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which bodes mischief coming, and the breakers are tossing themselves white upon that long reach of rocks which stretches out seawards, and the wind and tide are rising fast together, and the sun is going down.

Most of the boats that went out to sea last night have put back to shore during the day, empty as they went, and are lying now high and dry upon the beach. But two or three others have stood out to sea, their crews risking the chance of wind and wave for the sake of the cargo with which they hope by-and-by to return. For there is a good market, and there are good prices to be had for their fish just now; and wife and children, God bless them! must have food and raiment found by the brave hearts and strong hands that toil for them by night and day, through storm even as through calm. Doubtless the men are wishing now that they too had put back with the rest before the storm had begun to gather and the wind had risen too high to make it prudent for them to venture shorewards. Their only safety now is to stand out to sea, with their sails close-reefed, and wait till the storm has burst and spent itself.

Michael Tredegar is in one of these boats, he and his eldest boy, Reuben, and Simon Reeth, his partner; for they own the boat between them—one of the best and trimmest little craft in all Pengarva. Michael has one of the best and trimmest little wives, too-Mary Tredegar. The boat is named after her, and his son Reuben is one of the finest lads in the village. You would say so if you could have seen him as he sailed out with the others the night before, as tall as his father, though he is scarce sixteen, lithe and well made, with his black hair lying in crisp curls upon his bright open forehead. His mother may well be proud of him, as she is. So would any mother who owned such a son, and such a husband too, for there is no better one in all Pengarva than her Michael.

Alas, for the women who have treasures such as these out at sea, with storms brewing like the one which is gathering to-night! Mary Tredegar looks out with a sinking heart from her cottage door over that blackening, hungry, angry sea, and listens to the muttering of the wind and the hollow roar of the breakers on the beach. The sun has gone down, and the wind keeps rising still. Night creeps on. It is blowing a hurricane now, and through the darkness the waves are sounding like thunder as they tear and toss themselves against the rocks. The candle is burning on the sill in the uncurtained window. The three little ones are in bed. Mary and her

eldest girl, Ruth, are cowering with quaking hearts beside the log fire on the cottage hearth, starting and shivering at each fresh onslaught of the blast, which seems at times as if it would tear off the very roof above their heads, so relentless is its fury.

It is no use looking out any longer into the storm: earth and sky and sea are all wrapped alike in one veil of pitchy darkness. There is nothing to be seen; only that fearful roaring of the wind to be heard, and the booming, like a thousand cannons, of the waves. God be thanked for those who are safe at home! God help those who are fighting, perhaps, at this moment in the darkness for their lives upon that cruel sea, face to face with danger and with death! (To be continued in our next.)

FAITH IN CHRIST.

XT "T is possible that the reader has asked, "What must I do to be saved?" and has found difficulty in the very simplicity of the answer: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” And yet, do you not see that this is the only answer that Scripture gives-the only answer that can be given? You cannot save yourself, for you cannot forgive your own past sins, or make atonement for them; and you cannot by your own strength live without sin in the future. Your fellow-man cannot save you. Rites and ceremonies cannot save you. Your own good desires or deeds cannot save you. There is One, and One only, who can save you. There is no other name given among men, whereby you can be saved, but His. He is a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins. He has made atonement. He can pronounce forgiveness. He can save unto the uttermost: save from hell, save from sin, save the soul alive. He can pardon it, purify it, bestow on it the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile, and can give it immortal happiness in the world beyond the grave. Since, therefore, the sinner cannot save himself, and since Christ can save him, all that the sinner can do is to take Christ at His word, and to accept the salvation that Christ has provided-to believe that He meant what He said, and can do what He promised, when He declared that He

had "come to seek and to save that which was lost," and that "he that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." In other words, the sinner must trust in Christ to save him.

But it may be that you have not done this: that the only thing that you are required to do, the only thing that you can do, you have not done. Christ says, "Believe in Me," and you have not believed. He says, "Trust in Me," and you have not trusted. He says, "Come unto Me," and you have not come. You have attended the house of God, but you have not believed Him; you have been anxious about your salvation, but you have not believed Him; you have tried to reform your outer life, but you have not believed Him; you have prayed, but you have not believed Him. The very thing that you have been invited and commanded to do, you have not done. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," believe that He is infinitely able and infinitely willing to save you.

Those who are engaged in that most Christlike of all works— watching for souls, have frequently to deal with persons who make mistakes on the subject of faith.

"I believe," said a young man who was in great anxiety about his soul to a friend of the writer, "I believe all that the Bible says concerning Jesus Christ, but I feel so hard of heart and so unhappy, that I am sure I am not a Christian."

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But are you sure," was the reply, that you do believe what the Bible says concerning Jesus Christ?"

"Yes," he promptly rejoined.

“Let me see, then,” exclaimed our friend, "where the difficulty is." He took his Bible from his pocket-for he always carried oneand turning to the 3rd chapter of the Gospel by St. John, read, "He that believeth on the Son (that is, believes in Him as a Saviour) hath everlasting life" (John iii. 36). 'Do you believe that?"

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The young man paused for a while, and then answered, "I would like to do so."

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But surely you know whether you are believing in Him as your Saviour or not. Have you ever asked God for Jesus' sake to pardon your sins, and to give you His Holy Spirit?"

"Yes, a hundred times."

"Well; and will you now believe God if He tells you that for Jesus' sake they are blotted out?"

"Yes, I will.”,

"Are you sure you will?"

66 'I am sure."

Then reopening his Bible, our friend read to the eagerly listening inquirer the words, "I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (Isa. xliii. 15, 25). "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. i. 15); and "him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John vi. 37).

"Do you believe that?"

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"Yes, yes," he exclaimed; "I see it now."

"And do you now believe on the Son of God as your Saviour?" "Yes."

"And what, then, have you?"

“I have everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation." "How do you know that?" our friend insisted.

"Because God says it, and I believe it."

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Exactly. First, know what He says, and then believe it, because He says it. Remember, feeling is not faith. He who believes because he feels, is not believing God, but believing in his feeling. And if his feeling goes, his faith goes too. But the man who rests on God's word, rests upon a rock. He knows that his salvation does not depend upon himself, but upon Him who died for us, and rose again. He knows what he believes, and he knows why he believes it. The tide of feelings may ebb and flow; but he who rests his faith on God knows that, though the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, His loving-kindness shall never depart, and the covenant of His peace shall never be broken.'"

"He that hath made his refuge God,

Shall find a most secure abode;
Shall walk all day beneath His shade,
And there at night shall rest his head."

The Gospel does not say, Trust in your trust; believe in your belief; have faith in your faith; but it says, Trust in Christ; believe in Christ; have faith in Christ. The beauty of seeing is never to

think of your eyes, but to see. And the beauty of faith is never to think of herself, but only and wholly on Christ.

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Faith," it has been well said, "is the touchstone of the Christian -faith in the crucified and risen Redeemer, in Jesus the Son of God. This must be the flash of heavenly light to break in upon the dark chambers of the unconverted soul; this must be the fire to warm the world-frozen currents of man's heart, and suffer them to flow on in living streams towards the foot of the love-pledging cross of Christ. And when dark and stormy thoughts of doubt and sorrow begin to gather round, when we feel ourselves about to enter the thickening mists which are sweeping rapidly down upon things temporal, and veil as yet the things which are eternal, oh, then how deep and unspeakable the comfort to feel that there is one sure Anchor which will hold the drifting soul, to rejoice in a faith which sees not our own poor doings, but trusts all to Him who alone can save. "*

AUNT ANNY'S STORIES.

NO. I.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

"AUNTIE, we are going to sit up and hear the bells ring in the New Year, to-night. Mamma says we may," cried my nephews and nieces, one New Year's Eve about ten o'clock, appearing, to my astonishment, at the door of my room, where I was sitting by a bright fire.

"Nonsense!" I replied; "you'll be much better asleep in your

beds."

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'Oh, no; we shouldn't sleep. And mamma promised us last year that we should sit up."

"The idea of your remembering a year ago; and the idea of your not sleeping! Why, you won't keep awake anyhow till twelve o'clock. And I don't want you here," I continued, in my gravest voice. "I meant to have a quiet time to myself."

"We remember last year quite well. And we are quite wide awake, and shall not go to sleep a bit. And you've got to have us;

*Home Mission Tracts. "Faith: What is it ?" Snow, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row. Price one halfpenny, or 3s. 6d. per 100.

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