"I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy commandments."-PSALM CXix. 176.

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T is well, when we meet together for prayer, that we should join in saying, "We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep." But we must not forget that these words are true of each one separately, so that each one separately has cause to say as David said, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep."

But David did not wish to go astray any longer. He knew what was right, and he wished to do what was right. He had not forgotten God's commandments. He remembered that they were wise and good. He was not happy while he was wandering away from the good Shepherd's fold. He longed to have a place among the happy flock in the green pastures.

But how could he find his way there? He took the wisest plan. He sought the Shepherd's help. He cried, "Seek thy servant." It was as if he had said, 'I cannot come unless I am led; I cannot guide myself; I cannot help myself; oh, seek me, and save me; guide me, and bring me into the way of Thy commandments.'

This could be no vain prayer. God said to His people of old, "I will seek that which was lost, and will bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick." What He promised them, He is willing also to do for us. We may safely say, "Seek thy servant;" for Christ came to earth on purpose that He might seek and save the lost.

"Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.”—MATTHEW vii. 14.

W1

ISDOM'S ways are ways of pleasantness to all who walk in them. But there are some who will not be persuaded to try these paths of peace. The reason they keep aloof is because the road is narrow, and the entrance-gate is not large enough to let them carry in with them the burden of sin.

Are you walking in the narrow way ? have you gone in at the narrow gate? There is danger of making a mistake. There are some who have been early taught, and well taught. They do not wander up and down on the mountains of sin, as others do. They are walking in a narrow path, though not in the narrow path which leads to life. They are walking, as some one has well said, "in a narrow part of the broad road." Through the strait gate they have never entered; for they have never yet been freed from the heavy load of unbelief and pride. Has your load been laid down? have you put away this unbelief and this pride? if not, "strive to enter in at the strait gate. Strive earnestly; and strive before the door is shut.

Are you in the narrow way? keep in the very middle of it. Do not walk so near the edge, as to make it seem doubtful whether you are in the right path. Do not lean over to pluck the poisonous blossoms that grow outside. Sweeter, fairer flowers than these lie thickly scattered in the heavenward path; and you will find them sweetest, fairest, and most abundant, the more you keep to the centre of the road.

"His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings.”—JOB Xxxiv. 21.

IF you down several long streets in London, at F you stand at a window from which you can the busiest time of the day, it seems strange to look at the crowds of people passing in all directions, as thick as the ants in an ant-hill. But it seems still more strange to think that there is One Eye, which when it looks down upon that vast multitude, knows where each is going, and what each is going about. Even more strange still does it seem, to remember that these hundreds of people are as a mere nothing compared with the millions, who, at that same moment, are hastening about their various duties, all over our half of the globe, and the millions more who, on the other side of the globe, are at that very moment asleep. And yet all these millions upon millions, anywhere and everywhere, whether active or idle, whether waking or sleeping, are at that same instant, under the eye of God, and in the power of God.

Did you ever think what a mercy it is that the God who orders everything is the God who sees and knows everything? Suppose He could only watch a few, and care for a few at a time! In that case, His plans for the good of the few might just be working evil for all the rest. How

dreadful it would be to think we were in the hands of One who did not know the wicked plans of wicked men! Happily for us, not one can take a step but He knows it; and He can either prevent it, or make it turn into a blessing for His children.

"She hath done what she could."-MARK xiv. 8.

WH

HAT had she done? She had shown her faith in Jesus, and her love to Him. She had brought an alabaster box of very precious ointment; and she had broken the box, and poured out the ointment on the head of Jesus, as He sat at meat. She could not hinder His being put to death; but she could anoint His body for burial, and she DID it. She could not count upon being able to anoint Him after His death; but she could come "aforehand,”—and she DID it.

There is a good fable told about a king's garden, in which the trees and flowers all at once withered away;-the oak, because it could not yield any fair flowers; the rose-bush, because it could produce no fruit; the vine, because it had to cling to the wall, and could cast no refreshing shadow from its branches. I am of no use,' said the oak. "I might as well die," said the rose-bush. "What good can I do?" murmured the vine. "But what makes you look so bright and blooming, when all else is fading ?" asked the king, when he saw a heart's-ease, which all the while held up its cheerful face. "I thought," said the heart's-ease, "that you wanted me here; because it was here you planted me; and so I thought I would try to be the very best little heart's-ease that could be."

Are you like the oak, and the rose-tree, and the vine, doing nothing because you cannot do as much as others are doing? or will you be like the heart's-ease, and do your very best in the little corner of the vineyard in which God's hand has put you?