confusions which he had escaped? whether the thought must not have haunted him that, after a little while, he should be in the same cave again? These are questions which it may be well for us to consider; though, perhaps, they are not different in kind from those which arise when any one who has been on the borders of the unseen world, who has taken leave of kinsfolk and friends, who has had glimpses of another country, suddenly recovers, and has to adapt himself once more to the business and intercourse of the earth. In one case, as in the other, I conceive there is but this solution of the difficulty. The man must be glad to be placed where it pleases Christ that he should be placed. He will not certainly be nearer Him by complaining of his destiny, or by not desiring exactly the work which has been given him to do. If he has dreamed of a heaven above where he shall be under some other law than that, or where his will must not be in conformity with that law, the dream will never be realized. So, doubtless, Lazarus was taught by his discipline. And this may have been to him, if he could take it in, a greater comfort than even his appearing again beside the old hearth-a compensation for all he might suffer then or afterwards-that through him multitudes unborn were to learn the meaning of their own death, the secret of their own life, and who is the Friend that interprets them both.-MAURICE.

SEPTEMBER 17.

I beheld, and, lo, u great multitude. . . stood before the throne, and before the Lamb.--REVELATION vii. 9.

There is nothing so distressing to an earnest man as the thought which sometimes rises in his own mind, that here we are bound together in families and nations, that after death all such relations cease, that all becomes individual and solitary. But surely future blessedness is the perfection of the present; not the utter undoing of all which has been blessed here. To escape from solitude and individualism, to be made capable of friendship and society, this has been the gift God has conforrod upon us below. Families, nations, Churches, have been His; our sins. have been the dissolution of them. If St. John's teaching is true, the multitude that no man can' number is a society. Their robes have become white, because every stain of selfishness has been washed from them by the blood of the Lamb. There is no dull uniformity, no single tongue; but all is harmonious amidst diversity. There all give glory to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb. In that company the one word which is connected with tho Divino Name is salvation--salvation from the curse that men have made for themselves.- MAURICE.

SEPTEMBER 18.

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.-PPILIPPIANS iii. 14.

If the men of the world, who have the spirit of the world, are so desirous to see an earthly king—at least, in all his ornaments and glory-how much more should they desire to see Christ, in whom the drops of the quickening Spirit hath instilled, and whose hearts He hath wounded with the divine love of Christ, the heavenly King! They are enchained in that beauty and unspeakable glory, in that incorruptible splendour and that incomprehensible riches of the true and eternal King, Christ; with desire and longings after whom they are entirely taken up, being wholly turned to Him, and long to attain that inexpressible blessedness, which by the Spirit they behold; for the sake of which they esteem all the beauty, and ornaments, and glory, and riches, and honour of kings and princes but as nothing. For they are wounded with the beauty of God, and the heavenly life of immortality hath dropped into their souls. Therefore do they wish for the love of the heavenly King, and depart from all terrene engagements, that so they may still keep that desire alone in their hearts.-MACARIUS.

SEPTEMBER 19.

And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.-LUKE xvi. 26.

No thought is more overpowering than that every one who lives, or has lived, is destined for endless bliss or torment; it is far too much for us to realize. But what especially increases the mind's confusion when it attempts to do so is just this very thing, that there are but these two states, that every individual among us is either in one or the other. It is certainly quite beyond our understanding, that all we should now be living together as relatives, friends, associates, neighbours; that we should be familiar or intimate with each other; that there should be among us a general intercourse, circulation of thought, interchange of good offices, the action of mind upon mind, and will upon will, and conduct upon conduct; and yet, after all, that there should be a bottomless gulf between us, running among us invisibly, and cutting us off into two parties: not, indeed, a gulf impassable here, God be praised! not impassable till we pass into the next world; but really existing, so that every person we meet is, in God's unerring eye, either on the one side or the other. Endeavour then, to realize that you have souls, and pray God to enable you to do so.J. H. NEWMAN.

SEPTEMBER 20.

For the fashion of this world passeth away.
1 CORINTHIANS vii. 31.

Let us then thus account of our present state. It is precious as revealing to us, amid shadows and figures, the existence and attributes of Almighty God and His elect people. It is precious because it enables us to hold intercourse with immortal souls who are on their trial as we are. It is momentous as being the scene and means of our trial; but beyond this it has no claims upon us. We should remember that it is scarcely more than an accident of our being; that it is no part of ourselves who are immortal; that we are immortal spirits, independent of time and space, and that this life is but a sort of outward stage on which we act for a time, and which is only sufficient and only intended to answer the purpose of trying whether we will serve God or no. We may be poor or rich, young or old, honoured or slighted, and it ought to affect us no more than if we were actors in a play, and though they may appear to be superior one to another, they are in reality all on a level.-J. H. NEwman.