the Head, will he not be so with the whole body? We are sure that he will.13

QUESTIONS.

1. What am I trying to do if I am a servant of the Lord? 2. How do his servants serve him?

3. How do they wish to obey his commands, and to serve him?

4. What will the Lord do for his servants?

5. If God approve of us, what need we not mind?

6. With whom is God justly displeased?

7. Why were sacrifices to be burnt?

8. Of what was the blood of animals an emblem ?

9. For whom does the Saviour plead ?

10. What will the grace and strength of Christ do?

11. What is the glory of the Divine Being?

12. How may we know if God accepts our offerings?

13. As God is well pleased with his Son, who is the head of

the church, will he not be so with the whole body?

STORY IX.

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MORE ABOUT JOB.

PART III.

AT length the Lord brought Job out of his great troubles, when he had made trial of his faith and patience. We must not forget, that it is the Lord who supports us in affliction, and who brings us out of it. The waves of trouble would drown us, if the Lord did not say to them, "Hitherto shall ye come, but no further!" And how readily can he stop or turn them back.

There is no disease He healed the poor man

which he cannot cure. at the pool of Bethesda, and with a word, who had been ill thirty and eight years.'

It was when Job prayed for his friends, that the Lord brought him out of his trials. We are doing

what is pleasing in his sight, when we pray for others, and try to do them good. Do I pray for my dear parents, and for my brothers and sisters?

And the Lord heard his prayer for his friends, and forgave their sins, in answer to it. He does hear the fervent prayer of a righteous man, offered to him for the merits' sake of his dear Son."

And was it not very kind of Job to pray for his friends, who had treated him so very ill? It was. He had a portion of his temper, who, on the cross, prayed for his murderers, and said, "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!" And we should forgive those who have done us the most harm, even as God, for Christ's sake, forgives us.'

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The Lord not only heard Job's prayer, but he gave him, what he could never have asked him for, even "twice" as much as he had before his troubles. They that honour God, he will be sure sooner or later to honour. And see how able he is to do "exceeding abundantly beyond all we can ask or think."

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And now when he had again become great and rich, his "sisters and brethren," who had not visited him in trouble, came to see and to comfort him. Earthly friends sometimes are unkind, and forsake us when we most need them. But there is a friend," who sticketh closer than a brother;" who always loves those who love him, and at all times; this friend, who never changes, is God.

It is very wrong to desert our friends in trouble or in want; or to give them only a mouthful of good words, when they need food, and raiment, and medicine. "He who hath this world's good, and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion from him, how," says the Apostle John, " dwelleth the love of God in him ?" 7

And the Lord blessed Job, and made him very happy in his latter days. We may wish and pray, and strive, that our friends may be blessed, but God alone can bless them. He can bring, and with a word, from weakness to strength, from sickness to health, from poverty to riches, and from a

place on a dunghill to a throne. He can change darkness into light, disgrace into honour, and death into life.

But a man may be rich, and yet not blessed. He may have health and honour, friends and pleasures, and all kinds of worldly good, and yet not be blessed. There are many such people in the world. But there are also very many whom the Lord blesses; and they are happy, though they may be sick, and poor, and despised, or on a dying bed. And who are they? They are those who love God, and trust in the merits of the Lord Jesus for salvation; who pray for all the blessings they need, and who are always trying to please him, in all they say, and do.' And am I one of these blessed people?

So the Lord blessed Job more at the latter end of his life, than at the beginning. And it is often the case with God's servants, that their last days are their best, and their happiest. It was so with Jacob, with Joseph, and with David, as well as Job. "The path of the just is as the shining