throne-room of my heart is still raised to the Unknown God! 'As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!'"

And it is often when the heart has sought to satisfy itself by means within its own reach, and has added its sorrowful testimony to the "all is vanity" of the man "to whom God gave riches, and wealth, and honour, so that he wanted nothing for his soul of all that he desired," it is often when, having believed that the sweet presence of an earthly love would light up its vacant recesses, the soul has rejoiced for a season in that light, the nearest akin to the light divine, and has found it to go out in darkness, it is then, full often, that by the breath of the Spirit the yearning is converted into seeking,. and that the way turns, and behold, Bethel is nigh at hand!

We do not declare it to be ever thus. There are many whose calling has been so gradual that they can discern with little distinctness the point where their path became pilgrimage. But we do believe that those who have unseen raised a memorial to which through all the windings of their

way they may look back as the hidden witness of God's first revelation of Himself to their souls, are, very generally, those who have known the longings of a heart unsatisfied, and who, after the prolonged cry, "My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is," having been brought into the bond of communion, place stone upon stone for a perpetual monument, and sing out gladly "because Thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee!"

And now, when we come to speak of God's personal communication to the soul, we approach a subject beyond their comprehension who have not themselves experienced admission to private audience with the King of kings. Of such communication from Him it is written, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."

Very frequently the veil is so gradually, and almost imperceptibly, withdrawn from between God and the soul that not until afterwards, in

the retrospect of a season wherein His love has been manifested and His presence has filled the solitudes of the heart, the wondering exclamation finds utterance, "Surely the Lord was in this place!"

For often there belong not to that first hour of intercourse with the Most High the clear and distinctive views of doctrinal religion following upon the closer acquaintance and more intimate association of the Spirit's later teachings. The harmonies of the divine "I am with thee" so satisfy the longing soul that it stays not to disentangle the chords, nor pauses at first to inquire how attributes of holiness, justice, and love, seemingly in opposition, should combine in that declaration. "I am poor and needy, but the Lord thinketh upon me," is the song with which it comes forth from the Presencechamber, seeing not at first in the ladder set up from earth to heaven the showing forth of the one way of its acceptance.

But while the believer yet gazes, and though in that first hour he should see with but little distinctness" for the glory of that light," there will be a gradual clearing away from before his

eyes of the haze of brightness, and lo, the vision shall have faded into yet another whereof it was but the foreshadowing. For behold a cross is there; and beyond it an open sepulchre, and the inscription, "No man cometh unto the Father but by ME;" and the groundwork, the substance, and the end of all his hopes are there made manifest—the Atonement linking together earth and heaven, and setting at one the lost wanderer and a pardoning Jehovah; so that, rejoicing greatly, he sets his seal to the covenant whereof the suretyship is made out in a Name which stands firm for ever, and goes on his way gladly.

forth

In few biographies do we find a record of such inauguration of the way more strikingly recorded than in that of David Brainerd, the Missionary to the tribes of North America. The previous yearning after the Unseen God, -the feeling after Him, if haply he might find Him,— the desponding cry of utter helplessness which woke the echoes of his solitary path, will touch a responsive chord in many a similarly craving heart. And the history of that hour when the weeping of the night gave way to a realisation

of the joy coming in the morning, we give in his own words :

"But after a considerable time spent in suchlike exercises and distresses, one morning, while I was walking in a solitary place, as usual, I at once saw that all my contrivances and projections to effect or procure salvation for myself were utterly in vain: I was brought quite to a stand, as finding myself totally lost. I had thought many times before, that the difficulties in my way were very great; but now I saw in another and very different light, that it was for ever impossible for me to do anything towards helping or delivering myself. I then thought of blaming myself that I had not done more, and been more engaged, while I had opportunity; for it seemed now as if the season of doing was for ever over and gone; but I instantly saw, that let me have done what I would, it would not more have tended to my helping myself, than what I had done: that I had made all the pleas I ever could have made to all eternity; and that all my pleas were vain. I continued, as I remember, in this state of mind from Friday morning till the Sabbath evening following, July 12, 1739,