he works blindly, arbitrarily, without plan, without explanation? No. Are you only to know that he works, but all in the dark— no clue to his working? Not so. The good pleasure of his will is revealed; it is expressed in the Gospel. The Gospel is called "the good pleasure of his will, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." He works according to that gracious plan, of which Christ Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. You have no salvation without Christ's work, yet none without your own work. And it is cheering to know, that this working in you God doeth, without those hindrances of the Devil which make your separate work miscarry.

And, remember, your salvation is not yet attained in the possession. It is set at the life's end, to command the highest energies of the lifetime. It is held out from the skies, to lift the soul up from the world. The man is to work it out, with a constant fear and trembling lest he fail, and lose so eternal a prize by negligence or ease. Remember; the promises of the Revelation are only for the man who endureth unto the end-who properly works out, to its consummation, what has been begun. If you desist, you give up all the splendid results.

And remember, too, that one's own salvation is to be worked out by all this personal, persevering labor, because the salvation is his own, and because this salvation itself shall be according to the deeds done in the body. A son may have an education given him, yet how different will it be, according as there is application and improvement, or not. One man may have a legacy left him, and yet how it may either be squandered or augmented by the daily conduct. Every phase and feature of each man's inheritance there, will bear the marks of his own labor here. It will be, in this high sense, according as he himself has wrought it out. For it must needs be this very soul of yours, as it is here exercised, disciplined, and expanded, that shall enter into rest, and its own works will follow it. I could ask you, then, if you have no care what kind of a salvation you shall work out for your own souls-whether it be like Paul's or like the dying thief's. You would care what kind of a fortune you shall work out-what kind of a name and character among men you shall work out. And when it is put with you to give a cast to the magnificence of your heavenly estateswhen you may now be daily laying up treasures in heaven-and when your capacity for that eternal enjoyment, and your position in the heavenly throng, are surely to be determined by your present living-can you be heedless of such a summons to the majestic work? Regard each day, each act of life, as to be projected on the scale of eternity. And how many ages upon ages must answer to each hour, and get a shape from its doings? Who, then, can desist from the work, or who can work it out without fear and trembling? My brethren, forget the things that are behind, and reach forth to those things that are before, and prESS TOWARD THE

MARK FOR THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.

What shall we say to such as have not begun this work? He that lays no hand to his own salvation, is laboring at his own perdition. He is working this out for himself. Late and early, at home and abroad, lying down, and rising up, this one thing he does. In thought, in word, in action, always industrious at this, he is never remitting it, but ever giving it some further perfectness and fulness. Amongst means of grace, and under calls of the Gospel, on Sabbaths and other days, without rest, whatever else he does or leaves undone, this he is working out-working out to its awful completion. No work of man was ever so elaborate, so life-long, so full of toil and persistency, and success. And at the end, it is his own perdition that is the creature of his own handiwork-the product of his own industry-the achievement of his own lifetime. Stop this work, we beseech you, and "strive to enter in at the strait gate." It is made your great duty to be saved-your great sin, and shame, and sorrow, to be lost!

POWER WITH GOD.

A FRAGMENT FROM A DISCOURSE BY THE EDITOR.

"As a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."-GEN. xxii. 28.

THE GODLY MAN HAS POWER WITH GOD. Would that this truth were engraven indelibly upon every heart in which has been kindled the flame of divine love! Prayer is power to prevail with God. Viewed in this light, what a precious gift is it from heaven to men! It is a key to the storehouse of God. It opens the repository of heaven's choicest blessings, and brings them down to earth. Happy is he who possesses it. He has influence at the throne of God. He can move the arm that moves the destinies of the universe.

Christians who feel an interest in the conversion of their ungodly friends, seldom realize the amount of influence they possess at the mercy-seat. They do not take God at his word. They do not believe they have power to prevail with him. Their addresses to the throne of grace demonstrate their unbelief. They ask for small things; or if they pray for greater, they have little expectation of receiving them. Their language shows it. It is the prayer that will take no denial that prevails with God. It is the wrestling of Jacob. Jacob interceded all night with the Lord; and when the day dawned, and he was reminded that it was time for him to desist and attend to his flocks and herds, he replied, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." He was blest. God said to him, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob (that is, one who supplants another,) but Israel (warrior with God, as the name signifies); for as a prince hast thou power with God and with man, and hast prevailed."

Power with God! Oh, if his children believed, felt, realized this, what intercessions would they not make for an ungodly world! Power with God! Did the church feel this, as they ought, the moral foundations of the world would be moved, and the kingdom of the Messiah speedily and permanently established. They do not feel it. Why is it, when God seems almost to anticipate our faith, and to go before us in bestowing his blessings? Why is it, when we know they have received immediate and signal answers to our prayers for the impenitent? Why is it? How can we be so faithless, so skeptical, so ready to distrust God? Why,

every one who will give himself the trouble to watch the phenomena of the moral world, and to inquire for their causes, must see that the intercessions of the godly man prevail with God. Unconverted men even, with all their prejudices against spiritual religion, and all their obtuseness of moral vision, are generally too observing not to notice, and too honest not to acknowledge it. It is almost self-evident. The man who is eminently pious, walks with God; and it is plain as a sunbeam, that when he speaks, God hears.

We wonder and complain, sometimes, that our prayers for the outpouring of the Spirit, and for the conversion of sinners, are not answered. But have we wrestled with God? Have we been suitably impressed with a sense of the value of souls, and have we besieged the throne of grace for them? When have we agonized in prayer for their conversion? How often have our hearts yearned over them? How often, while reflecting upon their condition, have we, with tears, sought the mercy-seat, and "told Jesus?" How often has our private Bethel witnessed fervent, importunate intercession for them? When have we felt and interceded for their salvation, as Abraham felt and interceded for the cities of the plain? Has such incense as this ever ascended from our altars? Has such been the character of our prayers? And shall we, in whose breasts the Spirit has lighted up a flame of holy love, shall we feel little anxiety that others should share in that love? Shall we, who are heirs to a crown of unfading glory, and who hope soon to wear it, feel little interested to secure such a crown for our unconverted friends? Shall we withhold our intercessions, and fold our arms in apathy and indifference, in the midst of our ungodly friends and relations? Is it a time to sleep, when members of our own families are unreconciled to God, and exposed to his wrath?

We can scarcely open our eyes, without beholding those who are tenderly allied to us by the ties of friendship, and some who sustain a closer relation to us as our kindred, who "have no hope, and are without God in the world." They are "treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath." The edict of retribution has gone forth. They are already sentenced, and the storm of Jehovah's vengeance is impending.

O Christian! do you know that you have influence with God? Do you know what encouragement you have to intercede for those whom you love? You may avert the doom that threatens them. Your prayers may secure their introduction into the family of God, and a title to the rank and privileges of sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Then, plead for their salvation. Plead with a warm heart. Plead with faith and earnestness, and implicit reliance on the efficacy of the Holy Ghost. Such intercessions are never thrown away.

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XI.

THE NIGHT NO TIME FOR LABOR,

BY REV. EDWIN F. HATFIELD,

PASTOR OF THE SEVENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK.

"The night cometh, when no man can work.”—JOHN ix. 4.

"Six

THE Sabbath is a day of rest. The labor, that is lawful and proper on other days of the week, must then be suspended. days shalt thou labor 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."

The sin of our day is to set this divine law aside; to treat it as part and parcel of a venerable code, once in use, and of great value to an ancient people, but long since abrogated, and of no present obligation. Or, if it be retained as a part of the moral law, its sanctions are, for the most part, disregarded, and its claims neglected. But, in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, it was far otherwise. strictly was the very letter of the law regarded, by Scribes and Pharisees, and the great body of the Jewish people, that even works of necessity and mercy were treated as transgressions, if performed on the Sabbath.

This erroneous interpretation and application our Saviour endeavored to correct, and frequently rebuked, even at the hazard of being himself treated as a Sabbath-breaker. We have an instance of the kind, in the chapter from which the text is taken. The interview with the man born blind, as here narrated, and the restoration of the man to sight, took place on the Sabbath. Knowing well what use his enemies would make of the transaction, and determined to put the seal of his reprobation on a superstition so inhuman and wicked, as well as to set an example of doing good at all times and on every occasion, he introduces his intention with this justification of the proceeding,-"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." He then gives sight to the blind, and dismisses him to his home.

Thus he teaches, most emphatically, that no opportunities of doing good are to be lost, or deferred, on account of the sacredness of the