This

under an obligation to "make all grace abound towards us" in this respect, that "having all sufficiency in all things we may abound in the good work" to which He has called us. has ever been the encouragement' of the servants of God. "Certainly I will be with thee," was the word which upheld Moses. The same promise was confirmed to Joshua: "As I was with Moses so will I be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage." And Caleb went forth to drive out the heathen from the inheritance which God had given him in the same spirit: "If so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord hath said." It is with a view to His own glory as the Almighty God that the weakest and most imperfect instruments are often called to the performance of the most difficult duties; so it especially is in respect to the ministry. It was founded upon this very principle: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." And the apostle Paul sets forth the divine wisdom herein, when he so frequently enlarges upon his own weakness and that of his fellow labourers, in contrast with the momentous issues of the charge entrusted to them; and deduces therefrom this conclusion: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." We must beware, then, lest, when called to arduous duty in the ministry, or in any other way, we allow false humility, or a morbid sense of our own wickedness and insufficiency, to obstruct our way. Such feelings may be the cloak of indolence or self-indulgence. We shrink from toilsome work, and from the cross which may be connected with the service which God would have us do. Let the warning voice, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" rouse us to fresh exertion; and, encouraged by the thought that the Almighty God whom we serve can by His mighty hand and outstretched arm remove every obstacle, let us yield ourselves willingly and confidently to the teachings of His providence and the performance of His will. Such a course may sometimes seem to involve sacrifices, and stand in the way of our own advancement or interests; but the consideration of God's power meets this suggestion of worldly policy. When Amaziah asked the man of God, "What shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this."* But Almighty God can make good every sacrifice; fill up every void; encourage in every distress; level mountains of difficulty; duty is ours, His it is to ensure success, and work out by our instrumentality His own purposes; God helping us, we shall thus attain to the experience of St. Paul, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me."

* 2 Chron. xxv. 9.

To other minds, anxiety may arise from the contemplation of the final issue of the struggle in which they are engaged. "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." But the bright hope of this happy consummation is often dimmed by the remembrance of past backslidings, the experience of the tempter's power, and a keen and increasing perception of our own weakness. The only remedy for such misgivings is to renew our faith in the faithfulness and covenant love of our God in combination with His almighty power. He that is able to make all grace abound towards us, is "able to succour them that are tempted," and is "able to keep them from falling:" "yea, they shall be holden up, for God is able to make them stand." Adam's soul was committed to his own keeping, and he failed in the solemn trust; our souls are not in our own weak hands, but are safe in the keeping of the second Adam, our blessed Lord and Saviour; as members of that mystical body of which He is the Head, they are "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." It was upon the almighty power of His heavenly father, that our Lord himself grounded the safety of His flock: "They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand; my father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand." Lift up your head then, fearful and dispirited believer; if you can cast your trembling soul upon the Almighty God, and know that beneath you are His everlasting arms, you may walk more happily, because in stronger faith, throughout the coming year; and whether it be your last, or God prolong your term of life, you will anticipate with calm confidence, nay, haply, with holy joy, the summons which shall call you hence; the tear is wiped from your eye, the foreboding fear has ceased to agitate your heart, because you have been taught to say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." Thus relieved, your spirit will sometimes take even a bolder flight; still sustained by this attribute of omnipotence, you will pass the boundaries of this earthly state, you will delight to dwell upon the glory that shall be revealed in you, when you shall be like Christ, and see Him as He is, and know as you are known. And such meditations will have in them nothing of self-confidence or presumption, because God's word hath taught you thus to look for your Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change your vile body, that it may be like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.

3. In Answering Prayer. Of prayer, almost more than of any other thing, may it be said, that we are not straitened in God; we are straitened in ourselves. On God's part, there is a listening ear and a free hand, which He is ever opening to fill

all things living with plentiousness. Every provision is made, and help afforded for our access to the Throne of Grace: "The Spirit of God maketh intercession in us; for we know not what to pray for as we ought;" and the Son of God ever liveth to make intercession for us before the Throne in Heaven. Nevertheless, we are backward in approaching God in prayer; and when we do come, we bring a cold heart, and speak with stammering lips, and feel a relief when the duty has been performed. We limit our expectations of what God will give us; we bring to our Heavenly Father the unworthy thoughts which we have towards our fellow men, who take it ill that we ask them for too much, or importune them for help too frequently, and carefully measure the obligations under which we place ourselves towards them. Thus we forget that "God's ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts." And much of this comes from imperfect and unbecoming conceptions of the almighty power of God. We conceive of Him as subject to the limitations of our own weakness, so that what He gives to us He has not at hand to give to others, and what He gives to-day detracts from the store which He has to dispense to-morrow; whereas the exercise of almighty power and infinite love in answering prayer is like the outpourings of some vast river, whose copious streams spread fertility over a whole continent, and yet diminish in no respect the supplies of the never-failing and inexhaustible source from which they flow. In answering prayer, the Almighty One is presented to us as "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." The church, in her distress, pleads with God upon this ground: "Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die." The Great Head of the Church was sustained by a like consciousness of the omnipotence of His heavenly father. "In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death." Why are we so backward in availing ourselves of the like privilege?

O Lord! how happy should we be,
If we could cast our care on Thee;
If we from self could rest,
And feel at heart that one above,
In perfect wisdom, perfect love,
Is working for the best.

How far from this our daily life!
Ever disturbed by anxious strife,
By sudden wild alarms;
O could we but relinquish all
Our earthly props, and simply fall
On Thy Almighty arms!

Could we but kneel, and cast our load,
E'en as we pray, upon our God;

Then rise with lightened cheer,
Sure that the Father, who is nigh
To still the famish'd raven's cry,
Will hear, in that we fear.

The sin of idolatry was, that it rejected the authority of Jehovah, and refused Him the honour due to His majesty. Its folly was, that it addressed its prayers and presented its offerings to nonentities, inanimate objects which did not possess even the senses and endowments of their worshippers, and were consequently less powerful than themselves in the day of necessity. When Jehovah made His covenant with His people, He claimed their homage, and encouraged their service and obedience by an express reference to the almighty power which he had manifested in their behalf. "The Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice." Thus, "all religion and worship," writes Charnock, "stands especially upon two pillars, Goodness and Power in God; if either of these were defective, all religion would faint away. We can expect no entertainment with Him without goodness, nor any benefit from Him without power." And this our Lord would seem to teach, by directing us to close the form of prayer which He gave for our use, by the remembrance and the acknowledgment, that to Him whom we have been addressing belongs "the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." Were this attribute of God thus made the foundation of our prayers, it would impart enlargement to our petitions, vigour to our pleadings, and life to our expectations. In asking for temporal mercies, or for spiritual, "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think;" "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" "The silver and the gold are his;" promotion cometh not from man; "God is the judge, He putteth down one and setteth up another." All nature obeys His command; all gifts are at His disposal; the hearts of men are in His hands, to turn whithersoever He will; the dispensations of Providence are simply the working out of His purposes; with Him are the issues of life and of death; the angelic hosts wait His directions and do His pleasure. From the minutest atom, from the very hairs of the heads of His people, or the sparrow that falleth to the ground, to the worlds that roll in space, and the Cherubim and Seraphim that surround the Throne, all is sub

ject to, and all is controlled and directed by, the Almighty God. The same Almighty One can break the stony heart, can cause the tears of penitence to flow, can make pure as snow souls defiled with sins red as crimson. With Him is the residue of the Spirit; He can open the windows of heaven, and pour down blessings greater than we know how to receive. There is no restraint to His power in grace, any more than in providence. Take the sublimest thought that the Holy Spirit ever put into the heart of man, or the highest and most comprehensive petition that He ever caused to spring up from the depths of a sanctified soul: God is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think." Let us go to the mercy seat throughout the coming year, in the full belief of this blessed revelation of God's omnipotence as exercised in our behalf. We shall thus derive comfort and strength to ourselves, and give glory to the Almighty God.

W. C.

SCHOOL HISTORIES OF ENGLAND.

1. Historical Series. No. I. The History of England. Published under the Direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1844.

2. The History of England for Junior Classes. By [Dr.] Henry White. Edinburgh. 1857.

3. Elements of the History of England. By J. Curtis, B.A. Religious Tract Society. 1861.

4. Pinnock's First Steps to Knowledge. History of England. London. 1861.

5. Landmarks of the History of England. By the Rev. James White. Routledge, London.

WHETHER the "Revised Code" of the Privy Council be eventually maintained in its original form, or, on the other hand, be modified or suppressed, we anticipate that the History of England will continue to be a subject of instruction in our national schools as it has been heretofore. It is too obvious to demand a single line of argument, that if the children are to be taught anything beyond the circle of religion, they are entitled (probably before all other things) to a knowledge of the history of their father-land. The Code, in its present or its future form, may preserve silence on the subjects of instruction; but it may be confidently expected that the managers will provide for the History of England being amongst the books in which