TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY.

The Coming of Christ.

FEAR not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: : for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think

not.

St. Luke xii. 32-40.

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Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I

said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

St. John xvi. 22.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the

Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I Thess. iv. 13-18.

The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

2 Thess. iii. 5.

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. St. James v. 7,

8.

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T. V. FOSBERY.

HE voice that should speak the fullest comfort to the heart is the voice of our blessed Lord Himself. And yet His words, echoed again and again by His apostles, are here of a theme so awful, that we could never have sought in it solace or cheer, had He not graciously led us to it.

We might have found in it those inducements to watchfulness and to a careful guarded life, on which He and they have in many places dwelt. But we never should have dared to take it to our hearts as a secret source of joy, amidst the disquietudes of our daily life, had He not taught us to do so. For it is no other than His own Coming again: the Lord of the Vineyard to his husbandmen; the Master of the house, yea the King, to His servants, that they may give Him account.

And yet, taking in connexion one with another the passages contained in the last two pages of Holy Scripture, it is impossible to doubt that our Lord means us to find both peace and joy in looking forward to His appearing. Sinners as we are, with memories of so many transgressions clinging to us, we yet are invited to find our springs of comfort here. And therefore, if we are, however insufficiently, yet truly loving Christ, and in the midst of all our shortcomings, faults, and failures, are yet having our loins girded, and our lights burning, we may, nay, we ought, to rejoice in this blessed prospect. If indeed the coming of our Lord were presented to us as but a means to an end, though that end was most glorious, our anticipations might rest perchance on that, and not on Him. The varied joys of a future state might rise up between us and Him. But His own words bring us from all else to Himself. 'That where I am, there ye may be also.' Yes, this is the crowning joy, this the central happiness.

See how it is with us now. We are ourselves centres, but it is of suffering. From every part of the circum

The

ference shafts of pain are directed against us. arrows pour in on all sides; and many are barbed, and many are poisoned. Grief and loss, anguish and fear; while meantime the heart is perhaps our saddest, bitterest ill.'

But this bright faith in the coming of the Lord is an ample shield against all these. Were we evermore to

use it, how many such shafts would be blunted or broken. Here is a stinging grief! 'Yes, but I shall not feel it long, the Lord is at hand.' Here is the spectre of a terrible apprehension! 'Yes, but it will vanish in the light of His presence.' Here is a cruel disappointment! 'Yes, but He is coming to me, who is the fulfilment of my highest hope.' 'Surely, I come quickly; Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus.'

ALMIGHTY GOD, the coming of whose only begotten Son in time past we believe, and for whose second coming in the last day to judge the world we look and wait, we beseech thee to free us from all defilements of sin, and preserve in us watchful spirits, that, being found with our loins girded and our lamps burning, we may, when the Heavenly Bridegroom cometh, enter with Him into His joy, through His merits. Amen.

ANCIENT COLLECT.

GRANT, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, this grace

unto Thy people, to wait with all vigilance for the coming of Thine only begotten Son; that as He, the Author of our salvation taught us, we may prepare our souls, as shining lamps, to meet Him, through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.