66 as you, something that no one ought to do but you. He will say, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard." What can you do? This you can never tell until you try. What are you willing to do? This you may soon ascertain. There is the Sunday-school. Can you do anything for Jesus there? Can you take a class? If not, can you go round the neighbourhood, and collect the children who are still untaught, that others may teach them? There is the house of prayer. Can you do anything there? Is it full? If so, cannot you look out for young persons who attend, unnoticed by any in the congregation, and notice them, trying to get from them whether they feel the power of the word, and try and follow up the preacher's appeals by a word in private? An immense amount of good may be done in this way, if our people were only alive to its importance, and would do it for Jesus. Is the congregation thin? Cannot you increase it? Did you ever set about trying in good earnest? Is there no one that you could influence to attend? What! not one? If you could influence one, that one may influence another; and in this way our chapels would soon be filled. There is the minister. Can you do nothing for him? Do you regularly contribute for his support, according to your means, not making the subscription of any one else your rule, but giving just as God has prospered you,-doing it for Jesus? Do you set apart a certain portion of time every week, that you may pray for him? Are you regular in your attendance on his ministry, and always early, that you may pray for him as you see him ascend or enter his pulpit? Do you take inquirers to him, encouraging them to go and open their hearts to him when concerned for the salvation of their souls? There are the sick. Do you ever visit them? Jesus takes the visits paid to his sick saints as paid to himself. He says, "I was sick, and ye visited me.” "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." How often do the Lord's sick lie and long to see a fellow-worshipper or a fellow-member come in, to read a portion of God's Holy Word, to offer up the prayer of faith, or speak a word to him of Jesus! How many fears may be banished, how many temptations may be removed, how many sufferers may be cheered, how many sorrowful believers may be comforted, if their fellowbelievers, instead of indulging self, would visit them for Jesus, and speak to them of Jesus! There are the poor. Will you relieve them? The poor saints, more especially. Jesus takes what is given to them as given to himself, and promises a reward. Hear his words, believe them, try to realize the truth and importance of them, that you may be influenced by them: "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward," Matt. x. 42. You see, if you relieve the least saint, with the smallest gratuity, not being able to do more, and do it for Jesus, he pledges his word that you shall on no account lose your reward. And how striking is the language of the Holy Spirit by the Apostle James! "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world," Jas. i. 27. Tried by this standard, how much pure religion have you? Some professors, and some church-members, have very little. When did you dry the widow's tears, and satisfy the orphan's wants,—going to them, and not waiting for them to come to you? Will you do this for Jesus? There are the enemies of Christ, as all careless sinners are. You may speak to them, offer special prayer for them, and try to win them over to his cause. "He that winneth souls is wise." But if we would win, we must be winning. Love is the key of the human heart. Once get it in, and you may soon open the door. Love will use gold, silver, kind words, and winning deeds, and thus get access to the heart that was locked against truth and against God. Did you ever attempt to do this for Jesus? Once more, there is the heathen world. Men and money are wanted; you may help to provide them. The power of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary; you may help to bring down that. There is plenty to do, and no time to be lost; for while we trifle or delay, Satan is working, time is flying, souls are perishing, saints are suffering, the cause of God is languishing, Infidelity is spreading, Popery is gaining ground, and we are missing the mark. Let every Christian man, let every Christian woman, then, put the question to the heart, WHAT CAN I DO FOR JESUS? What more can I do than I have done? What more can I give than I have given? Consider what he has done for you, what he is now doing for you, what he has already given you, what he has promised you, what he deserves from you, what he expects at your hands, the honour he has put upon you, the trust he has committed to you, the charge he has given you, the account he will demand of you, the rule by which he will reward you; and then ask, What can I do for Jesus? And if there be any faith in his blood, if there be any love to his name, if there be any reverence for his authority, if there be any concern for his cause, if there be any zeal for his glory, if there be any pity for sinners, if there be any regard for his word, ask, and be honest in asking, What can I do for Jesus? Reader! there is much needs doing, there is much that you may do, and if you stand idle now, you must regret it byand-bye; rouse, therefore : "Rouse to some work of high and holy love, And yield thee fruits divine in heaven's unwithering bowers." THE YOUNG ENGLISH JEW. EVERY thoughtful believer in Divine Revelation will admit that the Jews are a most remarkable people. In their wonderful history, from the calling of Abraham to the advent of Christ, being thrice fourteen generations, as noted Matt. i. 17; and since, from the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus, and their subsequent dispersion in all lands, down to the present day, the hand of God is more strikingly apparent than in the history of any other people. Cast off for their unbelief, their restoration to the Divine favour in the latter days is yet the subject of some of the plainest predictions of both the Old and the New Testament. At the same time, their preservation as a separate people is a standing miracle, attesting, in every succeeding age, and amongst all nations, the truth of the Holy Scriptures. On these accounts, it surely becomes the Christian to look with the deepest interest on his Jewish brother; and degraded as he too often is, yet, "for the fathers' sakes," he claims our pity and our kind regard. Walking one day, a few years ago, in a quiet lane, not far distant from my home, I saw a lad carrying some nets on his shoulder, containing lemons for sale, who was evidently of the Jewish race, and about seventeen years of age. He was standing still at a place where several ways met; and when I approached him, he inquired, in a very respectful manner, if I could direct him the nearest way to a town a few miles distant. I pointed out to him the direction he should take, which, for about a mile, was the same way I was going. So we walked on together, and I felt glad of the opportunity of talking with him, not without some hope that I might be the means of guiding him in the way which leadeth unto life eternal, and of pointing him to Him who is "the way, the truth, and the life." I asked his name. He said it was Godfrey Emmanuel. I was instantly struck with these names, especially the latter, as affording me a good subject for remark: the first name signifying "God's peace," or "God-like peace;" the second name signifying Godman," or "God with us." I asked him if he knew that this was the meaning of the Hebrew word, "Immanuel." { He said he had not thought of it before, but that certainly that was the meaning 1 of the word; for he understood the Hebrew language, and often read the Scriptures in that language. I called his attention to this name as originally given to the Messiah, Isa. vii. 14: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel;" thereby representing him to be at once God and man, or God in human nature. (See also Isa. viii. 8, 10) "Now," I said, "we Christians believe in such a Messiah as is here spoken of by the prophet; one who is truly God as well as man, God manifest in the flesh,' Matt. i. 23; John i. 14; 1 Tim. iii. 16. We believe that He of whom the prophet Daniel speaks as Messiah the Prince,' Dan ix. 25; and whom the prophet Isaiah celebrates as 'a child born,' and 'a son given,' and at the same time as 'the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of peace,' is by these very titles declared to be a Divine person, an Almighty Saviour; and we think that these and other predictions concerning the Messiah were all fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Christians believe in the books of Moses and the prophets as much as the Jews do. Our Bible is the same as yours; only we have the New Testament, as well as the Old." "No, sir," he replied, “I beg your pardon; I don't think your Bible is the same as ours; I don't think it can be " I assured him it was, and that I had been familiar with every part of the Jewish Scriptures from my childhood. "Well, sir," he said, "I will not contradict you; you are much older than I am; you ought to know best." I asked him if he remembered reading Isaiah's prophecy concerning the sufferings of the Messiah, which were to precede his exaltation and reign, quoting several verses of the fifty-third chapter, where he is described as "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities," &c. He said he remembered them, but he did not understand them. I told him Christians regarded these prophecies as accomplished in the life and history of Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem, as predicted by the prophet Micah (chap v. 2), of the tribe of Judah and the family of David, as predicted in several parts of the Old Testament, "who went about doing good," and after he had wrought many wonderful miracles, was unjustly condemned, scourged, and crucified, under Pilate, the Roman governor; thereby fulfilling Daniel's prophecy, "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself," chap. ix. 26. His sufferings and death we regard as designed by Almighty God to be a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, so that he is the true "Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world," John i. 29. The young man listened with great attention while I thus set forth before him Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, the Saviour of the world; showing further that he was "the seed of the woman," promised to our first parents, as he who should "bruise the head" of the serpent, Gen. iii. 15; and the seed of Abraham, in whom " all the nations of the earth should be blessed," Gen. xxii. 18. I earnestly advised him to read his own Bible, to "search the Scriptures daily, whether these things are so," Acts xvii. 11. He said he would go early to the synagogue the next Sabbath, that he might examine the prophecies of which I had spoken. And so, with mutual good wishes, we their heart. Nevertheless, when it" parted, and I saw him no more. There is so clear and so perfect an accordance between the predictions of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah,-his Divine nature, his vicarious sufferings, his resurrection from the dead, his exaltation and reign,— and the record concerning Jesus in the New Testament; the spirit and design, also, of both are so evidently and essentially one, that if a devout Jew could but be induced to give the Christian revelation a candid perusal, comparing it with his own acknowledged sacred writings, it is difficult to conceive how he could come to any other conclusion than this, that they have one Author, that they together constitute the very "word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Let true Christians be ever ready to take any opportunity of enlightening the Jewish mind on this point. Kindness is the key to human hearts, and the heart of the Jew is not insensible to its power. From nominal Christians Jews have experienced little else than scorn, unkindness, and cruel oppression; and from real Christians, too generally, a culpable indifference and neglect. Such treatment cannot but have tended to repel, rather than attract them; and to confirm them in their unbelief, rather than lead them to a candid examination into the nature and the claims of Christianity. A contrary course, which is both right and reasonable, might be expected to soften their prejudices; and, combined with fervent prayer for the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit, would doubtless facilitate their conversion. "Blindness in part is happened to Israel," and "even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon THE DROPPED LEAF. PASSING along the streets of our busy Metropolis, my attention was arrested by a young man begging at one of the corners of our thoroughfares. He was emaciated, in ragged apparel, and apparently an object of pity. I was passing on, but the thought that good might be done to so miserable a specimen of our common humanity, induced me to stop. I said to him, "You appear to be in a sad condition, young man!" which drew forth an unexpected reply, that he hoped he had learnt, in whatsoever state he was, therewith to be content. After a brief conversation I requested him to follow me, which he did for a considerable distance, until, reaching one of the hives of female industry, yet of fashionable resort, we descended together beneath its usually crowded floors, where were assembled, to receive religious instruction, many of the poor and ignorant. The young man was placed upon one of its forms, and became an object of Christian sympathy, and a regular attendant upon the instruction imparted, and upon the devotional services held in that place. Being on the point of leaving the scene of my labours for some time, I expressed my wishes to the young man that he would not absent himself from the place of meeting during my absence, at the same time speaking to him in all faithfulness of the possibility of his deceiving me-of his deceiving himself; |