is to make the heart holy, which by nature is so unholy. He would make your heart, dear child, fit for heaven; and for this end you must be holy. There is no idolatry in heaven. All worship, whether of angels, of fellow men, or of self, is banished from that pure and holy place, for God is. there, Christ is there, and to him alone every knee shall bow. The song which they shall sing there is a song of praise to him who sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb for ever. There is no hatred there. Hatred! where God, whose name is love, dwells? Hatred! where Jesus, who loved us so as to die for us, walks amidst his holy and redeemed people, whose sins are washed away in his own blood? Impossible. There are no hatred, nor variance, nor emulations, nor envying there.

A man who dies in a state of envy or hatred would not be happy in heaven. If we are not sanctified or made holy on earth, heaven would be no joy to us. Remember this. There must be a beginning of heaven's joys on earth, and it is here that the Holy Spirit must begin the work of peace and joy.

And now turn to the fruits of the Spirit. See the great change which sanctification makes. There is love in the heart, not self-love, but God-love. We love him because he first loved us. God's love to us touches a spring, and we love him, and cannot help it. We see Jesus on the cross, bleeding, suffering, dying, and, as we hear his cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" we ask ourselves, "for whom is that man of sorrows bleeding, for whom is he dying?" For some dear friend? Some faithful servant? No.

The Bible says Christ died for sinners.

Thus the first love to God

fruit of God's Holy Spirit is love, that who sent his Son, love to the Son who came, love to the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and love to man; for how can we cherish unkindness to one for whom Christ died, a fellow-sinner washed in the same blood, redeemed by the same precious, sinless Lamb?

Joy is next on the list, calm, cheerful joy, settled joy, not fitful mirth. Do you ask what kind of joy it is? Look at that prisoner, standing on the threshold of yonder gloomy jail. But yesterday he was a chained criminal under sentence of death. To-day he

has been declared not guilty, and his chains are taken off, and he is set free. The blue sky above never looked so blue as now, the summer air never surely was so sweet as to-day. Every bird, every leaf, every flower seems to bear a message to him-he is free, quite free-acquitted-declared innocent. There, not many miles off, is his peaceful cottage, his home which he thought he should never see again. Such love, such welcome awaits him there, such greetings from wife and children's voices. The captive's sorrow is forgotten in the free man's joy. So with the sinner saved by Jesus, with him who is made free by the truth. He has left the prison-house, his old nature, his old master-Satan. Those sins-the chains which fettered him-are shaken off; he is free. The ransom has been paid, Christ has rescued him. His joy no man can take from him. The Comforter's mission, then, is one of joy.

And peace, too, is mentioned as another fruit. Oh

"Peace be unto you."

Peace is never so truly tumult and disturbance.

what a word is peace! It is so musical, so beautiful in our own language, its very name seems to bring before us pictures of him who is our Peace. It was a word our Saviour often used. "My peace I give unto you." felt as when in contrast with The calm of the blue sea never seems so lovely and perfect as just after a storm. Until our peace was made with God, what fears, what doubts, what tumults in our souls; but then came Jesus and said, "I have paid the debt. I have redeemed you. You are mine." And then peace comes at once, a calm, holy feeling, beautiful as an infant's first sleep; it is the peace of God. The fruit of the Spirit then is peace.

There is longsuffering, too. A beautiful fruit is that of the Spirit's work. There are fruits which the soil of the natural heart produces, which have some likeness to the renewed heart. There are some dispositions naturally kind, and gentle, and loving, but longsuffering is the especial mark of God's children. How can those who feel the greatness of their debt to God, the love of him who paid it, be impatient of injuries, unwilling to forgive? What can I have to bear, compared with all he bore for me? Depend upon it, if we do not forgive, there is great doubt if we have ever truly repented and been forgiven.

And now, as you look through this list of the Spirit's fruits, ask yourselves sincerely, Do I bear these fruits? If not, read this text very solemnly, and read it as addressed to you, "If any man have not the Spirit of

Christ he is none of his."

THE BEST BOOK.

"Search the Scriptures."-John v. 39.

HO is it that tells us to search the Scriptures? Not an apostle, nor prophet, but Christ himself. Jesus it is who says to us, "Search the Scriptures." The value of the Bible is greater than that of any book, and if you ask why, I answer because of the author. God is the author of the Bible. The Holy Scriptures are the revelation of God's will to man, the unveiling of his will and character. Take away the Bible, and what do you know of God? His works may tell you that there is a God, but they will never tell what God is. Yet the time was when there was no such revelation. Two thousand five hundred years passed after the creation of the world, and there was as yet no Old Testament Scriptures to tell man of the creation, the fall, and the promise of Jesus. God then spoke to some of his servants from heaven, and made known his will through them; but there were no records of that will, as now, and not until the time of Moses was the wonderful history of the world's creation penned. The beautiful story of Abraham's faith and of Joseph's cap

tivity were not then known to the people, nor had the law from Sinai yet been given.

It would indeed take too long to give you a connected history of the book, and I must therefore content myself by simply sketching out the circumstances of its composition, leading you, if possible, to prize more than you ever have prized before the Word of the living God.

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, probably, during the long forty years of his wilderness life. But how did he write them? He could not know all that had happened during the two thousand five hundred years of the world's existence, unless he were told, and who could tell him that which was from the beginning? God only could tell. God gave Moses the thoughts, and Moses penned them down. So with those who followed Moses. "Holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." This does not make the Bible their work, but God's work. Just as if you were to wish to send a letter to some friend at a distance, and asked your mamma to write it, telling her what to say. The letter would be yours as truly as if you had written it, because the thoughts would be yours. So the Bible is God's book; its words, its thoughts, are God's.

The beginning of the wonderful intercourse of God with Moses took place when he was keeping sheep at Horeb; and looking round, he saw the burning bush, and heard the voice proceeding from it the voice of God. Then followed the long rebellion of Pharaoh, when Moses interposed between him and God; then