for "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Enough, that there shall be a new heaven, and a new earth, and that we shall be made perfectly meet to possess and to enjoy it. Enough, and above all, that Christ shall be there, and that "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." CHRIST'S DELAY TO INTERPOSE AGAINST DEATH. REV. DR. JOHN KER, GLASGOW. "Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."-JOHN XI. 32. ANOTHER reason why Christ permits death is, that the sorrowing friends may learn entire reliance on Him. It is a subject for study in this chapter, how Christ leads on these sisters from a dead brother to the Resurrection and the Life, and teaches them through their loss to gain what they never could lose any more. Had He snatched Lazarus from the brink of death, they would have trembled again at his every sickness, but when they learn to find their brother in Christ, they are secure of him for ever, and they discover in Christ Himself more than their heart conceived, - - "One deep love doth supersede Christ separates our friends from us for a while that we may learn to find our all in Himself. He makes their grave the seed-bed of immortal hopes, which shall give us back everything that is good in the past, and a joy with it like the joy of harvest. The expression of our resignation in bereavement is as much a triumph of his grace as the calmness He gives to our dying friends. When Martha and Mary can still call Him 66 Lord," and when their "hope can smile on all other hopes gone from them," when they can clasp Christ as their portion amid desolation around and within, --Christ Himself is justified in the permission of death. We mention, as a last reason for Christ's delay to interpose against death, that He brings in thereby a grander final issue. Had He come and arrested this sickness midway, or raised Lazarus to life so soon as he died, the gladness of the friends would not have been so great, nor would his own triumph over death have been so illustrious. But He patiently waits his hour, while the mourners weep and the scoffers scorn. Men must interpose when they can, but the Son of God interposes when He wills. The wisdom with which He chooses his time makes his delay not callous nor cruel, but considerate of our best interests in withholding for a while that He may bless us at last with an overflowing hand. Could the mourners see it as He does, they would willingly acquiesce, and would go forth patiently sowing in tears that they might have a more abundant reaping-time of joy. It is in this interval of delay that our life is cast. The world is represented by this home of Bethany before Christ reached the grave, and all the phases of character, and all the stages of Christ's progressive advance may be seen in the hearts of men around us. But at whatever step of his journey man's faith may discern Him, He is surely on his way. The tide of eternal life is setting in toward the world of graves, and its swell and its murmur can be already perceived by all who have a soul to feel the heaving of Christ's heart. Amid the tears and sobs of the bereaved friends, whose sorrows still touch Him, He is moving to the sepulchre. His presence, though unseen, can be heard and felt in whispered consolations,-in the faith and hope which his Spirit infuses into the soul. Those who know Him for what He is, recognise a Friend who weeps in sympathy with them, and who walks by their side to the tomb which his voice shall yet open. The delay seems long, but He counts the hours as we do; and not for a single one what infinite wisdom sees fit. shall be a grander final issue. to descend with broken ranks into the swellings of Jordan, but He will lead them forth on the other side in one fully-marshalled and bannered host. He puts the jewels one by one into his crown within the secret of his palace, that He may bring them out at last resplendent and complete as a royal diadem from the hand of His God. Patient waiting shall have its full compensation on that day, and divine delay justify itself will He linger beyond One result of this delay He permits his friends now. before the universe in glorious and everlasting results. Could we see to the end, it would reconcile us even He discerns it for us, and withholds his hand from premature and imperfect interference. After their burst of weeping, He hushes the separate voices for a season in the silence of death, till they can awake and sing in full harmony, that their united praise may still the enemy and the avenger, and be his glory and their own joy for ever. * DEATH IN THE PALACE. REV. JOHN RIDDELL, MOFFAT. From a Discourse preached on the occasion of the death of Prince Albert. IT is a dark hour when the head of a household falls. Its members are prone to feel, in the first anguish of such a calamity-in the first pressure of such a grief— that it is an irreparable loss, that none can supply the place of him who is thus struck down. And the feeling of the household becomes the feeling of the nation when one of its heads has fallen. We are not concerned to deny the importance of individual men, or to diminish our sense of their service to us. The service rendered by them is in many cases great, and he who rendered it is worthy of all honour. No greater blessing can be granted to a household than a wise, virtuous, religious head. No larger blessing can * Sermons. By the Rev. John Ker, D.D., Glasgow. Fourth Edition. Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas. 1869. be granted to a nation than a discreet, amiable, virtuous, and right-minded sagacious prince, or leader of the people. It is a power for good, a fountain of most precious influence to a whole nation. And this nation cannot estimate by any price, what it has owed to the admirable virtue, domestic order, noble conduct of the royal family, which has sent a purifying power down through every class of society; nor could it have asked a higher moral boon than the conspicuous example of such a household, and it were hard to say how much of all this is due to him whom we mourn. The world can have no greater or richer boon conferred on it than the gift of a great man. The history of the world is but the history of its great men. God carries on society by such. They are the hinges on which it has turned. They measure whole ages for themselves. They are the mountain summits in the great path of human progress-the most towering landmarks of the past, and the hopes of the future. Such, too, are the princes in Israel-great men who are not the property of a denomination but of the Church, with a breadth and richness of intellect, with a nobleness of character, and a devotion to great principles that cannot be confined to the range of one sect, whose movements stir the whole Church of God, and whose departure leaves a mighty gap. We admire and honour such men wherever we find them. We thank God for every great, noble-hearted, and honest servant of Christ. In proportion as the service rendered by such persons is real and valuable, do we learn to think |