we learn of the prophets, as they throw open the future; or of the apostles, proclaiming a new dispensation; the secrets of the Lord are for them that fear Him (Gen. xviii. 17-19; Eph. iii. 10). For the faithful the earth bursts into magnificence, and the world is filled with redemption. Revelation has been and is the gradual unfolding of the Almighty's plans; the drawing off another fold and another fold of the veil from the landscape; the giving another and yet other stripe of light to the crescent. The. patriarchs and the saints of later days look on the same horizon, but those view a clouded expanse, while these see the march of truth in beauty and distinctness; yet, as chaos contained the elements of our comely world, so the grand facts of salvation, successively developed, were in the divine purpose; but not then disclosed, "that the saints of old, without us, should not be made perfect” (Heb. xi. 40).

Many a wonder is rooted in the ancient records, not less true than marvellous, Christ being the ruling principle; for the meaning is always greater to the spirit than even the truth of the letter. Not fewer wonders are contained

in the newer narrative, and the greatest of all is God manifest in the flesh. The inventions of man fall far short of the dealings of God. In His works there is no haste, yet no delay; no weariness, no discontinuity; and, as had they no beginning and no end, their horizon loses itself in the far-off eternity. All things seem done by Him in the majesty of silence, so the light that shined in darkness at the Saviour's birth was more of spiritual than physical beam; and the music was fuller to the heart than to the ear, for only a few wise men and shepherds then saw and heard; to others the night was dark and voiceless. The faithful and humble spirits, who looked in amaze on the outer signs, well knew them--not as illuminated fancies, but as that handwriting in Nature concerning the most stupendous event in the world's history: an event which would reveal all things in the slow progress of its ripening-ripening of the kingdom of God. The unfathomable depths of the Divine counsels were moved, life for healing of the nations was issuing forth; but nothing was seen except that star of the advent, no other than angel's voice proclaimed the Birth.

The

earth's course continued, men of the world went on their way, and knew not the symbolical richness of the sky, nor the far-off melody that found faint echoes in the air. It was a wonderful time when God gave Jesus "to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. i. 22, 23).

That Church of the Jews was then a complicated system, with august ceremonies and pompous rites that served to keep the people from seduction by the fascinating superstitions of the heathen; and, in its minutest particulars, so set forth the beautiful realities of a Faith whose temple was to be the whole world, and whose shrine was the heart of mankind, that it shone with a light pure and clear while the nations lay in darkness (Heb. viii. 5).

The Priests and Levites, Scribes and Pharisees, though outwardly in the Church, were inwardly out of fellowship with God. The spiritual sceptre of the Invisible King was there, but no hand to hold it. The sanctities of service, the symbolical riches abounded; but the people were as sheep without a shepherd, poor and blind and naked. All nations had to

minister of the true sanctuary, to dispense blessings to myriads, and to spread Divine beneficence beyond all present known limits (Rev. xx. 6).

MEDITATION AND PRAYER.

As a traveller, just escaped from the fury of a lion, encounters immediately an angry bear; then, delivered from this peril, thankfully arrives at his own gate, but no sooner rests his hand on the wall, than a serpent darts forth to bite him so one affliction after another lies in wait for the Church, the last always seeming the most grievous to endure.* Oh, Thou, Most Holy, keep Thy Church, and let her work be very glorious!

Her olden ministry gathered many saints. They sweetly rest in the bosom of Abraham; they possess glory and lustre ; nearer than we, they survey the angels; and exult in a nigher presence to principalities and powers. We think that they look down on the mortal scene, on gaudy wealth, on fallacious honours, on ambiguous toils, on our confusion, as in a battle,

* Altered from Poems of St. Gregory of Nazianzum.

fought at night. Grant, Lord, that the Church now, overseen and ministered by the Holy Ghost, may bring more and more honour to Christ; diminish not her high estate; enable her to gather a great company of blest immortals to stand near the King, Almighty.

Let not the gates of hell prevail against her. Allow not her love to become cold, like the Jewish synagogue that counted her Lord as strange. Preserve her pastors, that they be not as whited sepulchres, and her ceremonies, that they become not cerements of the dead. Replenish them with light and glory. Let greater wonders, more glorious and inestimable far than those of old, be revealed. Prepare Thy Church to dwell with the bright seraphic host, to know the splendour of the Trinity. Let Thy ministers not be ineffectual, but possess, in full contemplation by unhindered thought, the majesty of truth; that it beam forth in radiance for the joy and enlightenment of believers.

Grant unto those believers, that they do all to the glory of God. Taking bread, let them give thanks to Him who gave; and, having enough, praise Him who fills. Let the putting on of

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