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STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

II CORINTHIANS XII.

939.-SUFFICIENT GRACE.

2 Cor. xii. 9.
.-"My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength, is made
perfect in weakness." [R.V.] 1 Power.

Illustrative.-A minister of the gospel was one evening preaching in Bristol from these words, when he took occasion to relate the circumstance of a pious young woman labouring under a strong temptation to put a period to her life by drowning herself, from which she was delivered in a manner strikingly providential. She had gone to the river in order to comply with the enemy's suggestion; but as she was adjusting her clothes to prevent her from floating, she felt something in her pocket, which proved to be her Bible. She thought she would take it out, and look in it for the last time. She did so, and the above-mentioned text caught her eye. Through the Divine blessing attending them, the words struck her with a peculiar force, the snare was instantly broken, the temptation vanished, and she returned home, blessing and praising Him who had given her the victory. It is stated that the relation of this circumstance was blessed to the conversion of a man and his wife who were present, who had lived in an almost continual state of enmity, and whose habitation exhibited a terrifying scene of discord and confusion. In one of those unhappy intervals of sullen silence, which both parties were accustomed to maintain after their quarrels, the wife came to the dreadful determination of drowning herself. She accordingly left her house for that purpose, and approached the river, but owing to its being too light, she apprehended that she should be detected before she could accomplish her design. She therefore deferred the fatal act till it should have grown dark, and in the interim, wandered about, not knowing whither to go. At length she observed a place of worship open, and thought she would go in to pass the time. Mr. W. was preaching, and she listened to him with attention, especially when he related the matter above mentioned. Instead of drowning herself, she returned home after the sermon, with a countenance which, however expressive before of a malevolent disposition, now indicated that a spirit of gentleness had taken possession of her breast. Struck with her appearance, her husband asked her where she had been. said, “And did you see me there?" "But I was; and, blessed be God, I also."

On telling him, he immediately She replied, "No." He rejoined, found His grace sufficient for me

940. STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

2 Cor. xii. 9.-"And He said into me, My grace is sufficient for thee.". Expository.-The Greek sense here, by a beautiful delicacy of the

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

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language which is not easily expressed in English, signifies not only that the Lord said that at one particular time, but that He was going on to say it: "He has said! He is saying it now!" The answer was ever sounding in the apostle's ears. The Lord was speaking to him, although not audibly, when he wrote. The Lord was speaking; his soul was listening. That one assurance was vocal every day of his life, and over every step of his heavenward road. "My grace is sufficient for thee." So that, without any accommodation, and by the very principle of the test, it becomes ours. It becomes ours in proportion as we feel need of it. The " grace " will come only along the channel of a felt need. That is implied in the whole contest. The "strength" will perfect itself, not by finding other strengths within on which to link itself, but "in weakness." Rightly understood, therefore, and used, our weakness is our strength. Our need, when we deeply feel it, is the attracting agent which draws a full salvation in.-DR. ALEXANDER RALEIGH.

Illustrative.-"The other day," says Dr. McLeod, "I was requested by a brother minister, who was unwell, to go and visit a dying child. He told me some remarkable things of this boy, eleven years of age, who during three years' sickness had manifested the most patient submission to the will of God, with a singular enlightenment of the spirit. I went to visit him. The child had suffered excruciating pain; for years he had not known one day's rest. I gazed with wonder at the boy. After drawing near to him, and speaking some words of sympathy, he looked at me with his blue eyes-he could not move, it was the night before he died—and breathed into my ear these few words, 'I am strong in Him. The words were few, and uttered feebly; they were the words of a feeble child, in a poor home where the only ornament was that of a meek and quiet and affectionate mother, but these words seemed to lift the burden from the very heart; they seemed to make the world more beautiful than ever it was before; they brought home to my heart a great and blessed truth."

Some living creatures maintain their hold by foot or body on flat surfaces, by a method that seems like magic, and with a tenacity that amazes the observer. A fly marching at ease with feet uppermost on a plastered ceiling, and a mollusc sticking to the smooth, water-worn surface of a basaltic rock, while the long swell of the Atlantic at every pulse sends a huge white billow, roaring, and hissing, and cracking, and crunching over it, are objects of wonder to the on-looker. That apparently supernatural solidity is the most natural thing in the world. It is emptiness that imparts so much strength to these feeble creatures. A

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CAUGHT WITH GUILE.

vacuum, on the one side within a web-foot, and on the other within the shell, is the secret of their power. By dint of that emptiness in itself, the creature quietly and easily clings to the wall or the rock, so making all the strength of the wall or rock its own. By its emptiness it is held fast; the moment it becomes full it drops off. Ah, it is the self-emptiness of a humble, trustful soul, that makes the Redeemer's strength his own, and so keeps him safe in an evil world.-REV. WILLIAM ARNOT.

941. LONGING FOR NOBLER LIFE.

2 Cor. xii. 9.-"Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." [R.V.]1 Weaknesses; strength. Illustrative.-Frederika Bremer, in her work on Greece, speaks of "the longings after a freer and nobler life" which distinguish many of the finely gifted and high-minded young maidens of the country. Conversing with one of them on a stormy night, she said, "I will become good, very good. I should not dread a great misfortune-for instance, the loss of my sight-if it would only give me inner light and goodness." She who so spoke was a young girl of princely birth, rich in everything that can flatter the worldly sense.-Quoted in the People's Magazine.

942.-CAUGHT WITH GUILE.

2. Cor. xii. 16.-"Being crafty, I caught you with guile."

Illustrative.-Mr. Robert Aitkin, a bookseller of Philadelphia, was the first person who printed a Bible in that city. While he kept a book store, a person called on him, and inquired if he had Paine's Age of Reason for sale. He told him he had not; but having entered into conversation with him, and found that he was an infidel, he told him he had a better book than Paine's Age of Reason, which he usually sold for a dollar, but would lend it to him, if he would promise to read it ; and after he had actually read it, if he did not think it worth a dollar, he would take it back again. The man consented; and Mr. Aitkin put a Bible into his hands. He smiled when he found what book he had engaged to read, but said he would perform his engagement. He did so; and when he had finished the perusal, he came back, and expressed the deepest gratitude for Mr. Aitkin's recommendation of the book, saying, it had made him what he was not before-a happy man; for he had found in it the way of salvation through Christ. Mr. Aitkin rejoiced in the event, and had the satisfaction of knowing that this reader of the Bible, from that day to the end of his life, supported the character of a consistent Christian, and died with a hope full of immortality.

PLEASURE in others' GOOD.

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II CORINTHIANS XIII.

943.-HONESTY,

2 Cor. xiii. 7.-"Ye should do that which is honest." [R.V.) That ye may do that which is honourable.

Illustrative.-A farmer called on the Earl Fitz-William, to represent that his crop of wheat had been seriously injured in a field adjoining a certain wood, where his lordship's hounds had, during the winter, frequently met to hunt. He stated that the young wheat had been so cut up and destroyed, that in some parts he could not hope for any produce. "Well, my friend," said his lordship, "I am aware that we have frequently met in that field, and that we have done considerable injury, and if you can produce an estimate of the loss you have sustained, I will repay you." The farmer replied that, anticipating his lordship's consideration and kindness, he had requested a friend to assist him in estimating the damage, and they thought that as the crop seemed quite destroyed, £50 would not more than repay him. The earl immediately gave him the money. As the harvest, however, approached, the wheat grew, and in those parts of the field which were most trampled, the corn was strongest and most luxuriant. The farmer went again to his lordship, and being introduced, said, “I am come, my lord, respecting the field of wheat adjoining such a wood." His lordship immediately recollected the circumstance. "Well, my friend, did not I allow you sufficient to remunerate you for your loss?" "Yes, my lord, I find that I have sustained no loss at all, for where the horses had most cut up the land the crop is most promising, and I have, therefore, brought the £50 back again." "Ah!" exclaimed the venerable earl, "this is what I like; this is as it should be between man and man." He then entered into conversation with the farmer, asking him some questions about his familyhow many children he had, &c. His lordship then went into another room, and returning, presented the farmer with a cheque for £100, saying, "Take care of this, and when your eldest son is of age, present it to him, and tell him the occasion that produced it." We know not which to admire the benevolence or the wisdom displayed by this illustrious man; for while doing a noble act of generosity, he was handing down a lesson of integrity to another generation.

944.-PLEASURE IN OTHERS' GOOD.

2 Cor. xili. 9.-"For we are glad,1 when we are weak, and ye are strong and this also we wish, even your perfection.": [R.V.] 1 Rejoice. Pray for. 3 Perfecting. Expository. It is a far greater and more blessed thing to rejoice and

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TRACES OF THE IDEA OF TRINITY.

be grateful, for an excellence, talent, gift, and bliss, which we behold in another, than in ourselves; because it is a proof that we are under the influence of the love of that Divine Being to whom every excellence, talent, gift, and bliss properly belongs.-REV. F. CLOWES.

945. PERFECTION IN CHARACTER.

2 Cor. xiii. 9.-"We wish,.even your perfection."

Illustrative.-There are things precious, not from the materials of which they are made, but from the risk and difficulty of bringing them to perfection. The speculum of the largest telescope fails the optician's skill in casting. Too much or too little heat, the interposition of a grain of sand, a slight alteration in the temperature of the weather, and all goes to pieces; it must be recast. Therefore, when successfully finished, it is matter for almost the congratulation of a country. Rarer and more difficult still than the costliest part of the most delicate of instruments is the completion of Christian character. Only let there come the heat of persecution, or the cold of human desertion, a little of the world's dust, and the rare and costly thing is cracked, and becomes a failure.-REV. F. W. ROBERTSON.

946.-TRACES OF THE IDEA OF TRINITY.

2 Cor. xiii. ¡4.-"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost."

Illustrative.-In Egypt, we find Osiris the Creator, Horus the Preserver, and Typhon the Destroyer. In Babylonia, Anu the Upper Air, Sui (Uri) the Moon, and Samis the Sun. In India, Brahma the Father, Vishnu the Saviour, Siva the Destroyer. In Persia, Zeruâne-Akrane, Infinite Time, Ormuzd the Good, and Ahriman the Evil. In Greece, Zeus, Poscidon, and Hades, or Heaven, Ocean, and Hell, were the firstborn of Time. In the early Scripture history we find men set in threes :—e.g., Cain, Abel, Seth; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; Moses, Aaron, Hur. At last we have Jehovah, Messias, Wisdom, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the full revelation of the Trinity in Unity of the Divine Being.

Accepting the sun as the supreme divinity, it is curious to note that the Egyptians subdivided it into other divinities. Considered in its different positions and its diverse aspects the sun became in each phrase a different god, having its peculiar name, attributes, and worship. Thus the sun during its nocturnal existence was Tum: when it shone in the meridian it was Ra; when it produced and nourished life, it was Kheper. Those were the three principal forms of the solar divinity, and they are

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