grrat mountains come in sight. Some with gentle acclivities and some with sharp-cut rocks jutting out above the pilgrim-way. What blessed shadows they ea.et I Suoh shady places arc our sabbaths and sacraments and sanctuaries, our holy moments of Divine fellowship, when God comes near and casts over us the protecting shadow of his gracious presence. III. WEARIKESS rs THE CIIARACTERISTIO OF THE WAY, "A weary land." We a.re ofton tired. How many hearts have said, "0 God, I am a-weary I " and then, instead of the sad cry, "0 God, that I were dea.d ! " we hear the voices of spiritual souls crying, "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" and tho blessed answer comes from the lips of the incarnate God himself, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are hea\·y laden, and I will give you rest "-weary with the load of sin; weary with the care and fret of daily life; weary with inward conflicts; weary with ceaseless watching, for our Arab enemies dash suddenly by, and point their rifle as they fly. Pain makes us weary. The loss of dear, tr11e-hearted friends makes us weary. Doubt, with all our dark mental conflicts-doubt, which is someUmes the exquisite action of a sincere mind, makes us ·weary. So we come to the great Father, and rest in the gracious answer to the cry, "Lord, show us the Father," in the revelation vouchsafed unto us by our Divine Lord, who has taught us when we pray· to say, " Our Father," and also has declared," lie that hath seen me hath seen the Father."-W. M. S, Vor. 2.-Refuge in Christ and in one an-0ther. In this country we can hardly hope to feel all the force and beauty of this illustration. To do that we must have visited tropical regions. There, with t.he rays of the sun shining directly down, the heat becomes so intense and intolerable that it cannot be endured, and often" the shadow of a great rock" means, not merely refreshment, but salvation. And as with the heat, so with the storm-the whirlwind, the tempest, the simoom: what desolations do not these produce? what terrors do they not excite? How precious in such lands, on such occasions, the hiding-place from tbe wind, the covert from the storm I But lifting our thoughts from the illustration to the thing itself which is pictured here, to that human heart and life of which all visible nature only supplies the types and hints, we make no abatement for change of scene; for the scorching rays of temptation fall as fiercely and the winds of passion blow as furiously in England as in Judrea, or in Babylon, or in India. Indeed, such are the confusions and complications of our time, so subtle and so seductive are the temptations to err from the straight line of rectitude, that more rather than less is there need for a hiding-place for the heart, a covert from the.storm of sorrow and of sin. A man shall be for a hiding-place! One man in particular? or any man at any time in any land? In both senses the words may be taken. We may consider- I. CJIBIST THE REFUGE OF THE HUMAN so UL. 1. Such he was in the days of his ftesli, For his disciples had to share something of the enmity and opposition he encountered, and they always found an effectual shield in his protection. As evangelists ~hey brought their success and their disappointment to him, that the one might be sanctified and the other be relieved (Luke x. 17-20). When worsted by the enemy, they fell back on his power and found defeat swallowed up in victory (Matt. xvii. 14--20). When imminent danger threatened their lives, they made their appeal to his all-con- trolling voice (Matt. viii. 23-27). 2. Such he beCMM, in a deeper sense, after his ascension. It was expedient that he should go away. "Before his departure he was with them, afterwards he was in them." The death and the resurrection of the Lord enlightened their minds and changed their spirits. Then they went to him as they never could have done during his presence ; they trusted in him, gave themselves to him, leaned on him, were lost in him, as they would not have been: he became, in a deeper and fuller sense, the Hiding-place of their hear,ts. 3. Buch is he now to all beli.evin_q hearts. (1) As sinners, burdened with a sense of guilt and craving me~cy and reconciliation, we want some other refuge than we can find in the best and wisest of mankind; and with whn,t glad eagerness, with what profound thankfulness, with what inexpressible relief, do we resort to him, and cry- " Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee" I .OH, XXUL 1,-20.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 531
(9) Ae tbe ohildren of sorrow, we have need of more than human help! There are depths of disappointment, extremities of loss, intensities of pain and suffering, wastes of loneli- ness, .gulfs of darkness and. woe, for which human sympathy is entirely inadequate, in whicll the only thing wo can do is to hasten to that Son of man who is touched most keenly with the feeling of our trials, and say- " Jesus, Lover or my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly I " .'u. THE. BEFUGE WE HAY BE TO ONE ANOTHER. ..il.ny man may be, and every ID.\ ehould seelc to be, a hiding-place, a covert. Our domestic life shows us how this may be, and provides the first instance and best picture of human shelter. Our social life shoul,l provide us with· many opportunities_of_succouring the needy and the tried. Our Church life should do the same; every Christian Church should be an asylum for the poor, the lVeak, the sad, the anxious-minded, the troubled of heart. Who would not like so to live, with such quick and ready sympathy of spirit, with such kindliness and hopefulness of word, with such friendliness of uplifting hand and sustaining arm, that his life shoulcl be suggestive of the words, "A man shall be a hiding-place" ?-C.