This is nothing else than "glory begun below". as the grapes of Eshcol-the first fruits of "the corn of heaven." You feel it, but you cannot explain it. As it is quite different from all human feelings, so no human words can embody its meaning. The perceptions, of which we have been speaking, can only be experienced by a newborn soul. They savour of the divine nature, being the very offspring of Deity: they partake of the divine glory. They are the outgoings of God; the actings of the Spirit; of the very nature of Jesus; the very substance of heavenly being. They are nothing short of glory-glory begun; glory in progress; glory to be perfected; the glory, that shall be revealed in the heirs of glory; even eternal glory. Here is our reposefor what is this but Christ in us, the hope of glory?

What, then, is our hope, as Christians-what is our repose? Even this, that, "when Christ who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with Him in glory," (Col. iii. 4,) that, when the Son of Man shall come in His own glory, and in the Father's, and of the holy angels," (Lu. ix. 26) we shall be there to swell His train; to see His face; to hear His voice; to behold His beauty; to reflect His glory; to share His kingdom.

Christian Reader, you shall behold this glory, for "these sayings are faithful and true." Rev. xxii 6. They are the sayings of Him, on whose word you may safely repose. Your hope is this, that you have Christ in you-Christ, the Lord of glory; Christ, the King of glory; Christ, for whom the glory was prepared; Christ, whose office it is to give the glory; Christ, who is Himself the glory. Christ is yours, with all that He is; with all that He has; with all that He inherits; with all that He contains; with all that He shall bring to pass; with all that shall be fulfilled in Him. Then, having Christ, are not all things yours? Is not the promise sure; the prospect well defined; the hope a certainty; the future made present by that faith, which is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," (Heb. xi. 1)—by reason of Christ in you, the hope of glory? What then is your privilege-your duty, your happiness, your repose? Simply to realise that Christ is in you -and that, being in you, He is to you the hope of glory.

REPOSING IN JESUS FOR SYMPATHY

IN SORROW.

"AND the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows." Ex. iii. 7. This was the language of Him that appeared to Moses in the bush, even of the Angel of the Lord, who was God Himself-in other words, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ex. iii. 2. comp. v. 4. He said, "I know their sorrows.' And if He knew them, did He not sympathise with them? Was not this His "zeal" and His "strength," the sounding of His bowels, and of His "mercies" toward them? Yea "in all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old." Isa. lxiii. 15, 9. Jesus took flesh, not only that He might save, but also sympathise with, His people. It behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren-like unto them, as a partaker of flesh and blood—like them, in being a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted

with grief-like them, in all the infirmities and troubles of life, sin only excepted. As God, the eternal Word, He might have pitied; it was only as God manifested in the flesh, that He could have a fellow feeling with His afflicted people. As Christ "was, in all points, tempted like as we are" (Heb. iv. 15) so was He, in all points, afflicted like as we are. And thus the expression, "In all their afflictions He was afflicted," may have a double meaning, viz.that He personally tasted all their sorrows, as well as sympathised with them.

Human sympathy is sweet, but it is necessarily an imperfect thing. Sympathy, whether with sorrow or temptation, in order to be perfect, must proceed from One, who has infinite power of sympathising, and infinite good will to exercise it. What a difference we find between man and man! Some men will throw their whole heart and mind into the sorrows or the perplexities of others-while some, either from deficient sensibility, or unwillingness to put it forth, have little or no sympathy to bestow. It is far otherwise with Jesus. He possesses a human heart, and human mind, endowed with the infinite perceptions, and sensibilities of the Godhead. When Jesus sorrowed, His grief was as infinite-when

He rejoiced, His joy was as immeasurable, as the divine nature, which was His from everlasting. A mind expanding with the endless elasticity, a heart swelling with the boundless emotions, of deity; divine in power, in feeling, in comprehension, but human in all the necessities, that called these into action; divine, yet man; human, yet God-such was, such is, the Man Christ Jesus.

In Jesus infinite sensibility is joined to infinite love-infinite experience of sorrow, coupled with boundless friendship, and brotherly feeling. Hence Jesus is both able, and willing-nay it is the law of His mediatorial nature, the very necessity of His existence, as the Man Christ Jesus-that He should sympathise divinely, and infinitely with His suffering, sorrowing people. Christian Reader, is not this your repose? Is it not this that makes "the name" of Jesus "a strong tower" in the day of adversity? You feel that in Jesus you have One, loving to sympathise, as well as mighty to save. In virtue of your union with Jesus, your heart is His heart, your feelings are His feelings. Your heart beats not in yourself alone-its every throb is felt in the heart of Christ Himself: your every emotion swells to the boundless extent of infinitude in the deep recesses of the soul of Jesus. How can Jesus do