l\Iai;ter. All their doings had been eufliciently eaRy, consisting, rui they did, for the most part, or outward actions. But in due eeaeon the ,·isible Master became the invisible an<l one by one the first servants also died away and went into the invisible. Th~ general.ion has succeeded generation, ever getting further and further from those first days when the visible Master stood among his servants, appointing their tasks. But \'\e hnYe not yet lost the habit of using the Master-name. Wo also say," Lord," and Jesus might well BBk what we mean by using the name. Is it to bo a mere title of honour, with the recollections of power and duty that first caused it to be given emptied out of it? Or is there a real mastery and a real service still? We cannot say, '' Lord Lord ! " too often, if the saying helps in serving and in bringing others to serve, ' II. It may be we resemble the disciples in using the MBSter-name without knowing from a deep experience WHAT IT IS TRULY TO HAVE JESUS FOR MASTER, Empty compliments do Jesus no good, any more than mere names of abuse do him harm. The first disciples did not become the true servants of Jesus just because of what they did for him in the days of bis fiesh. Only when Jesus had passed through all those c:i.:pcriences which put him at God's right hand did his disciples really comprehend what. Jesus wants from men,and what men can do and e.re bound to do for Jesus. The Lordship of Jesus is a spiritual thing, and has to be spiritually discerned. This is emphatically a matter in which none of us is to be taken on his bare word, We are not the servants of Jesus because we sa:y we are or think we e.re, .The service truly acceptable to him does not lie in a quantity of talking or even of doing. With Jesus, quality goes before-quantity, and where there is quality, quantity never fails. Character and inward life,-these constitute the richest service to Jesus, Jesus expects every one of us to do much for him, but it is by being much. Jesus does want our service, our best, fullest, heartiest service, and he will not leave us in any doubt as to whether we are doing just what he wants. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, and where the Holy Ghost is there must be true service. III. THE SERVICE IS ONE OOKDITIOh'ED BY OUR PRESENT LIFE. We are here in the flesh. Our fellow-creatures in need can see us, but they cannot see Jesus. We are to furnish bodies through which the spiritual Jesus can bless mankind. We e.re even to do greater works than Jesus did in the days of his flesh. Preaching the gospel of spiritual salvation and renewal to sinners, with demonstration of the Spirit and of power, is a far greater work than the resurrection of Lazll.l'us. This makes our obligation, our privilege, and our abundant opportunity. All long 118 there e.re sinners in the world there will be no la.ck of opportunities for serving the Lord Jesus. We have each to find our own opportunity. Doing what lies nearest us is our wisdom. Because it lies nearest us we are more responsible for it than any one else. We serve as the lighted lamp serves, and it is not expected to give light to those a mile away.-Y. Ver. 17.--TM ha.ppinus of <Jhristian activity. L ONCE KOBE JESUS PROVES BIS DESIRE FOB BUlUN HAPPINESS. '!'his is amply proved by his putting the thought of human happiness in the forefront of his teaching in the sermon on the mount, There he evidently made it his business to show men, in a way not to be misunderstood, that human happiness is not a mere subordinate result of Christianity, a something that =y be present or absent. Human happiness is an essential part of Christianity, If Christ is not making his people happy, increasingly and exuberantly happy, there is something wrong in their connection with him. For this is just one of the aims of Jesus, to take away misery and dulness and ennui, and put happiness in their place. IL TBEBE IS :tw IIAPPINEBB IN MEBE KNOWLEDGE. There may be a great deal of pie.a.sure in the acquiring of it, but it is quite possible that so much time may have been spent in acquiring knowledge that other things may have been neglected We may very easily shut ourselves up from our fellow-creatures, and lose many an oppor~ tunity of doing good that would have made us fa.r happier than any plea.sure of the mere intellect. Ill. WE KOST TAKE CARE THAT WE DO REALLY Ul,'DERBTAND WHAT JESUS WANTS us TO DO. His words are not as maps of the country through which we have to travel; they are rather finoer-posts showing the direction. Ea.eh finger-post sends you on to an.other. The wo!'ds of Jesus are meant to secure within us a certain inward spirit; if that be aecured, the r,roper outward a.otions will follow as a natural consequence, We orr. ::uv. 1-31.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 219
have not yet comprehended one very important warning to Christian disciples unless we have beon mado to feel, from reading the Gospels, how easy it is to misunderstand Jesus, Ilia most important words, his most significant deeds, were to be meditated over, seen in their position as pnrte of the living whole of trnth. IV. TnEnE Is No HAPPINESS IN MERE DOING, To leave the ri"'ht thin,,. undone, and to do tho wrong thing, equally lead to misery. Increase ot activity, unless the ri"ht principles nnd methods underlie it, only means increase of mischief and misery. We must not bo deceived by mere external activity. There may be a great deal of real doing-doing such as Jesus counts doing, where there is little to show men. The right spirit must pervade and suil'uee the doing, and it can only pervade and suffuse what is right in itself.-Y.