NINTH SUNDAY EVENING.

BEGINNING OF MIRACLES.

M. When our Lord had overcome the tempter in the wilderness, He returned again to the place where He had left John baptizing and preaching to the assembled multitudes. We are told that this place was called Bethabara, and that it lay beyond the river Jordan. The word 'Bethabara' means "a place of passage," and it is thought that this village was situated on the Jordan, over against the city of Jericho, and that it was the very place where the people of Israel passed over Jordan into the promised land, led, as you remember, by Joshua. Here John had remained during the temptation, speaking to the people continually of Christ, and bearing witness to Him : and now he beholds Him coming to him from the wilderness, and repeats his testimony to His divine person and character: for John again declares in plain terms to all the people, that this Jesus whom he points out to them is "the Lamb of God who taketh the sin of the world:" that this is He upon whom he himself had seen the Spirit of God descending, and abiding; and who was come to baptize with the Holy Ghost. Nor was this devoted and faithful messenger of the Messiah satisfied yet with the declarations which he had made concerning Christ; the very next day he took another opportunity of repeating to two of his own particular disciples what he had already so publicly declared. Pointing to Christ, as He was walking at a little distance, he said to them,

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"Behold the Lamb of God!" Just as if he had said, "I do not wish you to remain with me any longer; I have hitherto gladly conversed with you, and instructed you, and done what I could for you; but my great object all along has been, not to keep you for my own disciples, but to prepare you to become the disciples of One, who can do for you far more than I can. I may indeed have taught you to see your own sinfulness and to grieve over it, but I cannot give you pardon, or deliverance from it. There is, however, One who can do this; One who has come into our world on purpose to take away the sin of it; to Him you must go for pardon and peace. Behold Him there; yea, behold the Lamb of God,'-that Lamb whom your paschal sacrifice pointed out as the only real sacrifice by which atonement can be made for sin, and man be made at peace with God. He is the Lamb which God has provided from the beginning; and

who has now appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;' to wash away its guilt by His precious blood; to deliver us from its power by His Holy Spirit. Do not let me keep you away from Him for a moment; I long to give you over to Him, for with Him you will be safe and happy: behold Him there, ready and willing to receive all who go to Him." All this we may imagine the humble Baptist to have meant, when he pointed out the Saviour to his own disciples, and invited them to leave him for Christ. And what an example did he here set to all the ministers of Christ's Gospel! If ever, my child, you should have the honour of becoming one of those ministers, one of the shepherds of Christ's flock, remember this, I entreat you: remember the Baptist's

desire to lead his followers to Jesus: remember that this has ever been and must ever be the one great object of all faithful ministers, not to set up themselves, but to lead people to love and adore the Saviour: to persuade them to follow Him, and to submit their hearts to Him: to point Him out to them as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

E. Ah, Mamma, you know how often I have thought that I should like by and by to be a clergyman, what you call a minister of Christ; and I am sure I hope, if ever I am one, that I shall remember what you have now told me about John the Baptist. I wonder whether his two disciples did leave him and go to Christ?

M. Yes, he did not speak in vain; the Bible tells us that "the two disciples heard him speak, and followed Jesus."

E. And did Jesus receive them kindly, Mamma?

M. You will not know Him long, before you will find out, that He never sends any away who desire to come to Him! He turned round to John's disciples, as they were following Him, and said to them," Whom seek ye?" And when they replied that they wanted to know where He dwelt, He graciously invited them to "come and see;" and they returned with Him to His own home, and staid with Him all that day. Humble, no doubt, and poor was that home, but it was the dwelling of the Redeemer; and when once they had been admitted into His blessed society, they were unwilling to leave it, and most glad to be permitted to remain. And here we have an interesting circumstance related to us concerning one of these disciples

of John whose name was Andrew. Not contented with the happiness of having become acquainted with Jesus Himself, he went to seek for a brother of his and brought him also to Christ.—" the best proof he could have given of his love to his brother!" This little incident is a very beautiful one, and well worthy of our notice. Let us learn from it how we may best show our love for those who are near and dear to us; remember how Andrew showed his : "he brought him to Jesus." If we have been so happy as to have been taught to know and love our gracious Redeemer, let us try to lead others to know and love Him too: let us bring all whom we can to Him, especially those whom we love, the dear companions of our childhood, the sharers of our earliest joys! Let us not only love Christ ourselves, but entreat them to love Him too, that so having had one home on earth, we may live for ever together in our "Father's house" above. Andrew, as we have seen, went to find his own brother Simon, and telling him with joy that they had found the Messias, or Christ, he persuaded Simon to return with him to Jesus, who graciously received them both, and looking upon Simon, said to him, "thou art Simon, the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas," which, in the Hebrew language, means a

stone.

E. I wonder why our Saviour gave him another name, Mamma.

M. A new name was in those days a sign of favour, and was often given to keep up the remembrance of some kindness or honour bestowed at the time of giving it. You will recollect several instances of this in the Old Testament; particularly how God changed [Second Series.]

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the name of the father of the faithful, at the time when He made him such great promises, saying to him, "neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham: for a father of many nations have I made thee:" and again how Jacob was called by the new name of Israel. By giving a new name to Simon, our Saviour would keep up in his mind the remembrance of the time, so important in his life, when he first became His disciple, and would also shew His great kindness towards him, in not only receiving him, for a disciple, but thus marking him out as belonging to Himself; for we only give names, you know, to those whom we consider as our own, as really belonging to ourselves. And here we are reminded, Edward, of the names which we also received, when we were taken to Christ at our baptism; those names which we call, you know, our christian-names, because they were given to us at the time when we became members of Christ's Church: let them ever bring back to our minds the solemn vows which were then made for us, and continually help us to recollect that we are not our own, but Christ's; and that we must "never be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified," remembering that we have promised to "fight manfully under His banner, against the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and to continue His faithful soldiers and servants unto our lives' end."

E. You have not told me, Mamma, why our Saviour gave Simon the name of Cephas?

M. This word Cephas, or Peter, which is the same in signification, meant, as I have said, "a stone or rock;" and may partly have been chosen by our Lord to show Peter that he was expected to be "firm and