Sunday evening affords the opportunity of the week for a gospel-meeting in the ordinary circumstances of an assembly. Naturally God's people desire to have the gospel preached then, and to have it sustained, and that it may be known that every Sunday evening at least the gospel is declared among us. But are there not cases when the assembly may be found bearing, to its own loss, a self-imposed burden in this connection? that is, there may be no one fitted, no one led of the Lord, to preach, and yet the supposed necessity of sustaining preaching may lead to the undertaking of what is not really done by the power of God, and apparently not for blessing. There certainly should be faith and hope and prayer that the Lord will help. There should be searching of heart that there may not be pride or lack of devotedness to the Lord in the assembly, to hinder blessing. There should be that spirituality that will discern even a very little apparent blessing in the word preached; and this the Lord will surely note, and He will help and give blessing. But while this side "of things should be carefully considered, and no doubt has been often acted on with precious result in much patience, still, are there not conditions when the attempt to continue the preaching is a manifest failure, and a grievous burden to all ?In this case ought not the assembly to come together to wait upon the Lord, counting upon His mercy and upon His help, according to His sure word ?The Lord in the midst is assurance of victory and blessing to faith. Apparent weakness will test us, but only unbelief will fail under that test; but if failure and lack of blessing is manifest, still God is working in this very thing to bring us to exercise of soul and confession and prayer, that He may in the end lift us up, and restore and bless. The result of such an exercise would be great joy in place of dreary formality and deadness. But there may not be this extent of failure. The meeting may result in outpouring of heart in prayer; in a chapter read in the power of the Spirit, warming the hearts of those present:a hymn of real praise and worship may follow, and a few words, if not more, may be spoken with freshness and liberty, because there is no forcing oneself to fill out a certain time. And if there are unbelievers present, there would be naturally a few words added for the unsaved. In this way, with simplicity of heart and faith in God, all hearts might be refreshed and encouraged, instead of being burdened and disheartened, and the Lord's name would be glorified and His love and His presence would be enjoyed. And who knows but that the Lord is thus directing us to value the neglected assembly meeting of 1 Cor. 14:, when two or three may speak for edification, exhortation, and comfort (see verses 3 and 29), and when, also, the unbeliever coming in may be made to feel and confess the power of God present in the meeting ? May not the lack of gift among us serve for this very end-that our confidence may be in the Lord, and not in man ? for He alone can bless, and faith alone can wait upon Him for blessing.

And that this kind of meeting is sadly lacking among us is well known, and deplored also in general; and yet in Scripture it has a most prominent place, as we see by i Cor. 14:At this point a word of warning and appeal may be called for. It is this:when an open assembly-meeting such as we speak of is proposed, frequently it is objected to. There are plenty of objections. "We are liable to have a dull meeting; some one may speak who does not edify. " But the appeal one would make is this :Is not such a meeting a Scriptural one, and one that ought to have its place among us ? Do we really desire with a whole heart to see it promoted among us ? and if not, does not our own unbelief and coldness of heart tend to the very failures that are thus naturally manifest in the meeting when we come together ? The subject before us now is, of course, not an occasional Sunday evening meeting, when there is no one to preach, but the need arid value of this kind of meeting in general as a prominent church-meeting for the edification of the Lord's people and for the development of gift. It ought to afford food for serious thought, that the objections made to this meeting are the same that are made to meeting at all on a Scriptural basis, apart from human systems. It is not overlooked in this line of remark that we may be too weak to profit by such a meeting; but what is pleaded for is, that it should be recognized among us as a Scriptural meeting, and one that should have a prominent place, and one that is divinely adapted to the upbuilding of the Church. Nor is it overlooked that " the breaking of bread " and the prayer-meeting among us are of this character; but the full truth of Scripture calls for this mutual edification meeting, by mutual ministry as well as by prayer.

Let our hearts grow warm about it, and let us ask the Lord to help us in this matter. And if, to sustain such a meeting (or to be used of the Lord in it), we need to be whole-hearted Christians, this in turn will be for our blessing. Are we able to "keep rank" (i Chron. 12:38) ? There is a serious responsibility upon us which, as Christians, as fellow-members of the Body of Christ, we are not permitted to slight. We cannot sleep without injuriously affecting others, our fellow-members. The Lord deliver us from that self-occupation which would lead us to refuse to use what little gift one may have because it is not greater! We know this to be pride and coldness of heart. May the Saviour's love warm our hearts and deliver us from every snare Satan may lay for our feet. If we need to be a united and happy company to be able to minister to one another, let us seek God's face for ourselves first, and then for our brethren. May we be delivered from the love of the world, and sloth, and from every defilement, that the Lord may use us for blessing. May we say in our hearts, " Come, Lord Jesus. " May we everywhere pray for more devotedness to Christ in all the assemblies. May brotherly love prevail. E. S. L.