the sake of ascertaining the
Lord's mind, and this I ground on the following reasons. We have neither
a commandment of God for it, nor the example of our Lord, nor that of
the apostles, _after the Holy Spirit had been given on the day of
Pentecost._ 1. We have many exhortations in the word of God to seek to
know His mind by prayer and searching the Holy Scriptures, but no
passage which exhorts us to use the lot. 2. The example of the apostles
(Acts i.) in using the lot, in the choice of an apostle in the room of
Judas Iscariot, is the only passage which can be brought in favour of
the lot from the New Testament (and to the Old we have not to go, under
this dispensation, for the sake of ascertaining how we ought to live as
disciples of Christ). Now concerning this circumstance we have to
remember that the Spirit was not yet given (John vii. 39; xiv. 16, 17;
xvi. 7, 13), by whose teaching especially it is that we may know the
mind of the Lord; and hence we find that, after the day of Pentecost,
the lot was no more used, but the apostles gave themselves to prayer and
fasting to ascertain how they ought to act.

NEW TASTES.

What a difference grace makes! There were few people, perhaps, more
passionately fond of travelling, and seeing fresh places, and new
scenes, than myself; but now, since, by the grace of God, I have seen
beauty in the Lord Jesus, I have lost my taste for these things.... What
a different thing, also, to travel in the service of the Lord Jesus,
from what it is to travel in the service of the flesh!

OBEDIENCE.

_Every instance of obedience, from right motives, strengthens us
spiritually, whilst every act of disobedience weakens us spiritually._

SEPARATION UNTO GOD.

May the Lord grant that the eyes of many of His children may be opened,
so that they may seek, in all spiritual things, to be separated from
unbelievers (2 Cor. vi. 14-18), and to do _God's work_ according to
_God's mind!_

SERVICE TO ONE'S GENERATION.

My business is, with all my might to serve my own generation; in doing
so I shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord Jesus
tarry.... The longer I live, the more I am enabled to realize that I
have but one life to live on earth, and that this one life is but a
_brief_ life, for sowing, in comparison with _eternity,_ for reaping.

SURETY FOR DEBT.

How precious it is, even for this life, to act according to the word of
God! This perfect revelation of His mind gives us