did we form of the sufferings by which it must be accomplished!' Such were the complainings of his spirit, overwhelmed within him. Yet there were moments when he could realize the realms of glory, and when all earthly things died away in insignificance.

"On the 14th of August, the fleet came to anchor in the Cove of Cork; and there, in a spiritual sense, Mr. Martyn found that haven where he would be; there he discovered that heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning; and he who before had felt poor and needy, with his heart wounded within him, could then say 'I will praise the Lord with my mouth. Thanks be to God which causeth us to triumph in Christ.'

"After a long and blessed season in prayer, I felt" he says, "the spirit of adoption drawing me very near to God, and giving me the full assurance of His love. My fervent prayer was that I might be more deeply and habitually convinced of His unchanging everlasting love, and that my whole soul might be altogether in Christ. I scarcely knew how to express the desires of my heart. wanted to be all in Christ, and to have Christ for

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my all in all, to be encircled in His everlasting arms, and to be swallowed up altogether in his fulness. I wished for no created good, or for men to know my experience, but to be one with Thee and live with Thee O God my Saviour and Lord. O may it be my constant care to live free from the spirit of bondage, at all times having access to the Father. This I feel should be the state of the Christian; perfect reconciliation with God, and a perfect appropriation of Him in all His endearing attributes according to all that He has promised. It is this that shall bear me safely through the storm. What is this but the happiness intended by the Psalmist when he breaks forth in those words of sublimity and rapture, "Blessed are the people which know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.”

Nor did the monotony of the voyage, the absence of sympathy around, the physical depression which weighed upon him, or the open opposition of many to his fulfilment of his mission among them, prevail to rob him of this heaven-sent support.

"It is an inspired declaration," writes the biographer, "that they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;" nor was it long before he could affix his seal to the truth of this testimony.

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"In prayer," he says shortly after this, "I soon launched sweetly into eternity, and found joy unspeakable in thinking of my future rest, and of the boundless love and joy I should ever taste in Christ's beloved presence hereafter. found no difficulty in stirring myself up to the contemplation of heaven. My soul through grace realized it, and I delighted to dwell by faith on those blissful scenes."

Such was the experience of Henry Martyn, and such has since been the experience of many who, like him, have found one of the uses of parting to be that of enforcing on the soul the necessity of finding its all in the person of a present Saviour.

There is, we are inclined to believe, a danger in the familiarity with which this spiritual attitude is brought forward in religious conversation. Are we wrong in saying that "trusting to Providence for support," "looking to God for comfort," are

expressions which conveying as they do, if taken in their full import, no light degree of experience, are uttered too frequently as the conventional phrase, attendant on religious condolences and the response made to them.

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"Trusting to Providence for support a sentiment so carelessly expressed - should be placed in its true and dignified rank. For it is Faith in God-the highest exercise of heart and intellect whereof man is capable, the noblest attainment to which he may aspire.

And a "looking to God for comfort" is the children's privilege, the children's yearning necessity, and yet that spiritual exercise in which they are ofttimes cast down because, perchance, seeking to combine earthly solaces with the unmingled waters from the Fresh Spring of consolation. In such a position of the soul there is what can seldom be revealed to the nearest and dearest; certainly that which none, knowing it from experience, will lightly discuss.

But it is time that we should turn to the second of the great uses of parting. And this we hold to be the prospect which it brings before us of a land whence we shall go no more

out. It was thus with Henry Martyn: it is thus now.

On the summit of the Mount Gilead, tradition and a never-dying name still mark the height whereon it is probable that the watch-tower was erected,* looking backward to the region of the patriarch's exile, wanderings, and trials, and forward, over the Jordan valley, to the fair land of Canaan and of his father's house. And shall it not be thus with those of us, too, who experience the sore loneliness and grief of parting? Shall not we, from our Mizpah-pillar, gain the distant homeward prospect, and lift up our eyes towards our Father's house towards the land of union and re-union-towards the sure inheritance whereon we profess that our affections are set? What though the presentiment that we shall never meet again on earth attend the separation from our nearest and dearest? Are we not homeward-bound?

*"One of the most conspicuous peaks in the Gilead mountain-range still retains the ancient name, being called Jebel Jil'ad, Mount Gilead. It commands a magnificent view over the whole Jordan Valley and the mountains of Judah and Ephraim." This site is probably that mentioned in Josh. xiii. 26, and Judg. x. 17.