exactly alike, the seal and the mark on wax; Christ exactly like the Father (Heb. i. 3). How? When you see the character of Jesus, His holiness, love, patience, you see exactly what the Father is like. What was our Lord asked by St. Philip on the night before He died? (St. John xiv. 8): "Lord show us," &c. What the Lord's answer? (ver. 9.) Many wrong ideas ignorant people have had about the unseen God; sometimes have made an image with a number of hands, in each of which a whip. The idea which some poor heathen have of God, that He is angry with us, desires to hurt us. Even amongst those who have been taught better, some have wrong thoughts about God; they do not try to serve Him, and have hard thoughts about Him; many feel themselves to be worthless, and think that God cares nothing about them; they mistake His character. Jesus came and gave us right views of our Father, for Jesus is exactly like Him (St. John i. 18, xvi. 25).

(ii.) Christ painting His Father's portrait.

We will find Christ's portrait of His Father presently. See first this; had you been on earth in Lord's time, and He was about to speak to you, you might have been sure of one thing; He would have said something to you about His Father. Words about His Father He hardly ever left out. Find only a few examples: speaking to Nicodemus (St. John iii. 16); to Woman of Samaria (iv. 21); to the Jews who would slay Him (v. 17); to congregation in Synagogue of Capernaum (vi. 44); so might go through the whole Gospel find same thing.

Now find the portrait, not painted with brush and colours, but in words. See St. Luke xv. 11-32; the Father to Whom sons owed everything, in Whose care they were safe; Who yearned over the lost one, went out to watch. for his return, saw afar, ran to meet him; Father who had compassion, fell on his neck and kissed the penitent, provided such a welcome at home; so patient with the disagreeable elder son. Beautiful portrait by Jesus of His Father. Egypt was perhaps the "far country" of ver. 13; missionaries there

III. THOUGHTS

1. Belief in God as the Creator of heaven and earth has before now emboldened souls to endure the utmost trials, to face, unmoved, martyrdom in

sent home an account of how the Arabs, at ancient Memphis on the Nile, were touched by this story (as a portrait held up before them); they sat by tents, with sheep and goats, listening as with all their hearts, tears down many cheeks. They said to others, "Come, you haven't heard yet; come and listen." So Jesus has held up the Father to us that all the world may love Him (St. John xvii. 25-26).

(iii.) Christ drawing us to the Father. In what three ways Jesus draws us to the Father?

(a) By dying for us. He put away the sin that separates. What did the priests see on Good Friday afternoon as they were offering the evening lamb? Looked up, saw veil of the Temple torn right down; way into Most Holy Place opened; sin put away by dying of Jesus on the Cross, way to Father opened (see St. John xiv. 6, “The Way").

(6) By receiving us in Baptism He draws us into the Father's Family. Read exhortation, Baptismal Service, "Beloved ye hear," &c.

Explain lines

"It was He who found me on the deathly wild, And made me heir of heav'n, the Father's child."

Picture: Child out, wild night, bleak moor; wayfaring man finds it, wraps it round, brings it safe to great house, within which the father receives the foundling. So are we brought to our Father (Eph. ii. 16—18).

(c) By revealing the Father to us, showing us His portrait (as above) He draws out our love towards the Father, kindles a desire to obey Him, the wish to be in His home for ever. Only we still need to use St. Philip's prayer, "Lord, show us the Father," because our hearts are so dull; the Spirit of Jesus Christ enables people to " see their Father. A good life is before every scholar who can see," in the Great God, Who made all things visible and invisible, his loving, ever-present Father; happy thus to stand in church and say, "I believe in God the Father Almighty," &c. Use this prayer for self, brothers and sisters, and schoolfellows, "Lord, show us the Father." (See also Jer. iii. 4.)

FOR TEACHERS.

its most terrible form. An illustration of this will be found in 2 Maccabees vii. About B.C. 167, Antiochus, having polluted the Temple with nameless abomi

D

nations, sought to compel the Jews to abjure their faith, and as a sign of this to eat swine's flesh. Amongst the victims of the tyrant's wrath who stood firm were a mother and her seven sons. She witnessed the torture and mutilation of these one after another, and encouraged them to stand firm. When it came to the last she cried, "I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not; and so was mankind made likewise. Fear not this tormentor, but, being worthy of thy brethren, take thy death, that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren."

2. Canon Hammond, of St. Austell, reviewing a fifteen years' ministry, writes:"I know of nothing which will steady a man in the manifold temptations and snares and buffetings of life but faith in the unseen God the Father, Saviour, Comforter; faith in a life and a judgment to come. And is this so hard to believe? Not if men will give time and care and thought to it. Much of our unbelief is the product of self-will or pride or indifference. This is why God holds us responsible for our beliefs, because they are shaped by our characters; they are the reflex of ourselves. But be this as it may, there is no safety for individual or community except in the recognition of a recompensing God. Without this the soul is like a derelict ship, drifting hopelessly about on the vast and wandering deep.' This will keep us firm and steadfast in the years that lie before us, be they many or few-the trust that a great unseen Power, of infinite love and purity, watches us, knows us, cares for us, helps us, loves us-this will preserve the ship of the Church . . . and nothing else will."

...

3. Austin Clare, in the "Arch of Faith," quotes St. Augustine:-" Thy Almighty Hand, which is always one and the same, created angels in heaven and worms upon earth-not higher than those, not lower than those. For as no other hand could make an angel, so neither could any other make a worm; as none else could create heaven, so neither could any one else create the least leaf upon the tree; as none else could make a body, so neither could any one else make a hair black or white; but only Thine Almighty Hand, to which all things are alike possible. For it is not more possible to Him to create a worm than an

angel, nor more impossible to stretch out the heavens than to form a leaf."

4. The same author writes:-" You have heard, perhaps, of Professor Darwin's theory of evolution, and have been told that, if true, it overthrows the account of Creation given in Genesis. But this does not at all follow. We are told in Genesis about the different things God made in the order of creation. We are not told in what manner He worked. He may have made all things one by one, as people used always to think. Or He may have "evolved or developed the higher creatures out of the lower, as Professor Darwin taught; we are not told exactly which. We are told, however, that in creating this world, God began with the simpler forms of life-vegetables before animals, and the lower animals, such as fish and fowl, before the beasts, man coming last of all. This order of creation is quite in harmony with the theory of evolution."

5. The following Bible study may be useful to teachers. It is taken from "Pearson on the Creed," and is on the article "I believe in God the Father Almighty"

"I believe."

(i.) The true nature of belief. Belief is to be distinguished from knowing: also from mere opinion. For believing we need reliable testimony; for such testimony we require in the witness (a) ability, (b) integrity. He may deceive us by ignorance or by dishonesty on his part. God is of infinite knowledge (Heb. iv. 13). He cannot be deceived; of infinite holiness and truth, He cannot deceive.

(ii.) The duty of confessing our faith. To believe is a spiritual act, known to no man but him that believeth (1 Cor. ii. 11). An outward expression is necessary for the formation of a Church and the gathering in of fresh members (Acts viii. 36, 37; Rom. x. 9, 10, 17).

(iii.) Every person is bound to believe and confess. It is of the nature of the Truth not to hide itself, but to desire light. God commands confession (1 Pet. iii. 15). God is glorified by confession; not to confess is to be as though we were ashamed (St. Matt. x. 32; St. Luke ix. 26). Brethren are edified thereby; hence recitation of Creed at Baptism and at Eucharist. Confession is binding on every Christian (St. John ix. 35, 38). Each to stand or fall by his own faith. "I believe in God."

(a) The nature of God. The name