find their souls dry, while the children of prayer have their souls refreshed with the sweet dews of heaven. No signs given to mere fault-finders. Signs given to weak faith for encouragement. Seek not for the material fleece to be wet with dew, but that the soul may be refreshed. (c) Human craving and Divine supply. Gideon and his people ask for signs. Men and women in all ages seek for the visible. The Jews require a sign, and the Gentiles follow. Moderns are demanding signs. God meets the craving so far as is needful. Do we ask for material tokens; we have recorded cases. The men who are not thus satisfied, would not be persuaded though Gideon should rise from the dead, and repeat the miracle of the fleece in the presence of the British Association. God will not go out of His ordinary course if common sense be sufficient. The praying soul catches the sound of a voice which never reaches the ear of the prayerlessfeels the touch of a hand that vanishes before the approach of materialism. The man who knows the worth of prayer is not always craving for material manifestations. We need more faith. We speak about the littleness of Gideon's faith, what about ours? There we are silent. Oh what prayer we require! Where is the Church that looks like Gideon's fleece wet with dew, and sending forth moisture, when squeezed by the hand of a benevolent ministry, to refresh the dry land around?

II. GOD TESTING MAN. One of the mysteries of Divine operations. God seems to try men as if to see for what they are fit. The man faithful over a few things is made ruler over many things. The parable of the talents. Here God tests Gideon's army. (a) God tests men for His own glory. He would not have Israel vaunt themselves against Him saying, "Mine own hand

hath saved me." Self-glorification is the tendency of fallen human nature. God will not give His glory to another. Humility before God is necessary for successful work for God. Here go back and inquire if it would answer wise ends for God to repeat the miracle of the fleece. Material success in prayer might tend to moral depravation. The dewy fleece might become a cause of boasting. (b) God tests men by a human method. Skilful to turn back the fearing. Cowards would be hinderers. Better three hundred valiant men than thirty and two thousand cowards. God works along human lines. Extraordinary means not employed where ordinary will answer. The world to be saved by human instrumentality. God will not have the craven-hearted. (c) God tests men by means best fitted to bring about the best ends. Wise the method. of trial by the drinking of water. The men who drank with the hand-who thus showed their power of selfrestraint and their zeal for the work-most likely to perform daring feats in battle. Wisdom evinced by simple methods. Cumbrous are vaunted human methods. Easy and effective are Divine methods. The best, and fraught with grand results, simplicity in nature, in Providence, and in Grace. The wisdom of a Divine simplicity seen in the Gospel method of salvation. (d) God tests men for their own development. These three hundred that lapped would be more fitted for their work after the trial. Men are improved by giving outward sign of inward virtues. A man is more heroic after he has done the heroic deed. These men the better for their work by seeing brought to view their qualities of courage, of self-restraint, and of enthusiasm. Divine trials purpose human development. Jesus Himself perfected through suffering. "The trial of faith worketh patience, etc.'

There must be the Divine trial before there can be the work for humanity successfully accomplished. Luther's requisites for the minister. (e) Thus God tests men to bring about the greatest ultimate good. The glory of God, and the salvation of the Church, the greatest ultimate good of the universe. The mystery of war is the mystery of evil. To ask could not God have saved Israel without the slaughter of so many enemies, is to open up the discussion of the old and much vexed question as to the origin of evil. Strangely and sadly mysterious that

destruction works out Salvation. It is so in human work. So in Divine work as we see it from the human side. Baal's altar destroyed; God's altar built. Midianites and Amalekites slain; Israel saved. Good men killed; truth lives. Christ dies; Salvation perfected. All however working out the greatest ultimate good. Leave the mystery to the all-revealing light of eternity. Embrace the promise. By the three hundred men that lapped; by, humanly-speaking, unlikely means; by the sacrifice of the Lamb slain, will I save you.

W. BURROWS, B.A.

Reflections on Autumn.

"The impression we feel from the scenery of autumn is accompanied with much exercise of thought; the leaves then begin to fade from the trees; the flowers and shrubs with which the fields were adorned in the summer months decay; the woods and groves are silent; the sun himself seems gradually to withdraw his light, or to become enfeebled in his power. Who is there, who at this season, does not feel his mind impressed with a sentiment of melancholy, or who is able to resist that current of thought, which, from such appearances of decay, so naturally leads him to the solemn imagination of that inevitable fate which is to bring on alike the decay of life, of empire, and of nature itself."- Alison.

Eminent Piety and Efficiency in Business not

Incompatible.

(Continued from p. 176.)

"THEN SAID THESE MEN WE SHALL NOT FIND ANY OCCASION AGAINST THIS DANIEL, ACCEPT WE FIND IT AGAINST HIM CONCERNING THE LAW OF HIS GOD."-Daniel vi. 5.

II. THE LAST RESORT OF HIS MALICIOUS ENEMIES.. Their confession is, "We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." Unable to found a charge against him in respect of his civil duties, they look in another direction, and basely lay a plot for his ruin concerning the law of his God, i.e. concerning his religion. You know the scheme and how it utterly failed. The cowardly conspiracy together with its terrible recoil on the conspirators, is fully developed in the remainder of this chapter. They induce Darius, the king, in an unguarded hour, to make "a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions." Daniel remains faithful. He is "found praying and making supplications before his God, as he did aforetime." He suffers the appointed penalty. He is cast into the den of lions. But God "sent his angel, and shut the lions' mouths," and the savage beasts hurt him. In awful retribution, the conspirators with their wives and children are in turn cast into the lion's den ; "and the lions had the mastery of them and brake all

not.

their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den." Thus the enemies of Daniel are "taken in their own trap, and are fallen into the pit their own hands have digged." And now this last resort of his enemies, this aiming to find something against the Jew" concerning the law of his God" affords several important lessons which the reader of these pages will do well to consider. Mark, then,

First, THERE WAS ANOTHER CHANCE, AND THAT CHANCE LAY IN THE MAN'S RELIGION. It was known that Daniel was not only sagacious, but that he was also a truly pious man. He was eminently devout. The law of the Lord was his delight. Prayer was the element of his soul's existence. That comprehensive mind of his which fitted him so eminently for the cares of secular office was sanctified to a far nobler ministry. It became the chosen medium through which the spirit of prophecy conveyed to mankind some of its sublimest revelations. Daniel was a

statesman and something more.

Reader, how is it with you? Are you a tradesman and something more? Society abounds with efficient men of business, who are that, and, morally, nothing more. Suppose an enemy to your prosperity, bent on doing you harm, found himself (as in Daniel's case) baffled on the score of general efficiency and commercial credit, what would be the probable result if he proposed damaging your worldly position and reputation through the medium of your religion? Would the answer be, "oh! as to religion he makes no pretence. There is no substance there to drive a nail into." Mark, it is not simply moral character that is involved in this inquiry. Thorough honesty and honour might sufficiently explain the accuracy of Daniel's accounts. But his religion was