likely to us individually than it seemed to Moses in the day of his calling: but when we remember the prevalency and power of the Holy Spirit in these days, and when we come to believe that He speaks, and speaks in us, crying in the heaviest soul, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light;" and when we hear a Paul, a mightier than Moses, ascribe all his spiritual power to this one light, saying, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;" and when we think of all that the Spirit has done and can do, we may take up, with some humble confidence, this

PRAYER,

That "He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and depth, and length, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth

knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."

THE AWE OF REDEMPTION.

"And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth

according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain con-
versation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and with-
out spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you."-
I PETER i. 17-20.

FEAR-a word which from our earliest days

has unpleasant associations-in Scripture denotes not always quite the same thing; else how could we read in one place," The love of God casteth out fear;" and in another, "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever"?

Let the imperfectness of our language awaken our minds to a more careful and diligent search after the Divine meaning in this passage, which sets before us the fear of redemption as a companion through this life. Fear which arises from

expected ill passes on, as that ill approaches, into dread, terror, and it may be destruction. But fear which drives us for refuge to a Protector passes on, as interposition and deliverance result, into childlike awe and reverence for that power which was stronger than the ill, and mightier to save than the evil was to destroy. This text directs us into this kind of fear. The ill dreaded being the curse and penalty of sin; the interposing delivering power being redemption through the work of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ; and the fear resulting being the awe of deliverance, at the greatness of the love and power that worked it out, the adoring reverence that must pay its homage to such an infinite love.

It may be profitable for us to see and feel that so long as moral evil exists in this world, and deliverance from its curse and power is assured and experienced by trust in the Gospel of Christ, this fear will exist; and none the less profitable as the current of modern religious thought is leaving such utterances of our Great Lord and Teacher as these: "I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear

Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him." And the fear of the Lord as one who can destroy His adversaries passes away from those who once trembled under it and inspired it in others, and there comes in to take its place the fear of this world, the dread of incurring its scorn, and anxiety about its gains and losses, its good opinion, and its good places.

Why the current should so turn I cannot tell; but may not this be one reason, that at one time religious people, knowing the terror of the Lord, strove to compel men in most questionable ways; they were overbearing and persecutors, and even put their opponents to death; and now that that reign of terror is over, and religious pains and penances, yea, almost all discipline of religious communities, is at an end, they have not yet so come under this holier fear as to show that the constraints of love and gratitude are as strong as those which arise from dread of threatened ill, and that men out of the awe of their redemption can labour and strive and deny themselves as vehemently as their fathers did through dread of doom, and that the constraining love of Christ is as potent as the fear