CHEERFULNESS

UNDER

THE CHRISTIAN'S

BEREAVEMENT,

PRIVILEGE.

So doing, we play false to our hope and faith; unreal, counterfeit, fictitious, do those things appear which we affirm. It nothing profits to set out virtue in our words, in our acts to undo the truth. In a word, the Apostle Paul condemns and rebukes and blames any, who sorrow at the departing of them who are dear to them. I would not, says he, have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which are asleep in Jesus, will GOD bring with Him. They, he says, sorrow in the departing of their friends, which have no hope. But we who live by hope, and believe in GOD, and are assured that Christ suffered for us, and that He rose again, abiding in Christ, and having resurrection by Him and in Him, wherefore do we either

D

ourselves unwillingly depart forth from life, or lament and grieve for those of us who do depart, as though they perished? Christ Himself, our Lord and GOD, cautions us, and says, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he die, shall live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall not die eternally. If we believe in Christ, let us put faith in His words and promises; and since we shall not die eternally, let us pass in joyful assurance unto Christ, with whom for ever we shall both live and reign. In dying at this present, by death they gain the transit to immortality; eternal life cannot follow, unless it has been given us to depart hence; nor is this departure, but transition; where the journey of time is concluded, a transit unto things eternal. Who will not make speed unto the better things? Who does not long to be changed, and made anew unto the likeness of Christ, and to gain an earlier entrance to the dignity of heavenly grace? It is the spoken word of Paul the Apostle : Our conversation, saith he, is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall change the body of our humility, conforming it to the body of His glory. That such we shall be, promises, when in these

Christ the Lord also

words He prays the Father for us, that we may

be with Him, and live with Him in the eternal seats and be joyful in the realms of heaven; Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; and may see the glory which thou gavest Me, before the world began. S. CECILIUS CYPRIAN,

Bishop of Carthage and Martyr.

THE HIDDEN CROSS.

"To the still wrestlings of the lonely heart He doth impart

The virtue of His midnight agony

When none was nigh,

Save GOD and one good angel, to assuage
The tempest's rage.

'Oh, Father, not my will, but Thine be done'; So spake the Son.

Be this our charm, mellowing Earth's ruder noise

Of griefs and joys,

That we may cling for ever to Thy breast
In perfect rest."

THE REV. J. KEBLE'S Christian Year.

ACTIVE EMPLOYMENT, A REMEDY FOR

GRIEF.

NOTWITHSTANDING all that has been said and written about the happiness of childhood and early youth, it is, nevertheless, true, that neither is beyond the influence of that decree, alike the just penalty and the consequence of sin, by which "man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." The tear on the cheek of childhood scarcely flows ere it is dried again, yet none can look back to their own early days, without feeling that the fountains of sorrow were none the less bitter for being easily stirred. The cloud may soon pass away, but, while it lasts, the whole sky is overshadowed. And when childhood is exchanged for youth, who shall say that sorrow is also left behind. Surely its touch falls most heavily on the young and untried spirit, which the stern discipline of life has not yet taught to "suffer and be still"! How soon, how effectually, does reality dispel our bright