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All went on quietly for some weeks; the meeting was regularly attended by Robert and Mary; the same faithful friend visited them frequently at home, and they never again retired to rest without family worship.

Robert began it as a duty, but continued it from a sense of its value and comfort, and all he wanted now was the assurance of Mary's interest in the same gospel which was bringing his own soul" from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God.”

Mary said very little on the subject of religion, but now she was no stranger to prayer; she heard the words of Jesus, she saw him by faith as her only Saviour, and learned at his feet the humiliating yet profitable lesson of her own utter sinfulness and ruin. She found herself wanting in every grace on which she had prided herself that she was possessed, and marvelled that Robert should ever have sought reunion with such a disobedient, rebellious, conceited sinner as she knew now she had been. But what of the higher and more condescending love of Jesus, who had sought and rescued from sin and unhappiness such an ungrateful heart as hers!

Once realized as her Saviour, she gave herself, heart and soul, into his keeping, and truly the peace of God did rule then in heart and household.

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Robert prayed and watched; and "looking unto Jesus in humble consciousness of his own weakness, was it wonderful that he found himself "able to do all things through Christ" who strengthened him? Oh no, He to whose lovely image" he desired to be " conformed," ever gave "grace to help in time of need." It is marvellous what one subdued spirit in the house can do, for "soft answers and " pleasant words" act like a charm upon crabbedness and contradiction, and purify the mind's atmosphere from infectious vapours. But Mary had very little to find fault with had she been so inclined, and she was too much occupied with her own beam," to see Robert's "motes" at present.

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One evening their faithful friend and teacher was with them, enjoying in their happiness and growth the fruit of his own prayerful labours, when Mary asked him to read with them again the third chapter to the Colossians.

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"Once," said she, timidly, "I knew nothing about being risen with Christ,' but now I hope I have some understanding of what it is, and I desire to live the new

life of faith in the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me.' By his help my home shall never again be what it was for want of those beautiful things spoken of in this chapter."

"It need not be happier than it has been of late, my Mary," said her husband, gratefully.

"But, sir," continued Mary, "I want to ask you this. Robert once said we must consider what security for happiness we had for the future. I have long been considering it, and I think it is this,' And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.' When I look at the chapter on charity, 1 Cor. xiii., which you said means love, I thought this must be a higher love than that towards my husband, for that had not kept me from my pride and folly; but, sir, the love of God, is not that the bond of perfectness, which makes us desire to do and be just everything that pleases him? and is not that our true security for the continuance of the happiness we are now enjoying together?"

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Undoubtedly it is," replied their friend. "Peace in

the conscience and holiness in the life must follow where 'the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us,' Rom. v. 5. And where the God of love and the love of God reign I need not tell you how all Christian graces should abound, nor how firm the root from which they spring. You have within you the guarantee of happiness while you live on earth, as well as the promise of it in Christ hereafter. Thank God, your patchwork is all over, he has taken you both in hand and made all things new. A new heart and a right spirit' he has given you, and you are now to prove the strength and exhibit the beauty of his workmanship."

And they did so. Robert and Mary lived down the evil report of their earlier years, and when they left the neighbourhood for one more agreeable to their taste and habits, their removal was regretted as a loss. No cross words or ill-tempers were ever heard or seen in their happy home: how could they, when the "bond of perfectness" wreathed all they were and all they did with love?-love to their God and Saviour, love towards each other, and charity towards all around.

"LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION."

As a part of our Lord's Prayer, it is very likely, dear reader, that you offer that petition, if not daily, yet very often. Not improbably you join in it every Lord's day, as it is offered in the house of God. It can scarcely be presented too often or too earnestly.

Exposure to temptation involves great peril. There are some substances which do not need the application of fire in order that they may be consumed. A heap of refuse coal thrown aside at the mouth of a coal pit; flax or cotton moistened with oil; a hay stack put together whilst the hay is damp; and many other substances which might be named, will take fire of themselves. Just so, there is no need of external temptation to lead men to sin. There is evil enough in our own hearts to lead us very far astray, and to involve us in terrible ruin. Suppose it were possible for us to be so placed that we should never come in contact with evil, never hearing a wicked word or seeing an evil sight; in the purest family-in the society of the best men on the face of the earth-nay, even in the society of angels, we should still sin.

But then, if there is danger without temptation, the danger is vastly increased when we are exposed to it; for temptation supplies the spark to what otherwise might not have broken out into open flame.

The world is full of temptations. Men tempt each other, too frequently with an energy, and a stedfastness, and a perseverance, which render resistance, we must not say impossible, but still very difficult. There are temptations arising from pleasure, sometimes appealing to our higher sensibilities and sometimes to our baser passions; they arise in business; they meet us in the unsuspecting intercourses of friendship; they are suggested by books; in short, they are so various that to enumerate all their sources would be almost impossible. Then to crown all, we are tempted with all the malice and craft of Satan himself.

What lamentable proof we have of the power of temptation! What multitudes we see on every side led astray by it and destroyed! Nor is any man, however holy, or however largely he may think he enjoys God's favour, to deem himself beyond its reach. It has prevailed mightily, not only in the world, but even in the church of God

itself. Noah, just spared from a world's destruction, was overcome by wine; Abraham, the father of the faithful, was twice tempted by unbelieving fear to say what was false; Moses was tempted by the rebellion of Israel to speak unadvisedly with his lips; how grievously David fell before temptation "in the matter of Uriah the Hittite;" Solomon, in his old age, was tempted by his strange wives to become idolatrous; Judas was tempted by his covetousness to deny his Lord; and Peter by cowardly fear to deny him. There is scarcely a church which has not had occasion to mourn over the grievous fall of some of its members. No man, then, however fervent his piety, or however firm his principles, has any right to say, " I stand on a rock so firm that it is impossible for temptation to reach me." The caution is addressed to every one of "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

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How needful, then, the help of God; and how appropriate the prayer, "Lead us not into temptation !"

Our lot is ordered of God. We are entirely in his hands as to the place in which we live, our success in life, our failure-all our circumstances, Without the least injustice to us, and without being in any sense the author of sin, he might put us where temptation would be exceedingly strong. It is plainly not his will that we should be entirely free from temptation. To accomplish that he must needs take us out of the world. He has, no doubt, important purposes to answer by our exposure to temptation, or he would not suffer it. They test men's characters, showing what they really are. Rightly met, they strengthen the Christian life, calling into exercise faith and hope and resolute self-denial and sending the Christian with a deep sense of his weakness to the throne of grace; just as the veteran warrior is trained by the discipline of successive battles and made a good soldier. Still God would have us not to court temptation, but to dread it; to avoid it as much as possible; and to lift up our prayer to him that we may not be led into it. How many temptations are there to which we might be exposed, respecting which our own bitter experience, or our consciousness of weakness makes us certain that they would try us very sorely, if they did not actually overcome us! Do we never say to ourselves as we hear of other men's falls, and with the falls, of the strong temptations which led to them, "Well,

if I had been so tried, it is by no means unlikely that I might have fallen too?" How earnest, then, should be our daily prayer, that He who knows our weakness will not suffer us to be exposed to any peril too great for us! Spare us, O Lord," should be our cry, "such temptations

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as that!"

We have every reason to believe that God will hear our prayer. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation." "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." He answers such prayers in his own way, and sometimes in methods in which we do not readily see that he is answering them. You have, perhaps, been longing for years to get into another position, and there you are in the old one still. May not the reason be that God is kindly and wisely keeping you out of temptation? You would, very likely, have prospered better in business, if God had not seen that you were safer with something more moderate than that for which you longed. Do you not see that the affliction which crushed you so heavily, came only just in time to smite you down as you were on your way to comply with some strong temptation? And so in regard to the future, whilst we present the prayer, we must be willing that God should answer it in his

own way.

Our great hope of deliverance is in the exercise of God's power; but then the presentation of prayer that God would not lead us into peril, involves, of course, the duty of ourselves doing our utmost to avoid it. Of all senseless, insincere things, what can exceed this-a man praying, "Lead me not into temptation;" and then going deliberately into scenes where he may fully expect that he will fall? We must watch as well as pray, that we enter not into temptation.

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Let us see clearly the issues of temptation. There were a year or two ago some beautiful flowers on a perilous slope on the Clifton Downs; and a young lady longed to pluck them. There was great risk, but she would venture. plucked one and another; and then there was yet another, finer than all the rest, beyond. Must she proceed? She did. The slope grew more slippery as she went further down. Suddenly there was heard a great wild shriek, and a few moments after she was found dashed in pieces

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