A brother writing very recently from a certain place where he is laboring in the Lord, after mentioning various cases of marked blessing and consequent additions to the Lord's people, closes his letter thus :"These tokens of blessing are solely in connection with the faithful labors and testimony of the saints here."

Is not that an illustration of the passage of Scripture which is inscribed on our front page as the motto of our little periodical ? The Lord Jesus, ascended on high in triumph, the Deliverer of His people, gives various special gifts to such as He chooses, that they may labor " for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ." That is, that those special gifts may be so used as to prepare and furnish the people of God for every kind of service needful in the body of Christ for its growth and welfare, that it may fulfil its mission as God's witness on earth.

How cheering to see thus assemblies of Christ so profited by the labors of Christ's servants as to become instruments of divine blessing all around them ! Such assemblies will not fail to thankfully receive the help of every one whom they recognize as sent by the Lord to serve them; nor will they make a clergy of them . by giving up their own responsibilities to them. Moreover, if there is one kind of sin which weakens the assemblies of Christ more than another, it is that spirit of emulation which leads the special "gifts " to make their labors appear successful. This is a strong temptation, to which every one in the Lord's work is exposed, which ruins those who yield to it, and against which the only effectual remedy is to sincerely and prayerfully seek, not the praise of men, but the praise which is from God. If the soul be honestly bent upon that alone, the blessing He may vouchsafe to give to our labor will not inflate us, for we know it is "not I, but the grace of God which was with me."Nor will drought dismay us, though it may humble us, for our work is in a land "not as the land of Egypt,…where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs :but …a land of hills and valleys, which drinketh water of the rain of heaven " (Deut. 11:10, 11).The men of Egypt have the means in their own hands to produce revivals, but the men of Canaan are wholly dependent on Heaven. If God withholds, what can we do but humble ourselves and cry to Him! May He find us honestly and constantly in that holy attitude.