rescueth. Some old Christian might say, "Hold! this is beyond a child's reach :" the greater reason, if so, why the LITTLE GLEANER should be carefully kept and bound up in volumes from year to year; for those who are now little gleaners, in a few years' time, if life is spared, will be grown up into manhood and womanhood, and will then perhaps have to wade through many a flame, and will perhaps remember for their consolation the fact that Jesus, the dear Angel of the Covenant, will be with His saints in flames and flood. Next, in Dan. vi. 22, in reply to the king's mournful inquiry in ver. 20 and 21, Daniel replied, "My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." It is possible that it is still the same dear Angel here in the den, as seen just now in the furnace, and called, by way of pre-eminence, "The Angel of His presence" (Isa. lxiii. 9), and to whom "salvation" is attributed ; for "the Angel of His presence saved them in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old." This-yea, this-is the work of Jesus alone. Here let us pause. Since some little gleaner through grace can say— "To lovely mount Zion my feet are now bound." then, before you reach its summit, you will have to add, in sorrowful strains “But many a lion is in the way bound." Remember, then, that Jesus shuts the lions' mouths, and their spirit-crushing roaring is only to try faith and love, and you shall gratefully say, "They have not hurt me" (ver. 22). " They have alarmed me, they have made me tremble, they have made me cry to the God of Daniel; but they "" shall be the language of every have not hurt me,' believer eventually. But while I could not forbear to lead your thoughts to Jesus, the "Angel of the Father's presence," my object is to speak of angels, as the servants of God and the Church. I just now said they were employed sometimes to destroy the wicked, and to protect the righteous. One marvellous instance of this is shown us in 2 Kings vi., when the king of Syria sent chariots and horses and a great host to take a solitary prophet. The young man, the servant of Elisha, when he saw so huge a host, filled with deep dismay, went to his master and said, "Alas, my master! how shall we do ?”—a question often asked since then when hosts of ills surround, and hosts of dangers line the road of the tried child of grace. But look at the face of the venerable old seer; see what serenity is marked in his countenance, unmoved in the sweet confidence of faith, he by the eye of faith beholds his safety; and he answered, Fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." I have no doubt but what the servant wondered where they were then, for all he could see was their foes, and they were numerous enough to swallow them up as at a mouthful; and so now the eye of sense can only see our foes, our dangers, and our sorrows. "And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee open his eyes, that he may see." What a short prayer, but oh, how blessedly answered! For we read, "And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." And thus we see whole battalions of holy angels dispatched to guard a persecuted saint. Yea, the chariots of God are twenty 66 66 thousand, even thousands of angels" (Psa. lviii. 17). Many other texts of "the word" might be given to prove their ministry for man, and the kind offices they perform. I quoted in October from the beloved Toplady, and will again do so here, for he speaks so sweetly upon the subject in his "chamber hymn": "Their worship no interval knows, Yes, little gleaners, there are evil spirits to tempt; but what a mercy if grace reach your hearts, and angels have "a charge concerning you!" Oh, how faithfully they will keep it—with what willingness will they watch! They are also "witnesses of the greatness of God's works, visible and invisible. With what holy wonder did they admire His mighty works in creation, when they beheld His glorious majesty speak the planets into existence, cast the various orbs of light into their proper places, and there bid them stand or revolve as His infinite wisdom saw fit, and when they beheld His power in creating all things, for the apostle tells us, Col. i. 16, "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him." And what tongue can tell how they wondered and admired when they saw 66 man, God's noblest lower work, created? But we must, for the sake of brevity, and to bring you to my "little narrative," pass on; but, the more fully to prepare your minds for what I am about to tell you, go with me to "Little Bethlehem," and there behold دو a scene for an angel's sermon; no gilded cradle, no sweet perfumes, no costly palace, no crowned heads to witness the advent of "the Lord from heaven "A stable serves Him for a room, But angels are witnesses of the mighty fact, and first preachers of the glorious tidings (Luke ii. 9-11). "And the angel said unto them [that is, to the fearing and astonished shepherds], Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Oh, what an unlikely place in which to find the Lord of glory! But He has rested in unlikely places since, when He has been formed and found in sinners' hearts, "the hope of glory." (To be continued.) -0880 EDITOR'S ADDRESS TO HIS YOUNG FRIENDS. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,-Your old friend the GLEANER is still travelling up and down and picking up his ears of corn, and, short as has been the month of February, he has succeeded in filling his bundle full; and he now places it in your hands with hearty good wishes that you may get much real profit from its contents. Dear young friends, you are growing up in an eventful age. How impossible it is for me to say what you will live to witness. Infidelity on the one hand, and Popery and Ritualism on the other, are making most rapid strides, and each of these evils is helped forward out of the revenues of our country, so that they become national sins. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are given yearly by the nation for the preparing and supporting of Popish priests; men who eat Protestant bread, and hold offices by virtue of subscription to the truths in the thirty-nine articles, are openly putting down the truths they contain, and teaching the doctrines, and practising many of the idolatrous ceremonies, of the Church of Rome; and others are in the pay of a Church which professes to adhere to the Bible as the infallibly inspired declaration of God's mind, while they teach that much of the Bible is false. And since the Government not only connives at but pays for all this, the nation is involved in the guilt, and must expect to bear the punishment of these things. Ah, dear children, before your heads are grey, Smithfield fires may blaze again around the confessors of truth, or some "reign of terror" may chasten our sinfully cherishing infidels as teachers in the state Church; or you may live to see that season of unequalled tribulation that will precede the coming of Jesus to raise the dead in Christ, and to change the living believers in a moment into His perfect likeness, that 80 they may ever be with the Lord. My heart's desire for you is that you should be so settled in the truth of God's word, that neither the unscriptural ceremonies of Ritualistic priests, nor the cunning reasonings of sceptical teachers, may move you from cleaving to the book of God. And, above all, I wish for you the true possession of God's saving grace, that whatever storms may rock the world your heart may be fixed, trusting in God. O dear children, whether you live to see the black clouds that over |