Bates, L. 173, 220, 247, 282, 305, 320, 82 Bersier, Eugene. 25, 37, 217, 229, 457, DAILY PORTION, A-11, 23, 35, 48, 60, 72, Best left with God 236 Betrothal 53 Better take a simpler subject 119 Beware 137 Dark Days 250 Go thy way - Gould, Sarah Grace of mercy, The Green, Rev. Wm. Henry, D.D., 35 Greenwald, E., D.D. - 364, 489 123 Good enough weather 427 503 Good night - 172 253, 296, Gordon, Rev. A. J., D.D. 382 Gospel, straitness of 457, 469 Gossner's Missionary Society 364 479 114 34 44 191 265, 285 HRISTIAN REASURY. CONTAINING CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF VARIOUS EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS. THOUGHTS a BY THE REV. DAVID SIMPSON, LAURENCEKIRK. HE situation of Paul and his companions, when in the storm they fell into a place where two seas met,' aptly illustrates the position in which we often find ourselves in providence. They were in cross-currents with their opposing forces, or in narrow channel connecting two seas, laying them open to the fierceness of both; and we are often in a position in which directly opposing providences bear down upon us, driving us in contrary directions. One season at which we periodically fall into such a situation is the NEW YEAR. Then the past and the future are on us as strong and contending gales, and the surge they raise is often great. We must look at the past. We cannot help ourselves: our whole nature constrains us to do so. More than a traveller is constrained to turn and take one last look at scenes he knows he shall never revisit, are we impelled to take a long earnest gaze at the year just going, and as we do so many things strangely affect us, drawing us back to it, and making us unwilling to let it go. There is the flight of time. It may not be fast, nor noticeable, as an arrow through the sky; but it is constant, sure as the circuit of the earth round the sun. This time is not life; but its lapse is the measure of life. A certain length gone; life is gone. The days of our years are threescore years and ten.' That has great power over us; it springs out of our love of life. And as year after year carries our life away, as a flowing river does the bark to the boundless sea, each as it disappears must command our thoughts and sway our feelings as few things else can. The year is filled with a mingled stream of privileges, mercies, failures, and sins. God has cast into it providences, provisions, numberless and rich; and inwoven with all, as a seamless robe, giving them their lustre and value, is 'the grace that is in Christ Jesus.' We have cast into it neglect, failures, and sins. And now these dissimilar and incongruous elements are gone rolling down the flood, apparently a mere tumbling, vanishing mass. But, as we watch, one thing grips the conscience, saddens the heart, subdues the whole man. These sins are ours; and they have got their depth and tone of colouring in guilt from their very connection with the blessings God was bestowing upon us. They either rose exclusively out of, or aggravated by, mercies slighted, providences despised, opportunities unheeded, invitations. scorned, or calls to faith and work contemptuously set aside. And if sometimes we seemed to rise to the occasion, we are now so conscious that we have fallen far short, that by the very fascination of regret we are held to the past; its tug and strain are upon us. were The past cannot be recalled; we cannot |