in weakness, is nobler than to be preserved in weakness. It is a better criterion of goodness, and a surer sign of the soul's health. To pursue in weakness is even better, in some senses, than to pursue in strength. Who wonders that the strong man rejoices to run his race? Who can but wonder and admire when the fainting man will still run? That shews an eye as clear as the day, and a heart as true as steel. That shews that the life-purpose has taken full possession of the soul, and that God himself is inspiring it. That proves the existence of a vital and indissoluble union between the soul and Jesus Christ. That shews that he is drawing the soul by the attractions of the cross, and meetening it for the glory of the crown. If any one could be left and forsaken who has his eye on the end, and is making what effort he can to reach it, such desertion would cast a shadow on the character of God which nothing could ever melt away. A thousand worlds might sing God's praise, but that one soul left to perish while pursuing, yearning and striving for the light of his face, would be quite enough to make discord in every song, in every place, and for

evermore.

Take this one word then as the seal of your discipleship to-day, "Pursuing." You are his if you are pursuing. So, he marks you for his own! This is the sealing of the Spirit! this is the white stone with the "new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." A neighbour cannot see the sealing, but

you can see it. You know whether you are pursuing ; whether the truth, and the love, and the purity of the gospel are still dear to you; whether you long for the image of Christ; whether you are pressing on through storm and change to the calm of his eternal presence. Are you pursuing? I do not ask if you are faint. That is of little consequence. Nor if you have failed and fallen miserably far beneath your own ideal and the Saviour's call. I do not ask if your way is rough, if your spiritual friends are few, if sometimes to your own seeming you are far from home; nor, on the other hand, do I ask if you are cheerful, confident, buoyant in hope, but I ask if you are pursuing? If you are, be assured that God owns you as a son, a daughter; and that, if you still press on, he will claim at last the property he has sealed, and will lift you with joy into his eternal home. And remember, finally, that this is to be the sign and seal of all the future, as it is of the present. Remember that whatever disappointments may overtake you, whatever sorrows may come, how different soever life may be from all you now wish and expect, that you are still to pursue; and then doubt not, wherever God may find you when he comes with his final call, that that call must, and can only be to the realization of all you have pursued in accordance with his will, and endeavoured in dependence on his strength to win. "For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, the door shall be opened," at last.

Angel Help.

And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.GENESIS xxxii. I.

Are they not all ministering spirits ?-HEBREWS i. 14.

THE general progress of this world is much promoted

by mutual knowledge and intercourse among its peoples. When the ships of a commercial nation ride at anchor in the rivers and harbours of an island that has always been inhospitable, when the gates of famous cities, which have always been closed against the foreigner, are opened at last, and the ambassador, the merchant, the traveller, the missionary, are allowed to go in, it is felt, and not without reason, that some steps have been taken towards that organized and complete perfection to which this world is slowly tending.

But there is a still larger and higher perfection than the social completeness and harmony of this world. There is a cosmical, a universal harmony, which, as it advances, will probably unite worlds and races as completely as commerce and civilization bind cities and countries together now. Those who believe in a reigning Saviour know that

already there is "a gathering

The

together of all things in him as the head-things on earth and things in heaven," and that there is something coming in the great future far grander than millennial rest for this world. There is the harmony of all worlds, the reconciliation of all things to each other and to God. There are ninety and nine worlds preparing to rejoice over the full recovery of the one that went astray. Now this higher progress, like the lower, is promoted at least in part by mutual knowledge and intercourse, by the meeting of race with race, by the speaking of one world to another. But already, in saying even this much, we have gone beyond the real faith of multitudes. text goes a long way beyond the actual faith of many who think they receive it as true. Even Christians do not know how slow of heart they are to believe what Christ has said. "Spiritual beings no doubt exist, but not around us here. They are far away in their own worlds, above us and beneath. They are never found in our houses, nor in any of the ways of our pilgrimage, nor in the places where we work. We might meet the angels perhaps in a mood of ecstasy, or in some supersensual vision of the soul. We might meet the devil and his myrmidons by plunging into the depths of immorality and crime; but neither angel nor devil will be likely to haunt our common ways, or to breathe heaven or hell into our daily life!" Then, farther, when we do at times realize more vividly the existence of such

beings, we are always I think more ready to recognise the evil spirits as hindering us, than we are to observe the good as helping us. Indeed a man's experience is often such that he has, or feels as though he had, more occasion to say, "The devil seduced me to that," than to say "The angels have been helping me to this." But the angels help us to far more than we know. Could you conceive ships hovering benevolently around mistrustful islands, sending in to the inhabitants unknown supplies, keeping pirates and enemies away from the shores-such are the angels to the heirs of salvation. Their ministry for our aid is watchful, constant, sincere. It is a ministry of much care and love; and not the less helpful that it is so quiet and so unseen. We must speak of that ministry to-day, and, I hope, think of it a little more on some days that are coming.

A few words may be necessary concerning the spirits themselves before we speak of their ministry. Our belief in the existence of such beings must rest chiefly, and almost exclusively, on the Word of God. Perhaps an argument might be constructed on natural principles for the probable existence of good and evil spirits. Every other revealed truth has certain natural indications and proofs, more or less clear, which are accepted by thoughtful and thankful persons as corroborative of the revelation. Possibly this also may have. A consideration of human beliefs in every age and nation, and