the heights, lower than the depths, wider than horizons, passing understanding-in this great love is hope for everybody. Poor, trembling, unhappy soul, do not think that your hope lies in your making your old clothes seem as good as new. Do not think that your hope lies in your repenting of your sins. Your hope lies in the abundance and generosity of the love of God in Christ Jesus. It lies in the fact that there is enough in the love of God for you, that God gives it to you, and that it is yours as long as you will take it.

All those views, then, which set at defiance the blessedness of this hope in Christ and God are contrary to the explicit teaching of the Word of God.

I beseech of you, Christian brethren, cast not away your hope. You that go astray, and are obliged to register against yourselves great mistakes; you that stumble, and fight manfully against inordinate affections and strong and fiery lusts; you that struggle dubiously, at times, in the battle of life; you that long for the development of positive graces-for love, for purity, for joy, for peace; you that would bring forth the fruits of the Spirit-for you are all the blessed promises of God.

Come forth from bond

You are Christ's sons: children of Christ: put

So cleanse fear out of your lives. age. Escape from the prison-house. wear Christ's badges. You are the on the raiment that belongs to his children. Do not stand in the expectation that you are to be saved because you are good you are to be saved because you are under the guidance of Him who is ripening you, as the summer's sun ripens fruits.

It is with human beings as it is with plants. Some things come early, and die without developing either blossoms or fruit. So some children die before they have been able to show much growth. Some things wait till June, when their branches are filled with brilliant blossoms, and then die. So some young persons come to the threshold of life, and develop certain elements, and do a certain work, and are full of promise, and then disappear, God having taken them. Some things, like the aster and the golden rod, bloom in September and October, and lay their glowing clusters right on the

very cheek of frost, and are good to the end. So there are men who live along till the very winter slays them. And they who go in the early spring, they who go in midsummer, and they who go late in the autumn, are all under the same beneficent guidance. It is the same season of grace, nourishing them, and preparing them, and carrying them up to a better sphere.

O ye that are wind-driven; O ye that are weather-bound; O ye that are frosted or frozen; O ye that are seeking fairer climes; O ye that are fruitless and unbearing—your strength is not in your own good, but in the summer's sun, that comes nearer day by day to seek you and to work out of you that which is planted in you by the hand of God.

Dear friends, the spirit of God seeks you, and will work mightily in you, unfolding and unfolding your nature, until the time comes when you shall disappear to us, that you may appear among the spirits of just men made perfect.

Then hope; hope on; hope to the end; and be ye saved by hope.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

WE thank thee, our Father, that our thoughts go along the way of life. We are not mourners, though sometimes we mourn; nor are we children of darkness, though sometimes we sit in the shadow of death. We are called of God. To us, to every one that heareth, and to every one that will, is the call to life, to hope, and to joy. We draw near to thee this morning for our portion of the inheritance-for the earnest of the promised possession, the foretoken, the something which thou sendest before to bring us up out of Egypt and into the promised land.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt grant unto us such an assurance of thine own self, such a sense of the warmth of soul that comes from thy brooding, such a sense of God speaking within, that we shall know our fellowship and sonship, and that we shall be able to breathe a new consciousness of adoption, and feel that thou art our dear Father.

Grant us, this morning, we beseech of thee, faith in God, hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, and life through the Holy Ghost. We beseech of thee that thus thou wilt win us from undue adhesions to the world. Deliver us from the bondage of overmuch labor, from the torment of vexatious care, from the fears that tyrannize over the soul, from the despotism of evil babits, and from all things that limit us, and hinder the freedom of our emotion toward thee, and take away from the sweetness of our communion with thee, and from the liberty and power of the gift of God that is within us.

We pray that thou wilt, by thine own power, O thou blessed and holy One, deliver us from the thrall of sin. Give us strength in the day of temptation. Teach us how to use the world as not abusing it; how to make all things lawful; how to convert whatever is in life to the usages of our reason, and to the honor of our higher nature that is of God, that we shall be able to walk as free men, a law unto ourselves, inspired continually with that wisdom which is from above.

And so we pray that thou wilt give us strength among men, that we may shed cheer upon them, and give courage to those who are in despondency, and wisdom to those who lack it; so that out of our souls may be breathed those sweet winds which shall bring in all such as lie in calm, and cannot move themselves.

We pray that thou wilt grant thy blessing, this morning, to all who have come up into thy sanctuary needing thee, and conscious of their need. May they who bear burdens be relieved of them. May those who do not dare to call themselves the children of God be drawn by childlike clinging to thee as their Father. Thou that dost by the shining of the sun bring all sweet and pleasant things out of the earth, canst thou not more, by the shining of the Sun of Righteousness, bring from our dead hearts glorious blossoms and fruits.

We pray that thou wilt vindicate thy presence and power to everyone who is in doubt concerning them. Thou that art the Life-giver, give life to those who are dead in things spiritual. We pray that all thine oppressed ones, that all thy weak ones, that all thy tempted ones, that all thy sinning ones, that all thy people who are out of the

way in any manner whatsoever, may be brought to thee. O thou blessed High-priest that hast compassion, look upon those who need thee, and have compassion upon them.

We pray that thou wilt open, to-day, to everyone of us, the greater horizon that bounds and glorifies this lesser horizon of time. May we behold, far beyond our heaven, the heaven of heavens. May we discern more than thought can find, and more than language can express. O grant that it may be for us, also, standing here, to discern things which it is not lawful to utter. And so grant that in our experience there may be developed that peace which passeth all understanding; that joy which is full of glory; that hope which overcometh; that blessedness which they have who are kept in the peace of the Holy Ghost.

Draw near to any who mourn, and grant that their sorrow may be blessed of God, and sweetened into all nourishment for their souls. May those who are in bitter disappointments be reconciled to the providence of God, and know how to be contented in the places and in the circumstances in which they are, and how by patience to overcome the rude thralls of temptation. Grant to those who are standing and waiting for the indications of thy providence to know the way of duty, light and guidance and assurance, that they may hear thee saying, This is the way: walk ye in it.

We pray that we may so dwell in the desire of love, and of trust in God, and of peace in God, and of hope in God, that all things shall be clear to us; and that those complications which come from the interference of passions, and those knots which selfishness doth tie, and those snarls which come from intemperate ways, may all be loosed or be destroyed; and that we may live in that blessed empyrean which is light and guidance, so that whichever way the Lord shall waft us shall be the way that is most delightful to us.

We pray, not only that we may have the consciousness of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but that we may also bear with us more and more friendships and affections into the high and blessed realm above, so that we may feel that we are carrying our dear ones, and are being borne by them, into the assemblage of the spirits of just men made perfect.

We pray that thou wilt enter into every dwelling, and that thou wilt say in each household, Peace be with you.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt teach us more and more to rejoice, not alone in the outward victory of the visible church, but in the victory of that great invisible church to which we belong, and from which we derive our inspiration. We thank thee that it is so rich. We thank thee that in every age multitudes run into it as rivers into the sea; that it is already filled with so many whom we have kuown and loved upon earth; and that it is no longer the great Sahara of our thought, barren and desolate-but home-like. May it become to us more and more, as we transfer thither the things which are most beautiful and most desirable to our souls, our Father's house; and may we realize that we are strangers and pilgrims, seeking a better country-a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God, and whose inhabitants lovingly call out to us, Come,

come! Out of trouble, out of sorrow, out of night, may we spread our wings and fly away to be at rest.

Grant thy blessing, dear Father, to rest on all assemblies that are gathered together for worship this day; and may the messages which are delivered to them be messages of faith and love. We pray that thou wilt remember all the efforts which are being made to further the cause of truth and justice and morality. Guide those who are inspired to labor in thy cause, that they may do the best things, and that they may do them in the best spirit. Bless the schools and missionary enterprises that are connected with this church. May thy blessing rest richly upon the brethren who are laboring in them. We thank thee that under their ministrations so many are being called in, and brought to a knowledge of God.

Grant thy blessing, especially, upon that Council* which is to be convoked, this week, in our midst. Grant that all who shall come hither may come with the sanctifying spirit of God resting upon them; that there may be no discord; that there may be the divine leading; and that they may dwell in the perfect presence and spirit of the Lord and Master, and do those things which shall be for the furtherance of thine honor, and forbear those things which shall make for trouble and for harm. Everywhere, may all conferences, all presbyteries, all synods, all assemblies, ail convocations, have the spirit of Christ within them, that the things which shall be done in the name of Christ may be Christlike.

Spread abroad the knowledge of the truth in all the world. Hasten the day when thy promises shall be fulfilled, and when from the rising of the sun till the going down of the same all men shall know thee and love thee. And to the Father, the Son and the Spirit, shall be praises everlasting. Amen.

PRAYER AFTER THE SERMON.

Our Father, we pray that thou wilt bless the word spoken, and grant that it may not be in vain. Deliver us from all the tyranny of fear; deliver us from bondage in the disgraceful prison-house where anguish casts many a man. Deliver us from phantasy and from all insane visions. May we have the simplicity of children, and know that the way of life is the way of love and hope and trust; and to these may we give ourselves, and be nurtured in them till we have fulfilled our mission here, and until thou hast prepared us for blessedness beyond; and then bring us home to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon our heads. And to Thee shall be the praise of our salvation, Father, Son and Spirit. Amen.

* Council of Congregational Churches, called by the Church of the Pilgrims and the Clinton Avenue Congregational Church.