excitement, whispered in his ear, "They couldn't touch me up here."

"That they couldn't, my Bobby; and what's more, they shouldn't. Nobody shan't beat him so long as he's got a father."

I could hear no more, for they had distanced me beyond earshot; but I had heard enough to make me post on cheerily through the betrodden snow; for haven't I also a Father to run to, I said to myself, when I am in trouble? When any one would oppress me, or, as little Bobby said, "beat me," haven't I also a tender, loving Parent who invites me with outstretched arms to cast my cares upon Him? And does not He say to me in reply to my confiding helplessness, "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye."1 "I, even I, am He that comforteth you."2 "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."3 "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted."4

Yes, blessed be God, I have a Father who keeps me as the apple of His eye; I have One who pities me, I have One who comforts me with all the strength of parental love and all the tenderness of a mother's heart. I have often, and over and over again, ran to Him in the hour of trouble, and He has never said to me, as the disciples did to Jesus of the Canaanitish woman, "Send her away; for she crieth after us." "No, He has ever been attentive to the voice of my cry and arisen for my help-not, perhaps, in the way I expected, nor at the precise moment I desired, but in His own wise way and at His own best time He has always turned my voice of supplication into a song of praise.

Dear reader, may you and may I ever say as the little child, when asked why she was always running to her mother with her troubles, "'Cos she loves me so."

The year is not yet far advanced, but we may all be sure

3 Psa. ciii. 13.

Matt. xv. 23.

it has its beatings in store for us. What consolation, then, is the remembrance of a stronghold to which we may fly, even that of the everlasting arms of Divine love. These beatings may come to us in the form of sorrow, care, pain, money troubles, unkindness, oppression, disappointments, neglects, slights, and, worst of all, bereavements; but in each and all have we not a Father to go to and a sympathising Saviour to cry to, Help, Lord, they beat me; they are too much for my poor strength; they master and will overpower me unless Thy hand delivers me and sets me up on high, where they cannot hurt me.

Let us push past every obstacle that would hinder us, as the weeping child did, and run straight to our heavenly Father-to the Lord Jesus Christ, with our aching hearts, and, may be, smarting limbs, and we shall be at once clasped to His protecting love with the soothing assurance and blessed promise, “ Fear not. Not a hair of your head shall perish."i

Dear reader, how is it with you to-day? Do you feel spiritually moody, sad, and inclined to say, as Jacob did, "All these things are against me. They beat me." Oh! say not so. Remember, the Bible says quite differently. It tells you that, "All things work together for good to them that love God." If they beat you now, you shall be more than conquerors by-and-by.2 Against you! How can that be, when they send you to your Father's arms? Against you! How can that be, when they raise you to nestle in His bosom, and put into your lips those sweet words of filial confidence, "Nothing can hurt me now?"

"These things" are all for us if they drive us to Jesus; they are all for us if they teach us our dependent weakness and our Deliverer's strength, power, and willingness to save us from the hand of our enemies.

But a word to those who have no claim to the good working of the all things which are sure to happen to them sooner or later. Do you ask who these unhappy persons

can be? The text tells you very plainly, by telling you who are the happy ones who need fear no evil-namely, those who love God. Therefore, those who love Him not cannot plead with Him for the fulfilment of a promise with which they have nothing to do which is made only to those whose affection is set on God as their Father and Saviour.

Do you love God? If so, you may go with holy boldness to the throne of grace and seek help for every time of need, and turn the "all things" which would otherwise be against you to your soul's highest good as well as to your temporal advantage. But if you do not, as yet, love your God, oh, "hasten to be wise!" His love has spared you and sheltered you through many a long year. It is your wisdom to return that love; return it with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Then, come what may, beat you who may, you can with confidence run to Him for comfort and protection in the hour of distress, and in so doing experience the feeling of safety and relief that springs from casting all your care upon Him and abiding in His love.

Prophecies and Fulfilments

CONCERNING

THE FIRST COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS Christ.

II.

"And the Lord God said unto the serpent,

enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."-Genesis iii. 14, 15.

ઃઃ

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. . . . . Get thee hence, Satan for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."-Matt. iv. 1, 10.

"When the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season.”—Luke iv. 13.

66

"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."— Luke X. 18.

"Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first He lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." --Isaiah ix. 1, 2.

"When Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, He departed into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalima, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up."-Matthew iv. 12-16.

"The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing."—Isaiah xxxv. 5, 6.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."-Isaiah lxi. 1, 2.

"Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people."-Matthew iv. 23.

"When John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto Him, Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them."-Matthew xi. 2-5.

"And He came to Nazareth . . . and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book. . . . And He began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."-Luke iv. 16-21.

66

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just,