but the astronomer makes his chiefly when it is eclipsed. In the black eclipse which rests upon this planet the angels are mastering secrets which for ages have been hidden in the sunlight of their native sphere. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." In these dark days we too are gaining eyes and insight. So far from painful mysteries blinding us, bewildering us, reducing us to despair, they are perfecting the organ of vision by which we shall look on God's face; they are conducting us into a more profound and intimate knowledge of the eternal wisdom, faithfulness, and love. Whilst our faith in God's love, inspired and sustained by His love to us in the redeeming Son-whilst that faith remains strong and loyal, "we are more than conquerors." The eclipse only purges our vision, widens our sky, indefinitely multiplies our wonder, power, and joy.

2. In the consciousness of the divine love we more than triumph over all the suffering of life. The sorrow of life does not harm. Conquerors are often much the worse for the battle. A victorious fleet is a shattered fleet, often scarcely able to find a spar on which to hang the flag of victory; a triumphant army is a stricken host that moves spectators to tears; a conquering athlete is a ghastly sight. But the apostle intimates that this stern fight unto death shall inflict upon us no serious and abiding wound. If we could

for a moment transcend carnal limits and into glory peep, we should see that our glorified ancestry are not one whit the worse for their life of hardship and martyrdom. They suffered great tribulation, but they have survived all without a scar; not a blossom is wanting in their palm, not a star has dropped from their crown, not a chord is snapped in their lyre. It often seems as though we must suffer some real loss in the wear and tear of this rude existence, yet revelation assures us that it is not so; all the injury and loss are in the temporal elements, on the surface, in things the fashion of which passeth away; the immortal personality is scathless. The soul can no wound receive, "no more than can the fluid air." We shall not enter into life maimed. Clinging through the furnace-pilgrimage to the Son of God, the smell of the fire shall not pass upon us.

None the worse for the fiery ordeal: all the better! "More than conquerors." When shall we once understand this glorious truth, that life's strife is evoking the latent faculties of the soul, bringing out its strength and beauty, making it fit for sublime flights and felicities which dreams cannot picture? The best things of heaven are wrought on earth. Its finest gold was purified in earthen vessels; its crown jewels were ground on wheels of worldly circumstance; its fairest faces were washed into beauty with the salt spray of the tempest; its purplest robes are dyed sackcloth, and the heart-strings which down here were stretched

nighest to the breaking make heaven's sweetest music. "I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward." Not long ago I visited a flower-show, and, following the crowd, found myself amid a delightful host of orchids. It is needless to say what wonderful shapes and colours were displayed; masters of language need the wealth of poetry to describe the grace and magnificence which they unfold: they epitomize the perfection of the world. They are strangely privileged plants, gorgeous children of the sun, and they show what can be done under blue skies, in depths of safety, in balmy air, with brilliant light. But before leaving the exhibition I wandered into another department where the Alpine plants were being exhibited. Not expecting much this time, I was surprised and delighted by triumphs of form and colour. They did not suffer in comparison with the tropical blooms. Delicate, curiously beautiful, inexpressibly elegant, vivid in colour, of manifold dyes, perfumed with subtle scents of sweetness, they charmed and dazzled eyes that had just been satiated by the butterfly colours of Eastern beauties. And the Alpine gems owed all that they were to what they had suffered. Their sparkle is the gleam of the ice-age, their whiteness that of the eternal snows on whose border they sprang; they caught their royal blue whilst dizzy peaks thrust them into the awful sky; they are so firm because the rock on which they grew has got into them;

they are so sensitive because they trembled so long on the precipice. They are the children of night and winter, the nurslings of blizzards; cataracts, glaciers, and avalanches perfected their beauty. In a vast, savage, elemental war they won the glory which makes them worthy to stand by the picked blooms painted by all the art of perpetual summer. Thus the sanctified sternness of human life blossoms in great, pure, beautiful souls which adorn heaven itself.

"And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These which are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I say unto him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." The elder would not allow John to miss this spectacle. Angels, principalities, and powers are the orchids of the rational world; they spring into being in the sunlight of God; they never felt a breath of storm, and we may be sure they are beautiful to look upon. But the Alpine spirits redeemed from the terrible sphere of trouble, anguish, and death shall be "presented faultless before the throne," and shall be found worthy to stand, and serve, and sing with the first-born sons of light. Wherefore comfort one another with these words, which are true and faithful.

II

THE MOTIVE OF MUTABILITY

The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods, &c.-Ps. xxiv.

HIS psalm may originally have been chanted

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at the bringing of the Ark to Zion; but, whatever its origin, in the Messiah its vast meaning has been unfolded, and it is this larger signification that we now propose to consider.

I. We are reminded of the DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." The universality of God's proprietorship and sovereignty is uniformly maintained by revelation. He is Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, and yet He is the God of all the earth. He has not a limited dominion like the heathen deities. He is not a local, tribal God, but His sovereignty embraces the world and its fullness. It is marvellous how the poets and prophets of this little people in a corner of the earth transcended all national restrictions, and recognized in the living God whom they worshipped the Lord of earth and sky. Whilst the great nations around restricted their conception of God within