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cerns the immortal spirit more than Always discerning good in the the mortal body. God's decision greatest evil, little wife," was the will prove paramount at last. By rejoinder. "I admit the force of that we are to stand or fall finally." your argument, and believe that "I reckon we're pretty big cow- there are ignoble minds whom, ards, anyhow, to say nothing about through a wholesome fear, she fools, if we ain't got grit enough to keeps in the path of passable recface the tongues of a few sinful, titude." shortcoming creatures, when we're sure He's on our side," said Uncle Jasper.

A pause occurring here, Uncle Jasper embraced the opportunity to say, "Now I've paid pretty good "Fools and cowards, starving attention to this confabulation, and our better natures in a way that suppose I give ye the cream of itis pitiful, and would be dreadful a sort of sum up of the evidence, were it not so common, and then ye know. Firstly, Mrs. Grundy styling ourselves martyrs," said Mr. Morgan.

exists, and ain't so bad as she might be. Secondly, we'd better suit her as long as we can; but if it comes to that it's Mrs. Grundy or the Lord, why, give Him the pro

"Poor old lady! I can't help pitying her, after all," Mrs. Morgan presently said, with an air of mock seriousness, drawing down her ference, if ye calculate to come out dimpled face to its most woebegone expression.

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Who, mamma?" was the quick interrogation."

"Why, Mrs. Grundy, to be sure," she continued, amid their laughter. You have berated her severely; but I have been thinking that she is useful in her way, inasmuch as she restrains some whom nothing! else would restrain."

we say,

well in the long run. Thirdly, have a mind to do nothing but what's right, and then ye can follow your own bent. There, I believe that covers the ground. To the foregoing, if anybody has any objections, let 'em make it known now, or hold their peace for evermore.'

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To this day Uncle Jasper's conclusion stands undisputed.

"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD."

THE twenty-third Psalm is a confession of human helplessness, and a memorial of Divine grace. When "The Lord is my shepherd," we confess our inability to take care of ourselves; for no sheep was ever able to take care of itself, -no flock was ever able to prosper without a shepherd's care. Hence we never really say, "The Lord is my shepherd," until the fact is fully settled that we do not know how to take care of ourselves, and we place ourselves beneath His care.

The Prodigal Son thought he was able to take care of himself; but he found out his mistake. The Lost Sheep undertook to take care of it

self, and came to grief. We have had experience of trying to plan our own course, to direct our way, and take care of ourselves, and have found we needed the help of a higher Hand. The Prodigal was forced by need to return to his Father's house; the Lost Sheep would have perished, had not the Shepherd sought and found him; and our wanderings have ended, as the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm does, with the confession: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments,"

And when we have learned our our need of the Good Shepherd's

care, and taken the Lord to be our Shepherd for ever, then this twentythird Psalm tells from beginning to end, the care of God for us: "The Lord is my shepherd." "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,' "amid the freshest verdure. "He leadeth me beside the still waters," that flow with calm, deep, plenteous current. "He restoreth my soul," from wanderings and from sins. He is with me in the valley of death-shade and distress. His rod and His staff comfort me. He prepares a table for me in the very presence of those foes who were striving to cut off every source of supply. He anointeth my head with oil. He fills my cup to the brim, until it runneth over with His blessing. His goodness and mercy follow me, like a rear-guard, all the days of my life, and His house, the heavenly fold, radiant with endless glory, shines before me as my resting-place, and gives me welcome when my wanderings are over.

This was the Lord's part; this was what God did for David. And what was David's part? What did David do for the Lord? Nothing whatever, only he followed where he was led; he feared no want; he lay down satisfied in the green

pastures and beside the gliding streams; he passed fearless through the death-shade; he tasted the comfort of the rod and staff; he ate at the well-spread table, and drank from the overflowing cup; he shared the goodness and mercy that followed him; and went forward to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. God was the giver, David the receiver; God spread the table, and David ate the food. The Shepherd cares for David, leads him, feeds him, provides for him, and brings him home at last.

Have we learned the lesson of our helplessness? Have we taken the Lord to be our Shepherd? Then let us lift up that hundredth Psalm of thankfulness and praise, saying, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands; serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Know that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and we are his, his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter unto his gates with thanksgiving, and unto his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

TRUST.

I CANNOT See, with my small human sight,
Why God should lead this way or that for me;
I only know He saith, "Child, follow Me."
But I can trust.

I know not why my path should be at times So straitly hedged, so strangely barred before; I only know God could keep wide the door. But I can trust.

I find no answer, often, when beset
With questions fierce and subtle on my way,
And often have but strength to faintly pray.
But I can trust.

I often wonder, as with trembling hand
I cast the seed along the furrowed ground,
If ripened fruit for God will there be found;
But I can trust.

I cannot know why suddenly the storm
Should rage so fiercely round me in its wrath;
But this I know, God watches all my path.
And I can trust.

I may not draw aside the mystic veil
That hides the unknown future from my sight;
Nor know if for me waits the dark or light;
But I can trust.

I have no power to look across the tide,
To know, while here, the land beyond the river;
But this I know, I shall be God's for ever;
So I can trust.

JESUS WALKING ON THE SEA.

ON life's sea in storm-toss'd weather
Mid the gloom and dark of night,
When the wind and wave together
Blot the harbour from our sight;
When our little bark is tossing

And we know not how 'twill be,
Then the Nazarene comes crossing,
Walking to us on the sea.

Then the black clouds part asunder,
And the storms no more divide;
While the rolling, rumbling thunder
Makes no more a terror wide.
When our dearest hopes shall wither,
Oh, Thou Man of Galilee,

Turn Thy watchful footsteps hither,
Come Thou, walking on the sea.

When the mists of death are falling,
And life's voyage all is made,
We shall hear the Saviour calling,
"It is I, be not afraid."

Life is short, and time is fleeting,
Ever watchful let us be,

Till we hear our Master's greeting
Meet us walking on the sea.

NOTICE.

THE annual volumes of "THE CHURCH" and "THE APPEAL" for 1876 are now ready. They will be found to be full of interesting and attractive reading for family and home use. It is hoped that they will have a wide circulation in their more permanent form. They may be had by order of any bookseller.

We wish also to announce that the number of THE APPEAL" for January, 1877, is a Special New Year's Number, containing Narratives, Sketches, and Addresses, specially adapted to the season. It supplies a most useful New Year's Tract for circulation in Sunday-Schools and for general distribution by Tract Distributors, District Visitors, and others who are engaged in visiting the poor and circulating Gospel Literature. Our Readers are invited to send in early orders for the extra copies they will require, as the demand for this number is already very great.

May we express the hope that our Readers will avail themselves of the opportunity which the commencement of a New Year will give to recommend both our Magazines, wherever they can do so, with a view to an enlarged circulation? Several new and able writers have promised their help for the New Year; and it is believed that the new volumes of both "THE CHURCH" and "THE APPEAL" will be quite as attractive, and as much adapted for usefulness, as any that have gone before them. No effort on the part of the conductors will be wanting to make both the Magazines as worthy as ever of the large circulation in the Churches which they have enjoyed for so many years.

*** Through the necessity of going to press very early this month, "News of the Churches" is unavoidably postponed,

THE WORD MADE FLESH.

NOTES ON ST. JOHN'S PROLOGUE TO HIS GOSPEL.

BY THE REV. JAMES CULROSS, M.A., D.D.

No. II.-John i. 3.

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In this verse the creation of all things is ascribed to the Word who was in the beginning with God: "All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." The first clause might have sufficed; but, to place the meaning beyond question, the second is added, which is not a mere redundancy, a mere repetition or variation of the first clause, after the manner of Hebrew parallelism, but formally negatives and excludes the supposition that in some corner or far-off realm of space there may have been some other being at work independently. The "all things" (all without exception) must be taken as equivalent to "the heavens and the earth" of Genesis, or, as we say, the universe: it is impossible to regard them as equivalent to "the spiritual creation or new moral world introduced by the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. What the Evangelist as a man knew concerning the extent of the universe does not require to come into consideration, any more than what we know, or what David knew when he penned the eighth Psalm; but whatever its extent, the whole is here included-both the things themselves and the laws which rule them. To an English ear the expression "was made" naturally suggests the idea of work or labour. Not so, however, the term which the Evangelist employs in the original. That term is simply "became:" "all things became (came to be) by him." It answers to the term which occurs so often in the first chapter of Genesis, "And it was so" (translated in the Septuagint, "It became so"). According to the record in Genesis, the heavens and the earth were not fashiored by a silent volition on the part of God, nor by the action of His hand, but in this manner: "God said ". "and it became so." It was by His Word that the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. The Evangelist's statement is the New Testament repetition of the record in Genesis in this vast universe which exists before our eyes, there is not anything which does not owe its being to the Word. "In him," as Paul says to the Colossians, "were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him; and he is himself before all things, and in him all things subsist."

Either the material universe has been called into existence or it is eternal-as it seemed to certain ancient theorists and to some moderns,

VOL. XX N.S. II.

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