ideal revelation of the perfect man. We shall see that the fulfillment comes, because Jesus Christ is not only "The Son of man" typifying the race, but He is the Messiah, the Son of God establishing relationships between humanity and God, so filial, so kind, so strong that we rise and are victorious with Him. The Fatherhood of God realizes in man the hope of glory. "But as many as received Him," says John, " to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them who believe on his name." A man appropriates the power of God when he stands up in his moral nature and lays claim to his right as a child of God. This is the strength, this the glory of life, that we can take up into our thought, this simple but stupendous truth that we are children of God; that the normal relationship by which we come into life is that of childhood to the Highest; and that therefore however high those ideals may be which are placed within us, they are to be certainly realized, since they come not from one who seeks to increase our difficulties, but from one who gives us abundant power to conquer them, grace to meet those problems which we now have, and to do that which otherwise would simply be a tantalizing vision. We are to come then, if at all, in the unity of this faith in manhood "unto the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." "The years's at the spring And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hillside's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in His heaven All's right with the world!" -Robert Browning. A Greylock Pulpit. BORROWING TROUBLE. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6: 34. The message of Christ is a message of cheer. This was true yesterday in Galilee. It is true to-day in our passing financial depression. It will be true to-morrow. How was it in Galilee? The apostles had been chosen though not instructed. They were full of crudity, opposed to the kingdom now at hand. Quick with the multitude to get relief from the Roman yoke, there they stood, as people stand on the Lake Front in Chicago or at Trafalgar Square, longing for a golden age. This was a representative audience of north Palestine. They desired a kingdom like that which Solomon ruled, when gold poured from some Mashonaland to gild the palace and glorify the temple. What practical advice will this teacher have for hungry men? Will he give them political economy? Will he propose a revolution? He joins His teaching to that of John the Baptist. Both urge repentance. Bad as the government is, every man needs change more. With John, to repent was to reform, to break away from an evil habit. Jesus added, go on, build on this base, a continuous repentance, fulfilling man's nature as a son of God. Repentance, in a soldier, was not only to do no violence, but to be humble, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, peace-making, pure in heart, forgiving. Men should regard character as they do property. Thieves may steal your money. They cannot steal character. It is indestructible from without. It is untransferable. One has all he lays up. The security of a man's treasure is such that what he lays up at all in the solid safe of Christian ethics, is laid up in Heaven. A revolution is involved. Control of the soul is shifted from mammon to God. The entire object of life is to perfect this administration. The kingdom of God carries with it all civilization. Wealth, in the long run, follows in the wake of keeping the moral law and putting first the kingdom of God. If a man makes no mistake in selecting his calling, he will, as a rule, gain greater material advantage by putting first the kingdom of God, than he will by giving the first place to the kingdom of commerce. No blessing promised to obedient Israel has been repealed. Good crops and good times will follow righteousness more closely than any wisdom we may have in dealing with the tariff. "Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Therefore trust Him. Cease to over-work the future. Let the soul find unity and peace in the present practical primacy of God. It was far from the design of Christ to condemn enterprise. Forethought and thrift are sacred to Him. There is no taint of the ascetic, but a manly challenge of priority. The Master's favorite illustration of the husbandman, proclaims his sympathy with one, who months in advance, prepares the soil, which, after toil and skill rewards the worker. The sparrow and lily illustrate the absence of worry in the presence of work. God thought that His best way to help the sparrow, was to give it wings. After this His responsibility ended. . There was no hope for a mature sparrow that proposed to sit on the nest and have worms brought to it. The lily must keep its pumps in order and push down its roots. It does toil and spin, but the fabric woven is free from care and fret. There is abundant provision in man for all ranges of good, but the very fact brings with it the danger of misplaced emphasis. The lower wants are real wants. They do not receive too much attention. They do not receive enough of the right kind of attention, relative to the dignity of their service. Man is mind. Mind is nerve. Men easily forget to feed and clothe the soul. Repent is the message. Make the first place one of unreserved welcome to all that you can call good. Put all your finite imagination into it, and you have an introduction to God. No more, but as much. God is the unit of the universe. Therefore there is no cure for anxiety in a child of God, save in that unity which strives to avoid the inversion of the Divine order. Consecration is the only infallible cure for care. Let the evils, nay the devils of anxiety, fix firm rivets in our purpose to enthrone God as we know Him, and His righteousness. Borrowing trouble lowers the whole tone of our lives. Some one has called it a little fox, that destroys the vines. It is rather "a roaring lion seeking whom be may devour." It fills our vast hospitals for the insane. It drives men to drink. It unfits them for every undertaking. Exemplary people go astray here, saying to themselves "my failing leans to virtue's side." They get trouble enough from the past and future to strangle beauty, hope and strength. Not content with due allotment of to-day, men spend their time in dreading the future, fostering regrets, stealing trouble from time God never gave them and has commanded them to let alone. Such have the genius to discover the dark side of everything. They are burdensome to themselves and to those who are still their friends for the sake of old times. They bring with them a cold, dark, damp cloud in which we are forced to stand beating time to their tune with our very teeth. Not only can they raise a fog as individuals, but a collection of them makes a storm-center. This is the invariable process by which the prayer-meeting |