Ver. 2. What is written in the Prophets? Wh was sent? What was his name? What was het do?

Ver. 3. How was John the Baptist described What did he cry? By which Prophet was thi said? Isaiah xl. 3.

Ver. 4. Where did John baptize? What did h do besides baptizing? What is preaching? Wha is it to repent?

Ver. 5. Who went out to him? What did Joh do for them? Where? What did they confess? Ver. 6. How was John clothed? What was hi food?

Ver. 7. In preaching what did John say? Wh was the mightier One?

Ver. 8. With what did John baptize? What di he say Jesus should baptize with? Who is the Holy Ghost?

Prepare the way 4. Repentance. Remission of sins.

EXPLANATIONS.-Ver.3. Wilderness. The country parts of Judea. Matt. iii. 1. Remove obstructions. - Ver. Sorrow for sin and forsaking it. The forgiveness and taking away of sins.-Ver. 5. All the land of Judea. The people of Judea. Confessing their sins. Acknowledging with sorrow their offences against God.-Ver. 6. Girdle. A belt made of skin or leather. About his loins. Round the lower part of his waist. Locusts. Insects rather larger than grasshoppers.-Ver. 7. Preached. Proclaimed. One mightier. More powerful and having more authority.-Ver. 8. Holy Ghost. The third person in the Godhead.

LESSONS.-1. John the Baptist was sent to preach repentance, to prepare the people to receive Christ. Verses 1-4.

Who was sent? To preach what? For what end? How may you be prepared to receive Christ? 2. Great numbers flocked together to hear John's faithful and earnest preaching. Verse 5.

What did the people do? Whose preaching? What was the character of John's preaching? What does that teach you?

3. John the Baptist was contented with common food and coarse clothing, and was diligent in the performance of his work.

EXERCISE VIII.-MARCH 1st.

Matthew iv. 1–11.

Ver. 1. Who was led? By whom? Where? For what purpose?

Bible who fasted Exod. xxiv. 18,

Ver. 2. Who fasted? How long? What then? Do we read of any others in the forty days and forty nights? xxxiv. 28; 1 Kings xix. 8. Ver. 3. Who came to Christ? Why would it have been wrong for Jesus to cause the stones to become bread?

What did he say?

Ver. 4. What answer did Jesus give? Where is that written? Deut. viii. 3. From what book did Jesus answer the devil? When you are tempted by him, from what can you get an answer to repel

him?

Ver. 5. Who was taken? By whom? Whither? Upon what was Jesus set?

Ver. 6. What did the devil request Christ to do? Of what was this to be an evidence? Where is this promise written? Psalm xci. 11, 12.

Ver. 7. What reply did Jesus make?

Ver. 8, 9. Where did the devil take Jesus? What did he show him? What did he say to him?

Ver. 10. What did Jesus say to the devil? Where are the words quoted written? Deut. x. 20.) When you are tempted, what is your best course? James iv. 7, 8.

Ver. 11. What did the devil do then? What did angels do?

EXPLANATIONS.-Ver. 1. Wilderness. A wild place. Tempted. Tried.-Ver. 2. Fasted. Went without food.-Ver. 3. Tempter. Satan. Command. Give orders.-Ver. 4. It is written. In the Bible. -Ver. 5. The holy city. Jerusalem. Pinnacle. Spire.-Ver. 6. Charge concerning thee. Commands with regard to. Bear thee up. Support and protect thee.-Ver. 7. Tempt the Lord. Presumptuously expose thyself to danger.-Ver. 8. Kingdoms. States and nations. Glory. Riches and splendour. -Ver. 11. Ministered unto him. Served him with what he needed.

LESSONS.-1. The devil advised Jesus to commit sin. It is very wrong to advise youth to commit sin.

2. Jesus refused to comply with the devil's advice, and we should never listen to the bad counsels of the wicked.

3. We should use the word of God to oppose sin and Satan.

J. S.

EUTYCHUS was a young man of Troas, who sat n the open window of the third floor while St. Paul was preaching in the night, and who being overcome by sleep, fell out into the court below. He was 66 taken up dead;" but the Apostle, going down, extended himself upon the body, and embraced it, like the Prophets of old; (1 Kings xvii. 21; 2 Kings iv. 34;) and when he felt the signs of returning life, restored him to his friends, with the assurance that "his life was in him." Before Paul departed in the morning, the youth was brought to him alive and well. It is disputed whether Eutychus were really dead, or only in a and hence whether a miracle were per

swoon;

formed or not. It is admitted that the circum stances, and the words of the Apostle himself sanction the notion that the young man was not actually dead; but, on the other hand, it is contended, and with considerable propriety, that the words of the narrator, "taken up dead," are too plain to justify us in receiving them in the modified sense of "taken up for dead," which that interpretation requires. (Acts xx. 5-12.) We see no cause why some interpreters should so sharply condemn the drowsiness of Eutychus, as to asser that he was punished for his sluggishness by death. We view nothing strange in the circum stance, seeing that the night was far spent, and having striven long against the sleepy influence he at length yielded to it. Eutychus did not, lik many whom we have witnessed, seek out som snug corner of the pew, on entering the house o God, where he might indulge in a sinful nap, to the manifest contempt and disregard of the worship of God. His situation was one the most unfriendly to such a sluggish propensity: "he sat in window." There is nothing strange in a ma fainting through hunger or too much wearines Luke evidently acquits Eutychus of impropriet and sinfulness: he says that he fell down, bein overcome with deep sleep after midnight. By th miracle which St. Paul was instrumental i working, the last sermon which he preached a Troas was confirmed and established.

D.