peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I come every day to a throne of grace, and take mercy and find grace to help me in my time of need." You can sing, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

God supplies our needs through Jesus Christ. How much more precious gifts are when they come through the hands of those who love us. They may come through the ministrations of servants who have no sympathy with their master, and no compassion for us, who look on us with cold and stony countenances even while they enrich us. The gifts that come through the hands of a philanthropist are all the more valuable because of the sacrifice involved in their distribution. He has to brave dangers-to enter dwellings reeking with corruption, and dungeons where fever-stricken wretches are calling for help. Christ made great sacrifices. He came down

from heaven. "He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Yes, we are made rich by sacrifice: "He was rich, but for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich." All gifts come to us through hands that were nailed to the cross. All gifts bear the stamp of sacrifice. Christ knows our needs: He has occupied every possible position of trial and sorrow. He sympathises with us in our needs. He can supply them all. "It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell." "And out of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."

Men do not value spiritual blessings. If you were hungry, you would accept bread; if you were poor, you would receive thankfully all needful supplies. You do not stretch out your hands for the gifts God has to bestow on impoverished man. God does not force His gifts on men: you must ask for them—you must set value on them. Ask, and "God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

THE SAINT'S ESTIMATE OF GOD'S

LOVINGKINDNESS.

“Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee."-PSALM lxiii. 3.

THERE is in this town a public record of the state of the weather during the month, and the true readings of the barometer. If we were to keep a record of our prayers—if we were to write the prayers we have prayed, we should keep a copy of the true readings of the heart. We should see the depression on the one hand, and the elevation on the other, occasioned by the varied and varying circumstances which affect the atmosphere of life. We should see that some days were overcast and gloomy, and that a few were bright and sunny. We not only have We not only have a record of prayers in this "book of the heart," we not only see the pulsations of the great suffering heart of man, but we have the titles of these prayers-the headings of these psalms. This psalm is called "A psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” This psalm was not written, this prayer was not prayed in court or camp, when David was the

favourite of Saul and the idol of the people; but when he was the fugitive and outlaw, when he was in the wilderness, when he dwelt in the fastnesses of the mountains, or in dens and caves of the earth. There are some who think that this prayer was prayed when David had left his palace and his city, and was once more a fugitive in the wilderness, on account of the treachery and rebellion of his son Absolom. He had lost much, but there is one loss he specially deplores the loss of the sanctuary, with its symbols of the Divine presence-the sanctuary where he had seen the power and glory of God; but though he had lost the sanctuary, he had not lost God.

What prayers have been prayed by men in the wilderness, by men in the darkness and mystery of life, by men in their perplexity seeking for guidance, -by men whose "souls were discouraged because of the way." What prayers from men in dungeons,from men in darkened homes,-from men who said that all God's waves and billows had gone over them." Men pray better in darkness than in light, in adversity than in prosperity; they pray then with their whole heart-they mean what they say. If you had written your prayers, and had affixed the titles, you would find the heading of one, "A prayer after I had fallen into some great sin." It would contain the wail and lament of the heart, it would breathe the truest contrition and reveal the sorrow

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of a broken heart. It would be your penitential psalm. You would find another headed, "A prayer after backsliding." In it you would see the shame and humiliation which marked your return to God, and the fresh and earnest consecration of yourself to His service. There would be singular tenderness about it, for its words had been baptized with tears. Another prayer would have this title, "A prayer after I had lost my child." You would note how broken and tremulous the words were, as if your whole nature had been dislocated by the blow that had struck you down to the earth. You would find another headed, "A prayer after I had recovered from my sickness," and in it you would read these words, "O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit." Some few psalms you would find with this title, "To the chief singer on my stringed instruments," but these hymns of praise would be almost lost in the litany of the heart.

In this psalm the soul thirsts for God. There is in man an unconscious thirsting for God. Men are not prepared to admit that the world is all to them. In the midst of its industries, honours, and pleasures, they are conscious of a higher nature unsatisfied and unfed. They want more than the world's bread-they "cannot live by bread alone;" they want the truth of God: they cannot quench their thirst from the world's wells,-they want living