Service versus Communion.

A little incident recently came to our ears which illustrates so well a great matter that we give it to our readers as it came to us :

A loved and loving daughter made up her mind to work with her own hands a pair of slippers for her father's nearing birthday. She had to use every spare moment to accomplish the task in due time; and as she wished it to be a surprise, she had to hide from her father a good deal. Instead of welcoming him at the door, as was her wont when he returned home from his work, she had fled away up-stairs several times at sight of him through the window where she was working at the slippers.

Finally the birthday came, and the beautiful slippers were presented to her father. "Is this, my darling child, what has deprived me of late so much of your company ? Well, I value the love expressed in the work, and thank you for it; but oh, my child, never again do such a thing. Your company and communion are worth to me more than all the work you can do."

Is not this just the lesson the word of God teaches us in Martha and Mary? (Luke ro :38-42.) The Lord loved them both, and both loved the Lord:but Mary knew the Lord's heart as Martha did not:she abode therefore at His feet listening to Him and enjoying communion with Him while Martha was cumbered about much serving. Martha's chosen portion would be taken away therefore, for service is a thing of time; but Mary's would abide, for the communion of love is the very atmosphere of heaven our eternal home.

May we be " steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," for we know that labor in the Lord is not in vain; but let not our service be of such importance in our eyes as to cause neglect of intercourse with the Lord Himself-neglect of His word and of prayer.

If we do, it will make our service savorless; it will cause us to be disobedient to the word of God where that word interferes with our ideas. Happy are they who, full of the joy of the Lord-the fruit of communion-serve unweariedly in the obedience which has no reserve.

" I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." (Zeph. 3:12.)

Such will be the remnant- those of faith-of the unbelieving nation of Israel just preceding the return in glory of the Lord whom they once rejected. To them He comes, and bids them now "be glad and rejoice with all the heart . . . the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee :thou shalt not see evil any more" (vers. 14 and 15).

Are not present Christian times, just before the return of our Lord and the rapture of the Church, in principle like those Jewish times ? Who that sees present Christian conditions from end to end of Christendom-sees them with the eye of God-can fail to be a mourner, and afflicted ? Who that means to live by every word of God can avoid sharing the affliction and reproach that truth is now in ? Who that purposes in his heart to obey the truth unreservedly will not find himself with a company of afflicted and poor people ? Where is the man who, determined to declare the whole counsel of God, can abide in peace to-day even in that which still calls itself orthodox ?

Shall we then cease from "the good fight" because all odds are against the faith and cast reproach upon it ? Why should we ? It is a sign of the near fulfilment of our hope. Our redemption is nigh. The coming of the Lord is at hand. While afflicted on the way for a little while, the Holy Spirit -"the earnest of our inheritance"-fixes our eyes on the eternal joys of the nearing end.

"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7.)

This passage does not mean that cleansing by the blood of Christ is a continuous thing. (1 John 1:7.) It is not so at all. The believer is cleansed once for all by the blood of Christ, just as Christ shed His blood once for all, never again to be repeated. Heb. 10 :1-22 teaches us this most forcibly. Believers are "sanctified (set apart to God) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (ver. 10). They never need a second application of the blood of Christ, "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified " (ver. 14).

We need Christ as Advocate (i John 2 :i) every time we, believers, sin; we need Him constantly as Priest (Heb. 7:24-27), for in our life with God we are in incessant need-a need which He alone can supply ; but as Saviour, the One who delivers us from the wrath to come, we meet Him thus once- "once for all." All thought of Him as Saviour after that is remembrance-the sweetest, indeed, of all remembrances, for time and all eternity.