despair of the most foolish of men, if he become the servant of Jesus.  It is said of the great John Hunt, that when a young man, he gave no promise of the talents he shewed in the work of the Ministry.  We have spoken with one who knew him before his conversion, who made us smile as he described his gait and style of life.  Yet this ungainly ploughboy became a man whom to know was to admire.  It was in Christ’s hands, though, he improved so greatly.

Does the Lord really need an Ass?  Yes.  The Scriptures foretold that Jesus should come “riding upon an ass.”  Is it not beautiful to think of the poor despised Ass fulfilling so grand a prophecy?  “The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth.”  We may help that on.  Will the young men and women who read this bear in mind that no one ever used this ass till Jesus did?  Why should He not be the first to use you?  “What!” say you.  “Do you compare us to an ass?”  Well, if we do, the Bible is before us.  “Man be born like a wild ass’s colt.”  And, if you have not remembered the claims God has upon you, the poor ass has the best of it, for the Lord says “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his Master’s crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.”  Have you

noticed that unconverted men and women are pictured in Exodus xiii. 13, where you see a young ass with his neck broken?  The Lord needs you that He may redeem you from your fate, and that you may be spared to bear his yoke.

Is not the best way to elevate men, to let the Lord have the use of them?  However coarse and mean we are by nature, He can refine and elevate us.  And any part of our life that is in danger of baseness may be lifted to beauty and blessing by putting it under the Christ.  What a change came over this animal in one short day!  An ass in the morning, but the

Throne of God

before the sun went down!

* * * * *

IN THE WILDERNESS SHALL WATERS BREAK OUT.

Is not that good news for you?  After being so long without a revival, would it not be welcome?  Welcome you say—welcome as water in a desert.  Yes, and that is just what is promised.  A revival in the most unlikely place in the circuit, where even the raciest of preachers seems to be dull, and where there is a monotony which would shame a prison.  Yes, there, right there, look out for the water, not stagnant, but water that “breaks out.”  “Then shall the lame man leap as the hart” that finds the stream it needs, and the “dumb shall sing,” for this living water shall quench his thirst, and loosen his dried-up tongue.  When shall it be?  Young local preacher, why not when thou preachest the next time?  Look for it to the throne of God and the Lamb.—Rev. xxii., 1.

IX.  TWELVE BASKETS FULL OF FRAGMENTS GATHERED FROM THE MIRACLE OF CHRIST FEEDING THE MULTITUDE.

1.—Man needs help.  “They have nothing to eat.”  (Mark vi. 36.)

2.—God is better than good men.  “Send them away,” said the disciples.  (Mark vi. 36.)  “They need not depart,” the Lord replied.  (Matt. xiv. 16.)

3.—Ministers should always be on the look-out for the children, they give help as well as trouble.  Andrew said, “There is a lad here.”  (John vi. 9.)

4.—Youth can give to jesus what no one else possesses.  “There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves.”  (John vi. 9.)

5.—Unbelief would fain cramp the love of jesus.  “What are they among so many.”  (John vi. 9.)

6.—“Order is heaven’s first law.”  The crowd must sit down in companies of fifty before Jesus would feed them.  “He commanded them to make them all sit down by companies.”  (Mark vi. 39.)

7.—Christ would not have us eat without asking a blessing.  “Looking up to heaven he blessed.”  (Matt. xiv. 19.)

8.—Christ’s hands can do no more than ours.  It was His touch that multiplied the loaves.  If the disciples

had kept the one basket, there would have been many faint by the way.  Faith is the truest economy.  (Matt xiv. 19.)

9.—The use of the church is to pass it on.  “Gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.”  (Matt. xiv. 19.)

10.—Eat what god sends.  You cannot be saved by knowing the doctrine any more than looking at bread will satisfy hunger.  “They did all eat, and were filled.”  (Matt. xiv. 20.)

11.—When God is the host there will be plenty for everybody.  “As much as they would.”  (John vi. 11.)  “Enough for each, enough for all, enough for evermore.”

12.—Omnipotence dislikes waste.  “Gather up the fragments.”  (John vi. 12.)  “And they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.”  (Matt. xiv. 20.)  A basketful for each apostle.

WAIT HERE FOR THIRD-CLASS.

Passengers on the London “Underground” have often seen the sign-boards, telling the travellers where to wait for the class they mean to travel in.  And there is sure to be a large group near one—the notice for third-class passengers.  It is so in the road to heaven.  Forgetting that the Master has paid first-class fare for us, too many ride third, meaning, when they get to the station where tickets are collected, to change into the first, for all want to die happy.  Live holy.  Be first-class Christians, and then God will see to it that you die so as to bring honour to Him.

X.  SPIRITUAL FARMING.—No. 3.
CULTIVATION.

We have already called the attention of our readers to the subject of ploughing, but we feel we have not pressed upon them with the force it deserves, the necessity of what the Bible calls “breaking up the fallow ground.”  What the plough and spade do for the land we must have done for the minds of those who sit in Methodist pews.  Unsaved men and women must be compelled to look the truth in the face.  Farmers know that so long as the land is hard and cloddy, the seed has no chance to get the nourishment by which it lives; besides by turning it over, the plough exposes that which has been hidden to the light of day, and it is by turning it up that it gets the benefit of the atmosphere.  The nitrogen contained in the air is filled with that which the growing seed requires to find in the land, if it is to do well for the worker.  Have we not thirty-fold crops where we ought to have hundredfold, for want of better ploughs?  The heathen who spoke of preaching as “turning the world upside down” hit on the truth; and those of us who fail to turn up the soil are not likely to reap all we might do.  The other day we heard an intelligent man tell the story of his conversion.  He was awakened under the preaching of Mr. Robinson Watson.  He said, “I never used to listen to sermons, I sat in the corner of the pew and thought of business, or

any machine I was planning, and did not hear a word, but Mr. Robinson compelled me to think and act.”

Does not this man represent many?  Are these people to be allowed