"PRAISE YE THE LORD."

PSALM Cxlvii. I.

CHRISTIAN, fix your eye upon Christ and you will soon praise Him. Dwell upon that Lamb of God till you forget yourself and become lost in the marvellous love to you, a guilty sinner. Read the meaning of those drops of blood, of that anguished look and that bitter cry. It was all for thee. It was because He was suffering for thy sin, and that thou mightest go up to the throne of God a blood-bought, pardoned sinner! Dwell on this love till self is forgotten and praises fill thy soul.

But it is not every one that can sing! Can THE UNSAVED sing? In this present day one of the devil's snares-and the devil is going about, not so much as a raging lion as like a subtle serpent, "deceiving the whole world," and all the more because his time is so short-is music. Everything is music! And they think HEAVEN is simply a place of MUSIC! Are you among those who like to hear about the songs of heaven, but who do not care to hear of the song that a soul sings when it gets its feet on the rock? Take care lest you be among the unsaved. What does Paul say? "Make melody."

But how? "In your hearts." And that is not all. He says, "with grace"-singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. You cannot sing the Lord's song till you have grace in your heart, till you have the discovery of the free love of God to sinners through His Son. Have you got that? If you continue as you are you cannot join the song of the redeemed to the Lamb, because you have never counted Him worthy of your heart. If you love your music so well, but love the Lamb so little, instead of joining in that song when the great multitude shall appear with Christ our Head, raising their voices loud as many waters and as mighty thunderings, you will just hear it at a distance for a moment or two, and then go down into the outer darkness, where there is weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth-ceaseless weeping, eternal wailing, everlasting gnashing of teeth at your own folly in having missed the day of your opportunity. Do not be deceived by the delight of singing, as if, because you could sing a pleasant hymn, therefore you were one that could sing the new song.

O Thou! to whom my soul aspires,
The object of her best desires;
The Saviour, who redeemed that soul,
The healer, who hath made me whole;
My advocate, whose plea prevails,
Whose intercession never fails;
O Jesus! Listen to my plea-
Increase, O Lord, my love to Thee.

I blush for shame when I reflect
What love Thou justly might'st expect—

Thou who for me hast lived and died,
Been mocked, and scourged, and crucified.
Yet, though for me Thy life-blood flowed,
Cold is my heart towards Thee, my God—
What claims to love like Thine can be?
Increase, O Lord, my love to Thee.

This life, with all its petty things,

The thoughts, the cares, each moment brings,
Its tempting sweets, its busy schemes,

Its toils, its visionary dreams—

These chain to earth that dear-bought soul,
I long to yield to Thy control;

Oh break my shackles-set me free,
Increase, O Lord, my love to Thee.

There is a pure, intense delight

In loving Thee, though veiled from sight,
Far, far above all sweetness felt
In earthly love-its flame can melt
The obdurate heart, with power divine,
And cure the love of self and sin :
Jesus! consume them both in me—
Increase, increase my love to Thee.

Oh if I loved Thee as I ought,

Wouldst thou not blend with every thought?
Would hours, nay, even days be spent

Without one longing heavenward sent?
Without one fervent wish to dwell

With Thee in bliss ineffable?

Why should it e'er be thus with me?
Increase, O Lord, my love to Thee.

Spirit of glory and of God!

Shed in my heart Christ's love abroad-
Cast every meaner object out—

Chase every unbelieving doubt-
Make clear His precious love divine,
To kindle and to deepen mine;
Jesus, Thine only would I be,
Increase, O Lord, my love to Thee.

ANONYMOUS.

"ABIDE IN MY LOVE."

JOHN XV. 10.

"IF ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." The "keeping" is not only the proof of our love, but the measure of His: I mean of His manifestation of it; for the question here is of communion, not of salvation. If we are walking carelessly, allowing sin to have "dominion," our sense of the love of Christ, as practically near and sweet, will be lost. Abiding in His love is linked with doing His will. He loves us unconditionally, but He can only, as it were, express His love conditionally-" He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved. of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him."

He shows us, too, how these same conditions were true for Himself as man- "Even as I have have kept My Father's commandments," &c. For Him also there was the "learning obedience"the bringing His human will into subjection. But

He could say, "I do always those things which please Him;" and, therefore, He "abode in" the Father's love. It was His home, from which He could not be for one moment shut out. Is not this the secret of our knowing so little of the joy of Christ's love? We are keeping our own commandments. We are serving self instead of yielding it. We are not "submitting ourselves wholly to His holy will and pleasure," to have every bit of our lives moulded by it. We want to have faith, without surrender. We are ready to be acted upon by a succession of good impulses, but not to act ourselves in self-denial and mortification. We are not willing to be judged by the Word of God, and that only. We would rather look into the lives of our fellow-Christians for some help in modifying its standard. We may, perhaps, do the commandment of our Lord (very fitfully even that), but we certainly do not "keep it"and keeping is something beyond doing. A thing done may be done with, but a thing kept is continually present—a hidden force, whose energy is always at work. And without this there will be many a break in our communion with Christ. We shall not "abide" in His love, but only now and then enter it, coming into warmth and nearness out of distance and cold, to which we too soon return.

And to abide in His love we have need to lay to our hearts God's own solemn question, "What communion hath light with darkness?" "Oh,