catch the enlivening draught: others, as falling down upon their knees to drink of the bubbling flow. Fathers and mothers were eager to impart to their parched children who stretched out their eager hands and necks. Others were hastening to bear relief to the lame, the sick, the dying-It is this eagerness for relief and gratification which explains the allusion of Moses: "He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." It was not oil or honey; but it was as good-it tasted as rich as oil

-as sweet as honey. And did we but thirst as they did, such would be our longings after the Saviour: so precious would be a participation of his benefits; so eager should we be, not only to obtain supplies for ourselves, but to communicate them to others. also.

How well do those who refuse these rich and blessed streams deserve the place where in vain they will call for a drop of water to cool their tongue! This is the condemnation-" Ye would not come unto me, that ye might have life."

JUNE 22.-MORNING.

"He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria." JOHN iv. 3, 4.

FOR two reasons. Because Samaria lay in his passage and because he had in design the conversion of this poor woman. We cannot imagine an event of such magnitude in itself-for there is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner

that repenteth: and attended with such consequences as this was--for it involved the salvation also of many of the Samaritans-we cannot imagine that such an event was accidental. Nothing takes place by chance in our most common affairs-and is the conversion of a soul for everlasting blessedness a casualty?

In the recovery of sinners, the grace of God is equally necessary and illustrious. By grace are we saved through faith; and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. And, in the conversion Jesus here accomplished, we have an example of this grace. An example of its freeness; of its gentleness; of its power; and of its effects.

Of its freeness-in selecting this wicked wretch, in spite of her unworthiness, and without her desire; and making her not only the partaker, but the instrument, of his goodness.

Of its gentleness-in having recourse to no means of alarm; no violence. No angel appears with a drawn sword; no lightnings flash; no thunder rolls; no threatening terrifies. All is mercy, all is mildness: and he employs circumstances the most natural and suitable, to bring her to conviction, and to induce her. to pray.

Of its power in the victory it gained over the corruptions of her heart. If there be a moral disorder that seems incurable; or an evil capable of resisting all reasoning and motive; it is the spirit of impurity. But behold here a new creature! She is not only pardoned, but renewed; and the change wrought at

once!

Of its effects-She not only believes with the heart,

but confesses with the mouth. She is not only enlightened, but inflamed. No sooner has she gained good than she is concerned to do good. Personal religion becomes social. She cannot for a moment keep from others what she has seen and heard herself -What benevolence! What zeal! What urgency! What fortitude! "The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ ?"-And what success too! For they who speak from experience seldom speak in vain. "Then they went out of the city, and came unto him." Some of these might have accompanied her from curiosity; and some from the mere contagion of example: but not a few were deeply and savingly impressed. "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him, for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So, when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days."

The sight of this had so affected our Saviour as, it would seem, to take away his appetite. He had been hungry, as well as thirsty: and the disciples had gone away into the city to buy meat. But when they returned, and prayed him, saying, Master, eat; he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. And when they said one to another, Hath any man brought him aught to eat? he said, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." What a repast have I had since you left me! A poor, sinful Samaritaness has been here. And I have manifested myself to her. And, under the impression, she has hastened to inform and invite her neighbours

to come and hear me—and has prevailed! "Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest ?" But see the encouragement you have to scatter the seeds of Divine truth. "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields"-see the woman and her company coming over yonder plain-" for they are white already to harvest." Here the success is so immediate, that "the sower and the reaper rejoice together"-And so it is written: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seeds; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt."

JUNE 22.-EVENING.

"Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshekeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field." ISAIAH Xxxvi. 1, 2.

HERE was a great danger. The enemy was powerful. He had subdued many other countries. He was now invading Judah; and carrying every thing before him. He had already taken every stronghold in his way, and was come to the very gate of Jerusalem. The Lord frequently does not appear for his servants till all hope that they should be saved is taken away. Hence it has grown into a proverb, that our extremity is God's opportunity-" In the mount it shall be seen."

He does not hinder our sun from going down; but he prevents the darkness we foreboded, and at evening time it is light! Thus it was with Hezekiah.

Observe under this alarming trial what he felt. "It came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth." So Job, that example of patience, when he had heard the successive messengers of woe, "arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped." A natural hardihood, a stoical insensibility, is not patience or submission; yea, it renders the exercise of them impossible. There is no patience in bearing what we do not feel, or resignation in giving up what we do not value. The grace of God keeps us from despising the chastening of the Lord, as well as from fainting when we are rebuked of him; and afflictions only yield profit to them that are exercised thereby.

No

Observe also what he did. He betook himself to prayer. It was his duty, it was his privilege. It distinguished him from men of the world, who have recourse to suicide, or dissipation, or creature-assistance -God was his refuge and strength, a present help in trouble. "He went into the house of the Lord." doubt he retired and poured out his soul before the Lord in his closet; but God is known in his palaces for a refuge, Hence he also sent a deputation to engage the supplications of Isaiah the prophet: "And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshekah, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard; wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left." This shews the sense he had of