2. We meet with so much trial and pain, life is so full of trouble-therefore God has forsaken us. But behold the martyrs, behold the Master Himself in His passion. Is it desertion of God to be brought into such company?

3. We are so cruelly tempted. Why is Satan permitted thus to buffet us? One cannot always answer that, but one can behold that Evil One assailing the Master in Gethsemane. To share Christ's portion is not to be deserted. To Him indeed only the loss of consciousness of the divine nearness and love was "forsaking". Yet let us never fancy we need endure even that when He has passed through it before us, and returned to abide with us always.

CXIV.

"And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."-St. Mark xvi. 15-18.

Exposition.-Isaac Williams comments as follows: "The expression creature here is remarkable. St. Paul says the same, the Gospel which was preached to every creature which is under heaven. And quite in harmony with this, in another place, he speaks of the creature being made subject unto vanity; that every creature, or the whole creation, groaneth and travaileth in pain together; and that if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. And all of this is beautifully set forth throughout the Scriptures, where the sufferings of all creation are bound

up together with fallen man; and the final separation between the good and the evil, is prefigured in the distinctions of animals, the clean and unclean, let down in the sheet from heaven in the vision of St. Peter; and of which this expression, in St. Mark, strongly reminds one, for that was to teach St. Peter the same in figure, that the Gospel must be preached to every creature. All this contains a secret allusion of exceeding interest, as setting forth Him Who takes off the curse from all suffering nature, which suffers in man, and is Himself called the First-born of every creature. Thus as the sufferings of creation, in the guilt of man, are seen in the fast of Nineveh, which extended to beast, and herd, and flock, so, in the redemption of man, the creature also is released, and partakes of his sabbath. Therefore the very expression itself, in which it is spoken figuratively, is full of mystery and meaning; the very difficulty, in which it appears at first involved, tends to edification; secretly, as it were, suggesting to us, that all creation shall be in Christ restored. That, as the first Adam had dominion given him over the beasts of the field, this shall be, in a fuller and diviner way, bestowed in the last Adam; Who shall have dominion not only over them, but over those also, in the spiritual world, of which they were the emblems and types; as it

is afterwards expressed by St. Mark, they shall cast out devils; they shall take up serpents; or, as in prophecy, they shall tread upon the adder. For Christ hath bruised his head, and in Him they overcome the serpent who was more subtle than any beast of the field, and in whom the beasts of the field have gained advantage over man."

He quotes St. Gregory also: "Are we then without faith, because we cannot perform these signs? Nay, but these things were necessary in the beginning of the Church, for the faith was to be nourished by miracles, that it might increase. Thus, when we plant shrubs, we pour water over them, till we see that they have grown strong in the earth; and, when once they have fixed their roots, we leave off irrigating them. Holy Church does every day spiritually, what then through Apostles she did bodily; for when her priests, through the grace of exorcism lay their hands on believers, and forbid evil spirits to dwell in their minds, what do they but Icast out devils? Believers who have left off worldly conversation, and whose tongues give utterance to holy mysteries, and set forth the praise of their Creator, speak a new language. While, by good exhortations, they remove evil from the hearts of others, they take up serpents; when they hear pestilent persuasions, and yet

are not led aside to evil doing, they drink a deadly thing which hurts them not; when they see their neighbours becoming weak in good works, and by their good example strengthen them, they lay their hands on the sick that they may recover. And these miracles are greater in that they are spiritual; and souls thereby, not bodies, are raised."

The

Bengel says: "Preach the Gospel to every creature, to man in the first instance, but in a secondary sense to all creation. The blessing extends as far as the curse had done. creation of all things by the Son is the foundation of their redemption and of His kingdom. . . . The word and faith precede the working of miracles. The same state of mind which saved Paul worked his miracles too. Even in our days, faith has a hidden miraculous power in every believer. Even though it may not appear so, every result gained by prayer is in fact miraculous; for it is not merely because the Church is now planted (although in truth by the first miracles under the New Testament dispensation the Lord Jesus Christ hath made to Himself an everlasting name); but it is because men are weak and the world unworthy, that the old miraculous power does not show itself in our own day. Miracles were at first the support, they are now the object, of faith.