But this I say to every one of you- try to make this Lent a reality, imitate the Self-sacrifice of JESUS our Lord by practising some self-denial for His sake. And believe me, if you do it as unto the Lord, you will find it profitable, helpful, blessed: for "if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him." Remember Lent is a great reality. It is a time when "JESUS of Nazareth, our Lord and God, passeth by." It is meant as a time of special preparation for Easter Communion. If you have been irregular in coming unto the Altar of God, or if you have never communicated at all, now is your time. Use this Lent well, and if you are a regular Communicant, you may expect to receive a special blessing at Easter: if you have been negligent and irregular, you may by earnest prayer, by selfdenial, and by diligent preparation, be a worthy partaker of the Table of the Lord: or if, in days that are

past, you have unhappily neglected that Holy Communion which is the solemn bounden duty of every Christian man, and also his highest privilege and his greatest joy yet now if you are waking up to the greatness of your responsibilities, and the blessedness of those helps, sacraments, benedictions, and means grace, which surround you on either hand, you may make good progress through Lent, and hope soon to be admitted to eat and drink with the King of kings, at His Table; if only you will strive to master and restrain your evil lusts and passions, to conquer pride, to surrender self, and to lay your will at the feet of JESUS, saying

of

Teach me to do Thy Will, O God!

Our Blessed Lord as our Example in Love.

EPHES. III. 19.

"To know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge."

ON Sunday last I tried to point you to our Blessed Lord, the Man Christ JESUS, as the One great Pattern and Example of self-sacrifice. This evening it will be my endeavour to uplift Him here among you as the One True and Perfect Pattern of Love.

Now in the best and purest earthly love there is much of selfishness and imperfection. Other motives mingle with the love of parents for their children, and of children for their parents, so that the pure gold of Love becomes mixed with dross. But the Love of JESUS Our Lord and God is wholly unalloyed, entirely disinterested, full and free, boundless and eternal. It is the Source, the Spring. the Fountain-head of all true love, which gushes forth pure and fresh and sparkling from the very Being of God, for "God is Love, and he that dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and God in him."

I. To know the Love of Christ. But how can mortal man know that which passeth knowledge? True no man can find out the Almighty unto perfection no one of us can fully appreciate and understand the length and breadth and depth and height of the Love of JESUS Our Lord. Still, if we try to love Him Who first loved us, we shall know somewhat of that His boundless love for Love sees Love, and Love purges and purifies the mental vision. Moreover S. John, the beloved disciple, who is often called "the Apostle of Love," tells us, "Hereby perceive we the Love of God, because He laid down His Life for us!" That Love of Christ our Lord, which, in all its fulness and variety, passeth knowledge, may yet be apprehended in part, by what He has done and is now doing.

And first the Love of JESUS our Lord was manifested in His being mindful of man, and in His visiting him in his ruined state. His Love for man brought Christ from Heaven to earth.

"O Love how deep! how broad! how high!

It fills the heart with ecstasy!

That God, the Son of God should take

Our mortal form for mortal's sake."

Through Love of man He abhorred not the Virgin's

womb; for verily He took not on Him the nature of

Angels, but was made a little lower than the Angels,

what time He the

Eternal Word was made Flesh and

dwelt among us. pure love to man He took upon Him the form of a Servant and shrank not from poverty, misunderstanding. coldness, unkindness, desertion, and treachery. His love led Him to undergo temptation and trial, toil and weariness, hunger and thirst, loneliness, and apparent want of success, for us men and for our salvation. His long-suffering Love enabled Him to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself, when they perverted His words, blasphemed His deeds of Love and Mercy by ascribing them to the power of the devil, cast out His Name as evil, plotted against His life, tried to entangle Him in His talk, and marked His steps when they laid wait for His soul. It was Love and Love alone which nerved Him to become a Man of sorrows, to face hunger and cold and fasting and temptation in the wilderness, to battle with all the manifold devices and assaults of Satan all life long, and to set His Face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem, knowing perfectly all that should befall Him there. It was Love which led Him to drain the cup of sorrow and of suffering to its very dregs, to hide not His Face from shame and spitting, to give His Back to the smiters and to them that plucked off the

See how He loved us! Out of