Even on the cross the love of order was seen. He could arrange for the comfort of Mary; could remember the last one prophecy about Himself that had to be fulfilled before He died, and know the point when He could utter the triumphant cry, 'It is finished!'

Now we come with awe to mark this crowning instance of Jewish attention to fitness and order. Jesus, in the act of conquering death, and in the burning moment of doing the last thing in the transaction that saves millions of everlasting lives, stops to smooth the shroud, and to put the napkin carefully away into its right place, before He leaves the house of death. A striking instance this of particularity in order, and of attention to 'the littles'!

When John only saw the linen clothes, and before he noticed how they lay, the sight seems to have had no effect upon him; but when, as the result of close observation, he and his companion saw how they had been placed, he knew the token; he knew that Jesus had done this; and that, just like Himself, minutely observant, grandly deliberative, divinely serene, He had risen from the grave. 1

1 The question has been asked, 'How did Christ get the necessary raiment He wore after leaving the grave?' Such a question can be asked only in consequence of thinking that He rose again in a mortal body. The question belongs to

Besides the significance of this sight in the sepulchre as helping to prove the Saviour's resurrection, it was, and is, full of interest as a revelation of the Saviour Himself. We may look upon it as a symbol, through which He is even now teaching lessons of practical moment. I see Him when rising from the dead, stopping just then, and just there, carefully to put all things, even to the least, in right form and place-surely that He might show all time how carefully He counts, watches, manipulates and rectifies all things with which He has to do as the risen Saviour.

He, who by this act of His human nature, thus expressed His delight in order, and His care, not for the generalities only, but for all the particular units that belong to the system of order, is now on the throne of the universe, has the care of the Church, and is my own personal Saviour. This act reminds me, and reassures me, that, with a heart like mine, and in a world like this, such a Saviour exactly meets my

what is quite beyond the section of the universe into which we have been born, and to which we belong in the present stage of our development. In its nature it is like the question of the school-men, 'From whence did the angels get their white raiment?' and one answer is as good as another, as all colours are alike to the blind. Doubtless, the clothing in which our Lord appeared was an appearance only, but answering to perfection the effect intended.

wants, and 'such a High Priest becomes us.' Events are often in a tangle, and I have no power or skill to set them in order; my life is not made up of sublimities, but of little things; small, familiar, gentle interests, make much of my well-being; little vexations, little stings, little frictional cares ruffle my temper and hinder my prayers. As the result of many things, each one so small that I can hardly name it, and, perhaps, so mean that I am ashamed to speak of it even at the throne of grace, I sometimes find myself bereft of spiritual sensitiveness and vivacity, as if by the virus of some deadly narcotic, and I am only half awake to the grandest of all realities; so, through a confusion of trifles I am brought into a mood that lays me open to some great temptation; and the smallest detail in my affairs, even should it seem to be a thing small in its interest as the napkin that once He' wrapped up' and laid in a place by itself,' will not be too small for Him to think of if I forget, nor to put in its right place, if this should be more than I can do.

It is one of our rights to make this incidental, but most practical, use of the fact now on our thoughts; but the disciple who first knew this fact had no room in his mind at that moment for anything incidental. At that moment the only thing he could think of was the proof given that Jesus was living again. A keen ray of joy shot

into the gloom of his troubled heart, and 'turned the shadow of death into morning.' It has been beautifully said, 'In the very darkness of the tomb the mind of John was illuminated with saving faith in the resurrection of Jesus as the newly-risen Sun of Righteousness.' So alarm ended in discovery.

1 Concludimus, ab hoc momento in ipsis monumenti

tenebris animum Joannis fide salvica resurrectionis Jesu, tanquam novo quodam, orti solis justitiæ radio collustratum fuisse.-FRED. ADOL.. LAMPE.

EFORE the thirteenth century the peculiar kind of homily most frequently delivered was called a Postil-so called from the words post illa (verba), and it aimed at giving an exposition of a chapter, or long passage, by taking all the texts in it, one after another. The present discourse is to be a 'Postil.'1

1 Jeafferson's Book of the Clergy, vol. xi., p. 62. The author quotes the following from Oxoniana :- 1203. About this time began the custom of preaching from a text, but the sages and seniors of the university would by no means conform to this custom, but followed their old course, according to the manner of the fathers, Augustine, Jerome, and Bernard, who preached to the clergy and the people by postilizing, that is, expounding any particular chapter by taking all the texts, one after another. After which way, without a text, S. Augustine preached 400 sermons.' Let us return to the good old plan.