this life or in the life to come? We have no need to make the essay. Solomon, the most mighty and the most successful of men, made the trial, and after possessing all that a heart in nature could desire, he tells us, "And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun" (Ecc. ii. 10, 11). What a sad admission for an old man, who yet knew the Lord. "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which

is wanting cannot be numbered. I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit." (Ecc. i. 1—17).

Let us reckon carefully. Put aside from among all the fruits of our activity here below such as are really fruits of the Spirit, that is to say, those only which will abide unto eternal life and which will be reckoned to us before the judgment-seat of Christ. How many a loss shall we not then sustain? Our best intentions, our strongest resolves, our most boasted enterprises, our greatest efforts to attain these will be all mowed down as stubble. If these fruits grew not in the garden of faith, they will not endure the trial by fire; it will consume them. Yet, shall we see in that day, some souls who were, perchance, simple and of no repute here below, crowned there on high, with the abiding fruits: of the Spirit. Many a thousand fine sermons will be burnt up; and poor, pitiful prayers, by tens, will then glitter like the stars, for ever. God recognises and rewards only blessings apprehended and realised by faith. in Christ Jesus. All this is a matter of spiritual intelligence and of communion with God.

The word speaks to us of "fruits of the Spirit," contrasting them with “works of the flesh." Provided that he who sows and he who reaps does so only in the Spirit, he. shall receive a reward, and shall gather fruit unto eternal life. All else will be burned up.

Christ has chosen us, even us also, as I judge, that we may bring forth fruit, and that our fruit may abide. But Jesus is not the vine whence grow our speculations, our resolutions, or our plans for campaigns here below. These thoughts of the natural man have no relationship with the branches of the true Vine, which draw from Christ alone their sap, their leaves, buds, flowers and fruit.

Lastly, "The Day" which draweth near will make

known what the work of each is. It is therefore well and suitable, that we should mutually exhort one another unto love and good works, but only to those which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Nothing can enable me to discern those works, save intimate communion, by the Spirit, with Him who has prepared them. If I see before me works which have not been prepared by God, faith will not give me any impulse thereto. If they have been prepared of God, BUT not for me, faith and the Spirit will both engage me to remain still. And He who is my Judge in all these things is the Lord, to whose glory I desire to live and to die, to be occupied and to be still while I wait upon Him and await His return. I count continually upon the High priesthood of Jesus as to all my faults and failings in this precious service. For if I see that good works are those only which are wrought in God, I see also that the flesh is wily enough to make me miss my opportunities, either by acting after my own thoughts, or by abstaining from entering upon the path which God has prepared for me to walk in.

The last chapter of John's gospel gives us, briefly, various kinds of Christian activity, which were seen in the presence of the Risen Head of the Church. John and Peter especially strike me in this point of view. The former remained quietly in the bosom of Jesus, when Peter would lay down his life for Him, who was to die for him. The crucifixion of the flesh is in practise a thing hard to find. Before the crucifixion, Peter had come towards Jesus in the flesh, and then had followed him. But this Peter, with the best intention in the world, denies Jesus thrice. A flesh weak in itself without strength as to that which is good, and a natural mind, that is to say, one which is always ready to undertake the will of the flesh-was all that law itself could set in movement in man. And therefore also the law condemns the man who is subject to its rule.

But on the other side of the Cross, and on the border of the Land of Promise, the calm, yet energetic spirituality of John, recognised at a distance the Lord. Would Peter have cast himself into the sea, if he had

not heard John say, "It is the Lord"?

John continues

at work all the while he is going to meet Jesus. His spirituality is indeed the cause, or at least, the occasion, of Peter's activity, and yet (while everything here is exactly in its right place), John acts as much as Peter, and in a sense, he acts even more usefully. Yet the moment the Lord bids bring of the produce of the fishing, it is Simon Peter who, already refreshed and restored by the contemplation of the risen Jesus, boards the boat and puts the finishing stroke to the work of power.

Before the crucifixion, Peter was not able to follow Jesus, although, with his whole soul, he was willing to pledge himself thereto. But the knowledge of the cross has, now, given to Peter the power of following Jesus with joy, even whither Peter had no will to go. The crucifixion of the flesh, and the spirit of childlike obedience, are what grace has obtained for the redeemed, whom it thus saves by sanctification of the Spirit.

John followed Jesus without needing an order to do so. His happiness was to keep close to his Master. The Lord on his part, knowing how this faithful disciple counted upon his love, manifests His confidence in him in this very thing, that He gives not to him, as to Peter, an order to follow him. Peter, on the contrary, just barely recovered from his fall, had need of all the visible proofs of the tender vigilance of Jesus; and the Good Shepherd withholds them not from him.

recog

In John we see the confidence and the simplicity of love. Though he makes little noise, he always follows Jesus. He incessantly expects Him, and thus he nises Him even before the most zealous disciples: it is only his intimate acquaintance with Jesus which gives him this advantage. Love is calm, and finds its enjoyment in its object. John passes through few painful experiences like those of Peter. The perfect love of Jesus banishes all fear from his disciple; it slays also the activity of the flesh.

John is neither jealous of Peter nor restless about his brother, who is on his way to death. Peter, on the contrary, disquiets himself about John, who, the meanwhile is occupied solely about Jesus, and remains perfectly calm

and at rest, even while following the Master, whom it was his habit to listen to and gaze upon.

We are never adequately filled with the conviction that we are nothing, and that Jesus is all. And hence we commonly resemble scholars who display an immense diligence in tracing a quantity of lines, among which the master's eye will, with difficulty, accept two or three passably good uprights. Thus the beginning of the end is always in casting all the copy books aside, whereas by more attentively considering the model we should undertake fewer lines and fewer pages, but we should do more honour to the copy and to the teacher.

"When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek" (Ps. xxvii. 8). "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee" (Ps. lxxiii. 25). The above is translated from a paper in "Etudes Scripturaires," and is signed, J. B. ROSSIER.

Sully, 31st May, 1852.

A HYMN.

My soul, come bless the Lord,

And praise His holy name :

Forget not all His benefits,

Nor Him from whom they came

Complete in Him thou art,

In whom God's fulness dwells;
All principality and power,

He, Head of all, excels.

In Him you're circumcised,

Or in the flesh you'd be;

Not circumcision made with hands,
But Christ's has set you free.

Buried with Him art thou;

And risen with Him too;

For God who raised Him from the dead,
Is known by faith to you.

With Christ your life is hid
In God; then do not fear;

When Christ appears, then we with Him,
In glory shall appear.

My soul, come bless the Lord,
And praise His holy name;
And ne'er forget His benefits,
Whose love is e'er the same.

From the MSS. of T. T. Ed.