more than their shouts of conquest when he and they are defeated by the archangel and his cherubs. So the evangelist John tells us, "I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one." It is more to have the apostle who "saw the Apocalypse," write those few words to you than to have an emperor write your name in his legion of honor. For him to write it twice in two successive verses to young people, "I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one," is more to be desired than any earthly distinction. Such a crown fades; but to overcome the wicked one, is to have that young person's name emblazoned to the everlasting shame of wicked angels and wicked men.

The God of heaven is standing here making direct appeal to you in these affectionate words: "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth?" He has His eye on one and another young person who has occasion to say, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." God is interested in such, for "A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widow is the Lord in His holy habitation;" by which we infer that in heaven where many who dwell with Him have left their wives and children mourning

for them, God is known in a peculiar manner the father and the judge of the bereaved ones. Therefore, it is always peculiarly interesting to preach to those who have God for their God in a special sense. To them we may suppose that God intends the words of the text to be peculiarly addressed.

I will take it for granted that each one who hears this kind appeal from God will, in retirement, kneel and make response to it. Your answer may decide the course of your whole future life. God may connect blessings with your answer, for He has never said to the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye my face in vain." The heart of one and another will happily prompt them to say, "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." If so, there will be joy in heaven, because young persons whom I here address, are to make a covenant with God.

A young man slept in a field. He took of the stones of the place and set them up for a pillow. No one would have anticipated for him such an experience as there befel him, for he was obliged to take that journey in flight from his brother whom he had defrauded. But the angels of God had appeared to him ascending and descending upon a stairway reaching from heaven to earth, and God stood above it and made covenant pro

mises to him and to his posterity which extend to the present day. This same God speaks now to every one on the journey of life, offering to be the guide of his youth.

Methinks I hear some say, We would like to have this God for our guide! Blessed emotion! Cherish it, for it is a whisper of the divine Spirit. Use the means by which the spark of holy desire shall kindle to a flame. Seriously consider that declaration of Jesus Christ: "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." He who said this is He that came into the world to save sinners. He saves them by His death endured on the cross as an atonement for the sins of the world. This death was endured for us as individuals, and must be applied to you as an atonement for your sins. Believing on Christ is the way by which you can be at peace with God, and there is none other way under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. God will not be the guide of one who has not made application to this Saviour, with faith in Him; but him that cometh unto Him, "He will in no wise cast out." Put yourself as a condemned sinner in His hands, trusting in His sufferings and death for you. Then a covenant-keeping God; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, will be your Guide. This Guide will not only take you safe home, but will keep you and bless you by

the way. You will feel constrained to talk with Him; you will read His Word; you will find it your constant support and joy. Your exulting song will be,

"Wherever He may guide me

No want shall turn me back;
My Shepherd is beside me,
And nothing can I lack.

"His wisdom ever waketh,

His sight is never dim ;
He knows the way He taketh,

And I will walk with Him."

Thus commit yourself to the Saviour who has been knocking at the door of your heart, and God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, will be your Guide and Portion forever.

XI.

THE DOCTRINE OF GERIZIM AND

EBAL.

"Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down?"-Deuteronomy x1: 30.

Then Israel was about to cross the Jordan,

Whe

God commanded Moses to set apart two mountains in Moab soon to be in the possession of Israel, to be symbolical places, proclaiming from the first entrance of the nation into the promised land, by an observance to be established upon them, a doctrine of which their future history would be an emphatic illustration.

The views of prophets from age to age repeated that doctrine. Isaiah, a prophet of kingly origin, uttered it five hundred years from the time of Moses, when he said, "Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him, for he shall eat the fruit of his doings.

Woe unto the

wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him." Even to the