Look up, ye saints of God,
Nor fear to tread below
The path your Saviour trod
Of daily toil and woe :
Wait but a little while
In uncomplaining love,
His own most gracious smile
Shall welcome you above.

Future Bliss.

BRIEF life is here our portion ;

Brief sorrow, short-lived care; The life that knows no ending, The tearless life, is there.

O happy retribution;

Short toil, eternal rest; For mortals and for sinners A mansion with the blest!

There God, our King and portion,
In fulness of His grace,
Shall we behold for ever,

And worship face to face.

There grief is turned to pleasure ; Such pleasure as below

No human voice can utter,

No human heart can know.

Strive, man, to win that glory; Toil, man, to gain that light; Send hope before to grasp it Till hope be lost in sight!

Exult, O dust and ashes;
The Lord shall be thy part,
His only, His for ever,

Thou shalt be, and thou art.

CHAPTER IV.

THE MEANS OF GRACE.

"Without Me ye can do nothing." S. JOHN xv. 5.

As soon as a man begins to think of his duty to God, and to strive to live for God and Heaven, he finds that he is surrounded with difficulties, and that he cannot by himself withstand temptation and do right.

God knows our weakness; and the remedy has been provided; so that S. Paul does not hesitate to say, "I can do all things, through Christ which strengtheneth me."

It is God's good purpose that the Christian should be strengthened and preserved from the beginning to the end of life, through the right use of certain means which He has ordained. These are commonly called "The Means of Grace." And we shall probably gain the best idea of them by thinking what God thus purposed to do

for every one of us, even though this purpose may have been greatly frustrated in our own case, through the neglect and unbelief of man.

As soon as a child is born, before any impression can be formed within him, it is God's will that he should be brought into covenant with Him by the solemn act of BAPTISM, which was ordained by our Lord for that purpose. And the child, being accepted for Christ's sake as God's child, is said to be "born again." Being born naturally the child of his parents, he is born again God's child. And the seed of eternal life is implanted in him.

When seed is sown, we know that it will not grow unless the ground is prepared for it. And it is God's Will that His seed should be so cared for that it may grow and bear fruit in the child's heart. Therefore a promise is made or implied that the child shall be trained to know God as his Father, his Saviour, his Sanctifier; to renounce evil and fight against it; and to do right. And when a child's heart is trained in this way it becomes, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the good ground in which the Seed of Eternal Life can grow.

In the next place, because of the fact stated

by our Lord when He said "Without Me ye can do nothing," it is God's Will that the Christian child should be taught, without delay, the use of two of the great means of grace-PRAYER and the WORD of GOD-in order that a continual supply of grace and guidance may be gained by him.

As childhood passes into youth, the Christian child is taught to seek for special strength in CONFIRMATION, to prepare him to enter the battle of life. And henceforth he is admitted to HOLY COMMUNION; the food of hungry souls; the strength of weak souls; the refreshment of weary souls; given for our use in every sort of need through life.

Such are the means of grace according to God's loving purpose respecting every man: and we cannot be too thankful if we have been taught to use them rightly.

But everything depends on the use which is made of them. Regarded as bare and formal ceremonies, the means of grace are of little value. But they are life-giving and life-sustaining when we use them as realities, through a living faith in Him who is working by them.

Baptism and Confirmation are ordained for a