Imatges de pàgina
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seems that the kind of existence to which men are now summoned by every plea of pity and claim of right, may, for some time at least, not be a luxurious one;-consider whether, even supposing it guiltless, luxury would be desired by any of us, if we saw clearly at our sides the suffering which accompanies it in the world. Luxury is indeed possible in the future-innocent and exquisite; luxury for all, and by the help of all; but luxury at present can only be enjoyed by the ignorant; the cruelest man living could not sit at his feast, unless he sat blindfold. Raise the veil boldly; face the light; and if, as yet, the light of the eye can only be seen through tears, and the light of the body through sackcloth, go thou forth weeping, bearing precious seed, until the time come, and the kingdom, when Christ's gift of bread, and bequest of peace, shall be "Unto this last as unto thee"; and when, for earth's severed multitudes of the wicked and the weary, there shall be holier reconciliation than that of the narrow home, and calm economy, where the Wicked ceasenot from trouble, but from troubling-and the Weary are at rest." 1

(3) Judge no one's discipline before the time. Do not judge your own. Perhaps you think that discipline harsh. Perhaps you think it singularly unsuitable. You are tempted to imagine that your spiritual character would have been better nurtured and your spiritual interests better served had God taken another method with you-assigning you a different burden, leading you a different way. Not so. You may be sure that the burden fits your shoulders, that the path fits your feet, as they fit those of no one else. Wherefore be obedient, be patient, be hopeful. What you know not now you shall know hereafter, if not in this life, certainly in the day that makes all things clear.

We judge others according to results; how else?—not knowing the process by which results are arrived at.

(4) Judge no one's destiny before the time; you know not the determining elements. They are often hidden from you in life, and some who have passed as opponents of religion have, Nicodemus-like, been its secret friends. And in death the data may be hidden too. I speak with caution, even with trembling, remembering the danger of abuse; but I say that while the possibility of a late repentance permits no one to presume in his own case, it permits no one to despair in the case of others.

1E. T. Cook, The Life of Ruskin, ii. 6.

2 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.

I have not much sympathy with those who have great suspiciousness about false religion. I have not much sympathy with strong, positive [condemnatory] affirmations about people's religion, where there is nothing decidedly bad. I have not much sympathy with those who are not disposed to admit and to hope that there may be reality where there is the appearance of some little good thing toward the Lord God of Israel.i

The tragedy of our lives is not created entirely from within. "Character," says Novalis, in one of his questionable aphorisms-" character is destiny." But not the whole of our destiny. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was speculative and irresolute, and we have a great tragedy in consequence. But if his father had lived to a good old age, and his uncle had died an early death, we can conceive Hamlet's having married Ophelia, and got through life with a reputation of sanity, notwithstanding many soliloquies, and some moody sarcasms towards the fair daughter of Polonius, to say nothing of the frankest incivility to his father-in-law.2

¶ A sailor, who had long been the object of a mother's prayers, but had nevertheless lived a godless and a thoughtless life, was swept overboard in a storm. While he struggled in the waves a vision of his past rose before him, vivid, concentrated, intense, together with what seemed a last opportunity of making his peace with God. That vision he improved. That opportunity he embraced. Then and there he repented. Then and there he gave himself to Christ. "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto him, into his holy temple." And his first thought after the transaction was this: "I shall die a Christian, and my mother will never know of the change." But she did know; for he lived to tell her, and to testify to others besides, by the consistency of his Christian walk and faithfulness of his Christian service,

1 "Rabbi" Duncan, in Memoir of John Duncan, 425.

2 George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss.

W. A. Gray.

FOR THE FEAST.

LITERATURE.

Aitken (W. H. M. H.), The Highway of Holiness, 220.
Beeching (H. C.), The Bible Doctrine of the Sacraments, 86.
Burrell (D. J.), The Gospel of Gladness, 255.

Davies (J. Ll.), The Work of Christ, 85.

Dods (M.), Footsteps in the Path of Life, 97, 100.

Green (T. H.), The Witness of God, and Faith, 1.

Grubb (G. C.), The Light of His Countenance, 9.

Gurney (T. A.), The Living Lord and the Opened Grave, 57.

Hepher (C.), The Revelation of Love, 157.

Jerdan (C.), For the Lord's Table, 62.

Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year: Easter-Ascension, 1.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., ii. 256.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 83.

Maurice (F. D.), Lincoln's Inn Sermons, iii. 245.
Morgan (R. C.), The Cross in the Old Testament, 81.
Moule (H. C. G.), The Pledges of His Love, 97.
Pope (R. M.), The Poetry of the Upward Way, 29.

Smith (D.), The Pilgrim's Hospice, 37.

Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, ii. (1856) No. 54.

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Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xvi. (1870) No. 965.

Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xxiii. (1883) No. 1244.
Waterston (R.), Thoughts on the Lord's Supper, 153.

Watt (L. M.), The Communion Table, 223.

Wiseman (N.), Children's Sermons, 72.

Christian World Pulpit, xiv. 121 (Aveling).

Church of England Pulpit, lxiii. 237 (Sandham).

Churchman's Pulpit: Easter Day and Season: vii. 195 (Keble).

Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., xv. 300 (Gurney).

Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., ix. 161 (Barry).

Homiletic Review, xliii. 333 (Dieterich).

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