when she left all for GOD and His people. We
know the purposes of GOD'S grace and the glories in store for us.
What manner of men, then, should we be; and how earnest and faithful
in the little time which awaits us before we are called to our
reward, and to meet Him in the air? When He says, Go! Shall we reply,
No? When He asks us to continue in His harvest till the reaping is
over, shall we say Him, Nay?

Under the Shepherd's Care.

A NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS.

"For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the
Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."--1 Peter ii. 25.

"Ye were as sheep going astray." This is evidently addressed to
believers. We were like sheep, blindly, willfully following an unwise
leader. Not only were we following ourselves, but we in our turn have
led others astray. This is true of all of us: "All we like sheep have
gone astray;" all equally foolish, "we have turned every one to his
own way." Our first though has been, "I like this," or "I don't like
that"; never thinking what the LORD would prefer, we have just
followed our own inclinations. So terribly astray were we that
nothing less than the life-blood of our good SHEPHERD could atone for
our sin, and save us from its power and its penalty. In Isaiah liii.,
we learn the substitutionary character of the death of CHRIST
unmistakably, as also in the verse before our text. The GOD of the
Bible is a GOD who punishes sin, and cannot pardon without atonement.
The substitution of the innocent victim for the guilty offerer is so
clearly taught from Genesis to Revelation, that he must be blind
indeed who does not see it. Praise GOD our KINSMAN-REDEEMER has paid
our debt; and "with His stripes we are healed."

II. "BUT ARE NOW RETURNED UNTO THE SHEPHERD AND BISHOP OF YOUR
SOULS." Far astray as we were, by His grace we have been brought back
again, and now we are "returned"--some of us scarcely returning so
much as being carried to the fold by our loving SHEPHERD. And it is
so blessed to realize that now we are not without a MASTER, a LEADER,
a HEAD. We were intended to be followers. We always do follow; but,
alas! We did not follow the right MASTER. Now the right MASTER has
found us; and instead of following our own foolish lead, we want to
follow His wise lead. And it is most restful to realize that we are
not left to live a life at the mercy of circumstances, or to walk in
our own wisdom. We can never foresee the future; we never ful