neighbour. Give me just the strength for serving, and the golden present
hour!
3. Completeness. — Here notice two things —
(1) Our life here is only the beginning. In order to serve Christ acceptably we have neither to revolutionise our lot, nor to seek other conditions than those which Providence supplies. The place is nothing, the heart is all. Obscurity, weakness, baffled plans — a thousand nameless limitations of faculty, of
' Archbishop Trench. ST. MARK — 25
386 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
opportunity, of property — all these are witnesses of silent but victorious faith. In all of them God is glorified, for in all of them His will is done. Out of all of them gates open into heaven and the joy of the Lord.
(2) All " work " here is wrought with " labour," but we have a vision which reaches heyond : " And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours ; for their works follow with them." At the very heart of this word " labours " there is a sense of faint- ness and exhaustion. It is a tired word which has lost its spring. But when we are told that the dead in Christ "rest from their labours," we are not to take it as meaning that they rest from their work, but from the weariness of work, which is a far nobler emancipation. To take away the faintness is infinitely more gracious than to take us out of the crusade. The redemption of our blessed dead is entry into the tireless life. " They serve him day and night in his temple." ^
^ So we too may say, in the spirit of Mary, who brought her best to Christ aforetime: "1 would not seek heaven because I despaired of earth ; I would bring my earthly treasures into lieaven. I would not fly to Thee in the winter of my heart. I would come when my heart is summer — when its leaves were green. I would bring Thee the full-blown rose, the ripest fruit, the finest songs of the grove. I would break the alabaster box for Thee, not when it was empty, but when it was laden with perfume. I would make my sacrifice a sacrifice of praise." ^
^ We have read of the young artist, wearied and discouraged, who slept by the picture which he had done his best to perfect and complete. The master quietly entered the room and, bending over the sleeping pupil, unfolded on the canvas with his own skilful hand the beauty which the worn artist had striven in vain to portray. And when we, tired and spent, lay down earth's toil, our own great Master will make perfect our picture for the Father's many-mansioned house. From our life's service He will remove every stain, every blemish, and every failure. To our life's service He will give the brightest lustre and His highest honour. Shall we not then bring our best to the One who can make it better ?
^ J. H. Jowett, Our Blessed Dead, 19. ' G. Matheson, Times of Retirement, 186.
ST. MARK 387
House to some work of high and holy love,
And then an angel's happiness shalt thou know,
Shalt bless the earth, while in the world above;
The good begun by thee shall onward flow
In many a branching stream, and wider grow;
The seed that in these few and fleeting hours
Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow,
Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers,
And yield thee fruits divine in Heaven's imperial bowers.
When they had Sung a Hymn.
3H
Literature,
Baines (J.), Twenty Sermons, 125.
Banks (L. A.), Hidden Wells of Comfort, 1.
Burrell (D. J.), The Morning Cometh, 235.
Campbell (R. J.), Sermons Addressed to Individuals, 23.
Cox (S.), Expositions, ii. 217, 229.
Daviea (D.), Talks with Men, Woman, omd Children, v. 223.
Jerdan (C), For the Lord's Table, 265.
Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, i. 226.
Pearse (M. G.), In the Banqueting House, 119.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Till He Come, 211.
Christian World Pulpit, xxxii. 172 (Damton).
Preacher's Magazine [1895], 164 (Pearse),
When they had Sung a Hymn.
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out unto the mount of Olives. — xiv. 26.
1. With this statement the first two of the Evangelists conclude
their narrative of the institution of the Lord's Supper. Our
blessed Lord had acted as President in the observance of the
Jewish Feast of the Passover, and had engrafted the new
Christian rite upon the Paschal celebration. That venerable
ordinance, commemorative of the redemption from the bondage
of Egypt, has now served its purpose and found its full meaning.
The lamb of which Jesus and His disciples partook in the
upper room was, as it were, its last victim : the true Passover,
" the Lamb of God," is to be " sacrificed for us " to-morrow on
Calvary.
2. The Jews had long ago, with the change of outward
circumstances, departed from the original form of observing
their great feast. On the night of the Exodus they had eaten
the Paschal meal in haste, — sandals on feet, staff in hand, — and