could not endure the strain. As one and another broke, the doomed ships drove upon the shore. With such a wind ruin was inevitable when the vessel parted from its anchor. Some were driven a point or two to the port, some a point or two to starboard; but with the coast-line in front, on the port side and to starboard, all were driven on the rocks or the shore. The break of day revealed a terrible number of wrecks for a couple of miles along the coast. None of the smacks and ships outlived that gale, save those that kept their anchorage and escaped severe collisions from the drifting craft. lives were saved from the wrecks, but many also were lost. It was a night to be remembered. It is remembered still by many a widow and fatherless child, by many a saved boy and man, who recounts his deliverance as one amongst his narrowest escapes and most signal mercies.

Many

How often are outward incidents parables of inward experience! There are lessons for the heart in that event. Contrary winds we all have frequently to encounter. One man's poverty is his trial of heart. Another man's heart is tested every whit as much by his riches. All are exposed to temptations; sufferings of various sorts are our common lot. Even ease and comfort are adverse to the heart that is inadequately protected against their seductive perils. You need not compare yourself with others to excuse yourself on the ground of disadvantages. If you have inferior advantages, on a true reckoning then you have smaller responsibilities. But if your fellow has not your temptations, neither have you his. His put him to the proof as truly as yours put you to the proof. We all have contrary things to resist, if we try to fulfil our responsibilities. There is wisdom in it higher than man's.

But beside the ordinary experience of contrary winds, there are critical hours which most of us pass through. Familiar temptations assail our hearts at times with unusual force, and especially if in ordinary times we have not properly sought defence against them, and power to overcome them. We fall in the way of violent temptations which we have not

anticipated. A calamity comes like a gale. A companion proves treacherously seductive. A resort we have thought carelessly of becomes the scene of excessive peril. A sin we have despised is the very one we are suddenly called to resist. Have you not found it so? Did you not feel the storm? Were you able to ride it out?

One temptation you have had which is all others in one. Beside temptations to several particular sins, have you not been tempted to general ungodliness of heart? Perhaps you have been drawn into it and consented to it. This is the unsafe place. All dangers are here. "I am not a thief," you say; "not a liar, not a blasphemer." But are you estranged from God, your Maker, and Saviour, and Lord? Are you driven before the gale by this temptation, and through your own neglect ?

Now Christ Jesus, who died for our salvation, is a safe anchorage for our hearts in the midst of our temptations. Your temptations may seem to you such a storm as but few encounter. But He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them."1 Place entire confidence in Him. Cling to Him for power to withstand temptation, for safety in the gales. It was He who, having first rebuked the faithless fears of His disciples during a storm, "arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” 2 Trust Him to calm the disordered passions and thoughts of your heart, which are your weakness and peril in temptation and trial. Trust Him with a trust which, if it be strained like the sound cables in a gale, shall be proved strong. Do not trust in your own good resolutions, in your own strength. You may have been wrecked in a gale of temptation, but you are yet spared. You have still life and opportunity of repentance prolonged on earth to you. Then use your precious opportunity. "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."8 protection against all future dangers to your

Secure soul, and be

Acts iii. 19.

anchored by faith on Jesus Christ. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness."1 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

J. E. G.

A Prayer for the Holy Ghost.

From ANGELUS SILESIUS.

OME, Holy Ghost, Thy grace impart,

Co And with Thy glow inflame my heart,

Descend like fiery tongue on me,
That I with power endued may be.
And by Thy grace my soul inspire,
Lord! with Thy love's eternal fire!
Enlighten me, O Thou true Light!
Lest death o'ertake me in the night.
Vouchsafe to me Thy cooling shade,
That no strange heat make me afraid.
The pasture of my heart renew
With Thy Divine and cooling dew!

Oh, come, of Comforters the best,
Who e'er dost soothe the human breast,
Oh, come, who dost all gifts bestow;
Without Thee nought we have or know!
Come, fill my heart's most secret shrine,
And cheer me with Thy strength'ning wine.

May I, like faithful child and dear,
'Obey and follow God in fear!
Let me true holiness attain,

And knowledge of true service gain,
That I may humbly tread through this
The way to yonder world of bliss.

And give me strength that I may be
A soldier brave and true to Thee!
'Oh, teach me, so that I may learn
"Twixt good and evil to discern.
An understanding mind bestow,
That I Thy will may ever know.

And from Thy boundless golden store
Fill me with wisdom more and more,
That I may in mine inmost heart

Know, Lord, how sweet and good Thou art!
That I the truth may ever see-

For Thou art truth; truth dwells with Thee.

Thou, Jesus Christ, the ever blest!
Hast promised me this holy Guest.
Into my soul, oh, may He come,
To bless me and dispel my gloom.
Send Him e'en now into my heart,
And never let Him thence depart!

The Story of an Old Parchment.

A PARABLE.

J. K.

IN the first centuries of the Christian era the Scriptures could only be passed from land to land and from generation to generation upon rolls made of

parchment, or some similar material; and pious people who had time and learning enough knew no holier occupation than that of writing down for their own benefit, and that of others, those words which "holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." It was in this way that the copy called the Codex or Book of Ephraim came into existence. It was written by some unknown person about fourteen hundred years ago. How much of the Bible it originally contained cannot be told; but as it exists now it has in it a great many fragments of the Old Testament, and about the half of the New. Now it so happened that long ago it fell into the hands of a person whose name, like that of the original writer, is unknown, but who, unhappily, appears to have been more interested in the writings of men than in the Divine message, or was so ignorant that he did not recognise in what was written the Word of God; and as parchment was scarce, he made use of it to write upon it part of the works of one "Ephraim, the Syrian."

This Ephraim was a very good man, and we are indebted to him for some very beautiful hymns which have come down to our own day, and have been translated; but he doubtless would rather not have written a line had he dreamed that any of his productions would hereafter be used to hide the word of that God whom he so faithfully endeavoured to serve. Be this as it may, his mistaken admirer erased, so far as he thought necessary, the original writing upon the parchment, and wrote over the place copies of one or two of Ephraim's tracts, and in this state the parchment came down to modern times. By dint, however, of erasing this second writing, and applying chemicals with care and skill, scholars have been able to restore much of the old manuscript, and now this "Codex Ephraemi" takes its place amongst the most ancient and valued guides which we have to the true words of inspiration. Such is the story of this old book, a story which seems to grow into a parable fruitful of practical lessons and suggestions which I shall now try to point out.

1. May I not say then, first, that this history very well represents how the Word of God has been used in all ages? Persistent attempts have been made to rub it out letter by letter, and other words have been written over it, as it were. It was in this way that sin entered. God wrote upon the hearts of our first parents the words, " Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . . . thou shalt not eat; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The words were there fair and clear; and when the tempter came full well he knew that he could gain no conquest so long as these words stood where they were. So he set himself to have them erased, saying, "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not surely die?" The first step was to make his victims fancy that there was some mistake-that God's words could not have the meaning they had put on them; the next was to make them a dead letter; the last was to write a new saying in place of that which had been made to vanish: "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."