we may find out what company we keep when he is absent. Day by day, the most precious of all is a growing nearness to the Lord Jesus Christ. We can recall the time when he was mainly to our young souls a traditional Christ. We knew him by the hearing of the ear and by the sight of the eye. Voices there were that spoke of him and commanded our listening. Faces there were that shone with unearthly light and touched our eyes to a reverent gaze. They are gone now. Sorrow has done its work, and, if that be done, all other work is made effective for spiritual progress. How real he becomes when we suffer as Christians! In the loneliness that comes with all profound grief, what a personal Christ is he to our hearts! Hearts, we say, for the revelations of sorrow, the fullest and grandest ever made to the soul, are all revelations of the blessed Jesus to the affections. Once we could not have thought a possible, but, in later years, the secret of the Lord is with us, and we commune with him as friend with friend. The wonder now is, how we could ever live an hour without this sense of sonship possessing the soul. "Out of the depths" we have learned to say, "Abba, Father," and then we can r~joice with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." The outward man perishing, the inward man renewed day by day, how would such a man as St. Paul look upon trial and adversity? We know more of the nature, variety, and depth of his sufferings than of any one among the saints of the New Testament, and yet be calls his ajftiction light. It is also "but for a. moment." Why he spoke in this way is made clear at once, for the light and momentary affliction is working for bis benefit, fulfilling a purpose, executing a design, and this is a " far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." These words are best left to private meditation. "Glory" in contrast with "affliction," "weight" with "light," "eternal" with" moment," and then the "exceeding," the "more exceed- ing,'' the "far more exceeding;" we honour the sublimity most by thoughtful silence. And this working, which is now going on by means of Christ's presence in affliction and derives no merit from him, is so far realized by the apostle that he cannot look upon the things about him other than as transient. It is not the mere decay of the outward man nor the evanescence of the world's glory that produces in him this exalted state of mind. The point of view is altogether different. From the height of spiritual life as essentially eternal life, he glances at the panorama of the world as it passes by, but his look-the fixed eye, the earnest gaze-is on the things which are eternal. For him this eternity has already begun ; and while every new grief and every repetition of an old sorrow "worketh" a deeper feeling of the spiritual and eternal life within, he is equally well assured that ea.eh one adds something to the accumulated glory of the heaven awaiting him as an apostle of the Lord Jesus.-L. Ver. 2.-Truth and conscience. In these comprehensive words of the apostle ia revealed the trne power of the Christian minister. 'l'his is represented as consisting of three several elements. l, 'J.'HE INSTllUMENT WHICH IS ENTRUSTED TO THE CHRISTIAN M.INISTER TO WIELD, I. Jn itself it is the truth. All truth is precious and powerful. But the truth, as it is in Jesus, is supreme in moral, spiritual power. The truth of God's righteousness and love, as they are united and harmonious in the gospel of Christ, is the greatest morn! force which has entered and wrought in our humanity. It has power to convince the judgment, to convert the heart, to control the will, to constrain the life. 2. 'l'his truth exercises its power by simple manifestation. It does not need our apologies or defence, our ornaments or recommendations. It does its work best when it is simply allowed to 6hine h_y its own light, to take its own course. II. THE MATERIAL UPON WHICH THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER BAB TO WORK; i.e. "eTery man's conscience." Some religious teachers appeal to men's interests, others to their fears, some to their superstition, others to their vanity. But the true appeal is to the conscience. " Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" "I speak as , unto wise men, judge ye what I say." Other principles of action address themselves to inferior parts of human nature, and produce proportionate results. But Christian truth aims high, calls forth into action the noblest faculties of t.he soul. Literally translated, the phrase is, "to every conscience of men," which seems to suggest that, whether the conscience be enlightened or crude, sluggish or active, it is evermore, when aroused, a witness to God's Word. The truth and the conscience a.re a.like of Divine origin, and they are adapted the one to the other. What the truth utters tho conscience ecboos. OB, 1v. 1-18.] THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE OOIU.N'l'HIANS. 1()1
The preacber of righteoUSDess may be usured that to his words tbere is always a respollSI In human hearts. . III. THE SPmIT m WHICH THE CHBIBTIAN HINISTEB USES THE DIVINELY FASmONED IMPLEMENT WHICH OPERATES UPON TEE DIVINELY FASHIONED NATURE. It is .. in the sight of God." He who works thus will work honestly, faithfully, earnestly. And hia work will be profitable to men and acceptable to God.-T.