to resist it. The marks of Martin Luther's inkstand on Wartburg castle are not the traces of a pitiable superstition. Here is a man who is to shake all Europe with a new revival, and where on earth or under the earth is Satan so likely to mass his forces as in this monk's cell. Brother Martin is not throwing his ink-horn at a phantom. when he hurls it at the devil. It is very necessary to touch on this point, because every aspirant after holiness is certain to be assailed with peculiar conflicts and temptations; and it is natural to regard these as indications that dangerous ground has been entered upon, when they are often only evidences that we are entering upon higher ground.

That gifted woman in whom inspiration and aspiration were so beautifully blended, Frances Ridley Havergal, makes a cheering comment on a familiar text of Scripture-"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.' "Why this is grand," she writes, "power over all the power of the enemy. Just where he is strongest, there they shall prevail. Not over his weak points and places, but over the very centre of his power; not over his power here and there, or now and then, but

over all his power. And Jesus said it. Isn't it enough to go into battle with?"*

She was encouraging her own heart when she wrote these words. What a lofty path of spiritu ality she traversed! Has the reader of her biog. raphy marked the open secret of her consecrated career? It is found in the same experience, of which we have spoken elsewhere, of definite, whole souled devotement to God. This is the record of it, which she has left behind:

"It was on Advent Sunday, December, 1873, that I first saw clearly the blessedness of true consecration. I saw it as a flash of electric light; and what you see, you can never unsee. There must be full surrender before there can be full blessedness. God admits you by the one into the other. He Himself showed me this most clearly. You know how singularly I have been withheld from attending conventions and conferences; man's teaching has consequently but little to do with it. First I was shown that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin; and then it was made plain to me that He who had thus cleansed me, had power to keep me clean; so I utterly yielded myself to Him and utterly trusted Him to keep me."

* Memorials of Frances R Havergal, p 10.

In literature and in life, she served her generation with rare effectiveness. Her works are suf fused with a beautiful glow of spiritual health; and in reading her books of sacred poetry and devotion, honored with an almost unprecedented circulation, we wonder if any one in our day has spoken more directly to the heart of man, and more direct ly from the heart of God. And thus the lesson is pressed upon us anew of the power of a sanctified life.

In treating thus of special acts of consecration, we would interpose a caution against written covenants with God. To yield ourselves up to Him in full self-surrender is one thing; to bind ourselves to do and to suffer certain things for Him, is quite another. The divine nature within us may be strong enough to perform such vows, but human nature is insolvent, and all its promises are but a bankrupt's bond. And this human nature is still a partner in the firm that makes the contract, just as our Lord so solemnly declared in the face of His disciples' failure and desertion. "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Dr. Doddridge recommended a written compact with the Lord. 66 Set your hand and seal to it, that on

such a day of such a month and year, and at such a place, on full consideration, and serious reflection, you came to the happy resolution, that whatever others might do, you would serve the Lord.” The excellent Samuel Pearce of Birmingham, followed this advice in his early Christian life. He wrote his solemn league and covenant with God, and to make it the more binding he opened a vein in his arm and signed it with his own blood. when in a little while he found how utterly he had broken this sacred engagement, he was plunged into despair, and only found release when he tore up the document and scattered it to the winds, and cast himself henceforth entirely upon the "blood of the everlasting covenant." *

But

We do not say that such a method can never be of use. It may in some instances. John Freder ick Oberlin, the devoted and apostolic pastor, seems to have found it so. He certainly furnishes another striking illustration of the influence of defi

*John Howe, in his discourse on Self-dedication, tells of a devout French ✔ nobleman who made a quit-claim deed of himself to God, and signed the document with his own blood-"whose affection I commend," he adds, "more than his expression of it." And well he might. When God takes security he wants a good name, and a trustworthy signature. We are only safe when we present "the name above every name," and trust alone in "the blood of the New Testament.

nite and entire consecration. Let one read of the astonishing change effected through his ministry in the morals and condition of his little flock in Waldbach, amid the wilds of Northern France; or let one ponder the exquisite story of the orphan girl, Louise Schepler, so impressed by the holiness and self-denial of this good pastor's life, that she begged the privilege of serving him without wages or reward, so long as she should live. The clue to his remarkable power may doubtless be found in a document which was left among his papers. It is long, but we give a paragraph which contains its pith and substance:

"In the name of the Lord of Hosts, I this day renounce all former lords that have had dominion over me; the joys of the world in which I have too much delighted, and all carnal desires. I renounce all perishable things in order that God may constitute my All. I consecrate to Thee all that I am, and all that I have; the faculties of my mind, the members of my body, my fortune and my time. Grant me grace, O Father of mercies, to employ all to Thy glory, and in obedience to Thy commands. For ardently and humbly, I desire to be Thine through the endless ages of eternity. Should Thou be pleased to make me in this life the instrument