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IT

'SAVED.'

T is a dark wild night, and a large crowd is gathered on the rocky shore of a stormy sea. Signal-guns have told them of a ship in distress, and the life-boat has been launched and manned, and has disappeared into the darkness over the great waves. Now that crowd are straining their eyes and ears for some news from the wreck. Suddenly a faint shout comes to them through the roaring of the wind. There it is again louder! Yes, it is a cheer from their returning comrades, and as the life-boat comes rolling in, and is drawn up on the shore by strong willing arms, that shout is taken up by the whole crowd, for the shipwrecked crew of that vessel are saved.'

Again, it is night in a great city, but, instead of silence, the streets are full of people hurrying in one direction,-a direction in which a great red light is filling the sky. It is a fire, and, when you reach the place, you see a whole house blazing fiercely, in spite of all that the fireengines can do. 'Are all the people saved?' you ask. No,' is the answer, there is a little girl still in the top story, and that man on the ladder is going up to look for her.' You nearly hold your breath as you watch that man going up into the smoke that is bursting from the upper windows. There is a long hush,-it only lasts a few minutes, but it seems like hours,-till the man reappears with the child in his arms, and every one shouts for joy, for she is 'saved.'

Now, you see all these people were first in danger, or they would never have needed to be saved. Are you in danger, dear boys and girls? You must be, or the Bible would not say you need to be saved. Listen to what it says: There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' (Acts iv. 12.) What is the danger? It is that God hates sin, and has said He will punish all sin; and you are sinners. All your wrong, selfish thoughts, all your unkind, prouds words, are sins, and God knows all

about them; and unless you have gone to Jesus to have them forgiven, because He bore the punishment for you, you are unsaved. And the thing I want you particularly to notice is, that to be unsaved is to be unsafe. You are all ready to acknowledge that to die unsaved is a very dangerous and fearful thing; but I want you to see to-day that to live unsaved is a very dangerous and fearful thing, because you have no one strong enough to take care of you while you live, and to go with you when you die (and you do not know when that may be) to God's judgment-seat.

How then are you to be saved? By getting into the safe place. Noah and his family were saved when all the rest of the world were drowned because they were in the only safe place,-the ark. You may have read about the great prairies in North America, and you know how sometimes the tall grass takes fire, and the flames spread and roll in great waves along the surface of the ground, faster than any man or beast can run away from them. When a party of hunters see that sheet of fire coming rushing upon them, what do they do? They set fire to the grass just in front of them. The wind blows the flames along till they have burnt over quite a large space, and there the hunters take their stand. When the roaring fire which they saw in the distance reaches them, it can only burn all round them. It cannot touch them, for they are in the safe place. Then what is the safe place for you and me? Where does a child run when it is frightened? To its parent's arms, and it knows it is safe there. Dear children, you know who opens His arms to take us in,— those loving arms that were stretched on the cruel cross. You remember how His enemies said then, ‘He saved others, Himself He cannot save.' He could have saved Himself in a moment, but then He would not have been able to save others, so He bore all the pain and shame that we deserved, till He died the death that we deserved. Now He opens His arms and says, 'Come unto Me,' and all that are folded in those blessed arms are safe indeed.

'Safe in the arms of Jesus,

Safe on His gentle breast,
There, by His love o'ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.'

Has this thought ever come into your mind, that you must either be saved or unsaved? You cannot be half saved. You will go to bed to-night either safe or unsafe. Remember, almost saved is unsaved.

Look at one more picture. In the midst of green fields we see a wood where some men are at work cutting down trees. Suddenly, as one of them lifts his axe, it flies out of his hand, hits one of his companions, and kills him. The man to whom the axe belonged knows that unless he can reach one of the cities of refuge, which God has appointed for cases like his, before the dead man's nearest relation can overtake him, he must die. Off he sets to run to the nearest city of refuge. The sun is hot and beats down upon him till he is giddy and faint, but on he goes steadily. The way is sometimes rough, and his feet are sore and bleeding, but he is running for his life, and dares not stop to rest. At the top of each hill to which he comes he looks back for a moment. There he sees the avenger of blood' following him steadily up the hills and down into the valleys. At length the poor man is just a mile from the city,- -now only half that distance,-at last we see him close to the gate. What does he mean? He is sitting down outside the gate. You say to him, 'Run in, run in, you are not safe yet.' 'Oh!' he says, 'I'm nearly safe.' But,' you say again, you're not safe. The wood behind you hides the road, so that you cant see how near is the avenger of blood. He may rush on you any moment and kill you.' But the man's only answer is, 'Oh! I'm almost safe!'

Dear children, is not this a picture of you? Your father and mother may have often spoken to you about your need of salvation, and about the love of Christ, and you may have thought and prayed a good deal about these things lately. But if you have never gone to the Lord Jesus and asked Him to save you, you are not

'Let thy garments be always white.-Ecc. 9. 8. Oh, how can that be?

ALWAYS?

They are soiled again directly after they have been washed clean!' Yet God says, 'Let them be always white;' and He would not tell you to do what was impossible. Then how are you to help soiling them? Only in one way. Jesus washes us 'whiter than snow in His own precious blood, that cleanseth from all sin. But will He only cleanse His little one just for the moment? is that all He is able and willing to do for you?

No; if you will only keep on trusting to that precious blood, and not turn away from it, He says that it cleanseth, that is, goes on cleansing. You could not keep your garments white for five minutes; careless thoughts would come like dust upon them, and wrong words would make great dark stains, and before long some naughty deed would be like a sad fall in the mud, and you would feel sad and ashamed before the kind Saviour who still stands ready to cleanse you again. But why should all this happen over and over again, till anybody but our own loving, long-suffering Saviour would be tired of us, and give up doing any more for us? Why should it be, when His precious blood is meant to go on cleansing,' so that our garments may be always white? Perhaps you never thought of this; ask Him now this morning not only to wash you in the fountain of His precious blood, but to keep you in it, to go on cleansing you all day long. Trust Him to do this, and see if it is not the happiest day you ever spent!

'And He can do all this for me,
Because in sorrow, on the tree,

He once for sinners hung;
And, having washed their sin away,
He now rejoices, day by day,

To cleanse His little one.'

(From 'Morning Bells.') FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL

WILL you listen to this story,

mamma?' said Charley, as he looked up from the book he was reading. 'O yes. I will be very glad to hear what interests you so much. What is the story?'

And Charley read the following narrative:

'A farmer said, "I defy your Christian Sabbath; I will raise a Sunday crop." So he went to work and ploughed the ground on Sabbath, and harrowed it on Sabbath, and he planted corn on Sabbath, and he reaped the corn on Sabbath, and he gathered it into the barn on Sabbath. "There," he said, "I have proved to you

that all this idea about a fatality accompanying Sabbath work is a perfect sham. My crop is gathered and all is well." Before many weeks had passed, the Lord struck that barn with His lightnings, and away went the Sabbath crop.'

That is a very striking story. It shews us what a vain thing it is to try to rob God of the day which He has set apart for His own worship. Those who do so, cannot enjoy His blessing during the week. Which commandment requires us to keep holy the Sabbath day?'

It is the fourth commandment. I can say it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it

holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.'

"That is a very long commandment, mamma,' said little Alice, 'I could not learn it all.'

But you know the first part of it, Alice;' and the child repeated the words, 'REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY.'

That is the commandment. All that follows, is added to explain these words.' 'I know the meaning of the name Sabbath,' said Nelly, it means rest.'

'Yes. The name Sabbath is a very beautiful one. It commemorates God resting from His works of creation; Jesus resting from His work of redemption; and the day of rest is an emblem of the rest above. The name Sabbath teaches us to rest from toil on that day; and what does the name Lord's day tell us?'

My

'It reminds us that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week.' hymn says:

'This is the day that Jesus rose

So early from the dead;

Why should I keep my eyelids closed,
Or waste my hours in bed?'

'Jesus met with His disciples on that evening when they were assembled together, and blessed them; and again he met with them when assembled on the next first day of the week, and a few weeks afterwards on the day of Pentecost. You remember what a wonderful blessing He bestowed on them.'

'Was the day of Pentecost on Sabbath?' 'It was on the Lord's day, the first day of the week. Read Lev. xxiii. 15, 16, and you will see how we know this.'

"And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave

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offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete; even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days, &c."

'The sheaf of the first-fruits was offered to the Lord on the day that Jesus rose from the dead, and seven Jewish Sabbaths passed before the day of Pentecost. On that memorable day the Holy Spirit descended, and three thousand converts were the first-fruits offered to the Lord. Thus the Lord blessed the Christian Sabbath and hallowed it. Now tell me, Charley, How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?'

'The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days: and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.'

'Jesus tells us that the Sabbath was made for man. It is the Lord's day, and it is the Lord's gift to us. God gave this blessed day to man that he might rest from toil and attend to the things of eternity. But for the day of rest, many would never have time to prepare for heaven. cannot be too thankful for our Sabbaths.' But, mamma, what are works of necessity and mercy?'

We

'These are such things as cannot be done on Saturday or left over till Monday. We must take food on Sabbath and attend to the sick and to little children. Jesus healed the sick on the Sabbath, and when the Pharisees blamed Him for doing so, He said, "What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out?”

Why are there so many questions in the Catechism about the fourth commandment, mamma?'

'I suppose it is because the good men who wrote the Catechism knew that if the young were trained to keep the Lord's day aright, they would keep all the other commandments. Those who honour the Sabbath, and delight in learning God's will on that day, are careful to serve Him faithfully during the week. God has