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WALKING, WORKING, GROWING.

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God."-COL. i. 10.

ST. PAUL is speaking of that which pertains to ourselves—our walk. The walk is made up of short steps. So we are called on to walk worthy of the Lord in all the little things of life: those which come closest to our hand, just within reach,-the little engagements, the little occupations, the little daily acts and conversations; in these the Christian is called upon to walk worthy of the Lord; and here is the difficulty. We can brace ourselves up for great events; but, while many Christians pass through great events, how they fail in little things, in what is called the minutiae of life! In our looks, and words, and daily duties, and smallest acts— what failure there! The difficulty lies in little things, just where we never expected it. God sets us down to little duties, little cares, little occupations, and in these He asks us to walk worthy of Him. Walk implies progress, growth in grace, advance. In everything worthy of the Lord there must be progress.

The Christian is called on in all these little things to stand and act in relation to One, and that One Christ. You have only One to please, the Lord Jesus. How it brings the Lord down into our smallest matters! How it manifests our Saviour, as deeply interested in the little steps of life! And yet, though we may call them little, in the eyes of Him who loves us there is nothing little. Everything is great with Him. And no act is so grand, so great, so glorious, as the manifestation of your Saviour in the smallest and humblest duties. There is nothing on which God sets such a seal as on that which is done for His glory.

"Unto all pleasing: " every little act done to please Him to the uttermost. Where there is deep love there will always be this pleasing of our Father.

"Fruitful in every good work." Not engaged in every work only. You have to see that there is fruitfulness. Something in it, whether little or great, that will please your Heavenly Father.

66 Increasing in the knowledge of God." You cannot increase in the knowledge of God unless your heart is under the guiding and teaching of the Holy Spirit continually. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." If you want to know the Word of God experimentally, to be able to set the seal of your heart to the knowledge of your understanding, there must be a walk worthy of the Lord. The whole character of God seems to

Let

expand to the soul that is walking with God. us see that we are walking worthy of that dear Saviour unto all pleasing. God grant more grace and more of the power of the Spirit to this end.

Laid on Thine Altar, O my Lord divine,
Accept my gift this day for Jesu's sake;
I have no jewels to adorn Thy shrine,

Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make;
But here I bring within my trembling hand

This will of mine—a thing which seemeth small;
And only Thou, dear Lord, can'st understand
How, when I yield thee this,-I yield mine all.
Hidden therein the searching eye can see
Struggles of passion, visions of delight,

All that I love, or am, or fain would be,

Deep loves, fond hopes, and longings infinite,
It hath been wet with tears and dimm'd with sighs.
Clench'd in my grasp till beauty it hath none;

Here at Thy footstool, where it vanquish'd lies,
The prayer ascendeth-" May Thy will be done."
Take it, O Father, ere my courage fail,
And merge it so in Thine Own will that e'en

If in some desperate hour my cries prevail,
And Thou give back my gift, it may have been
So changed, so purified, so fair have grown,
So one with Thee, so filled with peace divine,
may not know or feel it as my own,
But,-gaining back my will, may find it-Thine.

I

E. G.

"MEROZ."

JUDGES V. 23.

MEROZ is gone. No record of it except this verse remains. The most ingenious and indefatigable explorer cannot even guess where it once stood. But the curse remains; the violent outburst of the contempt and anger which men feel who have fought and suffered and agonised, and then see other men who have the same interest in the result which they have, coming out cool and unwounded from their safe hiding-places to take a part of the victory which they have done nothing to secure. Meroz stands for that. It sometimes happens that a man or a town passes completely away from the face of the earth and from the memory of men, and only leaves a name which stands as a sort of symbol or synonym of some quality, some virtue, or some vice, for ever. So Meroz stands for the shirker ; for him who is willing to see other people fight the battles of life, while he simply comes in to take the spoils. No wonder Deborah and Barak were indignant. Their wounds were still aching; their people were dead and dying all around them; and

here was Meroz, idle and comfortable, and yet, because she was part of the same country, sure to get the benefit of the great victory as much as any. It is so even in religion. To how many Christians does the religious life present itself in the enthusiastic and inspiring aspect of working and fighting for God? How almost all Christians never get beyond the first thought of saving their own souls! I think I am as ready as any man to understand the vast variety of forms under which self-devotion may be shown, and not to impute selfishness to that which simply is not unselfish in certain special forms. But, making all broad allowances, I think there is nothing which so comes to impress a man as the way in which the vast majority of men hold back and, with no ill-will but all good wishes, let the interests of their fellow-men and of goodness and of God take care of themselves. Notice that the sin for which Meroz is cursed is pure inaction. There is no sign that its people gave any aid or comfort to the enemy. merely did nothing. We hear so much about the danger of wrong thinking and the danger of wrong doing. There is the other danger of not doing and not thinking at all. It is hard for many people to feel that there is danger and harm in that, the worst kind of harm and danger. And the trouble comes, I think, from the low condition of spiritual vitality. A man who is but half alive, a poor helpless invalid shut up in his room, hears the roar

They

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