If this be true with regard to Cain, how much more may the same truth be declared of men now. "God is love:" and "in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." And then it is added, "Beloved, if God so love us, we ought also to love one another." (1 John iv. 9-11.) It is the knowledge of, and belief in, the free, wondrous, unmerited love of God to us so utterly unworthy, which alone can produce love in these hard, cold, and selfish hearts of It is "the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us," (Rom v. 5,) which can alone soften and melt them, and warm them towards God in Christ first, and then towards our brethren for Christ's sake. It is at the cross of Christ that lies the fountain head, from which alone every streamlet of real love derives its being.

ours.

Abel's blood is graciously spoken of in Scripture, by way of setting before us the value of the blood which has been shed for us, nor must we leave the subject without turning to so blessed a lesson which God Himself would teach us. We have heard that He

said, "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground:" and we have seen how that blood called for vengeance from every attribute of God. In setting forth the wondrous advantages of those who are called to the gospel, and not to the law,--the Epistle to the Hebrews says, "Ye are come to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." (ch. xii. 24.) Oh! let us wonder at the riches of grace in this, that, whilst on the one hand we are told to see what the blood of man requires of God's justice, we are bid to mark on the other how the blood of God's own Son, as shed by "wicked hands," pleads for us, and speaketh unto God in behalf of sinful man! Come then by faith to that blood of sprinkling, there seek to be cleansed from all sin: then shall you truly learn what love is, and you shall be able to rejoice in the witness of the Spirit that you are born of God, for you shall love much. Is it a little matter to be able to say, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren ?" (1 John iii. 14.)

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PRAYER.

O merciful God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look upon me who come to Thee in His Name. Forgive the hardness of my heart forgive my coldness and want of love. O God, Thou art love, teach me to love! Make me to know Thy love, open mine eyes to see it. Grant that I may know and believe the love which God has to me: and that Jesus Christ loved me and gave Himself for me. Holy Jesus, let me be sprinkled with Thy precious blood, and do Thou give me that most excellent gift of love. Grant, O God, that I may ever remember my need of thy mercy and thy love, and may show to others the love I receive from Thee. May faith and love be put into my heart by the Holy Spirit, and there may they grow exceedingly to the glory of Thy Name, through Jesus Christ. AMEN.

ENOCH WALKING WITH GOD.

"And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:

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And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

"And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years :

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And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." GEN. v. 21-24.

How fitly is man's life described by the Holy Ghost, in the Epistle of St. James!

is your life?

"What

It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." This is true of longer lives than we live now. It is true of those who lived many hundred years, as men did before the flood. For what is the longest life,—even the life of Methuselah,-compared with eternity? The fifth of Genesis is a striking chapter, if you look at it in this light. How long must the life of Seth have appeared to him, as he lived on past nine hundred years! and yet it came to an end, and all that we read of him,-his

long life, and his many deeds and sayings, is just this: Seth begat sons and daughters; and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died."

Among the names recorded in this chapter, Enoch's occurs, and his history differs from the others. First, his days were fewer upon earth, he lived three hundred and sixty-five years. His end was different,-it is not said he died; but, "he was not, for God took him." His life was different, for it was a life spent with God, he "walked with God."

His days were fewer here, perhaps, from the very fact that he walked with God: for "the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." (Isaiah lvii. 1.)

Concerning his end, we read further in the eleventh chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found, because God had translated him.' Only of one other do we read, who had such a blessed end as this. Elijah was taken up into heaven without tasting of death.

What was Enoch's character is plain from this description of his life, he "walked with God." If other things were not told us of him, how full of meaning is this account. He knew God. He loved God. He talked