PRAISE FOR THE GOSPEL.

LORD, I ascribe it to thy grace,
And not to chance, as others do,
That I was born of Christian race,
And not a heathen or a Jew.

What would the ancient Jewish kings

And Jewish prophets once have given,

Could they have heard those glorious things,

Which Christ revealed and brought from heaven!

How glad the heathens would have been,
That worshipped idols, wood, and stone;
If they the book of God had seen,

Or Jesus and his gospel known?

Then, if this gospel I refuse,

How shall I ere lift up my eyes? For all the Gentiles and the Jews Against me will in judgment rise.

DR. WATTS.

RE you going to be Christ's, dear young friend, and have you got from him a robe to wear? They all wear the white robe in his kingdom. The King put off his white robe of glory once for you. His robe was turned to red the day he died for sin. When John saw Him in his dream in Patmos, Jesus wore it still, a vesture dipped in blood before the throne of God: and the armies of heaven, clothed in fine, clean, white linen, went after HIM, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

You have only got rags on in the sight of God if you have not come to Christ, rags crimson all over with spots

of sin. Will you let Jesus take them all off you to-day, and be as white as snow in his fair white robe?

He says, Come, and let us speak about these sins of yours; come, and I will wash them off your soul; come, and the scarlet shall turn snow-white, and the crimson shall be fair as wool." And now when you come up the steps to his throne, and see how near you were to fall into the pit where all who are not Christ's must go, when you fear to look up in his face, or even on the shining ones that stand about him, what shall you hear him say? "Bring forth the best robe and put it on him." Not a robe like that Adam wore in Eden, not the robe these angels wear that are to take your rags away; but the best robe in all God's house, the royal robe of the kingdom, Christ's own that he made for the lost to wear when they come home to their Father.

Did you ever hear of the negro and his master who were led, at one time, to seek the Saviour? The negro found him soon, and as one day he sung of his love at his work among the cotton plants, his master came and said, "How is it you are come into the light at once, and I am still in the dark?" "Massa," the negro said, "if one come here, offer you and me a fine coat, massa look at the coat and think mine not so bad, 'No, thank you.' But when one come to me and offer that fine coat, me look at this in rags and say, Thank you, and put it on. Jesus come to massa and offer the white robe he made, but massa not think he need it, massa not so very wicked. Jesus offer it to me, me very wicked, me put it on, and that made me sing." The planter found the Saviour and blessed his poor negro.

Let Jesus bathe you just now in his blood. None but he can dip you in. One plunge there and how white we He is doing it every hour happy day of ours. They

are, for no spot can be seen. for some little lost one in this

come fast to him now. They come filthy, and they go out clean. Will you let the poor bare-foot boy off the streets, and the girl who begs from door to door, get in before you? Hark! how, one by one, they go and plunge, and get lies, thefts, and oaths, washed off all at once, and come out so clean to sing with all the rest—

"There is a fountain filled with blood,

Drawn from Immanuel's veins;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains;"

and so they get the fair white robe put on which they shall wear for ever. Put on Jesus, said Paul. Do it, dear child, and be as white as Jesus all at once, as pure as Jesus, as lovely as Jesus is, in his Father's eye. A lady of rank once asked her little girl how she thought she was to be made just in God's sight through his Son. The child did love the Lord, and was soon going to be with him, but her mother wished to know if this truth was clear in her mind. Mamma," she said, "if I were to put one of your gowns on, and to lie down in it in your room, I wouldn't be seen; and if any of the servants were coming in, they would say, 'Oh, there's her ladyship."" The child knew what it was to be hid in Jesus.

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This robe which Christ has given you will last in heaven. You will need no other to stand in at the great white throne, nor to sit down in at the glad supper of the Lamb. And when in long, long ages, any one shall meet you in the wide fields of glory, and shall ask, "Who is this that is arrayed in white robes, and whence comest thou?" you will say, "I was once a poor lost child in the fallen world, and the King called me and I came to him, and he gave me this when I had only rags of sin to wear. It was all true that we sung about the white robe then'No age can change its glorious hue,

The robe of Christ is ever new.'

come.

And will it not then seem strange to think that ever you could have let a spot soil the robe that Jesus gave you? Ah, take care of this now. And yet spots will The sin that lies deep in your heart will break out, when you forget to watch and pray; black and large these spots may sometimes be. When your heart is like to break to see so vile a spot on a robe so white, Satan will be sure to say, "You DARE not go back to Jesus thus." For Satan was sorry when you and Jesus met, and he will do all he can to part you.'

But do not think to wipe it off or wash it out with tears. Wait not a moment to look on the dark spot, or to think what you shall do next. Straight to Jesus, little one, go straight with it to Jesus. Tell all to him. There is no sin so great in his sight as the sin of staying away from him. All other sin his blood can wash out in a moment, but the sin of keeping away from him how can he wash? For it is his own kind hand that washes out sin-spots, and if you hide your face from him, how can the warm breath of his love get in to fill your heart once more? How can he lift you to his bosom and give you the kiss that forgives and says, "Thou still art mine?" If one child of the kingdom is often sad, and another can almost always sing for joy, I will tell you why. It is that the one looks long at the spots on the robe and dares not go to Jesus at once, and that the other goes, saying and singing

"Just as I am, and waiting not

To rid my soul of one dark blot,

To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come!"*

* From "The Child of the Kingdom." See "Books," Page 96