ΟΝ May 26. THE ONCE DEAD, BUT NOW RISEN. N Easter morning it is a custom almost universal in Russia, when two friends meet, to say, "Christ is risen." They tell it to each other as good news, that may well gladden every heart. What sweeter salutation can there be or truer? Whoever else may still be in the grave, Christ at least is risen-risen, as he said, risen in spite of every foe; and, better still, risen to give visible and eternal proof that his redemption work was not only divinely completed on earth, but divinely accepted in heaven. What is true of Christ as to resurrection, is true also of his people. Because he lives, they shall live also; and the glad day is hastening on when he shall come to awaken them out of sleep. Nay, more, because he lives, they live even now; for, spiritually, they become risen with Christ the very moment they believe. Very frequently when, from very lowly circumstances, men struggle upwards to great wealth and high social status, they are spoken of as men who have risen; and while some congratulate, others envy them. But no elevation of this nature, however high, can for a moment be compared with that of those who are risen with Christ; for their rise is not simply from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to distinction, from ignorance to knowledge, but from death to life, and from sin to holiness. Indeed, apart from the great reward held out in the future, there is even now, in a renewed life, such moral elevation of character, such purity of aim and feeling, such conscious peace with God, and blessed aspirations after perfect conformity to the Lord's mind and will, that it might well be chosen for its own sake. But when we remember that the transformation is not merely something so desirable that all should long for it, but a thing so absolutely essential that without it we can neither have part nor lot with the children of God; then to disregard and neglect it, is not unwisdom only, but utter infatuation. To all who have experienced this blessed change, the apostle says: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." "Brethren, arise! There is no home for us We were not born for earth; Is far above the skies: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.-ROM. vi. 11. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.-EPH. ii. 4–6. THE May 27. SEEMING DEAFNESS TO ENTREATY. HE Lord's usually open ear to his people becomes, at times, a seemingly shut one. They supplicate as before, it may be, and say with all earnestness, " Give ear, O God of Jacob;" but to their sore discouragement, no response is given and no relief comes. It is as if he heard them not. This was touchingly exemplified in the case of the Syro-phenician woman. No affliction could have been greater than hers, for her daughter, possibly an only child, was grievously vexed with a devil; nor could any prayer have been more intense in its earnestness than the one she offered. Again and again she cried aloud, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, thou son of David!" but all to no purpose apparently, for we are expressly told that "he answered her not a word.” Nor is this a mere solitary instance of such painful silence. With many of God's children it is often so still; they get a shut ear when they are intensely sighing for an open one, and this, too, at a time when the blessings they ask seem right and good-nay, even when spiritual things alone are the burden of their cry. At such seasons they are ready, with the Psalmist, to say, in sorrowful despondency, "Why hidest thou thy face, O Lord? Why art thou silent unto me?" There may be mystery in such dealings, dark and perplexing; nevertheless, to the troubled believer, who calmly waits in patient faith, they will, sooner or later, be found to embody in them the wisest wisdom and the warmest love. At other times God is silent to his people because, like the disciples of old, they ask amiss. As in ordinary family life, were a son so deluded as to ask from his father not bread but a stone, not an egg but a scorpion, then just in proportion to his wisdom and love would be the resolute persistency with which the father would shut his ear to him. So is it with our heavenly Father; when unwise petitions are presented to him, in very mercy and kindness he will not answer. Such a providence may seem frowning, but there is love behind it. Just as Joseph was never more yearning in his affection for his brethren than at the very time when outwardly he was roughest, so often the Lord is never so truly gracious to his children as when seemingly sternest and deafest to all their supplications. This shutting of the Lord's ear is often the experience of days only, but occasionally it is the experience even of months or of years; but whatever the interval between the prayer and the answer, there is always loving purpose in it, either, it may be, to exercise patience or to test faith. An old Christian negro once gave his experience upon this matter very simply when he said: "When I want anything, I just ask the Lord, and he is sure to send it. Sometimes he does this afore I've done askin', and then sometimes he holds back, just to see if I trust him." The trying of your faith worketh patience.-JAMES i. 3. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.-LUKE Xviii. 1. Because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you.-LUKE xi. 8, 9. THE May 28. WE HAVE NOT ONLY A SAVIOUR IN CHRIST, BUT A KING. HE Jews, eighteen centuries ago, however unwilling to receive Jesus as a Saviour from sin, were perfectly ready, nay, intensely eager, to take him as a King. We are expressly told, indeed, that when our Lord "perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him. a king, he departed into a mountain alone." In our day many go to the other extreme, for while seemingly willing, in a general sense, to take Christ as a Saviour, on no account will they take him as a King. They may let him save, if it must be, in some shadowy way, but in any true and practical sense they sternly forbid him to rule. They may listen, but they will not bow or conform in any degree their thoughts to his thoughts, or their will to his will. Even a nominal submission to Christ is now, in many parts of Christendom, openly and growingly denied by not a few who bear his name. Indeed, it seems but too evident that the predicted glory of millennial times, when "the kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ," will not be consummated until a terrible struggle has convulsed the nations. "Earth," says one, "loves not her rightful Monarch, but clings to the usurper's sway. The terrible conflicts of the last days will illustrate, both the world's love of sin and Jehovah's power to give the kingdom to his Only Begotten. Nothing can ever hinder the fulfilment of the promise, 'Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.'" "We wait for thee: already thou Hast all our hearts' submission; When ours shall be Sweet rest with thee." "I have lived during the reign of four kings," said an old man at a missionary meeting on the island of Raratonga. "In the first, we were continually at war, and a fearful season it was; watching and hiding in fear took |