released and given a last chance to yield, but true to a never-dying love, she refused, and was drowned.

"From the crowd

A woman's cry, a very bitter cry, dinna ye drown,
Gie in, gie in, my bairnie; gie in and tak' the oath."

And still the tide flowed in and drove the people back and silenced them. She sang the Psalm, "To Thee I lift my soul;" the tide flowed in, and rising to her waist, "To Thee, my God, I lift my soul," she sang; the tide flowed in, and rising to her throat, she sang no more, but lifted up her face,

"And there was glory over all the sky,
And there was glory over all the sea,
A flood of glory.

And the lifted face swam in it

Until it bowed beneath the flood,

And Scotland's noble martyr went to God."

The pages of history are crowded with illustrations of love's power as wonderful and sublime as that. All things fail and fall, but love never fails and never dies. The world may burn into a cinder, and the stars fall from their settings, and the whole universe become disorder and ruin, and love will

still be upon the highest throne in perfect security. Love has eternity in it.

The secret of Christianity is that love is the 'maker of character, and we come to be like that which we love. The law is as stringent and as binding as the law of gravity. Most men love

goodness in order to be good. Christ is the manifestation of perfect goodness, and to love Him is the transformation of character. Our relation to Him is the index of our present state and the prophecy of our future. Love is the author of purpose, and energy, and devotion, and obedience.

"If a man love Me," and every man can finish the sentence. It is inevitable. If Peter loves there need be no anxiety about the lambs and sheep. All the graces and activities follow this leadership. "Love is the seraph, and faith and hope are but the wings by which it flies." Love in this world never reaches its best in beauty or fruitage. The seasons are too short. There is too much frost in the spring, and the leaves wither early in the autumn. It is dwarfed and stunted, but there is a promise of another season after the world's winter. The life is in the root. It will blossom and bear fruit in the garden of God. Preserve and care for

the root, even though it may seem lifeless and useless. It is life's richest possession. Treasure it and beautify it, and see the stamp of eternity upon it. Go to the manger and whisper it. Enter the carpenter-shop and write it upon the bench. Pause under the olive-trees, and read it in the crimson marks. Stand at the foot of the cross and behold the four letters in the blood of the Saviour of the world, one at the top, one at the bottom, one upon the right hand, and one upon the left,-L-O-V-E.

198

Then welcome each rebuff

That turns earth's smoothness rough,

Each sting that bids, not sit nor stand, but

Be our joys three parts pain

Strive and hold cheap the strain

go.

Learn nor account the pang; dare never grudge the throe.

Here bring your wounded hearts

Here tell your anguish;

-BROWNING.

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.

-MOORE.

Now let us thank the Eternal Power convinced
That Heaven but tries our virtues by affliction.
That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour
Serves but to brighten all our future days.

-JOHN BROWN.

The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.-Socrates.

Prosperity is not without many fears and disappointments ; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.—BAKER. Sweet are the uses of adversity

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

VIII

LIFE'S PAIN

THE king of dramatists wrote the Book of Job, and brought it to the last act like a master of his art. The hero of the tale does not rise to the eloquence of his God, but comes at last to a whisper. Glory encircles the result of his intense suffering and silences the cry of pain, when he humbly smites his breast and says, "I know that Thou canst do everything." It may be whisper and muffled tone, but that is the eloquence of religion; that is the answer to every pang of pain; that is harmonious music on the repaired chords of the soul. A right view of God is essential to a right understanding of life. He can do everything, but the impulse is eternal love. God is Almighty, but it is the almightiness of love. This is the conclusion of experimental religion, and not of intellectual religion. This is the wrought-iron which cannot be broken.