heaven-ruled world. God's answer to the agonising cry of the world's guilt and pain is the ministry of Christlike spirits. Make this abundant, and the dark problem, the darkest of all dark problems, begins to develop a solution, and Christ's body, the Church, becomes what He was, the great justifier of the ways of God to man.

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Ministry, this willingness and power to impart, to irradiate, light, joy, blessing, on all around them, was the grand secret of the marvellous successes of the Church of the Apostolic age. There were wretched ones enough there in Jewish society. The old brotherhood of the Jewish people was a mere tradition— the thing was broken up for ever. The poor writhed in the dust under the rich Pharisee's tyranny. Thou wast altogether born in sins," the only benediction they ever listened to. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are," the only liturgy they ever heard. There were bruised hearts and broken spirits there moaning over the insoluble problem, and asking "Is there real gladness for any spirit in any world?" But when they saw the brotherhood of the Church, they rejoiced exceedingly. They felt the glow of the Christian's joy, and they glorified God; they felt that He had visited his world. The darkness which had hidden His ways from their poverty and penury was scattered, a flood of sunlight streamed over it all. "Let us have brotherhood; let my heart beat against thy heart, my brother! in its pain and fever, and we can bear and hope together, and believe in the loving kindness of the Lord." And so the record was written. "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had

all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved..... And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation), a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women).” (Acts, ii, 41-47; iv, 33-37; v, 12-14.) I am not speaking of the charity of the Church in its modern sense, but of its love. You may tithe your income twice over in giving, and be before God and man a niggard still. Mere givers are abundant; some love the pomp of giving, some the flattering unction which it lays to their hearts. But "the liberal eye,” the open hand;" these mean something different. Why are these dwelt upon so earnestly in the Scripture ? "Thou shalt open thy hand wide to thy poor brother, thy stranger, and thy needy in the land.” This is the strain of the Divine exhortations. Why? but because the spirit which would open the hand to the utmost, yea beyond the utmost, is the one full witness for God's charity in the

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world. This is the only charity which chimes in with His. Let this flow freely through the choked channels of the social frame, and stir its languid pulses, and the problem is solved. "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God, Almighty; just and true are all thy ways, O thou King of Saints," will be the joyful testimony of mankind. I have often thought that, next to the apostolic, the purest and most Christ-like Church ever gathered in one spot was that Church of the exiled Independents, over which John Robinson was pastor, at Leyden; a Church which God honoured as no Church before or since has been honoured, by committing to its hand the effective colonization of the New World. In the year 1621, when the colony had survived the terrible privations and sufferings of their first winter, Robinson sent Mr. Cushman to bear this charge to them. I think it ought to be written in red letters in all our Church books; it is the rubric of the Independent Churches.

"And now, brethren, I pray you remember yourselves, and know that you are not in a retired, monastical course, but have given your names and promises one to another, and covenanted here to cleave together in the service of God and the King. What, then, must you do? May you live as retired hermits, and look over nobody? Nay, you must seek still the wealth of one another, and inquire, as David, How liveth such a man? How is he clad? How is he fed? He is my brother, my associate. We ventured our lives together here, and had a hard brunt of it, and we are in league together. Is his labour harder than mine? Surely I will ease him. Hath he no bed to lie on? Why, I have two; I'll lend him one. Hath he no apparel? Why, I have two suits; I'll give him one of them. Eats he coarse fare, bread, and water, and I have better? Why, surely, we will part stakes. He is as good a man as I,

and we are bound each to other, so that his wants must be my

wants, his sorrows my sorrows, his sickness my sickness, and his welfare my welfare; for I am as he is. And such a sweet sympathy were excellent, comfortable, yea, heavenly, and is the maker and conserver of churches and commonwealths, and where this is wanting ruin comes on quickly."

We are far enough from this in these days; and, practically, the Church is far below this ideal of its life in any age. Even those to whom Mr. Cushman spoke lived out but poorly the spirit of his noble words. But let us keep the idea before us, let us adopt it as our aim; let us understand that God has committed the poor to us; Christ has bequeathed them by His Testament to our charge. Others may excuse themselves from any constant and persevering ministry to their needs, on the ground of their ingratitude, their thriftlessness, their follies, their sins; but we dare not hold ourselves excused. Christ did not, does not, hold Himself excused from ministry to us on these grounds; He perseveres, and hopes through them all; and through all we are bound to hope and persevere. Our work is to radiate the spirit of His ministry, and thus take up and solve the problem which the world lays down in despair. Remember that mere benefactions are the very smallest elements of the ministry which is committed to us. He who can bring most brotherly love to bear on the condition of the needy and the relations of the classes, is best fulfilling his high ministry as "Christ's guardian of the poor."

AIDS TO THE DEVELOPMENT

OF THE

DIVINE LIFE.

BY THE

REV. J. BALDWIN BROWN, B.A.

No. VII.

THE TWO BANDS.

"And now I am become two bands."-GENESIS xxxii, 10. THE words of the world's great ones have always a fulness of meaning which they themselves but imperfectly understand. Jacob was uttering the praises of a glad heart over his enlarging substance. Did he know, then, how his possessions stretched into two worlds? "Two bands" his eye saw before him, and his heart swelled with an honest pride and bounded with an honest joy as he gazed on them. Did the inner eye sweep round a wider horizon, and discern the two bands which were severed only by the Jordan of death? We cannot tell. He was a man of singular thoughtfulness, of a meditative, not to say melancholy temperament; a man who, while Esau lived in the present, and felt keenly that present pottage to a starving man was better than any amount of prospective spiritual good, had prescience of the future; could serve long years for a dear companion, and wrestle the long night through for a word of blessing from God. He was a man who believed in things not seen as yet, and lived for them—a true patriarch pilgrim, a man whose salvation was hope. How far he saw we can none