were seeking after his soul (his life), and desiring his hurt, and already beginning to triumph over him with their "Aha, aha!" His danger was great and immediate, and he was poor and needy, and God was his only refuge, and so he cried to Him to haste to his help. When I am in pressing need, I may cry to God as he did. When my pain is very bad, so that I feel I can bear no more, then, humbly but earnestly, as a child crying to his father, I may cry to my Father in heaven, "Make haste unto me, O my God!" When I am much cast down, in the very lowest depths of depression, then I may call upon God to "hear me speedily," and not to tarry. Still more, when the enemy assaults me, and some strong temptation is upon me, and I feel my own strength to be perfect weakness, then I may cry for instant deliverance, "Make haste, O God, to deliver me." Far from being offended by such a cry, the Lord often comes the moment He is called, as He did to the Psalmist: "When I said, My foot slippeth, Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up." And if the Lord does not come instantly, He

hears instantly, and at His own good time He will come; as Jesus came to raise Lazarus, but not till he had been four days dead. We may say, "Make haste, O Lord; " but the Lord's time is never too late.

O my God and Father, suffer me to plead with Thee for Thy dear Son's sake, that Thou wouldst come to my help now. My need is great and pressing; I have no resources of my own, and none but Thou can help me; I cannot do without Thee; I am in most urgent want of Thy help, grace, comfort, and deliverance; I am in need of Thy presence ; I am in need of Thee. Humbly, submissively, not impatiently, yet very earnestly, I say to Thee, "Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord. I am poor and needy; make haste unto me, O God: Thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying.'

"Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes;" but I plead my Saviour's name, and for His sake, O Father, I entreat Thee to hear me, and that speedily. "Hide not Thy

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face from Thy servant, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it; deliver me, because of mine enemies," and because of my great need.

CHAPTER X.

FORGIVEN AND FORGIVING.

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."-Eph. iv. 31, 32.

I humbly

GOD has been gracious to me. and thankfully believe that for Christ's sake He has forgiven me all my sins. I have sought Him-more earnestly far, since I have been ill, than ever before; I have turned to Him. through Jesus Christ, as one verily guilty; I have prayed to Him that my sins might be washed away in my Saviour's precious blood, and that He would pardon and accept me in Him. I know that all this is promised to those who seek, and I humbly believe that it has been given to me. "Even as God for

I am full of thankfulness; I feel as if I could not praise Him or love Him enough. I feel also full of love to man. I have not now an unkind feeling towards any; I wish well to all; I desire their good; and I cannot bear the idea of ever again being harsh or unkind to a fellow-creature; tenderhearted is what I feel, tenderhearted is what I wish always to feel. Can I ever feel otherwise, when God has been so good to me?

O my Father, my good and gracious God, if it should please Thee to restore me to health, keep me always in this mind. It must be from Thee that such feelings come, for love is of Thee; oh, do Thou keep and renew them in me by Thy Holy Spirit. I cannot keep them in myself, no resolutions of mine can keep them in me; Thou alone canst. There is little to provoke to unkindness now, for all are kind to me; but when I get