The Perfect Non-Alcoholized Wine for the Holy Communion.

PURE WINES

Natural (.e., Non-Alcoholised) versus Non-Natural.

"VINO SACRO."-Introduced for the purposes of Holy Communion, and guaranteed by the Analysis of Professor Attfield, F.R.S., F.C.S., &c., &c., to be an ABSOLUTELY PURE AND UNMIXED WINE from Southern Europe, and now found also to be most suitable for invalids and persons of weak constitution. 30s. per Doz.; 33s. per two Doz. Half-Bottles; 18s. per Doz. Half-Bottles

"VINO PURO."-A Natural Sherry, very light and dry Guaranteed an Unfortified and Natural Wine; a Wine to drink and not to sip. 20s. per Doz.; £6 6s. per Octave of 133 Gallons; £12 per Quarter-Cask of 27 Gallons.

"PALMITO."-A very Dry and very Light Natural Sherry extremely delicate in flavour, of same character as "Vino Puro,' but with more style and bouquet. 24s. per Doz.; £7 7s. per Octave of 13 Gallons; £14 per Quarter-Cask of 27 Gallons.

"PALIDO."-A very Light Pale Sherry, elegant and dry This Wine is universally admired and is highly recommended. 30s. per Doz.; £9 per Octave; £17 10s. per Quarter-Cask.

"ESPAÑA."-Pure Grape Juice, natural and unfortified. A rich RED luscious Wine, for invalids, hospital, and parish use. 24s. per Dozen.

Terms for "Vino Sacro," and for our Pure Wines. Prices are all Nett, packages included, and we deliver free from One Dozen upwards to all parts of England and Wales. Free to most Irish ports. Half carriage paid to Scotland. Cash with Order

Hicks&Co.

IMPORTERS OF SACRAMENTAL
WINES.
GEORGE SPLYMOUTH

The Homilist, though taking a fresh start, will run on the old lines, and under the same catholic skies, freighted, as for the past quarter of a century, not with heavy timber, but with seeds and saplings, not with manufactured metal, but with virgin ore.

The Homilist will only have space on its pages for condensed and suggestive thinkings. For though we are enabled to reckon on the valued help of some of the ripest Scholars and Leaders of Religious Thought of our times, we shall prize all articles just as their pith and point may serve our readers. Ever our aim, cherished earnestly if humbly, will be the storage of spiritual and intellectual force,-such a storage of force as shall, ander God, contribute to the light and life and progress of souls. Redland, Bristol. URIJAH R. THOMAS.

All contributions, which if in accordance with the preceding note, will be thankfully welcomed, to be forwarded to the Editor, as above.

Volumes I and II. of the current (Eclectic) series are now ready. Price 7s. 6d., cloth, red edges.

All correspondence on ordinary business or advertisements, and all Books for review, to be addressed to the Publisher.

Advertisements or Bills for insertion in The Homilist should be sent, not later than the middle of the Month, to Mr. C. WILKES, Advertising Agent, 60, Old Bailey, London, E.C., or to the Publisher, Mr. W. MACK, 4, Paternoster Square, London; or 38, Park Street, Bristol.

HOMILISTIC LIBRARY.

Two Volumes, by Dr. DAVID THOMAS, on the BOOK OF THE PSALMS have already been issued; the third is in the press. Price 10s. 6d. a volume. R. D. Dickenson, Farringdon Street, London.

THE MINISTERS' SEASIDE HOME, THE GRANGE, MORTHOE, NORTH DEVON, receives Ministers and their Wives (not children) of all denominations, on a scale of charges according to their incomes,-the special aim being to provide rest, or recreation after illness, for Ministers of limited incomes. All applications to be addressed to the Founder and Warden, Rev. URIJAH R. THOMAS, Redland, Bristol.

Leading Homily.

CHRIST ASCENDING: THE CHRISTIAN ASCENDING.

"AND HE LED THEM OUT AS FAR AS TO BETHANY, AND HE LIFTED UP HIS HAND, AND BLESSED THEM."-Luke xxiv. 50.

HE ascension of Christ is a natural and consistent conclusion to His grand and supernatural life. He had passed through the gloomy regions of

death, and His bodily

all gross

He some

conquered it. He was no longer subject to death. organisation was now purged from infirmity and elements, and therefore could not be touched by death any more. He was no longer subject to ordinary material laws. times suddenly appeared among the disciples when all doors and windows were closed, and as suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. He said to Mary, when she wanted to embrace Him, "Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father." Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, declared that Christ, risen from the dead, should die no more, because death had no more dominion over Him; that His early life was a life in human weakness, and therefore subject to death: and that His resurrection-life was a life in Divine power. It was, therefore, natural to expect that He would pass away from His earthly existence to a higher life, not through death, but in a supernatural way. It was the last link in the great supernatural chain.

F

It was also natural to expect that He would in time ascend to His Father. It was merely returning home. Heaven was His real residence. There He had lived before His incarnation. He constantly spoke of having come from above and from His Father, and of His former glory with the Father. "He who was rich, for our sakes became poor." He emptied Himself of His glory, and became a servant. He also very often referred to His returning to heaven and to His Father. Descending and ascending were themes on which He delighted to dwell. He for a while assumed our defective human nature; He lived in it in pain, and sorrow, and weakness, and then returned to His essential Being His perfect life which He had with the Father before the world was. When He descended to the earth He did not cease to be God; when He ascended to heaven He did not cease to be man. He is still identified with us in our joy, our pain, and our struggles. He is our High Priest, sensitive to every ripple on the great ocean of humanity.

I.

Notice the PLACE of His ascension. And He led them out as far as to Bethany."

There must have been a reason for this. Bethany, as you know, was a small village on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, about two miles from Jerusalem, surrounded with olives, pomegranates, almonds, oaks, and other trees. In the neighbourhood of this village, Luke tells us, this took place. There is, I think, a significance in the place. I can, however, only make a guess as to why He selected this place above all others. In the first place, it seems to me that very likely He had a natural desire to be exalted where He had suffered so much humiliation. Forty days before He had trodden the same path in great affliction. From the summit of Olivet He had prophesied the end of, and wept over, Jerusalem. It was in this village He lodged during the last week of His life. To the house of Martha and Mary He nightly came to be refreshed after the day's toil and anxiety. Here He often prayed in agony, and near here endured the sorrow of Gethsemane. But now all that gloom and depression and persecution had passed away, and His human nature longed to revisit the old spot in joy and triumph. Such a wish is very