PORTRAIT PAINTING.

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to His teaching, by sorrow or joy, by gladness or gloom, in the dark or the light, He so cultivates our power that those about us-not we ourselves-say how we are improving, and trace more clearly the faithfulness of our copy!

Is it not a noble life? To be charged by God to paint the portrait of His own Son, that all may know in some degree what He is like.

"That ye should do as I have

done," "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me," "That ye should show forth His praises!"" Called Christians" (John xiii. 15; Acts i. 8; 1 Pet. ii. 9; Acts xi. 26).

But how is the grand work to be done?

There was once a painter who was admitted into the Pope's Palace in Rome to see a very glorious picture. The sight of it made him long to copy it, that he might always have it near him, though he knew that his very best work would be a most feeble witness of its beauty. So he asked leave. And leave was refused! For the possessors were too proud of it, and thought it too precious to allow anyone to have a copy.

But copy it he must! The beauty of it was irresistible; day and night it lived with him. How should he accomplish his yearning?

This was what he did. Day after day he passed into the Vatican, and gazed on the treasure until it was imprinted on his very soul. Then with eyes filled with its beauty, he hastened to his humble home, and transferred it from memory to the canvas waiting there. First the general outline, and the fair proportions of the whole; then, bit by bit, patiently, persistently, each several feature was reproduced.

Thus, by GAZING, he gained his end! And each day's look corrected the faults of yesterday's work, and as he worked, the power to make a faithful copy grew; and his eye became keener and truer as prolonged gazing revealed deeper beauty. It was utterly beyond him to make a perfect copy,

he knew; but such LOVE was in his work that this did not deter him, only urged him to the very utmost of accuracy.

So by slow degrees the whole grew so marvellously, that at last in the little home was such a copy of the treasured picture in the Palace that men came there to gaze, and after seeing it, could not rest satisfied until they had seen for themselves the glorious original.

And just so with us! The only possible way of representing the Lord Jesus to the world is by our "looking unto" Him; "looking off" other copies, however fair and faithful, and fixing our steady gaze upon Himself. Then, "we beholding are changed!" (Heb. xii. 2;

2 Cor. iii. 18).

It is not by "gazing up

No idle gaze will do, you see. into Heaven" lazily and listlessly, that we shall ever produce the picture of the Lord Jesus in our lives, which shall attract others to Him. As the painter only gazed in order to copy, and to make visible to others the invisible Picture stamped on his own heart, so we must gaze, to reproduce.

Shall we then take feature by feature each morning into our hearts, in full, intent gaze, and then transfer that feature into our lives? "I am meek and lowly in heart." There's a blessed bit of the picture to copy ! "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Matt. xi. 29; Phil. ii. 5).

The power to gaze steadfastly comes from love-the love "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost" (Rom. v. 5), the power to reproduce the image He has imprinted on our heart is equally His. "It is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do, of His good pleasure." One part of "His good pleasure" is to see His Son reflected in our lives, for He predestinated us to be "conformed to the image of His Son " (Rom. viii. 29). So we may be sure that He will not withhold the power from us. But then we must have

66 'purpose of heart" to use it and to cultivate it. We can all see how foolish it would be, to talk of copying without the gazing; but to say we are gazing and yet not to copy, shows that we cannot be looking at Him with "open" or "unveiled face" (2 Cor. iii. 18); for to see HIM clearly, is to copy Him. There must be resolve in our painting, for no one ever yet became a painter by listless dreaming and idle desiring.

What kind of a Portrait of the Lord Jesus shall we paint? what shall we make other people think He is like?

Let us set to the gazing with the courage of faith, and determination of love; and, as we practise, the copying will become increasingly natural and unstrained. But, as we grow in skill, we shall also grow in humility. It is only the child who thinks his rough strokes so splendid. The more an artist grows, the more dissatisfied he is with his work. Our hearts shall often sink as we see increasingly how imperfect our copying is. But we are not to be discouraged, for deepened humility always goes with increasing skill. Moses “wist not that the skin of his face shone while He talked with him."

And, by-and-bye, when we present our Portraits of Jesus to the Father, blurred as they may be with tears of disappointment at our failures, marred with false colours, and covered with erasures; very incomplete, and the fairest features not even attempted—do you think HE will recognise His Son in them?

We shall find two things that day. One is, that the Light of His Glory falling on them, shall reveal so many more stains and imperfections than we saw below, that we shall fall "at His feet" in utter shame at our failure, and at the falsehoods and unfaithfulness of our best picture.

And the other thing we shall find is, that He who implanted the love which made us first begin to copy, will

recognise that love under all the mistakes, and will raise us to look Him in the face, saying, "They shall see His face ! "

And as we look, behold the faded, unfinished sketches will change" in a moment" into perfect and faithful Portraits, and "our bodies shall be made like unto His glorious body" (1 Cor. xv. 52; John iii. 2), and "WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, FOR we shall SEE HIM AS HE IS!"

Little Things.

By Ethel Waring.

'Tis not alone in mighty deeds
That work for God is found;
It often lies in little things,

And dwells on lowly ground.
And when I fain would change my lot,

In this sweet thought I rest—

God put me in the very place

Where I can serve Him best.

God gives me just those things to do,
Which He would have me take

And do as unto Him, and thus,
(If done for Jesus' sake)
A kindly act, a loving word,

A smile, a greeting bright,

Will all be owned as work for Him,
As precious in His sight.

I thank Him for the little joys

With which He crowns my way,
And ask that I may use those joys
To His praise every day,

COUNSEL TO CHRISTIANS.

By making other lives more bright,
And saddened hearts less sad.
As He has blessed, so let me bless,
In making others glad.

And if sometimes life's little things
Perplex, or bring me care,

I know God wills it so in love,
For if each day were fair-
If all my way were smooth and bright,
And earth-joys ne'er looked dim,
I might be trusting self too much,
Instead of trusting Him.

I know that He will give the strength,
Sufficient for the day.

His is the arm I rest upon,

And earnestly I pray

That I may do, as work for Him,

The duties each day brings,
And show my love and faithfulness
In doing little things.

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Counsel to Christians.—III.

By L. Jennings.

PRAYER-Continued.

IN John xvi. 24, our Lord said to His disciples, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name." They, like all Jews, had prayed to Jehovah, the God of their fathers; but now He was introducing them to a new way of approach. Previously their prayers were heard and accepted in virtue of the