HE kingdom of God is within you," saith the Lord. Turn thyself with thy whole heart to God, abandoning this miserable world, and thy soul shall find rest.

Learn to despise external things, and to give thyself to such as are within thee, then shalt thou see the kingdom of God come into thee.

For "the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," and this is not granted to the wicked.

Christ will come to thee, showing unto thee His con

1 S. Luke xvii. 21. "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

2 Rom. xiv. 17. "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." See also August. Conf. x. 20.

solations, if thou hast prepared for Him within thee a suitable abode.

All His glory and beauty are within, and there He pleases to be!

Frequent visits does He pay to the inner man, sweet is His intercourse, grateful His consolation, great His peace, wonderful His condescending friendship.1

2. O faithful soul, prepare thy heart for this Bridegroom, then He may deign to come and dwell in thee!

For thus He says: "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him."2

Make room, therefore, for Christ within thee, but refuse admission to all others.

If thou hast Christ, thou art rich, and this must surely suffice thee. He will be thy guardian, and will faithfully supply all thy wants, so that thou shalt have no need to place thy hope in man.3

Men quickly change, and soon desert us, but Christ remains eternally the same, and stands by us even to the end.4

3. There is no great confidence to be placed in a frail

The following quaint rendering is by Atkinson, 1502:—“ If thou wilt prepare in thy soul a condigne mansion, Christ shall come and abide with thee to thy inly consolation. All the principal joy and delight that God hath in man, is in the obedience and virtue of the soule: there He is customably with marvellous sweteness, and greate familiarity, comfortably feeding it with ghostly speech and doctrine."

2 S. John xiv. 23.

3 1 Cor. i. 5. "In everything ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge."

4 S. John xii. 34.

and mortal man, even if useful and beloved; nor is great sorrow to be felt even if he may sometimes oppose and contradict.

Those who are with thee to-day may be against thee to-morrow, or contrariwise, as often as they are, as it were, turned by the wind.

Place thy whole confidence in God, let Him be all thy hope and all thy fear. He Himself will answer for thee, and will make what is good just as if it had been better.1

Here thou hast no abiding city, wherever thou goest thou art a stranger and a pilgrim, nor wilt thou ever find rest unless thou art closely united to Christ.2

4. Why dost thou here stand looking round about thee, seeing this is not the place of thy repose?3

Thy habitation ought to be in heaven, and all earthly things should only be looked at as by a passer by.

All things pass away, and thou equally dost pass with them.4

See that thou cleave not to them, lest thou be ensnared by them and perish.

Let thy thought be with the Highest, and thy prayer be directed to Christ, without intermission.

Is. xxxviii. 14, 15.

for me.

"O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake

What shall I say?"

2 Heb. xiii. 14.

3 Acts vii. 49. "What house will ye build Me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of My rest?"

4 Wisdom v. 9, 10. "All those things are passed away like a shadow, and as a post that hasteth by: And as a ship that passeth over the waves of the water, which when it is gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found, neither the pathway of the keel in the

waves.

Canst thou not contemplate lofty and celestial subjects ? Dwell then upon Christ's passion, and upon His blessed wounds.

For if thou earnestly flee to the precious wounds and stripes of Jesus, thou wilt find great consolation in thy trouble, nor wilt thou care much for the contempt of men, and wilt easily endure their detraction.

5. Christ, too, was looked down upon by men in this world and, despised and rejected, was deserted by His acquaintance and His friends in His hour of greatest need, and in the midst of reproaches.

Christ was willing to suffer and to be despised, and dost thou dare complain of any one?

Christ had enemies and slanderers, and dost thou desire none but friends and benefactors?

How shall thy patience be rewarded if thou hast no trouble?

If thou sufferest naught, how shalt thou be one of Christ's friends?

Suffer with Christ and for Christ, if thou desirest to reign with Him.'

6. If thou hadst once perfectly entered into the mind of Christ, and felt, even in a small degree, the depth of His love,2 then wouldest thou care nothing for thine own convenience or inconvenience, but wouldest rather rejoice in contumely, because the love of Jesus makes a man despise himself.

1 2 Tim. ii. 12. "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us."

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Et modicum de ardenti amore ejus sapuisses," experienced a little of his burning love. Payne and Dibdin translate this the "divine ardour of His love." The phrase we have used perhaps

more readily conveys the meaning of the author.

He who loves Jesus and loves truth is himself true and, free from inordinate desires, can turn freely to God, and, in spirit elevating himself above himself,1 enjoy peace.

7. The man who esteems things as they are, and not as they are commonly said or esteemed to be, this is the wise man, the man who has been taught of God rather than of men.?

The man who can guide his steps by the inner light, heeding but little the outer world, requires no appointed place, waits for no stated time, to engage in devotional exercises.

He quickly collects himself, because he is never entirely occupied with external matters. Necessary labour or occupation, which recurring times require, disturb him not, but as events arise, so he adapts himself to them.

He whose mind is well-disposed and ordered, cares not for the strange and perverse behaviour of men. Only so much is a man impeded and distracted as he is influenced by circumstances.

8. If thou wert righteous and pure, all things would work for thy good and thy progress. Why do so many things displease and often disconcert thee? Because thou art not yet dead to thyself, nor separated from all earthly things.

Nothing so entraps and soils the heart of a man as an impure love of the creature.3 If thou dost abandon external consolation, thou wilt be able to taste celestial joys and frequently rejoice in thy heart.

1

"Unless above himself he can

Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!"

Is. liv. 13.

Lord."

"And all thy children shall be taught of the

3 Ps. lxxvii. 2. "My soul refused to be comforted."