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PERFECTION.

within My heart." Jesus spent all His life in doing His Father's will. You remember what He said to His disciples when He was by the well at Sychar, and they asked Him to eat?'

เ He said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of," Charley replied.

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And,' Nelly added, when they wondered if any one had brought Him meat, Jesus said, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.""

' And when His work was nearly finished, and in His agony He prayed, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me," what did He add?'

'He added, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt."

Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and His was sinless obedience, such as no mere man since the fall ever rendered. Alice knows what the fall means.'

'When Eve took the fruit in the garden, and gave it to Adam and he ate it too, that was the fall,' said little Alice.

'Our first parents were created in the image of God, holy like Jesus. Before the fall they were able to keep the commandments perfectly; but by their disobedience they, and all their descendants, lost the image of God, and became unable to keep Ilis holy law. Instead of keeping the commandments perfectly, what do we all

do?'

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'But, mamma, good people keep God's commandments. It is the wicked people who break them every day,' said Charley. The Lord's people love His commandments, and keep them carefully. They do not despise or neglect them like the wicked; but they cannot keep them perfectly, and are conscious in their hearts that they daily break them in thought, word, and deed. You remember what David, the man after God's own heart, said of the number of his transgressions. Psa. xl. 12.' "For innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine iniquities have taken hold

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upon me, so that I am not able to look up: they are more than the hairs of mine head; therefore my heart faileth me." When he

'That is David's confession.

set God's holy law before his eyes, and compared himself with it, he exclaimed, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" Three ways of breaking God's commandment are mentioned in the answer. Name them, Charley.'

'It says in thought, word, and deed.' 'But how can we break God's commandments in thought?'

'When we were learning the commandments, you told us that we only obeyed them when we did what they commanded from the heart; that to wish to do what they forbad was to break them.'

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Yes; the law of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. If we would keep God's commandments we must watch our thoughts as well as our words and actions. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, and these produce evil words and evil deeds. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?""

But, mamma, the new heart the Holy Spirit gives is not wicked, surely?' said little Alice.

'No, dear; whatever comes from God is good, only good; but the new heart, or the new life, is put within us, beside the old sinful heart, which remains with us as long as we are in this world. This is what makes the Christian's life a constant warfare. His work is to resist the old sinful nature, and to nourish and strengthen the new life.'

'Surely we have not got two hearts, mamma?'

'Not two hearts, but two principles within us. Every one of us has a desperately wicked nature, and we need the grace of God to subdue the sin that dwells there, and make us like Jesus.

'A man who had been converted from heathenism by the preaching of a missionary was, after a time, greatly distressed by his

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CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

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own evil heart. He found that sinful thoughts would come into his mind, notwithstanding all his efforts to keep them away, and he knew not what to do. day, when conversing with the missionary, he said to him, "I feel that I have got two hearts; one heart loves God and loves His commandments, but the other heart loves the old wicked ways, and is always trying to make me do what is bad."

'Is not this very like Paul's experience in Rom. vii. 22-25?'

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JAN. 9.-Genesis ix. 25, 26; xii. 1.3. With which of Noah's sons is the promised blessing connected? Gen. ix. 26.

To what branch of the Semitic race was the Deliverer next promised? Gen. xii. 3. Where does the Saviour confirm this? John iv. 22.

How is the blessing brought about? Gal. iii. 13. Acts iii. 26.

Where is the seed of the woman called the seed of Abraham? Heb. ii. 16.

Is the blessing in Abraham's seed confined to the Jews? Psa. lxxii. 17. Gal. iii. 8, 9. Eph. iii. 6.

What is the parting command of Christ? Mark xvi. 15.

Should we help in sending the Gospel to those who do not know it? Acts x. 13-15.

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JAN. 23.-Numbers xxiv. 15-19. What is the Star associated with in this Messianic prophesy? Num. xxiv. 17. To whom did the Star of which Balaam prophesied appear? Mat. ii. 2.

What promise is made to all who seek Christ in the Word? 2 Pet. i. 19.

Where does the Saviour appropriate to Himself this figure? Rev. xxii. 16.

In what other places of Scripture is the Sceptre connected with Christ? Heb. i. 8.

To whom are royal power and dignity ascribed? Luke i. 32, 33. John xii. 12, 13. Rev. xix. 16. What enemies shall Christ subdue? 1 Cor. xv. 24-26.

What effect should this have upon us? Psa. ii. 12.

JAN. 30.-Deuteronomy xviii. 15-18. With whom is the promised Deliverer_connected by way of resemblance? Deut. xviii. 15-18.

Where is this passage quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ? Acts iii. 22-26; vii. 37.

What other passages refer back to it? John i. 45; v. 45-47; vi. 14. Luke xxiv. 44.

In what manner did God make His will known to Moses? Exod. xxxiii. 11.

Is Christ a prophet like Moses, in the directness with which He spake? John i. 18; iii. 31, 32; viii. 26; xv. 15.

In what respect is Christ superior to Moses? Heb. iii, 5, 6.

Where are Moses and Christ named together

for the last time in Scripture? Rev. xv. 3. What lesson should we draw from Christ's excellence as a prophet? John vi. 68.

A. G. F.

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DON

STORIES OF THE EARLY REFORMERS-DONALD CARGILL.

ONALD CARGILL was born in Perthshire, in 1610, in the little parish of Rattray-where the Ericht flows among its oaks and crags through a very lovely land.

He stands out a bold figure among the early Covenanters, and appears at once as a preacher in the Barony Church of Glasgow. The Barony Church was at that time the dark old crypt of the Cathedral. Among the dark ancient pillars in the dim light, the people gathered to hear this new, bold preacher of God. Go, speak to the house of Israel,' a text from the prophet Ezekiel, the minister announced when he rose, and his words held the people enthralled. They had then no minister; they would have none but Cargill now. And at last, with some reluctance, he consented to remain among them. So he became the minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow, and preached

I.

Sabbath after Sabbath in the old Cathedral crypt.

He preached here till Cromwell died, and Charles Second was restored to the throne, and then there came a great change over all the churches in Scotland.

They had hoped much from Charles. Charles had himself signed the Covenant, and been crowned by a Covenanting nobleman in the dark days of his life. They could not forget that wintry coronation in the ancient palace of their kings, when the land was troubled but faithful, and the king was in extremity.

On the anniversary of the Restoration, Donald Cargill preached. There were religious services held over all the country; and a great crowd gathered in the Glasgow crypt that day. But Donald Cargill's voice rang ominously through the vault; he had

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assembled the people for warning and not for thanksgiving.

'We are not come here,' he said, 'to keep this day upon the account for which others keep it. We thought once to have blessed the day on which the king came home again, but now we think we shall have reason to curse it. This is the first step of our going away from God. The king will be the wofullest sight that ever the poor Church of Scotland saw,'

No wonder such words roused the wrath

of those in power. Donald Cargill was immediately obliged to fly from his church and his home. He had in the city many friends, in whose houses he sometimes lay hid. But oftener he slept at night among the broom on the river-side, or in the black shade of the fir-trees that came to the edge of the town.

But wherever he could he preached still, gathering the people to his solitudes, to the fields, and the banks of the river, and the lonely places of the wood. He was banished by an act of Council to the north side of the Tay. The act of Council he defied, and preached still among his people. His voice became broken at length by his toils and exposure, so that it was with difficulty the crowds who came could hear. But they gathered round him still, eager to catch every word.

In October 1665, a puplic search was made for him, through all the streets and alleys and all the environs of the town. Unobserved, he succeeded in riding into the country. His figure was not recognised, and he passed safely a little distance. But his rugged voice betrayed him. He met some soldiers on the way, and as he passed one asked him—

'Sir, what o'clock is it?'

'It is six,' answered the minister.

This is the man we were seeking,' they at once exclaimed.

But Cargill put spurs to his horse, and escaped once more.

"For about three years,' says John Howie, 'he usually resided in the house of Margaret Craig, a very godly woman, where he lectured morning and evening to such as

came to hear him. And though they searched strictly for him here, yet Providence so ordered it, that he was either casually, or purposely absent; for the Lord was often so gracious to him that He left him not without some notice of approaching hazard. Thus, one Sabbath, going to Woodside to preach, as he was about to mount his horse, having one foot in the stirrup, he turned about to his man, and said, "I must not go yonder to-day." A party of the enemy came there at that time in quest of him; but, missing the mark they aimed at, they fell upon the people, apprehending and imprisoning several of them.

'Another of his remarkable escapes was on a search being made for him in the city, where they came to his chamber, but found him not, he being providentially in another house that night. But what is most remarkable, being one day preaching privately in the house of one Mr Callander, they came and beset the house, and the people put him and another into a window, closing up the window with books. The search was so strict that they searched the very ceiling of the house, until one of the searchers fell through the lower loft. Had they removed but one of the books they would certainly have found him. But the Lord so ordered that they did not; for as one of the soldiers was about to take up one of them, the maid cried to the commander that he was going to take her master's books, and he was ordered to let them be. So narrowly did Cargill escape this danger.'

A SEVENFOLD TALISMAN. There is an Ear that heareth all I say; There is an Eye that sees me night and day; There is a Book that all my sins enrol; There is a Day when God shall judge my soul; There is a Hell where death eternal preys; There is a Heaven of endless joy and praise; There is a Doom-that doom no soul can flee; O soul of mine! what doom awaits for thee?

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