"him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." (John vi. 37.)

Here there is provision made for all possible cases and all description of characters; none need despair of mercy, but those who by impenitency and unbelief exclude themselves.But, O! my beloved brethren, do not any of you so wickedly; when God speaks peace, do not you return to folly, nor abuse his patience by delaying your return to him. But above all, beware how you continue in sin, because grace abounds; for be assured this will greatly aggravate your condemnation, and may provoke your long-suffering, but insulted God, to give you over to a reprobate mind, and permit "the devil to thrust you either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of unclean living, no less perilous than desperation." (Article 17.) By his patience and long-suffering, God is calling you to repentance, and proving to you that "he desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live." As he gives you opportunity, so will he give you power, if you look to him who saves his people from their sins. Going forth in his strength "you shall be made more than conquerors through him that loveth you." (Rom. viii. 37.) Being brought under the power of his grace, sin shall no longer have

dominion over you; and however you may have been burdened with guilt, or overcome by temptation, so as to be forced to cry out with the Apostle, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. vii. 24)-you will be able to exclaim also with him, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Seek then to him while ye have time and opportunity, and for your encouragement consider the glorious promises which he has made to all who overcome: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out;"—(Rev. iii. 12.) -and again, "to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." (Rev. iii. 21.) Amen.

I AM THE VINE, YE ARE THE BRANCHES.

WHEN man was sinless the whole creation spoke to him of God; but sin broke this link between the Creator and the creature; and we can now gaze from day to day on the works of God, without one thought ascending to him who made them. We hear his voice in the tempest of winter, we see his beauty in the smiles of summer, and never recollect that "thou, Oh Lord, hast made summer and winter." We rejoice that "the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, that the flowers appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land," and yet we can be silent amid the song of gratitude which nature raises

to him who thus "reneweth the face of the earth." We eat of the fruits of autumn, and lay up in our store-houses of the bounties of the harvest, yet never recollect that it is God who thus "sustaineth man and beast," and "crowneth the year with plenteousness"—that it is of his mercy, and at his command, that "seed time and harvest, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" while the earth remaineth.

But the object of revelation is to re-unite man with his God; to renew "the cords of love," which sin has snapped in sunder; to bring him again into the precious communion with his Maker, which caused the bowers of Eden to rejoice. Scripture once more renders the creation a perpetual memorial of the Creator, by making the things which are seen, lively emblems of invisible realities; it gives to every tree, and flower, and streamlet, a voice to speak to the Christian of his God, and makes the beauties of nature, and the sympathies of the human heart, the channels which convey the written word at every moment to his memory.

Among the many objects familiar to our daily observation, which Scripture thus sanctifies to the service of the Lord, none more beautifully, more perfectly exemplifies the