264 SAVED FROM SIN'S DEEPEST DEPTH.

whom they feel they owe so much. Their inmost spirits cry:

NOW UNTO HIM THAT IS ABLE TO KEEP US FROM FALLING, AND TO PRESENT US FAULTLESS BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF HIS GLORY WITH EXCEEDING JOY, TO THE ONLY WISE GOD OUR SAVIOUR, BE GLORY AND MAJESTY, DOMINION AND POWER, BOTH NOW AND EVER. AMEN.

Am I indeed a chosen heir of grace?
And is my heavenly Father reconciled?
And has His smiling face

Beamed with acceptance on His wayward child?
'Tis because Jesus shed His precious blood,
Obeyed and suffered in the sinner's room;
Endured the wrath of our offended God,

Then conquered death and triumphed o'er the tomb!

And does my bosom burn with holy love?
And kindle with devotion's sacred fire?
And are the joys above,

The objects of my first, my chief desire?
Oh! 'twas His grace that first allured my heart
To choose Him as my Portion and my Friend;
And will He not all needful strength impart,
And by His power uphold me to the end?

Yes; there's an hour approaching when His own
Shall be presented, spotless and complete,
Before His Father's throne !

To lay their crowns of victory at His feet!

And not a blemish or a stain be found
Upon their robes made white in Jesus' blood !
While all their harps the blissful notes resound:
"Salvation, praise and glory to our God."

CHAPTER IX.

REMARKABLE CASES OF

CONVERSION

THROUGH

MOST UNLIKELY MEANS,

AND

FEEBLE INSTRUMENTALITIES.

"God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in His presence.”—1 Cor i. 27, 28.

God makes foolish the wisdom of the wise.—Humbles the creature.— The instruments He uses for the conversion of men.—The fiery flying serpent and malefactor's cross.-The gospel.-The dog

Rover."-The carbuncled nose and the fly.-The Chinaman's dream.-A charm for the Karenee.-Errors in judgment.— Mistaken views.-Red Indian's explanation and experience.— The little orphan maid.--The Scot's worthies.-Berridge, Wesley, Whitfield, Lady Huntingdon and Cotton Mather.—Living, breathing Bibles.-A shooting match in Antrim.—A soldier.— An odd voice.-A devil worshipper.-Children as instruments.My heart talked.”—“ Lifted higher!"-Rev. W. H. Hewitson and Rev. Frank White's testimonies.-The cross! The cross!

PF. 265-302.

CHAPTER IX.

"HIS WAYS ARE NOT AS OUR WAYS, NEITHER ARE HIS THOUGHTS AS OUR THOUGHTS. FOR IT IS WRITTEN, I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND WILL BRING TO NOTHING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT. HATH NOT GOD MADE FOOLISH THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD? BECAUSE THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD IS WISER THAN MEN; AND THE WEAKNESS OF GOD IS STRONGER THAN MEN. "I Cor. i. 19–27.

CONSEQUENTLY, if it should please the Lord to work in a manner essentially different, and in distinct opposition to our ideas of majesty, power, and wisdom, we must not on that account charge Him with folly. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Man is naturally proud. He thinks more highly of himself than he ought to think. It is necessary that he should be humbled and emptied of self; that God's all-sufficiency, may take the place of his insufficiency; that He, the Creator of the universe, may receive the honour due unto His name.

Man's wisdom is confounded and God's wisdom is exalted in a pre-eminent degree by the instruments used for the salvation of men. Men say

268

THE FIERY FLYING SERPENT.

they are "foolishness;" but results prove that they are "the wisdom of God, and the power of God."

Who among the wise men of earth would have selected a fiery flying serpent or a malefactor's cross as the best instrument on which to illustrate Divine wisdom in the remedy of sin? And yet, you could not have a better illustration of the remedy for sin than that which the Lord Jesus Christ gave to Nicodemus.

Our Chicago friend puts it thus. He says:"Now, just look into that camp.

A

Hark! Listen to the dying groans of the people. Look all around you! Yonder is a little funeral procession; they are burying a little one in the desert-and there is another, and another. father is resting there; a mother is just buried there; a little child is resting there. They are dying everywhere in the camp. 'Rachel is weeping for her children and will not be comforted.' Fathers weeping for sons, sons weeping for fathers and mothers. It is a dark picture and gloomy scene, and what a picture too of the present day!

"Look around you and see what death is doing, how busily he is at work, carrying away the aged and the young; hundreds and thousands dying here every year, 'without God and without hope,' bitten by the terrible serpent of sin; dying without any excuse, because there is a remedy offered, and they refuse it.