cessories leaving untouched the fact of separation ; there are not lacking those who, unseen, consecrate, as Mizpah memorial-places, crowded platforms and thronged wharves with the unspoken prayer, "The Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent the one from the other.”

This is the greeting condensed in our English good-b'ye "God be with ye;" as if petrified into our very language were the recognition of the heart's true resource being at such times in One who changeth not. And even among many who know not the full measure of consolation stored up in that farewell, there is verbal acknowledgment, at least, of there being found in Him, only, the ultimate refuge for those who would commend each other to a stronger keeping than their own.

A farewell scene of the New Testament almost insensibly places itself before us in contrast with the Mizpah tradition of the Old.

Well nigh two thousand years have passed away, and sailing by the shores of the Ægean sea we behold the ambassador of His kingdom who, the descendant and promised Seed of the patriarch of yore, has raised a fallen to the rank of a re

deemed world. In the harbour of Miletus the vessel's course is stayed. "From hence Paul sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the Church"-that Church which, amid a great fight of afflictions, he had built up among them but a little while before;—and obedient to his summons, they hurry to meet him, albeit that they meet but to part again.

Then were last words spoken such as had never before sounded on the shore of the blue Ægean. For these men had been bound the one to the other by a bond closer than that of kinship. A little company set for the defence of the Gospel in an idolatrous and hostile city, they were united by the ties of a common faith, a common danger, and a common cause; and to the Apostle, in that they owed unto him even their own selves besides. And now the presence that had for three years been among them to help, encourage and strengthen, was with them again. The voice which had awakened and instructed, warned and guided, sounded once more in their ears; and we may well imagine that drooping spirits were raised, and wavering hearts confirmed, when

the defender of the faith gathered them around

him as in former days had been his wont.

"Now, behold

Yet it was for the last time. I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

"And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.'

"Ye shall see my face no more!" Ah, was it not now that the sudden pang which the certainty of a life-long farewell brings to the soul, bowed down the hearts of the Ephesian elders? Was it not now that there arose within each breast the hoping against hope for some mitigation of that certainty, which is still the fashion of our fond hearts? While the calm, unflinching words of the Apostle refused existence to

such hope, and the vessel that should bear him from them reposed placidly before their eyes on the waters of the bay. For there was no doubting that these words meant farewell. This solemn charge to faithfulness, this prediction of troublous days for the Church, this repetition of the Master's "Watch," this resignation of the Apostolic charge among them, with an appeal concerning his conversation while he had dwelt at Ephesus like unto that of the prophet of Ramah when resigning his government to another," for the last time" was in all these sayings.

It must come to it now. The wind is favourable; the day is advancing; the ship is awaiting her passengers; the Good-bye has already been spoken-"I commend you to God and the word of His grace"-and His name has been said in the bond of whose covenant they part.

Yet not so soon. That covenant is sealed once more. Say, shall not the Mizpah pillar be raised on the water's edge where a farewell more sacred than that of the old patriarchal day is consecrated with prayers and tears, and by the presence of the Lord? The solitary heights of Gilead have faded into the lone sea-shore of

Ægea; and for the trains of camels laden for the journey, there is the eastward-bound bark loosening her sails to the light spring breeze; and for the far-stretching plains dominated by the "watch-tower" on the mountain-top, the blue horizon of the western sea; and for the patriarch and his northern kinsmen, and the women and children of his train, the little company of disciples kneeling on the shelving beach; and for the solemn covenant and farewell feast of the Old-Testament story, the prayer in Christ's name of the New Testament. Here is a sundering of heart from heart going deeper than that beside the hill-cairn of Galeed; for the last moment has come; the "must be" of parting makes itself heard. "And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more. And they accom

panied him unto the ship."

After all, it is by those who stay, more than by those who go forth from them, that the chief bitterness of such seasons is experienced. It was harder for the men of Ephesus to retrace their steps beside the winding Meander and along the