and though Christ has by His death effectually secured the final overthrow of the evil one, yet the victory will not be completed until He comes in glory; just as He abolished death by His resurrection, and yet men continue to die, and death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed; meanwhile, there is a continuous conflict between life and death, good and evil, light and darkness, between Christ and Belial; and every action and feeling and thought tends to the one side or the other. The Redeemed are called 'out of darkness into His marvellous light,' 'translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son;' and by the manifestation of God in our nature, His people are made 'children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ;' and when the Church thus triumphs in her divine Head over all spiritual evil, then shall be accomplished the great purpose to which the whole history of the human race has been tending since the creation of man; for then 'unto principalities and powers in the heavenly places shall be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God :' the manifestation of His mercy, His pardoning grace, and His wisdom, to the whole intelligent universe. Ours is a high calling; so high above our conceptions that we speak of our destiny with as little definite idea as a child recording the marvels of astronomy, or naming numbers to which it attaches no meaning; yet the child sees the stars with reverent wonder, and rejoices in

the beams of the sun, of whose distance or nature or action he can give no account; and the Christian rejoices in being called a son of God and a joint heir with Christ, while he does not attempt to fathom the dignity and glory of the title. He has a definite hope, a hope anchored in Christ, sure and steadfast; he has a love and a trust which find their home in the bosom of God; and he prays that 'having this hope in Him, he may purify himself even as He is pure.' The nature of this hope is purification; for holiness, that is likeness to Christ, is its very essence; it is impossible that there can exist a hope in Him which is not, in proportion to its strength, holy and purifying; St. John says 'every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure.' Hereafter 'we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is;' this resemblance will be the result, not the condition, of that vision; and therefore meanwhile we grow into the likeness by the study and contemplation of His character. 'The life of Jesus is not described to be like a picture in a chamber of pleasure, only for beauty and entertainment of the eye; but like the Egyptian hieroglyphics, where every feature is a precept, and the images converse with men by sense and signification of excellent discourse.'1

When He shall appear again in power and great glory, where shall we, God's children, be? Either called out of the grave by the same voice 1 Jeremy Taylor.

that said, 'Lazarus, come forth;' or else 'caught up to meet the Lord in the air,' without passing through the crucible of death; in either case the 'mortal body quickened by the Spirit that dwelleth in us;' and 'fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.'

'When I awake up after Thy likeness I shall be satisfied.'

SEPTUAGESIMA.

O Lord, we beseech Thee favourably to hear the prayers of Thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by Thy goodness, for the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

It seems as though persecution and distress were the normal condition of the Church; and that to our present state, in which the Lord has set a hedge around us and sheltered us from every rough wind, many of the prayers in our Liturgy, and of the promises in our Bible too, appear inapplicable; and though each individual in the secret of his heart may be conscious of some suffering which he justly deserves, and of which he tastes the bitterness, yet we must beware of

falsifying our experience by speaking of ourselves as mourners or sufferers when we are not, in order to bring ourselves under the promises which may seem superfluous to a state of repose; let us speak the truth from our hearts and in our hearts.

Were we to receive the due reward of our deeds, punishment would be the portion of all; and when, as a Church or as individuals, we find ourselves free from chastisement, we should especially remember that God hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities; that He is dealing with us not according to our deserving, but according to His compassion; yet we must guard against the error of setting up one of the divine attributes in opposition to another; we must not take refuge from His justice in His goodness, but in that Sanctuary where both are combined, in Whom righteousness and peace have met together, in Whom God can be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; 'a just God and a Saviour.' The punishment of His enemies is suspended, the punishment justly due to His children is averted, only through the atonement of Him Who bore our sins in His own Body on the tree.' If we are found in Him' we are not exempt from suffering in the world ye shall have tribulation;' but suffering changes its character from punishment to discipline, from the righteous infliction of a Judge to the tender

chastening of a Father. And it is well when suffering does come, to ask wherefore? to 'hear the rod and who hath appointed it.' chastisement has its especial message.

'Lovest thou praise? the cross is shame,

Or ease? the cross is bitter grief.'

Every

We may read in our pain the sin or error it is sent to correct, as the physician's prescription tells the nature of the disease it is intended to remedy.

In actual or anticipated sorrow, let our cry for relief be merged in the prayer, 'Father, glorify Thy Name.' He will glorify it by deliverance from suffering or support under it; and finally He will glorify it in that day when 'He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe;' when we shall be clothed in the radiant robe of His perfect righteous

ness.

Meanwhile, let us believe as a fact what we have just declared, that we are justly punished for our offences; let us not think more lightly of the evil of sin because its punishment is averted or delayed. 'Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.'1

1 Ecclesiastes, viii. 11.