his arm and upon his right eye his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened." Are you conscious of loss of power? Let us remember the Saviour's law, "To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath."t Directors and constituents of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, pray to God our Father to give power to many young men in your fellowship to become missionaries, and to give to your present missionaries increased power. Elect for the missionary field only those who have received power. Train your students with reference to this power. Prayer for men with power, is the chief request I make to-day. We ask for money, regular, liberal, cheerful contributions, but we ask more earnestly for prayer. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers, and powerful labourers, into the harvest. Pray that your churches may receive more fully the Holy Ghost. Then your young men shall prophesy with the strength of ancient days, and your old men shall renew their youth. I know that the Spirit of God is already with you ; but the union may be closer and the fellowship more intense. You have the full light of the morning, we covet for you the light of noon-day. You have the quickening warmth of spring suns, we covet for you the fruit-producing heat of summer. You have the waters that flow softly, we covet for you a stream that shall overflow its channels and its banks. Matt. xxv. 29. * Zech. xi. 17. You have fruit that abounds to your account, we desire for you more fruit. You have received power, but we desire that you may know the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe. There are seasons in the history of the church when power is renewed, and more power given. In such a season your church came into being. We think that another time of refreshing is at hand. The church that is most forward in prayer, and most elevated in expectation, will first receive it. Holy Spirit, come! Come, I hear a voice from heaven saying, "If ye then being evil, know how to give good things unto your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”* Ask him! What, have we only to ask him? And is he much more willing to give his Spirit than our parents were to give us good things? They gave to the youngest and to the weakest, and to the most wayward and wilful, to the sick and most helpless. They gave to all, gave cheerfully, constantly, lovingly, and pitifully. And they gave us power. And is God more willing than they? We know he is more able-is he more ready? Yes, verily, as much more ready as our Father in heaven is greater than our parents on earth. Then let us ask him for more power on behalf of all preachers, especially our missionaries, and the gospel as preached by them shall be more than ever the power of God unto salvation. * Luke xi. 13. XIII. POWER TO HEAL. "And he healed them that had need of healing."-LUKE ix. II. THIS is written HIS is written concerning our Lord and Saviour It is not my purpose to discuss the miracles which Jesus wrought, nor is it my intention to describe the character of the Great Wonder-worker. My text is chosen as indicating that portion of the Saviour's ministrations, which, in spirit at least, we can imitate. "He healed them that had need of healing," and in doing this, he has left us an example that we should follow his steps. A great writer of fiction has remarked, that a man might be a great healer, if he would, without being a great doctor." doctor." We may add, without being a worker of miracles. "A man may be a great healer without being a great doctor." The doctor, so far as his profession is concerned, has to do chiefly, if not entirely, with diseases of the body. He is as an agent and instrument, the saviour and the healer of the body. As a friend to the patient, he oftens ministers to the mind and heart; but these services are distinct from his profession. Without being a doctor a man may be a great healer. "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Around us all there are sick minds, wounded spirits, broken hearts and diseased souls, to be cured and healed and relieved by means which God has given us. Around us all there are wounds in families, wounds in friendships, and wounds in communities, to which we may apply a healing power. "Whole,” "sound," "healthy," are words descriptive of but few persons, and of but few households, and of but few communities. In this world of ours there is evidently a great work of healing to be wrought. There is a great need of healing, and there are great healing powers. Let us take a few examples and set them in our midst. 1. Before us is a child morally diseased. His heart is sick of falsehood, dishonesty, and sloth. He inherits these diseases from his parents, or he has taken them from companions, or they have sprung up we know not how. They appear in the character and conduct, as distinctly and as hideously as any eruptive disease in the body. The child becomes the charge of a nurse, or governess, or teacher, or tutor. The salaried, or unsalaried, custodian of the child devotes himself to heal these moral diseases. He inspires the child with a love of truth and with a hatred of falsehood. He produces an intelligent sense of the rights of property. He breathes into the child a desire of activity and love of work. The lying child becomes truthful, the dishonest child is now upright, and the idle child is made diligent. Now is not the man or woman who has done this a great healer? Let not the Sunday-school teacher or the ragged-school teacher imagine that healing of this description is his work alone. Moral disease is as really among the children of the middle and upper classes as with the children of the lowest class, and whoever in the nursery of a rich man's house, or in the school-room of a princely mansion, or in the class-room of a day-school, or in the rooms of a ragged-school, cures a child of moral disease, is a great healer. God ever work with you, and speed you, ye physicians of young souls! 2. Our eye now rests on a widowed mother. The day was when life's sacred burden was shared, and when in the battle of life one stronger than she fought at her side. But the arm on which she leaned is palsied in the grave, the eye to which she looked for guidance is closed by death, and she treads the path of womanhood and motherhood alone. To what extent her heart is broken and her spirit wounded, God only knows. Sometimes the tempest of her sorrow sends up from her heart showers of tears, but generally her grief is a keen dry wind blowing through all the sanctuaries of the soul. Before that wind nothing blossoms, nothing ripens; the buds of hope are shrivelled, the fruits of joy are unmatured, the leaves of peace and gladness are withered. But the widow is not childless. Her first-born is a son. On the day when his father died he vowed to be, so far as he could be, a husband as well as a child. He renewed this vow at his father's grave, and very often and very solemnly has this vow been remembered. The lad performs his vows. Instead of spending leisure time in hunting after pleasure, he devotes the time unoccupied by business to the |