when we listen to His teaching, and realise the influence of His gracious words in our hearts, we know nothing of difficulties, they are lost in the glorious fulness of the "Grace and Truth" to be found in Him.

Ere I close, let me say, if there are difficulties in the way of accepting the Bible as the Word of God, what about the difficulties which attend its rejection? Examine the book carefully, study it thoughtfully, and I feel sure you will be ready to say that the difficulties in the way of accepting it as the Word of God, are but few by the side of the difficulties which stand in the way of regarding it as merely the production of man. As an old minister once said from the pulpit, "The Bible is a wonderful book, if it be true.” But he added, with still greater emphasis, "it is ten times more wonderful if it be not true." As to those who read the Bible with no other object than that of finding out flaws, and hunting up difficulties, while they ignore all that makes for righteousness, and purity, and truth, they remind me of an illustration I have met with somewhere, they are like a man to whom a noble garden is thrown open full of choicest trees, and shrubs, and flowers, with magnificent fountains, and beautiful statuary in all directions, and he, instead of going about to enjoy the scene, to inhale the fragrance of the flowers, and feast his eyes on the beauty which meets him at every turn, goes poking here and there to see if he can find any slugs and snails. That my correspondent could so play the fool, is what I could not believe if I would, and what I would not believe if I could !-Very truly yours, B. W. KRAL.

Ventnor, I. W., Nov. 20th, 1874.

BIBLE FACTS.

THE learned Prince of Granada, heir to the Spanish throne, imprisoned by order of the crown for fear he should aspire to the throne, was kept in solitary confiuement in the old prison at the Place of Skulls, Madrid. After thirty-three years in this living tomb, death came to his release, and the following remarkable researches taken from the Bible, and marked with an old nail on the rough walls of his cell, told how the brain sought employment through the weary years :"In the Bible the word Lord is found 1,853 times; the word Jehovah 6,855 times, and the word Reverend but once, and that in the ninth verse of the 11th Psalm. The eighth verse 117th Psalm is the middle verse of the Bible. The ninth verse of the 8th chapter of Esther is the longest verse; the thirty-fifth verse, 11th chapter of St. John is the shortest. In the 107th Psalm four verses are alike—the eighth, fifteenth, twenty-first, and thirty-first. Each verse of the 136th Psalm ends alike. No names or words with more than six syllables are found in the Bible. The 37th chapter of Isaiah, and 19th chapter of 2nd Kings are alike. The word Girl occurs but once in the Bible, and that in the 3rd verse and 3rd chapter of Joel. There are found in both books of the Bible, 3,586,483 letters, 773,693 words, 31,373 verses, 1,179 chapters, and 66 books.-Illustrative Anecdotes. 5th Volume of the Clerical World.

DEVOTIONAL PAPERS FOR THE LORD'S DAY.

SUNDAY, JAN. 4TH.-JOB XXXII. 7.

LIHU, son of Barachel, here says, Days should speakthey do speak. "Day unto day uttereth speech" (Psalm xix. 2). There is no language where their voice is not heard, says King David. They speak an universal dialect. Particular days may have particular messages, but every day has its general lessons relative to God, man, duty, privilege, and destiny. Nothing can hush the voices of the days. Their messages are constantly ringing through the corridors of existence. Sometimes they speak in "harping symphonies," sometimes in startling thunder tones. They speak to the whole man: "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

The days speak of God, with whom one day is as a thousand years. He has no days, yet all days are His; they come from the loom of His eternity. "He called the light day, and the darkness night; and the evening and the morning were the first day." They speak of Divine faithfulness and beneficence. From the first day until now He has never failed to unlock the golden gates of the east, that the old sun, in his robes of brightness, might come forth from his chamber to run his race. He "maketh the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice." His "mercies are new every morning." He "daily loadeth us with benefits." He giveth the "daily bread." And while He draws the curtains of darkness around the world at " dewy eve," and "giveth His beloved sleep," yet He waketh us "morning by morning." The days speak of God. They also speak of man-in "symbols of the lifetime they unitedly compose. Each day is an epitome of a life. Morning paints our childhood, noon our manhood, night our death." There is a sacred arithmetic we need to know well, viz., the numbering of our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. They speak of duty both in its Godward and manward aspects; of destiny-that the will is the weaver, the heart the loom, the thoughts, motives, and actions of each day the warp and woof, making up that mysterious thing called character, by which destiny is decided.

They will speak again in eternity-before the great white throne, in the hearing of an assembled universe, the warning, counsels, commands, reproofs, communications made by their manifold voices to every intelligent denizen of time, will be proclaimed. Beware! how you use the days.

What does the voice of the past 365 days say to you, as you stand on the threshold of this new space of time? Does it speak

in mingled tones and terms of commendation and reproof, or is its message an unqualified eulogy, or an unbroken rebuke? Does it inspire new songs of grateful praise, or ring on the muffled bell of conscience the knell of condemnation and remorse.

This first Lord's Day in the new year calls you to reflection, repentance, resolution, and re-consecration. It says with new emphasis, "Behold, I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life, that it may be well with you." It holds to your lips the chalice with the water of life, and bids you drink and live for ever. It puts into your hand the golden key of opportunity by which you may unlock the treasury of Divine wealth, and be rich in all spiritual blessings. It circles your brow with a New Year's diadem of precious possibilities and privileges, by which you may attain unto moral ennoblement of soul, and true kingliness of life. Cast not that diadem to the ground, nor fling that mystic key away, nor dash that sacred cup of salvation from your lips; for this day is marching before you to the last great, solemn confessional, where its doings shall be declared, and faithfully recorded!

SUNDAY, JAN. 11TH.-ACTS IV, TO BE READ.

THE little infant church at Jerusalem had been favoured with a gracious revival. The disciples, in obedience to their Master's request, had been holding a ten days' prayer meeting in a little upper room in the city, borrowed for the purpose, where, in the stillness of the faith that does not "make haste," they waited the gift of power, the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. A promise had been given of such a blessing, provided they tarried for it; so having fulfilled the conditions, the Lord was not slack concerning His promise-it came with wondrous plenitude and effect on the day of Pentecost. Never speak lightly or slightingly of a Revival-such seasons are the harvest days of the Church. Never undervalue or treat with indifference a Prayer Meeting-for it is the plough that prepares the soil and the harrow that presses in the seed, in the field of the Church. The devil is never very far away during a Revival. Peter had preached, and under the power of the Word and the Spirit, 3,000 rebels grounded their weapons, and fell penitent before God, and were converted. Peter had healed a poor cripple, forty years lame, at the gate of the temple, who leaped, and walked, and praised God for the first time in his life, as he went into the Prayer Meeting with the Apostles. These acts of benevolence and goodness stirred up the devil's agents-the Jewish rulers -who laid hands on the Apostles, Peter and John, and put them into prison. The devil is the patentee of prisons. Were it not for him there would never have been a prison needed. Had Peter and

John committed a burglary on a wholesale scale, or half-murdered the poor cripple beggar, then the authorities of the law would have done right in apprehending and imprisoning them; but to do it for preaching Christ, and saving souls, and curing disease, was an outrage on law and a violation of the principles of justice, manliness, and right. You can imprison bodies, but not truth; you can put men's feet into stocks, but not men's spirits; you can cut them off from the company of fellow-saints, but not from communion with their God. In prison Peter and John can pray, if not preach. On the next day when the court authorities had assembled, and the Apostles were arraigned before them, the examination resulted in their being set free-whether set free or not, the good always are victors-and in Peter availing himself of the opportunity of declaring that Salvation alone is possible through the name of Jesus, by the power of which name the cripple was made whole.

With the discharge there was given a threatening prohibition"to speak no more, nor teach at all in the name of Jesus." Finding they could not lock the Apostles up legally, they now endeavoured to padlock ther tongues. If they cannot shut up their bodies they will do their best to shut up their mouths. As futile as Canute's command to the unheeding waves to come no further. As impossible as to prevent the sun from shining. Divine truth, like a living spring, was within them and must have vent. Divine love, like the constraining force of gravitation, compelled them to speak. Divine inspirations of grace and gratitude bore them as on an irrepressible tide to proclaim the name of Jesus. "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." And what was there in this name to make them afraid of its proclamation? Had they not seen there was healing virtue in it in the cure of the cripple? Yes, it was the divinity pulsing in it, the omnipotence of it, working to the overthrow of their unbelief, their prejudice, their established but superseded order and system of religious rites, ceremonies, etc., which made them fear before it, and try to hush for ever its mention. After further threatening they let them go. Freed from the society of their enemies, they immediately sought the bosom of their friends. "Being let go, they went to their own company." Like goes to like, as well as begets like. Where would they be likely to find so much sympathy, encouragement, and consolation, as in the fellowship of their brethren? After the buffetings of the world, my brothers, and the onslaughts of "dire malicious foes," haste thee to the quiet retreat of the sanctuary, to the "Communion of Saints." The Church should be a home in which the tired child can find rest; the footsore pilgrim repose and refreshment; the wounded soldier balm and healing; and the tempted and tried refuge and solace.

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It must not be always a school with hard lessons to learn; nor a gymnasium for athletics in order to develop moral bone, and sinew, and strength; nor as a drill-ground for training in all the tactics and art of Christian soldiery. No! It must be in the most emphatic and hallowed sense a home, where the hungry can find food, the thirsty water, the weary rest, the troubled comfort, the needy help, the heavy-hearted good cheer, the suffering sympathy, and the persecuted shelter, quiet, and stimulus. A home where the tale of the soul's conflicts, and cares, and trials, can be poured into the sympathetic ears and loving hearts of the Christian brotherhood. Peter and John went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them." On finishing the "report" they all fell on their knees, they resorted to prayer, fled to God, and, like Hezekiah, spread the whole letter of their trouble before Him, sought strength, boldness, and grace to witness for Christ, to speak His word, and for Divine interposition that "signs and wonders might be wrought in the name of the holy child Jesus;" thus confirming the divinity of their mission. As an evidence that their prayer was heard, the place in which they were assembled shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. A holy chivalry which made them defiant before raging men and frowning kings possessed them, and "with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus."

SUNDAY, JANUARY 18th.-Matt. iv. 19.

WE must "follow" Christ in His loyal and loving obedience. Though Jehovah's equal (John x. 30), in distinct consciousness of inferiority according to the "flesh," He yielded an active obedience in doing and a passive obedience in suffering His Father's will. Being humanity's ideal-the perfect Man-His, of necessity, was a perfect as well as a pattern obedience. From the manger to Gethsemane it developed, reaching its climax in obedience "unto death, even the death of the cross." God looks for obedience like this in kind, if not in degree, from every sworn follower of Christ. As it is not a question whether the sun may or may not shine, but must, so it is not a question whether believers may or may not be obedient, they cannot be believers without it. They must obey, and prove that to obey is better than sacrifice." "Great peace have they that do His commandments." We are to "follow" Christ in His beneficent activities. His biography is summarised in he one pregnant sentence: "He went about doing good." (Acts x. 38.) Never was a busier life lived than His, and none could say so truly as He, "I have finished the work Thou gavest Me to do." In labours more abundant we are to "follow" Him. Doing good