TRINITY.-MORNING.

FOR, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an

oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.-Malachi iv. 1, 2, 5.

Tsuch time our thoughts carry us onward to the

Church, or Christian year, closes this day. At

close of the present dispensation; to that day in which God's judgments will descend on the wicked, and His blessing on the good. To the one, that day will be as an oven that consumes the stubble; to the other, it shall be the Advent of the bright Sun of righteousness to heal and give life. It will be a day of terror to the wicked,. the haughty despisers of God. It will be a day of blessedness and peace for all those who remember God's laws to do them. Though that day will come suddenly, in a moment, no one can plead ignorance or want of time. St. John, in the spirit and power of Elijah, has come preaching repentance. The Saviour has come in great humility, "with healing in His wings." The Holy Spirit is now in the Church leading into all truth. The Scriptures call on us to prepare; the Church-the Bride-calls on us to prepare; the Spirit dwelling within us calls on us to prepare. We have warnings enough; we are without excuse. Are we, then, better prepared now than we were a year ago? We know not when our call may come, it may be years, but it may be days. At most we can have but a very few years. Out of these few years we must subtract the time for sleep, and other times during which we live as though we were not. How short then is our time for work, for prayer, for meditation. Let us not squander what remains, but resolve to use it for God's glory. Let us begin a new life with the new Christian year, that each day may find us a "day's march nearer

our home."

JE

ESUS, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, (for they were fishers ;) and He saith unto them, Follow Me; and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him.-St. Matthew iv. 18-20.

ERY little is related in Holy Scripture about the that he was early distinguished for zeal in the cause of his Lord. For two reasons his day is most appropriately commemorated before that of the other apostles and martyrs. He was the first called among the apostles, and he was the first to do real missionary work. St. Andrew was a disciple of St. John Baptist. When the Preacher of Repentance, true to his commission to prepare the way for the Saviour of men, pointed him to the true Lamb of God, without delay he followed Jesus to His home, and there realised something of the meaning of that passage in the Psalms with which he was doubtless well acquainted, "Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy Presence is fulness of joy." This joy was his; he was in the Presence of his Lord. So great was his joy, he earnestly desired to share it with his brother. He searches for him; he does not leave it to chance to find him. He searches till he finds, and then brings him to the Saviour. The "Christian Year" draws a beautiful lesson from this incident in the life of St. Andrew. We should first seek the Saviour ourselves, and dwell beneath the shadow of His roof, giving evidence by our life and conversation that we have been with Jesus. Then let us try to gain our erring brother, that he, too, may run in the same race and win a like prize. If he be already running, let us urge him forwards by our advancing tread. It is a lesson worth learning. Oh, let us readily obey the call-the Advent call-of our Saviour, and forthwith give ourselves up to fulfil His commandments, and urge others, by our example and words, to do so likewise!

S he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and sudheaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?Acts ix. 3-6.

TO-DAY we commemorate ❝the conversion of St. Paul."

In most other instances where the Festivals of Saints are being commemorated the Church celebrates the day of death or martyrdom. From the earliest times, the day of martyrdom or of death was called the birth-day of the Saint, because then he entered on the new, the heavenly life. In the case of St. Paul it is different; instead of the day of his death, we celebrate the day of his conversion, and for this sufficient reason. St. Paul's conversion proved to be for the Gentile world one of the most important events that ever happened. It caused the light of the Gospel to shine into the dark places of the world. How wonderful was that conversion! Saul the Persecutor, the accuser of St. Stephen and consenter unto his death; Saul, who tried to stifle inward conviction by entering on a mad career of persecu tion is conquered, changed, his whole life altered. From Saul the Persecutor he becomes St. Paul the minister of reconciliation. He becomes, in short, "a new creature." All his actions, thoughts, desires, and words, are new. He suffers himself to be baptized into the very religion he had before persecuted. He chooses new friends, new companions. He no longer associates with the ruler of the synagogue and the members of the Sanhedrim, but with the disciples whom before he scorned. No longer does he dispute with those who taught the way of life; he teaches the same truths, he preaches the same Christ. No longer does he trust in his own attainments or wis dom; he seeks the solitude of the wilderness to be taught there by God Himself those burning truths which from henceforth he was to declare unto the world.

COMMONLY CALLED,

The Purification of St. Mary the Virgin.

HERE was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Si

;

the consolation of Israel. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus,to do for Him after the custom of the Law, then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God.-St. Luke ii. 25-28.

SIX weeks have flown by since Mary and Joseph rejoiced in the birth of the Saviour-child Who was promised by God and welcomed by men and angels. Six weeks of holy joy and stillness, in which doubtless they lived more in the future than in the present. But the present has also its claims on them; the still solitude in which, according to the law of Moses, Mary should pass these forty days must now be broken. She must bring her offering to the temple to present it there to the Lord, and thus redeem her firstborn. At the very time that Joseph and Mary enter the temple the Spirit of God leads thither Simeon also. How different the motives with which they enter the temple. They bring the Saviour with them; he seeks and finds Him there. When he finds Him he blesses God, and gives to Joseph and Mary a noble treasure of divine light to bear home with them. In the brief words which describe Simeon's character we see deep piety and true fear of God. The expression waiting for the consolation of Israel" shows this. Waiting, looking for the Messiah and His salvation was of old the very highest point to which the pious Israelite could reach. Jacob pauses in the midst of his prophecy, and says, "I have waited for Thy salvation." The Psalmist says, "My soul longs after Thy salvation." Such a waiting, such a longing, must not be confined to Israel of old; we too have an Advent to wait and long for. The time and hour when Christ shall appear again in glory no man knows. To wait for it, to long for it, to pray for it-this is demanded of all Christians.

that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O

hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.-St. Matthew xi. 25, 26.

THE Gospel for this day "leads our thoughts back to those mysterious dispensations of Providence of which we have an instance in the rejection of Judas, and the choice of Matthias in his room." In thinking of them it is always best to say, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." The teaching of the Church to-day brings before us the great contrast be tween false pastors, such as Eli's sons and Judas, and faithful and true pastors, such as Samuel and Matthias. Judas proved himself unworthy the trust imposed in him. He had many privileges. He was of the number of the twelve, and had part of their ministry. For three years he lived very near to Christ, was a witness of His miracles, and a hearer of His words. Yet was he unfaithful. His history teaches us that nearness to Christ cannot save. There is no place so sacred where tempta tions cannot enter, no "privileges so great as to insure holiness." How fearful to think of a disciple of the Lord, one of the chosen twelve, being a traitor! Well may we pray that the Church may always be "preserved from false apostles." In Matthias, on the other hand, we have an example of one who was faithful and true to the trust committed to him. Matthias, though not one of the twelve, had "companied with them all the time that the Lord went in and out among them." An inferior office had been already entrusted to him, being number. ed among the seventy disciples who preached the kingdom. Having been found faithful in a very little, a higher, a greater trust was committed to him. He was promoted to the apostleship. He was chosen to order and guide, as a faithful and true pastor, the Church of his Lord. God grant that the Church may always be preserved from false apostles, and ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors, for Jesus' sake,