nay, may actually be so; but if they are prompted by love they will become "strong in the Lord." "The smallest effort is not lost: Each raindrop makes some floweret blow; Again: How much one passage of Scripture can do.-The Bible, as a whole, is full of spiritual power. It is " mighty through God." Is a sword of service to soldiers? Is water acceptable to the thirsty? Is light valuable? Even so is the sacred book blessed and necessary. These are the very figures used by its writers in describing it. But it is deserving of thankful acknowledgment that not only the book as such is capable of doing great and good things for man, but its separate parts are of marvellous practical worth. A single paragraph, an isolated text, or even half a text may, by God's blessing, accomplish wonders. The case of Whitefield's friends is a noteworthy illustration of this, "One thing thou lackest." Those four words, written on a window pane, were the salvation of a household. Some of the noblest and most useful men that have adorned the church and benefited the world have attributed their first convictions or their first peace with God to like means. A verse heard or read by them has been the turning-point in their religious history. St. Augustine, whose piety invigorates and whose intelligence enlightens the present as well as his own age, was brought to a knowledge of the truth by a passage in the Epistle to the Romans. After many a day of anxious doubts and fears, Luther was delivered from the bondage of superstition by those wellknown words, "The just shall live by faith.” The martyr Bilney, who lived and died a martyr for the Saviour, was turned to God by the text, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The gentle, devout poet, Cowper, was indebted to no small extent for his highest good to the following portion of holy writ, "To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.' Hedley Vicars, who reproduced in modern times the ancient faith of the centurion and the holy life of Cornelius, found consolation in the familiar but glorious declaration, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Instances like these might be multiplied. Were the experience of Christian people written, we should be able to trace, in most cases, their conversion from sin, their consolation in sorrow, and their renewed efforts to please and serve God, to certain texts which it has pleased the Holy Spirit to seal upon their hearts. Now, what should we learn from this fact? Surely, it should teach us confidence in God's word. Let us not insult it by doubting its power. Rather let us believe that it is the grand medium through which God bestows his grace upon men. Let us not be afraid, when meet occasion offers itself, to repeat a suitable passage of Scripture to one who is unsaved. Do not think within yourself, "What is the use of doing it? How is it likely to touch the heart?" Try. There is nothing like trying. Make the effort and leave results with God. He giveth the increase." That which has so often comforted the sorrowful can do it again. Put the matter to the test, at any rate. Speak the inspired words of promise, and they will find their way to the suffering spirit. Or if you see a fellow-disciple downcast because of his manifold difficulties and temptations, let nothing prevent you from setting before him those assurances of Divine help which abound in the Old and New Testament alike. Above all, bring the word of truth into close contact with the unsaved. Sow the seed. It may be a small grain that you let fall silently into the ground, but God's eye is upon it, and God's hand shall prosper it. "My word shall not return unto me void." 66 "Sow, though the rock repel thee Have faith, though ne'er beholding That the Lord of the harvest coming 66 Some of his There is one other aspect in which this passage from Whitefield's biography ought to be looked at. It teaches us to make our visits to our friends useful. He did so. Afterwards, no doubt, they often thought of the apostolic advice-"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.' They entertained an angel of grace, a messenger of mercy. By his sojourn he had conferred upon them blessings for which, to all eternity, they could never be sufficiently thankful. Is there not a lesson for us here-a lesson both salutary and needed? All Christians can and should render their intercourse with others beneficial in a religious point of view. He who has left us an example, that we should follow his steps," never forgot to do so. How wisely he combined friendship and instruction! choicest utterances were at the social board: many of his best bequests of love and knowledge were made in the domestic circle. When he sat at meat with Simon, he spoke the parable of the two debtors, and bestowed a free pardon on the repentant woman who wept at his feet. When he abode in the house of Lazarus, he taught, for Mary sat at his feet and heard his word." When he went to the feast of Matthew, he rebuked self-righteousness and encouraged penitence by the declaration, "I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." We may go and do likewise. When we stay for a season with our kindred or friends we can, if we will, seize the golden opportunity of putting in a word on behalf of the Redeemer. Without rendering ourselves obnoxious and making religion distasteful by rude and imprudent zeal, it is possible to draw the attention of those around us to "the one thing needful." This done, who will dare to deny that God will give his effectual blessing? Even when the lips are silent, we may be unquestionably and obviously useful. There is ever marvellous power in personal piety. Genuine holiness never fails to make itself felt. A good man takes with him a hallowed atmosphere which those who are about him are constrained to breathe. When Moses descended from Mount Sinai his face shone, and all the people beheld its unearthly lustre. The very presence of some men is a restriction upon evil. To associate with them is to be lifted into a higher altitude of thought and feeling. Such believers are "living epis tles," declaring the worth of the gospel far more eloquently and effectually than the voice of the grandest orator or the pen of the readiest writer. When the Earl of Peterborough was leaving the abode of devout Archbishop Fenelon, he said, "Such has been the display of piety by you, that if I were to stay in your house a week longer I believe I should become a Christian in spite of myself." So true are the beautiful words of William Cowper: "When one that holds communion with the skies That tells us whence his treasures are supplied." "where Let us, my readers, fill our "earthen vessels" those pure waters rise," and some drops, at least, will fall, cool and refreshing, on some fevered face or burning brow. Let us have "treasures" that are " supplied" from above, and then we shall enrich others as well as ourselves. If we live near to Christ the world will "take knowledge of us" that we have "been with Jesus," and the hallowed influence thereof eternity only can reveal. THE RELIGION OF SAMARIA. "They feared the Lord, and served their own gods.”—2 Kings xvii. 33. THE people whose religion is here described, were the same with those who are called in the New Testament Samaritans. They were a mixed race of heathens whom the king of Assyria had settled in the country of the Israelites, after he had carried that people into captivity. These new settlers, who had been bred up in the practice of idolatry, brought their idols with them into the land of Israel: and thus, in a country where the true God had been once known and worshipped, nothing was now to be seen but heathen abominations. It was not long, however, before these Gentiles were made to feel that, notwithstanding the multitude of idols to whom they paid their worship, they knew not Him who was alone worthy of it. The Lord cut off a great number of them, by sending lions into their country. The people were alarmed, and, believing that this judgment had been inflicted on them because they knew not "the manner of the God of the land," they procured one of the Israelitish priests to teach them who he was, and how they ought to worship him. It might have been supposed that, having experienced such a signal proof of the power of the Lord to punish them, and of the inability of their own idols to protect them, they would have exclaimed, like the Israelites in Elijah's days, "The Lord, he is the God! the Lord, he is the God!" But no; their attachment to their idols seems not to have been in the least diminished; and whilst they paid some show of worship to the Lord, for fear the lions should return to them, they gave all the service of their hearts to their stocks and stones! We wonder much at the infatuation of these poor heathens; yet, alas! it affords but too correct an illustration of the religion of unconverted men in general. There is, in more points than one, a Samaritan worship. Let me call your attention to the way in which that worship is described in the text," They feared the Lord, and served their own gods." The first thing which strikes us was the dishonour which these people did to the one true God, by worshipping their idols in conjunction with him. He had but a part of their adoration. Now they were on their knees to him, and now again they were paying the same act of reverence to their gods of wood and stone. At one moment they would be drawing nigh unto the Lord with their lips, and at the next they would be blessing an idol. Thank God, we live in a land where idols are known to be "nothing in the world." Even where our holy religion has not affected men's hearts, it has shed its light upon the understanding, so far as to make them aware that there is but one God. It is not only carved images, however, which are called idols in the Holy Scripture. The Bible speaks in one place of men's setting up "their idols in their heart;" § and we find St. John, in his first epistle, admonishing believers to keep themselves from idols," ||—a caution which could have been scarcely necessary, had the idols which he meant been such as are the work of men's hands. Everything is an idol in the sight of God which usurps his honours in the heart of man; and every man is, in his view, an idolater who attributes an undue value to the things of the world. The covetous man is expressly called in Scripture an "ido † 1 Kings xviii. 39. * 2 Kings xvii. 27. 1 Cor. viii. 4. 1 John v. 21. |