low men congregated for the purpose of racing their dogs. This little dog having lost the race, his brutal master flew into a rage and tried to kick him with his heavy boot, but missing, seized a thick stick and beat the poor creature cruelly, then took it up crushed and bleeding, and thrust it between the bars of the lion's cage. The little dog dragged himself up to the lion, who began to lick his wounds and fondle and comfort him. It was a valuable dog. The master's rage began to cool, and he tried to coax the dog back again, but in vain; he got some nice biscuit and tried to tempt it out, but in vain; he cursed and swore at it, but it heeded not.

Presently the keeper came along the house, examining if all was safe, and the man appealed to him to fetch his dog out. But the keeper inquired how it got there, and finding what the cruel master had done, turned and said, "You may bring him out; I shall not. You may go in if you like. Here is the key."

He dare not. No, he was afraid to Cowardice is the brother of cruelty.

unlock the iron door. Baffled, and having

lost his dog, with a curse on his heart and an oath on his 1ips, the man turned on his heel and went away.

Now, dear reader, let me use this true story as an illustration of spiritual things.

Satan is a tyrant, a cruel master. gressors is hard.”

66

The

way of trans

The servants of the

"The wages of sin is death.” wicked one are driven fast by him-he gives them no time to think. He goads them on from one transaction to another, and then when they are wearied and disappointed, and they are ready to reflect, and reflection may lead to regret, and regret may deepen into repentance, then he comes upon them with fierce assaults. Have you tried to stop and consider where you are going? and how you are sowing? Has not the great adversary then made a fiery attack upon your soul? Either he arrays specious difficulties and infidel objections before your mind, and introducing

doubts of the existence of a hell, disbelief in God's Word and revelation into your soul, tries to deaden your conscience altogether; or he comes as the accuser, and brings up against you your sins in fearful order and condemning multitude, and seeks to drive you to despair. He tells you it is too late now for mercy-you have sinned too deeply now to be saved! Are you crushed and bruised within, baffled and weary in spirit? Do you say, "It is no use trying to be better; I may as well drown my desires of peace and quench my hopes of holiness?"

No, no, my friend! There is a Protector for the poor sinner. Come humbly to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only trust Him. Go to Him, close, yes, quite close up to His side. He will not thrust you away.

you that you come too near.

He will not tell

"Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."

there. The cruel He will try to lure deceitful promises,

And there you are safe, but only master wants to get hold of you again. you from the Saviour's side by gentle but by the flatteries of worldly companions. Or he will hold out some glittering and attractive offer, earthly prize in fame or fortune. Or he will rage against you. But he cannot harm you, he dare not touch you while you lean upon the Lion of the tribe of Judah! He is not afraid of you; but he is in dread of the power and majesty of your succouring, sympathising Saviour. Oh! cling close to Jesus.

"Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee."

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

Jesus, who hath bought you with His precious blood out of the hand of the cruel master, will be your living defence. "Abide in Him." "He will preserve you from all evil."

The Cripple's Cure.

EARS ago a little boy was born to loving parents, whose position, though not one of deep poverty, was yet one of limited means. The father was not strong, to all appearance, and the mother was hardly equal to the hard and constant work she had to do. When the infant was born, it soon showed signs of weakness. But it lived. As it grew, its weakness became more evident. Months passed by, month after month, and a little sister was born. But the boy did not walk before the girl came. The girl grew and walked ; another girl was born, and grew and walked; but still the first child showed no signs of walking. The anxious looks of the mother as she spoke of him said plainly that the fears which had been gathering for four years now were becoming confirmed. Each month was making the conviction surer and sadder in her breast that her boy, her first and only boy, was a cripple from his birth, and likely to be a cripple to his death.

Three years later that conviction was quite settled. He was seven years old, and the hope of his walking had passed quite away. Had you gone into the home during the spring of that year, you would have seen four children playing with their toys and running merrily about. But in their midst you would have seen the cripple boy sitting on the floor. His large, old-looking face; his full, but stunted body; his legs, which looked as though they had stopped growing at the knees, except that ill-formed feet were visible, and which were huddled up under his body, or straggling in the wrong direction; and his silence-these would all have won pity from your heart. If you are a tender father, or a gentle mother, they would have made your heart ache. You would have said sadly, "Poor child! ah, poor child; he'll never walk, and never be able to do anything." So said many who pitied him.

But amongst those who pitied him was a lady who had pitied many like him. Having heard of him through a

friend of hers, she sought out a knowledge of his parents, and obtained from them the exact and full account of their little sufferer. A few days after getting this information, she began to let the parents know that she had questioned them with an object, which, indeed, was an object they had little thought of. Then she took a book to them. It was the report of a London hospital, founded for the healing of cripples. She proposed that their little boy should go there, and she left them to think it over. But there was the expense. He might be kept for a year at least, if he went, and there would be a weekly fee to pay, which was much greater than they could afford. While they thought whether they would consent to his going, they said to themselves that they would make any sacrifice in their power for him, in the hope of his being cured.

Presently the lady returned again. "Do you consent," she asked, "to your child going?" She looked towards them with the light of kindness in her eyes. She saw that there was something which kept them from replying to her question, and easily guessed what it was. "If you will consent to his going, and if he will consent to go, I will make all provision for him, and you shall not be burdened with expense," she said. The parents thankfully agreed, and the child's face flushed with hope, when a chance was put before him of being able to do as other children do, and to walk and work when he should become a man. All was well arranged, and in a few days the little cripple was carried into the London hospital for a year's residence.

When the surgeons examined his legs and feet, they soon agreed that he could be cured. He was put under chloroform, and an operation was performed which removed one of the impediments to his walking. Other means also were employed. His legs began to straighten, and his feet to get their proper shape. Healing progressed gradually and effectually. The year passed, and at its end the little fellow's face looked younger than at its beginning. His heart, too, was lighter and his hopes were fresher; for he had feet and

length.

legs which were of service, and was likely soon to be completely cured. He was cured at He went to school. He grew to be a man. And his whole life was changed by the healing of his crippled limbs through the kindness of a Christian woman and the skill of able surgeons.

The facts about the cripple's cure have lessons in them. They are worth being turned into illustrations of another healing.

How many men and women have been cripples from their birth; not this time in body, but in character. They have inherited dispositions which have been their crippling, or their training has been their crippling. Many men and women say to-day that their dispositions and characters were born in and with them. They regard themselves as incurable.

Yet these are not the only cripples in character. All are cripples in character who live to sin. In sin, in the folly of serving ourselves instead of Jesus Christ, in the folly of setting the world's inducements above the claims of the world's King-in sin we are all crippled for the highest and purest walk, the walk on the pathways of Christ, the walk to the perfections of heaven.

But we are not incurable. Neither are those incurable who have inherited terrible and destructive vices. There is a kindness and there is a skill that heal and that are ready to heal.

Jesus Christ our Lord pities us. He came to the world which He had made; came with provision for the healing of its diseases and woes; of the diseases of sin, of the woes which come by sin. Do you doubt His compassion? Then He died for you. "He died for all." "He died for the sins of the world." He came to the world because of our sins, as the generous woman went to the cripple's home because of the boy's deformity. That is the proof of His love. That coming, that death, are to convince you that His heart is the heart of love, His eye the eye of pity, His hand the