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"Then," said Mr. Arnold, "to turn to the depth of the sea, it has a wonderful voice. What says the prophet? Not only that our God forgives us fully, freely; that He will never remember our sins; that He has cast them behind His back; but he exclaims, 'Who is a God like unto Thee! . . . Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.'1 In several of the great rivers of our native land dredging operations are carried on for the purpose of deepening them and making and keeping them navigable for the largest ships. You will see little fleets of lighters. being towed by steam-tugs out of the mouths of these rivers away out to sea. They have been filled with the sand and mud from their beds, and are taken out to sea that their cargoes may be dropped into its depths. These loads of sand could never be recovered and brought back again. Not one grain could be brought up from the depths of sea and recognised as having formed part of the load that had been cast into them. It would be vain to seek for any of the load. Thus it is with our sins when they are

put away by God."

"One voice more of this depth," said Mrs. Arnold. “We are told that, no matter how much agitated the surface of the sea may be, deep below there is ever a great calm.' Is it not so with the real Christian heart? Sorrow, trouble, anxiety may ruffle it, but beneath it all there is peace, nay joy. For 'when He giveth quiet, who shall make trouble ?""

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Mother," said Marion, a sweet, thoughtful girl, "your mention of joy reminds me of the verse, 'Let the floods clap their hands before the Lord, for He cometh.' Is not that just what the sea is doing to-day, as it lies so still and calm, the little ripples as they rise catching the sunlight and sparkling like myriads of diamonds? I think David must have had just this in his mind, the floods clapping their hands with joy."

"I think so too, dear child; and that little verse brings

1 Micah vii. 18, 19.

before us, too, as it were incidentally, the great chief cause of joy, 'The Lord cometh,' or, as we have it in the New Testament, 'That blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Then there is that wonderfully true and beautiful description of this appearance of this same sea by the old Greek poet, which our English poet translates The many twinkling smile of ocean.' But our wonderful lesson-book, interpreted by the Bible, has also more than one voice of solemn warning; do you, Nellie, remember what it says?"

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"In Isaiah, father, we have that terrible verse, 'The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.'"

"A terrible verse indeed, when we take into account that by the wicked God means, not as we generally do, those whose wickedness is open and manifest before man, but all who are not justified in Christ Jesus; for there are but two classes, two states; dead in sin or born of God; guilty or justified; at peace, or at war, with God, with ourselves; for the heart still at enmity with God cannot be quiet,' even as the sea, with its ceaseless tossings to and fro.2

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"Here is another warning voice: 'He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed; let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.' What a striking illustration! We see the waves rushing on as if they would do great things, but they meet an obstacle and fall back, accomplishing nothing; look a little later, and they are going with great eagerness in another direction, to change again with every varying wind. So is he almost a Christian,' but not decidedly on the Lord's side; now, when under good influence, seeming to have entered the service of the Lord heartily, and many rejoice and give thanks for him; but see him again under other influence, 1 Titus ii. 13. 2 Jeremiah xlix. 23.

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and the world has reasserted its power, and all his energies are turned in another direction. It cannot be too deeply impressed on every heart that, without decision, without following the Lord wholly, there is neither happiness nor usefulness nor safety in religion.

"Turning from warning to promise, what a wonderful prophecy we have in the words, 'The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.'1 Every depth filled, every height covered, the deeps and the shallows alike full. What a world this will be, when every heart shall know Him, 'Whom to know is life eternal; ' when all shall know Him, from the least unto the greatest,' and 'out of the abundance of the heart' every tongue shall tell of His goodness.

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'Then, not only to tell of the blessedness of the renewed earth, is the sea made to speak, but to tell also of the fulness of the joy, the glory, the praise of heaven itself. Again and again in the Revelation we find such words as these: 'And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters

. . and they sung as it were a new song before the throne." 12 'And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters . . saying, Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.'s

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"One more thought before we close, as we must now, though not because our sea has nothing more to tell us. My favourite association with the sea is, that when the disciples were tossing on it in their little ship that stormy night, 'toiling in rowing, for the wind was contrary,' 'Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.' The very waves which seemed to separate them from Him, the pathway by which He came to them, walking on the sea, and speaking those undying words of comfort, 'It is I; be not afraid." " 4

"Yes," said Mr. Arnold; "and that other storm, where He was with them in the ship, but asleep; so weary that all the tumult of wind and waves could not awake Him, yet at the first call of His weak and terrified disciples, He arose 1 Isa. xi. 9. 2 Rev. xiv. 2, 3. 3 Rev. xix. 6. 4 Matt. xiv. 24-27.

and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, 'Peace, be still.'1 Gracious words of love and power.

"Shall we not all henceforth love and admire more and more this glorious sea; not only because of its sublime beauty, but for its sacred associations, and its many voices of teaching, warning, comfort, hope and promise?"

K. W.

C

Saved by Faith Alone.

A DYING CHRISTIAN'S TESTIMONY.

BY RUTH LAMB.

OMETIME ago I stood by the sick bed of one who, during more than thirty years, had delighted to follow in the footsteps of her Divine Master, by going about and doing good.

The troubled had gone to her with their tale of sorrow, and never failed to find sympathy. The suffering were wont to rejoice when they saw her face beside the couch of pain, for she told of Him, the great Physician, both for the troubled soul and the diseased body. The poor went to her with the tale of want and privation, and she would do what she could to give them a supply for their immediate needs. But she did not stop there; she told them about Jesus, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, and who said of Himself: "The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head."

And then she would speak of the riches of His grace to poor sinners, and of the glorious inheritance awaiting those who had obtained peace through faith in the all-cleansing blood of Jesus.

And now she, who had ministered to so many, needed the ministration of loving hands, and lay in weakness and helplessness. But on the thin, wan face there was a smile;

1 Mark iv. 37-39.

and, though there were dark circles round the eyes, there was a glorious light from them, as raising them heavenward she said: "There is not a single cloud between me and my Lord. I can lie at peace without an anxious thought as to whether I shall ever rise from this bed again. I know that if my Father has any more work for His child to do, He will raise me up to do it. If not, I shall just go home."

Some one spoke of the many who were eagerly asking for news of her state, almost from hour to hour; poor wives and mothers, to whom the sight of her face had been like sunlight in the cottage doorway.

"Yes, for them I might wish to live.

But to depart and be with Christ is, for me, far better," she replied.

"You have always been labouring for others, and have done so much good," said her friend.

But the dying disciple turned her eyes towards the speaker, and said: "I don't want to hear of anything I have ever done for Him. He will not forget the poorest service done for His sake. What I want is to think of nothing but what He has done for me." And then, almost in a whisper, she said: "Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us; for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us."

To Thy name be all the glory! God, by His Spirit, had truly wrought in her both to will and to do. Hers had truly been a life in the Spirit.

What a privilege to stand by such a dying bed as this to hear such a testimony, as to the love that made it bright to the departing disciple, to the faithfulness of Him whose promises are all Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus, and tested through many a past year; to the indwelling hope, clear as a noonday sky, without a cloud, and full of the glory shed by the Sun of Righteousness!

And yet, though the life which was fast drawing to a close had been exceptionally self-sacrificing, this servant of the Lord had no wish to hear of her own doings. What she wanted was to have constantly in her mind the thought

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