can never neglect me; if the Holy Ghost be my Comforter, he can never leave me. All the attributes of God are pledged for my security, and all the fulness of God is pledged for my portion. "My God!" Oh that faith may grow while we hear it to-day. Why should we doubt or fear him? Why should we continue to doubt? Ah, friends, take heed the reason be not that we prefer something else better; take heed that it is not so much want of evidence as to God being your God, or as to his willingness at this moment to become your portion, that disheartens you, as that you really do not want him for your portion just yet.

If God be the poor sinner's God, all his attributes are available for the sinner's help, his Christ available for the sinner's salvation, his Holy Spirit supplied for the sinner's teaching, all things are ours, and we are Christ's and Christ is God's.

But observe again, we have the soul's confidence founded not only on Deity, and the relationship God bears to the sinner, but also on the promise: "My God will hear me.” He has said, "Before they call upon me, I will hear." He has said, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." He has said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He has said, "Believe on me," and "He that believeth shall not be confounded." He has said, "Wait on me;" "Blessed are all they that wait for him." He has said "Rest in the Lord." So he is pledged. It is not a question

will God hear me? "My God will hear me." When the Scripture speaks of God as hearing, it does not mean simply hearing, but also helping. The same word in the Hebrew that signifies God hears, signifies also God answers. When we call, God will hear; for he has said, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Wherever we may be, when we call, God will hear; we read in Jonah ii. 2, “Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." Whensoever we call, God will hear; for he has said, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee." And howsoever we call on the Lord, in the name of Jesus, God will hear. A look is prayer: He says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," teaching us, that where there is no time for a cry, no strength for a cry, a look brings help. A desire is prayer: in Ps. x. 17, we read, "Thou hast heard the desire of the humble." A cry is prayer, a groan is prayer, or a sigh: He heareth "the sighing of the prisoners."

"My God will hear me." Why reveal himself as a Father, if he will not hear me? Why reveal himself as a Saviour, saving "to the uttermost all that come unto God by him," if God is not willing to hear me? Why has Christ undertaken the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, if God does not intend to hear sinners? Why has the Holy Ghost come down from Heaven to reveal to us Jesus, and to put the spirit of prayer into our hearts, if God does not intend to hear us?

"My God will hear me "-Oh put in that little word me. "My God will hear me." The blind beggar said me, the leper said me, Saul of Tarsus said me, the thief on the cross said "Lord remember me." Oh let faith write down me to the name of God, claiming his fulness, and to the promises of God claiming their performance. It is simple faith to do it, it is simple obedience to God's Word, there is no presumption in it. We have examples of thousands who did it, we have promises innumerable to those who do it, on the stronggrounded confidence of what God himself is, and that God will hear.

"My God will hear me." "Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon; for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?"

The Lord bless us and teach us for his Name's sake. AMEN.

BY

THE REV. MARCUS RAINSFORD.

"And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die."-GEN. xix. 18, 19.

HERE are very few Old Testament biographies, more

THERE

filled with solemn and practical interest, than that of Lot and his family. Lot affords a melancholy example of the fatal effect of worldly aims and influences on the servant of God, availing, as we too clearly gather from his history, not only to secularize and make barren his own soul, but to render him utterly powerless as a means of blessing in his family, or of influence for good in his day and generation. A very solemn study for professing Christians is the life of Lot.

We are told, and it is well we have it on divine authority, that Lot was a "righteous man." St. Peter tells us he was just and righteous. Here, then, was one for whom the Lord Jesus Christ had covenanted, one for whose sins the Saviour's blood was shed, one over whom the Lord Jesus Christ did watch,-a just and a righteous person; for Jesus was made to him in the covenant of grace, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; but alas! alas! we can discern but little of it in his life. The sayings and doings of Lot were not those which any Christian man would desire to copy; while we find much-oh, how much-to sadden and humble, how much that we should avoid, how much that we must deplore.

Indeed, dear friends, Lot represents a large class of

SERM. XVI.

professing Christians,-men who are spending their time, their talents, their strength, and their labour for that which is not bread, losing their influence and opportunities of usefulness, intent chiefly on the pursuit of that which must entirely disappoint them,―men whose worldly habits, tastes, tendencies, and associations becloud and darken their Christian character and experience, leaving them barren and unfruitful in their families, in the church of God, and in the world, when they ought to be light-bearers witnessing for him, "who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light." It is true God will, for Christ's sake, save those who put their trust in him; but how many calling themselves Christians seem to be satisfied with being saved " so as by fire," losing all their precious time, all their means and opportunities of usefulness, all their labour, escaping just with life, and nothing more than life, out of the destruction in which they have been well-nigh involved.

Lot's wife, too, is pointed out, in both Old and New Testament, as a warning to others: "Remember Lot's wife." She is also the type of a large class,-persons who are convinced of the danger of their position, but not converted to God: professors who occupy a position half-way between Sodom and Zoar, thinking it enough to have got away from the corruptions of the world without having got into Christ; thinking it enough to have been brought, as it were, outside the suburbs of Sodom, without having taken refuge in the blood. She looked back from her half-way position and "became a pillar of salt." Remember, oh, remember Lot's wife! What opportunities that woman had!-what mercies she had received!-what associations were connected with her history! But, alas! alas! her heart was in Sodom; its pleasures, its society, its attractions, its amusements, were the chief things of attraction to her heart. True, she did not want to be overwhelmed in its destruction,-oh no! as Satan said to Job, "Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath, he will