OUT OF HIS BELLY.

"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of the midst of him shall flow rivers of living waters."

Those operations of the Spirit of God, of which I am afraid some christians are almost ignorant, are of wonderous power. The text says, " he that believeth on me, out of the midst of him shall flow rivers of living water." THESE OPERATIONS ARE OF MARVELOUS POWER. Do you understand my text? Do river of living waters flow out from you?

NOTICE first that this is to be an inward work, the rivers of living water are to flow out of the midst of the man. The words are according to our version, "out of his belly," that is from his heart and soul. The rivers do not flow out of his mouth, the promised power is not oratory. We have had plenty of words, floods of words, but this is heart work. The source of the rivers is found in the inner life. It is an inward work at it's fountain head. It is not a work of talent and ability, and show, and glitter, and glare, it is altogether an inward work. The life-flood is to come out of the man's inmost self, out of the bowels and essential being of the man. Homage is shown too generally to outward form and external observance, those these soon lose their interest and power, but when the Spirit of God rests within a man it exercises a home rule within him and he gives great attention to what an old divine was wont to call "the home department." Alas, many neglect the realm within which is the chief province under our care. O my brother in Christ, if you would be useful, begin with yourself. It is out of your very soul that the blessing is to come. It cannot come out of you if it is not in you, and it cannot be in you unless God the Holy Ghost places it there.

HUMILITY.

What is humility of mind? Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self. It is not humility for a man to think less of himself than he ought, though it might rather puzzle him to do that. Some people, when they know they can do a thing, tell you they cannot, but surely you would not call that humility? A man is asked to take part in some good work, " no," he says, " I have no ability," but if you were to say so of him he would be offended at you. It is not humility for a man to stand up and depreciate himself and say he cannot do this, that, or the other, when he knows that it is untrue. If God gives a man a talent, do you think the man does not know it? If a man has ten talents, he has no right to be dishonest to his Maker and to say " Lord, thou hast only given me five." It is not humility to underrate your endowments. Humility is to think of yourself,if you can, as God thinks of you. It is to feel that if we have talents, God has given them to us, and let it be seen that, like freight in a vessel, they tend to sink us low. the more we have, the lower we ought to lie. Humility is not to say, "I have not this gift," but it is to say "I have the gift, and I must use it for my Master's glory. I do not seek any honour for myself, for what have I that I have not recieved?" Humility is to feel that we have no power in ourselves, but that it all comes from God. Humility is to lean upon our Beloved, saying, " I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" This is in fact to annihilate self and to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ as being our all in all.