through Christ, returning to the bosom of its Saviour, and, awaiting the glories of Heaven. What will it carry away from this mortal life?

The applause of the multitude? the consciousness of influence? the pomp of wealth? the dignity of rank? the pride of intellectual superiority? Alas! God's angels and the spirits of the just know nought of these; they judge by another standard than ours. The greatness which they prize has no connection with the rank, or the influence, or the intellect of earth.

But is all, therefore, vanished? Are the tastes, the joys, the high instincts, the pure longings of the immortal spirit to moulder with the mouldering body, and, unlike it, to know of no resurrection ? When the hour of final consummation shall arrive, will the heart that has thrilled, as the acclamations of multitudes followed the recognition of glorious deeds, be insensible to the hallelujahs of angels, when they bear it in triumph to heaven? Will the soul that has felt the full energy of its Being aroused by the consciousness of power be insensible to the voice of its Redeemer, when, because it "has been faithful over few things, it is made ruler over many things"? Or will the refined and exalted taste which has revelled. in the beauty of nature and art, and led thousands to appreciate and understand them, be cold and dead when it enters the gates of the Golden City, and gazes into the clear depths of the River of the Water of Life. Surely, if those feelings and those

tastes are to meet us on the threshold of Heaven hereafter, they can never be crushed with impunity now. No. Rather let us be ambitious; let us delight in glory, power, rank, beauty, and the refinement of taste and cultivation of mind which we naturally associate with them, only let it be the reality, not the shadow.

Who is more glorious than God? Who has more power than Christ? Where shall we find rank above that of the angels and archangels-the thrones and principalities of Heaven? Where discover loveliness more perfect than in the far-off land where we shall behold the "King in His beauty"? Amongst whom can we meet with tastes more refined than amongst the beings who shouted for joy over the creation of a sinless world? or minds more cultivated than those which, before earth was created, were studying the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?

These are the realities of which earth's greatness and refinement are the picture. To seek for the fulfilment of our desires here, is to seek for it apart from the Being in whom all greatness is centred. There is but one true greatness, as there is but one true goodness-union with Christ, and through that union a participation in all that is

His.

And to be united with Christ is to be one with Him who gazed upon the "kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them," and then turned away to live on earth homeless and despised; to

spend days in charity, and nights in prayer; to wait upon the needs of the sick, and minister to the sorrow of the afflicted; to make Himself the servant of His disciples; to forget His own agony in their trial, not because He contemned greatness, but because He knew how only it was to be attained; and looking forward to the joy set before Him, "endured the cross, despising the shame," that He might afterwards "sit down at the Right Hand of God."

81

RECIPROCAL SYMPATHY.

ST. LUKE, Xxii. 28-30.

"Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

PROBABLY we have all read very often, without thought, the words, "Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations," and those which follow, "I appoint unto you a kingdom." They seem at a first view to belong to subjects above and beyond us, and to be addressed so peculiarly to the disciples as scarcely to concern us. But there is an inner meaning in all our Lord's sayings, as well as in His actions, which gives them, in fact, a universal application; and these words, evincing as they do our Redeemer's wonderful appreciation of human sympathy, both in joy and sorrow, especially appeal to the common feelings of mankind. They prove, if anything were wanting to prove, how entirely Christ partook of our nature! The wish for the comforting presence of friends in hours of trial, the love which is the result of love, we can all so well understand!

G

Yet not, perhaps, all: there are some persons who, although they may share their joys, have a kind of pride in rejecting sympathy in grief; they say they have only one wish at such seasons-to be left alone. Doubtless, we are formed differently, and it would be very hard to condemn others because they cannot find comfort in that which helps ourselves; and there are unquestionably states of mind in which the desolation of the heart is so unutterably great, that it can find relief only in the Presence of God. Upon such we must look with loving awe, offering only the support of our prayers. But there are lesser trials, in which sympathy would seem to be the right and necessary offering of one human heart to another, and yet in which no opening is afforded for it, because the sufferer deems it a proof of heroism and strength of mind resolutely to suffer alone. If it be so, then-with all reverence let the words be said,-our blessed Lord was not strong-not heroic. In the prospect of danger He dwelt fondly, almost, one may venture to say, gratefully, on the fact that His friends had continued with Him in His temptations; and still, when about to endure a greater extremity of suffering, His human weakness seemed to find support in the certainty that they would watch with Him. What He vouchsafed to feel, surely cannot be beneath us. To accept sympathy is as great a duty as to offer it; and of one thing we may be all sure, that if we refuse to accept it, we shall never be permitted to offer it.