footstool." Paul to the Colossians says:-"Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Sitting on the right hand of God means some great and peculiar power given to Him. In another place it is said that angels, principalities, and powers are made subject to Him, that He is exalted up on high, leading captivity captive, and receiving gifts for men. Again it is said, that "all power is given Him in heaven and earth." Christ sits on the right hand of God, clothed in a human form still; invested with real royalty, and wielding a real sceptre. The real man is there as well as the real God. We must not think that when He left this earth on the bosom of an airy cloud, He threw off His humanity as a garment. No! He has taken His manhood with Him to heaven. In His manhood and Godhead He stands to plead for us, and introduce us to His Father. His bosom still swells with the waves of human sorrow which flood human hearts the world all over.

(b) Christ ascended in order to give us power to ascend after Him. He had said "These signs shall follow them that believe; in My name shall they cast out devils." "They shall take up serpents." This power His people received at His ascension. Again the Psalmist says—" He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder; the young lion and dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet." These are figurative expressions, and signify that Christians shall overcome sin and master the corruptions of their fallen nature. This is the power which Christ has purchased for them. If it be true that Christ ascended we shall also ascend, for everything in Him is repeated in us. He died, He arose, He ascended. We are dead with Him, we are risen with Him in heavenly affections, living a new life. We are also ascended together with Him. Paul says "that we sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." This life is but a brief passage from a state of imperfection to one of glorious perfection. Every man, more or less, has two dreams in his soul, the dream of a lost Paradise and of one to be regained. Men in every land have sighed after the lost bliss of a golden age. Even the little child has memories of a past heaven, and poets tell us that before we came here we all

lived in a land of light, and life, and bliss; and therefore it is that little babes are so innocent, pure, and beautiful. They are still encircled with the glory of the other world from which they have come. Whether that is a truth or a poetic fancy, I do not know; but of this I am sure, that man has still in his heart some echoes of the harmonies of the old Paradise which was lost through the fall. A tradition has passed down the ages that the world was once free from sin, darkness, and sorrow. Further still, man dreams of a future golden age-another land of life, and light, and joy. If he has thrust himself out of heaven, he desires to return, and hence was formed the ancient fable, that a certain Prometheus often ascended to heaven to steal fire from the gods. Heaven is our native home. We are but strangers and pilgrims here, and hence our restlessness. This world is not in harmony with our condition. The world's voices only mock our troubled spirits. It has no sympathy with our grief and joy. Often the sky is blue and the sun bright when our soul is eclipsed. Often sorrows overwhelm us, and grief blinds us, and passions shake our whole soul, and then we cry out for our ascension. Often in these deep sorrows of life we catch a glimpse of another life-a sudden flash, a mystic hint, like the lightning that darts between the clouds; and between the open cloud we look far into a depth of transcendent blue sky, and read the meaning of life. Just as all streams run into the ocean; as all fire turns to the sun; as the morning mist rises towards the clouds, every soul longs for immortality, asserts its claim for an ascended life, and soars towards heaven, its native land.

First: Learn what is the meaning of our present life. It is a time of probation and discipline. God gives us seventy years to grow in, and in this brief period we are to make preparations for more than 70,000 years. The best of us now are very unfinished; but God is training us, and we must not be impatient if God's work seems slow. It took Him ages to build the mountains. It takes Him a thousand years to form a tree. Be patient, if it only takes Him seventy years to form a complete man. There are some birds who never fly above the trees or mountain-tops: they are lowland birds; they are of the earth, earthy. The lark, on the

other hand, soars away to the blue depths of the upper heaven. With happy song she mounts up and up, till her shadow is lost in the blue ether, and her song dies away among the angels' notes, and the tip of her wing flaps against the gates of Paradise. There are some human beings whose native atmosphere is the earthwho never rise above the horizon of time. But there are other heaven-born souls, whose native air is heaven. Lark-like they rise from transitory things, and soar to heaven their home-they are always ascending. They oft exclaim, "O that I had the wings of a dove for then I would fly away and be at rest." They are not happy till they fan with their spiritual wings the very gates. of Paradise.

Where? in

Christ has

He had no His Father

Second: Learn the happy destiny of all who rise with Christ. It is often a matter of wonder to us where the dead are gone. Those dear ones who walked and talked with us, where are they? The other day we heard their voices, saw their living forms, and felt their warm hand. Shall we again feel the touch of that vanished hand, and hear again the sound of that voice that is still? And if they are still living, where are they? heaven? These are questions we constantly ask. answered them by His resurrection and ascension. doubt about the future life. He spoke of going to after death. He also said that where He is we shall be also. Heaven, therefore, is where the Father and the Son dwell. Further, it is said that we shall be like Him in body and spirit. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is "-like Him who is perfect wisdom, perfect justice, perfect truth, perfect love; like Him the chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely. Amen.

SWANSEA.

D. BLOOMFIELD JAMES.

"The verdict given by pure equity enjoins a protest against every existing pretension to the individual possession of the soil; and dictates the assertion, that the right of mankind at large to the earth's surface is still valid; all deeds, customs, and laws, notwithstanding."-HERBERT SPENCER.

Homiletical Commentary.

HOMILETIC SKETCH ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.

The True Service of Christianity to Man.

"VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO THEE, WHEN THOU WAST YOUNG, THOU GIRDEST THYSELF, AND WALKEDST WHITHER THOU WOULDEST BUT WHEN THOU SHALT BE OLD, THOU SHALT STRETCH FORTH THY HANDS, AND ANOTHER SHALL GIRD THEE, AND CARRY THEE WHITHER THOU WOULDEST NOT. THIS SPAKE HE, SIGNIFYING BY WHAT DEATH HE SHOULD GLORIFY GOD. AND WHEN HE HAD SPOKEN THIS, HE SAITH UNTO HIM, FOLLOW ME. THEN PETER, TURNING ABOUT, SEETH THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED FOLLOWING; WHICH ALSO LEANED ON HIS BREAST At supper, and SAID, LORD, WHICH IS HE THAT BETRAYETH THEE? PETER SEEING HIM SAITH TO JESUS, LORD, and wHAT SHALL THIS MAN DO? JESUS SAITH UNTO HIM, IF I WILL THAT HE TARRY TILL I COME, WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? FOLLOW THOU ME. THEN WENT THIS SAYING ABROAD AMONG THE BRETHREN, THAT THAT DISCIPLE SHOULD NOT DIE: YET JESUS SAID NOT UNTO HIM, HE SHALL NOT DIE; BUT, IF I WILL THAT HE TARRY TILL I COME, WHAT IS THAT TO THEE?"-John xxi. 18-23.

EXPOSITION: Ver. 18.-" Verily,

verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest." Peter's whole life is here included, reaching from youthhood to the verge of old age. In young life there is freedom and force. At this time, perhaps, Peter was in middle life. "But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee." "This seems to point to his death, which,

tradition says, was by crucifixion. Then is Peter girded by the hand when he is stretched forth on the cross." -Tertullian. It is supposed by some that the expression "Stretch forth thy hands" points to his personal surrender previous to being girded by another.

Ver. 19." This spake He, signifying by what death (manner of death, Toiw) he should glorify God." This is not a mere prediction of the manner