Divine,displeasure shall fall and beat upon UB? Who then will be our refuge and atrength, if Christ be not? "Behold, 0 God our Shield, and look on the face of thine aQOinte<ll" When·we pray this prayer, who can we think of but the Lord Jesus Christ? He is our Shield, our Champion, our Defender. Are we, then, in him?- " How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?". And are we like that, RighWJ.m One, If we be truly in him, we shall be in some measure like him; and if,_ so, shall belong to _that blessed company of whom Christ said, " Ye are the salt of the earth." What are we? Of those on whose account favour and .grace are shown to a· 1~ and life is made peaceful and wholesome; or of those who help to swell that torrent of iniquity which not only degrades, but destroys? Oh, bow we ought to mlue the presence qf righteou, men in our midst ! 'l'hey are the true safeguards of our national well-being. It is upon the character of a people, more than on anything, else, the general good depends. No favourable outward circumstances, no wise organization, no well-ordered political constitution, can long uphold any community if the character of j;ts members be godless and depraved. Sore calamity m11st come upon them, as it ever lia1:1, ere long time 1,lapse. Of what amazing folly and sin, then, are they guilty who·persecute the godly; who do their bad best to detach them froin the faith, and.to• make_ them deny their Lord? It is an undermining of the very foundations of the. house in which we live; a destruction of that upon which our all depends.. Oh, let .us be afraid, even if we be not servants of Christ ourselves, to do anything ·whieh would injure them or lessen their influence and power. Remember God bath said," He that; toucbeth you toucheth the apple of mine eye." But, by surrender of your~eif to Christ, epme aruongst them ; -be of their number; help forward their cause. Times of judg- me»t are-coming; the great judgment:of all draws nigh. But.'' who shaH stand in that day? n, The reply is not, ''No one shall be able to stand," for some, many, shall .All llhall who have on them the mark of God, the sealing of the servants.of God-that seal of the Holy Spirit "whereby we are sealed nnto the day of redemption.'' . Oh that that mark may be more and more manifest on us now! So shall our Lord be.-glocifted; so &hall our follow-men be blessed through us, whether they confess it or no; and.so.a~ last, when the consequences of ill-doing bave to· be borne, and the harvest of sin is reaped, then shall judgment be rerua.ined until we are gathered where harm ca.n•never come.-S.C. - ·
-Ver.12.-"-What "Amen" mean,. "Saying, Amen." There is probably·no more dishonoured word in the Bible than this. It has come to mean, in the .minds of many, a mete signal for leaving off-the beneficent word that announces that the time. of weariness and restraint, is over, and that they may go back to what is of far .more interest to them thm God's Word or worship can ever be. 'l'hey look upon it as mean- ing no more than the word "Finis" at the end of a book, which tells them that there is no more to. come. But when we remember that the word was one which was per- petulllly.on our Saviour's lips, and that it is one of the august names wh-ich he claims for,hiniself, we am at once see that to regard it as a mere mechanical- symbol, as a men, J!Ote of termination, like a period or full stop, is terribly to degrade it, -and such a.a Di could never have been intended for. .And we are all of us in danger of forgetting, -in out frequent use of t!:te word, what it really means. But its mere interest demands JllQre respectful and r.everent usage of it. lt is al.most a universal word. It is told of two strangers meeting on board ship in Ea.stern seas, and ignorant of each other'ia, language, that they at length discovered that they had two words in common. , One was "Ha.llelujah," and the other" Amen." You will hear this sacred word in Moham• medan- mosques from Ca.lcutta to Morocco, in all the liturgies of Greek, Roman, and Anglican Christians, and there is no sect of Christians anywhere that does not:use it. And ii ie a most ancient word. It has come down to us from the ancient Jewish people, and was heard amidst the rocks of Sinai in those far-off days of• old. · Ii baa been likened to one of those granite boulders which we sometimes find. in the midst-al" a flat plain, and which has been home along by old-world glaciers and torrents,,and carried far away from its native home. So this word has been borne ,down .by the stteam of time till it has reached our shores and this our day. But its-importance lies bi the great spiritual truths it teaches us. .Ai!r- - · ·. · 1. Goo's :PESll\E !'OB ou:a RESPONSE. Tlie word is assO<'if\ted perpetuidly with the w. VIL 1-17.] THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 221