aside from the ways of the world, and followed some self-chosen path, in the hope of crushing, by self-discipline, the natural likings which, because they too often lead to sin, are thought to be in themselves sinful. How weary that conflict is— how unceasing, and for the most part vain-we may gather from the confessions which from time to time have reached us from their own lips, and which are confirmed by the painful inconsistencies of character that meet us in the records of their lives. The man who rejects with scorn the offer of worldly ambition, can yet take delight in the homage offered to his spiritual excellence; the woman who would shrink from mere worldly pomp, as from the most hateful temptation, can yet be led away by the follies of religious dissipation, and the love of religious display.

We may well fear for the consequences when we attempt to be wiser than God who made us. The temptations accompanying a love of power and greatness are resisted far more successfully when in God's strength we face them than when in our own strength we flee from them. Look at the world,--look at life as it really is,--and what is the value of its gifts? Or rather,--look at death and at Eternity.

One hour by the bed-side of the dying will reveal to us more of the realities of our present existence, than years spent in solitary conflict with the involuntary longings of our hearts.

The spirit about to leave us is, if accepted

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

What

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, be cause 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 Surely, if those feelings and those

Water of Life.

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."

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!