I rest on Thy unwearied mind;
Thy planning and Thy love go on, Nor dost Thou leave me far behind ;
I'm carried to another dawn.
The new day breaks. From earth's old mould Fresh flowers grow along my way.
New life is flashed on problems old ; On ancient life new forces play.
0 wondrous, wakeful Warden ! When The last great nightfall comes to me,
From that deep slumber rouse me then, That I Thy tireless child may be.^
IV.
The Intercessor.
" I pray." — Jesus assumes the role of Advocate. To St. Peter He said, " I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." And He says the same to every disciple who is being sifted by the wicked one. Our great High Priest lifts up the voice of continual intercession for us. His own Passion is His Plea. Those five red-lipped wounds plead eloquently with the Father ; and nothing that they ask is ever refused.
Look, Father, look on His Anointed Face, And only look on us as found in Him; Look not on our misusings of Thy grace, Our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim. For lo ! between our sins and their reward We set the Passion of Thy Son our Lord.
' J. A. Kerr Bain, For Heart cmd Life, 85. ' Archibald Haddon. ST. JOHN (2) — 19
290 ENVIRONMENT AND CHARACTER
^ I remember a wonderful mural painting. It depicts the Jews brought into subjection to the heathen. To the left stands Pharaoh, exquisite, effeminate, deadly cruel. In one hand he lifts the scourge, and with the other he grasps the hair of the captives. On the right is the Assyrian king, duller, heavier, with knotted limbs. He presses down the yoke on the poor prisoners. But supplicating hands are raised up to heaven, and Jehovah lends His ear to the cry of His people. The cherubim fly before Him, their wings a glowing crimson. They hide His face ; but from behind the wings issue His arms. The slender Pharaoh He represses by the mere impact of His fingers. The brute force of the Assyrian He holds in a grasp of tremendous power. Fear not, 0 trembling heart : when Jesus presents your prayers before the throne, no enemy can prevail against you.^
* A. Smellie, In the Secret Place, 34.
The Master's Consecration,
a^
Literature.
Benson (E. W.), in Sermon Year Book, ii. 209.
Bernard (T. D.), The Central Teaching of Jesus Christ, 367.
Brooks (P.), Addresses, 11.
Carter (T. T.), T/ie Spirit of Watchfulness, 239.
Darlow (T. H.), Via Sacra, 157.
Hoare (J. G.), Life in St. John's Gospel, 62.
Hopkins (E, H.), The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 397.
Ingram (A. F. W.), The Mysteries of God, 246.
Keble (J.), Sermons Academical cmd Occasional, 251.
Knight (G. H.), Divine Upliftings, 75.
Lang (W. C. G.), in A Lent in London, 186.
Lyttelton (A. T.), College and University Sermons, 50.
Mackennal (A.), The Life of Christian Consecration, 17.
McClure (J. G. K.), Loyalty, 205.
Moberly (R. C), Problems and Principles, 397.
Nicoll (W. R.), Ten-Minute Sermons, 235.
Peabody (F. G.), Jesus Christ and the Social Question, 76.
„ „ Mornings in the College Chapel, ii. 81.
„ „ Sunday Evenings in the College Chapel, 233.
Pearse (M. Q.), The Gentleness of Jesus, 89.
Rainsford (M.), The Lord's Prayer for Believers, 343, 356, 364, 378. Skrine (J. H.), Sermons to Pastors and Masters, 58. Stone (D.), The Discipline of Faith, 41. Temple (F.), Five of his Latest Utterances, 7. Tomory (A.), Memorials, 63. Trumbull (H. C), Our Misunderstood Bible, 108. Watts-Ditchfield (J. E.), Here and Hereafter, 27. Welldon (J. E. C), The Fire upon the Altar, 69.
„ „ The Gospel in a Great City, 114.
Williams (C. D.), A Valid Christianity for To-day, 201. Examiner, June 1904, p. 584 (Jowett).
The MASTER'S Consecration.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. — John xvii. 19.
The richest, fullest life our earth has ever known was the life of Jesus Christ. No one ever had within himself such complete satisfactions, such assured convictions, and such settled peace as He. Eich and full as His life was to Himself, it was the richest, fullest life to others that has ever blessed humanity. Wherever He went He was the source of helpfulness. Even the hem of His garment had power in it, and from His lips. His hands, His heart went out an unceasing, abounding inspiration to the souls of men. Jesus Christ was a great fountain whose waters of comfort welled up like a flood within His own heart, and then flowed forth full-volumed to cheer the world. His Kfe had more in it and gave more from it than any other life since time began. What was the secret of it ? He sanctified Himself.
^ When Augustine Thierry, after withdrawing himself from the world, and devoting himself to study, that he might investi- gate the origin, causes and effects of the successive German invasions, spent six years in poring with the pertinacity of a Benedictine monk over worm-eaten manuscripts, and deciphering and comparing black-letter texts, at last completed his magnificent History of the Conquest, he found he had lost his eyesight. The' most precious of his senses had been sacrificed to his zeal in literary research. The beauties of nature and the records of scholarship were thenceforth shut out from him ; and yet did he think the sacrifice too great ? In a letter, written to a friend long afterward, he said : " Were I to begin my life over again, I would choose the road that had led me to where I now am. Blind and afflicted, without hope and without leisure, I can safely offer this testimony, the sincerity of which, coming from a man in my condition, cannot be called in question. There is something