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must be something mysterious about the transaction. To speak to Christ as they would to their neighbor or their friend; to leave, the matter in His hands as they would in their s the process is too commonplace to be properly “religious.” Their in-_ tellect demands something more occult and dignified. # Thus men raise barriers that keep them' from the Lord. We need the sim plicity and the faith of little children. There is nothing easier than coming to Jesus of Nazareth, and it is. just because it is so easy that many people fail to find the way. The needy sinner and the waiting Sayiour stand side by side for years; one word of petition would bring them into touch; yet the sinner does not speak it, because he does not know “how” ! MU. WE are all familiar -with the idea of laying hold of Christ. We are exhorted to “Cling to the crucified One; we sing: “Sim ply to Thy cross I cling.” God forbid that we should cavil at phrases which have been so often blessed to weary, sinful men. They are glorious words and are based upon Bible truths. But there are words more glorious than these, and they too are justi fied by the Sacred Book. “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe” indeed. To be heid by God is better, and yields far more security, than holding on to Him. For faith’s fingers are very, independ able things. They often grow weak, and weakest in the hours of danger and despair when support is most needed. But the Father’s hand never falters and never fails. Satan can untwine our grip of Christ, but he is powerless to pluck us out of the grasp of Omnipotence. It was not Peter who laid hold when he was in the swirl of the waters, it Was the Master who stretched forth His hand and sustained him; there was no more danger of drowning, then. Sometimes, moreover, we fail to cling to the Divine, not because we are weak, but because we are wilful. We abandon our hold under the spell of wickedness: if God had not held us then, truly we should have gone headlong to destruction. Let us relinquish our trust in clinging, and leave ourselves in His hands; there only is safety and peace.- The man who does that “shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand.” J une 5. “He Himself hath suffered, being tempted.yjffrHeb. :2:18. WE have heard it said that to desire to do wrong is as truly sin as doing it. There can be no greater mistake. The mere sug gestion of evil is not temptation; the thing suggested must appeal to us, or we are not tempted at all. The proposal, at which we can laugh, or from which we”turn away with unmitigated dis gust, is in no sense an allurement. Nay, more, we do not really know what temptation means until, like Christ, we have “suf fered, being tempted.” When our whole nature is quivering, ting ling, burning, with desire for the forbidden fruit; when we feel that for it we are almost willing to sacrifice earth, heaven, and God; it is then that we begin to comprehend what is meant by the term “being tempted.” Such desire to do evil, being finally resisted, may or may not be sin. If we refuse the enticement because we are afraid of the consequences, either in- this world or the next (and for no other season), then indeed we have .fallen; but if we abstain because we ask ourselves the question: “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”—if that be the ruling motive of the refusal—then' however keenly the flesh has desired to transgress, we are free from the guilt of sin. Fiercely tempted souls should bear these truths in mind against the trying hour. It is part of the Devil’s plan first to tempt men, and then to drive them to despair because they have been tempted. J une 4. “Hold thou me up." — -Psa. 119:117.
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