Him."

Our Lord, on another occasion,* said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me;" and there St. John explains, "This he said, signifying what death He should die." The hearers would

scarcely understand the allusion. If indeed they had suspected He meant to hint at a violent death, they would rather have expected Him to say, "When ye have crushed the Son of man,"-stoning being the kind of death He was most in danger of suffering; but all that He probably desired to convey to their minds was the general idea, that then first, when they had removed Him out of reach, they would have their eyes opened to the true significance of his character and mission-they would then first understand who He was and what He had been doing amongst them.

May we not apply the fact embodied in these words to cases amongst ourselves? Have we not many examples of men and women understood too late? Here is a minister endowed with some of God's best gifts, freely pouring out mind, heart, and bodily strength in the service of a people who seem chiefly busy in finding out in what he is deficient, who depreciate his talents, criticise his sermons, do not believe in his devotedness. He dies-his death hastened perhaps by the pressure of unrequited labour. And then, every fragment of writing that he has left becomes precious-volumes of "Remains" are published and eagerly bought up; he is extolled by strangers, and they who little valued him

* John xii. 32.

when they had his daily presence, eagerly take up the note of praise. "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He."

Or to come to domestic life. Here is a married couple making each other's life miserable by continual peevishness and recrimination. Everything that goes wrong in the course of circumstances is, by some ingenious process, turned into an occasion of mutual reproach. All their friends regard them as a peculiarly ill-mated pair, and deplore the chance which brought them together. At length one dies, and then the other speedily finds out the merit of the deceased partner, and spends the rest of life in mourning over what now appears in the distance to have been unalloyed happiness.

Or again. Here is a mother who has a childa daughter it may be-who is "not a favourite," who is always in the wrong, to whom she has little to say except in the form of reproof and faultfinding. Such influences do sap the health as surely as bad food or bad air; and so by and bye the poor girl begins to look ill-to decline in strength. Friends around mark the change and strive to call attention to it and arouse sympathy; but in vain. It is attributed to fancy, indolence, or something else held to be blameable, rather than pitiable; and so it goes on, till one day the end comes as a surprise; and then the mother perplexes every one by the depth of her sorrow, and the pertinacity with which she dwells upon excellences not one of which she could discern, when a word of warm and tender

commendation would have called a flush of joy to her dead child's cheek.

Here again is a daughter, with fond, indulgent parents, whose judgment she slights, whose wishes she disregards, whose comfort she systematically postpones to her own. Death removes them, and then she begins to find out that never had any one such a father, or such a mother, and that never was any one so much to be pitied, as she is for having lost them.

We might go through every relation of life, and find similar examples. Let us humbly ask of God that we may have eyes to see and hearts to feel our mercies whilst we have them.

SECTION VI.

FURTHER DISCOURSE

"A

-TRUE FREEDOM ATTEMPT TO

STONE CHRIST.

JOHN viii. 30-59.

S He spake these words, many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.""

All our Lord's hearers were not equally hostile or prejudiced. His words penetrated to the hearts of some, and they, in one way or another, gave Him to understand that He had convinced them. He gives them a few words of encouragement, and the promise

contained in these words was a fresh offence in the eyes of His adversaries. He had said that the "truth should make them free." Make them free! How could Jews stand in need of any such emancipation? Were they not all descendants of Abraham, freemen by birth? "They answered Him, "We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?" It is true they were at this very time politically subject to the Romans, but they probably had in view rather personal and individual freedom than national. They thought, perhaps, of the prohibitions which rendered it unlawful to make slaves of those who were the children of Abraham.*

The Lord, without taking up this point, explains to them that there is a slavery which enthrals many a one who scorns to own any fellow-creature as a master. "Jesus answered them, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.'" He is enslaved by his own baser nature the things that he would, them he does. not; but what he hates, that he does.t We all know what this is. We all know what it is to be driven against our better judgment, against our firmest resolutions, against our moral taste, to do and say things which we hate to think of afterwards. What we gain by giving way to a tyrannical impulse is but temporary. "The servant," our Lord continues, "abideth not in the house for ever; but the Son abideth ever." Service, as the proverb says,

Tev. xxv. 30-42; Neh. v. 8.

Romans vii. 15.

is no inheritance, and the service of sin is no exception to the rule. The passion, the worldly interest, the MUST of society, when we have obeyed them, may dole out to us some trifle of wages, but by and bye they tell us they have no further need of our services; we cease to give them satisfaction, we can make no home with them. But the service of God gives us a place in his family, not as servants, but sons. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed;" free, because our hearts will be free, and in doing our Master's will we shall be serving a loving Father who seeks not merely our services but our real advantage. The Lord then turns to those whom He knew were His bitter enemies for we may think of Him surrounded by a crowd, some believers, some half believers, others determined foes, and addressing now one set, now another "I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because My word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with My Father; and ye do that which ye have seen with your father." By race they might be Abraham's children; by spiritual affinity they had a far other parentage. "They answered and said unto Him, 'Abraham is our father.' Jesus saith unto them, 'If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill Me, a Man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God; this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father.' Then said they to Him, 'We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.'

Jesus said unto them, 'If God were