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door. Those who hinder others are reckless and unreasonable. Would it not be an awful thing if in eternity a ruined soul reproached you bitterly and said, "I should have been saved but for you. I lay my death at your door."

Just see, too, how impotent God can make the wicked, even with the very means of evil in their hands.

When Laban went after Jacob, God just said to him in a dream, "Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad." And when he overtook him, although he could easily have injured him, see what he is obliged to say, "It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

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Saul, when he was on the way to Damascus to persecute the Christians, armed with full authority, was pulled up

in a moment.

Ah! how many might have been saved if only they would have listened; but they refused, like the deaf adder, to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Many a one in worldly matters, says, "Oh, if only I had listened to your advice, this wouldn't have happened; but now it is too late." And hereafter it will be dreadful to think, and feel, and have to say, "If only I had listened! If only I had read! But I did neither the one nor the other, and therefore this ruin has come upon me now."

And how many hereafter will bless God, who made them hear. They were very angry with the minister, or the friend who would persist in pressing the soul's great things upon them, until they attended to them; but they are not so

now.

"You are a Christian, then? Are you a happy man? How were you brought to Christ? "

2 Psa. lviii. 5.

"Happy, sir? I would not change with our great Emperor (this conversation took place in Paris, when the Emperor Napoleon III. was in the height of his power), and my conversion is a very simple affair. I am an engineer on a steamboat on the Seine. My mate became a Christian, and he gave me no rest, always talking about the love of Jesus, till I felt the evil of sin and the need of the Saviour. You see it is the rule of our little church, that when a brother has been converted, he has to go out and bring another brother, and when a sister has been converted, she has to go and bring another sister, and that is the way one hundred and twenty of us have been brought from Romish darkness to the Lord Jesus Christ." And no doubt every one of them rejoicingly blessed God that they had been made to hear.

If this article be read by any one who is himself a Christian, and willing to try and do good to some one in bringing him to Christ, but who is afraid of that person, see how Providence so arranged it that that trumpeter's arms were pinioned and his trumpet was no good. In a way that he never expected, God stopped his opposition; and in a way that you dream not of He can put down and bring to none effect the opposition which would hinder you.

But if as yet you yourself have not listened to the voice of God's Holy Spirit, but want to hinder it by drowning its blessed sound, now in sweet mercy may the good Lord so deal with you that you must in some way hear the whole story out, out to the very end; how you are only a poor lost sinner, and how He willeth not the death of a sinner, but would rather that he turned from his iniquity and lived; and how Jesus is ready to wash out all the sin, and the Spirit to make you holy and fit for heaven.

O misery of man-"he would if he could," O grace of God "but he couldn't." And both together, O wonder of eternity,

1 Gen. xxxi. 29.
"HE WOULD IF HE COULD, BUT HE COULDN'T."

HEARTSEASE.

THE STORY OF A CHRISTMAS CARD.

[graphic]

T was upon a wintry day, The last month of the

year,

The shops were decked in festive guise,

For Christmastide was

near.

I entered one upon the way,

Some Christmas cards to buy.

Five minutes were enough for me

To purchase my supply.

Two dozen cards for friends at home,
And friends beyond the sea,
With kindly greetings for the day;
These were enough for me.
But near at hand a stranger stood,
She, too, had come to buy,
Who, looking over many cards,
Seemed hard to satisfy..

I asked her, would she look at mine,
And see if she would care,

Among the choice that I had made,
For any that were there.

She thanked me pleasantly, and said
She wanted but one more,

A Scripture-text with pansy-flowers;
She'd seen the card before;-

A pretty card, a precious text,
A text full well she knew-
"Twas 66
Casting all your care on Him,
For He careth for you."
The Tract Society, she said,

Had published it last year,

She wished to get it, and had thought
That she would find it here.

"I want it for a special use,"
Said she; "I'll tell you why,

Last year it saved a life from death,
A soul from misery.

"Most precious, therefore, seem the words, Perhaps, perhaps again

They may bring comfort to a heart
In agony and pain.

"But you may like to hear the tale
Of blessing that they brought;
How they to a despairing soul
A heavenly lesson taught.

"Last year, a friend through trouble sore Lost faith in human love, In human honour human truth,

Lost faith in God above.

""Tis almost now a year ago,
It was on Christmas day,
He rose to seek the river brink,
And fling his life away;—

"Just as the children from the school
Returned in happy glee,

To show the presents they had got
From off the Christmas-tree.

"He heeded not their childish joy,
His heart with anguish sore,
But heard as if he heard them not,
And turned him to the door.

"A card lay on the threshold step,
He marked the one word CARE;
A Christmas card,-a childish hand
Had somehow dropped it there.
"He read Cast all your care on Him,
For He careth for you;'

'O God,' cried he, 'is this for me?
Can this, can this be true?" "

Yes, true it was, a word divine,
Of blessed counsel given,

To turn him from the path of death;
A message sent from heaven.
It led him to the feet of God,
With all his sin and care,
And he for blessèd Jesus' sake
Found peace and pardon there.
O wondrous are the ways of God,
To bring His children home,
When far adown the darksome path
Of sin and shame they roam.

"Twas God that chose the card that day From off the Christmas-tree;

And it was God that dropped it where The man could not but see.

'Twas God that gave the message power To turn that soul from sin; "Twas God that opened mercy's door, And took the wand'rer in.

'Twas God that gave him welcome back, Returning from sin's ways;

From God alone deliverance came,
To God be all the praise.

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HEARTSEASE.

THE STORY OF A CHRISTMAS CARD.

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Two dozen cards for friends at home,
And friends beyond the sea,
With kindly greetings for the day;
These were enough for me.

But near at hand a stranger stood,
She, too, had come to buy,
Who, looking over many cards,
Seemed hard to satisfy..

I asked her, would she look at mine,
And see if she would care,

Among the choice that I had made,
For any that were there.

She thanked me pleasantly, and said
She wanted but one more,
A Scripture-text with pansy-flowers;
She'd seen the card before;

A pretty card, a precious text,

A text full well she knew-
"Twas "Casting all your care on Him,
For He careth for you."
The Tract Society, she said,

Had published it last year,

She wished to get it, and had thought
That she would find it here.

"I want it for a special use,"
Said she; "I'll tell you why,

Last year it saved a life from death,
A soul from misery.

"Most precious, therefore, seem the words, Perhaps, perhaps again

They may bring comfort to a heart
In agony and pain.

"But you may like to hear the tale
Of blessing that they brought;
How they to a despairing soul
A heavenly lesson taught.

"Last year, a friend through trouble sore Lost faith in human love, In human honour human truth,

Lost faith in God above.

""Tis almost now a year ago,
It was on Christmas day,
He rose to seek the river brink,
And fling his life away;-

"Just as the children from the school
Returned in happy glee,

To show the presents they had got
From off the Christmas-tree.

"He heeded not their childish joy,
His heart with anguish sore,
But heard as if he heard them not,
And turned him to the door.

66

A card lay on the threshold step, He marked the one word CARE; A Christmas card,-a childish hand Had somehow dropped it there. "He read Cast all your care on Him, For He careth for you;'

'O God,' cried he, 'is this for me?
Can this, can this be true?""

Yes, true it was, a word divine,
Of blessèd counsel given,

To turn him from the path of death;
A message sent from heaven.

It led him to the feet of God,
With all his sin and care,
And he for blessèd Jesus' sake

Found peace and pardon there.
O wondrous are the ways of God,
To bring His children home,
When far adown the darksome path
Of sin and shame they roam.

"Twas God that chose the card that day From off the Christmas-tree;

And it was God that dropped it where The man could not but see.

'Twas God that gave the message power To turn that soul from sin; "Twas God that opened mercy's door, And took the wand'rer in.

'Twas God that gave him welcome back, Returning from sin's ways;

From God alone deliverance came,
To God be all the praise.

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