of a yew-tree, looking down into an open grave in the churchyard of my village home.

I was an orphan. Sick at heart, I hurried on, anger rising within my breast at the giddy laughter of the unsympathising hundreds who passed me by.

Not one

Oh! the crowds of faces-strange faces--and amidst the multitude not one to recognise or welcome me. cared for me. The terrible sense of being cut off and an outcast as a leaf blown from the forest of humanitywould not have been half so crushing if the streets had been quiet, or if all these talking men and women who knew me not had been sheep or cattle. Bitterness was burning in my breast, when I turned, I hardly could tell how, into the porch of a place of worship. The light and warmth and open doors of that chapel looked a welcome— a welcome that went to the heart of the homeless, friendless, fatherless lad that I was. The service was very simple. But throughout it seemed suited to my state. The hymn just before the sermon was new to me then

"My God and Father, while I stray

Far from my home, on life's rough way,
Oh, teach me from my heart to say,

morrow was to sail to Canada, and seek my fortunes in a new world, going out with letters of introduction to a distant relative of my mother.

The preacher gave out his text,' and though it was probably only a fancy, I thought he spoke directly to me, and, forgetting all around me, I listened as if face to face with the messenger from God.

I can tell you but imperfectly what he said, for the circumstances of my position added eloquence to earnestness.

First he sketched the scene and occasion of these words being spoken:

"The young man Jacob, as he journeys from his home, lights at eventide upon a certain place. The red sun goes down with suddenness behind the hills. The benighted wanderer prepares his hard pillow of the desert stones. Weary he sleeps. The vision wakes. He sees the broad and beauteous ladder joining heaven and earth, the shining holy ones ascending and descending, and he hears from the top of the ladder the voice of a personal God, ‘I am with thee, and will keep thee. I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.'

"Now, are we not all of us," the preacher said, "travellers in as real a sense as was Jacob? To-night we have lighted upon this place in which to spend the first evening of a new and untried year. What is before us, who can tell? We are called, like Abraham, to go forth, not knowing whither we go. The words which Joshua spake to Israel I may address to you: 'Ye have not passed this way heretofore.' 2 Every step of the road, every day, every hour of the future will be new, and therefore, in some sense, strange. We have just landed upon the shore of a foreign country, an unknown tract of time. Dare you go alone? You need not. You must not. Perils, trials, foes, temptations lie all along the traveller's path, ready to deceive, disable, or destroy him. One who sees the end from the beginning,' One 'who knoweth the way that we take,' who has trodden the road of life before, speaks to each, and offers Himself to be our personal Guardian and Guide. The God of Jacob is our God. This promise which He 1 Gen. xxviii. 15. Joshua iii. 4.

6

2

made to the lonely pilgrim at Bethel, nearly four thousand years ago, He renews again to-night. From above the ladder God spake, and that ladder was a type of Christ, "in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen.' If we come through Jesus, then these blessings covenanted to Jacob are pledged equally to us. Let every poor soul that knows its own foolishness, and seeks God's wisdom-that feels its own weakness, and implores His strength—that bewails its own sinfulness, and looks to His grace, as he goes out into the wilderness of another year, take as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night this wondrous fourfold promise.

"1. Here, my fellow-pilgrim, is a promise of companionship—' Behold, I am with thee.' You feel lonely; all of us at times, however surrounded by friends, by brothers, or sisters, or children, must know that they need a closer, a more intimate, a higher and diviner Friend. Each human soul was made to look up and cling to God. He, the allholy and the all-sympathising Jesus, draws near to thy side and says, Traveller, behold, I will be with thee!' But 'how can two walk together, except they be agreed?' My brother" (and here my conscience began to prick and trouble me), "art thou at one with God? art thou at peace with Him? It is impossible that He can walk with those who do not love and obey Him. Enoch walked with God, because his heart was right with Him; it was knit with innumerable invisible threads of faith and prayer to the heart of God. We beseech you,' if you desire the companionship of Christ, 'be ye reconciled to God,' and grieve Him not by allowing yourself in any known sin. Come now, and realize, ye that are afar off, that Jesus has, by His blood, made peace; that His death for you was, before God, a perfect satisfaction; it brought you back-it was really an at-one-ment. Trust, fully trust, His sacrifice as your propitiation, and then you are no longer 'far off,' but you are drawn nigh by the blood of Jesus; and He then says, 'Behold, I am with thee.'

66

II. Here is a promise of guardianship-'I will keep

thee in all places whither thou goest.' Ah! knowest thou not, dear traveller, what need thou hast of protection-what snares, what pitfalls, what precipices, what fiery arrows of lust, what fierce assaults of temptation, what loss of health, of property, of dear ones, the light of your home, what strange and unexpected trials may beset your path? 'Hold Thou me up, and' then 'I shall be safe.' If you put yourself in child-like, obedient faith under His guardianship, 'He shall cover thee with His feathers. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.' He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.'

66

III. Here is a promise of guidance-'I will bring thee again into this land.' Do men want a pilot for the safe steerage of their vessel into port? Do men want a guide for the safe passage of some Swiss mountain ? Oh, how much more do we require a wise, all-seeing director for if we make shipwreck of our souls we are lost in darkness and woe for ever; if we fall from the narrow path, we may plunge down the awful precipice of the bottomless abyss. Jesus is leader of faithful souls. He says, 'I will guide thee continually.' Look steadily up unto Him, take off your gaze from earth, and 'He will guide thee by His eye.' Are any of you servants seeking a situation, or young clerks looking out for an office, or fathers of families in quest of a suitable house, or emigrants starting for a new land, or leaving home for the first time? whatever your position-and not any two of us have paths before us quite alike-make this prayer yours to-night, Lord, if Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence;' and lo, the answer through Jesus, the response from our God, is this, 'Certainly I will be with thee, and I will give thee rest.' 'If Thou wilt go with me, then I will go.'1

Lord, I hear Thy gentle call;
Follies, sins, I leave them all;
I am strong to break their thrall,

Lord, if Thou wilt go with me.'

1 Judges iv. S.

Yes; companionship, guardianship, and guidance are all assured to the pilgrim through the mediation of Jesus.

at once.

"IV. And, lest there should be the faintest feeling that anything was lacking, or that all that God's wisdom and power could provide was not pledged, He from above the ladder (the mystic sign of covenant) promises, 'I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.' Brethren, 'The Lord God is a sun and shield; He will give grace and glory, and no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.' 'My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.' Now put Him to the proof this year. Begin Cry, 'Lord, do as Thou hast said.' Fill thy mouth with arguments. Come and let us plead together. 'Put Me in remembrance.' God invites us. 6 That which He hath spoken to thee of.' Search then His promises, and see if one thing fails of all the Lord hath said. He is an individual, a personal God and Saviour such as you need, one who can and will lead you with a shepherd's care. He will 'undertake' for you. As your days, so shall your strength be. He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?' Yes, all things' in Christ, all things with Him; but apart from Him, out of Him, nothing but darkness, despair, and death. Wilt thou not choose Jesus with all thy soul, and say, 'Thou shalt guide me by Thy counsel, and after that receive me to glory ?'"

"Guide us, O Thou great Jehovah."

On the morrow I left my native land, and I can now set to my seal that the promises made to Jacob are faithful and true to all pilgrim-followers of Jesus. May you, my dear friend, go forth into the new year with Christ as your own guardian and guide, and then all will be well, for He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."