to truth and to Christ.

Agean Sea, known by the name of Patmos, for his unswerving attachment But everywhere and in all conditions, the peace of God ruled in his heart. Calm and tranquil was his state of mind, and when we look into his breast, it is like locking into a beautiful lake whose waters are clear and serene to their lowest depth. Amid all the changes incident to this lower world, he rises into the Immutable:-in the midst of sorrows and sufferings, he lays his spirit on the bosom of Infinite Love, and draws consolation from the very heart of God:-when his path becomes overshadowed and darkened, he, the eagle of the church, unfolds his wing, and soars above the clouds, til by an inward spiritual vision he gazes upon the brightness of the Throne;-when persecution assails him he becomes conscious of the shield of the cherubim being over him, and the power of the Highest being upon him;-when death approaches, his faith challenges the last enemy, and triumphs in the prospect of the endless life; and then having finished his course and ready to depart, the good old man, feeble and attenuated in body, but with a soul longing, from the fulness of its inward life, to burst the bond of mortality, lays himself down, like a child in his mother's arms, falls asleep in Christ, and enters on the saints' everlasting rest.

Here is a character to be admired—a life to be studied—an example to be followed-a piety to be emulated-a devotion to be reached—a consecration and a self-denying activity to be imitated. It is no mere fancy portrait which we have drawn-no mere ideal of human excellence which we have described, but a true character-something which has had existence in the world, and which may exist again. We therefore hold it up to the study and the imitation of the young. The same principles which lay at the root of John's character must lie at the root of your character. From these principles must spring the virtues which are to adorn and embellish your life. As the virtues cannot exist without the principles, you must hold fast by sound principles, and on these as on a living stem will cluster those graces which adorn the life and give perfection to the character. You cannot make a character by veneering it as you would a piece of furniture, and therefore never assume the fictitious, while you lack the true. Be-and do not seem to be. Be sincere-be genuine-be transparent. Let no one stand in doubt of your principles or your virtues. Dare to be true in a world in which there is so much that is fictitious and false. Stand erect among men. Make life a reality. Track the steps of the great and the good who have gone before you, that you may hereafter unite with the brave and the blessed in the service and the song of heaven.

Always Rejoicing.

WE can readily imagine a stranger to the joyous spirit of the Gospel reading those exhortations of Paul in which he inculcates the duty of perpetual gladness with a smile of mingled incredulity and contempt, and saying, as he repeated the words "Rejoice evermore,' Rejoice in the Lord alway," "I wonder what kind of man he could be who wrote such precepts as these! Did he know anything about his own human nature, or was his nature

different from everybody else's? Was he never depressed? Was he always strong? Did no vexation or trouble ever befall him, which for the time cast a cloud over everything, and which, whilst it lasted, would have made him feel it to be little better than mockery if any one had exhorted him to rejoice?"

**These counsels," such an objector might further say, 66 occur in a book which is believed by Christians to be a part of the inspired Scriptures. How far are they consistent with the rest? Do we not find proceeding from the lips of even the best men utterances of deep sorrow which are altogether incompatible with joy? Do we not sometimes hear such men-for instance in the Book of Psalms-crying from the very depths of despondency and woe? Do we not find them looking back regretfully to departed joys, and weeping that they can return no more? Nay, does not the mission of Jesus to heal the broken-hearted' imply, whatever the issue of his consolations, a state of things the very reverse of glad? Admitting, moreover, that there is much in religion that is very joyous, is there not also much to make a man sometimes very sorrowful? much in himself and much in the world?"

Such cavils may be fully met by showing how rich and exhaustless are the sources of Christian joy.

First of all, it arises from the thought that we are saved. Paul assumes this of every one whom he incites to Christian gladness, and he bids no man rejoice who has any reason to fear that he is still "dead in trespasses and sins." It may be long years since we first trusted in Christ, and our rebellion and unbelief may be so far back in the past as to need an effort of memory to recall them; still it is to be the theme of constant gladness that we have experienced such a deliverance, and that we are partakers of so great a salvation. It never ceased to rise before the mind of Paul as the occasion of joyous thanksgiving. To the close of his life he would often say, as he said to the Romans, "We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have received the atonement." Familiar with the Old Testament, he would find in the language of the prophet words with which to express his own deep fullness of joy, "O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou was angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me."

Again, this joy is quickened by the thought of the new relations which the soul sustains to God. "He is my Father," the Christian can say; "Ho has enstamped on me His own image; He looks on me with fatherly love; He welcomes me when I pray; He puts forth his hand continually to help and protect and bless me; and He makes all things work together for my good."

It is joy in the Lord Jesus. The object of our faith and hope is a living Christ, and every soul that truly believes Him can say, "Though He sits on the throne of all the universe, and though myriads of angels worship Him, He sympathises with me, intercedes for me, sends His angels to surround my path, gives me His Spirit; in one word, He exercises all power and grace, that I may be kept from evil, and that I may at last be presented 'faultless in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.'

Yet further, it is the joy of hope. We can say, "If children, then heirs." We are "begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of

Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away-wherein we greatly rejoice.”

66

Grace and duty go ever hand in hand; and so whilst we are commanded to rejoice, we have the Holy Spirit promised us as a spirit of joy. We have "joy in the Holy Ghost." 'The fruit of the Spirit is joy." In the last discourse which Jesus addressed to His disciples, He spoke much of the Comforter, and He told them that the intent for which He so spake was that "His joy might remain in them, and that their joy might be full." The Spirit thus gladdens us, by revealing to us in their true greatness the sources of our joy; by enlarging our faith; by increasing our love; by expanding our hope; by bringing us into closer union with Jesus: and we have but to ask in order to obtain His largest grace.

Still we can believe that these words "always," ," "evermore," in their application to this matter, may occasion no little difficulty. "How is it possible," it may be asked, "for me to rejoice always, even though the reasons of my joy be, as you have described them, so great and enduring?” The exhortation cannot mean that we are always to be on the mountain-top, singing for very gladness. We should do violence to our nature, were we not sometimes sad and sorrowful. God sends us sorrow that we may feel it and weep under it; and He bids us weep with one another. We are to be humbled and penitent because of our own sins; and "rivers of waters" are to 66 run down our eyes, because men keep not God's law." Still our joy may remain; and though "sorrowful,"-it seems a paradox, but it is a blessed possibility, and in myriads of instances it has been verified as a glorious truth-we may be "always rejoicing." Is there nothing like this in life? How often men are much troubled by the occurrence of serious loss, who are nevertheless gladdened by the thought that, notwithstanding, some great treasure remains untouched! The sailor exposed to the pelting of the storm, and chilled to the bone by the cold, sees ahead the lights of the harbour to which he is going, and in the midst of all that makes him feel so wretched, he rejoices in the hope that bright faces and a warm fireside and a loving welcome will greet him at home. As those parents who have just lost their little one think only of their loss, they are crushed to the very earth; yet by and by they are comforted by the thought that they are spared to one another, and that the rest of their household treasures remain. We were deeply wounded when one whom we had trusted as our friend dealt with us treacherously; but in the midst of all it gladdened us to know that another, whose esteem was on every account better worth having, remained true. Much more then, surely, is it possible for us always to "rejoice in the Lord"—always, with but one exception, and that is when unbelief and sin shut us out from the enjoyment of His love.

Is it so then with us? Is the prevailing temper of our minds that of a calm and abounding and ever increasing joy?

Our gladness, to come up to the description of the New Testament, should be like a clear and flowing stream, which, as it passes along its bed to the ocean, runs through the most varied scenery; now through flowery meadows, now through overhanging woods; now through rifted rocks, and now through desolate moorland; sometimes beneath dark clouds, sometimes in the bright sunshine, and sometimes in the storm; but which amid all the changes, both of the bed along which it flows and of the skies which look down upon it, is

ever clear and ever full. Instead of this, how often it seems as though the stream were almost dried, and, instead of clear and sparkling waters, the' little that flows is turbid and defiled.

It may be useful to point out some of the causes which are inimical to Christian joy.

Its chief enemy is sin. So we find David, after his great transgression, bewailing his lost peace, and crying, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." Yet the dying out of his joy in God did not date from the time when, confronted by the prophet, he was brought to a right sense of his sin: it would date from the very hour that he committed it. During that dreary twelvemonth which elapsed from his crime to his repentance-surely the dreariest year of all his life-even though he might visit the temple as he had been wont, and take part in its services and direct its songs, it is scarcely possible that he would know anything of the "joy of salvation;" for sin, like a deadly poison, kills the life of believing joy. Yet it does not need a great sin, like David's, to do this. What are called "little sins" may do it just as surely. Indeed, it may be questioned whether one great transgression, standing out as the exception of a life of holy service, and at once repented of, or a succession of "little sins," persisted in and made the habit of the life, is the more fatally destructive to Christian joy. If we would "rejoice evermore," it must be our constant prayer, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me."

Worldly care is destructive of true Christian joy. How solicitous Jesus was to keep His disciples from anxious, fretting care! We are to "take no thought for the morrow," to "be careful for nothing," to "cast all our care on Him." For one thing He knew, that the tendency of care was in various ways to sin, sometimes urging men to resort to doubtful expedients that they may escape the evil they dread, or that they may attain the good on which they have set their hearts. But not less did He seek to guard us against it, because He wished us to be always glad, and because He knew that care and joy were as opposed as sunshine and midnight. May we not appeal on this matter to the experience of at least some of our readers? When your mind was fretted and worried by the fear of some great loss, or you were absorbed by the cares of this life, could you fix your thoughts on the grand objects of Christian joy? We will not say that your joy was completely extinguished; but did it not become most feeble? Let us spare no lawful endeavour to succeed in life; but having done that, let us learn to leave the event with God. This is what the apostle enjoins: "Be careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." And peace and joy are kindred graces-twin sisters seldom long apart.

Unbelief robs us of our joy. The things in which we rejoice are all unseen; and it is only as we have faith in their existence, and feel that we have a personal interest in them, that they can minister to us gladness. What Peter says about our rejoicing in Christ applies to the whole range of our spiritual joys: "Whom not having seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Joy is the fruit of faith; and if our faith be feeble, in exact propor

tion to its feebleness will be the decline of our joy. If "rooted and grounded in love," we comprehended "the breadth and length and depth and height, and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge;" if we believed, as we ought to do, in the greatness of our Christian privileges; and if we lived in the habitual and believing contemplation of the things which are unseen and everlasting, it would be impossible that we should be otherwise than glad, even with a "joy unspeakable." Let our prayer then be, "Lord, increase our faith;" and whilst we so pray, resisting all influences which tend to unbelief, let us ponder diligently the inspired Word, that in its blessed light, our eyes opened by the enlightening Spirit, it may be as though we saw the Invisible. If we do this, there is no telling how full our joy may be!

Are we wrong in saying that one of the greatest wants of the Church in our day is that of a sustained and elevated Christian joy? If we had that in higher measure, would it not resolve a great many questions which are often strenuously debated, as to the good or harm, the lawfulness or the reverse, of this pleasure or that? Would there be that hankering after the excitements of worldly pleasure which we see on the part of so many professing Christians, if their hearts were really filled with the joy of the Lord?" If we saw a grown-up man addicting himself to the sports of childhood, thinking about them, planning for their enjoyment, and finding in them his chief delight, we should look at him with pity and surprise; and if he were to ask us, “Well, what harm is there in my amusing myself thus ?" we should most likely reply,

Well, certainly there is nothing morally wrong in it; nevertheless, we are sorry that a man who has come to your years should not seek for pleasures of a higher order." So, when we see a Christian in eager quest of worldly enjoyments, and hear him asking, "Well, where is the harm ?" we should reply, "Whether there be actual harm in them or not, you would scarcely ask that question if you were living in the large enjoyment of the joy which Jesus gives. If you rejoiced greatly in the Lord, these things would fade into insignificance; just as the toys and sports of children are looked down upon as trifles by thoughtful men.

"Glad in the Lord," our joy would be a source of mighty power-of power to resist temptation, to endure even the keenest sorrows, and to work for Christ.

In the best and most comprehensive sense of the term, the joys of salvation are "pleasures for evermore." They will last through life, rising higher day by day; and they will endure in heaven for ever.

S. GOODALL.

The Call to the Christian Ministry.*

WITH the New Testament before us, it is vain, we think, to deny the fact of the ministry as a distinct arrangement and established order in the Church. But the sacredness of its character may be perverted, its influence may be

*The Moral Value of a Mission from Christ: a Sermon, preached in Christ Church Cathedral, at the General Ordination of the Lord Bishop of Oxford, December 22, 1867. By H. P. Liddon, M.A. Printed by command. Second Edition. London: Rivingtons.