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prey for the lion. He sends out the wild ass free. He gives the goodly plumage to the peacock. He gives to the horse his strength. He shuts up the sea with doors, so that it breaks not forth. He enters into the springs of the sea. He knows the place and the bounds of light and of darkness. He gives rain and fruitful seasons, and fills men's hearts with food and gladness. Angels, men, sun, moon, stars, the heavens, the waters above us, the waters beneath us, dragons, fire, hail, snow, vapour, stormy winds, mountains, hills, trees, beasts, cattle, creeping things, flying fowl, kings, all people, young men and maidens, old men and children, lightning and earthquakes, war and peace, disease and death, and heaven and hell, are all ruled by God. He never lets anything go out of His reach, or beyond His grasp. He

holds the wind in His fists. So that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the prudent, nor favour to men of skill; but God lifts up and puts down whom He will. He causes men to rise or fall, to be rich or poor, to be strong or weak, to gain or lose. The side God is on always succeeds, always conquers. So that a horse is a vain thing for safety, and a host is no defence, and God has no pleasure in the legs of a

man.

All

God rules even chance. "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." To us there is much chance. "Time and chance happeneth to all men." But to God there is no chance. falls out by a wise plan. When God had made up His mind to take wicked Ahab out of the world, He did not send anyone to take aim at him, but "a man drew a bow at a venture, and smote him between the joints of the harness," and he died. God can save one's life, even if men do shoot at him. An Indian shot seventeen

times at one man, but he did not hurt him. The Indian said the Great Spirit would not let that man be hit. When David was old, he said, "Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle."

Cyrus was King of Persia, and took Babylon. Long before he was born, God thus wrote to him by name: "I am the Lord, there is no God beside Me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." (Isai. xlv. 5, 7.) "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ? " (Amos iii. 6.) Even devils are subject unto God. Death is His servant. He holds the keys of death and of hell. He opens, and none can shut. He shuts, and none can open. "Behold, God is great."

He rules all men, great and small, good and bad. "The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord." (Prov. xxi. 1.) He turns it, just as a man turns the little streams of water brought into his garden to water it. This is often done in Asia. A man makes the water run any way he pleases. Just so God turns the King's heart. "A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps." "Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?" So that the Prophet Jeremiah said, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." If a man hate and vex us, it is because God lets him loose upon us; for "when a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." (Prov. xvi. 7.) When God planted the Jews in Canaan, He told them that all who were able must go up to the holy city three times every year to worship Him. They had wicked foes all around them. These often made war on them, But God said, "Neither

shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year." (Exod. xxxiv. 24.) God can cause the wicked not to wish us any harm, and yet they may be free agents. So God led Absalom and all his men to choose foolish, rather than wise, counsel. (2 Sam. xvii. 14.) When God wills, "He turns the wise men backward." (Isai. xliv. 25.) God uses the wicked as a man uses a sword, a rod, an axe, or a saw. (Psal. xvii. 13; Isai. x. 15.) He makes bad men punish themselves. (Psal. ix. 15, 16.) He lets them punish each other. (Isai. x. 5—7, 12.) He makes the wrath of men to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain. He let bad men and Satan combine to put Christ to death. But life, and joy, and hope spring from that death. The death of Christ was the most dreadful blow God ever gave to Satan's power.

His

His

God rules the world in a way that is holy, wise, just, and good. way is always better than ours. way is perfect. We cannot help Him to rule the world. God never errs, never does wrong. He makes no mistakes.

And He alone rules. The devil is not the owner of this world. He is "the ruler of the darkness of this world;" that is, he leads men who are in darkness, and who love sin; but he cannot lead them further than God permits. Satan himself is bound with a chain. He could not touch a hair of Job's head till God gave him leave. Chance is not the ruler of this world. Chance is blind, and knows nothing, and is nothing. God alone rules the world. He is all and in all, and through all, and over all.

If these things be so, then we ought to believe them, and hold them fast. Let us never doubt that God reigns. This is a great truth. To know it will guide and help us much.

But we must not try to be wise in this matter, but by taking God's word as true, and by seeing what He

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does. We must not try to reason out everything. We shall get lost if we do.

Those who cannot swim must not go into deep water. God's ruling the world is a deep matter. His path is in the sea. His ways are past finding out. He says, "Be still, and know that I am God."

It is a great comfort that God rules the world. I am glad of that. Are not you? If we are sick, or sad, or poor, or lose our friends, it is God who afflicts us. He says, As many

as I love, I rebuke and chasten." Luther said, "Smite, Lord, if Thou lovest me." We need not fear any man, if God rules. Those three young Hebrews said, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods." That was a good answer. God kept

them safe. The fire did not burn them. The Son of God was with them. You would do well often to read the third chapter of Daniel.

Let us put our souls, our lives, and all we care for, in the hands of God. Let us leave all with Him. He brings light out of darkness, joy out of sorrow, and good out of evil. He is too strong for all His foes to stand up against Him. He is too wise to let bad men defeat His plans. He is too good to be unkind. He is as tender as a shepherd, a father, a nurse, a mother. He spreads His wing over us by day and by night. He gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let us praise Him for the past. Let us trust Him for the time to come. He has done all things well. He will do all things well. He will guide us, and teach us, and hold us up, and keep us as the apple of His eye, if we but trust in Him. The best thing we can do is to fear, love, obey, and trust in Him.

THE MILLIONAIRE AND HIS
PRINCIPLE.

LADY FOWELL BUXTON, in one of her letters, gives an account of a dinner at her husband's house, at which the great Hebrew millionaire was present. He sat at Lady Buxton's right hand; and his whole discourse was of money and money-making, and of the way in which he had trained his sons to preserve and expand his colossal fortune. Lady Buxton expressed the hope that he did not allow them to forget that neverending life so soon to begin, for which also preparation must be made. "O!" replied he, "I could not allow them to think of such a thing. It would divert their minds from business. It would be fatal to their success. Το get and keep a fortune is a very difficult thing, and requires all one's time and thoughts."

The remark, though a melancholy proof of an utterly worldly mind, yet contained a great truth. It turned on the same point with that declaration of Christ: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." The wealthy Baron had made up his mind to serve mammon. He did not attempt nor pretend to serve God at the same time. He served mammon with his whole heart. He devoted his children, too, at this altar, and educated them to this service.

And mammon brilliantly rewarded this whole-hearted service. His wealth became so enormous, that it has been said that the monarchs of Europe could not make war without his consent. At the marriage of a niece, whom he portioned with a dowry which no king in Europe could have equalled, the supper-service was of pure gold, and the dessert was served in a set of porcelain which belonged to Queen Marie Antoinette, and for which nearly £3,000 had been given.

But it came to pass, that this rich man died; and then, of all this wealth, and splendour, and luxury what remained to him? Not one farthing.

Who would wish to spend a whole life of care and toil, and throw away an eternity of happiness, for that which must be lost so soon and so utterly?

"I counsel thee," says Christ, "to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich." That "gold tried in the fire" will stand unharmed and undiminished in the last fires. All else will be utterly consumed, when "the earth and all things that are therein shall be burned up." The price of this "gold," this incalculable and imperishable wealth, is the heart, the whole heart. Christ asks more; He will accept no less. "My son, give Me thine heart."

no

The world, as you see, and Christ, demand the same price,-the heart; the one for the decaying and transitory possessions, every farthing of which must pass from your grasp in the moment of death; the other for the "true riches," which, at death, you will go to enjoy in "everlasting habitations."

"TELLING JESUS."

"THINGS always seem to go smoothly with you," said a complaining disciple to Mr. F: "I never hear you make any complaints."

"I have found out an effectual way of guarding against that fault," said Mr. F. "One day, in reading the Bible, I came across this passage in St. Mark vi. 30: 'The Apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.' It occurred to me that, when I had any trouble, before I told anyone, I should first tell Jesus; and I found on trial that, if I told Him first, I seldom had occasion to tell anyone else. I often found the burden entirely removed while in the act of telling Him about it; and trouble which has its burden removed, is no longer trouble."

"We ought to pray for deliverance

from our trials, but Jesus needs no information respecting them; He is omniscient and omnipotent, and has no need that anything be told Him."

"That is true; yet He listened with complacency and kindness while His disciples told Him all things.' In His sympathizing condescension, He permits us to repeat to Him our troubles and our joys, though He knows them all. He listens to them with interest, just as a tender father listens to the narrative of his child, though it conveys no information; and he has connected great blessings with this exercise of filial confidence. It lessens sorrows, doubles joys, and increases faith. The more assiduously we cultivate this intimate intercourse with the Saviour, the greater will be our happiness, and the more rapid our progress towards heaven. If we would make it a rule to go to Jesus every night, and tell Him all the events of the day, all that we have purposed and felt, and said and done and suffered, would it not have a great influence on our conduct during the day? It certainly would; the thought that we would have to tell Jesus about it, would restrain us from many an unbecoming act. We could not wilfully indulge in sin,-in that which caused the agonies of the garden and the cross, if we were to make our daily deeds and words the subject of our conversation with Him before committing ourselves to slumber."

"It seems to me, that for me to tell Him all my experience would be occupying His attention with trifles: I should have nothing but sin and folly to relate."

"Nothing is a trifle which tells upon our eternity, and the way to get a right view of anything is to speak of it before Him. Depend upon it, my brother, if you will go to Jesus every night, and tell Him all things that have occurred during the day, it will speedily lift you above the world; it will do much towards making the

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will of Christ your guiding, governing principle; it will enable you to bear your cross without repining; it will make you, in mind and temper, like Him with whom you hold this intimate communion."

O, that all Christians were in the habit of closing the day by going to Jesus, and telling Him all things that they have done and omitted to do during the day!

THE SMITH OF RAGENBACH. Ir is related that, in a small village called Ragenbach in the territory of Hohenlohe, an ancient principality of Germany, about twenty years ago, the following heart-rending but heroic event took place.

One afternoon, in the early summer, in the tavern-room of Ragenbach several men and women, having assembled from the village, sat at their ease, none anticipating what would happen on that eventful day. The smith formed one of the company; a strong, vigorous man, with a resolute countenance and daring mien, but also with such a goodnatured smile upon his lips, that every one who saw him admired him. Every evil-disposed person shunned him, for the valiant smith would allow nothing wrong in his presence, and it was not advisable to have anything to do with him except in a proper manner. His arms were like bars of iron, and his fists like forge-hammers, so that few could equal his strength of body.

The brave smith sat near the door, chatting with one of his neighbours, about I know not what: all at once, the door sprang open, and a large dog came staggering into the room; a great, strong, powerful beast, with a ferocious, frightful aspect. His head was hanging down, and his eyes bloodshot; his red-coloured tongue hanging half-way out of his mouth, and his tail dropped between his legs. Thus the ferocious beast entered the room, out of which there was no escape but by one door,

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Scarcely had the smith's neighbour, who was bath-keeper of the place, seen the animal, than he became deathly pale, sprang up, and exclaimed in terror, "The dog is mad."

Then rose an outcry! The room was full of men and women, and the foaming beast stood in the only entrance; no one could leave without passing him. He snapped savagely right and left, and no one could pass him without being bitten. This increased the horrible confusion. All sprang up, and shrank from the furious dog with agonizing countenances. Who should deliver them from him? The smith also stood among them; and as he saw the anguish of the people, it flashed across his mind how many of his happy and contented neighbours would be made miserable by a mad dog; and he formed his resolution. Certainly his brown cheek paled a little, but his eyes sparkled with an unearthly fire, and an elevated resolution shone from the smooth brow of the simple-minded

man.

me.

"Back all," thundered he with his deep, strong voice. "Let no one stir; for no one can vanquish the beast but One victim must fall in order to save all, and I will be that victim. I will hold the brute; and whilst I do so, make your escape." The smith had scarcely spoken these words, when the dog started towards the shrieking people; but he did not go far. "With God's help!" cried the smith; and he rushed upon the foaming beast, seized him with an iron grasp, and dashed him to the floor.

O, what a terrible struggle followed! The dog bit furiously on every side in the most frightful manner. His long teeth tore the arms and thighs of the heroic smith; but he would not let him loose. Regardless alike of the excessive pain and the horrible death which must ensue, he held down with an iron grasp the snapping, biting, howling brute, until all

had escaped, and were in safety. He then flung the half-strangled beast from him against the wall, and, dripping with blood and venomous foam, he left the room, fastening the door after him. Some persons shot the dog through the windows. But, 0! what will become of the brave, unfortunate smith ?

Weeping and lamenting, the people surrounded him who had saved their lives at the expense of his own. "Be quiet, my friends; do not weep for me, for I have only performed my duty. When I am dead, think of me with love; and now pray for me that God will not let me suffer long or too much. I will take care that no further mischief shall occur through me; for I must certainly become mad.” He went straight to his workshop, and selected a long chain, the heaviest and firmest of his whole stock. He then, with his own hands, welded it upon his own limbs, and around the anvil so firmly, that no power on earth could break it. "There," said he, "it is done," after silently and solemnly contemplating the work. "Now you are secure, and I inoffensive as long as I live. Bring me my food. The rest I leave to God into His hands I commend my spirit."

Nothing could save the brave smith; neither tears, lamentations, nor pray