'She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.' The most beautiful laces worn by our women of wealth and fashion are made in the underground places, where sunlight comes not, and the lives of the makers of the favourite point lace are the price of its beauty. We shall know by-andby the meaning of all the sadness and suffering of earth when we see the beautiful spiritual raiment that has been made in sick rooms and under the most trying circumstances. The 'costly raiment of needlework' will then be explained. And now we come in sight of a dress of gold. The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.' Not merely trimmed with golden fringe, but the whole dress of wrought gold. 'Wrought into gold! Ye that pass down life's hours So carelessly Might make your dreary ways so beautiful with flowers, If ye would try. Then every gentle deed we've done and every kind word given, Wrought into gold, would make us wondrous rich in heaven.' Now, the question for you and me is simply this: Shall we put on these 'beautiful garments' or, in other words, Shall we put on the Lord Jesus Christ? All these garments He wore; or, to drop the figure, all these qualities were His, and they must be ours. Many years ago, in one of the beautiful churches of England, I listened to a clergyman of the Establishment, and never shall I forget his voice as he leaned over the desk, and, looking at his wealthy congregation, said, 'Ah! you look most respectable to men; but Í All, all that is necessary is for us to desire them, and to ask for them, and we shall receive. And some day, in white robes, we shall be presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. "Buy of Me," I hear Thee say. DANCING. Here is what a purely secular paper says about dancing:-A great deal can be said about dancing; for instance, the chief of police of New York City says that threefourths of the abandoned girls in this city were ruined by dancing. Young ladies allow gentlemen privileges in dancing which, taken under any other circumstances, would be considered as improper. It requires neither brains nor good morals to be a good dancer. As the love of the one increases, the love of the other decreases. How many of the best men and women are skilful dancers? In ancient times the sexes danced separately. Alcohol is the spirit of beverages. So sex is the spirit of the dance; take it away, and let the sexes dance separately, and dancing would go out of fashion very soon. Parlour dancing is dangerous. Tippling leads to drunkenness, and parlour dancing leads to ungodly balls. Tippling and parlour dancing sow to the wind, and both reap the whirlwind. Put dancing in the crucible, apply the acids, weigh it, and the verdict of reason, morality, and religion is, 'Weighed in the balance and found wanting. New York Journal of Education. am afraid that in the sight of the angels you She whom E Loved is Dead! are not fit to be seen.' Now, I appeal to you, as women, to do by your spiritual body as you do for your natural body. You say, I need such and such clothes, and I must have them. And, as far as your means allow (I do not say you go beyond your means), you buy what you feel you must have. And you make preparations, if you are sensible women, before the season comes, so that you are prepared for the change of season. Now, I ask you, Are you making preparations for the coming time-for the exchange of worlds? And yet, as I speak of another world, I feel how necessary that you should be well dressed in spirit in this world. Will you not come and look at these garments again? Will you not open your Bibles and make an inventory, of these dresses? The garment of praise' (Is. lxi. 3), 'The robe of righteousness' (Is. Ixi. 10), The cloak of humility' (1 Peter v. 5), 'The raiment of needlework' (Ps. xlv. 14), 'The clothing of wrought gold' (Ps. xlv. 13). Do you say, 'Yes, they are very beautiful, very attractive; but can I really have them?" I answer in the words of Christ, and He is truth, If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, will He not much more clothe you?' She whom I loved is dead! Her Father's voice has called her home, She whom I loved is dead! Her spirit dwells with God! She whom I loved is dead! That bond of everlasting love Which knit our souls in one; She whom I loved is dead! G. A. T. A Daily Portion. MAY 17. 'HEREIN IS MY FATHER GLORIFIED, THAT YE BEAR MUCH FRUIT.'-John xv. 8. The more we grow in grace, the more glory we bring to God; God's glory is more worth than the salvation of all men's souls. This should be our design, to raise the trophies of God's glory; and how can we do it more than by growing in grace? Hereby is My Father glorified, if ye bring forth much fruit. Though the least drachm of grace will bring salvation to us, yet it will not bring so much glory to God: filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are to the praise of His glory. It commends the skill of the husbandman when his plants grow and thrive; it is a praise and honour to God when we thrive in grace.-T. Watson. MAY 18. 'SHE LOVED MUCH.'-Luke vii. 47. Many directions and means of begetting and increasing this love of Christ may be here offered, and they that delight in number may multiply them; but sure this one will comprehend the greatest and best part, if not all of them. Believe, and you shall love; believe much, and you shall love much; labour for strong and deep persuasions of the glorious things that are spoken of Christ, and this will command love. Certainly did men indeed believe His worth they would accordingly love Him; for the reasonable creature cannot but affect that most which it firmly believes to be worthy of affection. Oh, this mischievous unbelief is that which makes the heart cold and dead towards God. Seek, then, to believe Christ's excellency in Himself, and His love to us, and our interest in Him, and this will kindle such a fire in the heart as will make it ascend in a sacrifice of love to Him.-Leighton. MAY 19. 'IN WHOM, THOUGH NOW YE SEE HIM NOT, YET BELIEVING, YE REJOICE WITH JOY No wonder, seeing the matter of it is inconceivable, it is an infinite good. God reconciled in Jesus Christ, and testifying and sealing His love unto the soul, and giving assured hope of that blessed vision of eternity; what more unspeakable than this? The best worldly joys are easily speakable; they may be expressed to the utmost; yea, usually more is spoken of them than they are indeed. Their name is beyond their worth; they are very seldom found upon experience equal to the opinion and expectation that men have of them. But this spiritual joy is above the report any can make of it, say what they can of it who are of happiest expression; yet when a man comes to know it in his own breast, he will say, as that queen said of Solomon's wisdom, the half was not told me of it.-Leighton. MAY 20. 'WE PRAY YOU IN CHRIST'S STEAD, BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD.'-2 Cor. v. 20. This is the message of the gospel, and that which the ministry aims at, and therefore the ministers ought to be suitors, not for themselves, but for Christ, to espouse souls to Him, and to bring in many hearts to love Him. And certainly this is the most compendious way to persuade to all other Christian duties, this is to converse with Jesus Christ; and, therefore, where His love is, no other incentive will be needful; for love delights in the presence and converse of the party loved. If we are to persuade to duties of the second table, the sum of those is love to our brethren, resulting from the love of Christ, which diffuseth such a sweetness into the soul, that it is all love, and meekness, and gentleness, and long-suffering.-Leighton. MAY 21. 'ADD TO KNOWLEDGE TEMPERANCE.'— Religion bars not the lawful delights that are taken in natural things, but teaches the moderate and regular use of them, which is far the sweeter; for things lawful in themselves are in their excess sinful, and so prove bitterness in the end; and if, in some cases, it requires the forsaking of lawful enjoyments, as of pleasure, or profits, or honour, for God and for His glory, it is generous, and more truly delightful to deny them for this reason, than to enjoy them. Men have done much this way for the love of their country, and by a principle of moral virtue; but to lose any delight, or to suffer any hardship for that highest end, the glory of God, and by the strength of love to Him, is far more excellent and truly pleasant.-Leighton. MAY 22. 'THE GOSPEL OF YOUR SALVATION.'— Salvation expresses not only that which is negative, but implies likewise positive and perfect happiness. Thus, forgiveness of sins is put for the whole nature of justification frequently in Scripture. It is more easy to say of this unspeakable happiness, what it is not, than what it is. There is in it a full and final freedom from all annoyance; all tears are wiped away, and their fountain is dried up; all feeling and fear, or danger of any the least evil, either of sin or punishment, is banished for ever; there are no invasions of enemies, no robbing or destroying in all this holy mountain, no voice of complaining in the streets of the New Jerusalem. Here it is at the best but interchanges of mornings of joy with sad evenings of weeping. But there, there shall be no light, no need of sun nor moon, for the glory of the Lord shall lighten it, and the Lamb shall be the light thereof.Leighton. I WILL LIFT UP MINE EYES TO THE HILLS. BY THEODORE L. CUYLER, D.D. HE one hundred and twenty-first | discovered and disgraced.' Assuredly, the psalm is one of the most soul- young Hebrew who was put to the strain of a inspiring in the whole psalter. tremendous temptation in the house of PotiIt is named 'a song of degrees,' phar, laid hold of vastly higher motives than i.e., a song of ascents, leading these. He lifted his eyes to the hills, and from the lower up to the higher. made his appeal to God. 'How can I do this Whether this was originally in- great wickedness,' he cries out, 'and sin tended as a musical expression against God?' That appeal lashed him, as it or as a description of the ascent were, to the everlasting throne, and divine to the sacred mount in Jerusalem, it happily grace made him temptation-proof. describes the spiritual idea of the psalm. The key-note is in the first verse. 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills [or mountains] from whence cometh my help. My help is from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.' The grand idea is, that we must look higher if we would live higher. We must have help from heaven if we would reach heaven. In things material and in things spiritual not one of us is created to entire independence. From infancy, when we depend on a mother's milk for nourishment, and childhood, when we depend on our teachers for instruction, clear through the activities of manhood, which require the aid of customers and clients in order to prosper, we cannot ever live a year in and by ourselves. Still more true is it that our moral life is one of weakness and of want. The important question is: Where shall we find the supplies for the soul's wants and the help for the soul's weakness? And the fatal mistake so often made is, that the soul does not look high enough to secure substantial help and to insure a complete victory. For example, we are exposed to perpetual temptations, which draw us toward sin, and thus tend to drag us downward. How are we to meet them? We may employ arguments that are wholly of the earth, earthy. They have no motives that are not essentially selfish; they do not recognise anything higher than self-interest, or appeal to any supernatural power for aid. Here is a young man of ardent temperament, who is strongly tempted to sensual indulgence. He may say to himself, 'This will not pay for the risks. I will injure my health; I will stain the reputation of another; I may be Here is the only safeguard under the pressure of assaults against conscience, or of powerful enticements to some sinful selfgratification. The young man who is too fond of the champagne-glass needs something more than the conviction that the bottle is endangering his health and his pocket in order to keep him abstinent. He must recognise sin as well as sorrow in the sting which the 'viper in the glass' inflicts, and seek his help from the Highest. That is no trustworthy honesty which spurns the enticement to fraud simply because detection may bring disgrace, because the man may persuade himself that in his circumstances detection is impossible. He is only safe when he looks up from these paltry motives-up high enough to see God. In these days, when the press teems with obituaries of lost characters, it ought to be known that the only principle which can hold a merchant, or a cashier, or an accountant is a Bible-conscience, which draws its strength from the everlasting hills of Right. There are some of us who have known what it is to drink bitter draughts of affliction, and to have the four corners of our house smitten by a terrible sorrow. At such times, how hollow and worthless were many of the stereotyped prescriptions for comfort. Time must do its work' was one of them. As if time could bring back the dead or cruelly eradicate the beloved image from the memory. 'Travel' is another of these quack recommendations for a wounded spirit. Just as if God had ever made an Atlantic wide enough to carry us out of the reach of heart-breaking misery. Wretched comforters are they all. The suffering heart heeds not the voice of such charmers, charm they ever so wisely. Never, never have I been able to gain one ray of genuine consolation until I lifted my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh the Almighty help. As soon as I have begun to taste of God's exceeding great and precious promises my strength began to revive. As soon as His everlasting arm got hold around me the burden grew lighter. Yea, it carried me and the load likewise. God opened to me paths of usefulness which were in the line of His service, and also of blessings to my fellow-men; and so help flowed down to me from the hills like the streams that make music from the precipices to one who climbs the Wenzern Alp. This sublime passage from Psalm cxxi. throws its suggestive side-light on the question why many of my readers have never obtained a solid and satisfactory religious hope. You will admit in your honest hours that you are not what you ought to be, nor what you yet intend to be. You admit that you are sinners. You have no expectation of being lost to all eternity. Certain steps you have taken in past times, but they all left you as low down as you started. Both your motives and your methods were pitched too low. All attempts at self-salvation were as futile as would be the attempt to lift yourself by grasping hold of your own shoes. Even religious services failed to bring you any substantial change of heart and character, because you did not get your eye or thought above them. The best sermon ever preached is only a cup, after all. It may bring the water, but the cup itself cannot quench thirst. is a heart transaction, by which you lay hold on Jesus, and Jesus saves. His sacrifice for sin avails for you, His strength becomes yours, His example teaches you how to live your own daily life, His Spirit comes to dwell within you, His armour protects you, and His service becomes the inspiration of your whole being. When you ascend into Christ, you reach a loftier, purer atmosphere. Security is gained up there as in a stronghold on a cliff. Six times over in this psalm the inspired penman tells us how the Lord is thy keeper, and how He shall preserve thy soul to all eternity. My friend, lift your eyes upward. Let your voice go up in fervent prayer to the everlasting hills. Put your feet firmly on the path that leads straight toward God. When you reach Him in this world, you have reached heaven in the next world. HEDGING UP OUR WAYS. IN my boyhood I lived in the family of Dr C., a man of devoted piety. Twice a-day we were accustomed to bow together at the family altar. After the lapse of half-a-century I well remember a petition that was frequent in his prayers. It was, that God would hedge up our ways whenever we might be inclined to go in wrong ones. He would have God to stop us in those ways, and to turn us to such as should be wise and good. Men greatly like to have their own ways. They prefer those of their own choosing. They don't like to be restrained in them, or to be turned from them into other ways. They would break through the hedge that is What you need is to lift your eyes above mercifully placed across their path. It is the your sinful, needy self, above your church-language of their hearts: 'Let us break His goings and other religious observances, above every one and everything, to the only mountain whence cometh your help. That mountain is Calvary. The crucified and now living Son of God is the object on which you must fix your eye. As a living man, you need a living Christ. You want not a system of doctrine, but a personal Saviour. You need some one not only to lay your hand upon, but one who can return the grasp of that hand. The lift must come from Him. The new life must come from Him. His blood cleanseth from all sin' is a mere abstract truth until you come up to that atoning blood for yourself. Submit to its cleansing, as Naaman submitted to be washed in Jordan. 'A living trust in Jesus has power unto salvation only because it is the means by which the saving power of God may come into your heart.' Faith is not a mere intellectual opinion. It bonds asunder, and cast away His cords from us.' And yet the prayer of Dr C. was a proper prayer. It is a prayer that all would do well often to offer. We are short-sighted creatures. None of us can see far ahead of us. And, naturally, we are inclined to go in unwise paths. Left to ourselves, we shall make mistakes, and serious mistakes, that will occasion us regret. So has it often been. On a review of our lives, we can see many a place in the road that we have travelled where it had been well for us had our way been hedged up, and our feet been turned to another course. We can see that had we been less headstrong, less bent on having our own way, it would have been far better for us. God sees the end of any path from its beginning, and He knows infinitely better than we do what paths will prove safe and good for us; seek and follow the leadings of His Spirit and and if one would be guided aright, one must providence. It is a precious promise of His Word: In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.'-H. S. |