seized and cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death.

O ye who are regular attenders at meetings, who have come and gone so often, who have heard thrilling addresses, but remain in your sins, BEWARE!

Showers of blessing have fallen, but you have never participated in it. Neighbours, relatives, friends have received mercy, but you have refused it. Wave upon wave of blessing has rolled over the land, and carried thousands of precious souls into liberty and peace. But like a rock you have remained immovable in your sins, Christless, careless, and hardened.

For your soul's sake trifle no longer. The wheel of time is turning; there is no stopping it. Your life is shortening as each breath passes your lips. Your opportunities for blessing are getting fewer. Soon you will attend the meeting for the last time. Oh, listen to the truth, and believe it, while you have the chance. "It has pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe" (1 Cor. i. 21). And, "Faith cometh by hearing" (Rom. x. 17).

God sends out a message of peace and blessing to you. He is crying out, “Deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom" (Job xxxiii. 24). What a ransom ! None other than His own well-beloved Son. And, thank God, the work that saves your soul is done. Done by Jesus long ago at the cross. No works of yours are needed now that Jesus has cried out, "It is finished."

God does not want your works, tears, prayers, or feelings, but your faith. "By grace are ye saved, through faith" (Eph. ii. 8). Believe in Him who has done all at the cross, then His word to you is, "Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace" (Luke vii. 50). Then should you pass away to be with Christ, we shall not sorrow as those who have no hope, knowing you shall have part in the first resurrection, and that on such the second death hath no power (Rev. xx. 6).

W. E.

"ARE THERE FEW THAT BE SAVED ?" (Read Luke xiii.)

HE Spirit of God has grouped together in this chapter incidents and scenes very different in their character, but they are put together to give us a beautiful moral picture from which we may learn deep lessons, if only our ear be opened to what the Lord would teach us.

You have the Lord here bringing out those words of grace and of truth which are so needed by you and me,-words which touch the heart, and which reach the conscience too.

It is a great thing, my reader, to have the con

science reached, and God's Spirit seeks to do this, to bring men and women to a true sense of who they are and what they are in God's presence. The first two incidents in this chapter the Lord brings up for this purpose, to bring the conscience into the light of God's presence.

People had looked on and had thought that these must have been very wicked people to meet with so very terrible a calamity, or on whom this great suffering came, but the Lord says, "I tell you nay, but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish."

Let these solemn words of Christ reach your conscience, my reader, for they concern you. They leave out none, old or young, rich or poor, scientific or ignorant. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." I ask you, have you repented? A person may be very religious and yet never have repented; he may be beautifully moral in his ways and yet never have repented; he may be a firstrate citizen, a good husband and father, and yet know nothing of repentance. Do you say, "What is repentance?" Ah, my friend, your very question proves you know nothing about it. When a man repents he judges the whole of his life as one grand mistake, because, till a man is brought to do with God, what is he living for? He is living for time and not for eternity; he is living for the world and not for God; and he is resting on himself and not on Christ.

Such a man is saying, like Job, "My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go." He may

not put it in so many words, but he likes to be thought a good citizen, a good neighbour, a good husband and father, or whatever it may be. A man who repents judges his whole life as utterly wrong; he must do so as soon as he gets into God's presence. While we measure ourselves with man we are very contented, but the moment I measure myself by God's standard I say, "Woe is me!"

Do you ask what is God's standard? God's standard is Christ, and when I measure myself by Christ what do I find? That everything about me is a total failure.

Ver. 6. "He spake also this parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon and found none." God was looking for fruit from man's heart, and what is fruit? That which will suit God. Man, as a creature of God, is responsible to bring to God that which will suit Him as the Creator. Has he

brought it? "He found none." Do you think there has been anything in your life suited to God? If you think so, my reader, you have been totally deceived. If you have not been brought to Christ there has not been one single thing that God could own as suited to Him, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh."

It is not only three years that He has been seeking fruit in your case: it may have been thirty, or forty, or even sixty, that He has had His eye upon you, and finding no fruit, and it may be the solemn command concerning you has gone forth, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?"

You are a cumberer of the ground if you are not bringing forth fruit to God. Ah, my reader, thank God that you were not cut down yesterday in your sins. You owe your life to Christ, to His work, to His pleading "Let it alone." Why does He let you alone? To give you an opportunity of bringing forth fruit.

How can I bring forth fruit? do you ask. You cannot unless the seed has been first put in. Have you believed the Gospel? Have you received Christ by faith into your heart? Then only can there be fruit to God.

Ah, my reader, the Lord is drawing near to you, and He is seeking to make you fruitful. You can only receive blessing as the result of the absolute grace of God.

Ver. 11. "And behold there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her he called her to him and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God." Look at this incident. This woman is the very picture of a sinner in his sins. Did she call to Jesus? turn to Jesus? No, she did nothing; He called to her when He saw her. It is a true picture of the grace of God. Satan had bound this woman, and Satan binds you in your sins. You may think you are free, but you are bound by Satan. Yes, and unless God in His mercy delivers