was something so utterly at variance with all experience that it filled him with amazement and with awe. But more astonishing still was that wonderful commission, "Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh." Was he, Moses, hiding from Pharaoh's wrath, to go and stand in his dread presence; not to make meek submission, but to make a most unpalatable demand, that would certainly incense him in the last degree? Was he, the solitary shepherd of Midian, to undertake that stupendous task of leading all the people of Israel out of the land of bondage? It is no wonder that Moses shrank exceedingly from that strange commission, that he felt utterly incompetent to discharge it. Who was he that he should execute so desperate an enterprise? Yet was he fitted, far better than any other living man, for that great task. Who should champion the cause of Israel but Israel's most devoted patriot? Who should legislate for them and for future generations but the most learned man who had Hebrew blood in his veins? Who should speak and strike for God but the most reverent and faithful servant of Jehovah ? Moses might well be diffident, but the event proved his signal capacity for the service to which he was summoned. We see the application of this passage to ourselves when we consider

I. GOD'S SUMMONS TO SERVE. Though God does not call us to such high tasks as that to which Moses was called, yet He does send us all forth to noble service. He says to us, Go, bear witness of Me in an ungodly world; constrain the thoughtless to think of Me; make known to the ignorant the truth and grace of the Gospel; be a power for good everywhere; feed the hungry, comfort the sad, cheer the struggling, help the wayfarer along the path of life. Perhaps He is speaking to us more particularly, and is saying, Go, visit that house or hospital where the sick are waiting for your presence; teach in that Sunday-school; go out into the field of foreign service; join yourself to that little company which is banded together to carry light into the dark neighbourhood, or relieve the impoverished in the destitute district.

"Who

II. OUR SENSE OF INSUFFICIENCY. am I?" said Moses; and we say, Who are we that we should undertake this high and noble task? 1. That we should take Christ's name upon us and represent Him in the world; that we should undertake to live a Christian life and illustrate His truth. Are we able to

do that in such a world as this? Besetting us on every hand are strong temptations-to imprudence, to dishonesty, to coveteousness, to worldliness, to impurity, to a guilty severity, to a forbidden resentment, to a subtle and enslaving selfishness. Can we venture to "walk even as He walked," our holy, sinless Lord? Dare we promise to act "as becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ" in the various spheres and in the different relationships of human life? 2. That we should undertake some serious work for Christ and for man. For what does successful spiritual work include? It means contending victoriously against the strongest forces, against blindness of mind, prejudice which discolours and distorts the truth, stolid indifference of spirit, the opposition of a rebellious will, deep-seated and strongly entrenched habits of body and of mind, a fatal disposition to dally and delay, beside other unknown and uncalculable spiritual enemies (see Eph. vi. 12). Who are we that we should strive against these strong forces, that we should enter on such a formidable work as this? Our sense of insufficiency arrests us; it silences us as we are about to say, "Lord, here are we, send us." But while there are services required for which, by constitution or by training, we are unfitted, and which it would be simple folly to attempt, yet, on the other hand, we must consider

III. OUR UNRECOGNIZED CAPACITY. Moses proved to be perfectly fitted to accomplish the task for which he thought himself so unequal. He had in himself capacities of which he was then ignorant, and he had in God a Divine resource on which he did not for the moment reckon. There were vast stores of strength and of sufficiency in these simple words, "Certainly I will be with thee."

We

1. Our fitness to bear Christ's name. may be feeble, and even faulty, but there are two things which qualify us to do this. (1) Decision for Christ; the fact that we are no longer against Him, or indifferent to Him, or undecided about Him, but fully resolved to follow and to serve Him. (2) Such trust in God as will manifest itself in daily prayer for His sustaining help. If we have thus finally yielded ourselves to Christ, and if we thus live in constant devout dependence on His quickening Spirit, certainly He will be with us, and we shall walk worthily of Christ our Lord.

2. Our preparedness to engage in some serious work for Him. We may be very diffident in spirit, sensible of our limitations;

we may be unendowed with any great qualities, mental or spiritual. Yet are we qualified to do much excellent work for our Master if we possess those three things which are open to us all to acquire: (1) A loving spirit; a spirit of gracious interest in the well-being of others, old or young; a spirit of tender pity for those that are far from truth and heavenly wisdom; a spirit of holy yearning to lead men into the kingdom of God-the spirit of Christ. (2) An understanding and appreciation of the truth as it is in Christ, the distinctive truth of the Gospel. (3) Patient, prayerful endeavour. We must be prepared to labour on with a love that will not die, and an earnestness that will not fade, whoever carps and hinders; and our "patient continuance" must be prayerful; we must work with an eye that is often "lifted up to heaven," with a deep, abiding consciousness that our strength and hope are in God. Then shall we not need to say, "Lord, who are we?” We may rather say, "Lord, wilt not Thou?" Wilt not Thou be with us, and bless us, and prosper the work of our hands? And the Divine response will be, "Certainly I will be with thee."

PALM SUNDAY.
ACCEPTABLE SERVICE.

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, &c.-MATT. xxvi. 6-13.

THE fact that the story of this woman's offering of love has survived for more than eighteen centuries is a very striking comment on our Lord's prediction (ver. 13). There is no sign that the world is growing weary of it. However often we have dwelt upon it, we still return to it with unabated interest. Very beautiful in our sight is that act of overflowing love; very unbeautiful the querulous objection that was taken to it; and most gracious and encouraging our Lord's defence of His disciple. The house of the Church is still full of the fragrance of that deed of devotion. We learn

I. THAT ATTACHMENT OF HEART TO THE SAVIOUR, AND ITS EXPRESSION, ARE VERY DEAR TO HIM. Our Lord showed Himself to be possessed of the keenest sensibility. The malignity of His enemies cut Him to the quick, the unfaithfulness of His nominal disciples distressed His spirit (John vi. 66, 67). On the other hand, He freely acknowledged the unexpected faith, the kindly ministry, the

devotion of the men and women who believed in Him and were true to Him. And when Mary came and poured forth her heart's attachment, as she poured the costly unguent on His head, our Lord's heart responded to her affection. He said, "She hath wrought a Just as our souls good work upon me." hunger for love, and are satisfied with nothing less than a true and deep affection, so was it How does (and so is it) with our Master. Christ think of us and feel toward us? Let us ask ourselves, How do we think of Him and feel toward Him? Are we finding room in our crowded minds for many reverent and loving thoughts about Him and His holy will concerning us? Are we honouring Him in Are we avowevery way that is open to us? ing our attachment to Him? Are we manifesting to our relatives and to our neighbours, at some real cost to ourselves, that we are devoted to Him and to His cause? To-day, as much as when Mary broke the alabaster box that she might utter her affection, the costly expression of our attachment is dear to His heart of love.

II. THAT CHRIST FREELY ACCEPTS THE SERVICE WHICH, THOUGH SLIGHT, IS SINCERE. -What was the actual worth of that act of Mary's? What good did it do? Judas said it was a waste (ver. 8); but Judas should have known better than to say that. If it was worth while to make that "precious ointment," it certainly was well to use it. And if it was to be used, it certainly could not have been better spent than on the person of Jesus Christ. Let it not be said that it was a very small act to give so much pleasure, to call forth so much praise, and to receive so large a reward. Though the physical gratification which it gave only lasted for a few minutes, the act itself was very valuable because it refreshed the spirit of our Lord at a most critical juncture of His life. At such an hour when His enemies were plotting against His life, when His friends were about to fall away from Him, when He was girding Himself to render the supreme act of sacrifice for which He came into the world, this silent but strong assurance that one heart at least was filled to overflow with loyalty and love had a worth, a wealth far beyond all visible and calculable dimensions, and far beyond many other deeds of much greater intrinsic consequence. It did not seem to do much, but it had its weight, and it did its work; a "good work" it was in our Lord's own estimate, and

not without its influence on those great issues that were to follow (vers. 10-12). It was the one thing she could do at the hour, and it was accepted; and may we not say that to do any service, even of the very humblest order and in the very smallest degree, at such an hour as that, might satisfy a strong soul's ambition? But service at any time and in any degree, if rendered in the right spirit, is approved and accepted by our Lord. 1. Our service may seem very slight both to ourselves and to our neighbours. It may be nothing but a very brief prayer that we can present to God; it may be only a short visit we can pay to a sick or lonely neighbour; it may be no more than the discharge of a homely duty beneath a very humble roof; it may be such a small contribution that it makes no sensible difference even to a small collection; it may be a service which is as transient in its obvious effects as the anointing of the Master's feet with that perishable unguent. Critical disciples may say, "What is the good of it?" or, "To what purpose is this waste?" We need not be disturbed because to them, or to ourselves, our offering is small, or the result of our effort apparently evanescent. This need not distress, and should not detain or divert us. 2. The presence of a right spirit is everything with our Lord. If we teach the ignorant or the young, or give to the necessi tous, or visit the neglected, or wait upon the sick or the infirm in the spirit of pure kindness, our deed may be unvalued here, but it is prized in heaven. The loving spirit makes all the difference in the eyes of the Divine Approver. It transmutes the poor copper of mechanical obedience into the pure gold of Divine service. It calls forth and brings down the priceless benediction of Jesus Christ. He who found for Mary's offering a usefulness she could not have imagined for it, will crown our word and deed of love with a beauty and a blessing beyond our thought, and beyond our reckoning.

EASTER SUNDAY.

THE LIVING LORD.

I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.-REV. i. 18. THE text invites us to consider Jesus Christ as the possessor and dispenser of life in all its fulness. It is involved in

I. HIS DIVINE NATURE. He is "the Living One": not only "He that liveth," but He that is possessed of life as His eternal

inheritance; He that "hath life in Himself" (John v. 26); the "Word that was in the beginning" (John i. 1, 2); "who only hath immortality" (1 Tim. vi. 16). He is that One with whom existence never began, because it ever was; in whom life dwelt as in its own residence and home; from whom all life proceeded as from its fontal source. "In Him (potentially) was (all the) life" that was ever manifested to mankind, "and the life was the light of men"; from Him, as from the sun itself, flowed forth all the light that has illumined the mind and brightened and blessed the lives of men. It is this fact which brings out into such bold relief the great truth of—

II. HIS MERCIFUL MISSION. He came to earth to die. The Living One "was dead"; "became dead" (literally); voluntarily entered into the state of death. This is a part of that "great mystery of godliness" (1 Tim. iii. 19) which must baffle our finite understanding. Antecedently, we should have judged that the Living One Himself could not die. But the possibilities of Divine condescension are quite indeterminable by us. We accept the well-attested, wonderful fact. "For the suffering of death" (in order that He might pass through that experience) He was made "lower than the angels " (Heb. ii. 9). "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death." The shadow of death rested upon all the path of His life; that shadow deepened as He entered upon and fulfilled His ministry (see Mark viii. 31; John xii. 23-27). As we read the story of His death, so fully told us by all the evangelists, and as we read the many allusions made to it and the doctrine that is built upon it by Apostolic preachers and writers, we realize that He came to die as much as to live; and we know that His death in such darkness and shame is, with His resurrection, the supreme fact of His great "work" on earth.

III. HIS RELATION TO US NOW AS OUR LIVING LORD. The Living One passed through the gates of death; but "death had no dominion over Him." He triumphed over it. Of Himself He laid down His life, and of Himself He took it again (John x. 18). And now He is, in very truth, "the Resurrection and the Life." Life, in all its fulness, is His to enjoy and to confer. As the Living One for evermore, He is-1. Our present Lord. We are not to think of Him as being afar off

in some distant, unimaginable region; we are not to represent Him to our minds as the departed One, but as the ever and everywhere present One. We need no relics.

Nay relics are for those who mourn
The memory of an absent friend.
Not absent He, nor we forlorn ;

Is He not with us to the end?"

He is with us always, even to the end of the world. He is "our very present help," compassing our path and our lying down; with us in the church and in the chamber, in the study and in the market, in the broad field of daily labour and in the sacred sphere of holy service. 2. Our observant Lord. Reading our every thought and feeling; taking count of our desires and our purposes, of many of which we take no count at all; hearing our every word; observing our every action, not less that which is slight than that on which great issues hang. 3. Our sympathetic Lord. In all time of trouble we crave the presence of one who can feel with us. Who can estimate the extent to which the burdens of this world have been lightened, its sorrows mitigated, its loneliness relieved, its apprehensions calmed, its whole life blessed by the felt presence of that sympathetic Lord who is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities"? 4. Our appreciative Lord. In all our struggle against the evil which lurks within us, in our strenuous endeavour to reach the spiritual heights which are still beyond us, in our stern conflict with the ignorance and folly and wrong which lie around us, and in our holy purpose to leave some influences behind us that shall do the work of our Lord when we are gone, we want all the help we can have from the encouragement of others. But men often fail us here ; they do not recognize the sincerity of our aim or the worth of our labour. How invaluable the presence of Him who knows our hearts, and who values every offering, however small, that is made in purity of heart. 5. Our energizing and recompensing Lord. We are not sufficient of ourselves to prevail against the strong spiritual forces opposed to us; of our own strength we cannot enlighten the dark mind, or soften the hard heart, or subdue the wayward will of men. Our efforts will be unavailing unless we have a Divine power working within us. For this, however, we may confidently look. Our present Lord will, by His Spirit, grant us all we ask, and make our labours effectual, and even "mighty." 6. Our abiding Lord. "Those priests (of the

old covenant) were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but this man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost (evermore) them that come unto God by him" (Heb. vii. 23-25). Our human friends, counsellors, fellow-workers on whom we lean pass from sight; but this Friend, this Counsellor, this Fellow-labourer (1 Cor. iii. 9) will be ever with us, strengthening us in in every burden we bear, in every duty we discharge, in every service we render.

LOW SUNDAY.

...

FAITH, VAIN AND VICTORIOUS. Ye have believed in vain. . . . . Your faith is vain.-1 Cor. xv. 2, 14, 27. THREE times in the course of a short passage St. Paul writes of a faith that is "vain." A little farther on, he writes of a faith that is victorious (see ver. 57, and 1 John v. 4, 5). We do well to regard these in contrast.

I. THE FAITH THAT IS VAIN.-It is clear that a man may have a creed with which he is well pleased, and that this may miserably fail him in the hour of trial. There is-1. The faith that is founded on error. It cannot, indeed, be denied that great numbers of men have been strengthened for a time, often for a considerable time, by their confident belief in that which was not true and real. Superstition is not without its strength; men have striven, and suffered, and even died for that which we are now assured was error. It affects us with pure pity to think that it has been so; there is something truly humilitating in the thought of it. For who does not shrink from the idea of expending his powers and devoting his life to that which is essentially false? Who can think without shuddering of a life spent in prayer which is unheard, in offerings which are unaccepted, in hopes which are destined to be disappointed? And beside the utter unsatisfactoriness of the present, there is the hour of disillusion which is continually approaching, and must arrive at last. 2. The faith that is built on a very imperfect apprehension. Paul, who here remonstrates with the Christians at Corinth for denying a doctrine with which the truth of the Gospel was bound up, writes to the Churches of Galatia and entreats them to hold the faith of Christ in its integrity, uncorrupted with the "elements" of Judaism. He fears that they are so far departing from the purity of the

truth as it is in Jesus that all his teaching and all their sufferings will be "in vain" (Gal. i. 6, 7; iii. 1-4). We may, in our folly, admit such a mixture of error that the truth we first received becomes obscured and inoperative. But the most common and perilous temptation is-3. The faith which ends in itself, which does not pass on to a wise decision and a holy life. That faith is vain indeed which believes in prayer, but never prays; which believes in penitence, but lives on in selfishness and sin; which believes in the claims of Jesus Christ, but withholds its heart from Him, and its life from His service; which believes in compassion, but has no open hand to relieve and rescue. This is a vanity which is not only painful, but guilty; which moves on to judgment and condemnation. Not merely disillusion, but penalty will be its fate in the future.

II. THE FAITH THAT IS VICTORIOUS.Whilst there is a faith that is vain and worthless, there is one that is mighty and victorious. "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through (faith in) our Lord Jesus Christ" (ver. 57). "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1 John v. 4). That faith which is founded on the truth of God, which holds that truth with intelligent discrimination, which shows itself in deliberate choice and appropriate action such a faith can accomplish everything. 1. It brings the human spirit into close and happy relation with the Divine. Being justified by faith we have peace with God." Through faith in the Divine Saviour we become the loving and rejoicing children of

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God, whose life thenceforth is one of filial blessedness and obedience. 2. It triumphs over temptation. It overcomes "the world," i.e., all those things which we have here to encounter and to subdue, all unworthy ambition, all unwise and forbidden indulgence, all unholy friendship, absorption in the things of time and sense. 3. It meets suffering and sorrow with a conquering fortitude. It bears all adverse circumstances, all pain of body, all grief of mind with calm acquiescence, because it bows to the will of the unseen Father, because it "sees Him who is invisible"-the present and sympathetic Saviour. 4. It works laboriously in the field of holy usefulness, for it hears the Master saying, "Follow Me"; it realizes the immeasur able value of the human spirit; it believes in the return and recovery of the most abandoned of mankind; it looks for the renewing power of the Spirit of God to effectuate its work; it is assured of a gladdening benediction and a large reward. 5. It anticipates the heavenly future; it is "the substance of things hoped for"; it looks beyond the present time, the intervening years of this passing life, and it enters upon the inheritance beyond; it bears all things it otherwise could not bear, and does all things it otherwise could not do, because it hears already the songs that are sung, and beholds already the glories that are beheld in the celestial sphere. 6. It awaits the hour of departure with perfect calmness. To the eye of faith, "it is not death to die," it is to enter on the fuller, nobler life within the veil; it is to be at home with God.

WILLIAM CLARKSON, B.A.

THE WAY OF THE RIGHTEOUS.
PSALM i. 1-6.

THE real blessedness of man is not in his outer circumstances, but in his inner heartlife. It is this inner blessedness of the inner life of which the Psalmist sings. By a series of contrasted pictures, he would show us the pasture on which the heart feeds, the way along which it moves, the end which it reaches. We see more plainly by contrasts than by looking at a single object with nothing by which to measure it.

I. The Negative Pictures of Progress and Results. Let us note briefly the way the righteous man does not take. It is set forth in six pictures; three are the steps of progress, and three are the results.

The first negative picture is, "walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." The ungodly are the restless, dissatisfied, unrighteous (Job iii. 17; Isa. lvii. 20). "The counsel of the ungodly" means hidden designs, secret thoughts, evil imaginations. These are the fountains of evil-doing. They are the seed