of a higher and nobler course. Let it but be our will thus to conform to the Divine Will, and to keep on in the path of life with this view of the world, and it will be equal joy to us to go or stay, for we shall walk and hold communion with God wherever we dwell.

If we heed the instruction of the highest philosophy we shall wish to dwell on earth no longer than our appointed time; and at the same time we shall endeavor to follow Christ in his way of spiritual life, which is without end.

"Whoso

The vitality of true life will never cease. ever liveth and believeth in me," says the Saviour, "shall never die." The great and perpetual prayer of our hearts should be, that we may imbibe the spirit of the Saviour, and live forever; that we may believe in him and have everlasting life; that we may follow him in truth and holiness, and practical benevolence; and so live alway in his high road of moral freedom and joy, leading through the world, and stretching onward, and onward, and onward, through the boundless dominion of the angels.

God, in his great love for us, nowhere puts up a barrier to keep us out of his realm of everlasting life. He nowhere bolts the doors of his spiritual kingdom. Even on earth we find these doors, and when we knock they are opened. Even on earth we can begin our journey in that path in which the Saviour walked when an inhabitant of this world in visible form. Here, even as the Saviour and the first disciples were, we can, while being seen and known as inhabitants of this world, yet be above the world, fellow travellers and

worshippers with the angels in the broader and brighter region of spiritual life and blessedness. We have access even while on the earth to a condition above the earth. Though we are surrounded by the forms and circumstances, and are wrought upon and tried by the powers of the world, we can carry ourselves erect in the consciousness that we are superior to all these things, and that there can be no end to this loftiest and happiest life.

And in this how highly are we favored. This life of the kingdom of heaven, inward and eternal, which we may begin here to live, is never a tired, a weary life. Its pleasures never pall. Every day we walk in this life with a freer step. Every year we advance in this life with a manlier and firmer tread. In this life existence is healthy and vigorous. In it our souls are sound and strong. In it we do not pine in discontent, or break our hearts in disappointment. In it we do not waste time and energy in complaint. In it we are not in a condition from which we would escape. On the contrary, we are in a condition of strength, hope, and joy; and our only ambition is that we may continue, that we may go forward in this condition; that our hearts may become livelier, and that our steps may be swifter in this way of lofty spiritual life.

Since there is so much of profitless life, of frivolous life, of sinful, diseased, miserable life in our world, and since all of us know, from more or less bitter experience, what a life of burdens and pains an earthly life is, ought we not, with constantly increasing efforts, and with perpetually augmenting interest and zeal, to rise

above the powers of the world, and keep ourselves in the path of Christian life? Since, too, so many in our world grow sick of life, and see no light, nor love, nor beauty in all God's universe, ought we not, with awakened thought and sharpened vision, to consider the worth of those great truths, whose light has made the world so bright to us, and the way of everlasting life so clear to our sight? And ought we not, in the glory and warmth of these grand lessons, to show our estimation of their meaning and value, by making more earnest exertions, and more rapid improvement, in that bright path in which our great Forerunner leads?

DISCOURSE XIX.

THE FIDELITY OF THE CHRISTIAN WOMAN.

MARK XIV. 8.

SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD.

This is the Saviour's testimony as to the fidelity of one of his earliest followers a woman. She attained a high distinction. How many proud ones of the earth, how many children of wealth, how many rulers and potentates, have lived without winning so lofty a

name.

This woman belonged to the humbler walks of life. She had been a wanderer, and was despised. But un der the moulding and polishing power of the Saviour, she became a new creature, vindicated the greatness and nobleness of her nature, and showed her gratitude for the mercy and compassion of the great Master towards her by doing for his cause and his honor "what she could."

This was noble. Not in the least shrinking from taking an active part in Christian duty, because of her weakness or her uninfluential position, she worked for her Teacher and Guide to the extent of her power.

How grandly, yet unwittingly, she thus attained a wide, enduring, enviable renown. Wheresoever Christ's Gospel is preached in this great world, her love and devotion are regarded with admiration.

"She hath done what she could," said the Saviour. She had not excelled all others, perhaps, in loyalty to the Master's authority. Perhaps she had not equalled many in reverence and love towards the great Prophet of Nazareth. Nor, however, had she served or honored him so poorly as many. In the way of obedience, she had" done what she could."

So, judged by the highest rule, she stood among the best in the kingdom of heaven. The Saviour, looking into her heart, and scanning her motives, regarded her with the profoundest approbation, as he did the poor widow, whose two mites he counted as more in the treasury of the Temple, than all the heavy donations of the wealthy Pharisees.

There were certain men who questioned whether she had made the best disposal of her limited means, when they saw what she had done; who suggested with an air of wisdom and concern, that what she had poured out perhaps the whole of her little wealth- might have been more religiously laid out. The Saviour, however, was not cheated by their parade of piety. He read the thought - the silent language of the soul, and answered them, that she had done for him "what she could," and that this should be told of her, age after age, to the end of time.

This view of the Saviour, reading so correctly the lines of character, and expressing so calmly an unerr