not to know Him. The other, the correlative of that fact, the discovery of which is the first breath of our conscious spiritual life, as the going on to learn and master it is its discipline and glory-that the only true way of knowing Christ is to see Him as the revelation of the Father.

"Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me?" The point of the question is in the "so long time." Doubtless He had been with others also, and to better purpose. He had been with the multitudes, who thronged and pressed Him, but did not touch Him with the touch of faith. He had drawn to His side a rich youth, who admired Him enough to consent to some sacrifice for Him; could not trust Him enough to surrender all. A scribe had praised him, and was told that he was on the edge of the kingdom, though not yet in it. The children sang Hosanna in the Temple, and the servants sent to seize Him seemed spell - bound. Yet all went for nothing, when His enemies hemmed Him in for His final Passion. The rays of His Divine glory had fallen on those cold hearts as the arctic sunbeams on icebergs; they flashed and glittered, yet when the long night came it found them frozen still. But for Peter, who had confessed His Godhead, and for Thomas, who had proposed to go and die with Him, and for Philip, whom He had taken such special pains to choose-for these not to have discerned in Him the word made flesh, full of grace and truth, must have made the great Teacher feel as if all His past life had been but an empty blank, all His divine words as but seed by the wayside, which greedy fowls had devoured.

Yet the lesson which this fact discloses, and of which it is the inevitable correlative, is more important still. Philip had said, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." It was a lofty prayer, and the nobleness of its spirit we may all be thankful to learn. But, as we have seen already, it showed an ignorance of Christ, both in his person and work, and character and history, which wounded him as with the piercing of a sword. Some who read this paper, without either meaning or knowing it, may possibly be causing Him the same. For there are various ways of knowing Christ; and they are all good in their way, if only they are vitalised with that spiritual apprehension of Him which, as he elsewhere said, is eternal life. Without it, they only mock Him, and cheat us. We may know Him after the flesh, as Judas Iscariot knew Him, and yet

smoothly kissed Him to his captivity and death. We may know him sacramentally in the corporate knitting of our redeemed nature to His incarnate Person: and yet the outward incorporation never be truly consummated by quickening and perfecting grace. We may know Him dogmatically, and have all the glorious truths of the three Catholic Creeds in our minds and on our lips, and yet some day He may be forced to say to us, "I never knew you; for you have never known me by love." Christian reader, do you really care to learn how you must know Him, if you would escape that reproach? He tells us here, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." But, do you again ask, how He is the revelation of the Father? how you and I, and all men, now as well as then, can discover in Jesus of Nazareth the mind and will of God? I say, He was a fourfold revelation of His Father, of His providence and nature, and reconciliation and purpose. Of His Father's providence in the government and administration of the world, which did not make things pleasanter or easier for Him, though He was the Son of His eternal love; which sent Him to poverty and toil, and misinterpretation, and that sad, even awful, solitariness, which is at once the penalty and reward, and mark of all lofty and saintly souls moving on in front of their age, sowing what others shall reap, teaching what the distant generations shall come to understand and value, long after the lips that uttered them have mouldered into dust. This Providence, I say, did not spare Him anything painful, did not reward Him with outward or human delights because of His righteousness, did not prevent sorrow for Him, though He was enabled to bear it. The "all things" were the same for Him as for any one else, and they worked "together for good" for Him, in the same way as for any one else, because of His love to God. He was the revelation of His Father's nature, which, described by a single word, is "love;" but which when expanded into all that comes out from it, in its relation to mankind, is especially fatherly love. is, of course, mainly set forth in His bountifulness and compassion, and strength, and wisdom, and patience; and all this Christ manifested in His Ministry, when He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the devil. most of all, he showed the spirit of sacrifice that is in God, as the Father of our spirits. No one is a true father unless he is capable of sacrifice for his children, and it must not

This

But,

be merely because he desires thereby either to win or enlarge their dear sweet love. They will never love their parents as their parents love them, and we must not hope for it. But because they are ours, and God's best gift to us, therefore we can suffer for their sake. Let us be bold and say, that when the Father saw the Son of His love slowly dying upon the cross, and hid from Him His face at the moment when He was honouring and pleasing Him the most, then shone out before the universe the self-sacrifice of God. For Christ was also the Revelation of His Father's perfect reconciliation in His passion and death. When He took our nature He became our Kinsman, Representative, and Head, so that all the race stood in Him before God; and He being God still, and for ever, though also man, and for ever, there resided in Him the potential faculty of a perfect righteousness, and a holy sorrow, and a perfect selfsurrender to the Divine will, and a sufficient atonement; whereby mercy and truth could meet together, righteousness and peace could kiss each other; and to us, who repent and forsake them, the trespasses be no more imputed, which He, our Daysman, in the spirit of a holy renunciation and confession on our part, and for our sakes, bore on His spotless soul on the bitter cross, and then cast into the depths of the sea. Once more He is the Revelation of His purpose-His eternal purpose-in His Ascension into glory as the Head of a redeemed creation. Of course, this is a great mystery, but those who love God delight in humbly meditating on the promises of "the world to come." He is the head of the body-the Church; "for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven." Christian reader, I dare to suppose that if you have in any sort of way tried to understand this question of Christ's, and what comes out of it, you will have been set thinking about its possible meaning for you, and solemnly felt that holy tender voice floating down the ages till it touched your own spirit, and said to you, "Knowest thou me yet?" Anyhow, I implore you not to say, "Whatever it may mean for my neighbour, it has no relation to me." With the great bulk of educated Christian people Christ has more or less been present from their earliest hour. He has incorporated them into His baptismal fellowship, dealt with them by His spirit; now stirred their hearts with gladness, now

His

sifted and searched them with sorrow. name has been the precious birthright of their Christian heritage; His life the sublime seedthought of an unspeakable and matchless holiness, elevating their daily life in its commonest features with its awful yet tender power; His words have more or less become very part of their mental possession. When they have wanted Him, He has always been at hand to soothe and heal them; when they have not wanted Him, He has been humbly and tenderly standing by until they call for Him again; and the question is, what are they the better for all this Divine nearness and redeeming pity? A question, indeed, not to be put off, nor trifled with, nor coolly neglected, if either you recognise His right to put it, or some day expect to meet Him as your Judge. For understand all that it means. This knowledge of Christ must be a separate and individual knowledge. I cannot know Him for you, nor you know Him for me. Each must know Him for himself in the separate region of his own spirit. It must be a knowledge of experience; not of what others have learnt, but of what we have learnt; not of what others have had from Him, or enjoyed in Him, but, as the Samaritans said, "Now we believe, because we have heard Him ourselves." It must be a knowledge that helps us to be like Him. Mere theology will not make us like Him. The chief priests of His day were good theologians, and sent the wise men to Bethlehem for the King of the Jews. But their knowing their Bibles could not by itself help them to believe on Him; they slew Him because, whether or no the prophets bare witness to Him, He was not the sort of king for them. Theology can only touch His raiment; it may not reach His life. It must be a knowledge that sets us working. When St. Paul discovered Him He set Himself to convert Europe by the foolishness of preaching. It is impossible really to know Christ and not to have some zeal for His cause. In a word, to know Him is to know Him as Saviour, Master, and Friend. Saviour, because we have suffered Him to have all His blessed way with us, and He has saved us from our sins, and told us so, and made us free; free in the sonship and heritage of God. Masier, in showing us our proper place in this vast creation, with our own task, and grace, and wages, and crown. Friend, with all the love that can glow in the nature of God, and in the heart of man: Man for us, touched with the feeling of our infirmities; God in us, our righteousness, and strength, and shield.

To any whose spirits sadly but honestly testify that they ought to know Jesus Christ, and have had many opportunities for knowing Him, and that clearly they do not know Him yet, Holy Scripture furnishes distinct and intelligible clues whereby, if they really desire it, they may ascertain the cause. With some it is through pleasure in unrighteousness" that they receive not the love of the truth, and are saved. With others, it is preoccupation with and absorbedness in the world. They are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;" often lack seriousness of purpose, both moral and intellectual. They have "no root," and the seed in their heart, if it springs up for a moment, presently withers away. Others fail through not turning knowledge into practice, translating emotion into conduct. "He went away grieved, having great possessions." Others are fickle, and capricious, and shallow "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Once more, others will not face the task of meeting and encountering doctrinal difficulties, or disentangling error from truth in the systems proposed to them; and mental laziness has its penalty as much as any other sort of laziness, and if men will not take the trouble to dig for truth as for hid treasure, or to buy it, as what most deserves their pains and skill, doubts will work in their mind like rankling thorns, or through a feeble and perilous vacillation, the time will rapidly slip by for apprehending Christ; and in the moment of departure, all that the soul will be able to grasp to uphold it through the deepening waters, will be the ghastly shadow of despair. There is, however, one other explanation yet, and the history of those apostles is full of an encouraging significance. Those eleven men, no, not even John, never really knew Christ, or saw his glory, or understood His life, or apprehended His purpose till the Cross was over, and on the day of His resurrection met Him as their Prince and Saviour, and heard from His own lips that all was forgiven. Further, not till Pentecost, that is not till the Holy Ghost was given, were their understandings fully opened to understand the Scriptures, or they themselves made firm and strong to conquer the world. And we shall never know Jesus Christ till we know and love Him as our accepted and personal Saviour, who with His own pierced hands has washed us in His precious blood, and made us whiter than snow. And we can never follow on to know Him, and truly hope to abide in Him afterwards, till the

light of the Spirit of God flows full, clear, and free, into the chamber of our awakened hearts. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

Once more, are there any reading this sermon who feel that though through God's great mercy they do know something of Him, they know nothing yet as they ought to know. They are sure they wish to know more, but they have wished it so often and so long, and yet nothing has come of it; and they despair!

Well, there are several ways of meeting this difficulty. It is quite true to say that Christ Himself warned the apostles, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." We are all of us slow and dull scholars at best; and sometimes it takes many years really to master one great law in God's kingdom. Truths that are clear now, were in mist ten years ago; what is in mist now, may all be plain tomorrow. We can't learn everything at once; and the intellect is not the only factor in our education; time is a master as well, and— sorrow. It is also the case that the opportunity and the capacity for knowing Christ vary with individuals; and that in the mysterious government of God some of us seem to have all the chances in our favour, and others hardly any. Yet our Heavenly Father takes note of all these things, and never suffers circumstances to hurt us, for it would be contrary to the righteousness of His name. There are deeper causes than these, and a more excellent way for sweeping them out of our path.

First, learn more of the joy of faith. Trust Him, trust Him. Trust Him about everything, and every one; at all times, and for all needs; earth and heaven, friends and children, the conquest of sin, the growth of holiness, the cross that chafes, the grace that cheers. To trust God, honours and glorifies Him. The true child of a reconciled Father, revealed, known, and adored in Jesus Christ, walks, lives, learns, conquers, rejoices through faith, moment by moment.

tain extent unavoidable in Sydney and other places, they did so without provoking any jealousy or wrath. As in other cases, so in the instance of G. W. Walker and his companion, it was noticeable that Quakers, whose differences with the rest of the Protestant world could be shown to be greater than those of any one part of it with any other, had no difficulty in establishing friendly relations with the representatives of sects between whom there was the bond of an almost identical creed, and the antipathy which too often accompanies that bond. Either as the reward of their having suffered much in past times for righteousness' sake, or as the result of their peculiar garb and speech being identified rather with prison reform and humane treatment of the insane than with disputes about infant baptism or the eastward position of the celebrant, the Quakers would seem to have the privilege of differing with all Churches, and, indeed, in a mild way, of excommunicating them all, and at the same time of being permitted peaceably to do what they can to benefit mankind. It is doubtful if there ever was in appearance a more provincial figure than that of the disciple of George Fox before the days of his conformity to the world-the Quaker of preceding generations, with his broad brim, and his jargon more uncouth than his hat. Yet in virtue of his consistent and determined bearing as a friend of humanity, amenable in his conduct and activity to the rule of reason as well as that of the Scriptures, the oldfashioned Quaker, with his coat cut in the style of William Penn's and his pigeon English, would seem to be the most cosmopolitan character in religious history, unless, indeed, it be the ideal Jesuit, who is equally at home in Naples and in Pekin, in courts and camps, in the Vatican and in the synods of Protestant denominations. Walker's journals, especially his entries relative to Sydney, suggest some such reflections as to the Friends and their relation to other Christians.

Old Samuel Marsden, the father of Church missions in Australia, famous for his labours and adventures and successes in New Zealand, still held his post of colonial chaplain, and still, it is to be presumed, retained those scruples about meeting convicts in society, for which he was mercilessly chastised by the wit of Sydney Smith. But even old Samuel Marsden, like the rest of the colonial clergy of all denominations, in spite of the connection, historical and actual,

between Quakers and convicts, had a hearty welcome to give the Friends, and, indeed, did much to further their mission, especially by fostering the interest taken in it by his Excellency the Governor of New South Wales.

A serious and resolute attempt to conquer an empire rather than a province for pure and undefiled Christianity, for righteousness, temperance, and peace, the mission of the Friends in New South Wales is a fact the historical interest of which is in some respects unique. When the epoch of village politics, in which the question of dividing the village common is paramount, has come to an end in the Australian colonies, and when the laws that govern the intercourse of nations have superseded the legislative tricks and reprisals of parochially-minded parliaments, Australia will undoubtedly have to be reckoned among the great empires of the world. It will be curious then, no doubt, for the historian of Australia to recall to mind the fact that two unpaid missionaries in Quaker garb undertook the task of perambulating it, New Testament in hand, from north to south, and from east to west, and accomplished their undertaking. No Christian nation in the world, perhaps, can look back to a time when it was treated as a parish, and when every inhabitant of the parish was known to have been personally canvassed for his vote and influence in favour of peace on earth, good-will among men. Australia, when it attains the fulfilment of its destiny as the United States of the southern hemisphere, will be able to refer to such a period in its history. When that time comes, if the memory of James Backhouse and G. W. Walker is revived, as no doubt it will be, the fact, perhaps, will not be overlooked that their mission was, above all, to the outcasts from Christian society of the Old World, the acknowledged failures of Christian civilisation in Europe; and the remembrance of the fact may perhaps help to guide the course of civilisation and of Christianity under the Southern Cross. A new empire, in which the mission of Quakers to convicts is an important date, may possibly have an example to show to older Christian communities of how to treat criminals, and, it is to be hoped, may have something to teach them, in regard to crime, in the way of substituting prevention for punishment.

The year 1835, in which the Quakers began their labours in New South Wales, saw Batman, and after him J. P. Fawkner, arrive at Port Phillip from Tasmania, and un