Reuben, Gad, and half tribe of Manasseh were equally with the other tribes called to Canaan :they accepted the call, but came short in practical power. " They saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle." (Num. 32:) Ah! that was the secret; the rich pasture-lands of Jazer and Gilead were more to them than the call of God.

How stands it with you, my reader? Are you one of the many who admire and accept, and would on no account give up, the doctrine of the heavenly calling, while it is denied in practical power? Has it formed your life, character, and ways? If not, seek to discover at once the hindrance to your full and hearty response to the call of God.

You will find that, after" all, the only path of safety and blessing is, to be out and out for God.

The two tribes and half were the first to fall into the hands of their enemies.

The worldly Lot soon found himself a captive with the "sinners of Sodom," and the loving but half-hearted Jonathan fell with the enemies of God and Israel on the mountains of Gilboa.

Abraham came short of the first step in the path of practical discipleship. He fell before the claims of nature (Acts 7:3, 4). Would the Bride have beauty for the eyes and heart of her Bridegroom and King? then " hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ears:forget also thine own people, and thy father's house. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, for He is thy Lord, and worship Thou Him." (Ps. 45:10, 2:)

God graciously came into the scene of half-heartedness and laid His hand upon Terah, Abraham's father.

If we do not break the link ourselves, God will do it for us; while the heart will get a wrench it might have been spared.

Demas, a fellow-laborer with the apostle (Phil. 24), found the testimony of Paul too narrow. Either the world or the testimony must be given up (2 Tim. 4:10). The witness-bearing of Paul will be found embraced in his epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians; and Demas, as well as "all in Asia," give up, in practice, the truths of these precious epistles. They did not give up the gospel of the grace of God, but the gospel of the glory.

Union to the risen Man in the heavens is a truth which refuses to have to say or do with the world. It were well for thousands to ponder, ere taking the path of discipleship, the words of Jesus, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon" (Matt. 6:24.) The Christian's path is one outside the world-system, as the lonely path of the " blessed One " sweetly tells us, " Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." E.F.B.