and freely he gives his enemies forgiveness.

Love and prayer are vessels that are never stranded; they will surely come back some day freighted with treasure, and with such a breath of the better land in their sails, that none shall question that heavenly country whence they have returned.

Oh! that alms-giving may never be straitened to gold, and silver, and precious stones. It is easier to give of hard coin than to heap the fuel of love upon those who resist, and hate, and misunderstand, and revile you! Easier to part with houses and land, and sometimes with household affections, than with the gratification of resentment. One whose ministry was richly blessed was asked for advice by a young man who sought to walk in the same path. He replied,

"As to advice, I have none to give, except this, towards all persons, at all times, and in all things, endeavour to win by love. Love is the universal conqueror. By tenderness, forbearance, and love, we may greatly benefit those who come in contact with us. If we are only ready to serve our friends, even in their meanest

and commonest requirements, like Him who washed the feet of His friends, we shall conciliate their regard, and greatly facilitate the advancement of truth in their souls."

There are few who have received the Holy Spirit, and taken up the cross, who have not found the foes of their own household the most appalling to meet, and the most dangerous to encounter. The parent to whom submission in childhood has been given, the brother, the sister, the wife, the husband, the familiar friend, who have bitterly resented the progress of divine life in the soul, that sunders the earthly walk and companionship from them, all this is hard to bear; nevertheless, from such withhold not the pleasant sunshine of kind words and deeds; let those share them who neither appreciate you nor love you. Jesus did so; and "if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye?” "God commendeth His love to us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." "Saved by his life." The God of heaven sends His sunshine and shower upon the just and the unjust, upon the evil and the good. It does not impoverish the bounty from whence it

flows, and will still speak to some careless heart of Him. It may fall on the little seed which no human eye can behold; the thirsty ground is prepared for it; it may sparkle on the rock, or be lost to sight in the rivulet; it is the same sunbeam, the same rain of heaven. (Job xxxviii. 26, 27.)

I know how often I need to be reminded of this myself, by my many sorrowful failures, and by the blessing which has ever followed my desire to walk according to the " new command

ment."

"God is love!" and if we know Him, and have fellowship with His Son, He will give us all that is necessary for us out of His treasury to warm our loveless hearts. The heart of Jesus must have been sad indeed, when the best loved of His disciples comprehended so little of His divine message, as to desire fire from heaven to consume the cold-hearted Samaritans who refused to receive Him and His little band. "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them," was His gentle reproof.

See the perfect walk of the meek and lowly

Master in that Pharisee's house, where He (the Lord of glory) was denied the common courtesy offered to the meanest stranger in eastern countries. He did not quit that roof (as well He might) under which so little hospitality had been extended to Him. He waited until He could leave the lesson He went to impart, the blessing He was ready to bestow; and then He spoke, first in a simple parable, and afterwards in gentle exhortation to His ungracious host. (Luke vii. 44.)

Richer entertainment awaited the Heavenly Guest of Simon of Bethany than angels could have furnished! for the tears and sweet odours of a loving broken-hearted sinner were poured out in profusion on those beloved feet, so soon to be pierced and bleeding! The Saviour could well forego the neglect and suspicion of the selfrighteous Pharisee!

So when Peter fell, it was the look of love which restored him: he denied his Lord no more; and if in his after life of faithful discipleship, the memory of his fall rose before him, as doubtless it did,* the tender affection and piti

* Tradition informs us that Peter, throughout the re

ful sympathy which that remembered glance comprehended, must have flooded the soul of the rash, but ardent-hearted disciple with its reviving beams, and strengthened him in laying down the life he had once so heedlessly offered for that Master's sake.

Kind words, and smiles, and little thoughtful services to the unloving and the unlovely may be counted as nothing, worse than nothing, by the world; but they are costly in the sight of Him "who seeth not as man seeth." He beholds the blood of Jesus, the love of His dear Son, fertilizing the heart naturally hard as the nether millstone. He has heard the cry that ascended for patient forbearance, and has seen the inward glance on the Lamb slain, before which no evil thing can live. And many such day by day cast these their mites into the hidden treasury; dear are they to Him whose name and essence is Love. There are some to whom self-devotedness in this service is less a free-will offering than to others; and generally speaking it is from those from whom the sacrifice may not

mainder of his life, after his fall and recovery, never could hear the cock crow without tears.