found water there; but the water was wine before the feast was ended. Now He takes the wine upon the table, and exalts it into the symbol of His blood. From water to wine and then from wine to blood-you see the upward trend in Jesus' action? No wonder the world began to bud and blossom under a gaze that understood things so. If a mustard-seed is the Kingdom in disguise, what may not the poorest boy or girl become? If broken bread speak of His sinless body, there is still a chance for broken characters. It is quite true that we are saved by hope. The hopefulness of Jesus Christ is wonderful. It is that which makes Him the ideal Comrade for the brave young hearts that still are dreaming dreams.

THEN lastly, note that this feast speaks of His death. It was His death that Jesus chose for special remembrance. He might have chosen His birth (perhaps we think), or else His baptism. He might have bidden us commemorate some miracle. But instead of that He chose His death on Calvary. 'Ye do show the Lord's death until He come.' Now if there is one scene that sensitive hearts would shrink from, it is the awful scene of crucifixion. We never could have endured to look on Calvary, and yet it is Calvary that we commemorate. Is not that strange? A story I heard the other Sunday will explain it. There was a lady who was very beautiful-all excepting her hands, which were misshapen and marred. And for many a long day her little daughter had wondered what was the meaning of these repulsive hands. At last she said to her: 'Mother, I love your face, and I love your eyes and your hair, they are so beautiful. But I cannot love your hands, they are so ugly.' And then the mother told her about her hands: how ten years ago the house had taken fire, and how the nursery upstairs was in a blaze, and how she had rushed to the cradle and snatched the baby from it, and how her

And the

hands from that hour had been destroyed. baby saved was her little listening daughter. And then the daughter kissed the shapeless hands (that she used to shrink from, before she knew their story), and she said: 'Mother, I love your face and your eyes and your hair; but I love your hands now best of all.

THIRTY-SIXTH SUNDAY

Morning

THE FIERY CHARIOT

Passage to be read: 2 Kings ii. 1-18.

T has not been uncommon for men whose death was drawing near to have some strange presentiment of the great change, and it seems to have been borne in upon Elijah that the time of his departure was at hand. When a man lives in communion with God, as Elijah did, the soul becomes very sensitive to heavenly messages. At the time of the great earthquakes in Japan, a scientist in the Isle of Wight was watching, in his observatory, the delicate instruments that record earth-tremors. He became conscious of the earthquakes within a minute of the time of their occurrence, though the breadth of the world lay between the earthquakes and his instruments. Now the soul is far more delicate than any instrument. It is far subtler than the finest mechanism. Who can doubt, then, that if it be watched and cleansed, it will detect the whisperings of heaven? Christ knew (as a man) that the Cross was near at hand. Paul felt that his course was almost run, and that very soon the crown of glory would be his. And it was borne in upon Elijah that his warfare was accomplished, and that his race was almost at the goal.

I some

BUT before the end there was one work to do. There

were others to think of before he left the world. There were guilds of the prophets at Gilgal, at Bethel,

at Jericho, and the man of God must strengthen and stablish these. When Paul was in prison he did not forget his churches. He wrote them those letters that have blessed the world. When Jesus was in the last stages of His journey He lavished His thought and His love upon His own. So Elijah, with the shadow of death on him, like a true hero, thought only the more of others; he must encourage and cheer his brethren of the schools. It is only the greatest who, under a great shadow, keep the unselfish and considerate heart. In the hour when mortality is pressing sorest it takes a saint or a hero to be kind. Elijah, like Paul, was both a saint and hero. The burden of the prophets was on his heart. He set out from Gilgal and paid a visit to Bethel. He set out from Bethel and paid a visit to Jericho. It was the last day of his life on earth, and he spent it in the quiet doing of his work. Is not that the true spirit of a child of God? Should we not all like to be found as Elijah was? A hundred years ago or more there was a total eclipse of the sun, visible in Connecticut. Candles were lighted; the birds went off to bed; the people thought the day of judgment was at hand. It happened that at the time the Legislature was sitting at Hartford. The House of Representatives adjourned; the Council proposed to follow their example. Colonel Davenport objected. 'The day of judgment,' he said, 'is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I move, therefore, that candles be brought.'

NOW in Elijah's company Elisha was travelling. He,

too, was haunted by the sense of coming loss. Had Elijah been ill, he would never have left his bedside, but Elijah was strong, and he must follow him. Now I do not think Elijah wanted to be alone. He was not like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying to his three disciples, 'Tarry ye here.' But if God should appear

to him in awful splendour, and manifest His glory overwhelmingly, who knew but Elisha might be crushed by it ?—who knew but his reason might totter on its throne? So in tenderness and pity towards Elisha, Elijah asked him to wait behind, and Elisha refused. And he asked him a second time, and then a third time; but no entreaty would keep Elisha back. And then Elijah saw it was of the Lord, and the two prophets went down to the Jordan together. How different was the conduct of Elisha from that of the disciples on the eve of Calvary! They had a far greater than Elijah to be true to, and yet we read that they all forsook Him and fled. It was a very loving and very gallant thing to hold fast by Elijah till the end. May we all be able to do that with Jesus! Mr. Froude, in his splendid tales of the seamen of Elizabeth's time, speaks again and again of their devotion to their leaders. The sailors (often badly fed, and not paid at all) followed Hawkins or Drake into incredible perils; they trusted and adored their captains so. No doubt Elisha had a heart like that to Elijah. Would we all had it towards our great Captain! Even Sir Francis Drake was sometimes beaten. But there is One to whom eternal victory is pledged.

O the two prophets came to the Jordan, which gave them a path when Elijah's mantle touched it. And Elisha, being bidden to ask a boon, craves a double portion of Elijah's spirit (v. 9). He does not ask twice as much power as Elijah had. That would have been a dishonouring request. But he asks that he might be like Elijah's first-born, and get the two parts of the inheritance that fell, by the law of Moses, to the first-born son (Deut. xxi. 17). Then a strange appearance swept between the prophets. The chariots of God, which are twenty thousand, seemed to Elisha to surround Elijah. There was a glorious brightness as if the angels were there, who do God's bidding as a flame of fire. And not