A BIRTH-DAY MEDITATION.

"I am the Lord's."-Isaiah xliv. 5.

I HAVE just past another mile-stone on the road of human life. When I come to one of these mementos, I always stop, pause, reflect, and take a review of the past, in order to im prove by the same in the future. On the morning of the day, soon as I awoke, I felt my soul drawn out to God, and was enabled to put myself afresh into his hands, and consecrate myself anew to his service. For whatever changes may take place, I never feel inclined to change my Master. During the morning I carefully reviewed, as far as I could, the past fifty-three years, and made a full stop at a very solemn transaction that took place between God and my soul just twenty years before. While looking at that circumstance, and reading over an engagement then entered into, the words, “I AM THE LORD'S," came home to my mind with power, savour, and sweetness. They were precious, and the assurance realized was delightful. "THE LORD's!" I wanted no more. It was all my desire. But when thought is

once started, it will pursue, and I found myself sweetly engaged with the subject.

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"I AM THE LORD'S!" The Lord's creature. His handy work. The production of his power. The proof of his wisdom. Not only à creature, but one of the higher order of his creatures. Possessed of intellect, and bearing the stamp of immortality. More than

this, I am the Lord's chosen. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Chosen to be holy and useful in life. Chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Chosen to be happy with God, happy as God, for ever and ever. Unspeakable privilege, to be the Lord's choice, one of his chosen! "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee; he shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make him drink of the river of thy pleasure." I am the Lord's child. Adopted into his family, as an act of sovereign grace; created anew in Christ Jesus, as an act of divine power. I bear his name. I possess his nature. Because he adopted me to be his son, he sent forth the Spirit of his Son into my heart, crying, "Father, Father." He drew me to his throne, shone on my soul, won my affections, and called me his child. He put me among the children, united me to his first-born, and thus constituted me an heir of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. I am the Lord's servant. He saved me gra

tuitously, and then set me to work. He made me his child, gave me a sweet sense of relationship, and then said, "Son, go work today in my vineyard." I went, and thoroughly enjoyed his service. Since then, I have been tempted, tried, and troubled as much as most, more than many; but I have never deserted his service, and, through grace, I never will. I have several times changed my place, but I never changed my Master. No, no, in every place I felt I was the Lord's servant. A very imperfect and unprofitable servant, but a servant still. I hope to live working, and to die in the field; for I am a field labourer. The sun often makes me feel faint, and the frost at times pinches me keenly; I suffer from cold winds and am tried by stormy and drizzly days: still I have no wish to change my situation. At times I am tempted to envy others their ease, their honours, and their independence; but I soon see my folly, and call myself a fool for indulging in the wish. I am the Lord's beloved one. Yes, I do believe God loves me, and this persuasion makes up for the want of a thousand things; for I would rather have an interest in God's love, than be able to call a world my own. I can never trace out the beginning of God's love to me, for it is eternal; I can see no end to God's loving me, for it is everlasting I can perceive no reason for God's loving me, except it be that he is God, and finds the cause for all his acts in himself. One thing I am sure of, I love God; and another thing I feel equally

sure of, that if God had not first loved me, I should never have loved him. Blessed be God that he ever created me, and gave me a being capable of knowing, loving, enjoying, and adoring his ever blessed self. Blessed be God for choosing me to eternal life in his beloved Son, for adopting me into his family, and new creating me by his Holy Spirit,-for condescending to employ me in his service, and continuing me in that service so long,-for loving me freely, with an infinite and unchangeable love! Blessed be God that ever I was born, that I ever lived to see the day on which I could say, "I AM THE LORD's, and that after thirty-six years' experience of his special love I can still say, as I enter into the autumn of life, "I AM THE LORD'S.'

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"I AM THE LORD's," to be conformed to the image of his Son, an object of his infinite delight, a subject of his gracious government, and a mirror to reflect his glory. "I AM THE LORD'S," to suffer all he pleases in body and in mind, in public and in private, for the good of his cause and the honour of his great and glorious name. "I AM THE LORD's," to receive all he has provided in his covenant, promised in his word, and procured by the service and sacrifice of his Son. I AM THE LORD's," to expect all his love can give, all his grace can do, all his heaven contains. Glorious, unspeakably glorious privilege, to be the Lord's! But his I ever was in consehis I am, quence of covenant transactions;

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in consequence of the displays of his grace; and his I ever shall be, because he is in one mind, and none can turn him. I never was more the Lord's than I am at this moment; and no period will ever arrive in which I shall be more the Lord's than I am now. by the grace of the Father, I am his. deemed by the blood of the Son, I am his. Quickened, called, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, I am his. When I surrendered to God, he received me at his throne. When I engaged with God, he took me to be his for ever. When I entered upon the Lord's work, and was employed by him and for him, it was clear to others, and I had the enjoyment of the fact in my own soul, that I was the Lord's.

If I turn within, I find a testimony there, that "I AM THE LORD'S.' Conscience testifies to the fact, and at times the Holy Spirit beareth witness with my spirit, that "I AM THE LORD'S." If I turn to God's most Holy Word, I find the testimony there. In some of the precious promises, in some of the descriptions of God's children, it is as if God had daguerotyped my portrait. True, I can only see the likeness in one certain light, and for want of looking at the Word in the proper light at some times, I cannot recognise my own features. But at other times I can, and then I bless his holy name. Do the Lord's people hunger and thirst after righteousness? So do I.

Is Christ precious to every true