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Livingstone, having broken fresh ground among the Bakh-atlas, wrote to the Directors of the London Missionary Society, explaining what he had done, and expressing the hope that it would meet with their approval. At the same time he said he was at their disposal "to go anywhere — provided it be FORWARD." Pushing through obstacles: — What won't, must be made to. On these wintry days, when I cross the ferry to New York, I sometimes see large thick cakes of ice lying across the path of the boat. They will not take themselves out of the way; so the pilot drives the copper-cased bow of his boat squarely against the ice-floes, cleaving them asunder. If they will not get out of the way, they must be made to, and the propelling power within is more than a match for the obstacles without. That is a fine passage in the "Pilgrim's Progress" where Christian approaches the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and hears the howlings of the dragons, and sees the "discouraging clouds of confusion" hanging heavy and black over the horrible place. He does not flinch an instant. Crying out "I perceive not but that this is my way to the desired haven," he pushes his way through the frightful fiends and past the mouth of the burning pit. The road to heaven is full of obstacles. They lie right across every sinner's path, and like the ice-floes around the boat, they will not remove themselves. An energetic young man who starts life with a pile of hindrances at his bow, understands that the battle of life is to smash through them. David Livingstone, when a factory boy, and fastening his school books on his loom to study Latin, was practising this process. You have to contend with a depraved heart. It is just in the condition of a clock whose inner works are a heap of disordered wheels and springs. They can be repaired, and the clock will go. Your soul is dislocated and disordered by sin. The Divine hand that made it can mend it. Sinful habits, long indulged, are obstacles in your way. They are tendencies of the mind strengthened by frequent repetition. If you have not any such horrible habits as swearing, or cheating, or hard drinking, you have formed the habit of refusing all Christ's rich offers of salvation. This has been a hardening process — as the cart-wheels made a hard beaten road across certain fields of my grandfather's farm. Persistent push is indispensable to your salvation. To enter into the strait gate requires striving. To overcome obstacles requires might in the inner man, and that comes from the Holy Spirit. Dr. Spencer tells us of a man who once came bursting into his inquiry-meeting in almost breathless excitement. The poor man had been walking back and forth between his own door and the meeting, until at last he said, "I am determined to go into that inquiry-room or die in the attempt." In that fierce fight with a wicked heart, he not only had to call on God's help, but he said after. wards — "If you expect God to help you, you must be perfectly decided."

(T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

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KJV: And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:

WEB: Yahweh said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.