purity of heart. Pray earnestly, pray perseveringly, light will be given, and if anything is concealed in the heart, it will be discovered to thee. Only be honest, and thou mayest not doubt; the Lord hears thee, for he has said it.

AUGUST THE TWENTY-FIFTH.

"Behold thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant." SONG OF SOLOMON i. 16. "O how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee."-Ps. xxxi. 19. "I have loved you, saith the Lord.”—MAL. i. 7.

F God demand of us to love Him with all our

If God, mand of us to soul, and with all our

strength, he does not demand too much. He deserves it, and it is due to Him, that we should love Him above everything. He alone is worthy of all our love, for there is nothing within us, nothing without us, nothing above or beneath us, there is nothing in all worlds and in all heavens, that this love and goodness have not created, given, or promised us undeservedly. And although there were not all this to constrain us to love Him, this alone would surely be enough to show Him most worthy of all our love, that He has sent and bestowed on us Jesus to be the destroyer of sin, and the fountain of everlasting life. This His grace and goodness give all other divine works of love their true value. For what were all other things to us-heaven and earth-if there were no Christ to reconcile us with God, justify, purify, and sanctify us. We could neither enjoy God nor

aught divine; we could be happy in nothing; no joy could make us glad if Jesus had not made us capable of it. We should have been and remained dead in sin. How could the dead love? How rejoice? As Jesus is now our life He is also our joy, our love; there is nothing we prize above Him. Yea, my beloved! says the soul, Thou art fair, Thou art pleasant! There is nothing fairer or lovelier than Thou; for only through Thee is all the beautiful beautiful, all the fair fair. But this goodness and love, this blessed knowledge is hid; only those hearts know His worthiness and beauty who fear Him, i.e., who tremble at His word, and who are afraid to offend Him; who are concerned lest they should love anything above Him ; who have given Him their whole heart, because He has forgiven all their sins, and made His abode in their heart. These cannot rejoice enough in His love, cannot fill themselves with love of Him. He appears to them fairer and lovelier the more they love Him. They find in His love their heaven, their highest blessedness.

AUGUST THE TWENTY-SIXTH.

"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."-et seq. EPH. vi. 11-18.

IF

F Satan and his influence, and his assaults upon us, were the empty imaginings of a

morbid fancy, Paul and the Holy Spirit, through him, would not warn us so carefully, would not present us with such a preparation of armour, would not call upon us so strongly to fight and resist him. Yes, beloved, the enemy is-is terrible, cunning, crafty, and powerful; his snares and onsets are artfully conceived and secretly laid. That is but too true. But one experiences nothing of this till he has laid hold of, and put on, Christ, for so long as we cleave to the world and serve flesh and blood he has nothing at all against us; we rather live in his favour, under his screen and protection. But deny the world and the flesh and thou hast all the devils against thee, that, with ingenious wickedness and cunning, lay snares for thee, and shoot fiery darts at thee; and if thou hast not put on the armour of God, which Paul describes in the following verses of the sixth chapter, and if thou dost not fight bravely against these spiritual princes and powerful rulers of darkness, thou wilt not keep the field, but become weary, downcast, and faint-hearted, and wilt join the side of the world and of Satan, vanquished and a prisoner. All old lusts will be awakened in thee; thou wilt yield and allow thyself to be carried away by them. Here there is need of the warning, Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.

AUGUST THE TWENTY-SEVENTH.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."-JOHN xvi. 23, 24. "And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee."Ps. ix. 10. "For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity."-Ps. xxv. 11,

THUS

HUS our help and our salvation is in the name of the Lord, as David says (Ps. cxxiv. 8). This is also declared by Zephaniah (iii. 9), For then (in the days of the new covenant) will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord (Christ). Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered (Joel ii. 32). Thus happy is he who knows the name of Jesus, not the two syllables Je-sus, but the power, the salvation of this Person —of this Being wholly Godlike, in whom the fullness of the Godhead and the Spirit without measure dwell; who is ours, with all that He is and has, because He died for us and gave Himself for us. Therefore His name and what it embraces, all His merit, worthiness, power, and the divine complacency resting on Him--all are ours; and by this we may call upon God, confess before God, come before God, wrapt up and enveloped in Him and in His name, clothed and dressed in Him. Whoever appears thus before God will and must be accepted, heard, and pardoned; he will and must receive all that he asks or desires from God in this way. Whoever stands thus be

But if

fore God, stands fast and immoveable. any one, without the right, call upon the name of Jesus, like those exorcists (Acts xix. 13), neither God nor the devil will respect him, but hate him: Jesus I know, but who art thou? Thou dost not belong to Jesus nor He to thee. One must therefore really put on Christ, and bave His name written on his heart; and then he may pray in the name of Jesus to be heard. But he who has Jesus on his tongue, the world and the devil in his heart, calls in vain before God upon the name of His Son.

AUGUST THE TWENTY-EIGHTH.

"Blessed be Thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever: Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine: Thine is the kingdom, O Lord. Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all."-1 CHRON. 29, 10-12.

HIS was king David's prayer and song of

praise, when the people brought to him gifts. for the building of the temple, many thousand talents of gold, silver, precious stones, and other costly things, for they gave them joyfully and willingly with their whole heart. Whereat the pious king rejoiced, and blessed and praised God the King of Israel. We see by this how full his heart was of the knowledge of the greatness and

U