disguises are of no avail. And if ever a sad, distrustful mind, producing timid and wavering steps, comes over us, and life appears too vain and death too awful a thing; it were false in us to submit to such delusion, and listen to such monotony of strain; and we must force ourselves upon the wing away,-fly to the hills of high faith where dwelleth our help,-lose ourselves in the forests of our deepest worship, where blessed birds will sing the songs of heaven to our weary hearts. This inward denial, this resolute self-mastery, is the peculiar service which, as human and not always inclined to the best, yet, as Christians, bound never to do the worse, we are expected to render. Our work must be achieved, if not from momentary love of it, yet from persistent love of God who gives it. Aye, and the burden must be borne, not with elaborate effort, and audible sighs, and pains that self-complacency takes care to reckon; but with a cheerful spirit, that can put the poor obtrusive self aside; with an unsparing mind, that never counts the cost at which a duty must be done; with entire relinquishment of rights, desiring only leave of service; with sedate and tranquil frame, like that of Christ through his last day, which beneath a divine composure concealed a universe of thought. We have fallen, alas! on restless days of too much speech, and few there are that can do a noble thing, and say nothing. But God loves the silent sacrifice; and no offering is stricken for him, unless it bleeds on the

hidden altar of the heart. For his children, struggling faithfully with the burden of life, his heavenly pity is ever on the watch; nor does he leave them long in the languor of a weary mind, but comes himself with the blessed inspiration that renews their strength as the eagle's. There is nothing true in earth or heaven, if it be not a law of his, that holy deed shall end in holy thought and holy love; and patient obedience down upon the dust mature the rapid wings by which to soar and gladly worship at heaven's gate. But let not this be a care to us. It is a selfish religion that grows querulous at its own coldness, and cannot stir the will till it attains a rapture. Our sole business is to abide and serve; to keep our assigned place, and grow. Planted in the garden of the Lord, we cannot fail of healthful sunshine and of ripening dews, and shall not always complain of the bare and graceless branch we put forth to heaven: only let us hold through all seasons to our allotted soil, and strike our secret roots in darkness, and the foliage and the bloom will burst at length, and reproductive fruits drop ripely to the earth.

Meanwhile, what is to sustain our precarious patience? What to help us in the arduous hour? There is no support like that which we feel, when others in our sight have borne their burden well. Who would turn and flee when brothers near fight the good fight, and are resolved to finish their course ?

And as here we sit beneath the cross, we turn our eye upon the Prince of souls; we look on the extremity of trial; we see the sublimest of victories. Let us be of good cheer: the faithful have a living Leader in the heavens.

Communion Address-II.

To any one skilled in interpreting the self-contradictions of the human heart, the little company of Apostles assembled at the last paschal breaking of bread presents a study of rare and profound interest. Complete as the external circle looks, held together by a divine ascendency felt in every part save one, it reveals, to an eye observant of its inner spirit, some struggling elements of unreconciled thought. The discipleship even of that chosen band was still, as it had always been, very imperfect. That wonderful Jesus of Nazareth was a constant perplexity to them; now provoking impatient doubts, and then subduing them to perfect trust; tempting them to think him common, and then kindling them as by a godlike presence; filling them with the glow of promise, and dragging them through the dust of ignominy; quoting the prophets, yet never satisfied to fulfil them. Before his face, beneath the look of that clear eye and at the sound of that winning voice, they were held fast by a mysterious power which they felt it were treachery to disown; which made life appear as a new thing to

them, and brought God closer to them by thousands of years. Nothing could be more absolute than his conquest of their affections, yet nothing more complete than his disappointment of their hopes. He was all that sanctity could aspire to be; but did nothing that the Holy One of God was expected to do. So when they quitted his immediate presence, and were left to their own thoughts, or thrown among their neighbours' taunts,-when they were asked to say, What authorised hope, what splendid sign, led them captive to so poor a prophet';—their mind misgave them and the answer faltered on their lips. They had been told to say, that The kingdom of heaven was at hand'; but it did not look like it, when their Son of Man had not where to lay his head. They had felt in him the traces of a native royalty; yet in the attempt to explain them, these seemed to vanish, and evade their words. For he had thrown every opportunity away: just when his fame was spread abroad, he suddenly wished to be alone; when he might have been king, nothing could please him but a desert place; and when he should have marched upon Jerusalem, he went up among the hills to pray. Who could wonder, that under so ambiguous a lead, they should make such little way? were they indeed awake and in their sober mind? or were they perhaps following the image of a saintly dream, from which they would rise to find that earth was lost and heaven not gained?