who ought to be worshipping with him Sunday after Sunday in the Lord's house? Where are the aged members of his flock who ought to be preparing for their great change, preparing to meet their God? Where are so many who on their sick bed listened to scripture, and warning, and prayer, and promised to serve the Lord better henceforward? Where are the parents who should be setting an example of religious earnestness to their children? Where are those who a little while ago renewed the vows and promises of their baptism, as they knelt to receive the grace of confirmation? Where are all the little ones, the lambs of the Goo 1 Shepherd? I do not mean where are they when the church is open, I mean where are they in God's sight? How do they stand before Him? What effect has their minister's teaching had upon them?

Dear brethren, I believe that one great part of the sorrow which filled the hearts of the Apostles from time to time, one very bitter ingredient in their cup, was the thought that for so many they were labouring in vain; that, do what they would, they could not win souls to love and serve the Lord Jesus, could not win souls to be saved. I am sure it is one great sorrow to Christ's ministers

now-a-days. "We seek not yours, but you." This we pray for, this we labour for, "even your "salvation." You do not always give us credit for this, but it is none the less true. And when any sad outbreak, any great sin, any great disgrace, brings sorrow into a household and danger to a soul, we cannot hear of it, and think of it, and speak of it as if it were no concern of ours. It does concern us. It tells of failure in our work. It tells, I doubt not, of want of diligence, or wisdom, or love in our watching and labour for the souls over whom the Lord has made us overseers. But that thought can only make our sorrow the more bitter.

You, too,

This is but one kind of sorrow. have your share; each his own bitterness in his own circumstances; sorrow which you never thought would fall to your lot, no, not even when in some moment of burning love you declared yourself ready to follow your Heavenly Master anywhere. But do not despise His chastening. And do not faint when you are rebuked of Him. He can bring morning after the darkest night. He can make the sharpest discipline profitable to the soul. For discipline is a draught from His own cup.

If we suffer we shall also reign with Him. That is His promise. He sustained St. James through the sharp pain of the executioner's sword. He sustained St. John through his long weary waiting. So He will always sustain those who trust in Him. Count it as all joy to drink of His cup of suffering, to be baptized, should He permit it, even with His baptism of blood. It may be that so, and only so, He prepares you for the success you have been seeking. It is only by the Cross that you can win the Crown.

LOVE AND DEVOTION TO CHRIST

REWARDED.

(S. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY.)

BY THE EDITOR.

S. LUKE XXII. 28, 29.

"Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed

unto me."

On this twenty-fourth day of August, as directed by our Church, we keep in remembrance S. Bartholomew, one of our Lord's most blessed disciples. And well is it for us to observe such days as these, that the apostles and their deeds may not pass out of our recollection.

But it so happens that there is nothing particular to be learnt from S. Bartholomew's life, as the Bible is almost silent concerning him. We have only the general lesson, that lesson of love and devotion to our Blessed Lord, which we are all so slow to learn, or at least so slow to carry out in our lives.

It must be mentioned, however, that S. BarNo. 16.

tholomew is generally believed to have been the same as Nathanael, whose interesting call we have in the first chapter of S. John's Gospel. And if this be so, as there is very little doubt, then we have Bartholomew brought before us in a very prominent way, and we have the highest testimony borne of him, before he was called to be disciple by Jesus Himself, "Behold an Israelite indeed, "in whom there is no guile!" He is said to have preached the gospel in Armenia, to have converted the Lycaonians, and afterwards to have visited the extreme confines of India. Some authors assert that he was crucified with his head downwards, others that he was flayed alive by order of the king of Armenia, but that he suffered martyrdom of some kind is not disputed.

The Collect sets him before us as a believer in Jesus and a preacher of His Gospel, and teaches us to pray that we may both love the Word which he believed and preach and receive the same.

The Epistle tells us of the power which the disciples in general had and exercised after their Lord's departure, the power of working miraclescuring the sick, casting out unclean spirits. "By "the hand of the apostles were many signs and "wonders wrought among the people."