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unity of His Church, begins to be manifested.

Our

prayers, joined unto His prevailing intercession, begin to be answered. Nor does prayer plead alone. Each act of missionary labor, each deed of faith, each bearing of poverty and loss in foreign lands, each act of self-denial, known or unknown, each victory over the world, the flesh, or the devil, each act of self-surrender in any brave young heart, all unions and associations for any Christian work, each offered Eucharist, each sincere confession, each life devoted unto God-these works for Christ join and blend with the prayers, and bring nearer and nearer the day when all shall be at one again, and the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ. Nor is this all. There are other voices which plead and must be heard by the Judge of all. From those faroff lands where the name of Christ is never named, no prayers are prayed, no sacramental rites are offered-from those who live up to the light and knowledge that they have, and who long for more, from children dying, unstained as yet save by the common burthen of us all, a cry of helpless misery and innocence is going up to God. It is louder than the heartless prayers of Christians; it is mightier than the intercession of worldly churches. It pierces the clouds of heaven. It mingles with the ceaseless raptures of the angels. It is caught into the loving bosom of the Saviour of men, and wails in its lament, before the throne of the Father of all. Nor yet from heathen lands alone, nor from the toil-worn Church, which, with banners torn and weapons blunted, sways to and fro in the agony of the contest, but from that land where all is over, the battle done, and the souls in peace-from the Church at rest in Paradise, from the company of the

elect, from the saints beneath the altar-goes up the ceaseless petition, checked by no discord, harmed by no disunion, its power lessened by no sin: "Lord, how long? Lord, how long?" And evermore, above them all, and mingling with them all, and making them powerful with a power not their own, the prayer of Jesus, "That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me."

Soon the day will dawn, soon the New Jerusalem descend, soon the Bride be ready for the Bridegroom! It is not a question of days and months and years. It depends not on the changes of centuries and generations. It is as near at one time as another. Whenever the mystical number of the elected is completed, whenever that which is behind, of the sufferings of Christ in His body the Church, is accomplished, then will He present it to Himself a glorious Church, no longer torn and divided, but without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Remember, beloved, each offered Eucharist, prayer and fasting, labor and toil, penitence and tears and devotion, giving up all things, and the bearing of persecution and contumely-these bring nearer and nearer the unity that is to be, the conversion of the world which Christ promises, the unending joy of the faithful.

XII.

THE HIDDEN LIFE.

(Preached at Racine College, winter of 1870.)

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known."-ST. LUKE xii., 2.

THESE Words of our blessed Lord seem to have been uttered on two or perhaps more occasions. They appear to have meant at one time what the Psalmist said, "Commit thy way unto the Lord, and put thy trust in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall make thy righteousness as clear as the light, and thy just dealing as the noonday." In the passage from which the text is taken they seem to have a meaning the very opposite of this; for He was bidding His disciples beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, which is hypocrisy ; and then, in solemn warning, He adds, "For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; nor hid, that shall not be known."

In these two opposite senses, St. Paul appears almost to have been commenting on the words when he warned the Corinthian Christians to "judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light

the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God"; or in those very solemn words to St. Timothy, "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise can not be hid.”

First of all, in one sense, the words were true of our Saviour Himself. He was the brightness of His Father's glory, the express image of His person. In Him was hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He was the Word of God, who was with God, and who was God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; upholding all things by the word of His power. All this He was when he lay, a babe in His Mother's arms, and went down to Nazareth, and was subject to His parents, and increased in wisdom and stature. But the glory was a hidden glory. He was God manifest in flesh; and because manifest in flesh, the majesty and splendor of His Godhead were, so to speak, covered. Always the same eternal, unchangeable God, men did not apprehend Him. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Even His Blessed Mother, who, of all other mortals, had had the most revealed unto her, only seemed to realize His Divinity, as it were, by degrees. Nor was it otherwise with His apostles.

Something they must have felt of His everlasting might, when they heard the tones of His voice, or gazed into His countenance, or beheld Him transfigured before them. Much they must have realized when at His bidding the lepers were cleansed, and the sick were healed;

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when He trod upon the waters, and rebuked the winds. and waves; when He multiplied the loaves and fishes; and when, at His bidding, the shrouded form of Lazarus came forth from the sepulchre, a living man. When upon the cross He hung, and-not with the feeble wail of the dying, but with the loud cry of the conqueror-He bowed His head and gave up the ghost-even the centurion said, Truly, this man was the Son of God." St. Thomas's words, when at His Master's bidding, after the Resurrection, he put his finger into the print of the nails, and thrust his hand into His side, and cried, "My Lord and my God," must have been the expression of every disciple. When they saw Him ascending-when the clouds of angels received Him-when the voice proclaimed, “This same Jesus who is taken from you, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven"-they knew Him as the King of glory, whom the heavens were to receive until the times of the restitution of all things; but it was not until the Holy Ghost descended in tongues of flame, that the full glory was manifested in their hearts. Then all things were brought to their remembrance; then were they led into all truth. Before, they had seen and heard Him; now, they were one with Him, and He with them before, they had hesitated and wavered; now, they were ready to die for Him. Then was that which had been covered revealed, and that which was hidden known.

The same thing has been true of Christ's presence in the world and in the Church ever since. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He rules the world, and uses all things as He will. Empires rise and fall, kings come and go, nations change, and boundaries; there are victories and defeats, there is progress and retrogression.