those which mourn may be exalted to safety." This is said of God. He will do this. He not only orders all the great things of nature and of the world, but He also pays attention to each person's wants. He lifts up those that are low, and raises the mourner to safety. None are beneath God's notice, none are beyond His power to help. Whatever they may be, low in station, low in circumstances, low in spirit, low in comforts and in friends, God cares for them, and is able to raise them. Whatever they may be mourning for, He pities them, and can send them comfort. Well might Eliphaz say, "I would seek unto God; and unto God would I commit my cause." He is the best of friends in distress, the most mighty and most loving helper in all trouble. If trouble comes from Him, yet surely the God of love will send help and comfort too.

To all who truly know God it is a most comforting thought, that their affliction comes from Him. It seems to take away the strangeness and the bitterness of it. When once they can realize His hand, then, in all their sorrowful thoughts about their afflictions, they think about God too, and this comforts them. It is no longer mere

trouble, but trouble which God has sent. If He has sent it, is it not wisely sent, and kindly sent ? Is there not a hidden blessing in it? Then the heart goes in search of the blessing; and begins to ask why the trouble was sent, what it was meant to do, and how far it has done what it was sent for. And this is the very way to find the blessing.

Besides, when the sufferer thus sees the hand of God in trouble, he bethinks himself that God will never let the trouble be too great. If He sends it, He will not send it too sharply, nor too heavily. There is no chance about it. All is measured, dealt out by the hand of wisdom and love. The affliction, therefore, cannot become too sore. When the right point has been reached, when the fit time has come, He who sent it will say, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further."

But perhaps the afflicted person may be one who does not know God, a stranger in heart to Him up to this time. to this time. Ah! then, in this time of trouble, if never before, let God be sought: "I would seek unto God; and unto God would I commit my cause." Let those who have often sought God before, seek Him again; let those

who have never yet sought Him in truth, seek There must be with all a beginning,

Him now. a first seeking. Let this be the beginning, this time of trouble. When the pain is sore, when the body is weak, when the heart is heavy, when the sorrow is great and deep, then let God be sought. Is not this the gracious reason for which sickness and sorrow come?

Let none be afraid to seek God. True, we are unworthy. Past sins and past neglect might well cause fear. But we have a Friend, a Saviour, a Mediator. Jesus Christ died for us, and lives for us. By Him we may go boldly to the throne of grace. Boldly, that is, not proudly, or with self-confidence, but in the humble belief that we may go, that the way is open, that we may speak freely all that is in our mind, and that we shall be heard and accepted for Christ's sake. troubled heart, humbly seeking God through Jesus Christ, will never be rejected. Pardon, grace, comfort, help, guidance, peace, may all be sought of God through Him from the very midst of trouble, and will not be sought in vain: "He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer."

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CHAPTER V.·

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES.

JOHN XV. 1-8.

1. I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.

2. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.

5. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same

bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.

6. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what

it shall be done unto you.

ye will, and

ye

8. Herein is My Father glorified, that bear much fruit: so shall ye be My disciples.

In this parable our Lord teaches us that all our spiritual life, and all our fruitfulness in good works, are drawn from Him. It is a very plain parable. In that eastern country vines were more common than they are with us; but even we know enough about them to be able to enter into the meaning of the parable.

All our spiritual life is drawn from Christ. "I am the vine, ye are the branches." A branch could not live, if it were not joined to the vine;