Jesus is more nearly related to me, according to the flesh, than any other being in existence. None can be so near to the creature as the Creator. No human relationship can possibly come up to it. Now, Jesus is my Creator, though I knew Him not, and was ignorant of that intimate connection which, by creation, subsisted between Him and me. From all eternity He delighted in me also, as one of His brethren according to the flesh; and the tie of Creatorship, in all its infinitude, being thus united to that of infinite brotherhood, it constitutes a nearness of connection between the Son of Man and me, that angels may desire to look into, but can never comprehend.

As the Son of Man, Christ is nearer to His people than He is to the angels. The angels are higher intelligences, and in their nature more holy, than the saints-as such, they are more nearly connected with God than we. Yet we are as much nearer to Jesus than the angels are, in virtue of His being the Son of Man, as He Himself is nearer to the Father than they. Jesus is one with the Father. The angels are the Father, nor yet with Jesus. believe in Jesus, are one with Jesus; Jesus, one with the Father also.

not one with

But we, who and, through Compared

with the saints, the angels are strangers to the Son of Man. They are His worshippers-His servants-His admirers-but they are not His brethren-they have no family relationship with the Son of Man.

Believer, would you know how much nearer Jesus is to you than to the angels, you have only to consider how much nearer you feel Christ, or even Christian brethren, to be to you, than the angels are. You could not open your heart to an angel, as you would to Jesus, or to one of His family-you could not, by any possibility, think an angel as near to you as Christ Himself, or yet a brother in Christ. If such be your feelings, comparatively, toward Jesus and the angels, what must be the feelings of Jesus, respectively, as towards the angels and you! Such is the Son of Man to you! Such honour have all His saints! Oh that you and I may repose on Jesus, as the Son of Manand, as such, know His love, which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fulness of God." Eph. iii. 19.

COMING UP FROM THE WILDERNESS, LEANING ON OUR BELOVED.

CANT. viii. 5.

WHAT is the Wilderness? It is described as "a land of deserts and pits "-as "a land of drought, and of the shadow of death "-"a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt." It is called, "the waste howling wilderness, that great and terrible wilderness, where were fiery serpents and scorpions, and drought; where was no water." Jer. ii. 6; Deut. xxxii. 10; viii. 15. Such was the wilderness, through which God led His ancient people Israel-and such, believer, is the spiritual wilderness, through which He is leading thee. The wilderness was God's highway for Israel, from Egypt to the Promised Land. You have been brought out from Egypt-from a state of blindness and unconversion. Like Israel of old, you are on your way to the Promised Land. Once the world was to you as the flesh pots of Egypt. Now it has become to you a wilderness-not your

home, nor the place of your rest. You are passing through—in expectation of the glory to

come.

God was with His people in the wilderness. He says, "I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." Hos. xiii. 5. Christian Reader, what would you do, if the Lord did not know you in the wilderness-if He were not with you in the wilderness-if you could not, even now, while you are in the wilderness, lean on your Beloved?

It was the being in the wilderness, that made it necessary for the bride, in the Canticles, to lean on her Beloved. Believer, it is the same thing that makes it needful for thee to repose on Jesus.

The wilderness was 66 a land of deserts." There were no vineyards there-no olive yards, nor fields of waving corn. Israel had to depend upon Jehovah on the manna of His providence. They ate angels' food-they were fed with the corn of heaven. Is it not the same with you? What food can you find in this sinful world for your living soul? You are in the wildernessyou are utterly dependent upon the true bread, which came down from heaven. Your soul can feed on nothing but Jesus-on God manifested in the flesh-on God in human form, at the right

hand of the Majesty on high. What are you to do? To lean on your Beloved-to repose on Jesus -to trust in His promise, that, though you are in the wilderness, He will give you vineyards from thence (Hos. ii. 15), that He will make the very desolation around you a fruitful field. When you find no nourishment for your soul in the things of the world, this, of itself, drives you more intensely to Jesus, and thus you find the world itself to be full of fatness.

The wilderness was "a land of pits." And such, Believer, is the world to thee. Pit-falls of temptation lie all around you. Stumbling stones beset your path on every side.

How could you Beloved, to lean

pursue your course without your upon? What could you do, if you did not repose upon Jesus? He led Israel " as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble.” Isa. lxiii. 13. Is He not pledged to lead thee? Lean, then, upon Him with all thy might. Repose simply on Jesus. Then the pit-falls shall not surprise thee, to thy hurt-nor the stumbling stones cause thee to fall.

The wilderness was "a land of drought, where was no water." What was Israel to do? Yet God "clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink, as out of the great depths. He