In common with many of the dear children of God everywhere, the writer experienced a keen sense of personal loss when apprised of the fact that our beloved P. J. L. had been called home by the blessed Master. It was our happy privilege, on the occasion of a visit to New York City during the past summer, to come into personal contact with him at a Lord's Day morning meeting. After the meeting, the dear brother, in his kindly, sympathetic way, engaged us in a brief conversation. The writer tried to express to him the feeling which many of us who are younger entertain for those who have been for so long a time connected with the testimony to the name of our Lord Jesus. Mr. L. sought to impress the responsibility devolving upon us in connection with that testimony. His parting words, accompanied by a smile of encouragement and love, were:"No doubt the stigma of bigot will be put upon you; but be steadfast, and turn neither to the right nor to the left."

Upon learning that Mr. L. had departed to be with Christ, the writer's mind was impressed with the final charge of Joshua to the people (chaps. 23 and 24), "Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left." The keeping of that charge was a thing not to be lightly entered upon in the complacency of past accomplishments; it required moral courage in each individual. And is it not true that only by obedience to the whole word of God we become, so to speak, symmetrical Christians ? Nearly every error in modern-day Christendom finds its origin in a perversion of Scripture, in misplaced emphasis upon certain truths, to the neglect or exclusion of others. How important then to become acquainted with and obey every part of God's word, that we may not be led astray to the right or to the left.

In these last days God has graciously recovered to us many precious and fundamental truths of Scripture, which had long been covered over through man's failure to keep what God had given for his blessing. The blessed hope of " the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" has again become a living reality in the hearts of thousands of the children of God. The gospel of Christ has been, for many of us, disentangled from the various entanglements of works and traditions of man. Great portions of the word of God have been opened up to His people-but have any of us lost the freshness of our first love ? Has the special goodness of God to us become, in any measure, a common-place ? Do the spirit and the reality of separation characterize us as a people as fully as in years now past ? If we, who have been brought into association with the testimony to the Name of Christ, "do in any wise go back " to associations from which our gracious Lord had delivered us, let us "know for a certainty" that those very associations will be "snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes."

Let us rather "remember our leaders who have spoken to us the word of God." Let us follow their faith, as they were followers of the Master, "considering the issue of their life." It is only by increasing acquaintance with the word of God, and sincerely putting its teachings into practice, that we shall be enabled to withstand the world's blandishments and make progress in the things of God.

In writing to Timothy, the apostle Paul exhorts him to "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus " "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." But let us notice the necessary condition of such service:"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life." True, we need to gain our livelihood in the world, but then, blessed be God, "we are not of the world ! "

The apostle pressed home upon the saints certain matters of which he would not have them ignorant. It is our obvious responsibility to avail ourselves of such helps-written or oral-to the understanding of His word. How many of us are "ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in us, with meekness and fear ? " To what extent are we familiar with the precious truths which God has revealed to us in these last days ? A vast amount of literature, throwing wonderful light upon the Holy Scriptures, is accessible to us. How many of us diligently use it in connection with our Bibles ? What treasury in the "Numerical Bible," the "Notes of C. H. M.," the "Synopsis "of J. N. D., and others! What God-given helps they have been for the opening up of His word to us !

How gracious God has been to us! We have come to know Christ as our own personal Saviour; we have the full assurance of eternal salvation; we have learned to know what it is to be watching for our Lord's return; and still the word of God is in our hands to gather fresh food for our daily wants, and to speed us on our journey. But special privileges imply special responsibilities. Shall we not then, in the words of the dear departed servant of Christ, " be steadfast, and turn neither to the right nor to the left ?" C. G. Reigner