holiest saint feels no reliance upon himself, even though by the grace of God he is what he is.

is as truly his word then as when first at the foot of that Cross the burden of his guilt rolled off from his shoulders. In that last hour when flesh and heart do fail, there is no rest for the departing spirit but in the vision of the Christ for us, the Christ that died, that is risen again, that is at the right hand of God, that makes intercession for us.

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

The Shepherd and His Fold.

I Pet. ii. 19-25. John x. 11-16.

"WHERE is He," cries Isaiah, "that brought them up out of the sea, with the shepherd of His flock?" He speaks of Moses, and of what happened after the first Passover. But now Christ our Passover hath been sacrificed for us, and the Apostle writes of "the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep." And to-day's Epistle says, "Ye were as sheep going astray, but have now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." To Him, that is, who is Shepherd and Bishop, not who was so once. He was truly Shepherd when He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and especially when He laid down His life for the sheep. But He is no less Shepherd now. Brought from the dead as such, as such He blesses us from the right hand of God. And down one of the farthest vistas given us into the future we see Him still with the crook in His hand-" The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."

We were as sheep going astray, but have now returned unto this Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. We are those of whom He speaks in the Gospel,-" And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold"-the fold of Israel: "them also I must bring, and they shall hear my

voice, and there shall be one flock, and one Shepherd." That we are so brought everything in the Church testifies. There is the Table prepared before us, and upon it the sacred feast which is as the green pastures and the still waters to the sheep of the plain. There from lectern and pulpit His word is a rod and a staff to comfort us. There by the hands of His Apostles He anointeth our head with oil, and filieth us with His Holy Spirit, so that our cup runneth over. There by the continual worship of His sanctuary goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life, and we dwell in the House of the Lord for

ever.

That we are in the fold of the Good Shepherd there can be no doubt. But are we also of His flock? That is a question for each one of us to ask himself: and nothing that is outward will answer it. Are we those of whom He says "I know My sheep, and am known of Mine, as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father"? and again—“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me : and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand"? This it is to be of His flock, and not merely within His fold. Let us all examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith; and prove our own selves.

Only be sure of this, that none but those who are truly of the flock know the full riches of the blessings of the fold. Services and sacraments, teachings and meetings for the exercise of gifts, observances of holy seasons, intercourse with ministers-all these privileges are to us according as we come to them. If they are a weariness to the flesh," it may be because the flesh only is present with us on the occasion. When it is so, then the veil of

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earthly things under which we should have communion with our Lord becomes, not a transparent gauze, but a solid obstruction. Let it not be so with us. Let us "follow on to know the Lord," to be indeed the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Then at that Table of His in the wilderness, we shall taste that He is gracious: in the ministrations of His servants we shall feel in our hearts that the Lord is our Shepherd: we shall indeed with the spiritual ear hear His voice, and by the constraint of love shall follow Him whithersoever He goeth. We shall know Him, as He knoweth the Father. In such knowledge standeth our eternal life, laying hold of which we shall never perish, neither shall anyone, man or devil, pluck us out of His hand. The outlines of Hist earthly fold shall melt, as in a dissolving view, into those of His heavenly city, to be citizens of which is indeed to dwell in the House of the Lord for ever.

The Clothing upon with the house from heaven.

2 Cor. v. I-5.

"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."

LET us see how the Apostle had been led into the train of thought he thus expresses.

He had been speaking (ch. iii.) of the ministry committed to him and his fellow-workers. The thought of its glory suggests by way of contrast the weakness of its instruments. God has kindled His lamp in our hearts, he says (ch. iv.), that we may diffuse the light abroad. But they are earthen vessels who contain the heavenly treasure. The dying of the Lord Jesus is ever going on in our bodies, while His life is being manifested in our spirits. But we know that He Who raised up Jesus from His death will raise us from ours and therefore we faint not, though our outward man perishes, since the inward man is renewed day by day. The one belongs to the visible, which is temporary-only for a season; the other is part and parcel of the invisible and eternal. And now he further justifies his confidence. He is assured that this inward man has an outward man suited to it,―eternal and heavenly as it is. If the "alway being delivered unto death for Jesus' sake" should result in actual martyrdom, if the daily wasting away of the mortal body should culminate in dissolution, he knows that there is another habitation for his spirit to dwell in, another vesture to robe it withal, so that being clothed it shall not be found naked.

The Apostle uses two images whereby to describe the relation of the body of man to his spirit.

1. The first is that of a dwelling-place. Israel, when journeying through the wilderness, had dwelt in tents, or tabernacles. God Himself, in setting up a place among them to put His Name there, had made it but a tent among tents-the Tabernacle. But when they came into their inheritance, and built ceiled houses for themselves to