WHICH WAY?

"The way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."-JER. x. 23.

HE warfare of a child of God is often on a visible battle-field, open alike to the observation of the Church, and a scoffing world; but there are times, as he proceeds on his wilderness journey, when his successes may be less apparent than his defeats. On many a combat the door of the closet is closed; the God of victories and the great cloud of witnesses alone behold the result, over which angels strike their golden harps in glory to the Lamb.

"We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places;" or, as

the margin gives, "wicked spirits in heavenly places."

The great Adversary of souls has persecuted God's people with fire and sword, and he may do so again; but this is not the form of his attack now; to-day he is transformed as an angel of light; wresting the Word of God to support false doctrine, making antichrist of works, and prayers, and ordinances, calling good evil, and evil good, and having a form of godliness without the power thereof, deceiving the unwary.

The Church is surrounded by more subtle dangers, than in her days of persecution, when martyrs sang praises in their dungeons, and at the stake; the enemies of the truth judged somewhat of the power of the Cross, by the readiness of its followers to suffer, and, if need be, die for their faith.

But is there no stake, no scourge, or prisonhouse now, for the followers of the Lamb? For the promise is still the same, that "those who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Let those declare, who have fought in their own strength and failed, and those who have put on the whole armour of God, and,

strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, have conquered. Satan is still the same evil spirit who assumed the form that pleased him, and won the ear of our first mother; the same that, through the familiar friend of our Divine Master, would have tempted the Saviour of sinners to pity Himself, and shun the completion of the sacrifice for sin, for a ruined, guilty world.

The temptation to forsake the path of duty for the world's empty pleasures or its praise, is seldom offered to a child of God. By faith he has beheld the goodly land, flowing with milk and honey, and tasted of the fruit thereof; to him the mirth of the world is heaviness, and its gifts have no charms; he knows their utter worthlessness. There are trials, many and sharp, on his way, (it is part of his earthly heritage,) but these are not among them; and truly, if he had been mindful of that country from whence he came out, he might have had opportunity to have returned; but now he desires a better country, that is, an heavenly, "wherefore God is not ashamed to be called his God, for He has prepared for him a city."

Satan has other weapons, and his policy has more to be regarded than his power; he comes with snares to perplex, when he cannot hinder, or impede, when he cannot prevent, to disturb the serenity of the spirit, when he cannot draw the foot aside. But this is provided for in the covenant of grace. It is not the dexterity of the workman on which the Father's eye rests with complacency, but on the person of His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased, and therefore with His Church in Him. The peace of the believer, when troubled at his own apparent failures, finds its refuge in the perfection of Him whom in simple faith he strives to follow.

There may arise two or more objects arrayed as duties, in the form of opportunity and expediency, to ensnare, perplexing an otherwise plain path, until light has been sought from Him who is "wonderful in counsel and excellent in working."

When the man of God went, by the word of the Lord, to Bethel, to prophesy against the idolatry of Jeroboam (1 Kings xiii.), he kept the direction faithfully in view; nor for half the

king's house would he eat or drink at the royal table. Nor did the Lord disregard His servant in the path He had assigned him, but protected and honoured him in it. The monarch was forced to respect the messenger of the Most High in his office, and the daring hand raised against him was withered, ere it could harm a hair of his head, and restored only by the prayer of him it was outstretched to destroy.

So far the prophet had faithfully executed his commission, the prophecy had been pronounced, the miracle had been wrought, but that part of the command which concerned the individual walk of the messenger himself still remained, to test his perfect obedience.

While following the word of the Lord as it was revealed to himself, the man of God walked unscathed amid snares and dangers of no common order; but before a lie in the mouth of a stranger his foot was drawn aside, and he fell. In listening to what only appeared to be from God, he was taken in the snare Satan had laid for him, and he turned back by the way; he did eat bread and drink water in that place in which the Lord had said, "Thou shalt eat no