he got that. Jesus here tells us that is a great mistake. It will never be easier to believe than now. The man who is not persuaded by the Gospel will never be persuaded by a ghost. Let no one wait, then, before accepting Jesus, for something extraordinary to happen. That something is never going to happen, and if it did, it would leave us as we were. Now is the time, under God's silent guidance, and in the quiet morning of our days, to range ourselves under the conquering banner of the great Captain who lives for evermore.

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY

Morning

DAVID AND MEPHIBOSHETH

Passage to be read : 2 Sam. ix. 1-13.

T is clear that David had been king for some considerable time when this beautiful incident occurred.

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We know that at the time of Jonathan's death Mephibosheth was five years old (iv. 4), and now Mephibosheth himself had a young son, whose name was Micha (v. 12). Long years had passed, then, since that dark and ominous day when Saul and Jonathan were slain in their high places. And God had so loyally fulfilled His word to David, that he reigned, undisputed, over all Israel. But all the advancement of these stirring years, and all the alliances that were cemented in them, could never obliterate from the heart of David the covenant he had made long since with Jonathan (1 Sam. xx. 11-17). He might forget much in the pressure of kingship, but he could never forget that trysting in the fields. It was then he began to inquire about Saul's family. 'Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul?' And our chapter tells us of David's great discovery, and of the noble use he put it to.

Now we have all heard of the survival of the fittest:

but sometimes a planning and present God takes a thought that the unfittest shall survive, and then the bravest sons and goodliest daughters pass away, and no one remains alive but Mephibosheth. How Saul would

have scorned this deformed and useless grandson had he been spared to see him! But neither Saul nor Jonathan ever saw his lameness: it was their death that had been the cause of it. His nurse had fled, when she heard of Mount Gilboa, with her precious charge on her shoulder in the Eastern fashion, and then, in the wild and womanly excitement-a stumble, and the dash of her burden on the pavement; and the fatherless boy was lamed for life (iv. 4). No wonder that he had grown up in retirement, somewhere in Gilead, across the Jordan. The staunchest supporter of the ruined house could never have made of him a Young Pretender. He would live on, in the house of the rich sheikh (xvii. 27), unknown and unhonoured, but happy with little Micha-when suddenly the uneventful days are broken by the galloping of the couriers from the king. Can you not picture the dread that would fall on Mephibosheth when he heard that he was summoned to the Court? It is said that the most powerful governor in Afghanistan used to tremble when he received an unexpected letter from the late Ameer. But the message of David was rich in loving-kindness-it was the beginning of the kindness of God (v. 3). And how generously Mephibosheth was received, and how royally he and his were treated by David, all that is written for us in our chapter.

FIRST, then, let us note how loyal David was to his word. When he had pledged himself long ago to be kind to Jonathan, his affairs were in a desperate condition; and he had risen to be a king since then. But the word he had pledged when in peril of his life, still bound him when he reached the throne; the change of lots had not changed his heart. How many have made a vow when they were ill, and quite forgotten it when they grew better! How many have had fair dreams when they were young and poor; but lost them, slowly, when the riches came! It is one element in the true

greatness of David that the pledges of his hours of humiliation were made good when on the throne. And is it not so, too, with our Redeemer? Is not that the perennial wonder of His word? It was pledged to us-like the word of David to Jonathan-when Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and it is all fulfilled to us to-day when He reigns in the glory of His Kingship.

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BSERVE, again, how one is blessed for another's sake. We hear, like a refrain, throughout this chapter, the words, 'For Jonathan's sake.' If Mephibosheth got back his lands again, and was called to share in the joy of the king's table, it was all because Jonathan had been his father. I doubt not that many of Machir's household had striven to do little kindnesses to Mephibosheth out of pity for his lameness. But David was kind to him not for his lameness' sake, but for the sake of Jonathan his father. And does not God often honour His people in this world by blessing others for their sakes? Was not Lot spared for the sake of Abraham (Gen. xix. 29)? And was not Laban blessed because of Jacob (Gen. xxx. 27)? Did not God bless Potiphar for Joseph's sake (Gen. xxxix. 5)? And the widow of Zarephath for Elijah's (1 Kings xvii. 15-24)? No man can tell how others may be blessed if we have really been the friends of God. No one can know what unsuspected influences may flow from lowly fellowship with Jesus. The friendship of David was a great thing for Jonathan; but not less so for Jonathan's poor son.

LASTLY, remark how this sweet story is like a parable of the love of God. You and I, impoverished and maimed, and under sentence of rejection like the house of Saul, are sought out, individually, by the great love of Jesus. And we are afraid, when we first come face to face with Him, and then we hear Him saying to us, 'Fear not.' And then He restores our forfeited inheritance, and

takes us into rich communion with Himself. All this God does for lost and helpless men; all this is the working of His wonderful grace. And whether or not God meant to hint at that when He summoned the historian to write down this incident, I can never hear the name of Mephibosheth but immediately I fall a-thinking of myself.

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY

A

Evening

THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD

Passage to be read: Matt. xx. 1-16.

S we move through the preceding chapter of this Gospel we seem to breathe a different atmosphere; but the two chapters, though seemingly separated, stand in the closest connection with each other. In the former we meet with the rich young ruler and witness his sorrowful departure from the face of Christ; we hear, too, the question of Peter, What shall we have who have forsaken all and followed Thee? It is then that Jesus begins speaking about rewards of service. It is then, as if summing up the visible contrast between the rich young ruler and His poor disciples, that He says, 'Many that are first shall be last, and the last first' (Matt. xix. 30). And then, as though to show forth in a picture some of the mysteries He has been dealing with, He speaks this parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard.

NOTE first, then, God's kingdom is like a vineyard. It

is an excellent exercise for all of us to recall the things that the Kingdom of God is like. It is equally good