there are churches and chapels in those streets.  The few who attend those places pass houses, once respectable, but now given up to vice.  Homes where there was once family worship, are now, to use the words of the Wise man, “The way of hell, going down to the chambers of death.”

What is to be done?  “There are not many members now.”  “There is no one to work.”  So it might have been said in the bean-field; the people were gone, all gone but Shammah.  He stood, and God showed, then, as now, that He was prepared to stand by the minority, if it were loyal to Him, for He wrought a great, not an ordinary one, but a great victory!

There are yet great victories to be won when we turn on our pursuers.  Don’t be carried away by bad example.  We go with a multitude to do evil, when we refuse to fight for the results of past work done by ourselves or our fathers.  Shammah seems to have said, “If I am to die, I will die here among the beans.  Better so than pine to death for want of them.”  Is it not true that with the harvest of our toil they carry away our faith in God, and in His word?  Much of the Bible is lost to those who flee rather than fight.  A great deal of our hymn book is for

“Believers Fighting.”

Those battle songs cannot be enjoyed by men who never

leave the barracks.  No wonder the old tunes are not sung by craven hearts.  Let those of us who have left Shammah to fight alone, rejoin him, then we shall have the joy of conquest, and the gladness of those who divide the spoil.

* * * * *

WAITING AND READY.

The other day, looking out of a train, as we stopped at a country station, I saw a row of buckets painted red, with the word FIRE on each of them.  There they were, waiting to be used, if occasion required, and I noticed that each of them was filled with water.  Only a humble kind of agent is a bucket, yet being full of water and near at hand, it is easy to see that in the event of fire breaking out there, it is more than likely it would be put out without doing much damage.

Are we,—Ministers, Local Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, Class-leaders, and other workers—are we ready for use?  It is not enough that people can tell by our appearance that we are separated for service—are we ready?  It did not suffice the man in charge of that little station to have those buckets on the stand, and it is not enough that we are in the pulpit or the class-room.

Are we Filled?

We can be filled with that which will put out the fire, and if we are not full, who is there to blame but ourselves?  Those buckets might have been neglected till the hoops dropped off, and the power to hold water was gone, all because they were not kept full, and if so, they would be an apt illustration of some who have ceased to be the men they were, and only that they fill the same place, we should not dream of them being used at all.

VI.  “HIS CHAINS FELL OFF.”
Acts xii. 7.

In answer to Prayer:—Do you know any one tied and bound?  Have you prayed for them without ceasing?  Are you conscious of the enemy putting your hands or feet in fetters?  Are you unable to reach that purse which was at one time always within your grasp, so that now you do not give to the poor as you once did?  Are your feet prevented from going on errands of mercy?  Do the manacles keep you at home on Sundays, instead of walking muddy lanes to preach?  If so, how do you like it?  Do you not think you should cry to God?

We know a godly and cultivated minister who got into Doubting Castle, some years ago.  He was losing hold of God, and his duty was becoming irksome, so he cried unto the Lord in his trouble.  “I let them all go to bed,” said he, “and had an all-night of prayer,” and his chains fell off.

Very quietly.  Not a single soldier was awakened.  God can speak in loudest tones, as at Phillippi.  He can bring His people out without anyone knowing, till they tell the tale themselves.  It has often been the case, that some gentle, quiet preacher has been the instrument of deliverance to the Lord’s chosen ones.  There has been a revolution in nature.  What a blessed change!  How the chains of winter have fallen off, and that surly east-wind jailer been dismissed without noise or clamour.

When free, Peter went to tell those who had prayed him out.  He found them in a state of great surprise.  How good of God not to limit our success in prayer by our faith, or the want of it.  In this also He does “exceeding abundantly.”  Still they did not fail, depend on it, to praise the Lord.  Herod soon found it out, and was abashed.  He would not dare to meet a Christian in the street, for the smile on the believer’s face would say, “His chains fell off.”  Do not let us who can pray be ever discouraged.  We can touch the heart of God, so let us sing—

“The Lion of Judah shall break every chain,
And give us the victory again and again.”

ISAIAH I.

I.—Feed an ass once, and he will know the place again.  Feed a sinner all his life, and you only make him more capable of rebellion (verses 2 and 3.)

II.—There are no wounds smart like those given by God’s rod (verses 6 and 8.)

III.—Sin manufactures dunces so stupid, that even God’s rod cannot mend them (verse 5.)

IV.—Religion without piety sickens God (v. 11, 14.)  There are folk in church and chapel more hateful to God than those in the public-house.

V.—Sin is dirt (verse 16.)

VI.—God can bleach even crimson-dyed hands (v. 18.)

VII.—Those who are strong to sin shall burn in a fire hotter than their lusts, and more quenchless than their hatred to goodness (verses 28 and 31.)

VII.  LEAPING AND PRAISING.
Acts iii, 8.

Little did the lame man’s friends think that this was the last time they should ever carry their dear one to the spot where he begged his bread.  Perhaps you have offered your last prayer to-day for some one’s salvation.  He may come home to say, “Carry me no more, but let me walk with you to heaven.”

No one could blame the poor fellow for being excited.  He had never walked before, and the delight he felt made him use his new found strength.  You see he has dropped his crutches.  Anyone could light the fire with them now, he needed them not.  Reader, do you still use spiritual crutches?  Why not look for the fulfilment of the prophet’s words, “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart.”

He entered with them.

He could not have been persuaded to leave them; indeed, we read of him further on standing with the apostles when they were brought before the magistrates.  It is a good sign when men stay with those who were made a blessing to them.  If Methodism had with her to-day all she has lifted from poverty and degradation, she would need neither testimonials nor benefactors.

VIII.  “THE LORD HATH NEED OF HIM.”
Mark xi, 3.

What! of an Ass?  Yes, “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world.”  He gets renown to Himself by “using things which are despised.”  Let us never