Soon, soon, the end will come, when tears will be wiped away, for there will be nothing left to weep for; when there will be no more parting, for there will be no more death; when from the depths of the great sea, and from the stillness of green churchyards, and the roar of cities, and the solemn awfulness of silent battlefields, Christ's elect shall rise in their unspeakable beauty, and in their immortal youth; when in the great multitude that no man can number, there will be no solitude, for there will be no selfishness; when Jesus shall come to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe ; "and so shall we for ever be with the Lord." THE WAY OF LIFE. A. W. THOROLD. "The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.”—Proverbs xv. 24. THIS beautiful verse may have been a proverbial saying in Israel, or it may have been the language of Solomon himself. In either case it claims our earnest and thoughtful consideration. Proverbs are possessed of authority, they embody the experience of many generations, they contain the mature wisdom of life. The waves of joy and sorrow have rounded and smoothed them; the storms and snows of many winters, the sunshine and heat of many summers have ripened them. But if the proverbs of an ordinary nation are precious and not without solemnity, the proverbs which were framed out of the experience and history of the people of God, trained and taught by Himself, are surely not to be disregarded. That which has become a proverbial saying among God's people, that which is the embodiment of their views of life, the result of their observation and their thought, ripened by self-examination, prayer, and obedience, may be viewed as an echo of the Heavenly Wisdom, whose voice they love to hear, and on whose teaching they delight to meditate. This is, in my opinion, the great value and importance of the Book of Proverbs. And this leads me to observe, that thoughts and expressions which have asserted their importance among God's people, though they may have appeared at times as mere traditional phraseology, are not to be treated with contempt or even indifference. If the people who have led a life of prayer and meditation have in all ages and in all countries spoken of repentance and faith, of conversion and the new birth, of the teaching of the Spirit and the indwelling of Christ, of love to a living Saviour and fellowship with Him, of the natural man who is dead, and the renewed man who has eternal life,-it ought to appear more than probable even to an ordinary mind, that these expressions are the symbols of facts and truths, and that if we do not see them as realities it is not because they do not exist, but because we are blind. I speak now to common sense. I do not appeal at present to the renewed understanding of the believer, but I appeal to the mere ordinary human understanding. And argue not from the testimony of a limited party or sect or school or church. I say, that in all ages and countries, and among all sects, schools, and churches, there have been men testifying of a Divine life in the soul which is entirely distinct from our natural, intellectual, and moral life. They have been speaking of a conversion, a regeneration, a change in their inmost centre of life, effected by divine grace through their beholding the righteous and holy love of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have spoken of themselves as having I been lost and dead, and as being now in peace And if our ministry is a reality, it means nothing but the witness and testimony of men who have experienced it themselves, that they may declare it to strengthen and to confirm the brethren, to warn and rouse the thoughtless and unbelieving-to send it forth even among the dry and dead bones. "The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath." Sinners are lost, but Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which is lost. I have viewed the words as a proverb, and testimony of God's people and Church through all ages. Let us suppose it was the saying of Solomon. Have you ever thought of Solomon's childhood and youth? Methinks there never was such an education as the education which David gave to the son who was to sit on his throne and who was to build the Temple of Jehovah. God had strongly impressed upon the minds of his people Israel that fathers were to teach their children and to speak to them of the law of God, early in the morning and late at night. The house father is the house prophet, priest, and king, most solemnly anointed by the Lord and set apart for this high end. Say not that such fathers are rarely found. Can man's unfaithfulness alter God's gracious and holy appointment? And does man's disobedience cancel God's commandment? or can his blindness destroy the beautiful picture or idea of a family in Him from whom all families in Heaven and earth are called? Every smile of your child, every question of those young lips in which the mystery of awaking mind and thought unfolds itself, every manifestation of conscience, and affection, and gratitude, and piety, every manifestation of sin and selfishness and selfwill, are to you so many messengers sent to remind you, O father and mother, of your ordination vow, to show unto your children the way of life which is above to the wise. David, like a true Israelite, taught Solomon the ways of God. Small and limited was his Bible, but sufficient. The quiet wave of the inland lake reflects the sun as well as the mighty bosom of the ocean. And David could read to his child the Bible as a living book. The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was not an abstraction to him; he had known him and met him and loved him and relied on him when, as the shepherd-boy, he tended his father's flock, when as a patriot he went forth to humble the Philistine's pride. He had known affliction and sorrow, sin and repentance, sunshine and night; words of wisdom and love flowed from his lips. There stood his harp, on which he had played to appease the wrath of Saul; it was touched now for a sweeter purpose. In the abode of quiet peace young Solomon listened now to its beautiful harmony and to the more beautiful harmony of David's hymns. And as Solomon grew up he prayed for wisdom, and sought wisdom in nature he studied the works of God, the gigantic cedar and the humble hyssop; and he sought wisdom in the past experience of his nation and their sayings and teachings; and he sought wisdom in the study of life. He saw the world in its toil and splendour, its labour and its pleasure, its sin and excitement; and after all his study and experience, looking behind him into the past ages, and around him to nature, to life, to men,-looking within himself to his sin and the imagination of his heart, he found not the way of life, but rather saw the way of darkness and destruction; and, restored by Divine grace to the faith of his early youth and the faith of his father David, he exclaims, "The way of life is above to the wise." But a greater than Solomon is here. Unto all do I testify of Him, that verily He is in the midst of us —even Jesus, who says: "Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." And again, "I am the way and the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." 1. Jesus is the way of life-for He, who died for our sins, is risen for our justification. Between God, who dwelleth in light inaccessible and full of glory, and us, poor, ignorant, sin-blinded men, there was an infinite distance. Jesus is the way of light. "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Between God, who is infinitely just, and us, who are sinners and transgressors, there is an infinite distance. Jesus is the way of righteousness and reconciliation from earth to Heaven. He presents perfect obedience and perfect atonement in our stead. From Heaven to earth He brings the Father's love, holy and righteous, just and true, punishing sin in Him, and forgiving us. Between God, who is infinitely holy and the fountain of life, with whom nothing impure and dead can dwell, and us, who are dead in trespasses and sins, Jesus is the way of life and renewal. He gives us the promise of that water, which shall spring up in us as a well of living water. And He is this way to us who believe. Art thou ignorant ?-behold Jesus, and thou seest wisdom, truth, God manifest. Art thou guilty?—behold Jesus, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Art thou dead ?-whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ hath eternal life. "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” Jesus is the way-free and open as the road-the king's highway. He is a way for the poor and needy, for the sinful and guilty, for the weary and heavy laden. They who have entered on that way have all started from one point-namely, the lowest depths of a lost condition. What will thou say to this? Say not, It is high as Heaven, I cannot attain to it. Verily it has descended into our depth, and is near us: Jesus is the waybecause He came to save sinners, even the chief. There Say not, I have no power, no wisdom, no strength of purpose to enter in and walk on that way. is One with you mightier than you; He shall prevail. He who has begun a good work-beginning it this moment-will perform it. Jesus is a living way as well as the way of life. He seeks thee, and he finds thee, and this is the secret of thy seeking and finding Him. He is the door as well as the way; and the Spirit is the porter who openeth. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.' 2. Christ is the way of life above, for after He had become the way of life by his incarnation, obedience, suffering, death, and resurrection, he ascended into heaven. There He prays for us, and there He presents 2. Jesus is the way of life above-for we are risen himself unto the Father as our High-priest. Thence with Him. He sends to sinners repentance and remission of sin. 3. Jesus is the way of life above to the wise-for Thence He sends us the Spirit of adoption, of joy, we have set our affections on things above. and of holy fear. He is the way of life above; for our righteousness, as well as our light, our strength as well as our hope, are in Him, as He is now exalted. ness, of worldly life, of morality, of trust in our own goodness, of a dead Christ in partnership with dead works; now we build upon the rock of a living, loving, lifegiving Saviour. This is our wisdom. We walked alone, guided by human light and aided by human strength, but even youths fail and young men faint; this was our folly. We wait now on the Lord. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. The way of life is above to the wise. It means more -it means that we are above with Christ. Our affections are there, and our hope and strength; for we are risen with Christ. We are not merely justified but renewed, not merely acquitted and delivered, but regenerated and anointed with the spirit of childlike love and gratitude; God has delivered us from destruction, and He has also healed our diseases and put a new song in our mouth. 4. Thus we are constantly departing from hell beneath. Looking unto Jesus-our life above-the eyes of our heart are averted from sin and doubt, from selfishness and worldliness, from hell beneath,— that is, the godless, dark, death-like life; and if we feel our feet entangled in the net, we cannot escape otherwise than by looking at Him, our Saviour who died to deliver us from the fear of death, our Saviour who lives to grant unto us strength of holiness. And as the way of life is above, so we depart from hell beneath. Looking means believing, loving, repenting, working. For the backslider to look at Jesus is to weep and to return. In the neglect of duty, to look is to repent, and to obtain strength and cheerfulness to go and do. In despondency, to look is to be ashamed of our little faith, and to trust in the voice of Jesus, "Fear not." It is a way of life-faith walks in it. When Thou shalt come again, Thou Son of God, from that Heaven to which, after Thy life in humility and sorrow and Thy bitter death on Golgotha, Thou didst ascend,-when Thou, the way of life above to the wise, shalt appear in glory—may we as wise virgins be ready to enter into Thy joy! Meanwhile, seek us, that we may seek Thee, enter into our hearts that we may enter in by Thee and be saved, and go in and out and find pasture. Glory be to the Father who spared not his only-begotten Son, and to Jesus Christ who is the living way, and to the blessed Spirit who reveals to us the Father's love and the grace of the Redeemer, the Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep. Amen. ADOLPH SAPHIR. RETURN! "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.' "Then she put the spinning-wheel by; dressing the boy, and turning the potatoes in a little butter and water in the frying-pan." XIII. SHOWS HOW, BY DINT OF WORK AND PRAYER, KATE FOUGHT THROUGH HONOURABLY AND INDEPENDENTLY. THE first step Kate now took was to sell potatoes, in order to make up the sum due to her landlord. It was a painful necessity. "How we shall we manage, no one can tell," said she; "but the great point is to be allowed to remain on, and as for going sometimes rather hungry to bed, that will not kill me." When it was done, and the money was got together, the potatoes were forgot; the old woman set off cheerfully to her landlord, and paid him. The farmer took the money very readily and complacently. He knew well enough all the time, he said, that the old lady could pay if she liked. The great point was to bring people to their senses, and make them aware who it was they had to deal with. He was one who could see through false pretences, and he flattered himself there were not many who could boast of having got the better of him. He prided himself a great deal upon his pleasant, jocose manner, In but of the pain he gave he had no conception. short, in spite of his free-thinking, money was the only thing he thought of. His wife was infinitely disgusted, but, however, she restrained herself, and only whispered to Kate in passing by: "There was no need for such hurry as this. He may do what he likes, but don't forget that I am here as well." Kate went home in high spirits. "Thank God" she said, "that I can remain here; that is the main point, other things will come round somehow." This was the beginning of a trying time to thousands of households, the members of which were not, like our good Kate in the gleaning fields, thankful to be able to receive charity without offence to God or man. We are alluding rather to those who at the commencement of the winter had still plenty to eat. But how long would this be the case, and then-what then? This anxious thought pressed heavily on their hearts. They were fathers and mothers of families, who had got through life hitherto respectably and without troubling any one. To pass respectably through the world, paying one's way, and troubling no one, is Now, if an individual or a nation be contented to remain at the first and lowest of these two stations, if they become so absorbed in the material as to leave off looking up to Heaven, they sink to the level of ants in a heap of fir spikes, with this only difference, that the ants excite our admiring wonder as fulfilling their destiny, and men our pitying wonder as lamentably missing theirs. Therefore, if it ever happens that the representative of a nation says of it, "Its worship is work," it is in either case a melancholy testimony. If true, the nation occupies a very low level, and it is a misfortune to belong to it; if not true, the nation is to be pitied for having so unworthy a representative, one who does not understand his own people, or discern aright in what manner a man gets through life respectably without troubling any one. endure privation without a murmur, and with full confidence in the hand that clothes the lilies and feeds the birds of the air. It is a glorious sight to see a hero in the battle-field how he breaks through the ranks of his enemies and wrestles for the crown of glory; beautiful to see a ship despising the storm and cutting through the waves; but a far, an infinitely more noble sight still, is that of a true-hearted father or mother struggling with life's cares, with the pressure of poverty, enduring for years, new every morning, often not to end till the last morning that breaks upon them on this earth. Blended with the valiant struggle there is the genuine humility which knows how to receive, never troubles, turns alms to honours, and, spite of alms, passes through life respectably and enters respected into heaven, And as to the heroes who have lost their limbs upon the battle-field, their country's gifts are marks of distinction as well: so should it be with the honest wrestlers with life whose strength is exhausted, who succumb beneath the wounds received; to such, loving assistance should be rather a sign of merit than a disgrace; they have fairly deserved it, let them honourably enjoy it. There are thousands, thank God, of this type; they bravely carry on a hard battle, in which many conquer and many suffer defeat. Of this way of thinking, fortunately for her, was Kate; for if on one hand she now found herself out of debt, on the other she was also without money. The winter lay before her, she had no out-door harvest of any kind to look forward to, and how little the earnings of an old woman amounts to, needs not to be told. And Her chief source of profit was spinning." But ever since calico had so superseded linen, this source had been much diminished; added to which, after many experiments and many failures, manufacturers had at length succeeded in spinning flax by machinery. English thread overflowed Switzerland, little else was used in the market, it was only for domestic purposes that home-spun thread was of any avail, there was hardly any profit to be made by it. As is always the case, however, those who excel in any kind of handicraft will still find some employment, long after all For where there is no prayer, no looking up to Him average labour has ceased to bring in a return. who blesses labour, who has cominanded us to work six at all events, a clever labourer, in whatever departdays and to rest on the seventh, man soon loses all ment it may be, will generally meet with kindly-disenjoyment and all conscientiousness in his working, posed individuals who will be glad to put something and greed and dishonesty is all that remains. It is in his way. There is indeed no excellence which in only the Christian, whose soul has not sunk into a given cases is not its own reward. Kate was one of mere unthinking receptacle for gain, who understands those truly industrious spinstresses who never lose the connection between praying and working, and the any of the weight; who out of a pound of good flax deep meaning that lies in the simple words, getting can spin fifteen, twenty thousand yards, and more if through the world respectably and troubling no one. people like; and whose thread is, in spite of its exWhen a human being prepares to sleep earth's last treme fineness, so strong that the weavers never comsleep, whether a hero or a simple householder, a poor plain of it, which is a bold thing to say of a weaver. widow or a great king, what can be said more satis- So she could still get work, though the profits had factory than this? For this implies the having done become very small. There had been a time when Kate to others as one would be done to, this implies an could spin two thousand yards in a day, and get from industrious application of all gifts and powers to the fourpence to fivepence for each of them. Now that benefit of other members of our race; in short, this her hands had grown stiffer, she could still accomplish implies that spirit from above which is only given as a thousand, but for that she only received threepence; an answer to prayer. Such a one also experiences that or perhaps by extra efforts she might get to a thousand contentment with whatever God appoints that can and a half, and so make fourpence or even fivepence |