more inward qualities of hardness or softness, of unbelief or of belief. But the heart which is not watchfully kept in the faith and love of the Lord, will harden in indifference and unbelief. And this is not perceived by its owner, because in the same proportion as the heart waxes gross, in the same the eye of conscience waxes dull.

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Such thoughts have arisen in thinking upon the awful and memorable event recorded in these words. Our Lord, offering the sacrifice of the cross, overcame the world, and redeemed us from the power of Satan, and proclaimed His victory in those last words, " It is finished.” May we never let go, but ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life which he hath given us, and, being born of God through his Holy Spirit, may we overcome the world, with its various temptations of joy and sorrow, being possessed with that victory which overcometh the world, even faith. So may we be found ready when he shall come again in glory, and judge the quick and dead. O reader! remember the words-" It is finished." What a store of deep meaning lies in them! Christ on his cross offered a full, perfect, sufficient sacrifice. Nothing is wanting in any possible way to the work of our salvation. On His part all is complete and perfect. If it be not accomplished in any one of us, we shall have been wanting on our parts. We shall not have received Him through

a living faith, so as to be justified by His blood, and sanctified by His Holy Spirit. We shall not have received the example which He hath left us, that we should follow His steps; nor taken up His cross, to go after Him. But may God grant His grace, that the work of the Spirit, even of sanctification, may be begun in you, my reader, if it has not been begun; and may that work of sanctification be continually carried forward and finished in you, if it has been begun; for the sake of Jesus Christ.

JOHN THE BAPTIST.

BY THE REV. CHARLES B. TAYLER.

"He must increase, but I must decrease."-JOHN iii. 30.

THE coming of John the Baptist, as the forerunner of the Messiah, had been foretold by the prophets, and, according to the word of God, John came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. He was a stern and solitary man, whose appearance and habits of life resembled those of the old prophets. And he called upon the crowds who flocked to his preaching, to repent of their sins. He told them that he came to prepare the way of the expected Messiah, who was about to appear. And this was the great fact which he endeavoured to impress upon all classes of men, that a deep consciousness of sin is the preparation of heart required in all by whom the Christ of God would be welcomed as their Saviour. Thus it was that he preached that all men must repent. None but sinners need repentance and by calling on all men to repent, he declared to all the fact that they were sinners. Men deeply conscious