See the power of God over the mystery of death. Death is not an end to man. In the isen Christ, as in a focus, is centred the assurance that what we call death is not the extinction of our real life. Even in the so-termed world of nature, death may be seen to be only a change. The decayed leaves which fall from the tree replenish the soil from which new leaves are drawn. The corn of wheat is not quickened except it die. But if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.

What lies in the future of mankind we cannot yet determine. 'Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' There are mysteries in store beneath the promise that the dead shall hear His voice and shall arise; and at the mystic trumpet sound shall stand, both small and great. Be we good or bad we have not done with God when we are laid in the grave. We too shall die, and be carried out. But then, beyond, stands the mystery of the great Arise!' The miracle at Nain has its fulfilment in all of us, when we shall be brought to face the life which lies behind the gate of death, and as the young man opened his eyes on the Christ, so shall we be brought into another life which, without the Spirit of Christ, is but a second death. Thus we must not look upon the miracle at Nain only as promising a restoration of this life. It hardly does this. The record does not tell us that the young man was raised for ever. Whether in the next funeral from that household at Nain the mother followed her son once more, but met no Jesus on the road, or whether it was the son who mourned his mother, they were both, ere long, carried forth; and there was no voice to stay the mourner's sobs, no hand to stop the bier on its way to the grave; and since then, mothers have followed their sons and sons their mothers in unbroken train. It is the way of God's world, which has not been changed by the raising of the widow's son. Earth to earth' is the law which eventually, at last, was not departed from even in the case of the widow and her son. He was restored only to this life, which is short in its longest years when compared with the great stretch of time which comes before and follows it. He was restored only to this life, which, if there is anything in the teaching and the work and the sacrifice of Jesus, we are bidden to look beyond, nay, in some cases, even to despise and to lay down, in carrying ourselves as children of God.

Do not, therefore, let us use the record of this miracle at Nain merely to confirm or strengthen that love of this mortal life which so often hinders our taking in the Spirit of the Christ. The right use of this life is more precious than its length. The purest and keenest Christian faith looks on death as a passage to another life. Many a saint has felt on his death-bed that he would be sorry to be stayed in his departure from this world. Many in the prime of years and strength have laid down their lives in furtherance or defence of some great principle or truth. The noblest souls are those who have shown themselves superior to dying, i. e. most like God, who would teach us that death in itself is not so much to be dreaded; as there is no subjection, no defeat of the soul of the man himself, in submitting his body to it. The meanest souls are those who live with either effort to keep death out of sight, as a bad thing, or, not being quite

able to do this, economise their lives, and trim their conduct, so as to get the greatest possible enjoyment out of that stage of existence which disappears in the grave.

Do not, then, let us use the record of the miracle at Nain to encourage that clinging to this bodily life which has often blinded men's eyes to those things which are far greater and more godly than mere animal living. Let us remember that the acts of Jesus, like His words, are parables, i.e. that they have a second or spiritual sense. It is true that Jesus did not, as we say, improve the occasion when He raised the widow's son, by pointing to a higher life than that to which He restored the young man. He left the act to speak for itself, to be interpreted by His general teaching and other acts. Using them as a guide, we may see in this deed, Christ the Life Giver. The giver of all that most deeply cheers us here, and the revealer of another life which is not of flesh and blood; a life which alone inherits the kingdom of heaven. To live without the Spirit of Christ, without the spirit of truth and self-sacrifice and devotion to the will of God, devotion to the right, as our chief duty, is at best but a poor existence; for such a life is not truly human; it is not the true life of the Son of man. It is the life of the fallen man, of the man who disregards the voice of God to gratify his own taste and ambition. It is the life of the Adam who is shut out from Paradise, shut out from communion and work with God. It is the life which makes this earth and its produce, however plentiful, hampered with a curse. It is the life which gives points to its thorns; which makes its duty toil, and its death dark. Christ the Restorer raises us from this. He quickens the old Adam. He is the One who brings us into communion with God by His own life and death. Related to His father which is in heaven and to His brethren on earth, He is the Mediator, the Atoner, who brings us back to God out of the old carnal Adam state, and carries the thread of man's life into heaven itself. And thus, too, He is the restorer to each other of those who are severed by the grave. All our dear relationships on earth rudely broken by death, do we sometimes contemplate the pain we should feel at being severed from those we love? Then let us ask ourselves what is the true, the real nature of the ties which bind us together? Are we united by mere circumstance of flesh and blood, or are we united by common love for that which is God's, which is Christ's, which is right, which is good?

Then, and then only, we can trust that death does not divide us. Then we can apprehend the beauty of Christ's act when He delivered the son to his mother. The beauty of it lies in His being the Restorer, not in the mere lengthening of this life by a few years. That might or might not be a blessing, but there is a sure blessing in having Christ and the Spirit of Christ as the link between ourselves and those who are nearest and dearest to us. For that link stands the shrewd pull even of death itself. That link holds when the body falls to pieces. Nay, we cannot tell what fresh strength it may show itself to have when the disturbing emotions of this mortal life shall cease to be, when it is cleared from the fleshly feelings and earthly associations which accompany, but sometimes hide, the true tie between kindred souls.

Once more: Christ appears as the Restorer; not only in bringing us back to God from the old Adam, the old selfish life, not only in forging the link which binds kindred souls together, so that death cannot divide them; but He appears as the true Restorer of those who are separated in this life. For there may be a death before decease, and a severance before separation-as there may be a recovery before the last and eternal reunion. This my son,' said the father, in the Parable, this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.' In this sense the miracle before us has been, thank God! many times spiritually repeated, when a child, estranged by degrees from a parent, and sleeping in the death sleep of sin, is woke up by the word of Christ and delivered to his mother. We can too readily conceive of such a separation as this. A child, frank and open, with no secret to conceal, no guilt to hide, brings all his young sorrows to a mother's ear, sure of sympathy and encouragement. But, it may be, in a few years, growing knowledge of the world, and therefore, too often, growing intimacy with evil, gradually produces in him a new sensation of restraint. He no longer communicates his troubles. He cannot speak of his pleasures, for they, perhaps, are not fit for mention in the sacred circle of a Christian home. By degrees the gulf widens. He feels uneasy in the society of his once trusted parents. There is no sympathy, no communion between them, and as little communication as he can help.

Christian parents! is there one of you who is thus severed from your child? Some evil companions, some dark sins, have stolen away his heart. Recollect the widow of Nain, and Him who restored her son. Make Him your Restorer, your Friend; greet His presence, His Spirit, and thus be in the way of recovering the lost. Let your child see in you the tenderness and the love of the Christ.

Sons is there one of you virtually severed from his parents? not, I mean, by miles of sea and land, for over that the soul can leapnot by death, for that cannot cut the tie between a Christian parent and a Christian child-but by sin, a barrier wider than continent and ocean, stronger than death itself? Hear the words of the Christ, 'Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.' Rise from off the fatal bier of sin on which the devil is carrying you to the pit. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life.' For Christ would restore thee to thyself, renewed, forgiven; to pass. through life with a light heart and a strong soul, and find at last the grave the gate of heaven,-thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Yes, let the miracle of Nain teach us that Christ's love is shown by bringing those together now who are separated by sin, as well as by bringing together in Himself those who are separated by death here. He is indeed the Restorer; by the use of whose Spirit alone we can be at one with our neighbours; at one with our family; at one with ourselves; at one with God.

'Vladimir orders the idol Perown to be thrown into the Dneiper.'

THE DESTRUCTION OF IDOLATRY IN RUSSIA.

HE Slavonic races, known collectively as Russians, first came in contact with the Greek Empire in the ninth century. At first they made annual trading expeditions, bringing slaves and furs to Constantinople; but the account which these savage merchants brought back to their countrymen of the wealth of the great city excited their cupidity. The Russians were then ruled by the warlike house of Ruric; and in 865 the princes of Kief led a fleet of long canoes right up to Constantinople, but they were dispersed by a tempest, which the Greeks attributed to a miracle. In 904 they made a second attempt, and a third in 941; but this time two thirds of their fleet were completely destroyed by the famous Greek fire, which was thrown from only fifteen old war-galleys. After a long cessation of hostilities the attack was renewed in 1043, and again the Russian navy was repulsed at the mouth of the Bosphorus by the Greek fire; but the victors pursuing their enemies too rashly when their stock of fire was exhausted, they were surrounded and overpowered by the multitude of boats and men. A treaty was made; but the terror caused by these countless hordes of barbarians descending from the unknown regions of the North was increased when it was found that an equestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with a prophecy, that in the last days the Russians would be masters of Constantinople!*

In the ninth century the Greek missionaries had gained some converts in Russia, and there was even a Christian church at Kief; but the ruling classes adhered to the paganism of their fathers, and the influence of the Church was very slight until the Princess Olga, who had assumed the government on the death of her husband, visited Constantinople in the year 955, and had herself and all her numerous train baptized with the most splendid rites of the Greek Church. She received the name of Helena, and on her return to Russia used all her endeavours to move her people to become Christians; but her fierce son, Svatoslaus, clung to his native gods, as being more kindred to his spirit, and often ravaged the Greek empire; and her grandson, the great Vladimir, enriched the shrine of the savage deity-the dreadful Perown, the god of thunder, whose image was decorated with a golden beard and other ornaments, whose altar was often wet with human blood, and to whom the life of a Christian was deemed the most acceptable of all offerings.

At length the accounts brought by Russian merchants of the

The antiquity of this prophecy is unquestionable, as it is recorded by the Greek historians of the eleventh century; and it may be compared with a curious prediction said to have existed amongst the Turks, that the Osmanli should rule in Constantinople for four hundred years: but their empire has already exceeded that period in duration.