place, when, at his command, they gave away their last biscuit to feed the multitude. Lacked they anything? No. Although, when the "five thousand" sat down to the meal, there were but "five loaves" -not half a loaf for each of the twelve disciplesyet the supply proved ample for the immense company; "they did all eat and were filled." There was "bread enough and to spare;" and, at the close of the feast, each disciple had a whole basket full for himself "They took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full" (Mat. xiv. 20). By the memory of this recent illustration of His boundless compassion and infinite resources, the Lord Jesus rebukes the fears of His disciples when in the midst of the sea they discover, with dismay, that they have not "in the ship with them more than one loaf." So effectually does He shame to silence their anxious reasonings that, throughout the remainder of the voyage, the want of bread occasions no further care. They are fully assured that, in some way or other, and at the right moment, "the Lord will provide!" Is it not a blessed gospel fact, that fellowship with Jesus Christ-union with Him-insures this satisfying provision for all His believing people? Am I a true disciple of Christ? Do I sit at His feet and embrace His doctrine? Have I trusted in His death and received of His Spirit? Is He my Lord-whose service is my delight, and whose presence attends me in the crowded city, in the hungry desert, and over the trackless sea of life? Then, it is my happy privilege to live without anxious thought concerning necessaries. To me the ancient word of promise shall be literally fulfilled, "Bread shall be given him" (Isa. xxxiii. 16). I may be reduced to straits, but not to want. There may remain only "one loaf," but the bounteous Saviour will make it enough. He will not work a miracle to provide me with abundance; but He will, certainly and seasonably, supply all my need! "A little," with His benediction, will go far; and often serve as a right royal feast. So thought that poor, pious woman who, when the cupboard was empty and the hearth cold, seated herself before a crust of dry bread and a cup of water, and lifting up tearful, joyous eyes to heaven, clasped her hands exclaiming, "ALL THIS, and Jesus Christ too!" Yea, the presence and favour of Christ will yield contentment and comfort when nothing remains but Himself. He can strengthen His disciple to suffer "the loss of all things" without a sigh. I well remember the deathbed of a Christian merchant who had suffered a terrible reverse of fortune. He was in circumstances of affluence when an insidious disease invaded his body and, by a slow wasting process, reduced it to an utter wreck. During a prolonged affliction, the successful business, that had prospered under his personal superintendence, was neglected. Unfaithful servants systematically robbed their invalid employer, squandered his estate, and entailed commercial disaster. Bankruptcy brought ruin to his home, just as death was knocking at the door. Lying on a charity couch in a dismantled chamber, he was found by his pastor resigned, peaceful, joyful! Stretching forth his emaciated hand and waving it toward the empty room, he said, "Sir, the creditors have swept me bare. They have taken everything everything except this poor skin and bone. But Jesus remains. He is with me; and I am content happy. I have all, and abound: I am full !' "Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in Thee I find." Have hungry anxious times befallen our land? Are straitness and perplexity in many a household, where comfort and plenty were formerly enjoyed? Let our eyes turn from scanty fare to the bountiful Lord. Let our hearts trust in the ever-living and all-sufficient Saviour. "He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thine house." "Saved"-and the salvation includes "promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." "Unto you therefore which believe, He is precious." "Always having all sufficiency in all things," you shall appreciate and echo the sentiment which Dr. Philips, the late Welsh agent of the Bible Society, uttered with his parting breath-"CHRIST, CHRIST, CHRIST IS ALL! ENOUGH FOR LIFE! ENOUGH FOR DEATH! ENOUGH FOR EVERMORE!" fram aur Watch-Cawer. WATCHWORDS FOR MAY. First Week. The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.-Mat. xiii. 44. Second Week.-Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?-Is. xl. 27. Third Week.-Be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.-1 Cor. xv. 58. Fourth Week.-If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.-Mat. xvi. 24. GLIMPSES OF CHRISTIAN WORK AMONG SOLDIERS. [A "Christian Visitor" sends us the following account of this important work; which at the present moment, when our soldiers are called to face the danger of war in various parts of the globe, calls for special interest and sympathy.] THE Christian work going on in the great military and naval depots in the south of our island is so widespread in its influence, that it may truly be called national. Let us enter the "Soldier's Institute" at Portsmouth, conducted by Miss Robinson, whose name is familiar as "the Soldier's Friend." Let us go through the busy hive of workers and wayfarers to see the many departments moving steadily on, in one harmonious whole, of which the special aim is the spiritual, mental, moral, and physical well-being of the British soldier (the sailor is also welcomed), by the providing for him a home and centre of varied influence, to which he may be drawn, from the perilous temptations that surround him everywhere. We enter the hall with its well-supplied "bar," where refreshments of tea and coffee are supplied at any hour, together with other non-intoxicant drinks. Here comes the soldier, when tired and hot from parade, or cold from the sentry-box, for that refreshment, which, but for this, must have been sought within the precincts of temptation; or for recreation when he has an 8. d. 76 By J. R. 3 6 8 6 each 5 0 From Day to Day; or, Helpful Words for Christian Life. (Daily Readings for a year.) By Robert Macdonald, D.D., Eventide at Bethel; or, The Night-Dream of the Desert. (An Old Testament Chapter in Providence and Grace.) Macduff, D.D., . Handbook for Bible Classes, The Epistle of Paul to the Churches of Galatia. With Introduction and Notes 3 6 by the Rev. Professor Macgregor, D.D., 16 Gospel Truths. By the Rev. A. A. Bonar, D.D.,. Brownlow North, B.A. Oxon, Records and Recollections. By the Rev. K. MoodyStuart, M.A., Moffat. With Photograph, 76 Carmina Regia, and other Songs of the Heart. By Rev. E. C. Wrenford. Dedicated, by permission, to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. 7s. 6d.; gilt edges, Family Devotion. The Book of Psalms arranged for Worship. With Meditations on each Portion. By the Very Rev. Henry Law, M.A., Dean of Gloucester. Vols. I. and II., 26 2 6 ABERDEEN. A. C.Stephen, Esq., Kincardine-on-Forth, 2 6 26 W. Henderson, Esq., 42 0 Mr. J. Robertson, Dal J. Craven, Esq., Bradford, Mr. G. Elliott, Harlington, 20 0 10 J. Wood, Esq.,. 2 6 G. Thompson, Esq.,. 21 0 mally, 26 J. Watt, Esq.. 26 Mrs. Shand,. 20 0 J. Allen, Esq.,. Rev. G. T. Fox, M.A., Durham, . 21 W. Coutt, Esq., 30 J. Buyers, Esq., 20 0 J. Nicoll, Esq., 1 6 J.B. M'Combie, Esq., Miss Larkin, Carlow, 2 6 Mrs. Fergusson, Dum Messrs. F. & J. Sellar, MACDUFF. 2 6 Mrs. Connon, R. Sangster, Esq., Mrs. J. Duncan, 2 6 J. Miller, Esq., fries Wright, Scar 20 0 26 A. George, Esq., 26 Messrs. J. & G. Collie, 10 6 Mrs. Ogilvy Dalgleish, Miss Wilson, T. Valder, Esq., Cupar 1 4 26 J. Lockhart, Esq., 10 6 Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Farquharson, 2 6 D. Mitchell, Esq., 10 0 Stewarton,. 4 0 Mrs. Watt, 26 Colonel Kirby,. .10 0 Widow's Mite, Rev. Mr. Gardener, 26 Rev. Dr. Longmuir, 10 0 Major Doran, Edin 50 Mr. Robertson, 2 6 R. Lumsden, Esq., . 10 0 burgh, 26 Small sum, . 10 J. Ross, Esq., 7 6 Mrs. Scarth, Chelten TURRIFF. D. M'Hardy, senr., ham, 4 0 Esq. 7 6 Mrs. J. Davidson, Porto J. Rankine, Esq., 26 J. Davidson, Esq., 7 6 bello,. 26 W. Tennon, Esq.,. 26 W. Smart, Esq., 50 H. Campbell-Banner Mr. Souter, 26 Messrs. J. Sheed & Co., 5 0 man, Esq., M.P. C. Duthie, Esq., London,. 21 0 A Friend, 2 6 D. M'Hardy, junr., S. W. Mair, Esq. 2 6 Esq... 50 W. Duncan, Esq., 26 W. Rose, Esq., 50 Small sum, 10 Mrs. Longmuir, Castle Douglas, 2 6 R. Williamson, Esq., 26 PETERHEAD. G. Bissett, Esq., 5 0 J. T. Bremner, Esq., 7 6 Captain Tulloch, 5 0 J. Glover, Esq., Bradford, A. Ferguson, Esq., 26 J. Abernethy, Esq.,. 50 W. Stewart, Esq., 2 6 R. Abernethy, Esq., 5 0 10 6 30 J. Scott, Esq., 2 6 G. T. Harvey, Esq.,. 50 W. H. Phillips, Esq., Mr. Fraser, 2 6 J. Shepherd, Esq., 50 T. Aitken, Esq., 26 D. Allan, Esq.,. 5 0 J. Cassie, Esq., 2 6 Dr. Jackson, 50 A. Stuart, Esq., Small sum, 16 C. G. Fraser, Esq., 5 0 10 W. Milne, Esq., 50 5 0 Messrs. Taylor & Henderson, I. Braithwaite, Esq., Mrs. Innes, London, 40 The late Miss Margaret Wallace Low Arvie, per A. M'Kean, Esq., Corsock, Miss Douglas, Fearn, 40 Messrs. A. Nicol & Co., Arbroath,. 20 0 Lt. Col. Poyntz, Windsor, Nova Scotia, 20 0 J. Cargill, Esq., Forfar, 1 6 Stane &, Shotts Ironworks S.8. Juv. Missy. Society,..40 0 E. Bingham, Esq.,Sheffield, Mr. E. Blandford, South Cerney,. 90 Mrs. J. Backhouse, Darlington, 10 0 Miss S. Pell, Northampton, 16 50 raer, 50 20 0 Mrs. Pendreigh, Gore 46 Kendal,. 90 0 100 0 Mrs. Graydon, So. Benwell,. - 10 0 26 Free North Church Sab. 50 J. Bryce, Esq.,. 26 Sch., Stirling, 23 6 50 A Friend, 26 J. E. Wilson, Esq., Bir 50 C. Smith, Esq., 2 6 mingham, 100 0 2 6 J. Laidlaw, Esq., 2 6 R. Burnett, Esq.,. 26 W. Gordon, Esq., 26 F. F. Yeatman, junr., £125 16 8 last month, 28,948 3 7 Mrs. Lindsay, Leith, 2 6 Amount reported R. Gardner, Esq., Whit J. Burnett, Esq., 26 G. Grant, Esq., 20 J. Duncan, Esq.,. 26 J. Garden, Esq., 2 6 burn, Rev. J. Martin, Gask, 2 6 20 0 £29,074 0 3 W. M'Connachie, Esq., 3 0 J. H. Collie, Esq., 26 G. Low, Esq., 26 Mrs. Booth,. 2 6 Weymss Park, Esq., 26 A Friend, 20 Travelling Agent: John Traill, Esq., 26 W. Rettie, Esq., W. Noble, Esq., 26 Miss Farquhar, ELLON. Mrs. T. Cowieson, Miss Stephen, 2 6 A. Baxter, Esq., Mr. M'Phail, 26 K. M'Iver, Esq., 26 A. Sinclair, Esq.,. 26 Messrs. M'Tavish & Small sum, THURSO. D. Campbell, Esq., 26 D. M'Pherson, Esq., 26 D. Campbell, Esq., 5 0 A. Davidson, Esq., 3 0 Miss Brodie, 5 0 Messrs. Robertson & Rev. J. S. Millar, Mrs. Craig, Rev. W. R. Taylor, Miss Williamson,. W. Keith, Esq., 50 D. M'Donald, Esq., 50 G. Walker, Esq., 30 A. Simpson, Esq., 2 6 26 A. Corner, Esq., 2 6 50 Messrs. Fraser & J. Shearer, Esq., T. Murray, Esq., 26 W. Turnbull, Esq., 5 0 D. Hamilton, Esq., 26 Rev. Dr. Wrenford, 5 0 G. Durran, Esq., J. Watt, Esq., . 20 Misses Bayne, 26 W. Sutherland, Esq., J. W. Galloway, Esq., 26 A. Manson, Esq.,. 2 6 J. Couper, Esq.. .26 TAIN. Mrs. H. Murray,. . 10 0 Dr. Vass, 50 E. M. Matheson, Esq., 5 0 2 6 P. Leslie, Esq., 30 J. Barker, Esq., 2 6 J. Leeming, Esq., 2 6 J. Moore, Esq.. E. W. Bell, Esq., . 50 A. Galloway, Esq., . 26 A. M'Kean, Esq.,.. W. Sim, Esq., 26 W. Byles, Esq., 50 Mrs. R. Urquhart, 26 C. W. Dunlop, Esq.,. 4 6 R. Finlayson, Esq., 26 Mrs. Urquhart, 20 T. D. Tardoff, Esq., 26 T. B. Willans, Esq.,. 10 0 P. Bain, Esq., 26 Mrs. Noble, 2 6 J. M. Dickons, Esq., 26 J. Petrie, senr., Esq., 7 6 W. R. Ross, Esq., 26 J. D. Davidson, Esq., 26 J. Knowles, Esq.,. 2 6 T. Watson, Esq., Miss A. Ross, .26 T. Kerr, Esq.. 26 W. Watkins, Esq., 26 Rev. A. H. Drysdale, 50 D. Denoon, Esq., .20 J. Clark, Esq., Rev. T. Grant,. INVERGORDON. A. Munro, Esq., A Friend,. W. Fraser, Esq., H. Graham, Esq., Mrs. Munro, DINGWALL Rev. Dr. Kennedy, ELGIN. Mrs. E. Morris, 26 Mrs. R. T. Heape, 26 J. Harley, Esq., 5 0 C. H. Speight, Esq.,. 2 6 26 W. Draper, Esq., 2 6 Messrs. Kershaw & Cunliffe, 26 50 26 The following per Rev. R. F. BROWN, BRADFORD. 8. d. Messrs. Harrison & J. Croft, Esq., 2 6 20 7 6 50 5 0 76 J. Duncan, Esq.,. 26 J. Sutcliffe, Esq.,. 50 J. W. Gordon, Esq... 2 6 Mrs. E. Croft, 30 J. Wilson, Esq., 26 J. Holms, Esq., 26 J. Milne, Esq. 2 6 20 2 6 A. G. Allan, Esq., Miss Forsyth, 2 6 26 A. Anderson, Esq. 26 H.M. S. Mackay, Esq., 2 6 G. Thorpe, Esq., A. Briggs, Esq., Dr. Mackay, 2 6 D. J. Dewar, Esq., . 50 W. Gall, Esq., 2 6 D. Ross, Esq... 5 0 Small sum, 10 D. Graham, Esq., 5 0 50 KEITH AND FIFE KEITH. 26 0 J. Shaw, Esq., A. Dewar, Esq., W. Munro, Esq., J. Keith, Esq... Messrs. J. & W. Robb, 5 0 . 50 5 0 J. Ross, Esq., 5 0 Miss Sim.. 3 0 J. Kelman, Esq., 26 5 0 2 6 D. Wishart, Esq.,. Small sums,. .20 C. Stewart, Esq., 2 6 HUNTLY. A. Aird, Esq., 2 0 J. Ferguson, Esq., B. C. Munro, Esq., 26 W. Joass, Esq., Small sum,. INVERNESS. Mrs. Macgilvray,. 10 . 20 0 J. Lawson, Esq.,. W. Downie, Esq., .26 P. Mortimer, Esq.,. 26 Messrs. A.& F.Stephen, 4 0 Messrs. A. Yuill & Son, 2 6 J. Bowman, Esq., 2 6 . 26 Rev. Mr. Burnett, Rev. Dr. Black, 10 0 C. Keith, Esq., . 10 0 Rev. Dr. Mackay, D. Munro, Esq., 50 PORTSOY. T. D. Campbell, Esq., W. T. Rule, Esq., 50 J. Walker, Esq., 20 D. Davidson, Esq., 50 T. Wilson, Esq., 26 50 J. Bremner, Esq., .26 W. Paterson, Esq., 26 J. Clark, Esq... 2 6 5 0 J. Peterkin, Esq., . 16 10 BANFF. Dr. Grant, D. Duff, Esq., H. Munro, Esq., 2 6 Small sum, . .50 50 J. Williamson, Esq., 200 Bartlett Ellis, Esq.,. 10 0 20 Rev. S. D. Hillman, Mrs. E. Martin, . HALIFAX. Messrs. Kerr & Jubb, 20 J. Bowman, Esq.,. 200 Mrs. C. Waithman, . 10 0 E. M. Wavell, Esq.,. 10 0 E. Crossley, Esq.,.. 10 0 J. Whitley, Esq.,. .10 J. Wadsworth, Esq., J. Farr, Esq., Miss E. Porter, J. Pritchard, Esq., D. Binns, Esq.,. C. Watson, Esq., W. Holdsworth, Esq., Mrs. H. Thorp, Mrs. Hargreaves, C. H. Denham, Esq., G. Patchett, Esq., 50 50 50 26 5 0 J. G. Porter, Esq., 26 50 H. Ainley, Esq., 5 0 B. Dyson, Esq., 50 J. Harrison, Esq., 50 J. Hulme, Esq., 5 0 T. Norcliffe, Esq. 26 26 26 26 5 0 J. Wild, Esq., Amount of previous Grants as reported last month, 29,951 18 8 £30,073 16 10 All applications for Grants, and remittances of money for this object, to be made to JOHN MACFARLANE, Manager, Drummond's Tract Depot, Stirling, N.B. Published and sold by the Trustees acting under a Trust Disposition and Codicils relating to the Stirling Tract Enterprise granted by the now deceased PETER DRUMMOND, Seedsman, Stirling, proprietors in Trust; and all business communications are to be addressed to JOHN MACFARLANE, Tract Depot, Stirling, Manager of said Enterprise. Printed by WALTER GRAHAM BLACKIE (residing at No. 1 Belhaven Terrace, Parish of Govan), at his Printing-Office, Villafield, in the Parish of Barony. 90,171 Tracts, 60 1 3 121 18 2 26 2 6 20 JUNE, 1879.-New Series, No. 6. THE PRICE ONE PENNY. BRITISH MESSENGER. Published Monthly by the Trustees of the late PETER DRUMMOND, at the these disadvantages, the country has considerable natural advantages too. It has some lovely spots; and the rock scenery of the coast is magnificent is indeed, where the Orkney Islands are also in sight, unsurpassed in grandeur. The seas that dash against its rocky shores swarm with fish, that form the staple of a lucrative home and foreign trade. The soil is in many places fertile; and from a few feet below the surface, almost anywhere, there may be dug up flag-stones of any required size and thickness or thinness, unsurpassed in excellence. The people, who are half Celtic, half Scandinavian in origin, are often distinguished (especially where the two races blend) by a handsome physique, as they are also by energy of character and by warmth of heart. Better still, the Christian visitor will find in not a few cases the manifest tokens of deep religious feeling and true godliness. JOHN MUNRO, of whom we wish now to speak, was a minister of Christ, and was already aged and venerable when we knew him. By all who knew him well he was actually venerated and much beloved. He had been born in another county, and had for a time ministered in a second, but he was now thoroughly naturalized and at home among the Christian people of Caithness; and that none the less-we would say rather the more-that the tone of his religious experience differed considerably from what was general among them. There, as in the Highlands generally, Christians are (or at least were) habituated to a subtle self-analysis that makes them. wonderfully acute in their discrimination between sincere and false, shallow and deep, pure and mingled faith, repentance, love; that makes them sometimes unduly severe in judging themselves and others, and so gives rise to much self-doubting, and to an eschewing of the language of assurance of personal salvation. Yet, to John Munro, the simple-minded, believing, praying, trusting, loving minister of Halkirk, they were attracted not the less, but rather the more, that he was in this respect a contrast to most of themselves. With the fundamental agreement between him and them in all the doctrines of the faith, in love to Christ, and in the profoundest reverence for all genuine, scriptural Christian experience wherever found, they felt that there was something in his faith and experience that was the needed complement of their own,-that was needed to complete theirs into the very pattern of what Christian faith and experience ought to be. If they, in their If they, in their self-analysing faith, were often full of doubts, he, in the simplicity and directness of his, had habitual assurance. And they never doubted the warrantableness of his assurance (as they were apt to do in the case of some others); but on the contrary rejoiced in it, because it did not eschew self-examination in order to be undisturbed, but was full of humility and ever-renewed repentance; because it was kept alive by constant prayer, by the Word of God, and by Christian fellowship; because of the unmistakable peace and love beaming from his countenance that betrayed its existence instead of leaving it to himself to speak of it; and because of the consistent, holy walk that justified it to all. "Are you ever sorrowful?" was the question once put to him by a friend in the ministry. "What! you a Christian, and ask that?" was the reply. As long as sin remained in him it could not be that he should not have seasons of sadness. But no man was more habitually happy in the sunshine of heaven. "What! not got home yet?" he exclaimed on entering the room occupied by a maiden Christian lady still older than himself, and equally simple in faith, child-like in disposition, and holy in character, whom he had not seen for a number of years before; "if you don't make haste I shall get home before you!" And the two saints, who, to unsympathizing strangers, would have been very reticent as to their hopes of glory, went on playfully rallying one another for a while, and laughing in the gladness of their hearts, ere they joined in the reading of God's Word, with praise and prayer. "I wish I were as good as Mr. Munro," said a brother minister nearly as aged, and no less respected, though in many respects very different from himself, to him one day at a dinner-table. On this occasion (and on no other that we ever witnessed or heard of) he expressed himself in reply by a disclaimer that seemed to imply a questioning of his own Christian character and prospects for eternity, and that in words so emphatic as to startle the Christian friends around into the exclamation, "Oh, Mr. Munro!" But they understood him--that it was the disclaimer of what to him in his humility seemed as an extravagant compliment that it was the instinctive warding off of a sudden temptation to pride and self-righteousness-that it was a protest against every thought that would lessen his sense of need of Christ's goodness, or his dependence on that alone. At another time, to a remark made in a different spirit he gave a very different reply. "That was the true gospel we heard from Mr. Munro to-day, and will remain so, whatever becomes of Mr. Munro himself." (The words used by the person-an unwise though (we hope) earnest ministerwere still more offensive than as here given; not as seriously expressing any doubt of Mr. Munro's going to heaven, but, we suppose, wishing to elicit admiration of himself by displaying his recollection of the Scriptural truth that a man may speak with the tongues of men and angels, and yet be nothing.) Mr. Munro rose to his feet at once, and spoke in the language of dignified rebuke; adding, "Mr. Munro knows whom he has believed, and that He is able to keep that which he has committed to Him against that day. Never say that again;" and the foolish young minister withdrew abashed from the room. "Mr. Munro, why did you give such a large sum my faith is not like the faith of Abraham, yet Thou art my Father." "O, I shall be ashamed when I enter heaven; but" (correcting himself) "there will be no shame there." His remains were taken home to his parish, and committed by his mourning people and his brother ministers to the grave. After the funeral, the ministers met in the manse to arrange for the supply of the vacant pulpit for some following Sabbaths. At the dinner table, one of the brethren mentioned that he had been told that Mr. Munro, when praying at family worship on the morning on which he left, in good health, on his last journey to Thurso, had not, as usual, prayed for the safe return of man and beast, apparently forgetting to do so. "Is that true?" asked the speaker, of the faithful old Christian servant who waited at table. "Quite true," was her reply. "Did he use always to offer that petition when leaving home?" we asked. "Yes; always." "Did you ever hear him omit it before?" "Never," was the emphatic answer. "Every bird is not a mavis" [thrush], he once said; "but every bird has its own note: and though I am not a mavis, I have got my own note, and I just sing away." This was truly self-descriptive. He was not a man of talents, or of pulpit gifts; his sermons had neither eloquence, nor power of reasoning, nor variety; he simply spoke, in the plainest words and without arrangement, what he believed and felt. There was nothing whatever to account for the veneration with which he was regarded, but his holy, humble, loving character, and his manifest nearness to God. This was seen and felt-in his whole walk, in his words (we never heard a word from his lips that seemed to us unbecoming a saint on the very borders of heaven), in his happy life in the presence of God, and-what we have left to the last in order to conclude with it--in his prayers and—if there is indeed an ever-present Spirit who in the visible answers to those prayers. But how shall we speak of this last without being misunderstood? We have heard many men praying feelingly and earnestly, and with every token that they prayed believingly; but never have we heard one whose prayer was such a simple telling by a child of his desires to his Father. It was just as an earthly child would artlessly tell an earthly father what he wanted;-and yet it was without the slightest approach to the irreverent familiarity with God and with Christ that pains us in the so-called prayers of some. His petitions for particular objects were sometimes heard to pass (it seemed unconsciously to himself) into the language of expectation. He spoke to God, as believing that God heard and would answer. And so often had his petitions for special objects (such, for example, as favourable weather on occasion of open-air sacramental gatherings, or safe travelling on some business connected with the cause of Christ, or the recovery of some sick person) been thus offered and visibly fulfilled, that it had become common among pious people in Caithness to say that whatever Mr. Munro asked of God with liberty and freedom, was sure to be granted. So we have been told by them again and again. And we venture to conclude with an instance, for which, in part, we can personally vouch. It was usual with him, when setting out in his gig on a journey, to pray for the preservation and safe return "of man and beast." His last journey was to a meeting in Presbytery with his brother ministers, in the neighbouring town of Thurso. There he was taken ill, and in a few days died there-full of humility and faith, as in the days of health. "Though Let the reader interpret the fact how he will, we venture to state our explanation of it. "The Spirit itself helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what to pray for as we ought" (Romans viii. 26). If so teaches and helps His people to pray, then is it wonderful that help and guidance should be most constantly and directly vouchsafed to those of them who live in most constant obedience and simplicity of faith? Is it incredible that the Spirit of prayer prevented His faithful, aged servant, who was to be taken in a few days to glory, from asking, or so filled his mind with other requests that he forgot to ask, that particular thing which it was God's purpose not to grant? He prevented him from asking it, that He might not have to refuse it. Is it incredible that there should be still, as in the days of the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, real communion with God; not a one-sided thing on the believer's part alone, but communion in which God on His side really takes part; though the degree and manner of it we cannot define? (See John xiv. 14, 15, 21--23.) THE SCEPTIC'S TESTIMONY. | |