other and thicker fleece. Thus it is no part of the purpose of Christianity to reduce the severity of life out of consideration for the comfort and safety of sickly souls; its far more philosophical method is by spiritual invigoration to dwarf mountains and make rough places smooth. "Difficulties are the playthings of heroes," and the grace of God makes heroes. Instead of bemoaning our lot, let us energize and fortify the life of the soul by waiting on God and by being filled with His fullness. It is astonishing what the feeblest can bear and brave, once uplifted by the breath divine. Dewar declares that "a butterfly can live through intenser cold than a man"; and timid, fainting, fluttering ones who fear to perish if the wind should blow on them, triumph over the bitterest conditions, once they have learned the secret of strength in the inner man.

III. THE COMPENSATION OF THE ORDEAL IS SPLENDID.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life." None may say all that is meant by the crowning benediction; it suggests indefinite advantage. The struggle with difficulty works nobleness into our nature, fitting us for kingship in coming worlds and ages. This is the grand teaching of the New Testament. And the more intense the struggle, the more splendid the reward. Ruskin remarks: "No people has ever

attained the higher stages of art-skill except at a period of its civilization which was sullied by frequent, violent, and even monstrous crime." And he accounts for this on the ground that the good and beautiful are developed to their highest by contention with the evil and ugly. Those who were true to goodness and beauty in dark days, who in the love of the true and pure endured a fierce antagonism with the base and ghastly, rose to the highest perfection of artistic achievement. The New Testament declares that this is true in character, and that the highest and brightest citizens of eternity came out of great tribulation.

The crown is not for those who shirk trial. Some withdraw from active life on the ground of a shy, shrinking, sensitive temper; many adopt a cloistered life on directly religious considerations; others, less noble, eschew the arena of conflict so that they may enjoy life's pleasures whilst avoiding a manful struggle with its toil and sorrow. All are wrong, seriously wrong. "Blessed is the man that endureth trial." God in His elect love has pitched us right into the middle of things, and crowded our days with interests and solicitudes. No injustice is done us; the design is most generous; we are the favourites of Heaven. The city is a huge noisy schoolroom, with rough benches, puzzling slates, books tasking the aching brain, exacting ushers, and chastening rods; but the education. none may miss without infinite loss. Let us not play truant from the school of character on any pretence

whatever. Be thankful for a strenuous life. Be faithful. Earn a good degree.

The crown is not for them who fail in trial. What is character worth that cannot sustain trial? The chain or anchor that snaps in the testing-house is scrap, the crock that cracks in the furnace is consigned to the rubbish heap; and can we believe that the professed principles which fail so unhappily in the ordeal of life qualify for reward? Without trial there can be no reality of virtue. That Cain does not kill his brother has no merit in the land of the deathless; the temperance of Noah is without signification when vineyards no longer redden; that Gehazi is free from leprosy is not surprising in the absence of silver and changes of garments; the faithfulness of Judas cannot be honoured where there is no silver; that no raiment is spotted by the flesh means nothing in a sphere of spirits; and that the inhabitants of a land destitute of gold are free from the guilt of covetousness excites neither wonder nor admiration. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that there can be any real goodness that will not endure trial. To fail in life's trial condemns us utterly; only God must determine who do fail. Every promise is to him who overcomes. Are we bearing trial, resisting temptation, getting the mastery over ourselves? "For when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life." The craftsman who painfully polishes the jewel has an eye all the time to the royal regalia in which it shall shine;

the organ-builder, amid vulgar toil, hears the far-off cathedral music; the soldier in battle steals a glimpse of victory's star; and the struggling saint determining to be faithful is solaced and strengthened by the consciousness of the vast reward which awaits him in the sky.

X

THE VALIDITY AND GLORY OF
CHRISTIAN SELF-SACRIFICE

Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.-MAtt. xvi. 24.

HE repugnance of the carnal mind to the doc

Τ

trine of self-sacrifice is expressed by Peter:

"Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall never be unto Thee." The necessity of such sacrifice, however, is vehemently affirmed by our Lord: "But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan : thou art a stumbling-block unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men." So He still rebukes those who question the fact and principle of His atoning death; I must suffer, so also must all My followers. He who would become My disciple must daily deny his own natural self, and follow Me in the paths of duty and service, being faithful even unto death if circumstances so demand.

I. REDEMPTION THROUGH SACRIFICE IS THE SUPREME PRINCIPLE OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.

The race is not saved by philosophy, government, or example, but by self-denial pushed to its last issues.