until he has been called and. solemnized and prepared by some soul-vision of God. He may, bp a Christian worker before, but he is not inspired and spiritually powerful until then, , l,ife takes .on its highest nobility only after we are able to say, "Mine eywuhave seen th_e Kiog, _the Lord of hosts!' We may not say that such visions come only once in a man's life. '!'hey wifl •be given as often as there is need for them; and openness to receive them. Christ, our Lord, had visions at his baptism, at the monnt, iu the wilderne~s~ and in the garden. The AposLle Paul had vi~ions on the road tc D.a~ascl!,s, of the man from Macedonia, of the third heaven, and amid the dangers of e~ipwreck., We' often hear of our dying friends seeing something of which those around their beds cannot catch the faintest glimpse. And this is true of Christian souls in life. They have times of insight, times of seeing truth and seeing God;, timel: when, a.part from study and thought, they seem to be plunged in all the glory of I)ivine and . _eternal things; moments in which they could not tell whether they were "in the l,ody or out of the body." Two or three instances may be given in illustration. W·hile .Luther was laborioU8ly climbing up Pilate's staircase at Rome, seeking to win a righte~usness out of his own works, he heard a voice thundering in bis soul and saying, '.' Tµe Just shall _liv~ by faith." That was a New Testament vision of the·truth, and from tha.t vision Luther's power began. The following is a testimony ren4ered concerning a. godly; JmaJ;L:. "About a year after bis conversion, returning from a. meeting greatly distressed with a sense of his unworthiness, he turned aside into a lonely barn to wrestle with God, and while kneeling on the threshing-floor he gai~ed a little light.. Shortly after his eyes were opened to see all clearly. He felt that he was nothing, ao:d Christ was al~ in all; and from that time commenced a life of most de.voted and successful labour for Christ." "'£he holy John Flavel, being alone in a jot1rney on h9rseback;, and willing to µiake the best improvement of the day's solitucle,:se_t h,imself to a close e;x:amination of the ljtate of _his soul, and then of the life to come; and the manner of its being and living in heaven. Going on his way, his thoughts began to swell, and rise higher and higher, like the waters in Ezekiel's vision, till at last they became an overflowing flood, Such was the intention of his mind, such the ravishing taste of he.wenly joys, and such the full assurance of his interest therein, that he utterly lost the sight and sense of this world, and all the concerns thereof; and for. some hours knew,,no more where he was tba.n if be had been in a deep sleep in his ~d."..· The fo)lowing, passage is taken from the margin of John Rowe's study Bible. It is the orily rec_oi:d~ of 4is personal experience preserved for us. ".After I had, in my course of preaching, been largely insisting on 2 Cor. i. 12, this very morning I awoke out of •a most i:avishing and delightful dream, that a wonderful :i.nd copious stream of col_estial. rays, from the lofty throne of the Divine Majesty, seemed to dart into my expanded breast. I have often since, with great complacency, reflected on that very signal pledge of special Divine favour vouchsafed to me on that memorable day, and have,.with repeate,l fresh pleasure,. tasted the delights thereof. But what, on Oct. 22, 1794, of the same kind I sensibly felt, . . . far surpassed the most expressive words my thoughts can suggest. I then experienced an inexpressibly pleasant melting of heart; tears gushing out of mine eyes, for joy that God should shed abroad his love nbundantly through the hearts of men, and that for this very purpose my own should be so signally posse~sed of and by his blessed Spirit." Dr. Bushnell says, "We have vast. erow_ds of witnesses, rising up in every age, who testily, out of their own con- sciousness, tp the work of the Spirit, and the new-creating power of Jesus, who, by )lis S.pirjt, is r«ivealed in their hearts. In nothing do they consent with a more hymn- like harmony than in the testimony that their inward transformation is a Divine work- II new .revelation- of God, by the Spirit, in their human consciousness. So do they all testify -with one voice-Paul, Clement, Origen, St. Bernard, Huss, Gerson, Luther, Fenelon, Baxter, .Flavel, Doddridge, Wesley, Edwards, Brainerd, Taylor, all the innumerable host of believers that_ have entered into rest, whether it be the persecuted saint of tho first 1,1ge, drivep liome in his chariot of blood, or the saint who di~tl but yesterday in the aqns of his family.". We do well to guard against any fanatical 11Dd superstitious. wat<;hing for sen~ihle.appearnnces, symbolical manifestations, or the guidance of our dreams. But this we should better understand-there are delectable mountains in our Christian pilgrimage nowadays, and we may climb the heights, .and get viaious of the fai·-away celestial city, \Ve are Christians of the plains a..ud tha 'l'Hl!: DOOK bF 'I'Hli: PROPttET IS.A.IA.It, (011. "1. 1.......13.
low country; we shonld oftener be breathing the fresh air of the mountain-side. U we would open our hearts ; if we would hllve a well-trodden path to the plaoe of prayer I if we would yearn for it,-God would oome nearer to nil, and oftener show us his glory. He is a new man, and a new worker, who can say, "Mine ~yes have seen the King, the Lord ofhosts."-R. T.