forecast of the day when Christ shall alter the fashion of our bodies of humiliation, anrl. transform them to the fi:E:ed type of bis body of glory. Hence throughout the Book C'{ Revelation, the purity of the blessed is indicated by their being robed in white, i.e. not the whiteness of snow, but the brightness of the star. If even here, with such partial sanctification, the bodily change is so great, what will it be when the purifying and glorifying processes are complete-when every soul will be full of love, and every face will be a perfect index: of the soul? How beautiful must faces be when perfect lo'l'e is reflected therefrom l V. THE SUBJECT IS NOT ONLY ONE OF GREAT DOCTRINAL INTEREST; IT IS ALSO FRAUGHT WITH DEEP PRACTICAL SIGNIFICL',0E. 1. Let us cultivate the ha.bit of observation, and make a religious study of the human face. The holiest men will never be mistaken for hardened atheists. 2. Let us each seek to realize the duty of letting the face speak for God. And it will, if we are constantly in talk with God. His peace, his purity, his power, irnp:irted to the soul within, will certainly make their mark without. 3. Let the young take ea.re of their faces. God made them to be beautiful, not with that beauty which is no deeper than the skin, but with the "beauty 'Jf holiness." Be true. Love and follow the right. Live to please God. In all your troubles spe.ak to God. And your face will show the result; for God will be the "health of" your" countenance." Amen.-C. Vere. 1-5.-Strengthming the heart in God. What Jonathan did for David when he went to him into the wood of Ziph, David does here for himself-he strengthens his he.art in God (1 Sam. xx:iii. 16). "Hope in God." We learn here that- I. HoPE IS BASED ON Goo's REVELATION OF HI:MSELF. We only know God .as he is pleased to me.ke himself known to us. In hie works and in his Word we find the same character. The lesson comes to us from all sides that God is true, and that his , laws should be trusted. Therefore we feel safe in putting ourselves iu liue with his will; in wholly surrendering ourselves to his guidance and keeping. Whatever may have been dark or dim in ancient days is now made clear in Christ. He hath revealed the Father. Therefore we say to our heart, "Hope in God." IL HoPE 1s CHAnAOTERISTI0 OF THE RIGHTEOUS. We cannot hope in God till we are reconciled to God. Hope is not a chance thing, but born of faith. ,ve cannot hope in God but as we are of the same mind with God. Hope is not an easy thing, but requires the putting forth of our own strength and will. "Like the highest forms of courage, it is a refusal to be borne down and cowed and depressed by evil-a refusal to indulge in the melancholy pleasure of looking and dwelling on the dark side of thino-s." 0 This is an achievement possible only to the righteous, who not only ba,,e faith in God, but are able to enliHt imagination in aid of faith (Joel iii, lC; 1 Pet. i. 21). IIL HOPE IN GoD IB ESSENTIAL TO TllE RI0HT DISCIPLINE OF LIFE, All kinds of trials come to us. There are troubles without and fears within. There are mistakes we cannot correct, losses we cannot repair, evils to ourselves and others sore to see, but sorer still becaUBe they cannot be remedied. Enemies rise up against us (ver. 1). Our hearts are ready to fail for fear, and "for looking after those things which are coming." What are we to do? Shall we give way to despondency, and cry, like Jacob," All these things are against me"? or shall we let Hope have her perfect work in calming and sustainin" our souls? The answer is clear, "Hope in God." Thus we gain strength (vet 2); th~s we ~ecure guidance. God's good angel~ of "light" and "truth" will lead us in the right way (ver. 3). ThUB Clllr path will be onward and upward, nearer to the serene heights and the pure air of heaven, where all is peace and love (ver. 4). IV. HOPE IN Gon IB A BURE PROPHET OF THE GOOD TIMR COMING. Every hope Is in a sense a prophecy. But often the prophecy is _false. Bright ~l~ams the yision in the distance, but nearer approach and closer scrutiny prove that 1t 1s a delusion an~ a snare. It is like the mirage, which leaves the desert all the barer and the gloomier when it fa.dee into the light of common day. But it is otherwise with the Christian's hope. It is real. It stands inquiry. It verifies itself by the moral effects which it produces. A.11 the future, onward into the vast eternal spaces, is covered by It; and ~VeIJ fulfilment is but the earpest e,od foreshe,dowing of the morl' perfect fulfilments 1ct I'S. 1LIV, 1-2/3.] TBE BOOK OF PSALMS. Ml
to come. "Christ in ne the Hope of glory I" "Thus living, eternal life is begun ih our hearts; thus and thus only, undor the teaching and moulding of the Divine Regene- rator of our nature, does the heavenly life in time antit:ipate and herald and prepare for, and, blending with it, at last is lost in, the life of heaven for eternity" (Archer Dutler).-W. F.