Believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.-1 PETER i. 8.

And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. JOHN xvi. 22.

OMFORTING words for sorrowing souls.

COME

"In this

world ye shall have tribulation." It is a common experience of the saints, and a necessary discipline. But sanctified sorrow is more than compensated.

Those words of Jesus, "I go away," together with an intimation of other trials, brought anguish to the disciples. How true, "Ye have sorrow now"! But "I will see you again" brought adequate consolation. The cross bore him from their sight, but he saw them again and they saw him; and though the clouds received him, yet in spirit he remained with them to the end, a source of joy unspeakable. So Jesus deals with all who love him. Their sorrows are many, but the sharpest pains come from a conscious separation from their Lord, the communion interrupted by sin and unbelief. To them that mourn for him he will show himself again. "I will come to you." The severer the pangs, the greater the joy of deliverance. "Your heart shall rejoice." It is not surface-gladness, which is transitory, but a deep, solid, constant, lasting joy.

kayn Talunage

But see the night is waning fast,
The breaking morn is near;
And Jesus comes with voice of love,

Thy drooping heart to cheer.

Then weep no more; 't is all thine own,

His crown, his joy divine;

And sweeter far than all beside,

He, he himself is thine!

SIR E. DENNY.

Who through faith . . . obtained promises. — HEB. xi. 33.

Believe ye that I am able to do this? . . . According to your faith be it unto you. MATT. ix. 28, 29.

In as the benefits it confers, Christ's design it

N connecting as he does our faith with the exercise of

to produce a co-operation of human agency with the divine, so that we become co-workers with God in the reception and diffusion of the blessings he bestows. Thus, aside from the natural or physical effects of such co-operation, there springs up a moral or spiritual effect which enriches and ennobles the character of man. God honors us by making our faith the measure of his beneficence, and we honor him by attesting and acknowledging his power to do the things for which we pray. Hence the Scriptures say, "Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him " (Heb. xi. 6).

But faith is likewise "the gift of God," and the concomitant of the divine "grace" which issues in salvation (Eph. ii. 8). So that it has been observed that duties are graces, and graces become duties. It is not therefore every state of mind in which the imagination - the faculty most akin to faith is exercised. That constitutes the prescribed condition on which God will use his power and bestow his blessing. Many are liable to delusion just at this point. The best proof of a genuine faith in man is in the works wrought by divine energy and their results according to this faith. And so the believer may herewith prove God, if he "will not pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it " (Mal. iii. 10).

B. Sunderland

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,

And looks to that alone,

Laughs at impossibilities,

And cries, "It shall be done!"

C. WESLEY.

God also hath highly exalted him. PHIL. ii. 9.

For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.-JOHN V. 22, 23.

IN tite. The finite cannot directly

N the language of nature, the Son is the reproduction of

know the infinite; whatever it knows, it knows by finite measures. Yet man is related to the infinite Father. He seeks therefore to symbolize God, his conscience demands the infinite Judge, his heart the infinite Father; but his symbols and measurements are all imperfect, therefore God gives us his Son, a perfect reproduction of himself, mor ally, spiritually, and affectionally. The Son stands on this side the chasm of the infinite, a part of organic nature, able to reproduce himself in us, our very flesh and blood. God therefore makes him our Judge, because he is the Judge in esse, the true type, perfect in love, truth, sympathy. Also, because it is essential that the symbol of Deity should be authoritative; having given us his Son, so that we can come into clear practical relations with, and likeness to, himself, he will not have us dishonoring the Son, and so blurring the divine standard and belittling the infinite majesty that saves us morally. The perfect light has come, and God holds us responsible; we must be judged by the Son.

John H. Derimen

All hail the power of Jesus' name!

Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown him Lord of all.

EDWARD PERRONET.

This is the promise . . . eternal life. — JOHN ii. 25.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. — JOHN viii. 51.

NOTI

TOTICE what we may call the majestic simplicity of the words of Scripture. It has been said that the grandest and most pregnant sentence in our language is, " And God said, let there be light; and there was light.” Yet in that sentence there is not a word of more than one syllable. Fully as pregnant, more mysterious in meaning, yet as simple in form, is our text. 'I say unto you." Here, as so often when a mighty truth is to come, the personality of Christ stands forth. Not, "men say," "it is said," "you all know," but "I say." I who came down from heaven, I who am the truth, I who have the keys of death and hell, I who am the Resurrection and the Life, say, "If a man keep my saying he shall never see death." This stupendous contradiction to the natural mind becomes a mine of light and truth to him whose soul the Spirit of God illumines. He who spake was soon to die after the flesh. He was speaking to dying men. What did he mean, then? That he who faithfully keeps the saying of Christ shall not see that death from which Christ came to deliver man, the death of the soul, the death of condemnation in hell, the death which comes from separation from God, the only real death. To the Christian, death is a sleep, a passage from earth to paradise, an unconscious journey whose end is light; but to the sinner it is an awful catastrophe, the close of hope, the beginning of the end. Abraham was not dead, though for centuries in his tomb. But many who heard Christ with beating hearts and flowing veins were dead even while they lived, because they neither knew nor obeyed him.

Edward L. Stoddard

Death, no longer now we die,
We but follow Christ on high.

GEORGE RAWSON.

Faith, if it hath not works, is dead. JAMES ii. 17.

For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. MATT. xii. 50.

UR Lord has made all the family relationships more

OUR has marit which would dissolve them, which

would dream of a holier life than that of the household, a discipline more sacred than that of a godly family, is contrary to the spirit of Christ. Through him we learn to love our kindred and friends with a nobler love. The Church is one great family, sharers in the same parental care and heirs to a common inheritance. Jealousies may spring up between the fondest hearts, and the most passionate love may grow cool unless Christ purify it. He teaches us how to love brothers and sisters, and even our own children, aright. He bids the Church esteem men, not for rank or fashion, but because they belong to Christ.

Our Lord's dying words showed how dearly he loved his mother, and were a reflection of the love which she bestowed on his infant days. No mother was ever more tender and thoughtful; no child ever loved a mother so perfectly. There is no love like his; and he who possesses it will love his kindred better, and seek to win them to the brotherhood of Christ.

James Gardiner Vode