Winds and waves shall beat upon her; under sunless, starless skies she shall drift on her way to the eternal haven; the storms shall rend her till she lies upon the waters apparently a helpless broken wreck. But the eternal promise holds her fast, and secures each one within her, so that not one shall be lost. Like Paul's vessel in that bay, she may fall into a place where two seas meet, and there be grounded; the fore part may stick fast and remain immoveable, and the hinder part be beaten with the violence of the waves; crew and passengers may have to cast themselves into the sea to reach the shore, either swimming, or on boards and broken pieces of the ship, but that shall be fully verified in her which is written of the shipwrecked mariners, "So it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land."

ART. V.-NATURE FADING, AND GRACE FLOURISHING.

THE Works and Word of God abound with striking and instructive contrasts. In the former, we see some things which awe us by their magnitude, and other things which astonish us by their minuteness. The qualities of many substances, the habits and instincts of many creatures, are apparently opposed to each other, yet all unite to form a complete whole each one serving the other, and all working together in harmony.

The revolutions of time also bring before us many contrasts. Night follows day, chill winter succeeds the balmy spring and glowing summer. We view nature during these revolutions in smiles and tears, in robes of rejoicing, and in weeds of mourning; but if we are willing to learn of her, in everything our teacher.

We shall only learn profitable lessons from the book of nature and the revolutions of time, as we study both in connexion with the Word of God. That blessed book takes hold of all that is grand and curious in nature, and of the various changes and phenomena of the revolving seasons; uses all to teach us the most important lessons, and in order to minister to us the richest consolations. In doing this also, the most striking of all contrasts is frequently and fully brought out, viz., the difference in the character, doings, and tendencies of man, and the character, operations, and glory of God; or, in other words, sin in man, and holiness in God; enmity in man, and love in God; shame and contempt, man's deserved heritage; life and immortal glory, God's free gift in Christ Jesus. To

teach us these things, to bring out and illustrate such contrasts, all creation is laid under tribute. Concerning them "day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge." The sun in its glory-the stars in their courses -the gentle day spring-the vital air-the early dew-the morning clouds-the lovely lily-the withering grass the tender dove-the roaring lion-the stork in the heavens-the crane, the turtle, the swallow-the horse, the ox, the ass-will all speak to us, and tell us of Divine faithfulness and human folly; of God's provision, and our own perversity; of the designs of mercy, and the dangers we are exposed to; of what we have lost, and of what, through Christ, we may hope to attain to (Job xii. 7-9).

It is now autumn, and winter is nigh at hand. Let us improve the season for weaning our hearts from this dying, passing world, and in seeking fellowship, by joyful hope, with the world to come. The earth will soon be strewed with broken wrecks of once beautiful forms; but no winter ever comes over the Word of God, that true land of promise—

"There everlasting spring abides,

And never-withering flowers."

To two short sentences from God's Book, let our attention be now directed; they will furnish a striking contrast, and yield important suggestions. The one is of a sombre hue, and the other of glorious beauty; the one grows in the lowly valley of sorrow and self-renouncement, the other on the lofty mountains of Divine faithfulness. They both belong to the same class of persons; and the first must be felt before the second can be realised. The passages we refer to are, "We all do fade as a leaf" (Isa. lxiv. 6); "As the days of a tree are the days of my people" (Isa. lxv. 22).

It may be profitable to consider these two texts prophetically, and practically. The portions of Scripture with which they are found connected, both refer to the future history of Israel. The first forms part of a penitential prayer which Israel will yet breathe out before God. This prayer commences at Isa. lxiii. 15, and is continued to the end of Isa. lxiv. It is prefaced by a meditation upon Jehovah's wondrous works on behalf of Israel, when He delivered and led His people, to get Himself a glorious and everlasting name (see ver. 7–14). The petitioner then founds a plea on these mighty acts, and especially on what they evidenced-even that Jehovah was Israel's God in an everlasting covenant. With much earnest

ness this ancient covenant interest is pleaded, the God of Israel is invoked, and reverently urged to act in character. In this

prayer (which reminds us of Jacob at Peniel wrestling with God) the desolations of Israel and the triumph of her enemies are laid before God. Mingled with these pleadings are deep penitential confessions: "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Here we see thorough self-renouncement. The proud self-righteous nation is humbled to "accept the punishment of their iniquity." Now is fulfilled what is written in Ezek. xvi. 63, xx. 43, 44,-" Ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight." The self-justifying people are brought to the state of mind so long before described by Moses, "Their power is gone, and there is none shut up nor left." When this is the case, the Lord will arise as of old; He will "awake like one out of sleep;" "He will give a shout as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth" (Jer. xxv. 30). "The Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servant, when he seeth that their power is gone" (Deut. xxxii, 36; see also Dan. xii. 7; Isa. i. 30). Then "Zion's warfare shall be accomplished, and her iniquity be pardoned;" having renounced her own righteousness, she is prepared to welcome Him, so long rejected, who is "THE RIGHTEOUS ONE." Then when God raises unto David a righteous Branch, a King who shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and justice in the earth, in his days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Then, too, shall be fulfilled what is written, "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified" (Isa. lxi. 3). Thus, through the riches of boundless mercy and wonder-working power, the fading leaf shall become a fruitful tree. "Israel shall take root downward, and bear fruit upward;" "shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." Then God will look down with delight, and, having had compassion on His land and His people, will call the one "Beulah, and the other Hephzibah," and exultingly declare, as He rests in His love and joys over them with singing, "As the days of a tree are the days of my people" (Zeph. iii. 17).

These last words occur in the midst of a sublime prophecy concerning Jerusalem and its people. "Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jeru

salem and joy in my people." Having, in these and many like glorious words, described Jerusalem's blessed condition, the Lord adds, "As the days of a tree are the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy (or marginal reading, wear out') the work of their hands." The leading idea is, no doubt, that of permanence, or duration. Israel had mournfully said before God, "The people of thy holiness have possessed it (the land) but a little while," but that God who gave it unconditionally to Abraham "for an everlasting possession" (Gen. xvii. 8, Psalm cv. 8-11) hath said that the period of İsrael's being "forsaken and grieved," though already nearly two thousand years, is but as a small moment compared with "the everlasting kindness with which he will have mercy on them" (Isaiah liv. 6-8). Concerning that great tree which symbolised Nebuchadnezzar's power, the watcher and the Holy One said, "Hew the tree down, and destroy it, yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth;" and of Babylon itself the Lord says, "I will leave of it neither root nor branch." Thus all power, so long abused by Gentile nations to the purposes of lust, pride, pomp, and cruelty, must fall utterly and for ever; but unto thee, O Zion, shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem" (Micah iv. 8). "For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." .... “Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." ... “For men shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah lx. 12-15).

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Oh! how refreshing is it in this late autumn of the world's history, when we see so plainly the withering nature of all earthly power and human wisdom, and behold tokens of that coming wintry whirlwind which shall sweep away earth's glory and greatness like dried leaves and stubble (Dan. ii. 35; Jer. xxv. 32; Jer. xxx. 23, 24; Isaiah ii. 21), to have such certain prospects of glory even for this oppressed earth. The reign of the bramble is nearly over, and soon both it and all who have chosen it must perish in the fire of wrath. "The Just One" is coming, "who will be as the light of the morning" to His mourning ones, and who knows well how to deal with the sons of Belial, "who shall be all of them as thorns thrust away" (2 Sam. xxiii. 4-7). But before "that morning without clouds" can dawn, what gross darkness will cover the earth, what storms will sweep over it. Delusions of a fearful character will blind Israel, rebellion and madness pervade the nations;

for he will be revealed "whose coming is after the working of Satan," and "all who dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life." But "the judgment shall be set," and the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, but shall be "like the chaff which the wind driveth away." In prospect of these changes, delusions, and overturnings, let us "meditate in God's law day and night," so shall we be as the "tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, whose leaf also shall not wither" (Psalm i. 3, 4).

Let us next endeavour to apply these two prophetic passages somewhat more personally and practically. The point to which we would now call attention is the difference between man as ruined by sin, and related to God.

The fading leaf exhibits man's ruined state. A leaf suggests the idea of display; and a fading leaf of decay; even of decay issuing in destruction. A leaf contains many wonders and beauties. There is a great variety in leaves as regards size, form, colour, odour, qualities, and uses. Their appearance in early spring, in the full warm summer, and in declining autumn, how varied and how beautiful! How wonderful to think of the skill, power, and care of God in connexion with each of the millions of millions of leaves on all the forests on the surface of the earth!

Each man is a leaf on the tree of being, and all the human race are but as so many leaves, each generation succeeding the other, like the foliage of successive spring-times. The figure conducts us from infancy, through youth and manhood, to declining years and old age. It reminds us also that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, that our strength and beauty are derived, that when strongest we are very weak, that we are created to be social, and designed to be useful; even as leaves grow together, and answer some important purpose, both with regard to the tree and its fruit.

But after the showers and sunshine of spring, what a full display of foliage is there in "leafy June;" and so after the years of infancy, childhood, and youth, comes the full unfolding of physical beauty, mental power, and social relationships. Many, alas, live only to make a display, and to see others do the same. They answer no good or great purpose by living. They flutter in the breeze; they sparkle in the sunshine; and that is all! Religion, too, may be introduced, and may take its place with science and social enjoyment; yet, after all, be nothing more than display. The Saviour when on earth came to the fig-tree seeking fruit, but when He found "leaves only "