tempting to enter into the deeper meaning of this scene, it suggests two practical lessons in connexion with our present subject. The first is the fact of our Lord's retirement for solitary prayer. If our union in any part of our Christian worship is to produce real and lasting results, we must follow in this respect the Saviour's example. We must seek and find some little sanctuary, like that into which our Lord entered that evening upon the Mount of Olives,-a place where we can hold true communion with Him who seeth in secret; a place where, for His sake who suffered, and died, and rose again for us, we can ask faithfully and obtain effectually those blessings which are worthy even of the Saviour's infinite love, and a place where the covenant is often renewed whereby we dedicate ourselves to the God of our salvation, praying that we may be enabled to show forth His praise and glorify Him in our daily life, as well as by our lips.

Wherever such prayer is sincere, it will be accompanied by conformity to the second part of our Lord's example, which was closely connected with the praise in which He and His disciples had so recently united-submission to the Father's will. Upon our part, this must clearly take the form of obedience to the revelation of that will which He has given to us by His Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is chiefly in this way that our Christian praise and thanksgiving become an abiding principle, which supplies light and strength, support and comfort, not only in prosperity but even in adversity. The trials to which we may be exposed are different, in one respect amongst others, from those through which the Saviour passed. By Him they were all foreseen. In His Divine Omniscience He foreknew all that was before Him. But with us, the earthly future of life is in mercy hidden from our view. Upon its yet untrodden

E

path clouds and darkness rest, while before us and we cannot tell how nearis the eternal state, the life and immortality into which we are journeying. It is for this reason that each opportunity of taking part in our united worship, or of receiving instruction from the Word of God, or of enjoying other means of grace, should be to us very precious; while they also bear witness to another meeting and another scene suggested by those words, 'They went out into the Mount of Olives.' A few weeks after, our Lord and Saviour led forth His disciples again to the same spot. Then their former sadness had passed away, as they more fully recognised and believed the risen and living Redeemer. They were permitted to be eye-witnesses of His ascension and entrance into His present glory, receiving the assurance of attending angels, This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like

manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven.' We are still waiting for the time when those prophetic words shall be fulfilled. Then a greater and brighter gathering of the Lord's disciples shall welcome His return; for none who have truly known and obeyed, and followed Him, shall be wanting in that day of Christ, when 'the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy,' to show forth His praise perfectly and for ever.

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V.

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY,
ITS CHIEF SUBJECT.

'We preach Christ crucified . . . Christ the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God.'I COR. i. 23, 24.

A FEW years previous to the writing of this Epistle, a stranger might have been seen quietly entering one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. It was, owing to its situation and its favourable opportunities for commerce, the principal seaport at the time of the Roman empire. Its streets were constantly thronged by a busy crowd, gathered out of different nations. The traveller was in every sense solitary amongst the throng, and, so far as man could judge, he appeared likely to remain unnoticed and unknown. He