other occasions, she had either been called away from carth to view the brightness and joys of her heavenly home, or else had been directed to the sheep-folds, or to the vineyards as the peaceful, separate place of her present service in the earth, far away from the turmoil and strife of man's city and the mountains of his power. But there should be a certain comprehensiveness in the apprehensions of faith. Not all the knowledge that the Ephesians may have had of heavenly fellowship with Christ-not all the experience gained by the Philippians or Thessalonians in their long course of loving and faithful service, would be sufficient to furnish the man of God completely and to fit him thoroughly for the conflict, unless there be also an appreciation of the circumstances and characteristics of that "evil day" in which the Church finds the scene of her present conflict. He who has the heart of a warrior on the battle-field, and stands having his armour on, must be conversant with other sights and sounds than those which meet him either at the sheep-folds or in the scenes of his heavenly rest. Who more than John understood the blessedness of fellowship with His Lord in heavenly places? He, if any one, was a father in Christ, knowing "Him that was from the beginning"having communion with Him as returned into that sphere of life and glory which He had as the eternal Son in the bosom of the Father before all worlds. John had well learned to appreciate the Church's heritage in its risen Head. He had learned too, to prove and to appreciate the place of the Church's retired and humble service in the carth. He had not forgotten the admonition, "feed my sheep, feed my lambs." He had walked as a shepherd in the midst of the family of faith, exhorting them to abide in the truth and in the love of Christ. Yet it was John who was appointed in Patmos to behold. other sights, and to become conversant with far different scenes. Glory was indeed revealed to him there-bright heavenly glory; but it was glory brought into contrast and antagonism with the darkness and corruption of earth. He was taught to behold the earth as filled with and held down beneath the power of evil ripening for judgment. He was caused to walk, as it were, from mountain to mountain of Gentile power,-to behold their evil greatness, to view the course and end of their blasphemies, and to record their doom. He left for a season "the bleating of the sheep-folds" to hear the roar of the lion and leopard amidst the mountains and dens of their savage greatness, where that greatness is, for the present, permitted to strengthen and establish itself, and to mar and "destroy" (Rev. xi.) the carth.

There are many worshippers of human progress, as it is called, who look to these seats of Gentile power, as if they were the appointed rectifiers of the earth. Their hope is in these lions' dens and mountains of leopards, as if they were the earth's appointed deliverers. They think not of the condition of Immanuel's Land; appreciating not the nature and cause of its present woe; and regarding not its destined glory in "the age to come." They have no knowledge of the time when the true Solomon, the Prince of Peace, shall reign, and "the mountains" (i.e. the greater seats of authority in the earth) and "the little hills" (the lesser seats of authority) shall all bring peace to the peoples, by means of righteousness." They have never contrasted that coming period with the present hour of the lordship of unregenerate man. They know nothing of that storm of judgment and fiery indignation that is to introduce the long-promised morning of blessing. Necessarily, they call evil good; put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; say peace when there is no peace; and glory in the very things which are to bring down the righteous inflictions of Divine vengeance. Let the people of Christ beware of these apostles of human progress. Let them hear the invitation of their Lord, and view as by His side, these mountains of Gentile glory, and look forth from them on the troubled world over which they dominate, and they will be taught a holy fear. They will shrink from the scene around them, and their hope will be alone in the arm of Him who has promised in His own appointed time to work deliverance in the earth, by abasing these "mountains of prey," and establishing instead, the Zion of God-the mountain of holiness and Truth.

It is a vain hope to imagine that Truth will spread and attain its destined supremacy, whilst the high places of authority amongst men remain unsubject to its power. Until the sovereignty of the world shall have become "the sovereignty of our Lord and of His Christ,” it is impossible that Righteousness should prosper. Next to God's revealed Truth, there is nothing in the earth that more nearly concerns the welfare and happiness of man, than the administration of governmental power; and until that power is taken from those to whom it is, at present, delegated, and given to Him who is to be brought before the Ancient of days (see Dan. vii.) that He may be invested with it, the dens of lions and mountains of leopards will not be either subverted, or changed as to their character. Satan will succeed in controlling the diadems of earth, and iniquity will continue to flourish till then.

It is a happy thing when the heart of a believer is ready and willing to receive this lesson respecting the present condition of human things. If we have drank of the wine of earth and found solace in the world's joys, we shall be little prepared to walk amidst the mountains of its glory and judge truthfully. We shall be dazzled by their brightness, covet their influence, and bow down before their power. The Lord asks not such to come with Him to view these mountains of strength. She who in the passage before us is summoned to His side, had not been indulging herself in evil joys, or neglecting the service of her Lord. On the contrary, she had been keeping herself in holy separation. Nor had the monotony of her retirement, and the seclusion of her almost solitary path, undermined her vigour. The allusion in the verses that follow to the garden, in which she had laboured, and its pleasant plants of fragrance, sufficiently indicate the character of her service, and the earnestness of her toil. Wisdom had been given her to find the one green spotthe one place of true joy in the world's wide wilderness, where she found happiness for herself in doing those things which she knew to be pleasing in the sight of Him, in whose faithful love she rested. Consequently, her heart was not dull nor her ear heavy, when she was suddenly called from these scenes of quietude and peace, to behold lions' dens and mountains of leopards. The holy sensitiveness found in her, fitted her the more to receive the appointed lesson—a lesson like the book which John in vision was commanded to eat-sweet in the mouth, but when incorporated into the apprehensions of the soul -bitter.

There is no doubt a peculiar sorrow connected with the apprehension of what the world governmentally and socially is. Unless counteracted, it may weigh on the heart so heavily as to break the spring of its energies, and cause despondency and languor. It was an apprehension of the prevalence and strength of evil-an apprehension most profitable when duly qualified by other truth—that caused Jeremiah to cry, "cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame ?" (Jer. xx. 15, 18.) In Habakkuk too we find a scarcely less bitter cry. "O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance ? for spoiling and violence are before me and

. . .

there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth." (Hab. i. 2-4.) The more the heart recognises the preciousness of Truth, the more must it weep over the triumph of falsehood and guile. And when we consider the gigantic and still increasing strength of the evil that now dominates in the earth, and trace the extent of its mighty influence, and view, as detailed in the Word of God, its future course, and compare this present hour of the Truth's weakness with that of the world's abounding and increasing strength, we cannot wonder that the heart should be ready to question whether it be possible that any thing truly pleasing to Christ-any thing in which His heart can really rejoice, should any where be found amidst the scene of well nigh universal darkness.

Wine, it is said, is for them who are of heavy heart. Whatever cause there may be for depression, there is always ability and willingness in the Lord to comfort His people with present comfort if only there be separateness and a leaning of heart upon Him. Accordingly, she who is addressed in the passage before us, was speedily and abundantly comforted. Suddenly withdrawn from the sphere of her peaceful service to behold the triumphant and prospering reign of evil, it is no wonder that her heart should have sunk. As she contrasted the gigantic advance of evil with the hindered and restricted progress of Truth, and thought of her own narrow sphere of service, so hidden and so despised as scarcely to elicit the world's censure ; and when she remembered too her own feebleness, and the imperfectness of her apprehensions and appreciations both of good and evil, and the want of vigour and comprehensiveness in her faith-when she reflected on these and other like things, it was natural that her heart should faint, and that she should question whether there was anything in her or around her that could really receive the approval and commendation of her Lord. Was there any thing in her feelings, or demeanour, or character, or service, that was really acceptable in His sight? The answer was not long delayed. She was declared to be the subject not only of His approval, but of His joy and complacent delight. His delight was in her. The very glance of her eye was precious in His sight. The eye soon expresses the feelings of the soul. If the eye shrinks from those things from which the Spirit of Christ shrinks, and beholds loveliness in the things in which His heart delights; if it looks with holy trembling on the iniquity of

earth, and turns confidingly and humbly to Him; if, as the eye of a servant towards the hand of his master, it wait upon the Lord alone, the glance of such an eye would in the estimate of Christ be blessed. And if there are the adornments of a meek and quiet spirit, and if there be lips of knowledge which are as "a precious jewel, more precious than a multitude of rubies," then there are things that are necklaces of beauty-chains of grace around the neck. So it was with her. In her retirement, where, in her garden, she had been nurturing plants of heavenly fragrance, she had learned many a lesson, and the results were manifest. Her look, her adornments, the proved truth and faithfulness of her love was precious in the sight of her heavenly Lord. "Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!" The wine and spices of earth are but shadows appointed to indicate the gratefulness and acceptableness before Christ of the character of those, who (in private, it may be, and almost hidden spheres) seek, like Philemon, or Gaius, or Dorcas, to show out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom. No official or recognised ministerial place is necessary to fruitfulness in the Church of God. Pride may court such a place and rush unbidden into it, and then true spiritual healthfulness will wane and depart. The mouth may be as a fountain "sending forth sweet waters" in a sphere as little prominent as that which was filled by "Philologus, and Julias, and Nereus." We know not who they were. But their names, as well as those of many others in like unobtrusive spheres, are by the Apostle recorded with honour-honour that will remain in the day of Christ.

There are, perhaps, few things which even an instructed believer more feebly recognises than the importance and potency of "the tongue," whether in serving evil or good. Naturally, it is set on fire of hell; it uses deceit; it is full of cursing and bitterness; it is instinct with the venom of asps; it walks proudly through the earth serving the lusts of those who say, "our lips are our own, who is lord over us ?" Yet how often is the eloquence of the unregenerate tongue delighted in even by believers! How often are words of philanthropic kindness and amiability, as they drop from the lips of those who know not and prize not the Gospel of the grace of God, allowed to hide the certain truth, that the lips of such must be