"For I will give you a mɔuth and wisdom,—which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."-LUKE xxi. 15.

"Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me :-Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ?— declare, if thou hast understanding."--JOB xxxviii. 3, 4.

THERE are few men and women who have lived on this planet, who have come to years of maturity, but have at certain times sat down in deep reverie and wondered at God's mysterious dealings with the sons of men. Wondering even at their own existence. In meditation some may have asked themselves sundry questions, such as :-Why was I born into this world to suffer, to toil on from year to year, to endure privations, sickness and misery?-Behold! when I am doing all I can to make ends meet-and begin to think that all is well with me;-suddenly my firstborn is snatched from my bosom by death, the little nest that I have been so careful to feather for the comfort of myself and my offspring, so securely built in a snug crotch of the sturdy oak, becomes suddenly shaken by fierce March winds and falls to the ground and the feathers fall in showers about us.-I look all around me-and hear the same dismal wail of sorrow, sickness, pestilence-famine and bloodshed. I see death that great king of terrors feeding upon the dust of men.-Yea, from the cradle even unto the grave— no peace-no rest-no comfort.-Oh! why does God permit these evils to follow us? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken us?-Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly ?-why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? for now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept then had I been at rest, where the wicked cease from

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troubling and the weary are at rest. together; they hear not the voice small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul? who long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures. Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in ?—Where ! where! is the blessedness whereof once I sang ?-where the songs in the night ?-where the peaceful moments I once enjoyed when my heart was young and strong in my first love? when my heart was made glad by the sweet strains of salvation. Ah! then I thought that I should have been freed from sin and all evil. I verily thought that I had been born again, never, never more to sin.-I open the Scriptures to seek comfort, and I read "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."-As I read these words, my heart sinks within me-my skin cleaveth to my bones, because I feel I know that I cannot say that it is so with me. Watch as I will, pray as I will, I find that I sin still, my heart still lusteth after vanity; when I would do good, evil is ever present with me.-O! wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the death?-Alas! Alas! there is an aching heart which I have never been able to fill. to mount Calvary and pour out all my griefs and troubles at the foot of the cross, I receive only temporary relief; this aching void returns when I gaze upon the evils of this world, with all its attendant consequences of misery, trial and sufferings, my heart faileth me, and I am ready to give up.-O! if there be a messenger, if there is an interpreter, one among a thousand, a daysman to show me the path, to teach me the great unfathomable mysteries of God's government with the sons of men, O! may I find him, there might be hope to fill up this aching void in my heart, that my soul might rest and be at peace with my God. From my infancy up I have attended Sunday Schools, Bible classes and all means of Grace. I have listened to sermons innumerable, but none of

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them seem to meet my present want, my particular case. I search the Scriptures earnestly desiring knowledge and wisdom as hidden treasures-yet much appears to me in chaos, contradictory and marvellously strange, passing strange.—I have been almost among every denomination of Christians to satisfy this my craving need. I have gone to the wise and have asked them Sir, tell me I pray thee, why God has permitted all these evils to come upon this earth-to blight these bodies, this garden, this fair and beautiful creation, but what alas, to all my earnest enquiries I am told that I must not pry into deep mysteries. I am told that it is sufficient to know that evil exists and am warned to eschew it.-I am told that Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating an apple from a certain tree, and therefore sin and death entered this world, and I must suffer for their transgression. The more I meditate upon these things the more confused I become; night after night I wet my body with my tears, day after day I feel like a lone sparrow upon the housetop patiently waiting for a crumb of spiritual food. At times I fancy that I see a star in the east bidding me to wait and hope against hope.-In vain do I seek my friends for food, they have nothing to offer me, yet they grow fat while I become more lean every day. I cannot go to them any more, for miserable comforters are ye all.

Dear hearers, have you not mused at times in this or a similar manner? have you not been troubled at the many things you see and hear, unable hitherto to understand them? -Perhaps you have attended church punctually all the days of your life, yet you still find many perplexing and inexplicable mountains standing on your pathway, which mar your peace with God. But how can you marvel at this ?—why?— have you not been eating this year such things as grew of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; but the third year and third watch is now set in; the days of Daniel have commenced wherein ye can sow, reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof.-Hitherto ye have been drinking the wine provided for the human governor of the feast, prepared and offered by human hands, but now the six waterpots of stone having no flaw in them are laid

before you they are being filled with water-anon they will hold the pure and unadulterated wine of the kingdom.—It is your privilege to drink of this wine now, because the time has come. This wine, unlike the former is not prepared and handed to you by man, nor is it prepared for the natural governor; but is prepared by the immortal Spirit, for the Bride of Christ. Do you diligently seek this wine, this pure wine from the grapes of the land? Then you will find it in this Flying Roll from which these sermons are extracted. Your mind need no longer be troubled about these things which have so much perplexed you, nor will you have any need to run after this man or that popular preacher to instruct you, for all things will be clearly laid before you in simplicity so that a child of Abraham may see and understand. If you continue with us to the end of the twelfth sermon you will know "where you were" when God laid the foundations of this earth. You will no longer doubt or reason with the multitude whether you had, or had not an existence before the foundations of this planet were laid. Nor will you treat your former existence with indifference-nor place it in the category of the many "non-essentials" of an apostate Christendom.—After reading or hearing these twelve sermons of "Extracts in Embryo" read, if you still desire to press onwards to hear the "Flying Roll" in its fulness, completeness and purity— (which can only be seen and heard in the light of the Holy of Holies) you will no longer see as through a glass darkly, you will no longer know in part, but you shall know even as you are known."-The word of God will no longer be a parable to you. But who will believe our report ?-? None, save the scattered and dry bones of the whole house of Israel; none, save the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah. That same divine Breath of Power who asked the question in our text, will also breathe upon these dry bones in the valley of Christendom and cause a shaking-the bones shall come together sinews and flesh shall come upon them, (free from blood) the skin shall cover them above-and they shall stand upon their feet: one hundred and forty-four thousand strong; an exceeding great army,-the Bride of Christ. The agree

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