Scripture, "Seek, and ye shall find." Mary had beheld the patience of her Lord; she had heard his words; she had witnessed his divinity in his miracles; but she had lost him-lost his presence, his preaching, his love, so dearly exercised towards her in his life; and now she had lost his body also. Yet he was very mindful of her: and about to do exceeding abundantly for her, above all that she could ask or think. She thought only of obtaining from the angels the dead body of her Lord, which they guarded in the tomb; and lo, the living Redeemer Himself stands near her, though she knows it not. Very often does it happen, in the checquered experience of Christian life, that while the Lord's disciples are mourning, in a spirit of bondage, which shews how imperfectly they see the precious truths of salvation, or apprehend their own nearness to Him, in whom these truths are all yea and Amen, He is just about to manifest himself to them, as He doth not unto the world, and to turn their mourning

into joy-a joy which no man taketh from them. Mary knew the love she bare her Lord. She could not but know, moreover, the interest which He had felt towards her, for it had been dearly and unequivocally expressed yet can she not find Him.

And are there not many, the desire of whose souls is to his name, and to the remembrance of Him, and who have experienced, in no slight degree, that He is gracious, who yet cannot realize the nearness of his presence; whose eyes are holden, like Mary's, that they cannot see Him, nor know, with any clearness and fulness of the Spirit's witness, that He is formed within them the hope of glory. The very tears of godly sorrow which bedim their eyes, hinder them for a time from seeing Him, and from the enlarged happiness of that spiritual perception. But He will not leave them comfortless; He will come again, and their heart shall rejoice, and their joy no man taketh from them. O if any of you have been sorrowing after

this godly sort, as something hath for a time separated between you and communion with your Lord, remember that sense, in you, as in Mary, may be no judge of that absence, which you do well to bewail. The acts of his love may seem to be withdrawn; but his love itself is still the same, unchangeably and for ever. Jesus is often standing by, when you know not that it is Jesus; and He may have wise, weighty, and gracious reasons (probably to be disclosed in the present state-assuredly in the light of perfect revelation,) for holding your eyes awhile, that you cannot see Him. If you are thus walking in darkness, trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon your God; and in good time He will make your darkness to be light.

The first discovery which the soul makes of its Saviour, comes not from its own power of spiritual perception, which is mere and absolute darkness, but from his disclosure. It is the same, when He seems to have withdrawn Himself for a while from

the hearts of his disciples. He must not only approach them again, in the absolute freeness of his own grace; but He must open the eye again to discern Him, by that process of his own love, wherewith He enlightens the soul: and this very important truth, in that science of that salvation, which the spirit of God alone can teach, will be manifest in considering,

II. THE QUESTION PUT BY OUR LORD TO MARY MAGDALENE. He had satiated the weary soul,-weary with the burden of sin, by the great atonement upon Mount Calvary. He had replenished every weary soul, from the fulness of that fountain, opened in Him, for sin and for uncleanness. He had awakened from the short slumber of his sabbath in the grave; and his sleep had been sweet to Him, because by it as the unequivocal evidence of his atoning passion, He had destroyed death, and him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and had opened the kingdom of heaven to all

He

believers. There had been a blessedness and a sweetness, even in the recollection of the grave: because in his triumph over it all his disciples had been concerned. He had risen from the dead to live, and to give life; and He is still the same compassionate Redeemer, as when He displayed his immeasurable love in crucifixion. is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." The grave could not make Him forgetful, either of his own nature, or of the wants of his disciples. His affections were still as human as before; though he had been anew declared to be the Son of God, with power, by the resurrection from the dead.

truly said, that there is no

no pause in the love of Jesus.

It hath been

interruption, In reading

that volume, there are no stops, not a

comma, but what we but what we

And if, at any time, we

the bottom of a page,

make ourselves.

find ourselves at

filled with the

manifestations of Him and of his love, it is only to turn the leaf, and the same blessed