others to take to the narrow road in which self-denial was to be practised, and the world that was enmity against God not allowed; in which, too, one's life that was identified with the world was lost (for the world had rejected the light which had come into it in grace), the Lord's heart, I say, realised what was before it, for He was going to meet death, death armed with its sting: God's judgment against sin, and the power of Satan, but a death in which we find all the more the perfection of Jesus. "Now," "He says, "is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but it is for this that I am come to this hour;" it was for this that He had come into the world. Then the Saviour goes up to the true motive of everything, which motive was always present to His heart: "Father, glorify Thy name!" Cost what it might, this was what He wished for always. The Father's answer comes at once: "I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again." I have no doubt that this "I will glorify it again,"

was to be accomplished in resurrection. The Father had glorified His name in the resurrection of Lazarus, a resurrection in this world; He was going to do it again in Christ Himself, in a better resurrection, a true answer to death, where the sovereign power of God in grace, and towards Christ in righteousness was manifested; a new state in which man had never been, but which was, according to God's counsels, the expression of what was in Himself, and perfect blessing for man. The Apostle says: "Christ was raised from amongst the dead by the glory of the Father."

HEAVEN OUR PRESENT PORTION.

Ir is one thing to know so little of heavenly things, as to be in a difficulty to define them, but another to say that we know absolutely nothing about them. Christianity is the revelation of heaven to our hearts now. If the prophet is quoted that "eye hath not seen, nor ear

heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," it is to contrast the christian state of things. "But God hath revealed them unto us by the Spirit." And it is added, "For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deeps of God." The depths of His own being and blessedness being revealed, are then, where we find the sum of the things prepared for us in the eternal counsels of His love, revealed now that we may enjoy them. I think it is of immense practical importance for our souls to see that there is therefore no new element of blessing, or of joy before us, none that is not already revealed. There will be increased power of enjoyment of them, for the Spirit dwelling in us, now so often necessarily occupied with the negative work of opposition to the flesh ("that we might not do the things that we would,") will then be for ever only the power of our positive enjoyment of these things. The heart will then be enlarged to its full capacity of enjoyment.

"For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known." Everything that now puts bounds and limit to our enjoyment will be gone, for in this tabernacle we groan, being burdened, like birds in a cage that long to be free to soar into our own native air. But admitting all this, and the vast difference it will make, all the things we shall live and find our joy in for ever, are revealed that we may live and find our joy in them now. “ Our πολιτευμα is in heaven." To begin with-John's Gospel is the revelation of our home in heaven. Beautifully in keeping with his manner in minor divisions, he opens with an historic scene that illustrates the doctrine of the book. The moment the testimony of John the Baptist has reached the point of bringing out the glory of the Person of the Son of God in connection with His work, and in both its parts as taking away the sin, and baptising with the Holy Ghost, the hearts of two of his disciples are drawn

after Jesus, with a longing He has awakened in them, that He may satisfy it. Where dwellest thou? The other gospels could only tell us the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but the Son of man, Creator of them all, had nowhere to lay His head in the scene He created. But in John the answer is, "Come and see." And this gospel is the revelation of the heavenly home of the Son of God, as dwelling in the bosom of the Father, and come to reveal and make known the Father according to the love in which He dwelt, that we might know the Father in the Son, and thus the Father's house.

As

So later on, when He definitely directs their hearts there. (John xiv.) He treats heaven as a familiar place to them. "Whither I go, ye know." though He said, you know heaven quite well. Philip hits off the truth exactly, "Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." He feels if he only knew the Father he would know the Father's house. And the answer is simple, "Ho