and that he will never need to go out of his own circuit to find those who will love him for his works’ sake, till they know him well enough to love him for his own.

“Encourage Him,”—by being at the services regularly,

and in time, and especially at the Prayer-Meeting.  Stay to the Sunday night one, and go to the one held in the week.  What a comfort for the Minister to see the vestry filled when he gets to the Weekly Prayer-Meeting! and when you are there, or on your knees at home, pray for him; for if Paul needed the prayers of the Church, much more do the Preachers to-day.

“Encourage Him!” by taking the advice he gives you when he is in the pulpit.  A doctor would feel it if his medicine was treated as many sermons are.  What would the medical man think if he saw the bottle of physic poured down the sink, or left in the bottle untasted, till there was a cupboard full of bottles?  He would not feel like preparing any more.  How a preacher is encouraged to make fresh sermons, when he sees that his last was taken into the heart and life of some of his hearers.

“Encourage Him!” by letting him know of anyone who has received good from his preaching or visits.  You need not be afraid of making him proud.  He has had enough of the other kind, or, as we sometimes say, he is sure to have “a stone in the other pocket.”  We remember visiting one of our sick class-leaders one Monday, who said, “Who was the young man who preached here last night?”  “Why, that was the new Minister!”  “Well, you must tell him a woman was converted.”  It will “Encourage Him,” and James says, “If one convert him, Let him know!”

XV.  “WE HAVE NO MIGHT.”
2 Chron. xx. 12.

Yet we need it very much.  We are in great weakness, and we need power, for there is a great multitude come against us.  It is not the wisest policy to ignore the strength of our enemy.  Jehoshaphat did not.  It is well for us to know the strength of our foes, but let it not lead us to despair.  Who shall number the host of the foes against whom we must fight?  They come to rob us of our inheritance, and if we submit, we shall be enslaved.

We have no might, but we know who has.  The pious king said (verse 6), “In Thine hand is there not power and might, Art not Thou God?”  Is there more than one God?  Some Christians talk as though the Lord had been obliged to give up some of His power to Bradlaugh & Co.  Where is the sign of a divided kingship?  Could all the host of God’s foes have prevented the earthquakes?  Do they know when the next will take place?  It is still true that God “shaketh the earth and the pillars thereof tremble” (Job ix. 6)

“This awful God is ours,
Our Father and our love.”

We know how to get Might, for we can Pray.  Jehoshaphat did not first of all review his troops, he called a meeting for prayer.  The nation fasted and prayed, and the king led the devotions of his people.  What a prayer!  Have you noticed the four questions he puts to his God? 

And with what pathos he says “Our eyes are upon Thee!”  Shall not the people of God imitate Judah?  “They gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord.”  Why should we not make this the motto of our weekly prayer meetings—

To Ask Help.

Not only the men, but the women and children came to the meeting.  Would not the mothers and the little ones pray?  They knew that their foes would carry them away captive, if God did not help.  Would it not be well to encourage our children to cry to the Lord?  Would He not hear them, think you?

Promise of the needed help soon came.  The Holy Ghost fell upon one of the sons of Asaph, and he soon told his message:—

“The Battle is not yours, but God’s.”

He always makes His people’s cause His own, when they trust Him.  Shall we not live so that our lives shall become part of the divine estate?  So that we cannot be hurt without its injuring the Lord of heaven?  “The Lord will be with you on the morrow.”  Is some preacher reading this on the Saturday night?  It may be some young Minister, or Local Preacher, who is fearing for his reputation, or for the ark of God.  Brother, read over with care this address of the Levite, v. 15–17.  Then, like the godly monarch, shew others how to praise the Lord.  It is well to notice that the people, led by their ministers, stood up to praise the Lord, and on the next day, before the victory, they praised the Lord.  What a scene it must have been!  How the angels would keep time with their harps, as the choir sang the anthem, “Praise the Lord! for His mercy endureth for ever.”

They needed not to Fight.

The Lord did that.  He sent His hosts, and all that Judah needed to do was to gather the spoil.  When shall we spoil our foes?  When shall we loot the devil?  How one’s fingers itch to take his goods!  The time is coming when we shall gather the wealth and power he now possesses, when the hosts of darkness shall come against the people of God only to be slain; and when there shall be no difficulty in raising money for good objects, for the devil’s coffers shall be at our service.  Let us not lose sight of the fact that the same week the great multitude came against the Lord’s inheritance, there were more precious jewels than could be carried away, and the place where the foe was encamped came to be called

“The Valley of Blessing.”

POVERTY IS HARD,
BUT IT MAKES
A GOOD GRINDSTONE.

XVI.  “BE PERFECT.”
2 Cor. xiii. 11.

Why not?  What possible objection can there be to perfect Christianity?  You like perfection in other things.  You like your watch to keep “perfect time.”  If you are measured for a coat, you like “a perfect fit.”  You like other people to be perfect in their actions, so far as you are concerned.  You wish your children to obey you; your wife to love you without ever wavering; those who owe you money to pay up twenty shillings to the pound; your servants to do their work according to order; in a word, if you served God as you wish everybody to serve you, you would be a perfect man.  Is that so?  Then why object to “Christian Perfection?”  You say,

“I don’t believe in sinless perfection.”

Well, we wish to be practical and to do you good, and so we will take lower ground.  Do you believe that it is possible for God to make you a very much better man than you are?  O yes!  Then why not allow Him to have His own way?  Is this not the reason why some men are not striving after “Perfection?” They like to be as they are.  Going forward means suffering, self-denial, a struggle,—“There are giants in the land.”

Some other time we will try to encourage those who are really anxious to possess the good land, by shewing that Joshua and Caleb were right in saying of the sons of