The third and last thing, which will be to you, as it is to me, the most imperative, is this: God himself appoints the way. He calls us to himself by Christ. Would he have given his Son to the cross if it had not been necessary? You and I may not know why; God knew. Do you say that God is love, and therefore we do not need a Saviour? God loved Christ quite as much as he did men, and he gave him for us and he calls us to him. It is God's way; let us be content, grateful and obedient.

There may come another question: Why is it necessary for us to do anything? Why may we not float upon this tide of God's love into Paradise? I give again three answers: First, we do not need to do this. We can have divine help, we can come to Christ; we Secondly, we are free. up by our own hands; God of our own will; we must come back to God of our own will. There is no obedience but willing obedience. The third and last reason is this: Christ calls us to believe. "Whosoever believeth," he said. If any man believeth, he shall be saved. When the Holy Spirit comes, following the work of Christ with his divine efficiency, it is not to foster our strength; to make us feel how good we are; it is to glorify Christ: to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, that we may be saved by him.

can, therefore we should. Character must be made we have gone away from

There are these two things which the text this morning teaches us. One is, that Christ has given himself for our sins. Let us believe that fact; believe it is a fact, and rest in it and love it. Christ says that he has given himself for us, and that there is no need that we should die in our sins. The other teaching is this: that we are to live through him; we are to take his will and do it; to go steadily on in obedience to God who teaches and calls us through Jesus Christ his Son.

That is a beautiful little incident which Doctor Livingstone records concerning his mother. He heard of her death when he was away. He hastened home, and found that death had come to her suddenly. An hour and a half before they thought she was going, her daughter Agnes, sitting by her bedside, said to her, "The Saviour has come for you, mother. You can lippen yourself to him?" Of course she said "Yes;" it was David Livingstone's mother. You know them by their fruits. I think there would be more David Livingstones if there were more such women. She had the natural mother feeling, and had said she would like to have one of her laddies lay her head in the grave; but if none was there, she wished William Logan would do it. David came home in time for that filial office. But there was

the simple faith of mother, and daughter, and son, expressed in that Scotch phrase, "You can lippen

yourself to him, mother?" You can trust him; you can hold to him, and can rest in his promise as you go your new way.

So I come away from men; and first of all, I come away from myself out of this poor, inconstant will and way of mine; out of it all to him; not to what he did merely, but to him. There is one Saviour, and that is the Christ himself. Oh, friends, let us "lippen" to Him.

XII.

WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM.

SCRIPTURE LESSON: Romans viii : 14-39.

TEXT: Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. John iii: 2.

I this disciple when he

T doth not yet appear what we shall be."

wrote these words. He knows more; and many who have gone from our side have gained that great access of knowledge, for they have seen the Lord. But to us it remains true that "it doth not yet appear what we shall be." Hence we gather up with eagerness every hint of the holy Scriptures touching this which is certainly before us, this land upon whose confines we are standing, and into which so many are entering day by day, if we may form to ourselves any conception of that which is coming to us and has come to them. In all the Scriptures there is perhaps no teaching clearer regarding our future life, more level to our comprehension, commending itself more heartily

to our thought, than this: in that world which is above us and beyond us, that world of light and love towards which we are looking, the supreme delight, the highest glory, will be this: "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

But "it doth not yet appear" where we shall be in that vast world; nor with what body we shall stand; nor what employment we shall have where still and forever it will be "more blessed to give than to receive"; nor to what glory, what heights of advancement, we shall rise through the eternal training of God, in the endless years. All this "doth not yet appear." It is concealed from our eyes, because it is not possible that it should be written in words. Words cannot describe a sunrise, or a symphony. Words cannot tell what home is, what love is, what life is. If there were words formed, if there were pictures drawn, to make it clear to us what this must be, we should not be able to comprehend the revelation until it had become a part of our own experience. There are certain things which a man can never know until he feels them; until his life enters into them, and is taken up by them. Michael Angelo drawing figures upon the wall and upon the floor, cannot understand what he shall be in that grand career opening before him. David, keeping his flocks, has small notion of the royalty which shall be his; and as he plays his tuneful reeds, he cannot conceive of himself as leading the worship of the