heart. That separated Son could tell the joy of the Lord's strength. Though He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, He kept the conditions of the Feast, and knew the true meaning of its being "a Feast unto the Lord."

The whole scene of the Passover is brought before us in 1 Cor. v. "Purge out the old leaven." This would take in every thing, "that ye may be a new lump," &c. even as Christ. Would you know why you are unleavened? Because true of us in Christ. God can say, "Amen" to you and to me, because He kept the Feast. But there is something definite to you and to me besides. Our Feast may be with terrible crying and tears, but the Feast is to be above all my sorrow. That is what Israel did not know, but we are called to it. In spirit like Abraham (Rom. iv.), “to hope against hope." Temptation, tribulation, failure, these will be, but the Feast is to be kept; nevertheless, let it give its stamp to every step of the way.

One word more. Any word that shews the depth of grace is a terrible word. "Let us keep the Feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (Verse 8.) The old leaven was the flesh-pots of Egypt. All was to be brought out before they partook of the Lamb. But what is the distinction between the "old leaven" and "the leaven of malice and wickedness?"

God presents us with an object, a Feast-the Lord Jesus Christ's work and person. But what may we be keeping the Feast with? We may be filled with the love of the world, in some shape or other-dress, re

lations of life, &c., &c. We may be filled also with the "leaven of malice and wickedness." I believe there is a sharpness in these words that none but the children of God know.

a disquisition with His

God is, as it were, going into children, with regard to their

dispositions, &c. What may you have in your heart at the Feast? "Malice." It is an awful word. It is probing with the probe of God the desperate evil of our hearts.

Here is what God would have us put away-any root of evil, guile, deceit, &c.—that the Feast may be, in spirit and in truth, to the Lord, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

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Israel was to hold everything in readiness to serve the Lord. I say the experience of the Feast was conditional, not the security of it. It is eternally secure in Jesus. But let us observe the conditions. The victory will be ours in proportion as we keep all this evil under.

"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

IF we would have our own sorrows soothed, our own wounds healed, and our troubled breasts calmed, we must meditate much on the wounds and sorrows of Jesus, when "it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” when "He was wounded for our transgressions."

THERE is a temptation when men do not please us, for us on our part to displease God. If we do not seek to please ourselves, but God, He will shew us how to act when men displease us. "Even Christ pleased not Himself."

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. No. 2.

Gen. xxii.

It is well to be prepared unto every good work-to be ready at all times to do the will of God. We know not how soon it may please God to put our faith to the test-it may be sharply. Let it not take us by surprise. Let us not count even a fiery trial a strange thing. This is the time for the trial of our faith, and it is more precious than of gold that perisheth. Tribulation in one form or other characterizes our wilderness journey, and when one trial is over let us prepare for another; for when our faith has been exercised, and our spirit tried, it is often to fit us for deeper exercise and severer trial. Thus it was with Abraham. He had passed through much trial in connection with famine, the untoward ways of Lot, the mistaken path concerning Hagar, the fear of Abimelech, the painful circumstances connected with Ishmael; and now he was called to the most unexpected and heavy trial of offering up his beloved Isaac, for whom he had waited on God with such enduring patience, and to whom the promises of God concerning all nations were made. The emergency was sudden, and the trial, both spiritually and naturally, perhaps of the deepest kind, that mortal, fallible man was ever called to honour God in.

But the man of faith was ready for the call. He heard the gracious and authoritative voice of God, saying, "Abraham! Abraham!" and, apparently, with undisturbed composure of spirit, he replied, "Behold, here I am." He is immediately before this presented to us calling "on the name of the Lord, the everlasting

God" (ch. xxi. 33), and now, in the stillness of the night watches, his ear is opened to the voice of the God of promise, and most sorrowful and trying as the path may be in which he is called to walk, yet the light of heaven shines upon it with unmistakeably clear guidance.

How deeply important it is, beloved, that we should be much in the habit of calling on the name of the Lord. It has been well said, that

'Prayer makes the Christian's armour bright,'

and the divine statute is, "Them that honour me, I will honour." In the carnal scene connected with the weaning of Isaac, the patriarch was ill prepared for such a service as that we are considering. We see how this feasting had dimmed his spiritual vision to the perception of the ill behaviour of the "son of the bondwoman," and how reluctant he was to rule in this instance according to the mind of God. He stood reproved, for "fleshly lusts war against the soul;" but after this we see him in the grove of Beersheba, with uplifted heart, calling upon "the name of the Lord, the everlasting God," and therefore ready for the service of the living and true God. (See chap. xxi. 8, 12, 33.) And so it should be with us; for if we would be calm in emergencies, ready for the service of God, and capable of being used for His honour and glory, we must be found not indulging in fleshly lusts, but mortifying our members which are upon the earth, seeking to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and calling upon the name of the Lord. "He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." He that waiteth on his Master shall be honoured." Thy

Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." (Job xvii. 9; Prov. xxvii. 18; Matt. vi. 6.)

I repeat that Abraham was led into a plain path; nothing could exceed the clearness of the way he was called to walk in. First, he was told what to do; he was to "offer for a burnt offering," his son, his only and beloved Isaac-that son for whom he had waited on God for twenty-five years, concerning whom God had made such promises, and whose weaning he had celebrated with such joyous festivity and gladnessthat only son, that affectionate and obedient lad, who lay so near his father's heart, must unreservedly be consumed to ashes in yonder mountain. Secondly, he must hasten to this service at once. "Take now thy son." Thirdly, the place of service is pointed out; he must go "into the land of Moriah" to execute the divine commission. These plain details left no room for enquiry, opened no door for delay; they comprehended all that faith needed for obeying the voice of God. Abraham therefore "rose up early in the morning," and proceeded "to the place of which God had told him," to carry out the heavenly mandate, taking Isaac, the wood, the fire, and knife, for the necessary purpose of carrying out the word of God.

No doubt there was much deep, living communion with God, during the three days' journey to Mount Moriah. The man of faith was now walking in the conscious presence of the quickener of the dead-"the Almighty God." This was the spring of the patriarch's hope, the anchor of his soul, the sole incentive of his self-renouncing obedience. The God of the covenant commanded, and this was enough for believing Abra