of color more enduring than Tyrian purple, it is dyed red in the blood of Calvary.

Come away, and come to Jesus. Come as you are. There is neither time nor need for delay. Imagine not that you have to do what Joseph did before he was ushered into Pharaoh's presence. The Hebrew lies immured in a foul and lonely dungeon, when to a thundering at the gate, and the cry of "a message from the palace !" the ponderous bolts are drawn. The door is thrown open, and, guided by the jailer, the royal messengers hurry along the dreary passages and enter Joseph's dungeon. Pale, sad, disconsolate, far from his father and a father's love, a slave, a captive, neglected in dress and person, the Hebrew lies before them. They strike the fetters from his limbs, and hurry him off, for Pharaoh with royal impatience frets and grieves till his dream is read; and yet, with all their haste, Joseph is not ushered into the presence of royalty till the marks of the prison are removed, and in attire and appearance he is made like one who is fit to walk the floor of a palace, and stand before a king. We are told that "he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh." I have to tell the sinner that, although he lies in a deeper and darker dungeon, although he is covered with fouler and filthier rags, and although the presence of Jesus is infinitely more august, and venerable, and exalted, than that of any mortal king, he stands in no need of preparatory holiness, of even one short hour's delay. You have neither to change a rag, nor remove a stain. He is ready to receive you as you are. Come then as you are. Here, this hour, the bridegroom stands by the marriage altar. It is not

your wealth nor your beauty which has won his heart. He loves you; he has shed his blood to wash you; at great cost he has purchased the wedding garment, a robe of righteousness, and the crown of glory. The romance which relates how a peasant maid was united to a great prince, and the turn in fortune's wheel which gave the honors of a queen to some female slave; these but dimly shadow what thy fate might be. Why, when Christ seeks you, should you hang back? He is ready to espouse you to himself in the marriage bonds of an eternal covenant-"The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."

Man Justified

THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JESUS CHRIST.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean. EZEKIEL XXxvi. 25.

THE dinner was to prepare, the rooms were to be made ready, there were servants to direct, and guests. to accommodate; there was the character of the house. to maintain, and its whole machinery to keep oiled and in good working order—with these things Martha was busy. Not only busy, but, like many others, she was so intently engrossed with household cares, that, in a tone which had the sound of a gentle rebuke, our Lord said, "Martha, thou art cumbered about many things; but one thing is needful." That observation applies as much to men as to women; more so, perhaps.

Furnished with clasping tendrils, and strong by the attachments which they form, the woodbine and ivy wind their arms round the tree, embrace it closely, and rising to its lofty boughs, and clinging to its rough bark, they give ornament and beauty--a vesture of soft green spangled with flowers-in return for the support they get. Like these, woman, with her strong and warm affections-gentle, loving, confiding-is prone to attach herself to a nature stronger than her own, and to lean on it for support. And, whether it be that she is from this peculiar disposition less op

posed to the faith which looks to another's righteousness and leans on another's strength, certain it is there is more religion among women than men. If, on account of the elevation and high position which it has given her in Christian countries, woman owes most to religion, religion in turn owes most to her. You tell me that "by woman came sin?" I know it; but I set off this against the fact-by woman came the Saviour. Jesus was a virgin's child. And, more than that, in those days when he walked this world, women were his trustiest, kindest friends. Whoever betrayed, denied, deserted him-they never did. The nearest to his cross, and earliest at his sepulcher, they were faithful when others were faithless, and gave early promise of that devotedness to his cause, which their sex in all ages have honorably and pre-eminently displayed. Go through our Christian households, and I will venture to say, that you will find more women than men, more wives than husbands, more sisters than brothers, who are living under the influence of religion. Many more children are to be found, who refer their earliest, deepest religious impressions to a mother's than to a father's piety.

But, be we men or women, "One thing is needful." Yet how sad and strange it is, that this one needful thing, which, for that very reason, should be the most, is often the least sought after; which, for that very reason, should be the first, is often the last sought after; and sometimes, alas! never sought after at all. It is the brightest feature in man's sad and sinful lot, that while amid the business and anxieties, and toils, and cares, and keen competitions of a world, which has so many blanks and so few prizes, there is, after all, but one thing needful. And especially blessed is

sought in vain.

it, that the only thing we really need is the only thing we are sure to get. Sought in sincerity, it was never Other gifts may be asked and retrue of this as of nothing else what ever, "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.'

fused; but it is

Need I say that the one thing needful is salvationthat it must be that can be nothing else than that To a man, the conscious possessor of a never-dying soul, who is burdened with a heavy load of guilt, and who, in an eternity which he is nearing every hour, descries a throne of rigid and righteous judgment, Oh, what has this wide world to offer comparable to salvation? What profit would it be to me, though I gained it all, if I lost my soul? All those other things which we seek, all that we toil and travail for, all for which we daily fret and vex ourselves, nay, all for which some are fools enough to barter away their souls, compared to this are but mere spangles and tinsel, dross and dust-bubbles colored with rainbow hues that break at a touch, and, bursting, smart the eyes of the child who blows them. When a man lies stretched out on a bed of death, ah! he sees objects then in their due proportions. From that point of view the highest objects of earthly ambition, the loftiest pinnacles of wealth, of power, of fame, dwindle down into littleness, and look as far beneath salvation as the loftiest Alp beneath the sun. Yet, strange to tellincredible, did we not know it to be true-many, as if there was neither God in heaven, nor fire in hell, nor soul in man, feel no anxiety about the matter. They live and die like the beasts that perish. Is it otherwise with you? Anxious about what alone is worth your anxiety, are you pressing on the preacher