swept away, the labour of a life gone; he must begin again as a little child. "It shall be told thee what thou must do." "Witness of those things wherein I shall appear unto thee." He longed for these promised communications; and yet would flesh and blood be able to bear them? How had he borne that light above the light of the sun; that voice not of earth though human; that countenance as of one born of woman and yet the LORD GOD? In those three days he lived many ordinary years: the aroused spirit coursed through the history of his life; the subterfuges of past pretexts were pierced through and through; the depths of his heart sounded, and its mystery drawn up: now he knew his disease, now he saw the cause of his past weakness and misery; he longed to be absolved, to be released from the burthen which till now he had not felt, but which had always been part of himself: he dared to desire to be washed in the blood he had despised; to be united to Him from whom he had fled; to be acknowledged by the Most Holy in the righteousness of Him whom now he saw to be the alone righteous. In his darkness and solitude he lay, seemingly unable to find his way to Him who had laid his hand of power on him; but he prayed; and again the hand was put out, but now it was the hand of healing. One called him Brother-one whom GOD only could have acquainted with his private vision. He felt hands laid on him; and the pierced hands he had seen on the road, they too were over him; and he heard of the HOLY GHOST, and the unclosing of his bodily eyes was but a token of a spiritual enlightenment; the water of baptism touched him, and the blood that had flowed from that side was mingled with it: his sins were washed away, and he was filled with the HOLY GHOST; and he heard again that he was to bear witness, and it was sweet to

think he could do aught for Him. How did he marvel, when he had power to think of the change that had passed upon him; of the difference three days had made; —a death, a burial, a resurrection, and now a new life; Heaven his; the CHRIST his; the justification he had toiled for; the peace that passeth understanding; the witness in himself; the self-evidencing truth; the key that fitted all the wards of his heart; strength in weakness; joy in sorrow; love in fear and confidence with humility; his own mysterious soul assured as to its connexion with GOD; his place in the universe found; his work assigned; the knowledge of GOD not impossible; the perfecting of his nature not unattainable; life proved to be worth living; man immortal and yet blest.

And now at last, when he began to know the new man within him, and the new world to which he henceforth belonged, he learned that he had not really parted with anything that had been dear to his better nature: his nationality was expanded into catholicity; his desire for uniformity was more than gratified, for he found a spiritual unity of which he had not dreamed; the truths of the Pharisees were more than probable, they were proved; the GOD of his fathers had indeed remembered Abraham; the Roman empire was indeed to be superseded; Greek philosophy was indeed to be replaced by an authoritative sentence; "There is but one GOD," was indeed to be carried to the end of the earth by the sword of the SPIRIT; heathenism was indeed ready for death, and Judaism had brought forth its slayer; he was not wrong in casting his lot with GOD's people; he was not wrong in being a zealot; not wrong in proselyting; not wrong in going to foreign cities; he should go still, furnished with authority, not from a mock High Priest, but the true; not to bring men's bodies bound into an

earthly, but their spirits captive into a heavenly Jerusalem; not with an arm of flesh, but with other and more potent weapons; not by persecuting, but by being persecuted; though free from all men, he should make himself servant to all; his love for his countrymen should be neither extinguished nor extinguishable; he should be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men; solitary, but not desolate; infirm, but glorying in infirmities; when reviled, should bless; when persecuted, suffer it; when defamed, entreat; as a deceiver, and yet true; unknown, and yet well known; dying, should live; chastened, should not be killed; should be, though sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; though poor, yet making many rich; though having nothing, yet possessing all things.

And is not this the history of many souls now? launched into the world with many capabilities; cast among contending influences, with much to attract them to this side and that; choosing, even when they choose best, very much amiss; mistaking the true ends, and pursuing the best ends with unhallowed means; making resolutions as if they could keep on a level with the highest, and yet needing to humble themselves beneath the lowest; zealous for half truths, and opposing themselves to whole ones; puffed up, rather than humbled, by knowledge; kept from GOD, rather than brought near to Him, by their observances; sure to deteriorate, and to be overcome by the world which they think they have renounced; when GOD of his mercy meets them, and pleads with them as only GoD pleads; shews them the love they are wounding, and withdraws the veil; and they see in whose presence they are, and can see nothing else, nor even this again; for the excess of light has blinded them, light which they cannot yet believe to be theirs, and promises which they dare not take as they are VOL. III. X

offered; till to the dark, faint, helpless soul the message comes again, and the eyes are opened to see in common day uncommon light,-to see Him ever present, to believe in Him as the absolver, to find Him the teacher and strengthener; till what they once thought to accomplish in their own strength, they learn to perform in his; what they thought to bring about in their own way, they accept in his; what was good in their old selves they find preserved, what was evil is daily purged away; till they, too, by being last become first; by dying, live; by having nothing of their own, come to possess all things in GOD.

THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN.

BY THE

REV. J. H. GURNEY, M.A.

II. CORINTHIANS IV. 18.

We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

A

T first sight this saying of the Apostle seems a contradiction. To see a thing, and look at it, are very nearly the same; at any rate, speaking literally, and without a figure, we cannot be said to look at a thing which is out of sight. We may think of it, we may wish for it, we may talk about it, if it is a thousand miles off; but we must get much nearer to it, and have a clear space between us and it, before we can be said to look at it. So the Apostle might write and preach about the unseen things of eternity: but if they were beyond his view, how could he look at them? And then for the other part of his saying, "We look not at the things which are seen," if he had his eyes open how could he help it? With the sun shining down upon him, and fields and towns spread out before him, and thousands of living creatures thronging both, he must look at them surely whether he cared about them or

not.

My brethren, it is this contradiction which is the beauty and glory of our text. It gives force and emphasis