DECEMBER 11th.

As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.-1 Corinthians xv. 49.

THANK God, we are to gain by death! We

are to have something that death cannot touch. When this earthly body is raised, all the present imperfection will be gone. Jacob will leave his lameness. Paul will have no thorn in the flesh. We shall enter a life that deserves the name of life, happy, glorious, everlasting-the body once more united to the soul, no longer mortal, subject to pain and disease and death, but glorified, incorruptible, "fashioned like unto His glorious body," everything that hinders the spiritual life left behind. We are exiles now, but then we who are faithful shall stand before the throne of God, joint heirs with Christ, kings and priests, citizens of that heavenly country.

DECEMBER 12th.

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.-Romans viii. 28.

I

HAVE an idea we will thank God in eter

nity for our reverses and trials more than for anything else. I believe John Bunyan thanked God for the Bedford Jail more than for anything that happened to him down here. I

believe Paul thanked God for the rods and stripes more than for anything else that happened to him.

Are you passing through the waters? Don't get discouraged! You are an heir of glory; He is with you. He was with Joseph when he was cast into prison. I had rather be in prison with the Almighty than outside without Him. You needn't be afraid of prison, and, you needn't be afraid of the grave, you needn't be afraid of death. Cheer up, child of God; the time of our redemption draweth near! We may have to suffer a little while, but when you think of the eternal weight of glory, you can afford to suffer.

DECEMBER 13th.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out !-Romans xi. 33. THANK God there is a height in the Bible

I

I do not know anything about, a depth I have never been able to fathom, and it makes the Book all the more fascinating. If I could take that Book up and read it as I can any other book and understand it at one reading, I should have lost faith in it years ago. It is one of the strongest proofs that it must have come from God, that the acutest men who have dug for fifty years have laid down their pens and said,

"There is a depth we know nothing of." "No Scripture," said Spurgeon, “is exhausted by a single explanation. The flowers of God's garden bloom, not only double, but sevenfold: they are continually pouring forth fresh fragrance."

DECEMBER 14th.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.-Galatians iii. 13. LIFE never came through the law. As some

one has observed: "When the law was given, three thousand men lost life; but when grace and truth came at Pentecost, three thousand obtained life." Under the law, if a man became a drunkard the magistrates would take him out and stone him to death. When the prodigal came home, grace met him and embraced him. Law said, Stone him !—grace said, Embrace him! Law said, Smite him!-grace said, Kiss him! Law went after him, and bound him; grace said, Loose him and let him go! Law tells me how crooked I am; grace comes and makes me straight.

DECEMBER 15th.

Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.-John xi. 3.

THE

HE communion those sisters had with Jesus brought them so near to His heart that when the time of trouble came they knew where

to go for comfort. A great many people do not learn that secret in prosperity, and so when the billows come rolling up against them, they don't know which way to turn. The darkest and most wretched place on the face of the earth, is a home where death has entered, and where Christ is unknown. No hope of a resurrection, no hope of a brighter day coming.

DECEMBER 16th.

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.-Daniel vi. 10.

THER

'HERE is many a business man to-day who will tell he has no time to pray you : his business is so pressing that he cannot call his family around him, and ask God to bless them. He is so busy that he cannot ask God to keep him and them from the temptations of the present life-the temptations of every day. "Business is so pressing." I am reminded of the words of an old Methodist minister: "If you have so much business to attend to that you have no time to pray, depend upon it you have more business on hand than God ever intended you should have.”

But look at this man. He had the whole, or nearly the whole, of the king's business to attend to. He was Prime Minister, Secretary of State, and Secretary of the Treasury, all in one. He had to attend to all his own work, and to give an eye to the work of lots of other men. And yet he found time to pray: not just now and then, nor once in a way, not just when he happened to have a few moments to spare, but "three times a day."

DECEMBER 17th.

They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.-Hosea viii. 7.

WHENEVER I hear a young man talking in

a flippant way about sowing his wild oats, I don't laugh. I feel more like crying, because I know he is going to make his greyhaired mother reap in tears; he is going to make his wife reap in shame; he is going to make his old father and his innocent children reap with him. Only ten or fifteen or twenty years will pass before he will have to reap his wild oats; no man has ever sowed them without having to reap them. Sow the wind and you reap the whirlwind.