TWENTY-NINTH DAY.

The Hour of Death.

LET ET 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.

St. John xiv. 1-3.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and

mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Ps. xxiii.

Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our

earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

2 Cor. iv. 16—v. 9.

M. E. T.

AINTING soul, failing for fear at the thought of

FA

death, haunted by its shadow in the brightness of the day, pursued by its awful inevitable mystery in the watches of the silent night, sorrowing heart, is there no word of comfort for thee in all the Gospel of love? Thy blessed Master, whose whole earthly life was overshadowed by the darkness of His coming agony-hath He left no message for thee?

Hark, what voice is that echoing from an upper room in the city of Peace? Listen, as the words fall calm from the lips of thy divine and loving Lord, hushing to rest the murmurs, the questionings, the strifes of His anxious and bewildered followers :—

'Let not your heart be troubled. . . . 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.'

'I will come again.'-Little did they think who first heard those words, how He would come to them. Το St. James first, with the lightning gleam of Herod's sword; to St. Peter and St. Andrew in the lingering agony of the cross: one by one, to all the faithful band He drew near, as they gladly gave up their lives for the testimony of His truth; and at length to him, the beloved disciple (who now lay upon His breast), and who was called to tarry so many a weary year for His Master's

coming; watching, evening by evening from the shore of his island home, as the glowing tints of an eastern sky faded from the crystal sea, and brought perchance to his mind the vision of 'the sea of glass mingled with fire' which he had seen in the heavenly land: for him also at last the Master came, and the exile was at home for evermore.

And doubt not, O watching, waiting soul, that this promise is also for thee. True, it was spoken individually to each of the apostles, and collectively to the whole Church which the Lord shall gather unto Himself at His second coming ;—and yet thou wert not forgotten: 'On thee and thine, thy warfare and thine end, Even in His hour of agony He thought.'

Art thou not one of those who have believed on Jesus through the words of His apostles ?--then surely thou shalt inherit the promise: 'Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.'

'I will come again.'-He saith not how or when He will come to thee; thou hast but to wait His time, 'to tarry till He come;' but it shall come to pass, 'in that day when the Lord will give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage' of this earthly life, that He will come for thee Himself; and thou, gazing upon that veiled Form, shalt behold, instead of the awful figure of Death, which once had haunted thine imagination,-the blessed countenance of thy divine and adorable Lord; and thou wilt know that He has come to bear thee through the valley of the

shadow, and across the dark waters of the river, even to the Holy Land. Ay, and it may be that the last journey, so dreaded in life, will be the sweetest thou didst ever take, for it will be with Him; it may be that it will be dark, but what matters the darkness, if thou canst feel His hand: it may be hard and toilsome, but what is that, if He is there to help; if only He has come for thee to be thy guide even through death?

But this is not all. Were we called to dwell with Him even in the valley of the shadow for evermore, it were enough for us: but yet another promise is echoing from that still chamber of peace,-'I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also. There, where He abides, in the ineffable glory of Heaven.

Lord Jesus, from the dimness, the perplexities, the uncertainties of earth, to Thee we turn! While many are speculating and disputing concerning the life to come, questioning of its happiness and of its state, we rest on Thee and Thy sure word of promise. Thou wilt ' receive us unto Thyself,' and it will be well; more than this we do not greatly care to know,-that we shall be with Thee. We believe indeed that the future life will be the perfect flower of which this life is the seed; we know that Thou gatherest the wheat into Thy garner,' the corn which we thought was dead; the labours for Thee which seemed to fail; the tender words and cares which we feared were thrown away on earth; the plans for Thy glory which were never realized here; the