The manifestations of God which marked the earlier history of the world are not to be set down as exceptional developments and expressions of his interest in the human race. The old miracles are not the only symbols of the Father's heart. All the centuries are his children; each generation draws largely and freshly on his sympathy. If he brooded over the cradle of the race, he does not forget its youth nor leave its manhood unattended. The interests of our world grow constantly more numerous and more valuable. As its forces increase and become more operative, so must he follow them in their work with a deepening interest. The world's life of to-day stands related to its earlier life as the oak is related to the acorn, as the flower to the bud, as the fruit to the germ. The human race is a constantly growing element in the sum of being, and God's interest is always measured by the moral power of any existence.

Men, calling themselves philosophers, often object to the idea that God is operating in the world in any effective way, on the ground that he is restrained by law. As though methods must exist at the expense of souls! As though God would frame statutes that shut him away from the home, and cut off his most needed ministries from the hearts of his children! As though laws were not instituted with a full knowledge of all the ends to which they stand related! As though they were fashioned for any other purpose than to be channels through which his grace might be poured, in the largest streams and with the highest certainty, into the heart! As though any law of God were any thing else than a guaranty to faith that the gift of today should be repeated to-morrow. As though it were any thing else than a picture of his beneficence, all written over with the sentence, "The same yesterday, and to-day, and forever!"

The withdrawal of Christ's humanity from the earth is no index of loss. It does not denote the perishing of divine sympathy, it rather suggests its enlargement and diffusion. The human channel could no longer hold the broad stream, as the banks of the Nile cannot enclose nor restrain the liquid fruitfulness which comes pouring down when the spring rains have given their baptism to the mountains. It was expedient that he go away; for only thus could the great Comforter and In

spirer find his way to all hearts without hindrance. Allied a human body, God's grace must be largely limited in its op tions by human conditions. If Christ's human lips must wisdom, it could fall only when his lips were opening. If touch of his finger or the glance of his eye must give hea vigor or communicate hope, the distant sufferers must pin without relief from weakness or despair. While Capern brings out her diseased ones, and Gadara is cured of po sions, and Nain and Bethany welcome life back from the se chre, Jerusalem finds no cure for her leprosy, Hebron sits itary, and Bethlehem stretches forth her arms in vain. TI the lost sheep of the house of Israel are sought out and bro home with rejoicing on the shoulders of the Great Sheph wolves are devouring the flocks now broken loose from the of the Gentiles. Christ's bodily life is the alabaster box w holds the sacred ointment;—it must be broken before its fills the house of humanity. The incense must find egress f the censer before the fragrance can diffuse itself at once thro all the temple of life. The flood of glory which came at Pentecost would have been only another shower, such as fell Nazareth and Sychor, had not the cloud found room for ex] sion till it filled the whole heaven. The light set now in firmament, and "lighting every man that cometh into the wor would have been only a changing star, like that which gui the Magi, had not the obscured splendor culminated and for the Sun of Righteousness. The human Jesus walked am men to show how thoroughly God may come in contact w the soul and with common life; having done this, he threw the finite limitations that the Infinite Presence might brood once and forever over all the world of spirit.

Jesus, then, is the giver of a new and divine life to men. real spiritual vitality comes of his influence and quickeni It commences with an infusion of energy from him. It cont ues only while he feeds it from his own exhaustless founta The original impulse from him does not suffice to keep us f ever in the sacred orbit. He gives as we receive and apply; feeds only as we consume. We never get beyond the necess or his ministries. We never acquire a momentum that enab

the sphere of life enlarges, the play of its forces is f experience is enriched, the vitality becomes intenser, th ing energy multiplies, the interior friction grows less, th combine harmoniously and work with new singleness, results of this intensified and normal life are larger as better. Out of this statement of the truth contained in ure of the Vine there spring many thoughts which show nificant bearings of the lesson, exhibit it as a practical s and enforce its applications. Of these let us consider a 1. It exalts Christ to a divine rank and assigns him ministry.

It can be no finite teacher, no delegated personage, n dent being, who is authorized to speak such words "Abide in me for so only can you have life. I alone ca your spirit, can keep your souls from stagnation, can with energy and crown your work with success. I am tain; drink and live. I yield nutriment; feed on it a I supply energy; receive it and be strong. Cut off you perish, let whoever will bring guardianship or apply Without me ye can do nothing. With my inspiration n task shall be undertaken in vain. Prompted by my i ye shall ask what ye will and the petition shall have its a struggle for any goal and it shall be within reach." M all proper allowance for eastern metaphor, there still re these words a fulness of meaning, and they denote t quiet consciousness of resource, authority and power, th them the outburst of an insufferable egotism, or bold wi fic blasphemy if they are not from Him who is all in all

2. These words set aside all theories of human redem based on self culture, or the education of society.

The philosophy of development is utterly ignored in this ment of the source and the quality of all real spiritual and Christian character, and which explains every thing by ence to a new and higher agency. These two theories o Christian life divide the world. One set of teachers te that true religion is proper self regulation; that repen is breaking off bad habits; that forgiveness of sin is the coming of passion and a growth out of the reach of evil fo that faith is adherence to principle; that prayer is a sti applied to the sensibility in the form of devout words; that peace of God is the harmony of a well-balanced soul; that worship is a wise industry; that God's gift of strength is a grown resolute by exercise; that succor in temptation is th pulsion felt by an improved moral taste; that the "well-d of heaven is the reasonable self-satisfaction which our h work has brought us; and that salvation comes only from out-growing of our inherited weaknesses.

There is indeed a partial truth wrapped up in these met of representation. They imply a fact ;-they show that is a human side to Christian experience; that a passive and dolent soul fails of the highest good; that a Christian li more intense in its activity than any other. But these wor Christ give another account of the change wrought by reli in the human soul;-they make these high activities ch the expression and result of his ministry within us. show that the heart is quick because life has been poured in from above. It is penitent because its sin is shown it as a fiance of God's law and a blow at Christ's love. It has peac cause the broken law's sentence of condemnation is withdra It hopes through its clinging to the divine promise. It is st through the incoming of heavenly power. It loves because Redeemer stands before it transfigured into the beauty of cellence. Its gratitude is kept active by the perpetual comin great and undeserved gifts. It looks for victories only under leadership of him who in conquering all foes for himself, co to conquer them again in and through each of his child

tion, and distributing them with superhuman skill to t extremities of our being. He must pour light into the standing, make conscience quick to see and prompt t arouse sluggish affections, ennoble aim, fortify purpose, faith, preserve patience, keep effort consecrated and Into the arctic winter of the soul he must breathe summ and on the barren soil of the heart he must pour enric fluences, as the annual floods of the Nile change deser into gardens. Thus and thus only, according to Chri the soul truly live; thus only does experience rise u great heights of privilege; thus only does effort bear the sheaves on its shoulders at whose approach heavenly voi in shouting the "harvest home.”

3. This view of Christian life, is reasonable and nece that is, it is easily sustained by philosophy, illustrated by ous analogies, called for by all profound experience, and in its results.

Whenever life gets really ennobled, it is by the infusio forces from without. A soul that gravitates downward its own weight, must rise, if it rise at all, because an impulse has overcome the nether attraction, or a super netism is lifting it heavenward. All effort at self red which excludes help from without, is like a struggle to ra self by lifting at his own feet. And the merely human that stand on the same plane can only push the ambiti as high as their own shoulders. The truly ascendin must rise by the aid of stronger and diviner hands. Th life is in union with God; whatever aims at or reaches this, leaves the great work undone and the great want