and spiritual health. This true life guiding and guarding our own efforts would strengthen us in well doing, and preserve us from evil, bringing us to a true knowledge of Christ as expressed by Paul: "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to them that are called, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Jesus declared, "Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God." And he assured his hearers that his works and words were not his, but the Father's who had sent him; thus he was the expression of God's power and wisdom toward man. Said Jesus: " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work."

Jesus was eminently the anointed servant of God, was called Christ because he was anointed or filled with and manifested to the world the power and wisdom of God. He was the sanctified instrument, and when he speaks of himself as the servant of God, he particularly declares himself as such. Jesus said to them, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And He that sent me is with me; the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." But when he speaks directly of spiritual things, he uses deep figures; for his whole being was, as it were, permeated by the living spiritual principle; he was filled with it, it was his meat and his drink spiritually; hence the figure. Now we know

what we eat and drink physically constitutes our physical substance, our flesh and blood. He said to his disciples on a certain occasion, "I have meat to eat which ye know not of." His spiritual bread was from heaven, his spiritual nature and teaching was food, or sustenance, and strength to his enlightened followers, hence the strange figure; but "it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." This explains it clearly.

Receive his words, and obey them with pure and dedicated hearts, and they will prove themselves to be meat and drink indeed to your spiritual natures, for obedience to them will bring life to you from God, will be the bread of heaven to your souls. That is all; no mystery about it. He leaves no mystery, but makes it all as clear as light to those who will take his word instead of putting an outward meaning to it, as did those disciples who at that time went back. These words of life, this bread of heaven, is free to every one who will receive them; but remember what the word will means to us. We must see that our wills are turned in the right direction, for who of us ever accomplished anything of account unless we willed to do it. If we desire to know the truth, let us seek it. "Seek and ye shall find," and when we find we shall feel and witness the spirit's work, shall ask and receive the Spirit's help, and shall know what to do; for then our wills will be submitted to the Father's will, and we will work in the " Christ" and under his direction.

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Then will the Christian warfare be at its height, for we shall take up the cross against evil, as Jesus did; we shall follow him, and thus he will be the captain of our salva

tion. We shall do our own will only as it is in unison with the Father's, because He knoweth best, and then we shall be led in the way wherein evil cannot overcome us. Temptations may come to us, but a way of escape will be made for us, and if we remain faithful to the end we shall receive, in place of the cross, the Crown of Life.

SERMON DELIVERED IN FARMINGTON.

EXACT DATE NOT KNOWN.

MAN, when he comes into this world, has everything to learn that is necessary or possible to his present state of being; he is a blank to be filled, and the knowledge for the filling can be gained only by experience.

In his spiritual experience the first thing to be learned is, "God is love;" the next in importance is to become acquainted with himself.

"Know thou thyself-presume not God to scan,

The proper study of mankind is man."

This is requisite if we would gain true knowledge, for thus we shall come to know our own hearts, without an understanding of which we cannot advance. We should know which of our faculties require cultivating, and which pruning and watching.

I am aware of the doctrine of Adam's transgression and the consequent fall of man,-that unborn millions were doomed to bear the curse of a sin they never committed,but this is wrong. "God is just and true in all his ways."

His work is perfect. He made man upright, He has given him physical powers and wants, and above these the mental and moral, and, still higher, the spiritual faculties and aspirations. Now all these are good in their place, and man's great work is to watch them and keep them in their place. When he looks in the right direction,—that is, to the One who gave him these faculties and conditions,-he will find a superior Power to assist him, one different from his own natural power, because it is unerring and unlimited in strength.

But if man fails to look in this direction, if he refuses to look up to the Author and Giver of all, he commits an error; it is as natural and as necessary for man to look up to his Heavenly Father, and to keep his connection with Him and dependence upon Him, as it is for the child to look to and depend upon his earthly father for direction and support. God's laws are unerring, and they cannot be disregarded with impunity; God's justice is unerring, and His creature man cannot fall without his own consent; but if he does, in his own will, disobey the Father's voice, and turn his heart away from the "true light," he will inevitably go into the dark; he will find his nobler faculties brought down to serve the lower, the right spirit will cease to rule and the might of fleshly lust will predominate. Then will wrong and cruelty and war prevail, for, as said the apostle James, "Whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" Every man that has entered into this condition has fallen, he has partaken of the forbidden fruit and is lost! But is there no hope for him? is there no help? "Return unto me and I will return unto

you, saith the Lord." In order to do this he must learn the lesson of the prodigal mentioned by Jesus, he must learn that God is love. He must acquire a knowledge which can never be learned from books, or received from the laying on of man's hands, but he must know in his own experience of becoming humble and obedient to the Father's voice; he must return empty and penitent, and when he does this the Father will meet him while yet a great way off, and put upon him the best robe, which robe is love.

It may be asked, How do we know this robe is love? We know it by experience, for if we are obedient on our part, the law of God will be written on the tablets of the heart, and we shall know of being covered with the mantle of his love.

But this work on the part of man must be one of great care; he must go step by step, not letting his attention be drawn away by the "Lo here's and Lo there's" that fill the world with confusion, lest he lose his way and his last state be worse than the first.

The life of Jesus is held up and should be held up as the great example for all those to follow who profess to believe in Christ; and now, my beloved friends, let us consider this example and note it carefully. In the first place let us note the perfect abnegation of self. "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me." And how many professing Christians, think you, can say this to-day? And the doctrines he taught bore the impress of the Spirit of Truth upon them: truth was the foundation-stone, love was the covering. These doctrines assure us that the Divine Being required that man should labor; assure us that the reasoning powers and nobler aspirations were not created to