moment of your time in furthering the great ends God has in view. But whatever your peculiarity of circumstances may be, God can and will make use of them if only you will lay them at His feet. God hath need of these things.

"Come along with us." Bring your money with you, your time, your friends, your heart. God will make use of them, and it shall be that whatever goodness the Lord has already done to the saints up yonder in glory, you also shall prove. We think of the dazzling crown upon the brow of St. Paul, who could say "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." We think of the glorious "crown."-But what does St. Paul go on to say? "Not for me only!" No, no, "for all that love His appearing." "Whatsoever good the Lord shall do unto us, we also will do to thee." Sinner! there is a crown for thee also. There is fulness of joy" for thee also. There is "everlasting life" for thee also. The harps of God for thy unsaintly finger; the rapture of heaven for thy poor empty heart: everything that man can desire. It is yonder in the land that He is gone to prepare for us!

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Hobab seems to have come after all, for we find his descendants sharing with Israel the good things of the promised land. If so, do you think he ever repented changing his mind? Oh, that my entreaty may be equally successful, and that you may be numbered with God's people in the glorious land of promise above.

It is your blessed privilege, and it is mine, to go on and realise it all. "We are journeying to the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you; come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel."

Now will you come with us? Come! start on your journey to-night! Kneel down, and ask God to enable you to come.

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XI.

"Ettai the Gittite."

"Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? Seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee. And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be."-2 SAMUEL XV. 19-21.

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MIDST the horrors of that dark page of human history, which records the annals of war, there is very little to excite the admiration whether of the moralist or the divine. And yet it is here that we can look for the manifestation of certain particular forms of virtue, which we can scarcely find elsewhere so clearly marked. Conspicuous amongst these is the heroic devotion of the subordinate to the superior. We have read of soldiers ready to interpose their own bodies between the uplifted sword and the commander whom they adored. We have known instances in which a man has even laid down his life, in order to save one under whom he was serving; and as this is pointed out by the highest of all authority as the greatest of all tests of love, we cannot but rank highly such a devotion, and regret that as characteristic of religion it should in human conduct find such infrequent illustration.

We, too, dear friends, are called to a life of loyal allegiance to Him whom we recognise as our Lord and Leader; and the difference between the real Christian, and the mere nominal Christian, is just that which exists between the man who is personally attached to his commander, and to the cause which he represents, and a mere mercenary who fights under any banner and under any leader just for the sake of the pay he is to receive, or the booty he may hope to share. The mercenary fights under any captain, for to do so is his profession; he

cannot be fired by a noble enthusiasm: the best that can be said about him is that he fights with skill and hardihood; he has been carefully trained to the use of arms, and he finds a certain professional pleasure in plying deftly the trade which he is accustomed to pursue. But it is otherwise with the true patriot, the man who draws his sword for his country and his country's Chief, the man who looks up into his Leader's face, and sees in it the very personification of all that is nearest and dearest to his heart's feelings. The zeal of such a man will dare death in its most frightful form, and such a man, in the course of his military conduct, will give proofs of his true allegiance and actual devotion such as will stand out in the strongest contrast to the ordinary service of the mere professional.

Dear friends, it is so with the real Christian. Look at the two soldiers fighting on the same field of battle: they look very like each other, they are both marching in the same rank, both using the very same weapons, both using them skilfully, both sharers in the same victory; but observe those two men closely, there is the greatest possible difference between them. To the one it is no matter of indifference to which side the victory may fall; to suffer defeat will be to lose his all; he dreads this more than death. The other man is pleased to have fought skilfully, to have played a creditable part; he is self-complacent at the thought of the victory, but there is no glow of heart about it. Look at the two men upon the field of battle: the one musters up all his courage, he has his eyes about him, his head is clear, he has plenty of professional prowess, he marches with steady step, and does well the work allotted to him, for he has to earn his pay. The other is all enthusiasm, not only does he endeavour to play well the part assigned to him, but he is eager to discover if, in any way, he can help onward the cause he has at heart beyond what has been expected of him. If there is "a forlorn hope" to be led, or some deed of desperate courage to be undertaken, he it is that will stand forward, while that mercenary shrinks back. If there are hardships to be endured, a forced march through a dreary desert, or wearisome labour in the trenches, it is that mercenary who begins to grumble that his pay is not adequate to such unexpected toil. The patriot, on the other hand, feels that now he has an opportunity of displaying the real character of the spirit under

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which he is working. The greater the toil the more his personality shines forth; he belongs to his general; that general may call upon him to make a bridge of his body in the deadly gap, so that his fellow-soldiers may march over him to victory: he is ready to comply with anything, so long as he may be true to the loyalty which fills his soul.

Now, that is the man who stands before us as the type of a real Christian. There are in this church two persons who sit side by side in the same seat, they both repeat the same responses, both of them attend church twice a week, they live in the same street, they both give subscriptions to the same charitable societies, both of them are to be found attending the same religious meetings. What is the difference between them? Men do not see it. Men say they are both excellent persons: worldly people have a very high opinion of both of them, perhaps; only in all probability you will hear people say of the two," They are both very good men you know, but one of them is disposed to carry things a little too far: he is a little too hot-headed, too enthusiastic. The other is a very sensible man, good as gold, you will never find him going into extremes, or doing anything at all fanatical or ridiculous, but he just goes quietly on, and does his duty. I have a great respect for him. The other man is a very good fellow, no doubt, but sometimes he does ill-advised things; he goes a little too far occasionally; he has not got the sound judgment of the other man." That is the way worldly people will probably speak of the two.

Ah! I wonder what God, the discerner of hearts, thinks of the matter. He looks right down into the human soul, and sees the motive from which actions spring. As He looks on one, He sees that the whole mainspring in the man's heart is the mercenary spirit. It is his duty to go to church; he would be condemned if he did not do so; so he goes; it is his duty to repeat the responses, so he repeats them; he would feel like a mercenary who had not been at drill, if he had not done what was expected of him, so he does it; it is his duty to give to charitable societies, he would feel like a soldier who did not appear on parade if he did not give, so he gives! It is his duty occasionally to go out of his way to do religious actions, so he does them; he would feel like a mercenary who had failed to appear on the battle-field, if he did not; and he would be in danger of losing his pay, so he does them; heaven

and hell are the motives of his life. The hope of getting into heaven leads him on, and the wish to escape hell keeps him from those flagrant sins into which many fall. But of the true motive he knows nothing. He knows that in the quiet, beaten routine of life, from day to day, and from year to year, one day is very much like another day-easily, quietly, steadily he goes along, a mercenary! and nothing more! To be reckoned one of the Lord's people is his great desire; but I find it written, "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." The service of the mercenary cannot delight the heart of God.

I want not so much to put before you this spirit by way of warning as the other spirit by way of example. You are called to be not mercenaries, but patriots; we belong to a heavenly kingdom, "our citizenship is above (conversation' our English version unfortunately renders it)." You are members of the heavenly kingdom: you are called to a heavenly polity; you have a right to attend at that country's call, to fight that country's battles, to live for that country's glory, and so to speak, to lay yourself out to do the behests of Him who is that country's Lord. Thus, dear friends, the Christian, though I do not say his life has become a sinless one, for it may be full of imperfection, is distinguished from our mercenary friend, by this-that his heart has been given over to Christ-he knows his own weakness better than anybody else knows it; but he is able to look up into his Master's face, and say, "I am a poor, frail sinner, but Thou knowest I

am Thine."

Yes, his one desire is to glorify his Master; without this he cannot be satisfied; he is beaten down, again and again, trampled under foot; yet, in the midst of his infirmities, and constant failings, he is eager to get up, and renew the strife, saying, "Rejoice not against me, oh ! mine enemy, though I fall I shall rise again, though I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me." Thus it comes to pass his very failures only lead up to future victory, and, if at one time he has been betrayed into a fall, he is all the more careful to guard himself against that particular danger next time. His whole life is spent in the enthusiasm of the love of Christ; he is ever engaged in the Master's service; for Christ he lives, and for Christ he is ready to die! Religion with him is not a mere