in other things, and the beauty and glory of his wealth of sympathy and love is not felt, but at other times you seek him out in his home or invite him into your own home and open your heart and pour out your inmost soul to him, and you are comforted and encouraged and refreshed with his understanding and sympathetic friendship. So we may come into the closest friendship with God every day, and if need be many times a day, and rejoice in his loving sympathy even more perfectly than that of any earthly friend.

In my small boyhood my sweet little mother used to go every day, in the afternoon, to a little thicket beside the orchard in our primitive frontier home in Oregon, and though she sometimes went to that leafy sanctuary sad-faced and heavy-hearted, she always came away singing, with her face shining like the sun. My mother's face shone for the same reason that Stephen's did at his martyrdom. She had "seen the Lord" and her heart was glad.

Dr. Joseph Fort Newton was preaching in the City Temple in London during the great war, and one day he was in the Author's Club when an invalid English officer took him to one side and said: "I want to show you what was my bread and meat and milk and all that I had to keep my soul alive. during the long marches of the campaign in Mesopotamia, and afterward through the long lonely waits in the hospitals, recovering slowly from wounds," and Dr. Newton was prepared to see a worn New Testament or some spiritual book like the Imitation of Christ, but instead the officer drew out reverently

a little worn note book in which he had pa dozen short prayers uttered by Dr. New City Temple, and which the soldier had cli an English newspaper. The sermons pr the prayers he had passed by, but the litt had shown him God.

Third, we may see God by being good t dren. Mark Guy Pearse wrote a beaut about the golden key that fitteth all hearts the gist of the story:

Mr. and Mrs. Rogers lived twenty miles town, with a stretch of dreary moorland on and nothing but the sea on the other. M was a prosperous farmer, but his home w less and loveless. He was brought up to be joy and grief are sins, and that pity and are the roots of evil. Mrs. Rogers was disa in an early attachment, and the door of h was closed and locked, shutting in the love derness of former days. But to be honest w Rogers, his feelings were too strong for h ciples, and pity and kindness were his besetti One Christmas eve Mrs. Rogers dreamed a In her dream she heard a voice calling from way off, "Charity, Charity," which was her "the sea hath given up its dead." Then she hand holding out a golden key. She took it, w ing, and on it read: "The Master key that all hearts, and doth not fail."

Mr. Rogers had a strange guest for breakf Christmas morning, and it came about in a s way.

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During the night there was a wreck, and broken spars were tossed by the waves as they broke along the shore. Early in the morning Mr. Rogers was walking slowly along the beach wondering if he could render any help. Looking over a rock he caught sight of a little bundle of clothes, and lifting the loose end of a shawl he saw the pale face of a little child. The child cried and Mr. Rogers wept, and in his efforts to quiet the little one he pressed it to his bosom and kissed the little white cheek.

When Mr. Rogers returned to the house his wife was talking to the cat about her dream, and he put the little child into her arms, and hurried off without a word of explanation.

Mrs. Rogers leaned over the child a moment, then her heart opened and she kissed it. When Mr. Rogers came back the child was asleep. He told his wife the story of the rescue, and confessed his joy; and then, leaning over the child, he kissed his wife. and she kissed him.

"What shall we call her, dear?" asked Mr. Rogers.

"The sea hath given up its dead," Mrs. Rogers said to herself, "and this is the golden key that unlocked our hearts."

Then turning to Mr. Rogers, she said: "Shall we call her Christmas, dear?"

"The very name," said Mr. Rogers. "I thought of Christmas, because on this blessed day our Father in heaven sent down the holy child to save us all." "Yes, the Golden Key to open all hearts to him-' self," said Mrs. Rogers.

God grant us each one the Golden Key open all our hearts to God to-day.

"My Father knows my every want;
No help he ever fails to grant
Whene'er I seek his mind to know,
His will to do, his love to show:

He knows, he knows, my Father knows
And safe his child where'er he goes.
"My Father cares, he cares for me,
However low my lot may be;
However great, however small
My burdens be, he cares for all:

He cares, he cares, my Father cares,
His children's burdens all he bears.
"My Father loves with love so strong,
It fills my heart with grateful song;
Nor life nor death nor depth nor heigh
Can hide me from his loving sight:

He loves, he loves, my Father loves,
And safe his child where'er he moves.
"My Father knows, my Father hears,
My Father sees, my Father cares,
My Father loves because he knows,
And, knowing all, his love o'erflows:

He sees, he hears, he cares, he knows;
With love for all his heart o'erflows."

XIV

THE ROMANTIC INTEREST IN THE
CHRISTIAN'S FELLOWSHIP

"Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ."-1 John 1:3.

P

ROFESSOR WILLIAM JAMES, that radiant scientific expert in Christian experience, says: "The best things in life are its friendships." John, who wrote our text, regarded this Christian fellowship of which he writes as friendship raised to the highest power. John was a close friend of Jesus during his earthly ministry. He had been known as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He had no doubt held Jesus in his arms, his own head had lain on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper, close before the awful tragedy of the cross. See how John introduces our text:

"That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea,

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