promise, he was looking forward. The old Jerusalem. was the place of death. Galilee was to be the home of light and power.

He had said upon a former occasion, Let us also go that we may die with Him.' Apparently our Lord's word about death suggested to him that we must die, as Lazarus had died, before we could profit by Christ's death. Christ was evidently going up to Jerusalem to brave death. Thomas was ready to go up and die too. His faith was too strong in the great end of Christ's ministry to allow of any shrinking through fear. His faith was not feeble. He erred through self-confidence. He reasoned constructively as to the future, supposing that if the things of the present were to have any existence in the world of the future, they must retain their present relationships as well as their present substance altogether unchanged.

Similarly, afterwards, when our Lord had said, 'Whither I go, ye know the way,' Thomas replied, 'Lord, we know not whither, and how know we the way?'

He did not understand that the objects of faith cannot be determined by the co-ordinates of reason, although the substance on which faith relies remains unchanged throughout all the external developments of progress.

Probably St. Thomas failed to recognise the one Christ in two natures never to be divided, because he could not conceive of the humanity continuing unless it continued under our present limitations. He did not understand that its transformations would be

come the way to a sphere of existence which defies our apprehension until we have attained to it. Well might he be content to die, expecting to live with Christ, but life with Christ would be a new life wholly Divine, not a continuance of this life with the marks of human struggle.

With such a habit of mind, he would feel that the coming manifestation in Galilee was altogether independent of any conduct of the assembled company during the interval. He sought not their ineffectual sympathy. He had a strong personal faith in Christ, but he realised inadequately the conditions of the future manifestation. He did not see them to be dependent upon the mutual action of those who were to share the gifts in common. He had known Christ in nature. He expected Christ in glory. He did not recognise the mystical Christ. Probably he thought that we should live with Christ as angels live with the Eternal God, both He and we set free from any continuity of earth. He did not see the necessity of sharing with others in the experiences of Christ's mystical Body in order that we might individually attain to the vision of the glory made known to all.

With a mind thus predisposed, he could not see any need to join the common assembly until all were departing to Galilee. He waited to see Jesus there. Very likely he came to the second meeting on purpose to make arrangements for quitting Jerusalem. The paschal feast being now ended, they were free to leave the city.

'After eight days' seems to mean on the following Sunday evening, not the Saturday evening. If so,

it implies that calculation of the day-hours as lasting from midnight to midnight which characterises St. John's Gospel, and which underlies the Christian observance of the Lord's Day. Sunday has its first vespers, but it lasts on until the midnight ere the second day of the week begins.

St. Thomas was still refusing to believe what the others had told him, not probably on naturalistic grounds, but under the influence of an imperfect dogma. His faith was limited by the fears of a blind love, not by the sneers of unexpectant indifference.

Such a view of the character of St. Thomas helps us to see the necessity of being on the watch for Christ to show Himself in modes which our calculation cannot predict. He has revealed the future in so far as it is necessary for us to shape our own conduct, but we must be looking for intermediate manifestations in order that our conduct meanwhile may be guided by His providential government of His Church.

Thomas would put his fingers into the nail-prints, and his hand into the wounded side. A resurrection which was not subject to the present conditions of matter did not seem to him to be a possibility. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned ' (1 Cor. ii. 14). Our intellect must not lay down the conditions under which the promises of Christ shall be fulfilled, but yet we must hold fast those promises, even though involving phenomena which are to us in our present state altogether irreconcilable. The Divine power baffles our expectation. We must prepare ourselves humbly, setting aside

the theories of self-will. Christ is training His Church as one Body in union with Himself, so that finally all as one may behold His glory, as with one individual act of apprehension.

O Blessed Jesu, let me ever be upon the watch for Thee. I know what Thou hast prophesied, but I know not how Thou wilt prepare me to receive Thy gifts. Let me not cling to Thy promises by my own understanding, so as to reject the very discipline of grace whereby those promises are being fulfilled. Help me with such firmness of faith to grasp Thy bounty that with childlike humility I may accept the offers of Thy love.

Yea, My son, thou must ever be looking to Me. My word shall accomplish that which I please, but it shall work in ways which thou canst not understand. Accept My grace with a largeness of expectation proportionate to the promises I have given, but refuse not My discipline in the eagerness of thy self-will, as if My promises were limited by the laws which thy present intellect can determine.

Lord Jesu, I look to Thee, knowing nothing, but relying on Thy most sure word. Ever let me remember my ignorance that I may lay hold upon Thy word, and interpret Thy word not according to the dulness of my intellect, but the growing illumination of Thine own Divine truth who art the speaker, and speakest of Thyself to Thine elect in ways which

human reason cannot know.

2. THE RESPONSE OF GRACE.

Thomas seems to have spoken in no rebellious spirit, but in the eagerness of his nature, over-confident in his anticipations of what Christ would do. God was pleased to meet him as he asked.

We must never expect God to give us plainer demonstrations of His truth than He has given, if we refuse what ought to suffice. St. Thomas desired the same manifestation to himself which had been given to the others. He might well be assured that our Lord would not treat him in any inferior way.

Such a claim being made by him does not justify us in thinking that God ought to deal with us in any special ways of our own determination. St. Thomas was upon a level with the other Apostles, and there was no reason why he should receive the truth of Christ at second hand. They had received no authority different from his own, and he was entitled to as full a gift of revelation as the rest. He was not seeking any special proofs beyond what the others had received, but he claimed the same intellectual experiences as had been vouchsafed to the others.

He put forward his claim, not so much in doubt of God's power as in reliance upon His love. This was a holy boldness, even though there was not wanting an element of faulty self-will.

All of them had been guilty of the like fault, and Jesus rebuked them because they did not believe those who had seen Him;' but the fault of St. Thomas was not different in its character from that