amidst the raging blast, yet so secure that even the smell of fire passed not upon Him. Surely here was a lively image of that future scene, when the Son of Man was to appear triumphant even upon the cross, dying, yet incapable of corruption or decay, and out of the depth of His torment bringing life and immortality to light.

As then the appearances of God in the Old Testament had a very frequent reference to our blessed Lord's incarnation, so had they also not uncommonly a reference to His passion. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The vision of the coming Saviour thus breaks forth upon our view throughout the Old Testament, alike in prophecy or in type. Along the line of four thousand years we behold the preparation for that awful scene which at last was consummated on Calvary.

This same gracious Being, as He passed out of our sight, when His sufferings were accomplished, gave us the promise of a special presence never to cease. "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," was His parting assurance to His people. And the consciousness of this presence is at once the greatest check against sin, and the strongest stay in trial. The whole aspect of our life changes when we remember

Him. "He is here," is a thought that would swallow up all other thoughts. Some strong temptation comes over us so rapidly as to anticipate all preparations for it, hurrying us away before the mind has time to summon its powers, and then one earnest recollection of His near presence would stay us in our danger.

Or

again, if tried by some severe pain, what exceeding strength of endurance is imparted when we turn our eyes to our suffering Lord, and lose the thought of our own agony in the remembrance of His. Or, if we have some irksome or hard duty to fulfil, is there any thought that more surely nerves us for the trial than the recollection that we are not alone, but in the very presence of the Almighty, who Himself has laid on us the command. To walk through life with this constant remembrance on our mind is unceasing strength.

Let us learn then to lift up our hearts, and realize this great companionship in which we live, and move, and have our being. "We walk by faith, not by sight." Let us think over and over again, and impress more and more deeply in our hearts, the great fact of the presence of God and His holy angels at all times and in all places. "Thou, God, seest me," should be our constant

thought. Specially is it a help to us to be able, as we may, to look to God in the human form which He mercifully took for us; for our Lord, when He took our nature, took it never to be laid aside again: He is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Still wearing the form of humanity, and, as of old, whether in sorrow or in joy, still touched with the feeling of our infirmity, our Lord is with us. He still moves in the midst of the fires of suffering humanity; He upholds and comforts us; He passed into the heavens, and is now on the right hand of God; but it was only to return to us with a closer spiritual presence.

He who is as truly man as He is truly God, is with each one of His servants from his birth even to his last hour, and through the dark valley, and till he reach the blessed land which is very far away; with each one, as with all the members of His body, as surely as He moved beside His three sainted ones in the furnace.

And this thought should lead us to a spirit of thankfulness and of trust. When we look back at troubles through which we have been safely brought, or difficulties overcome, or fears which were dissipated as they approached, or hard duties which were accomplished, we may believe that it

was the invisible presence of God which quenched the violence of the fire, and protected us through the season of trial. We did not perhaps realize His presence and assistance at the time, but as we now look back, the veil is withdrawn, and we know that it could have been none other than Himself. And when we look forward, and our hearts faint at the prospect of terrors and difficulties lying in our path, and we feel our own utter incapability to meet them, should not the assurance that He who has been with us from our birth unto this hour, will be with us to the end? Should we lose hope now, when our redemption is more nigh? Can we doubt that He will be less watchful over us, less ready to uphold us, when our salvation is nearer than when we believed? We may surely trust Him who, during the six thousand years of this earth's history, has never failed any one of the sons of men who put their trust in Him, and whose own word, sealed by His dying love, has promised that He will never fail us, nor forsake us, but will perfect the good work that He hath begun.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

REJOICING IN SPIRITUAL SERVICES.

EPHES. V. 18, 19. Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

ST. PAUL is here enumerating the various duties of Christians, and enforcing them upon his Ephesian converts. In the former part of the chapter he had been warning them against those sins which were practised by Gentiles: fornication, uncleanness, foolish talking, and inconvenient jesting. These things, he says, had called down the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience; but some would deceive them into the notion that these sins were not so displeasing to God. Therefore he cautions them: "Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." Lastly, he warns them against the sin of drunkenness: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess ;" and he goes on