THE COMING OF CHRIST.

As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.

Unto the east we turn, with watchful eyes,

Where opens the white haze of silvery lawn, And the still trees stand in the streak of dawn, Until the Sun of Righteousness shall rise,

And far behind shall open all the skies,

And golden clouds of Angels be withdrawn Around His presence. Then there shall be gone Fleeing before His face in dread surprise, The heaven and earth and the affrighted sea, And the tribunal shall be set on high,

And we the fiery trial must abide.

Like nightly travellers to the kindling sky,
Awake or sleeping to yon eastern side

We turn, and know not when the time shall be.

9. AND OUT OF THE GROUND MADE THE LORD GOD TO GROW EVERY TREE THAT IS PLEASANT TO THE SIGHT, AND GOOD FOR FOOD.

Ever has the true Paradise produced its abundant and thriving vegetation, meet for the garden of God. "The trees of the Lord are full of sap, even the cedars

of Libanus which He hath planted." "Thy plants," it is said in the holy Song of Solomon, just quoted, "are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon."

9. THE TREE OF LIFE ALSO IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN.

Without the holy cross, the blessed tree of our life everlasting, there could exist no true Paradise for the sons of men. But that holy tree was described by the voice of ancient prophecy as “a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river; and shall not see when heat cometh; but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither

shall cease from yielding fruith." And so, in all ages, has that holy tree stood in the centre of the garden of God. In all ages, planted beside the living waters of baptism, and stretching out its roots to the laver of regeneration—waters which no year of drought can dry up-has it taken root downward, and borne fruit upward, and "the leaves of the tree" have been "for the healing of the nations."

AND THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

The knowledge of good and evil seems to be here spoken of as one thing, as though between good and evil-essentially opposite to each other as they arethere were, at least as far as God's earthly dispensations are concerned, a kind of necessary connexion. And in the Church, throughout her history, does the fact of

h Jer. xvii. 8.

such a mysterious connexion present itself unceasingly before us.

It has been said that

... Good, in every thing,

Comes as ill's cure.

And good again has ever seemed to evolve and elicit evil, as though by a necessary working; even as the sun brings out shadows, and draws up mists and clouds to darken the sky. The holiest things, as we see them, tend to bring out corresponding mysteries of iniquity. The Holy Gospel, as it is a "savour of life unto life" to some, is made a "savour of death unto death" to others. It is the Holy Church, the mother of the faithful, which gives birth to all heresies; for they spring up within her, though they are not of her, and therefore are expelled from her bosom. In the message of Divine mercy, blessing and cursing, life and death, are ever set before us together, as though the one

alternative necessarily involved the other. The promise which unfolds "the kingdom of heaven to all believers," also reveals the sinner's hell. The resurrection, purchased by Christ's blood, is a resurrection unto life, and a resurrection unto damnation. And in the cases of individual members of His Church, the greater graces will be found to be accompanied by the greater temptations. The holiest saints, there is reason to suppose, are the persons most experimentally acquainted with the power, as well as with the malignity, of the evil Even the All-holy Saviour Himself was no sooner visibly invested with the Holy Ghost in His baptism, than He was "led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." And that which, if we may presume to distinguish, may be styled the holiest hour of His ministry, the hour which witnessed His

one.