left behind, and the feeling was deeply gratifying; now we oftener think of the glorious goal to which we move, and, charmed with the vision of perfected holiness, infinite blessedness, everlasting life, have rather the sense of distance, and fret ourselves that so much glory and gladness are yet beyond our reach. But as the sun in the firmament, as 'the moon walking in brightness' are moving with equal swiftness near the horizon or in the heights, so really is the sincere soul, with its varying moods, hastening on its path to entire perfecting and infinite satisfaction. The consciously disloyal soul may justly mourn departed blessedness, and wisely inquire concerning past days. The old joy, love, hope and attendant growth of spirit have suffered sad impairment. You remember with inexpressive pathos those auspicious seasons when, with a new-born love, you prayed and sang, and all the world looked beautiful in the light of heaven. And One above Whose love has been wounded, has yet not forgotten those days: 'Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.' Thank God your case is not irremediable! Speaking of the lost, the poet affirms:

'There is no greater sorrow

Than to be mindful of the happy time
In misery';

but such hopeless grief is not yours. All lost experiences of delight may be recovered and heightened.

6

Repent, and do the first works,' and the spring-tide of the past shall dawn again with the singing-birds and the flowers; the robes so spotted shall be washed whiter than snow; the smoking flax of your diminished love shall revive a living flame; and casting 'aside every weight,' you shall run the race that is set before you.' The sincere lamenting disciple may be comforted. The first flowers of the year are pale and faint, yet the spring flowers have a charm and fame beyond all the glorious garland of summer; so we pathetically recall the spring-tide of the soul, and think very tenderly of its first love and joy; yet is the day better than the dawn, the summer than the spring. Hardship, grief, change and loss have chastened us since the new song was first put in our lips, but through perplexities and tribulations Heaven is carrying on its work in our heart, and ever and anon it is suddenly revealed how much we have gained in the power of godliness. God moves in a mysterious way' in the education of His children, and postponements are accelerations, humiliations ennoblements, eclipses illuminations, our seeming undoing is our making, when we feel the chief of sinners we are closest to Christ, when we think ourselves going down in the deep we are straightway at the shore. Forgetting those things which are behind,' let us reach forth' to grander promises. In

comparing the present with the past, we may make many mistakes; in self-introspection we may easily err, for great is the mystery of spirit-growth; but look up to the grand Example, look forward to the grand prize, and you shall renew your youth like the eagle, reaching the highest flights of life. The flashing diamond was fashioned in the dark rock; the crimsoned flower painted in the closed bud; and through perplexing episodes of thought and feeling do we arrive at immortal perfection.

II.

COMPENSATIONS.

'In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind.'— ISA. xxvii. 8.

WHATEVER uncertainty may exist as to the

exact reading of the text, there is no mistaking its special teaching. The prophet sets forth the fact that the punishment God inflicts upon Israel is tempered by mercy, and does not go beyond what the moral correction of Israel necessitated. The encouraging lesson here taught is, that God determines very exactly the measure of our tribulation, ever mingling mercy with judgment, and permitting trial no further than our moral perfecting requires. He sifts, He sometimes sifts by a violent wind; but He only sifts, He does not mar and destroy.

6

I. Life at large furnishes us with an illustration of the text. Through human sin the whole world has been filled with disorder and suffering. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.' Wherever we look-whether in nature or the race

we witness scenes of confusion and misery. God did not threaten us in vain; the power of His displeasure has been bitterly felt throughout the whole creation. Yet are we sure that judgment has not come upon us to the uttermost. Such is the condition of the world, that two views of it are possible: the pessimist view, which pronounces the terrestrial system to be utterly evil; the optimist view, which holds this the best of possible worlds: the advocates of both theories finding much in support of their particular interpretation. The world is dark enough to justify a very sad philosophy, and yet the regulations restrictive of evil, the healing processes, the restorative forces, the system of compensations, the wide spaces for positive pleasure which we find in nature and human life, show the world to be far from a condition of unmixed and hopeless evil. That two views of the world are thus possible is in itself clear proof that the broken law has not been permitted to work the full sum of its damning consequences; for had the broken law fully avenged itself, all ameliorative and beneficent aspects must have ceased, and no two views of the world have been tenable for a moment.

The fact is, the central truth of revelation, the redemption of the world by the Son of God, tells at every point; the whole circle of nature and the entire course of human history bearing witness to the tempering mercy of God in Christ. A traveller recently returned from Africa relates that one day overcome