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has come down in the world in a Oh, Al, of course you shall money point of view! I should have it! I am to have a sister, despise myself for it."

"But, papa, she won't come," said Lizzie.

“Never mind whether she will come or not. Write an invitation. I will take it to her."

Lizzie sat down, pale and angry, to write the note. After all her boasting of having "cut the Stanleys," it was very hard to be obliged to invite Laura. Her cheeks grew hot as she indited the polite little missive, while she remembered the many times she had openly ignored her to whom it was addressed. She would have disobeyed had she dared-would even have withheld the note after it was written, had her father not stood by to take it himself. It was indeed humiliating.

Later, her brother Al came to her. "I should like an invitation, Lizzie, for a young lady of my acquaintance," he said, in a quiet voice.

"Who is she?" "The young lady whom I asked to be my wife," he smiling.

have

said,

then? I'm so glad! What is her name? Is she in town? Will she be sure to come? I'm sure I can't think of anybody!" And then she paused, puzzled at his shrewd smile.

She sank down, covering her face with her hands.

"I was afraid she might feel the slight so keenly," he said, softly, "that I hurried matters a little. So you need not be afraid now that she will not come. Will you not prepare an invitation ?"

"I have. Papa has carried it to her. But oh, AĨ, a clerk !"

"A noble woman," said her brother," who dares face the sneers of her set,' and take an honest position for the sake of those who are dependent upon her, rather than whine about her former dignity, and live upon charity! I wish there were more like her." So Lizzie was forced, for once in her life, to eat humble pie.

THE LAMB OF GOD.

BY THE REV. THOMAS HENSON.

THE sudden, startling appearance of a new preacher is always the signal for popular excitement, especially if he has a new truth to proclaim, or utters an old truth in a new form. To this John the Baptist could not be an exception. His appearance and his preaching filled the country with wonder and inquiry. Just as the eddying circles on the water into which a child's hand has cast a stone widen out to the utmost limits, so this excitement respecting John and his theme extended, till it reached all the extremes of society. John's followers multiplied so greatly, and the influence of his doctrine spread so rapidly, that popular feeling began to regard him as possibly the coming Messiah. The Sanhedrim, partly to satisfy their own curiosity, and desirous to give an authoritative note to guide public feeling, sent an official deputation to demand information from him as to his claims and pretensions. John's answer, "I am not the

Christ," was not enough; and they asked not only who he was not, but who he was.

It was but little they understood when he told them, "I am a voice crying in the wilderness," and that Messiah was standing among them. Two days after, when Jesus, having spent forty days in the wilderness in fasting and conflict, returned, and appeared among the people on the eastern bank of the Jordan, John proclaimed Him to them as "The Lamb of God."

Jesus was the subject of many types, prophecies, and promises in the Scriptures. As Abraham and his son were approaching the place where the father's faith was to endure its severest test, and gain its greatest triumph, Isaac, seeing the sacrificial preparations, but no victim, asked, "Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" "My son," said his father, "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.' The ram found in the thicket did not exhaust the meaning of these words. Just as the sun is sometimes concealed by dark clouds, and then bursts forth in full-orbed splendour, so was Christ, the Lamb of God, hidden in those words and in the ram which Abraham found; and now here, on Jordan's bank, after long ages, He is openly proclaimed to the people.

It was

The Paschal lamb of the Israelites prefigured Christ. slain, and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts of the houses, so that the angel of judgment, seeing it, should pass over the people within. So Christ's blood was shed that through all the ages there should be a "blood of sprinkling," under which penitent, believing sinners may escape the impending doom of sin. All who on that terrible night were within the blood-sprinkled doors were safe from the destroying angel, while the judgment fell upon every house where the blood was So all who are found under the blood of Christ by faith shall live eternally, while all who neglect it will by that neglect bring the terrible judgment upon themselves. By the blood of Jesus, the believer has boldness to enter into the presence of God; but those who refuse or neglect the personal application will in vain plead the sacrifice.

not seen.

We must not linger to point out the relations of the Paschal lamb to Jesus, but remark that He was also beautifully pre-figured in the daily morning and evening sacrifices. They were to be of the purest of the lambs in the flock; Christ was "the lamb without blemish and without spot." Evil men tested Him by every human device, and good men watched Him with loving eagerness, but no one found sin in Him.

The Paschal lamb did not die as an expiation, but these did; and in this also they typified the expiatory death of Christ. They were continual sin offerings for the people; but Christ, by His one offering, perfects for ever all who believe on Him. It is a strange delusion which denies the expiatory character of Christ's death. The sufferings and death of Jesus were much more than an example or a moral

expedient to impress men with a sense of Divine love. Why was He wounded, if not for our transgressions? Why was He bruised, if not for our iniquities? Why do the apostles speak so much of the blood, the cross, and the propitiation of Christ, if there were not in them an atonement for sin? If the long procession of sin offerings and sacrifices were shadows of something better, where is the substance, if not in the substitution and sacrifice of Jesus? To assign any other end empties the Bible of its meaning, and deprives the guilty of hope; or, as Robert Hall says, "It makes the gospel the greatest imposition on common sense that ever was presented to the world; it would combine the most pompous pretensions with the most meagre reality of all existing compositions."

Nor must we forget that the perpetuity of these morning and evening sacrifices has a peculiar relation to the perpetual fulness of the one offering by Jesus Christ. Their savour and incense must never cease. There was in them a daily confession, a daily prayer, and a daily expiation. They were, however, but shadows; and we must follow the shadow till we grasp the substance. We now have Christ, who, by one perfect offering of Himself to God for us, perfects for ever all who come unto Him. At His feet, and through Him, we must still be daily worshippers. They were always deficient ; He is ever all-sufficient.

"He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." Of whom spake the prophet this-of himself, or of some other man? Had the Ethiopian known the Lamb of God, he would not have asked that question. To what could John the Baptist refer more straightly than to this when he pointed to Jesus as "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world"? But what is the prophet's point? He has spoken of iniquities all laid upon Him; he pictures Him as bearing our grief, carrying our sorrows, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, enduring our chastisements, and feeling our stripes. It pleased the Lord to put Him to grief, and to make His soul an offering for sin; and He bore all this not for Himself, but for us-us sinners; He bore it with the silent meekness of the lamb. He complained not; He called for no vengeance upon wicked men, at whose hands He suffered. Possessed of all power, with legions of angels at command, He made no resistance, but suffered Himself to be led away to death. With the consciousness that He was "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he went as a lamb to the slaughter.' The Book of Revelation is essentially the book of the Lamb. The position and the figures change, but it is the same Being. "I beheld, and lo! in the midst of the throne and of the four living ones, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain "still the Lamb, but no longer the suffering One; though still bearing the marks of the cross, He is enthroned, with power, knowledge, and authority, and adored by all the multitudes of the heavenly

host. Nothing could be more fitting, than that the name and character of His deepest humiliation before men and demons should be chosen as the one under which He should receive the adoration of every creature before His Father in heaven. It is sad that on earth He should still be robbed of His deity, and refused that worship which angels so devoutly offer in heaven.

Again, He is seen as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, having the book of life, in which are written the names of such as shall partake of His glory. And these are a great multitude; they come from every land, are of every tongue; but they come through much tribulation, as He did. They wash their robes into more than snowy whiteness in the blood of the Lamb. Then comes the grand climax. All heaven and earth, yea, all creation, conspiring in one grand eternal chorus of universal worship of the Lamb who sits upon the throne. Acclamations of blessing and honour, dominion and power, are given unto the Lamb for ever and ever. If no true soul can resist the feeling of wonder while listening to a human choir rendering that matchless "Hallelujah Chorus" in the "Messiah," what must it be to join in that which John saw and heard? Who can forget, while the ascending voices one to another give out the sentence, "King of kings, Lord of lords," that it is the Lamb of God of whom they sing? How vividly do the prolonged hallelujahs, ringing and swelling, louder and louder, from every voice, remind us of the apocalyptic picture! And when again the many voices pour along the almost tumultuous stream of loud amens, what soul could stand unmoved, and not desire to unite? Ah, but all this is poor, compared with that great chorus of worship in which each redeemed spirit shall take a part in the presence of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem!

Long Buckby.

DUNCAN M'HARDY'S LESSON.

"Oh, you'll hurt it, Duncan!" cried May, ready to cry.

"Look at my birthday present, "Let's see it," said Duncan, Duncan. Isn't it a beauty ?" And taking the rabbit roughly by the May M'Hardy, a pretty, blue-eyed ears. girl of nine, ran towards her brother Duncan, cuddling a snow-white rabbit. She buried her little face in the wool, while the rabbit buried its face, bright red eyes and all, in her sunny curls.

"Did she bring me one?" inquired Duncan, looking at the rabbit, only half pleased.

"But

"N-o-o," said May, while a cloud passed over her face. you know, it's my birthday!" she added, coaxingly.

But she dared not refuse to let him take it, for he was her tyrantthree years older than May, a strong, big boy of his age, while she was very tiny. Then he liked to domineer, and little May was so gentle and submissive that he ruled and governed her on all occasions.

"I never got a rabbit as a birthday gift!" he cried, almost angrily, throwing the creature upon the