aching side, but with every threatening symptom removed, they felt how cheaply may sometimes be purchased the pleasures of self-denial. G. E. S. Short Readings for the Year. NO. VIII. "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels."-Ma!. iii. 17. OD calls all true Christians His "jewels," and what a blessing to be a jewel in the crown which Jesus wears! And Christians are called "jewels" for their beauty, for when the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness shine on them then they are beautiful in their life and conversation; and the nearer they live to Jesus in holy communion and prayer, so more radiantly do they reflect His image, and learn of Him to know and love Him. And one mark of Christ's jewels is that they love to talk of their Saviour as their elder brother, their best friend, their Redeemer; and they love to speak of Him to others, and show forth His great salvation from day to day. Their "conversation is as becometh the gospel of Christ," holy and circumspect, "always with grace," even a conversation to which the Lord hearkens, and hears, and gives His blessing. And "fearing God" is another mark of being one of the Lord's jewels, which implies "living a life by faith in the Son of God;" serving God as "good and faithful servants," and following God with "all our heart, and soul, and strength." And as His jewels here, God polishes us for His use. He may try us in the furnace of affliction, but it is to try our faith and love, and by showing us His preciousness and our worthlessness, to make us say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." And He brightens up our faith by the preaching of His Word, and the various means of grace He blesses us with. There is a day coming when God will "come to make up His jewels," and there will then be a "discerning between the righteous and the wicked." The faithful servant who shone brightly on earth with untold radiancy shall sparkle in the Saviour's crown as he hears the joyful welcome, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!" THE LORD'S JEWELS. Who are jewels in the crown, Which the Lord of Hosts doth own? Who are jewels, rare and bright, Ever precious in His sight? Christians, who have loved to be Constant in His company; Christians who have sought His face Christians, who by faith alone Looked, believed, and knew that He Gracious Saviour, grant that we May be jewels owned by Thee, A. L. The "Wayward's" Blunder; or, What Comes without the Captain. FULL-RIGGED iron ship of considerable size, which we will call The Wayward, had discharged her heavy freight of corn at one of our ports. Being ready for sea again, she was put out of the inner into the outer harbour, and her sails were set to waft her through its narrow mouth into the wide waters. She had moved hardly fifty yards before cries, a crash, and the noise of thick piles being broken resounded through the harbour. The cries arose from people who had been fishing from a short jetty in the harbour, close by its mouth, and who were now rushing off it to save their lives. The crash came from The Wayward, which had run her bows well-nigh through the jetty. Not aware of what had happened, the writer was crossing the harbour soon afterwards in a boat. The jetty was within an oar's length of the landing-stage, so he could not fail to see its plight. Turning an astonished look to the boatman, he said: 66 66 Heigh-ho! Why, what's the matter here ?" Ah, sir, you may well say, What's the matter." "How did it happen, then ?" "That's her, sir, as lies yonder ;" and he pointed to The Wayward, which was put back, and was now lying in the outer harbour. "Did she run into the jetty, then?" "Yes, an hour ago; there were some folks fishing on it, too, and didn't they have to scamper for their lives!" "What a smash she made of it; why, she has nearly cut it in half!" "Ay, she's a big 'un, sir." "But wasn't there some blunder to get her into the jetty like that? it isn't a rough morning." The boatman clearly knew all about it. He scanned for a moment first the big culprit at anchor, then the jetty's ruins, before he answered. Perhaps he was debating whether he should tell landsmen what might seem to bring disgrace upon his craft. But he did tell, betraying by low, rough tones his sense that the collision had come through faults; he told us: "Why, sir, she wouldn't be towed, and her captain was ashore." It seems to one who thinks of it that that was a bit of human life in a figure. For how much mess and trouble we men and women get into, how much harm we do, and how much expense we incur, because we won't be towed, and will go without our captain! Often in our daily life we need to have our thoughts and conduct well steered through the narrow passage of virtue that lies between various temptations. The way of truth and righteousness is not so broad and changeable as our inclinations are. If we follow our own inclinations we get into many a direction which is quite a wrong direction. One who has a strong inclination to frolic, and follows it without restraint, gets into levity and emptiness of heart. One who lets a strong inclination to power or money-making rule him, gets into an oppressor, a haughty man, or into greed, unscrupulousness, fraud, theft. One who has strong bodily appetites, and follows whithersoever they lead, becomes a glutton, a drunkard, a profligate. Bad inclinations are plentiful enough. Bad winds are plentiful enough. Bad currents are plentiful enough. Bad inclinations, like sails, get the bad winds of temptation into them, and drive us, a listless crew, into bad currents of sin almost before we know it. Now ask an old sailor what it is to have your sails filled with bad winds, and your ship driven in bad currents, and whether it does not need good control and good steering to get right again! Good principles are as fixed and straight as the two piers or sea-walls that form a harbour-mouth, and the way within their narrow limits is as plain. Our path to perfection and eternal blessedness lies just between those limits. And we want commanding and towing to take us through, and to save us from coming to grief on the way. Who of us is there who does not know a young man or maiden, an old man or wife, who has got aside in his course and has come to grief, to sad damage of character? Begin at home: what of me, this me I think so much of? Am I like The Wayward, missing the right course-righteousness? Look at the scoffer! Isn't he like The Wayward, plunging his sins into the better feelings of the weak, and injuring himself? And ask the same question of the swearer, who drives his careless oaths into all the pillars of virtue. Look at the sabbath-breaker and profane man! Isn't he like The Wayward, running against all the contentment, happiness, and hope, the moral improvement and purifying which religion sets before him ? Look at the drunkard! Isn't he like The Wayward, reeling into his home, as the bringer of disaster and disgrace which he incurs himself, and which others must share with him? Look at the liar and truce-breaker! Isn't he like The Wayward, carrying peril where safety ought to be, and imperilling himself? Look at the dirty-minded man and the harlot ! Are not they like The Wayward in every way except in this: that the violence they do to themselves and to others is not so easily repaired? What do they all want? What do we all want? What guidance, what command, what help-in a word, what Captain to govern us and provide us with towing as the need arises? The answer is, We all want the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And who is Christ? Christ is He whom God sent to the world to reveal to us His righteous character, His great love and concern for us; sent to make plain to us our own sinfulness, and that it is God alone who can deliver us from sin; sent to convince us of the ruin into which sin leads, and of the glory into which deliverance leads. Jesus Christ is God's Son-God's Image-the world's King. Jesus Christ is He who lived for our example; who died for the forgiveness of our sins; who is risen from the dead with Divine power and glory; who from heaven hears the prayer of the feeble, the cry of the penitent, the wail of the brokenhearted; who also will " save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." 1 1 Heb. vii. 25. |