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If we had never known Jesus, we could never have known how tenderly our Father in Heaven loved us. He is the Image of the Invisible God. So that when we see Jesus day by day going about doing good, healing the sick, comforting the sorrowful, forgiving the sinful, and showing kindness to all, we know what God is, and how He loves and cares for us in spite of all our unworthiness.

Then again it was by the work of Jesus that the Father opened a way by which He might freely pardon and bless us.

If the course of a mighty river were blocked up by the fall of a great mass of rock or soil from the mountain-side, it might be needful, at the cost of great labour and expense, to cut out a fresh channel, and then it would flow forth again, bringing fertility to whole valleys and countries. Thus man's fall and disobedience, so to speak, blocked up the channel, and put a hindrance in the way of our rejoicing in God's love. But He still loved us, and opened a new and blessed way by which His love might again be poured forth in abundant measure on the children

of men. He gave Jesus to die. He reconciled us to Himself by the blood-shedding of the Saviour on the cross. The Father freely gave Him for us, and spared not His only-begotten Son. Jesus freely gave His life for our salvation. So it was alike the love of the Father and the Son by which sin is forgiven and the sinner is saved.

Nowhere do we see so much of God's love as in the work of Christ: "Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He

loved us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

It is well to understand very clearly the meaning of the word "propitiation,” for it helps us to see more clearly the love of God.

his anger or displeasure. Jacob sent to his brother Esau a gift of two hundred shegoats, twenty he-goats, and other animals, and these were intended as a propitiation to turn away his brother's anger. Abigail, the wife of Nabal, brought wine and raisins and sheep to David, hoping in this way to make a propitiation for the ingratitude and surliness of her husband.

But what propitiation could we offer to God? Our utmost efforts, our best works, our greatest sufferings, our richest offerings, could not in any way remove the least of our sins, or be any makeweight in the balances of justice for the evil that we have done.

So our Father provided the propitiation Himself. He saw we could not do it, so He did it for us. He gave us that which we could present to Him as the answer to every sin. He laid our sins on Jesus, and was pleased to bruise Him for our sakes.

And now He bids us all make use of Christ's death and sacrifice as our allsufficient plea. He has made the promise that if we will only come to Him in Christ's Name, if we will only present to Him Christ's blood, Christ's finished work on the cross, as the only ground of our hope, He will accept us as His dear children, and our sins and iniquities He will remember

no more.

So that we see our Father's love in the death of Christ more than in any other way, because He has thus opened wide to every one the gate of everlasting life.

Dear reader, always remember it. The Father is Love; for He so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son. The Son is Love; for He freely gave Himself, His life, His precious blood, to redeem and save us. So, too, the Holy Ghost the Comforter is Love; for He teaches us to know and believe the love of the Father and the Son, and writes on our hearts love to God

Ah! this is what we need to cheer our hearts. There is nothing in the world so full of comfort as to know the Fatherly love of God. When everything looks dark and gloomy, when life seems a blank, when we are separated from those we love best, there is always a refuge to be found in the heart of God.

A young soldier had lost in battle one to whom he was deeply attached. The sudden death of his friend was almost more than he could bear, and he was lying on the ground almost wishing that he were dead. But he looked up, and saw cut out in large letters on a rock at some few

yards distance, the words, "GOD IS LOVE." The remembrance of God's love drove away his dark and gloomy thoughts, and he arose strengthened and comforted, to pursue his daily round of duty.

And we may have the same consolation. If we will only believe our Father's love as shown to us in Christ, and trust only in the Saviour's merits, we may be assured that we have One above who will care for us in all our cares, and help us in our days of toil, and bring us safe home to a rest in the better world.

"O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."

OOTPRINTS on the sands of time" we all leave behind us. But the great point is autoca to leave "footprints pomwhich may serve as a stimulus to those who may come after us, inciting them to industry. perseverance, and "well-doing."

To this end it is not necessary that we should attain a high station in life. Indeed, as men count greatness, it may truly be said

"With God there's nothing great appears:
With Him there's nothing small."

conclude that the attainment of wealth and position is to be expected, or even desired, by every true servant of God, we certainly have abundant evidence around us to prove that as a general rule, in temporal as well as spiritual things, "it is well with the rightous; " and very often marked instances occur in which God is pleased to make this especially apparent by raising men of humble position to places of high trust and honour and usefulness, because they have "honoured Him."

The career of Thomas Kelly will illustrate these remarks, and show how nobly and deservedly he entitled himself to be regarded as A Man of Mark from a Working Home.

Thomas Kelly was the eldest son of John and Ann Kelly, and was born at Chevening, in the county of Kent, January 7th, 1772. When his father married he was only a shepherd, but being industrious and careful, he had contrived to save £200. This enabled him to marry rather above his own station, and his wife proved a perfect model of industry and frugality. Mr. Kelly resolved to embark his small capital in a small farm. But the land was wretchedly poor, and it

of the difficulties, bad crops, and unfavourable seasons, they maintained their position and paid their way for four and thirty years.

Young Kelly received all the education his parents could afford. There was no school of any description at this time in the parish; but his parents induced a poor and respectable woman, named Humphrey, to open a dame-school on her own account, and here he received his first lessons. After two or three years he was sent to the village school of a neighbouring hamlet, upwards of two miles distant from his home, kept by one named Phillips. In some parts of his conduct, whilst attending this his last school, where his opportunities were very scanty, we may perhaps see a promise of the success in life which afterwards distinguished him. In the hours allowed him for play he remained in voluntary seclusion, and strove to improve himself in the knowledge of figures.

When only twelve years old and barely able to read or write, and having little skill in arithmetic, he was taken from school, and was thus debarred from making any great progress in his education. He was put to the hard work of the farm. He led the team or kept sheep. When he left home in the morning, he received a supply of food for the day. He was not strong enough to handle the plough. Once a friend asked him if he had been a ploughman. "No," was his answer, "I was never man enough for it; but I have driven the horses on such occasions many a time." Late in his long life he remembered going with his father to Weyhill Fair, a distance there and back of 150 miles, and helping him to bring home some lambs, which he had purchased on commission. The fatigue was terrible. He followed the flock with his dog, while his father far outwalked him, and poor Tommy was left quite alone, not without a dread of personal danger. In the bitterness of his spirit he said, "Surely I must be born for something better than this."

While these employments, as it may be thought by some, would give to his youthful feelings a downward tendency, it must be borne in mind that the good example of his parents, and the moral influence exercised by

direction. How beneficially, may be gathered from his own estimate of it in after-life. Alluding in a letter to this period of his history, he dwells gratefully on its brighter features; and acknowledges that, notwithstanding the adverse bearing of his occupations, he "then received his first impressions of duty to parents, to God, and to his neighbour-impressions which had never been effaced; but had been, as he trusted, happily applied to the benefit of others, and to his own unspeakable comfort."

"Much of the blessing which followed my friend through his long life," says his biographer, the Rev. R. C. Fell, “is, I am persuaded, referable to the principles inculcated at home prior to the completion of his fourteenth year-principles enforced as much by example as precept-and especially to his witnessing the devout manner in which the Sabbath was observed by his parents. Not only were the ordinances of public worship reverently and habitually attended by the whole family, but every conceivable employment in and about the farm suspended to a degree which, I fear, but too rarely finds its counterpart in like localities in the present day."

His growing dislike to his mode of life now began to express itself; not in murmurings or complaints, but in the desire for some other employment more in accordance with his taste. His parents could not help seeing that he was unhappy in his present situation; and the conviction at length forcing itself upon them that he must certainly be out of the element for which nature had designed him, that he would never do any good where he was; and that something must be found for him elsewhere, inquiries were set on foot in the neighbourhood, which resulted in his engagement to be apprenticed to a tallowchandler at Oxtead.

On this occasion an incident occurred, strikingly illustrative of the father's kindheartedness, and of his consideration for his son's feelings. A day was fixed for young Kelly's entering on his new duties; and it was arranged that his father should accompany him to the place of his destination, a village about five miles off. They had scarcely

from some unaccountable misgivings respecting the nature of his new employment, or more probably from the secret wish which he still indulged of going to London, was overcome by his feelings, and burst into tears. The father, turning round and seeing this, exclaimed, in a tone of affectionate kindness, which was never afterwards forgotten by the object of it, "Why, Tom, you're crying; I see you don't want to go, and you shan't go." He had put the true construction upon the lad's tears, and the engagement was abandoned. They returned home, to the infinite surprise of the mother; and the ordinary avocations of the farm were once more resumed.

At length a situation was found for him at Lambeth as an assistant in a counting-house. His small bundle of clothes was put together by his mother. He could easily carry it. She commended him to God with tears, and, giving him a few shillings, bade him farewell. In this seemingly unpropitious manner he left home for London in 1786, when only fourteen years old, little supposing that after a lapse of half a century he would become Lord Mayor.

He did not remain long at Lambeth; his master became bankrupt but procured him a place as shopman at a bookseller's in Paternoster Row.

Here the terms of his engagement were those of an ordinary servant. He was to board and lodge, and to have £10 per annum. A day's trial was agreed upon; and at its close he told the housekeeper he would go to Lambeth for his clothes, sleep there, and return in time for morning business. When the master heard this, he replied, "Depend on it, you'll see no more of him; he's had enough of it already." But Kelly was at the door before the shop was opened. He crossed the threshold the instant the shutters were down.

aloud to the housekeeper. He began now to learn French, and soon could read it with fluency. It appears that it was thought requisite for the security of the premises that some one should sleep in the shop; and the unenviable responsibility was imposed on poor Kelly. Thus the monotonous routine of his daily tasks went unrelieved by any change of air or scene during the night. The very counter upon which he enacted the business of the day served for his canopy during the hours of repose; while immediately beneath the floor on which he lay, as he afterwards discovered when the premises came into his own possession, was a noxious cesspool. A state of things more calculated to have a depressing effect on mind and body it were scarcely possible to conceive; but that inflexible perseverance which appears never to have forsaken him, and, above all, a prayerful trust in and submission to the will of God in all that concerned him, carried him hopefully through all his difficulties. When, after the lapse of years, he could place in favourable juxtaposition with these his early struggles the accumulated blessings of a long life, he ever acknowledged the Divine source from whence he had received those blessings, and endeavoured to extract from the contrast subjects for meditation and thankfulness.

Mrs. Best, the housekeeper, a kind, conscientious woman, was his only society. He took his meals with her, and she would never allow him to perform any menial work.

He had at this time an enemy in an elder fellow-servant.

"Well," said Mr. Hogg, to this fellowservant, "how is Kelly getting on?"

"I don't think he'll do for us; he's so slow." "I like him," answered Hogg, emphatically, "he's a biddable boy."

This reply of the master's may serve to show upon what apparently trifling circumstances, humanly speaking, a man's future prospects in life depend. Kelly remembered it as long as he lived; and used to mention it as having furnished him, at the time, with renewed motives for activity and obedience.

The sequel to the story, as it respects his fellow-servant, naturally suggests the question,