There la a Chri ■tian ambition; it~ object is not to be first in the arena of political lltrife, but to preach the gospel, to plea8o God, to live a quiet, holy life (compare in the Greek, Rom. xv. 20; 2 Cor. v. 9). Political ~,>..o-r,µl<L, Bengel says, blush,·s to be quiet. The Greeks were eager, bustling, restless, each longing to be first. The apostle seeks to turn the ambition of the Tbes>1alonians into another channel. Their ambition should be to be quiet-to keep themselves free, as far as might be, from political excitement and social rivalry, that they might cultivate the inner life of love and peace and com- munion with God. Love would lead them to abstain from meddling with other men's matters-to do their own duty in the station where God had called them. Love would keep them free from envy and party spirit, and help them to maintain a current of quiet, peaceful thought within their souls. 2. Ohristian dignity. Love would keep them from everything that might bring the gospel into discredit. The ChriMtian has duties towards those who are without. His light must shine before men, that they may be led to glorify him from whom the light cometh. The life of the Thes>1alonian Christians must be honest, becoming. The apostle insists on the dignity of honest labour. It was little regarded. Educated Greeks and Romans spoke of it as coarse and vulgar. The Lord Jesus worked with his hands, so did St. Paul. Christianity has invested the life of industry with a grace of its own. St. Paul here uses the same word in connection with honest labour which in the Acts of the Apostles is employed to designate the ladies of rank at Bercea, the "honourable women" who believed. The Christian must be careful to use words in their true sense. It is not wealth or rank that is truly respectable, but virtue and holiness. Thus living, th119 labouring, they would have need of nothing; rather, perhaps, of no man. They would attain that honourable independence which enables one to "look the whole world in the face, for he owes not any man." LESSONS. 1. Covet earnestly the best gifts; pray for growth in charity. 2. Let your ambition be a Christian ambition; try to be first in humility, first in 1Jelf- sacrifice, first in the quiet discharge of daily duties. 3. Never despise la.hour; Ii WIii! the lot of the Lord Jesus; it has its own moral beauty and dignity.-B. C. C. Vera. 13-18.-The resurrection. I. CoMFOBT FOR THE SORROWING. l. The d«J,d in CJhrist sleep. The Lord Jesus Christ hath aholisbed death ; he has changed it into sleep. " She is not dead, but sleepeth," he said of the little daughter of JairWL The sting of death is sin, but the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. The Lord died and rose again. He dierl; he encountered the king of terrors in all his awful power; I.Jut by his death he bath abolished death to his saints. Stephen fell asleep under the crushing shower of stones. So is it with believ.ers now ; they are laid to sleep through Jesus. Through his atonement, through his loving care, through his gracious presence, death is but sleep to them. They die in the Lord ; they rest from their labours. They are not unconscious; they do not "sleep idly," for they are blessed; they are "with the Lord, which is far better." Yet that quiet rest of the holy dead in Paradise is as a peaceful slumber compared with the entrancing joy of the glorious resurrection. Yes, they sleep; they have not yet attained unto that perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul which shall be theirs in God's everlasting glory. There the redeemed of the Lord, perfected in strength and gladness, entranced in the contemplation of the beauty of the Lord, the beatific vision, need rest no longer. " They rest not day and uight, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." But now they rest. They are in peace; they are happy, for they are with Christ. 2. Therefore the Ohristian's sorrow is full of hope. We must sorrow when our loved ones fall from our side. The Lord wept over the grave of Lazarus. Not to sorrow would be the hard stern temper of stoicism. The Christian sorrows over the grave, but it is a sorrow chastened by faith, cheered by hope. The heathen might envy the very flowers of the field. " They die, inrleed, but it is to spring up again with renewed life and beauty; while man, when he dieth, sleepeth on for ever-a still, silent sleep; be waketh nevermore." Such was the wailing of the heatheu poet. It is not so with the Christian. He fiuds comfort himself, he comforts others, with the bles•ed wordll of Holy Scripture. His sorrow is not hopeless, like that of the heathen: he looks for a happy meeting in that blessed place where there is" no more death, neither sorrow, 11or crying." S. That hope ,yringa out offaith. W o believe that Jesus died and roll<! 88 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [ea. 1v. 1-18.
~gain. The resurrection of Christ is the earnest of our resurrection. He ta the Fir8t• fruits, the First-hegotten from the dead; they that are his shall follow him. 1.'he resurrection of Christ was one principal topic of the apostolic preaching• it is now one ,,f the most precious articles of the Christian faith, the very centre of our' most cherished hopes. He was seen by many, by Mary Magdalene, by the other holy women, by the apostles, by more than five hundred brethren at once. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." II. 'l'eE COKING OF THE LoBD. 1. Its solemn accompaniment,. He shall come the Lord Jesus himself, with his holy angels. He shall descend from heaven with a shout. His voice will pierce through the universe; all they that are in the araves shall hear it. The trumpet shall sound. The voice of the trumpet, exceedinglouii filled the people of Israel with trembling at Mount Sinai. More awful by far will b~ the voice of the archangel and the trump of God that wakes the dead. What that trumpet may be we cannot tell; but sound it will, "for this we say unto you bv the 0
,vord of the Lord." 2. Its end and purpose. The dead in Christ shall rife first. They shall hear his voice, though they have lain in their graves, somQ, of them, almost from the beginning. They shall come forth, and that first. 'l'hen fo::ows the assumption of the living. 'l'hosc who are found alive, who ha 'e not entered into the deep, quiet rest of Paradise, shall be caup;ht up to meet the Lord in the air. We shall meet ono .i.nother; we shall meet him; we shall be for ever with him. " Wherefore comfort one another with these words." LESSONS. 1. Let sorrow in bereavement be Christun sorrow, softened by faith and hope. 2. The holy dead a.re at rest. Do not call them " poor ; " they are blessed. 3. Let us strive to walk with God now, that we may be ever with the Lord.-B. C. C.