judgments. But although Israel should still continue its downward course, and bring upon itself, as we know it did, the judgments of which it had been forewarned, yet even these judgments, leading it to reflection and so to repentance, should be to it a gospel; and when Israel repented, God would forgive. So sure was this, that although the event was fature and remote, Isaiah is commissioned to speak of it as actually accomplished. God says, not, "I will blot out," but "I have blotted out thine iniquities."

Note the expression, "I have blotted out." This signifies more than "to cover"-a common word in Scripture for forgiveness of sin. It means to get rid of, to obliterate, to cause to be as though they had never been. It announces forgiveness even to the extent of forgetfulness. "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." And, mark-sin is the only thing God ever does forget. He never forgets to feed the ravens, to refresh the parched ground, to order the spheres, to pity the poor, to answer the prayer of the humble. But He does forget the sin of the penitent. He "casts it behind His back." He throws it into "the depths of the sea." It sinks as lead in the mighty waters!

Note again, the image, "As a cloud, a thick cloud." See how black the heavens are! All nature is shrouded in densest gloom. Every creature trembles at the portents, and in dismay awaits the threatening storm. But a breeze springs up. The black masses of cloud begin to move and break. Here a glint of sunshine, and there a patch of clear blue sky, give promise of fair weather. Gradually the brightness grows, the clouds are driven before the wind, and presently the whole firmament, from zenith to horizon, is one grand expanse of azure loveliness.

So God forgives sin. The breath of His redeeming grace blows on and disperses the clouds of impending wrath, and scatters them, till not even a shadow of them remains on the tops of the mountains. They are clean gone for ever more!

Note, too, the efficient cause. "I have," &c. In nature, the sun is primarily the cause of the dispersion of the clouds. And in grace, forgiveness is God's own work. He sends His own Son into the world to give it life. Jesus takes away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. God pardons for His sake. His blood atones. His Spirit applies atonement, and the sinner is clean. Divine preference has developed into a Divine purpose, which has effected a Divine propitiation; and the Divine proclamation follows: "I have blotted out thine iniquities as a thick cloud."

II. God urges this as a plea for repentance.-Does the thought suggest itself to any one, "Then God is too mercitul to be severe "' ? Does any voice whisper, "Ye shall not surely die"? Do men say one to another, "Therefore let us continue in sin"? Deceitful thought! devilish suggestion! basest perversion of infinite compas

sion! No, not this; but, "Therefore return." God leadeth thee to repentance" (Rom. ii. 4).

"The goodness of

Is there not here proof that repentance is necessary? Sin is a thick cloud formed of the foul vapours that rise from our hearts as from a pestilential marsh, hiding the heavens from view, intercepting the light of life, rendering the air oppressive and existence burdensome, portentous of storm, tempest, deluge, destruction. Is there then no cause for fear? Can there be peace while such things last? What if the storm burst upon defenceless heads? What if there be no shelter from the lightning and the flood? "Therefore return.'

Does not this open a way for repentance? The law, as well as the gospel, proves the need of repentance; but it is the peculiar province of the gospel to show how repentance may avail. If there be no authority for repentance, if all those who would repent are destitute of hope, if all that sinners know is that they must endure and die-will they repent? Can they repent? Surely there is no anguish which could equal that of a hopeless sorrow for sin. But the gospel spares us that anguish, for " in returning and rest ye shall be saved." "Therefore return."

Is it not a special inducement to repent? Sternness is apt to beget stubbornness. Wrath is apt to beget resistance. But tenderness has a melting power, and love attracts. Then if there be aught that the sinner's heart is unable to hold out against, it must be the grace of God. See that revealed in Jesus. "Behold the Lamb of God!" Observe His willing sacrifice for sin.

"See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingling down:

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?"

And as you look, will not your heart begin to say,

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all"?

Belgrave, Leicester.

CONFIDE IN GOD.

THERE once lived in an old brown | cy." She had no money, no family cottage, so small that it looked like a chicken coop, a solitary woman. She was some thirty years of age, tended her little garden, knit and spun for a living. She was known everywhere, from village to village, by the cognomen of " Happy Nan-set His royal seal.

no relatives; she was half blind, quite lame, and very crooked. There was no comeliness in her; and yet there, in that homely, deformed body, the great God, who loves to bring strength out of weakness, had

"Well, Nancy, singing again," would the chance visitor say, as he lounged at her door.

"La! yes, I'm for ever at it. I don't know what people will think," she would say, with her sunny smile.

"Why, they'll think as they always do that you are very happy."

you people unhappy; you're all the time supposing. Now, why can't you wait till the suppose comes, as I do, and then make the best of it!"

"Ah, Nancy! it's pretty certain you'll get to heaven, while many of of us, with all our worldly wisdom, will have to stay out."

She was right; we do take the demon of care, of distrust, of melancholy foreboding, of ingratitude,

We

"There you are at it again," said Nancy, shaking her head, "al"La! well, that's a fact. I'm ways looking out for some black just as happy as the day is long." cloud. Why, if I was you, I'd keep "I wish you'd tell me your the devil at arm's length, instead secret, Nancy. You are all alone, of taking him right into my heart you work hard, you have nothing he'll do you a desprit sight of very pleasant surrounding you; mischief." what is the reason you're so happy?" "Perhaps it's because I haven't got anybody but God," replied the good creature, looking up. "You right into our hearts, and pet and see, rich folks like you depend cherish the ugly monsters till we upon their families and their housen. assimilate to their likeness. They've got to keep thinking of canker every pleasure with this their business, of their wives and gloomy fear of coming ill; we selchildren; and then they're always dom trust that blessings will enter, mighty afraid of trouble ahead. or hail them when they come. I ain't got anything to trouble my- stead of that we smother them self about, you see, 'cause I leave under the blanket of apprehension, it all to the Lord. I think, Well, or choke them with our misanif He can keep this great world in such good order-the sun rolling day after day, and the stars ashining right after night, make my garden things come up just the same, season after season, He can sartinly take care of such a poor, simple thing as I am;' and so, you see, I leave it all to the Lord, and and the Lord takes care of me."

"Well, but Nancy, suppose a frost should come after your fruit-trees are all in blossom and your little plants out; suppose

"But I don't suppose; I never can suppose; I don't want to suppose, except that the Lord will do everything right. That's what makes

thropy.

In

It would be well for us to imitate happy Nancy, and "never suppose." If you see. a cloud, don't suppose it's going to rain; and if you see a frown, don't suppose a scolding will follow-do whatever your hand finds to do, and there leave it. Be more childlike towards the great Father who created us; learn to confide in His wisdom, and not in your own; and above all, "wait till the 'suppose' comes, and Depend

then make the best of it."
upon it, earth would seem an Eden
if you would follow happy Nancy's
rule, and never give place in your
bosom to imaginary evils.

GOD'S WILL AND OURS.

BY THE REV. T. R. STEVENSON.

"Thy will be done."-Matt. vi. 10.

THIS is what we ought to say to God: unhappily, it is too often what we want God to say to us! Some petitions in the Lord's prayer are not hard to offer. "Hallowed be thy name." Who would not have high and reverential thoughts of God? "Thy kingdom come.' Which of us does not desire that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ? "Give us this day our daily bread." Where is the man who is in love with poverty? "Forgive our trespasses." Have we any response save an affirmative one to such a cry? But "Thy will be done" is a different matter and a difficult matter. When Archbishop Whately was on his deathbed, in great suffering, he asked a friend if he had ever preached from this text, and if so, how he explained it. An answer was given. "Just so," he answered, "that is its meaning; but," added he, his voice choked with tears, "it is sometimes hard, very hard, to say it." We all understand this.

Yet here the words are, and there is no getting rid of them. He who came down from heaven, not to do His own will but the will of Him who sent Him,-He who in Gethsemane used these very words,— says distinctly and emphatically, "After this manner pray ye, Thy will be done." No wonder that He does so. The text is the soul and centre of the whole supplication; it is the sun around which, planet-like, the other requests revolve. If God is our Father in heaven, His children should certainly do their Father's will. If His kingdom is ever to come, it must be by each subject doing His will. Why is daily bread given us, but that with the strength it supplies we may do God's will? Of what use is forgiveness if it leads us not to do His will? Yes, here is the petition, and here it must needs be. Let us try to find out its exact meaning, and how we may get power wherewith to utter it sincerely.

A few words, however, by way of parenthesis. It would be almost unpardonable not to write them. We only do justice to the short supplication in question when we point out its comprehensiveness. What can be more suggestive? No little is implied by it. For instance, it teaches that God is a person and not a mere force. "Thy" is not a term applied to things. Only by "poetic license" do we apostrophise such. Clearly, then, the Most High is a person and not an almighty It. Matthew Arnold's "stream of tendency" and power that makes for righteousness "have little sanction here. God is more than that or He is no good to us. It teaches, too, that God seeks not the destruction but the consecration of our individuality. Absorption in the Deity is the hope of millions; they conceive of nothing higher than for the separate drops of humanity to be lost,

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eventually, in the boundless, fathomless ocean of divinity. Live in the East, and you soon meet with ascetics who have given themselves entirely to this one idea, making everything conduce to the one "consummation devoutly to be wished." But the request, "Thy will be done," clearly assumes that our will and God's will remain distinct, although they become utterly harmonious. As Tennyson puts it, "Our wills are ours to make them Thine;" "ours" always and everywhere, although "Thine." We cannot but be thankful that such is the case. Who would lose his individuality? It is one of our most precious endowments, and, while its sanctification is a boon, its annihilation would be a bane. It teaches, further, that God's service is a present duty. Where is His will to be done? Not above only, but below. "In earth," that is the sphere named. "Earth," what a rebuke to us! Men are perpetually deluding themselves with the notion that in a different place they could lead, oh, such different lives! Otherwhere they would be otherwise. Few of us there are who do not indulge the idea that in another world, or in some "island of the blest," or Paradise regained, we should find it a comparatively easy thing to do God's will; but as for this life, we are prone to think its atmosphere uncongenial, and incompatible with exalted character. Not so; such a doctrine gets no countenance from the Lord's prayer. 'Thy will be done in earth." "In earth," despite its terrible temptations; "in earth," although it is so depraved; "in earth with all its evils and perils. The truth is that many longings for the future world are the exclamations of timidity: they are also a reflection on the wisdom and goodness of Him who has seen fit to place us here. They are aspersions rather than aspirations. Away with them! Let us be neither cowards nor ingrates. Society is bad enough, but not too bad for the existence of holiness and love. We live lives of nobility and fidelity if we wish. He who cannot glorify God here will do it nowhere.

may

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To return to an examination, practical rather than critical, of the words before us. 66 'Thy will be done :" what does that mean? It is very important that we should know. It may mean one of two things,; the question is, which? Does it mean, 66 Thy will be done by me"? or, "Thy will be done by Thee"? Is it an expression of obedience or of submission? Both; the active and the passive are alike included. For the sake of brevity, let us now regard it mainly in the last sense.

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Thy will be done by Thee. Do Thy will in me, O Lord and Father." But what is God's will? "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." He is "not willing that any should perish,' that is, live in sin. It is His wish that we should be "conformed to the image of his Son.' Indeed, the verse before the text helps to indicate its drift: "Thy kingdom come within us, rule and reign over our thoughts and emotions, and thus Thy will will be done."

But mark! Very often God cannot do His will in us (that is, make