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wishes, efforts are to attain this-the resurrection life here on earth and on forever.

To Thee, O Lord and Giver of Life, be all honour and praise and thanksgiving, that Thou of Thy great mercy didst redeem us from the bondage of sin and death, and translate us into the kingdom of Thy dear Son.

In these blessed days of the resurrection life of Him who dwelt among men, may our eyes be opened to behold Him, our lives be formed to manifest Him. May we strive to fulfill the wonderful promise, "He that hath the Son of God hath Life," even life forevermore. Oh, let this hope of immortality grow in us, so that all our life here may be to us a school, a preparation for the full-grown energies of heaven. So may our small tasks become to us full of infinite meaning, our daily round of duty become beautiful and satisfying in the light that streams from Thee, and in the power of Thine endless life.

THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EASTER Collect. Almighty Father, who hast given Thine only

Son to die for our sins, and to rise for our justification; grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve Thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Epistle. 1 St. John v. 4.

Gospel. St. John xx. 19.

"And this is the record, God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He is risen for our justification; for if Christ be not risen, ye are yet dead in your sins." In the Gospel for the day Jesus breathed on the Apostles, this first Sunday, as He appeared to them, and said, "Whose sins ye retain, they are retained," showing that the forgiveness of sins is the great prerogative of the new dispensation: connected indissolubly with the Resurrection. The victory of Christ is the victory over sin and death. Who is he among us that overcometh but he that believeth? Our faith is "not in vain as St. Paul said. To believe is to live by. So practical is our faith, so plain the path.

Believe the Gospel; do it, live it. This is the utmost we are capable of now. This is the age of the Gospel, the age of faith, of temptation, of

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doubt, of human imperfections: it is the age of the Church.

You know enough for the present; only do what you know. God will not now reveal new truths concerning Himself. Take such as have been already revealed and live them, translate them into act and experience.

What we need is to apprehend the real, that we may loose the ever-encroaching hold of the unreal. With God is no variableness, neither shadow of change. If we abide in the eternal years our hearts are surely fixed where true joys are to be found. Place is not, as it were; we abide in a state of rest, of blessedness, of permanence; and yet in a true sense this state is made manifest in place, in each small concrete fact of our life. Strange, great paradox of life! its smallest concerns are best attended to by those whose minds are the more firmly fixed on its noblest and most enduring aspects.

What God commands is the eternal order of absolute righteousness. What He promises is life forevermore; and if we choose this life, and consecrate ourselves to it, each smallest duty grows in joy-giving efficacy. The meanest service speaks of Him. The hardest and most lonely ministry glows with a sense of His companionship.

Before we go to our rest, we kneel before Thee, the Giver of all good, to offer up thanksgiving

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for the blessings of Thy Holy Day; and its special gifts of grace, mercy and peace, in Jesus Christ our Lord. Thou hast made us children of the resurrection, may we ever live as such.

Where to-day in our blindness we have not seen, where in our indolence we have not striven to know, or in our earthliness we have minded inferior things, when called upon for higher; in all these our sins and negligences be merciful to us, our Father. Cleanse the darkened conscience, purify the mind, so that we may see Thee, so that we may reflect the light of Thy countenance, and thus glorify Thee, O Father in heaven.

THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER Collect. Almighty God, who hast given Thine only Son to be both a sacrifice for sin and also an ensample of godly life; give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that His inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of His most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Epistle. 1 St. Peter ii. 19.

Gospel. St. John x. 11.

To-day's lesson is thankfulness for a great benefit, resulting in newness of life. The absolution realized last Sunday is followed by such prevailing sense of the love of God as the prodigal obtained when he returned. When he left his father's house to seek his own will he had no such sense of his father's tenderness as when he returned, and was met a long way off, and was given the robe, the ring and the feast.

These days of the resurrection press home to our souls the manifestations of divine love: not as a force, immanent in all nature for all, but as a forgiving love: the Over-Soul of the world, absolving, and receiving His repentant children. We follow the blessed footsteps, we love to do so, because we have been absolved.

Who does not feel deeply that his past life has not been all that he could wish? St. Paul called