the words of God. Some of the citizens of London might have said on that festival day, "This royal decree is nothing to me; I never have occasion to cross the river." But a time will come when each one who has turned away his heart from the gospel of God's grace, will know that he has thus missed the only way open across the dark river to the heavenly Jerusalem. "He that despiseth the word shall be destroyed"; "The word that I have spoken," said the Saviour, "the same shall judge him at the last day."

THOUGHTFUL and original writer 1 imagines an assembly of men who had sought for happiness in the world, and who had been disappointed, meeting to consider what they might still do to attain their end. They do not yet despair, and it is resolved that each shall try again in the way he thinks best for a certain time, and that at the end of it, they shall meet once more. The time having passed, they again met, to tell the result of their experiment.

One had been a traveller. He had visited many lands, but he had returned, like the dove sent out of the ark, having nowhere found a place of rest.

A second had frequented the haunts of vice, and he is compelled to confess that he had found in them no peace. A third had pursued amusements. Even in the midst of their enjoyment they never fully pleased him; sadness mingled with his loudest laughter; and then, "when the blaze was out, and the smoke had blown away," there remained no real happiness.

A fourth had sought gain and found it. He had hoarded and worshipped it as a god, and it had repaid his worship with care and vexation and disappointment. He had found that there were many, many things, for which his heart 1 John Foster.

greatly longed, but which all the money in the world could. not buy.

Others speak, and tell of schemes of happiness which they had formed-all "of the earth, earthy;" and they, too, confess their failure and bitter disappointment.

We do not suppose that such an assembly was ever held; but what numbers who have tried the best the world could give them have felt, whether they have cenfessed it in so many words or not, that it had failed to give them rest!

This world is not our rest; and it cannot be.

For who ever gets all he wants? Many a man living in a little cottage has said as he has passed some house a great deal better than his own, “Ah, if I could only live in a house like that, and be as well clothed and fed as those who live in it, I should want nothing more." He attains his wish; but he has scarcely settled in the home for which he had longed so greatly, before he longs for something better. So it is in respect to wealth. How seldom the richest man says, "I have enough!" But wealth is not everything; and how often, even to the richest, something else is wanting, the lack of which embitters all!

No man ever finds, in anything he gets, all that he expected. There is true philosophy in that line of Campbell's: "Tis distance lends enchantment to the view." Alike of pleasure and wealth and honour-in short, of anything on which men have set their hearts, how often has it been said, when they have been enjoyed to the full, "I thought they would have made me happier than this."

There can be no true rest in anything which is changing and uncertain; and that is the case with everything earthly: pleasures fail; riches melt away; friendships are severed; those we love sicken and die. The world is ever 66 passing away, and the lust thereof." At last the time comes to every man when he must leave all behind.

Again, our happiness depends greatly on others: and they can do much to cause us unrest. The people with whom we meet in the world vex and sometimes injure us.

And how many homes are there respecting which it is said. of some one member who causes trouble and grief to everybody else, "How happy we should all be but for him!”

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To crown all, God made us for something higher, and therefore we are not suffered to find rest in what is earthly. There are vast capabilities and desires in our souls which were given us that we might seek after God, if haply we might find Him;" and that in Him--in conformity to His will, and in the consciousness of His love—we might find our rest. The Psalmist had found this out, when, as it would seem after a time of restless, but temporary wandering, he said, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee."

"What this writer says," we can imagine some one saying to himself, "answers exactly to my experience. I have tried all schemes of happiness within my reach. When one failed I tried another and another and another still; but, up till now, I have found no abiding rest. I suppose then I must make up my mind that I shall be thus weary and disappointed to the end; and that, if I am to have rest at all, it must be in another and a better world, and not in this."

Do not say so. We can tell you of rest, even in this life. We do not promise that you shall have no changes, no disappointments, no sorrows; nor do we promise that though these things happen, you shall not feel them. But we do promise that, if you will seek the rest of which we tell you, and seek it in God's own way, you will be happy in spite of all.

You will find it only in the Lord Jesus Christ, but there is no doubt you will find it in Him. Will you think of a few things which he says about it? "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls."1

"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood

1 Matt. xi. 28, 29.

and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."

"1

In the last counsels which He gave to His disciples before He suffered, the Lord said: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." "

Do you ask in what way the Lord Jesus Christ fulfils these gracious promises? We will try to tell you.

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To begin with, as soon as a man comes" to Jesus-that is, as soon as he believes in Him—all his sins are forgiven through the great sacrifice which was offered on the cross. The fear of condemnation and everlasting death is thus entirely done away.

A man's happiness depends far more on what he is than on anything he possesses. You remember that time when you were sick. Nothing afforded you any enjoyment. Your food was tasteless; your favourite books afforded you no pleasure; you were unable to attend to business; you could not endure the society of your most familiar friends; and you tossed day and night on your bed, finding no rest. In like manner the soul is sick with the fatal disease of sin; and so long as sin prevails it has no true peace. But the Lord Jesus Christ came to restore the soul's health. He renews it by the power of His Holy Spirit, so that the love of sin is overcome, and the whole nature becomes pure and godlike. There follow, as the natural result of this renewal, "life and peace."

The Bible is a treasury of priceless promises-promises of God's abiding and fatherly love, of the richest grace of the Holy Spirit, of Divine guidance and care, of the supply of all need, of comfort in all sorrow, and of victory over death; and these promises are every one of them "Yea and amen in Christ Jesus." What a source of abiding peace and joy to be able to say-and every true believer in Christ can say it- 66 "They are all true and all mine!"

1 John vii. 37.

2 John xiv. 27; xv. II.

Christmas.

Hurrah for the holly! At Christmastide

We'll deck with its berries our bright fire-side,
And we'll thank our God that in winter chill,
Something beautiful cheers us still.

A type of His constant love, shall be

In storm and in sunshine, the holly-tree.

T is Christmas eve. The snow is falling fast, and the air is keen and searching. Very few persons are abroad, and those whose business obliges them to be out of doors move quickly along the frozen footpaths to keep themselves warm, and all that can afford it are well wrapped up with overcoat and comforter. Bright fires are burning in cheerful, cosy rooms, and the subdued light that finds its way through the curtained windows into