greatness of His interposition for man, the power of personal sympathy with all that is most trying and torturing in the possible conditions of man? Yes; the life of Jesus has consecrated what is secular, elevated and ennobled obscurity and poverty. How many think themselves useless,-think that they are doing nothing for God, and perhaps that their lot in life prevents it! How many accuse their profession of being essentially worldly,-their earthly vocation of being too obscure for God's notice, too mean to be dedicated in any high sense to His service! It is the cry of many; of some in sorrow, of some in perverseness, of some in indolence, of some in discontent. Some make it an excuse; "they cannot serve God; their whole time is occupied in a business which concerns not the soul." Some mourn over it; "they love Christ, and would that they could serve Him; but their life is engrossed in labour which they can neither lay aside nor consecrate." Brethren, whichever it be, cast back your glance upon the despised village Nazareth, out of which (they said) no good thing could come. And even there, look not upon its richer houses; look not upon the abode of priest or of Levite; but look for its obscurest alleys, look for its humblest cottages; behold the shop of the carpenter, and see within it, clad in the garb of the poor, in the dress of a workman, Him who was from eternity with God and was God, but who now "for your sake has become poor, that you through his poverty might be rich." Behold Him thus engaged, learning obedience through toil, preparing for sufferings such as none could par take, by partaking in the common lot of all men, and subjecting entirely the will of the human nature to the will of the Divine. Look upon this picture; look upon this reality,— this fact in the unchangeable past; and then go forth, if you can, to complain and murmur! Nay, rather may it reconcile us to our lot, whatever it be; for that manner of life which was good enough, and noble enough, and useful enough for Him, may well be good, and noble, and useful enough for us. Love Him for His humiliation; love Him for His patience; · love Him for His lowly life; love Him for His sacrifice, life-long, and at last unto death: so shall you find the secret here of tranquillity and contentment, and pass with Him hereafter, through the valley of the last humiliation, into the fellowship of His glory, who lived for us, and died, and rose again! SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, LONDON. THE WATER OF EARTH TURNED INTO THE WINE OF HEAVEN. JOHN ii. 1, 2. "And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage." (From the Gospel for the Second Sunday after Epiphany.) CONCEIVE yourselves present at the festivities of an ordinary wedding. Let there be a party of friends gathered together for a day of enjoyment; let there be a marriage feast, for which a more than usual effort has been made to please the taste, and gratify the eye of the guests; let there be the usual amount of cheerful pleasantry, and happy social converse; let it be, in fact, just such a wedding party as takes place in our towns and villages every day. Now were you present at this moment at such a party, would the enjoyment of it be interrupted by the assurance that God was Himself one of that party? Would you be inclined to say in your heart, It is very proper to think of God in church, and when I am saying my prayers, and when I am reading my Bible, but I am come here for a day of pleasure, and I shrink from the restraint which His presence will put upon me? I believe a great many persons would say so; and positively do say so every day of their lives, by excluding all thought of God, and all mention of Him, except when they are performing what they call religious duties. [No. 10.] 129 How entirely such persons mistake the character of God, and how completely they lose the whole spirit of Christianity, will be manifest, I think, from the consideration of our Saviour's presence and first miracle at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, which has been read in the Gospel this morning, and to which I now call your attention. We will examine this miracle- It was on the third day after that last-mentioned', that our Lord and His newly-made disciples,-Andrew and Peter, Philip and Nathanael, and John the Evangelist,-arrived at Cana, for the marriage to which they had been called. It is most important to notice the presence of these disciples, as it in great measure explains the main object of the miracle. Most, if not all of them, had been originally disciples of the Baptist; and the manner of his lifehis rigid penitential austerity, his seclusion from the world, and solitary abode in the wilderness, naturally appeared to them the only one that was right. What a contrast must it have been for them when Jesus, to whom the Baptist himself had directed them, led them first of all to a marriage! John had dedicated them to a life of ascetic self-denial. Jesus takes them at once into the world, and with them mingles freely with a party gathered together for pleasure. 1 John i. 43. How could the disciples bear this? How could they receive as the Messiah one who so contradicted their expectations? The Evangelist tells us that the Saviour, in this miracle, manifested forth His glory, made that which was latent in Him sparkle forth, and that in consequence His disciples believed on Him. It would seem, then, that He wrought this miracle, first of all, to convince them, when their faith was shaken, that He was indeed the Messiah, and to assure them, and to assure the whole world also, that the Son of God came into the world not to live alone in the desert, but to mingle in the social life of men, to enter into all human interests, to share all human feelings; that He might sanctify all, and direct all to that end for which they were created. This is the first and simplest object of the miracle,— to teach mankind that Christ came to claim all life, its times of joy as its times of sorrow, its seasons of labour and its seasons of recreation, for God; that He came to mingle with and purify the common life of man, and to give it all its true glory by uniting it to God. But to proceed with the incidents of the miracle. There was every thing to exclude any possible semblance of collusion or deception in the miracle. They were water jars, not wine vessels; so that none could say that there was a residue or sediment of wine to give a flavour to the water poured into them: neither were these water pots there by any premeditated plan; it was according to the custom of the Jews: nor could they from their size have been |