higher thoughts and purposes, not altogether hidden from our view. For we catch a glimpse of those higher purposes in the miracle before us, which is a kind of window opened from within, through the so-called fixed laws of matter. It is thus opened by God's own hand. Through it we look up and see Himself as the Father of our spirits, controlling and directing all things, even the most destructive, for our truest welfare. To see Him thus is to see that the whole range of material law, of which we are hearing so much to-day, is from beginning to end included in the higher and larger reign of Divine Love. It is to see that the most absolute thing in existence is not the outer law which binds atoms into globes, and globes into systems, and systems into the vast universe of matter; but the inner love-the eternal love of God's heartwhich, reigning over that law, over floods and fires through this world and the next for the good of His children, binds Him and them together in the bond of an inseparable and undying union. "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The love which binds us thus inseparably to God is the soul of true freedom; it is essentially purifying, and creates a new moral character in men. It is dangerous, some say, to boldly preach the doctrine of infinite love, unless we are extremely careful to connect it at all points with the requirements of morality. We say that the two are connected, that the love of God within the heart includes the whole range of morality; nay, that it is morality. Sunbeams are not more a veritable part of the shining sun than deeds of morality are an essential part of the life of love. When the sun can shine without filling the world with light, then, but not till then, will love burn within a man's heart without filling his life, and thoughts, and actions with purity. True love evolves from itself the holiness after which it aspires. The man in whom it lives and works has an overmastering passion for the performance of the duty which he owes to God and his neighbour. It is the fulfilling of the law, "the bond of perfection.'

And this love, producing these glorious results, is now set before us with great plainness. In the gospel God is not only Hmself revealing God, opening out to our heart in its utter need the deep and satisfying things of His own heart, but He is doing this with amazing clearness— clearness, I mean, in the eyes of meek and lowly learners in Christ's school. To them the one truth which rises above every other and shines with greatest brightness is the central truth of the gospel, which sprang from the deepest place in God's heart, namely, His infinite love to sinful men. The deepest thing in God's nature has become in the open pages of the New Testament the loftiest and plainest. Just as here and there in the structure of the globe. the lowermost strata have shot up out of their dark bed into loftiest mountain ranges, the peaks of which glittering in the sun are plainly seen from a

66

distance, while the vales at their feet are still wrapped in blinding mist; so in the page of inspired Scripture, that deepest thing of all in God's heart, His boundless compassion to men, has risen up and become the loftiest and clearest truth that strikes their view. There it is shining steadily on above the clouds which still hang over and darken, more or less, the whole sweep of history, of nature, and of providence. So that now, whatever is doubtful or confusing in God's dealings with the world day after day and age after age, that love of His, standing out on high in its own glorious light, is certain and clear. It is at all events more certain and clear than anything else in the eyes of the Spirit-taught disciples of Christ. They refuse to surrender their faith in God's love, even in the face of things by which it seems for a time to be absolutely contradicted. They have been often, and will again be, marvellously upborne and filled with hope by it under the stroke of the darkest ills. "I have felt again," writes Baroness Bunsen, as so often before, that nothing of the many things that shake and confound us in this life would be endurable, but for placing the cause of emotion and all its circumstances in the hand of God, and resting upon the certainty that all His creatures are precious in His sight, as at the creation He pronounced them good! And this being the case, I take comfort in the conviction that He cannot have created anything for nought for annihilation; and that pain and misery must be resolvable into good, although I cannot discern the why and the how."* take exception to one clause in this passage: it is not true that "pain and misery" are "resolvable into good," but it is an undoubted scriptural truth that they are the instruments of good. Even the sharpest and most unexpected trial which comes suddenly upon us, and cuts into the very core of our strength, may be an instrument of good in the hands of the supreme overruling love. Unillumined reason does not see that, but it is clear to simple, child-like faith. Our human weakness, trembling with fear under the suddenness of some impending affliction, cries out: "Not that, anything but that!" forgetting that it is the trial actually present, the complication which is, from which we always most shrink, because it always seems the most soul-harrowing and crushing. And yet just that is seen and used by Him who knows our frame and chastens us not after His own pleasure, but for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." Therefore in the very moment of seeming despair there is a sure ground on which we may take our stand and calmly say, "Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him." To nobly resolve that we will venture everything in regard to our own future and that of humanity upon a simple faith in the almighty and overruling love of God is the only way to conquer the intellectual and other difficulties which spring out of the sufferings of life. This is the only way to acquire—

"That blessed mood,

In which the burden of the mystery,

*Life and Letters, vol. ii. p. 393.

We

higher thoughts and purposes, not altogether hidden from our view. For we catch a glimpse of those higher purposes in the miracle before us, which is a kind of window opened from within, through the so-called fixed laws of matter. It is thus opened by God's own hand. Through it we look up and see Himself as the Father of our spirits, controlling and directing all things, even the most destructive, for our truest welfare. To see Him thus is to see that the whole range of material law, of which we are hearing so much to-day, is from beginning to end included in the higher and larger reign of Divine Love. It is to see that the most absolute thing in existence is not the outer law which binds atoms into globes, and globes into systems, and systems into the vast universe of matter; but the inner love—the eternal love of God's heart— which, reigning over that law, over floods and fires through this world and the next for the good of His children, binds Him and them together in the bond of an inseparable and undying union. "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The love which binds us thus inseparably to God is the soul of true freedom; it is essentially purifying, and creates a new moral character in men. It is dangerous, some say, to boldly preach the doctrine of infinite love, unless we are extremely careful to connect it at all points with the requirements of morality. We say that the two are connected, that the love of God within the heart includes the whole range of morality; nay, that it is morality. Sunbeams are not more a veritable part of the shining sun than deeds of morality are an essential part of the life of love. When the sun can shine without filling the world with light, then, but not till then, will love burn within a man's heart without filling his life, and thoughts, and actions with purity. True love evolves from itself the holiness after which it aspires. The man in whom it lives and works has an overmastering passion for the performance of the duty which he owes to God and his neighbour. It is the fulfilling of the law, "the bond of perfection."

And this love, producing these glorious results, is now set before us with great plainness. In the gospel God is not only Hmself revealing God, opening out to our heart in its utter need the deep and satisfying things of His own heart, but He is doing this with amazing clearness— clearness, I mean, in the eyes of meek and lowly learners in Christ's school. To them the one truth which rises above every other and shines with greatest brightness is the central truth of the gospel, which sprang from the deepest place in God's heart, namely, His infinite love to sinful men. The deepest thing in God's nature has become in the open pages of the New Testament the loftiest and plainest. Just as here and there in the structure of the globe. the lowermost strata have shot up out of their dark bed into loftiest mountain ranges, the peaks of which glittering in the sun are plainly seen from a

distance, while the vales at their feet are still wrapped in blinding mist; so in the page of inspired Scripture, that deepest thing of all in God's heart, His boundless compassion to men, has risen up and become the loftiest and clearest truth that strikes their view. There it is shining steadily on above the clouds which still hang over and darken, more or less, the whole sweep of history, of nature, and of providence. So that now, whatever is doubtful or confusing in God's dealings with the world day after day and age after age, that love of His, standing out on high in its own glorious light, is certain and clear. It is at all events more certain and clear than anything else in the eyes of the Spirit-taught disciples of Christ. They refuse to surrender their faith in God's love, even in the face of things by which it seems for a time to be absolutely contradicted. They have been often, and will again be, marvellously upborne and filled with hope by it under the stroke of the darkest ills. "I have felt again," writes Baroness Bunsen, "as so often before, that nothing of the many things that shake and confound us in this life would be endurable, but for placing the cause of emotion and all its circumstances in the hand of God, and resting upon the certainty that all His creatures are precious in His sight, as at the creation He pronounced them good! And this being the case, I take comfort in the conviction that He cannot have created anything for nought for annihilation; and that pain and misery must be resolvable into good, although I cannot discern the why and the how."* take exception to one clause in this passage: it is not true that "pain and misery" are "resolvable into good," but it is an undoubted scriptural truth that they are the instruments of good. Even the sharpest and most unexpected trial which comes suddenly upon us, and cuts into the very core of our strength, may be an instrument of good in the hands of the supreme overruling love. Unillumined reason does not see that, but it is clear to simple, child-like faith. Our human weakness, trembling with fear under the suddenness of some impending affliction, cries out: "Not that, anything but that!" forgetting that it is the trial actually present, the complication which is, from which we always most shrink, because it always seems the most soul-harrowing and crushing. And yet just that is seen and used by Him who knows our frame and chastens us not after His own pleasure, but for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." Therefore in the very moment of seeming despair there is a sure ground on which we may take our stand and calmly say, "Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him." To nobly resolve that we will venture everything in regard to our own future and that of humanity upon a simple faith in the almighty and overruling love of God is the only way to conquer the intellectual and other difficulties which spring out of the sufferings of life. This is the only way to acquire

"That blessed mood,

In which the burden of the mystery,

*Life and Letters, vol. ii. p. 393.

We

In which the heavy and the weary weight

Of all this unintelligible world,

Is lightened."

Moreover, it is the only way to grow in the life of true spiritual knowledge; for we shall then carry in our hand a golden key, given us by God, to unlock some of the mysteries which baffle reason. With it we

shall be able so far to open the dark mysteries of life and death as to see that at the heart of them infinite love is at work for our good. And not only so, but we shall be able to open an entrance for ourselves into the abiding rest of God's own Spirit, who, reaching through all our perplexity, will whisper into our inmost soul "the secret of the Lord" -the secret of that unforsaking friendship of His which knows, not only how to explain all our enigmas, but also how to heal all our wounds and turn every loss into gain. That is enough. More, in this world of partial knowledge, we cannot have. It is enough when what is inmost in our spirit is touched, freshened, spoken to, consoled, energized, and filled by what is inmost in God's Spirit. The night of tears melts into immortal day when His Spirit is opening to ours "the deep things of God," and is saying within us, "Let there be light."

We are under the reign of love, and shall not be always in the dark. Courage, brothers, a glorious destiny awaits us! It is not too much to say that in one respect God and man are alike. They possess in common a spiritual nature, which shall not only outlast the material universe to which it is at present related, but which in its highest form is even now independent of that universe, and of the dark currents of evil and change and death sweeping through it. Man, through Christ, is capable of a life in and with God-a life independent of all His outer works-a life which shall ultimately reign with Him in light. This is clearly taught by Christ and His apostles. It is the foundation truth which supports and shapes the whole structure of the Christian religion. To enter prayerfully with our whole mind and heart into the mystery of Christ's cross, His atoning death for mankind, is to see clearly-and to feel as well as see- -that the redemption of the human soul is the thought of God's heart which enters into and reigns supreme over the whole range of His plans, purposes, and agencies in their relation to this human world. To redeem, to deliver the human soul, to translate it from its present slavery into its own proper liberty in the life of God, that is the end toward which God is slowly, indeed, but unerringly, directing the movement of all things,-suffering and death among the rest. Such, at least, is Paul's view. “For I consider," he says, "that the sufferings of the present season are of no account in comparison with the glory that is about to be unveiled and shine forth unto us. For the earnest expectation of the creature is awaiting the unveiling of the sons of God. Seeing that the creation was put under the power of change and decay, not of its own will, but with