"dried." They were ripe enough for ingathering years ago; and, if you don't put in the sickle soon, the fruit will be lost in the lanes and highways. "The birds of the air" will eat it up. The same may be said of our congregations. They come and go, and we teach them, and very properly so; but does it occur to us, as it ought, that we might "win them? Were not some of them ripe for that, ten, twenty, and even thirty years ago ? Ah! some of these were easier to influence for God and for the right than they are now. They are “dried "_" very dry! Some almost "past peeling." And except we make haste, the fruit we have so long been looking for will be lost! You perhaps ask, "What do you propose we should do?" First, to the Churches, as such, we say, by your kindness to each other, gentleness, meekness, unity, order, and vigour make the garner such that fruit "gathered" may "remain." Because Christ said, "I have ordained you that ye should bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should "remain." There are Churches plagued with such elements of disorder, and non-workers, and stereotyped formalists, as to hamper by prejudice without, and bonds within, the best-disposed and most efficient ministers and teachers. And thus much good fruit has been spoiled!-not always lost through "reaction," but spoiled by the damps of meanness and lethargy, indifference, inharmony, and unbelief. To individual workers I would say, Well, impress yourselves with the importance of man. Tread through Gethsemane to man. Try to acquire a Christ-like pity, love, tenderness, tone. He said, "Come!" and again He said, "Come!" He said, "Compel them." Set your heart on winning souls, and if you don't "win" all in your circle, you will "win" many-most. Do not ignore special, any more than ordinary helpers, lest you "speak against dignities," and "touch" the apple of God's eye. Press all helpers into this great service.

W. T. SYMONS.

THES

CLEAR THE LINE.

HESE words run on before many of the Government telegrams from India, and they have an important bearing on our intercourse with God. Uncertainty in relation to prayer results from not clearing the line. The ejaculatory prayer in the hour of battle, and the cry to our Father amid the storm, are certainly heard, but in the multitude of engagements we often forget that our Captain's instructions in relation to prayer are, But thou when thou prayest, enter

into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." While we rejoice in the fellowship of our many prayermeetings, let us be sure that we maintain our fellowship with the Father. The various hindrances we meet are all because we do not clear the line. Even when we bow the knee, other thoughts come in a tumult, and the quiet hour when the incense may arise straight up to heaven is too little known.

David understood much about prayer. He had more business to transact than most men, yet as a business man he had three stated times of prayer daily, and he came and sat before the Lord, and said, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto ? " He prays for his household as well as for himself. He talks with the Lord about "the nation," as well as his sectional affairs. The line is clear in David's heart for this heavenly intercourse. He makes leisure for it, and hence his outward affairs are the more readily administered.

But this intercourse with God is never intended to be one-sided. It is as necessary that we hear what the Lord shall speak to us, as that we speak to Him. Oh, for more messages from heaven! They are as marrow and fatness to the soul. Christ reiterates His charge to the Church, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." Why is it we do not hear more from God? Not that God's Spirit fails, but that we have not cleared the line, and so the telegram from heaven is hindered on its way, and comes as a confused message when it reaches our end of the wire. It is mingled with so many of our own desires and fears that we fail to read it aright. It was sent right enough from head-quarters, but words have been transposed, and the sense obscured, and the warning or informa tion that was intended for us is lost amid the confusion of other messages and voices.

The history of mission work in the East illustrates another way in which the words apply, "Clear the line." The Lord has in a multitude of ways cleared the line for His servants to preach Christ to the heathen. I stood, a short time ago, in the quiet graveyard at Serampore, where rest the bodies of Carey, Marsham, and Ward. On the banks of the Hooghly in that little Danish settlement God opened a way for them when every other spot was closed against them. God, so to speak, shut them up in Serampore to the great work of their lives-Bible translation. Hundreds of missionaries to-day busily at work have cause to praise God as they go forth with the open Bible ready to hand in the tongue of the people.

Again, a young American lands a Lucknow. He has been active

in Sunday-schools in his own land, and longs to engage in the same work in India. But the senior missionaries shake their heads and say, "We must stop Craven's Sunday-schools, or the Hindus will take their children from our day-schools." Just then, Dr. Thoburn, of Calcutta, steps in and says, "He is but a young man with a lot of fresh zeal. Let him alone awhile." Young Craven is let alone, others come to help him, and when I lately visited Lucknow, there were 1,000 heathen attending the American Sunday-schools in that city.

Across sea and across land the Lord of the whole earth clears the way as He sends forth His children in His name. Years ago I was invited to meet a minister of the Gospel who I knew had travelled round the world for Christ. I found her so quiet, so simple, so like a little child, that I marvelled how she had accomplished so much. But as I listened to her quiet, holy words, I detected the secret of her life. She had placed herself utterly in the hands of an Almighty Father, and He had cleared the line.

Once more, amid the heat of service, the cry rings out, "Clear the line." "" Thy King cometh." Oh, what a soul-inspiriting cry it is, in the face of the thousands and tens of thousands of idolaters in India! It is easy to talk about "points of contact" between Hinduism and Christianity in England. But the odious degradation and oppression of the thing itself in India is only to be fitly described in the inspired denunciations of Holy Scripture. God hates it. But He comforts His Church with the charge," Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." He that sent His herald of old time with the raiment of camels' hair, and, by the singular conjunction of Roman rule with Greek literature, cleared the line for Christ's evangel, is once again in the end of the age clearing the way for the King of Glory to enter on His purchased possession.

The despairing accents of the educated Hindus respecting their own religion is very striking in India, and, on the other hand, the buoyant hopefulness of the mission workers. Years ago a man of God laid the foundation-stone of the church at Nagercoil, when he had round him only about six native converts; but he built in faith, and built the church large enough to hold 1,000 people. On New Year's Day, 1881, two thousand Christian worshippers were crowded into that same building! There can be no doubt about the result if we keep the line clear. HENRY STANLEY NEWMAN.

APHORISMS.

RESENTIMENTS of good or evil always realise themselves.

PREVINET.

The axioms of man innocent are the problems of man fallen.-IBID. Man in his natural state cannot live with God, nor without God.IBID.

He prays in vain for the smile of God, who sins to escape the frown of man.-S. G.

There can be no love without liberty, nor real liberty without love. -IBID.

As daylight is seen through small holes, so little things indicate character.-DREW.

He that never changed any of his opinions, never corrected any of his mistakes; and he who was never wise enough to find any mistakes in himself, will not be charitable enough to excuse what he reckons mistakes in others.-DR. WHITCOTE.

No man is so merciless as he who, under a strong delusion, confounds his antipathies with his duties.-MACAULAY.

That which does not save man from sin, will not save him from justice.-BAXTER.

It is an uncontrolled truth that no man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them.SWIFT.

The ballot-box is freedom's noblest emblem.-WHEEDON.

The volume of History as well as Revelation teaches us to say, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death."-IBID.

Moral purpose should never sink below the highest standard of moral purity.-IBID.

Victory is never lost until we traitorously desert the battle-field.IBID.

The most absolute despotism of (an enlightened and purified) conscience is the most perfect liberty of soul.-IBID.

As foul sediment put into the purest transparent element is more clearly seen by contrast, so evil is more palpable and painful in the pure in heart.-IBID.

He who possesses wealth or fame is enviable, but he who cannot spare them is pitiable.-IBID.

Wherever there is rottenness in character, there will be ruin in destiny.-DR. THOMAS.

In matters of conscience, first thoughts are best, in matters of prudence last thoughts are best.-R. HALL.

Moral greatness consists not in doing great things, but in doing little things with a great mind.-JAY.

The brightest blaze of intelligence is of incalculably less value than the smallest spark of charity.-Dr. Nevins.

To be proud of learning is the greatest of ignorance.—JERENT TAYLOR.

This only I know, that I know nothing.-SOCRATES.

Truth is the highest style of charity.-ANON.

Ambition is the infirmity of noble minds.-ANON.

It takes all our learning to make things plain.-ABP. USHER. The more honesty a man has the less he affects the air of a saint. The affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety.-LAVATER.

I can easily overlook any present momentary sorrow, when I reflect that I have it in my power to be happy a thousand years hence:— BISHOP BERKELEY.

Faith is the highest act of reason.-BAXTER.

Every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered characterHappy is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul.-SIR J. STEVENS. Faith that is endangered in security, is secure in danger.-ANON. The soul is the life of the body. Faith is the life of the soul. Christ is the life of faith.-FLAVEL.

Nothing so truly shows a spiritual man as his manner of dealing with another man's sins.-ANON.

There is such a thing as speaking the truth, but speaking it with the tongue of a viper (Eph. iv. 15).-ANON.

Is there no way of bringing home a wandering sheep but by worry. ing him to death ?-FULLER.

Men are not always right in the use of their rights.-WHATELY. If God's demands are large, His support is adequate, and His reward beyond all estimate.-S. G.

One year of love would do more towards setting us mutually right, when we are wrong, than a millennium of wrangling. -DR. MASON.

Arranged and Selected by SAMUEL GIBSON.