Christ, nor of His followers, but gloried in their fellowship, and even aspired to have partnership in their sufferings. (7) In antagonism to Christianity. The doctrines Christ taught were repulsive to Saul, before his conversion, and the religion he taught odious, and worthy only of oblivion. But, now, he would compass land and sea to make the glorious Gospel known, and would count not his life dear, so that he might testify of the Lord Jesus, and extend His kingdom in the world. He became, in his sermons and epistles, a most heroic and devoted advocate of the cause he once endeavoured to overthrow. Let these facts encourage and cheer us; for every opponent to the truth is a possible ally. Those, who, to-day are antagonists to the truth may, to-morrow, be its powerul and popular advocates. Saul of the early, and

Bunyan of the later, time give us warrant for such expectations. Servants of Satan may become, through divine grace, valiant soldiers of the cross.

III. HOW THE GRANDEST HISTORIES MAY GROW FROM THE MOST UNPROMISING BEGINNINGS. It seemed a very sad beginning for Christianity, when its Founder was crucified, and its first apostles were slain; but the blood of Christ was the spring of redemption, and the martyr's blood has been the seed of the Church. The sufferers for truth have not been victims, but victors, in their hour of trial and death. The Christian Church-born in sorrow, and rocked in storms, has become mighty, and irresistible, as an immovable rock, in the tide of rolling years. Saul, standing by, and consenting to the death of Stephen, seemed likely to become a monster of iniquity and cruelty, his life had a most unpromising beginning, but what a grand history grew out of it!

Christianity, as represented in Stephen, seemed likely to be crushed, Christians seemed likely to be destroyed, as well as dispersed abroad; but the means adopted to trample out the Gospel only led to its greater and wider triumphs; and the spoils and successes of eighteen centuries are the outcome of the sorrows and struggles of unpromising infant days. All this is in harmony with the teaching of Nature; where we see that great events hang upon little things, and where the most wonderful results often flow from the weakest and most unpromising agencies and beginnings.

CONCLUSION.-(1) Let us never despair of the ultimate triumph of truth and goodness, because their power seems feeble, and their advocates few. (2) Let none despair of making something grand of life, though it may have had an untoward beginning. (3) Let the wrongdoing of our past life not check us, but stimulate us in our new career of devotion to the cause of Christ; for Saul's early errors did not disqualify him to become an apostle. (4) Let us avoid the spirit and conduct of Saul, the bigoted and persecuting religionist, and seek to emulate the spirit of the sainted Stephen. We are called upon to be martyrs, i.e., "witnesses;" and, if we cultivate the martyr's spirit, and live the martyr's life, the martyr's rest and reward will be ours, whenever, or however, death may come to us.

F. W. BROWN.

THE BEST COVENANT.

"Now IT IS IN MY HEART TO MAKE A COVENANT WITH THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL, THAT HIS FIERCE WRATH MAY TURN AWAY FROM US."-2 Chron. xxix. 10.

HE degeneracy of true religion in Judah at

this particular period was very great. It had

reached its climax. Perhaps we might say that it was fallen so low, that there could hardly be a lower depth. At the age of twenty-five, this godly young prince, Hezekiah, is invested with regal honours, He was son of the most corrupt of the kings of Judah. For a long time, "Ichabod" was virtually written upon the walls of Zion. What did Ahaz care for the honour of Jehovah? He had no reverence for Him, no respect for His law, none for His preachers-the prophets.

The worship and idolatries of Syria were actually set up in the holy place. This very thing is repeated in England to-day. The idolatries of Rome are rife, even in a Protestant church. "So they wrap it up," "My people love to have it so," which is worse still. The temple of the Lord was fashioned after the idolatrous model of Syria. By-and-bye, it is shut up altogether! What a prospect for a young prince! How did he demean himself? There is here, again, a lesson for us. If we did only see it, and had our souls imbued with the same spirit, as that of Hezekiah, the old and animating scenes of our Welsh revivals would follow. Hezekiah did not sit down in a sullen mood, nor did he despair, his faith looked up. There was then, and there ever is, "a bright light in the cloud." God's name and covenant were still the heritage of Judah.

The young king arose with the occasion. He conceived a noble enterprise. He lost no time in putting it into form.

Judgment, literally, began with the house of God. The temple was purified. The idol gods were demolished, and hurled into the brook Kedron. Even the brazen serpent was not spared. It had become an object of worship. It is, therefore, and we presume by divine command, doomed and degraded to the same fate as that of the idol gods of Syria. "Them that honour me I will honour." In God's moral government this is a great fact. It was so now. The pious and enthusiastic young king was prospered. The temple was re-opened, the festivals were revived-no new machinery was brought into play, so as "to get up a revival." The old was resuscitated. A new life was put into it, and the result was, that religion flourished in Judah as it had not done since the days of David.

These words may be regarded as the utterance of an earnest Christian leader, of an earnest minister or deacon, or of any earnest Christian in committing himself to a more determined work for Christ. Or they may be taken as the utterance of any one who is determined to be on the Lord's side. Our inquiry, then, is— I. WHAT IS MEANT BY MAKING 66 A COVENANT WITH THE LORD?" The word "covenant" is an Old Testament word. Its meaning and spirit have a place in the New Testament--in the religion of Jesus Christ. In our days it means that gracious engagement on God's part to bestow on man the very favour which he supremely needs, and on terms of God's own ordering; and, on the part of man, his acceptance of these terms, according to apostolic exhortation-"Be ye reconciled

to God." The words, then, (1) Imply, on man's part, the conviction of the fact, the folly, and the sin of his being out of covenant with God. The fact is, that man is at variance with God; that he is not what God meant him to be. There has been a moral lapse. The crown has fallen from his head. Any theories about the origin of sin are human follies. They bear no fruit for good. The fact of personal sin is patent. We are certain of it. The conviction of this is a great point in the sinner's return to God. The folly of it is shown by God's own account of it, better than in anything that we can say, "For my people have committed two evils they have left me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."

The sin of such conduct is easily understood in the light of God's character, and it is comprehensively suggested by the word "Me." "They have left ME." “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." "They have hated me

without a cause."

(2) To make a covenant with the Lord implies a willing and entire abandonment of every other covenant. under which the soul has been enslaved. An impenitent soul is decided, confessed, in its moral position and relationship. Its place is not a neutral one. It is not a doubtful one. “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Whose is he, then? "He that is not with me is against me." "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?