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It was, however, a work of time firmament. The neighbours were to get ribbons and ruffles back sent to, and inquiries were made in where they belonged, and gradu- all directions, but nothing could be ally, as she went on with it, Madame heard of the little wanderer. Kent grew composed; she even put the finishing touch upon her smiled, as she folded up her shawl, aunt's anxieties, Hagar's mischief at some old recollection, and said of a son, who had been away crabto herself,bing, came home in the evening, and observed coolly, that he had seen "Miss Julie sitting by herself in the old boat by the summerhouse, about five o'clock in the evenin'."

"How much this performance is like brother Theodore! Poor fellow, how he would have enjoyed it! I ought not to blame Julie so much after all. She has been used to petting and caressing, and a child has been an interruption in my life for which I haven't had patience enough. I'll go and find her, and comfort her."

"Had any of them seen their Miss Julie ?"

They all declared that they had not, except old Hagar, the cook, who said that the child had stopped a moment at the kitchen - door, where she was sitting after dinner, to say,

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'Mighty easy to unfasten it, Miss Cornelia; I expect she's sailed off in it."

Easier said than done. Madame's call of "Julie, Julie!" in the The truth was as Peter had garden was unheeded. She ex- imagined. Going down the garden plored the house, looked in the walk, full of angry determination, wide, old-fashioned window-seats, and only anxious to do something in parlour, library, and dining- which should take her away from room, went herself to the little her aunt, whom at the moment she girl's own chamber, and finally hated, the little girl had espied the called the servants to ask,boat, had unloosened, without much trouble, its clumsy fastenings, and had drifted off with the outgoing tide. Most children would have been afraid, but Julie, feeling that she was misunderstood, and that she had been insulted, and feeling besides the pain of having brought the whole trouble on herself, did not feel, just then, afraid in the least. The boat, borne on the soft bosom of the wave, moved with the gentlest of motions between the green beautiful shores that very gradually grew farther apart, and long before it had glided from the river into the rougher grasp of the bay, the little voyager, worn out with passion and wretchedness, had fallen fast asleep.

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Good-bye, Hagar, I'se goin' away now. I'se such a trial to aunt Cornelia, she can't stand it no longer, and no more can I."

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Why didn't you detain her, Hagar?" said Madame, now quite alarmed. "You ought to have kept her."

"Laws, mistress," replied Hagar, "I didn't suspect it was anything more than her fun. She's playing about with her doll somewhere you may depend."

But all search for Julie was in vain. Twilight came, and the sunset glory burned in the sky, the roseate and amber hues faded and paled, and the stars came out one by one, like lamps in the dark blue

Some fishermen, coming in with their seines heavily laden with the spoils of the sea, saw the little boat adrift. Great was their astonishment when they discovered what freight it bore, and still greater when one of them, looking intently on the little black-robed figure, and

the bonnetless head with the tangle says, "Provoke not your children of brown ringlets, observed,― to wrath," the niece learned to "I'm dumbfoundered if 'taint keep more fully, in the letter and that ere little niece of Madame's!" the spirit, the fifth commandment. They carried her home, some- And so Madame Kent's trial came where between midnight and morn- in time to be, instead, the delight ing. Madame Kent received her of her days and the pride of her "trial" back to her arms with so heart. cordial a welcome, that all the good In the long run there is nothing in the child's nature wakened to like love. If you love a child, you gratitude. They got on much can win it to obedience, and all the better after the little episode of gentler virtues, far more easily which I have told, because while than, not loving, you can drive it in the aunt took to heart a certain the same direction, precept addressed to parents, which

THE ETERNAL PRIEST.

BY THE REV. W. H. KING.

"Another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life."-Heb. vii. 15, 16.

OUR Lord Jesus Christ is the Light and the Life of His people. He is the central orb of the divine system of mercy, at once the source of the light which floods the Church, and the centre of power on which, by the attraction of faith and love, every member of it depends. If there be vital union with Christ, then we may walk in His light and be upheld by the divine energy of His all-pervading Spirit, but if there be no union with Him, the attraction of faith and love be unfelt, then the human soul, like a star forced from its orbit, flies off into the blackness of darkness for ever.

If Christian life and hope, the spiritual well-being of the present, and the hope of the future, depend wholly upon the power and grace of the Saviour, what evidence have we that He is able to keep that which we have committed to Him? Is the foundation on which we are resting strong enough to sustain all that we build upon it? To answer this or some such question seems to be the aim of this portion of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is the breadth and reality of Christ's divine authority, which the apostle most distinctly shows in the whole of his exposition of the nature and unchangeableness of Christ's spiritual priesthood. There is no "infirmity" to mar the graciousness or limit the universal authority of His priestly work : "He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." The unimpeachable authority and unlimited power of Christ as the great Head of His Church arises out of, and is proved by the fact, that, as a Priest, He is "made not after the law of a carnal com. mandment, but after the power of an endless life."

The subject which the text indicates is twofold.

I. The nature of the power on which the authority of Christ's priesthood rests.

The terms

and

The text suggests a double contrast between the priests of the old dispensation, and Christ the one eternal Priest of the new. in which that contrast is expressed are very significant suggestive. The priests of the Jewish system were made "after the law of a carnal commandment ;" that is, they were constituted by the authority of a law, which in its very nature was transitory, belonging to this fleshly order of things. Their authority, therefore, rested on an ordinance which was "carnal," that is, transient and temporary, and their power was entirely circumscribed by the limits of the commandment in virtue of which they were ordained. On the other hand, Christ was made a Priest, "not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life." Here we see the double contrast. The power of Christ is contrasted with the law in virtue of which the human priest was appointed, and the "endless life" of Christ is contrasted with the carnal, that is, temporal, commandment. The truth expressed is that the authority of Christ does not rest upon the force of a law external to Himself, but upon His own power. Jesus became the High Priest of His Church not because He was constrained into the office by the obligations of an inflexible ordinance that left Him no room for choice, but by the independent and willing exercise of His own unimpeachable authority and sovereign grace. And then, further, this power in the Saviour is not "carnal," not power human or temporal in its nature, and therefore limited to this life with its merely temporal and passing interests; it is the "power of an endless life," power unlimited in its scope, and eternal in its duration.

Here, then, we have two distinct and most suggestive truths:

1. The power of our Lord Jesus Christ is not derived, but inherent power; not power which has been delegated for a purpose, to be withdrawn as soon as that purpose has been accomplished, but power which He possesses in His own nature and exercises in His own right. His authority as a priest, therefore, is not authority arising out of, and limited by an external ordinance, but an authority which is inherent and universal.

Let us look a little further at the difference between inherent and derived authority. There are illustrations all around us. Parents put their children into the care of tutors for the purpose of education. The tutor has authority to guide, control, and even, within certain limits, to punish a child according to his own judgment; but that authority is not inherent, it is dependent upon the will of the parent, who, whenever he chooses, may suspend it. The judge who presides at an assize has authority to try the prisoners who may be brought before him; he has power to condemn them according to their crimes to penal servitude or death; but his authority is derived-it is vested not in him but in his office; when he leaves the judicial

bench he has no more power over the liberty or the life of a man than any other citizen. We might apply to him the language of the text, and say he is "made after," or according to, "the law of a carnal commandment." So, too, the Jewish priest had authority to bless the people, to offer sacrifices for their sins, and to announce the divine forgiveness; but that authority did not spring from the power of the man, it was simply vested in the office which he held.

If we pursue this distinction between derived and inherent power, it will lead inevitably to this conviction, that no man can possess authority in his own right. The highest aspect in which we can regard men, even the most illustrious, is that which presents them as the stewards of God. What have you that God hath not given? You have power to work, power to think, power to live; to every man is committed some degree of authority. Whence comes it? It has been given by Him who at any moment can take it to Himself. Who among men can justly boast of his possessions, his fair bodily proportions and comeliness, his moral strength or mental capacity? He who first bestowed the gifts might without one word of warning utterly destroy them,-might make beauty give place to deformity, might change intellectual preeminence into drivelling idiocy, and quench the light of life in the darkness of the grave. All human power is lent; all human authority is derived; all capacity for work is a trust for which men are accountable. "For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in the body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

This distinction between derived and inherent power will lead to a yet further result. No created being can possess inherent, underived power. There are, as we gather from divine revelation, sinless hosts in heaven who are the willing and obedient servants of the eternal God. Their capacities for life and joy far transcend those possessed by man. They drink of the streams of perfect blessedness. They know no sorrow, for they know no sin; they dwell in the unsullied light of divine purity and love; they behold the face of God and are satisfied. But while removed so widely from us in present enjoyment and fulness of life, they are, in one respect, in precisely the same condition as men, for all they possess, and all they are, have been given them, and are dependent upon the gracious will of the Giver. The glory of the most perfect creature is but the reflected light of the glory of God. The power of every created being has been bestowed by the great Creator for the perfecting of His own will, and the carrying out of His own infinite purposes.

But the authority of Christ, the authority on which redemption rests, is not derived, for He is made a Priest "after the power of an endless life." His power springs from His own life; it is centred in Himself. He who came to earth to carry out the great purpose of human redemption; who suffered insult and weariness and pains; who

bore the obloquy of those whom He came to save; who endured the agony of the garden and submitted to the shame of the cross, giving "himself for our sins;" who broke the bands of death and ascended up on high, leading captivity captive, suffered by His own choice, and triumphed by His own power. He overcame by the strength of His own right hand. Every heart that rests upon His divine redemption rests not only upon infinite benevolence, but upon infinite power. The strong foundations of the earth may be broken up, heaven and earth may pass away, thrones and dominions may be overturned, but Christ is an omnipotent King, and His kingdom shall endure for ever.

2. The power of Christ is not only underived power, it is the power of an endless life.

The word "endless " here is a much weaker word than that for which it stands in the original. The word "endless" indicates only duration, but the word which the apostle uses refers not so much to the duration as to the nature of Christ's life. A more adequate translation would be "the power of an indestructible life "—a life, that is, which not only as a matter of fact will continue for ever, but which, by its very nature, must be eternal, which cannot be destroyed. Here is a distinction which marks the infinite distance between our Lord Jesus Christ and all created intelligence. The sinless creatures whom God has created to be His spiritual messengers and to reflect the glory of His throne are immortal; but they are immortal because He has given them immortality. We believe that when God created man in His own image and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, He made that latest offspring of His creative might a sharer in the same glorious gift. We know from the same word of promise that this great gift is ratified in its fulness and most blessed significance to all believers in Christ; for He Himself said, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish." But it is never said either of angels or men that they have the power of an indestructible life. That word is applied to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to our Lord Jesus Christ alone. The immortality of the creature is dependent upon the will and promise of the Creator. "Eternal life is the gift of God." But in Jesus Christ there is the power of an indestructible life, an attribute which He shares with the eternal God alone; for while men and angels may be immortal, God only "hath immortality."

What a glorious breadth of meaning is involved in this fact. The power of an indestructible life must be the greatest power in the universe. He who possesses it must in his very nature be greater than all besides. He must be able to foresee every possibility and provide against every contingency. And these are the attributes of our divine Redeemer, the great High Priest of our profession. The mightiest Being in the universe has reached out the arm of His infinite strength to save lost and fallen man. His life is infinite in its duration and infinite in its resources. He can wear no wrinkles; He can never wax old or grow feeble. The might He possesses is limitless might. The progression

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