cousin Simeon, who has gone to take up his abode at the temple in Jerusalem,-in the hope that redemption draweth nigh, and that his aged eyes, though far dimmer than mine with years, may see God's salvation ere he depart. I do look up daily-looking for and hasting unto the coming of my Lord; and it would not surprise me to hear on any morning, when we go into our ancient town of Bethlehem, that the Deliverer has come. But, my son, while this is the case, and while I can almost think that my own fleshly eyes may behold the Lamb of God bearing the sin of the world, it is of no little moment for you to bear in mind that it is still more important for us to behold him with the eyes of faith." "Pardon me, pardon me, for interrupting you, my father,the eyes of faith-what do you mean?"

"The interruption needs no pardon, my son," replied the old worthy; "it is indeed delightful to me. I rejoice to explain to you what I mean by Beholding the Saviour with the eyes of faith. All the best things in the universe are invisible to the eyes of flesh. God is invisible. Goodness is invisible. Love is invisible. Happiness is invisible. Heaven is invisible, and the way to Heaven too. Even when the Messiah shall have come into our world-God manifest in the flesh,-the best part of his glory will be invisible to the fleshly eyes of those who behold him. I can even suppose that some, when they look upon him, may be disappointed and say,-We see no beauty in him that we should desire him. And indeed, my Son, when you consider the matter broadly, you will see that it is well that the best things about the Messiah should be invisible to the fleshly eyes. For it will not be many who shall be able to look upon him with the eyes of the flesh. Myriads upon myriads have already died, and seen him not in this outward way. And yet thousands upon thousands, out of these myriads, have seen him,—seen him with the eyes of faith. Your own mother, for instance, my son. You remember her death-bed scene, though you were then but a little boy. I sat beside her, and you were standing at my knee. I was speaking to her about the great Saviour promised to the fathers. I was telling her that he would come and would not tarry. I reminded her of what God, through the mouth of Isaiah has promised: that he will be wounded for OUR transgressions, and bruised for OUR iniquities, bearing the chastisement of OUR peace, that by his stripes WE may be healed, for, says the prophet, all we like sheep have gone astray-we shepherds can understand that-we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.-I SEE IT, I SEE IT, exclaimed your dying mother;-AND I SEE HIM, HIM, AND LO MY SINS ARE ON HIM. As she uttered these words, light shone over her face, and she expired."

"O my father," exclaimed the listening youth, "you touch the tenderest chord that vibrates in my memory. I remember the scene. I remember my mother's words. I have often remembered them. How could I forget them? But now, for the first time, I understand them. It was with the eyes of faith that my mother saw the great Deliverer; and thence the glory that shone over her face, and that beamed from it, even after the spirit had departed. Let me repeat the words,-I think I could appropriate them as my own :-I SEE IT, I SEE IT; AND I SEE HIM, HIM I; AND LO MY SINS ARE ON HIM. I understand now clearly that it must be more important to behold the great Redeemer with the eyes of the mind and to welcome him into the soul with the words of the heart, than to look upon him with the eyes of the flesh, and to speak to him with the words of the mouth."

"And yet," resumed the venerable sage, "it is possible for us to behold him with the eyes of faith, just because we have a testimony, the promise of Him who will not and who cannot lie, that the Messiah will come, "God manifest in the flesh," the Son of God, and the Seed of the woman to bruise the head of the serpent, the seed of father Abraham, the Son of David. Unto us a child shall be born, unto us a son shall be given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Councillor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace, Immanuel. Aye, and a virgin shall bring him forth; and what is more, Come when he will, he will make his appearance in our own Bethlehem-Ephratah, which, though little among the thousands of Judah, is to be the honoured birthplace, as Micah informs us, out of which He is to come forth who is to be ruler in Israel. My soul gets wrapped up, as in a holy ecstasy, when I think on these things, and that possibly the fulness of the time is at hand."

While the aged shepherd was thus speaking-a gleam of glory shot across the sky. "There is lightning," exclaimed simultaneously all the young ones of the group. The aged patriarch too had felt the effect of the flash, and he lifted up his eyes, scaning the heavens. Starting to his feet, he said tremulously,-"No, brethren, no. This is not lightning. It stays. Lo! it over-arches us. It over-canopies us." By this time all had risen to their feet; and the youth was holding convulsively by the arm of the elder in Israel who had been explaining the gospel to him. He cried out "My father, my father, let me closer to you, let me closer. Is it God coming to judgement? I exceedingly fear and tremble. What shall I do?"

"I too, my son," said the patriarch, "feel a tremor in my heart, - and my knees are shaking. I cannot understand. I cannot stand. But I will trust though he slay me. Let us down on our

knees. Let us lower still,-down on our faces, and pray, commending ourselves to His promised grace. For his mercy will not fail. It endureth for ever."

Immediately they all prostrated themselves in silent supplication. Their hearts beat full and fast.

Some moments passed-an interval of awful suspense. Then there comes down upon their ears a voice, sweeter and heavenlier in its tones by tens of thousands of times than all the sweetest and heavenliest of voices which they had ever heard before. Hark what it says "FEAR NOT!" The sounds fall like inspiration. Their music inspires them with instant courage. They reverently rise to their knees and look up. There is an angel in the centre of the glorious light that over-canopied them, and he says again, in the sublimest and most loving tones, "FEAR NOT!" Then he adds-"FOR LO I BRING YOU GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY, WHICH SHALL BE TO ALL PEOPLE, FOR UNTO YOU IS BORN THIS DAY IN THE CITY OF David, a SavioUR, WHICH IS CHRIST THE LORD. AND THIS SHALL BE A SIGN TO YOU; YOU SHALL FIND THE BABE, WRAPPED IN SWADDLING CLOTHES, LYING IN A MANGER."

The countenances of the shepherds were radiant. Heaven and rapture were in the eyes of the patriarch, and he was thinking in his heart that the Lord would soon let him depart in peace, since his very eyes were about to see the salvation of God. He turned a holy, kindly, and yet ecstatic look upon the dear youth who had been questioning him, and whose faith had just begun to germinate within his spirit. The youth threw his arms around the patriarch's neck, and kissed him; and then, still locked in each others' embrace, they looked again toward the heavenly messenger, who was radiantly expressing, by the most beneficent smiles, his own high joy at once over the scene that was spread out before him, and over the glad tidings of which he was the glad bearer.

Immediately, all around the angel, there seemed to be life in the light. Forms of glory came out to view. A chorus was revealed, stretching out on this side and on that; but every face was toward Bethlehem. They had harps of something far grander than gold, and with voices, that were instinct with the sublimest sounds of music, they praised and sang, "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN." They repeated it, and re-repeated it, and repeated it again;-their voices rising more loftily, and swelling out more gloriously at each repetition. The shepherds were enraptured. They knew not whether they were in, or whether they were out of, the body. They seemed to be as on a mount of transfiguration.

They felt as if they were within the very margin of heaven. That morn, indeed, was the bridal morn of earth and heaven. It was the bridal morn of humanity and divinity. UNTO US WAS BORN THAT DAY A SAVIOUR, CHRIST THE LORD. This is A GOOD SPELL. It is THE GOSPEL.

PRACTICAL EXPOSITION

OF THE FOURTH CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.

Verse 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

WHEN the inspired writer says "Let us therefore fear," he leads our minds to look back upon what he had been saying in the immediately preceding context. In that context he had been solemnly warning his Hebrews against apostasy from the God of the gospel. He had exhibited to them, in the graphic representations of Old Testament diction, the terrific consequences of apostasy. All they who depart from the living God-in heart, in soul, in mind, in thought-shall be assimilated in doom to those ancient Jews, concerning whom "God sware in his wrath, that they should not enter into his rest." Their "carcases fell in the wilderness." They did not get to that goodly land, which had been conditionally promised to them as their home. "Let us therefore fear," says the inspired writer, "lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." What happened to the Jews of old is a beacon-event. A lesson should be learned from it. The great principles of God's procedure are the same in all ages; and hence, by considering what transpired in former times, we may draw for ourselves moral inferences, which shall be useful to us in our relation to the times in which, and to the circumstances amid which, we live, and move, and have our being.

"Let us therefore fear." It is a peculiar exhortation ;—not fitted for every relationship in which we may stand, but yet peculiarly and pre-eminently fitted for us in some of our relationships. It is not meant that we should give ourselves up to fear. If we did, we should be in a condition of intolerable torment," (1 Jo. iv. 18); and we cannot suppose for a moment that the inspired writer would exhort us to dive into that thicket. It cannot be his meaning that we should suffer fear to

We

overspread and interpenetrate our whole mind, and fill it. cannot suppose that he could wish us to banish all other feelings from our souls, and to give to fear a monopoly of the whole emotional element of our spirits. He did not, and he could not mean, that we should cease to hope, that we should cease to love, -that we should cease to adore and aspire,-that we should cease to rejoice "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." This could not be his meaning. He was of one opinion with Paul, who has commanded us to "rejoice evermore," and who has assured us that "love is the fulfilling of the law," and that it is consequently our duty to love evermore. The inspired writer, in short, knew well that in the vessel of our mind there are many commingling elements of feeling, and that it is hence quite possible for us to be conscious, at one and the same moment, of love toward one object and of hatred toward another, and, amid our overflowing rejoicings, to have an element of fear.

God, we presume, cannot fear, though he loves and rejoices, and mourns to see what is sorrowful, and hates what is evil. Fear implies some degree of ignorance,-ignorance in relation to the future. It would seem to be impossible, therefore, for God to fear. But we should imagine that every other moral being in existence can fear, and does fear. Even the most hardened of the wicked, who, as a general rule, do not fear to transgress the commandments of God, and to set at defiance the opinions and judgements of men, find limits in their consciousness to their foolhardy fearlessness; and when, either in thought or in reality, they come into close contact with God as their Judge, or with men as their overpowering and exasperated foes, they know what it is to quail. Conscience makes cowards of all such bravadoes, when the time of real trial comes rushing in upon them, like an armed man, or like an army with banners. And, as for good men, they are in multitudes of places within the Book, described as they who "fear God." They do not indeed fear to meet God. They do not fear to meet him consciously throughout life, or to meet him consciously at death. "Being justified by faith they have peace with God." They rejoice in the Lord, and rejoice with joy unspeakable in the hope of rising up to be with Him for ever in his celestial glory. Nevertheless they fear Him. A reverent awe is on their spirits in relation to him. They fear lest they should offend Him, or do anything to cause displeasure or vexation within his infinitely loving heart. Their love for Him has ever something running through it, that vibrates with a tender tremor. The love of all imperfect beings has a tremor in it, when it goes out in great intensity to those who are greatly sensitive on the one hand and greatly esteemed on the other. There is a fear lest something or other may be said or