it not to reject His most gracious offers of pardon, mercy, and eternal life?

How long will you remain an alien to God, hardened in heart. careless, and unmindful of your responsibility? Every moment is hurrying you towards the final judgment; the hour-glass drops its sands, the last grain will soon fall out; and then where art thou, in the presence of a holy God, without