depression of mind, and the experience of much bodily pain. I said, "There is one comfort in all the distresses to which man is subject-they are momentary, and shall soon be succeeded by an 'exceeding weight of glory.' Jesus Christ has by one of His parables put in a very clear light the nature of Christian endurance :-'A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.' In like manner, you now have pain; but when it is over (as it shall be in a short space), and you will see your Saviour face to face, and front to front, were anyone to ask you, Would you rather not have endured the former pain, on condition of forfeiting the happiness of which you are now delivered?' you would surely reply that, were it necessary, you would willingly undergo once again the same, and think it as nothing, for the fulness of the blessedness of the glory set before you. The saying of the scripture is literally true, 'The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us;' and 'Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."-This view of the subject afforded some comfort to this sufferer, and I think it may comfort others also.

When musing sorrow counts the past,
And mourns the present pain,
How sweet to think of peace at last,
And feel that death is gain!

'Tis not that murmuring thoughts arise,

And dread a Father's will; "T is not that meek submission flies, And will not suffer still.

It is that Heaven-taught faith surveys
The path to realms of light,
And longs her eagle-plumes to raise,
And lose herself in sight.

It is that hope with ardour glows
To see Him face to face,

Whose dying love no language knows
Sufficient art to trace.

It is that Conscience, while she feels
The pangs of struggling sin,
Sees yet, by faith, the hand that heals,
And ends the war within.

Oh let me wing my holy flight

From earth-born woe and care,

And soar above those clouds of night,
My Saviour's bliss to share.

The Fourth Sunday after Easter.

THE COLLECT.

O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto Thy people that they may love the thing which Thou commandest, and desire that which Thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE EPISTLE.

"Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”—JAMES i. 18.

L

EARN from this the value and importance of the

Holy Scriptures. We are by their instrumentality made the firstfruits of God's creation. The Psalmist says, "Thy word have I hid within my heart, that I should not sin against Thee;" and the apostle here speaks of "the engrafted Word, which is able to save

our souls." It is no inattentive, cursory reading of the Scriptures which improve me, but an enlightened estimate of the SENSE of what I read, supported by practical application. This I cannot do without a Divine Interpreter. It is the office of the Holy Ghost to enlighten the understanding, and bring home truth to the heart. Let me, then, accompany my reading of the Scriptures with humble prayer that the light of God's Spirit may beam upon the page-that its difficulties may be removed, and its hidden treasure revealed. Being thus enabled to present a serious and honest heart to the seed, I may expect that it will not lightly pass away, but remain in a steady growth, enabling me to bring forth fruit on occasions of trial. The maxims and resolutions the good principles I may collect from its pages-will, I hope, by the power of the Holy Ghost, be my constant and trusty advisers upon those various trying junctures which a man is likely to encounter in his course through life.

THE GOSPEL.

"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth."-JOHN xvi. 12, 13.

now.

WE

E are not to suppose that the message of Christ has ceased with the records of His life, and suppose that the mind of Christ is to be found more

exactly in the Gospels than in the Epistles. There may be many features and doctrines of the mystery of godliness which, if our Lord revealed, He at least did not think proper to give peculiar prominence to, in the discourses of His lifetime. Are we to conclude from thence that they appeared in His view to possess proportionately inferior claim upon our attention, and to have less intrinsic importance? No. He here assigns the reason why He did not dwell upon them; not because he thought the less of them, but because He thought His hearers were not prepared to receive them. He expressly declares that His message was so far from being completely delivered, that He was not able to deliver the whole of it. Therefore, the business of the Spirit, which He sent, was to finish from the point where He left off. When I read, therefore, or hear the compositions of St. Paul, St. Peter, and the other apostles, let me feel the voice of Christ speaking through them, and winding up the period which He had begun. The sacred penmen trace the lines: the things which they have written are not their own, but the mind of the Spirit; and the mind of the Spirit is the mind of Christ; for He whom Christ hath sent hath revealed the things of Christ, or the things of the Father, which belong to Him. The Gospels are the first book of the Epistles, and the Epistles are the second book of the Gospels; and the whole is the word of