every day we kaye more mercies than we deserve. Let us look around ns every week, as we travel througk the world, and see whether we have not much to thank God for. If onr hearts are in the right place, we shall never find any difficnlty in building an Ebenezer. Well would it be if out prayers and supplications were more mingled with thanksgiving. (1 Sam. vii. 12. Phil. iv. 6.)
Let us mark, fourthly, the experimental acquaintance with OocCs former deaiingB with Sis people, which the Virgin Mary possessed. She speaks of God as One whose " mercy is on them that fear Him," — as One who " scat* ters the proud, and puts down the mighty, and sends the rich empty away," — as One who " ezalteth them of low degree, and filleth ilie hungry with good things." She spoke, no doubt, in recollection of Old Testament history. She remembered how Israel's God had put down Pharaoh, and the Ganaanites, and the Philistines, and Sennadierib, and Haman, and Belshazzar. She remembered how He had exalted Joseph, and Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Esther, and Daniel, and never allowed His chosen people to be completely destroyed. And in all God's dealings with herself, — ^in placing honour upon a poor woman of Nazareth,— in raising up Messiah in such a dry ground as the Jewish nation seemed to have become,-*-6he traced the handiwork of Israel's covenant God.
The true Christian should always give close attention to Bible history, and the lives of individual saints. Let us often examine the '' footsteps of the flock." (Oant. i. 8.) Such study throws light on God's mode of dealing with His people. He is of one mind. What He does for them, and to them, in time past. He is likely to do in time to