draws us nearer to God, and brings us within the reach of His attraction. In Christ we see the love of God, and are assured of His desire to help us. God moves towards us, and speaks to our heart. And so a new hope and influence comes into our life. Self shrinks in sight of the love of God, and ceases to be the centre of our life. The world loses its hold upon us. We have the victory that overcomes the world.

Has the world overcome us? Have our desires fastened close around it? Are we more selfish than we once were; is conscience less sensitive; have our better resolves and aspirations died out; has the spirit of the world entered and mastered us?

It is only faith in Christ that can cast out the spirit of the world. Return; place yourself again in His presence, and in the light around Him. Look upward for His glance of pity; listen for His voice; put your hand in His. Consider His compassion and patience; and, however far you have wandered, be sure that He can lead you into the better path and the nobler life. Then the heaven that once lay around will again enfold you. The simple trust and love of earlier years will again be your own. They may even become deeper and more real, for you will have found you needed them. Your heart will come back to you as the heart of a little child. the echoes of the child's Prayer and the child's Hymn will be heard in their freshness and wonder. The vision of the Christ, in Whom the face of the Father shines on us, will renew and transfigure your life. Slowly, it may be, and step by step, and perhaps in hard strife, you will regain the ground you had lost, and through your faith in Christ may still have the victory that overcomes the world.

Across the years,

TUESDAY.-First Week after Easter.

St. John xxi. 1—6.

"After these things Jesus shewed Himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed He Himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of His disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore; but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered Him, No. And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes."

On St. Thomas' Day, at the beginning of the Christian Year, we read of the second Appearance of Christ among the assembled disciples.

This third manifestation is recorded very fully by St. John. It probably did not take place till some little time after the Resurrection. Our Lord had said, the night before He suffered; "After that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee." So we can understand how, in obedience to His word, the little band of the faithful left Jerusalem, soon after the Passover Week was ended, and went into Galilee, a land so associated in their thoughts with the Ministry of Jesus. The Lake of Gennesareth would especially be full of sacred memories to those who loved their Lord; it was natural they should wait for Him there. And it was on the shore of this Lake that Jesus showed Himself again to seven of His disciples.

The Apostles were no longer a community, under one head,

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with a common purse; and probably, when St. Peter proposed to " go a fishing," it was in order to obtain necessary food. But their united labour and skill were of no avail. They must have known the Lake well, and each creek where the fish were most likely to be found; yet that whole long night they caught nothing. And when the morning light reddened the sky, their Master, as so often before, came to their aid. He stood, as if a stranger, on the shore, and told them where to cast the net; and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of the fishes. The disciples must have been waiting for their Lord, yet they did not recognize Him. Perhaps they had looked out so often and so eagerly for Him, at their first coming into Galilee, that they had grown weary and despondent. Or, it may be, they expected He would manifest His presence by some great event. But their Lord came to them in the dim light, and in their earthly work. He was watching over them, as they went to and fro' on the Lake that long night, in apparently useless toil; and when He revealed Himself, it was in a quiet work of mercy, not in startling signs and wonders.

Is it night-time with us; a night of toil and darkness? Are we trying to do some needful work, and feel that we fail? It is in such hours we may look for our Lord, for then it is that He is nearest us. If you are in earthly want, He can instruct you at the right moment where to cast your net. If you are in any doubt or difficulty, He can show you how to conquer it. Oh, let us believe that He stands at our side, even if our night of labour has been long, and seems all in vain. The light will break at last, and the Lord will manifest Himself, not perhaps in mighty deliverances and tokens of power, but in the quiet working together of all circumstances to supply our need, and above all in the rest and peace His Presence gives.

WEDNESDAY.-First Week after Easter.

St. John xxi. 7-14.

"Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked) and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three; and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask Him, Who art Thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed Himself to His disciples, after that He was risen from the dead."

We read yesterday that the Apostles did not know their Lord as He stood on the shore, though they were near enough the land to hear His voice. It may have been, as with the disciples on the way to Emmaus, that their eyes were holden for the time, that they should not know Him. But there must have been some unconscious sense of His nearness and help, for they had no hesitation in obeying His word; and the immediate draught of fish which filled their net, so that they were not able to draw it in, would vividly recall to their memory that former occasion, when a like incident had occurred on this very Lake. So it was that the miracle brought instant conviction of His presence,

certainly to two of the Apostles. We can picture to ourselves the rapt look of love on St. John's face when he turned to St. Peter and said, "It is the Lord;" and the eager impulse of his fellow Apostle, as he girt his loose outer garment around him, and cast himself into the water to go to Jesus.

There seems a special mystery and solemnity in all that is told us of this early Dawn by the side of the Galilean Lake. The fire of coals, and the fish laid thereon, and the bread; all ready, but prepared apparently by no human hands; the strained net, filled with fish, which yet was not broken; the invitation of Jesus to come and partake of the mysterious meal; and the hush of silent reverence which pervaded the minds of the Apostles; all show that the disciples were being gradually taught to see more and more of the heavenly and supernatural nature in their risen Lord. It may have been, as has been thought, that His Divine glory was increasingly manifested in these several Appearances as the time drew near for the Ascension, and became more distinctly marked to all who beheld Him.

We see also in this miraculous draught of fish a reference to that other occasion, when Jesus first called the Apostles to become fishers of men; and the renewal of the commission they then received. And this mystical morning meal, so minutely described by the Evangelist, may it not be typical of the continuance of the Last Supper; that sacred Feast, in which the Church below realizes its communion with the Church above, and with the Lord of both? Each Holy Communion should be to us a type and foretaste of the heavenly Banquet, when the great Master, in the fulness of His love, shall make His servants sit down in the Kingdom of God.