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"He that goeth down to the grave, shall come up no more."-JOB Vii. 9.

"HOW

OW is this ?" you ask; "are not all who are in their graves to rise again when the angel's great trumpet sounds at the judgment day ?" Yes; in that sense "he that goeth down to the grave" will come up from it.

If you want to know in what sense these words are used in the text, you must read the next verse with it. "He shall return no more to his house." None will rise again to live their earthly life in the midst of their old earthly scenes. Lazarus, indeed, did so, and a few others; but these were miracles. As a usual thing, the grave becomes man's "long home," where he must lie till the resurrection-hour. The place that knew him, knows him no more. The "old arm chair" is empty. The room that was his, no longer echoes to his footstep. "He returns no more to his house." One of our poets has caught the true meaning of these words, when he says of the dead

"For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care;

No children run to lisp their sire's return,

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share."

The home, where they were fondly loved, will never again see them welcomed with the shout of joy. They are gone ;-gone for ever, as to their home in this world.

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"He that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.' There are some who would give a great deal if they could come back to lead better lives! But it cannot be. It is only on this side the grave that we can prepare for death.

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss."

GO

JAMES iv. 3.

OD is the Hearer and Answerer of prayer. But asking is not always true praying. Sinners may "ask"-they may even "cry" to God-they may even (as one text tells us) "howl" in their agony of earnestness: but sinners do not rightly pray. The words, "Behold, he prayeth," are only used of those who are fleeing from sin, and fleeing to Jesus. "God heareth not sinners,”—those who still intend to remain sinners. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.' He will hear me, if I come and ask Him to take away the iniquity that is in my heart. But He will not hear me, if I "regard," if I cherish, if I cleave to that iniquity.

Saul once "enquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him not." Saul asked, and received not, because he was asking amiss. He was still loving sin with his heart. He did not come to enquire about his soul's safety, but about his worldly affairs. He did not care for God's favour; he only cared for God's protection. He did not want to be forgiven; he only wanted God to keep the Philistines from hurting him. It was not such a prayer as this that was likely to bring an answer from above. No dream came to show him God's will; no priest brought him a message from Heaven; no prophet told him what he should do. He had long despised God's voice, and God's priests, and God's prophets. Though he would gladly have made a selfish use of them, yet in his heart he despised them still. And thus, asking amiss, he asked in vain.

"And He made as though He would have gone further."-LUKE xxiv. 28.

WHE

HEN Jesus had risen from the dead, He came one evening, and joined two of His disciples, in their walk to the country. It is strange that they did not know Him. Perhaps it was partly because He no longer looked like a man of sorrows;" but chiefly because unbelief blinded their eyes. They were not expecting to see Him; and therefore they were far from thinking who it could really be.

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He talked with them by the way; and never did their walk appear so short. After a while, they reached their journey's end; and when they stopped, the stranger "made as though he would have gone further." He offered to take leave; but they would not let him go. They pressed him to stay. They said, "Abide with us."

He

went in, and tarried with them; and when he asked a blessing on their meal, and broke bread, and gave it them, they remembered their last supper with Jesus in the upper room at Jerusalem. They looked again, and they knew that it was He.

But had Jesus really wished to go on, and leave them? No; He wished to stay and bless them. Then why had He "made as though He would have gone" away ?-was it all pretence? Oh! no; Jesus would never stoop to what we call a "sham." He was putting the two disciples on trial. If they had been willing to let Him go, then He really would have gone. Learn the lesson that Christ never stays to bless those who do not say to Him, "Abide with us."

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"O thou child of many prayers!

Life hath quicksands,-Life hath snares!
Care and age come unawares!

"Like the swell of some sweet tune,

Morning rises into noon!

May glides onward into June!"

"Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."-1 CHRONICLES xxix. 15.

"Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest."-ECCLESIASTES ix. 10.

"Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave not its goal!
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

"Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act that each to-morrow
Find us further than to-day."

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