ty they have become. And
so we will not be appreciated in our day, but we are to toil on and
work on, possessing this joy all the while. And if we lack it, let us
cry: "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy
free Spirit; then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners
shall be converted unto Thee."

Again, the 15th chapter of John, and 11th verse, reads: "These things
have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your
joy might be full." And in the 16th chapter and 22d verse: "And ye now
therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall
rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you."

I am so thankful that I have a joy that the world can not rob me of; I
have a treasure that the world can not take from me; I have something
that it is not in the power of man or devil to deprive me of, and that
is the joy of the Lord. "No man taketh it from you." In the second
century, they brought a martyr before a king, and the king wanted him
to recant and give up Christ and Christianity, but the man spurned the
proposition. But the king said: "If you don't do it, I will banish
you." The man smiled and answered: "You can't banish me from Christ,
for He says He will never leave me nor forsake me." The king got
angry, and said: "Well, I will confiscate your property and take it
all from you." And the man replied: "My treasures are laid up on high;
you can not get them." The king became still more angry, and said: "I
will kill you." "Why," the man answered, "I have been dead forty
years; I have been dead with Christ; dead to the world, and my life is
hid with Christ in God, and you can not touch it." And so we can
rejoice, because we are on resurrection ground, having risen with
Christ. Let persecution and opposition come, we can rejoice
continually, and remember that our reward is great, reserved for us
unto the day when He who is our Life shall appear, and we shall appear
with Him in glory.

"THE Spirit, oh, sinner,
In mercy doth move
Thy heart, so long hardened,
Of sin to reprove;
_Resist_ not the Spirit,
Nor longer delay;
God's gracious entreaties may end with to-day.

Oh, child of the kingdom,
From sin service cease;
Be filled with the Spirit,
With comfort and peace.
Oh, _grieve_ not the Spirit,
Thy Teacher is He,
That Jesus, thy