Being the general and the particular are the same; and not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Heavenly Father's knowledge. These tiny facts are a window through which we behold Infinity. Their lowliness does not lower the majesty of Christ's works, and the universality of beneficence for the small renders it certain that God, who cares more for us, has done wonderful things for the continuance of our being, and for the exaltation of our destiny.

Miracles of Creation, miracles under the Law, miracles of the Gospel, are parts in one great plan. The whole of Nature and Grace is cradled in Miracle, and nurtured in the Supernatural. Dull matter awakes into life, life into intelligence, intelligence into moral responsibility. Creation brings this before us in outward material process. Redemption is the conducting of all things, that are capable, to the heights of life, of mind, of spirit, by inner sanctifying process. Moses and Joshua, types of Christ, lead out from Egypt—bring into Canaan. Elijah and Elisha are harbingers of the Lord and His works. Those works-whether unfolded in earliest pages of Scripture, or wrought by the last of Adam's race who doeth wonders-are one linked process. Material counterpart is everywhere, and in every counterpart is a shadow of the mystery by which all in the universe, receptive of blessing, shall be glorified. Our conviction of the supernatural, our faith in marvels, are the true nourishment of our being. Knowledge, truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith, are the supreme facts of life. The music that brings childhood back, and with it songs of heaven; prayer that calls God nigh, the doubt which makes us meditate, death startling us with

mystery, and faith which sees the future; make life worth living. All grand things join on to the very small. The telescope is but a tube and glass, yet therewith we search the nature of distant stars. The clay mould is fragile, but the gold poured in retains noble form for ages. The photographer's plate sees light for a moment, and flowers are frail; but momentary light paints lasting beauty, and the flower by its seed lives. on for ever. Lucian said, "The world is a stream and men rise up as bubbles." Homer called man-“ a leaf.” Pindar said, "He is the dream of a shadow." Jeremy Taylor ("Holy Dying") said, “Man is as a vapour and fantastical, or a mere appearance; and . . . the very dream, the vapour, the phantom, disappears in a small time, 'like the shadow that departeth,' or 'like a tale that is told,' or 'as a dream when one awaketh.' That bubble contains a world. That leaf becomes a plant of renown. That dream passes into waking for weal or woe. That vapour will attain life in glorious angelic form. That fantastical appearance will settle into eternal reality. There are who walk on velvet lawns and marble terraces-daintily shod and velvet-mantled; they may not be the equals of those who press through storms on rough cold heights, or who walk in depths of misery with bare feet, naked breasts-jaded, mangled, chilled -meant to be men of mark. The graces of patience, faith, hope, love, are not in us as pictures slid in magic. lantern; but by a work giving substance, moulding form, and quickening spirit. Our God is not an apothecary-with good things put up in a bottle to be had for the asking. We must work out every prayer with reverential fear in the presence of the Holy One to

whom we pray. We become strong in grace, by His gift of this or that as we need. The science of our life grows into ambition to build up a happiness beyond the reach of all adversity: happiness extending from one's own heart in joyful effort to cheer the griefs of all who walk with us. It is a science which sanctifies and elevates the laws of intelligence, even as the laws of life transcend their natural base. The sacred is an excellent counterpart of the secular: shows how God is kinder to the holy than other men can know-giving hope, joy, glory, in unseen depths of the soul. Chemistry extracts pure metal and spirit refined, from foulest matter. Old gold is minted with new image and superscription. A higher chemistry makes the human divine, and in the mint of God all coin receives a heavenly impression. Scientific eyesight and insight discern that in movement of the mass every unit has its separate passion, and that the storm which rocks the tree also moves a world in every leaf. A block of ice, under the converged sunbeam, will present below the surface glittering stars of six-petal rays graceful and minute: the rays are frosted flowers with the lustre of burnished silver. Deep in our hearts the glorious God cherishes miracles; with the sunny power of love, gives splendour to the conscience; and as frost and cold melt into water-drops and trickle hither and thither, our softened refined affections are fashioned into stars of faith and hope and love which fill our being with light. We awake to the energy of free-will, and with noble alertness spring to our wonderful duty. Miracles cluster in us-they are gorgeous works. The miracles of creation, of Moses and Joshua, of Elijah and Elisha, of Christ and the Apostles, are series of pic

tures in God Almighty's gallery. We may think of them as did Doddridge in his dream of what was after death. We shall die. After that, in a little while, clad with spiritual body, we shall be accompanied by angelic attendants to a glorious palace. There we shall rest from all previous toil, and our rest will be calm contemplation-blissful study-occupations of delight. Series of glories in that Heavenly Mansion will attract our eye, natural processes in moving panorama, elemental progress, mystic passage to life; life sensitive, life mental, life emotional. Past events will be interpreted in the clearness of present exalted experience; why and how, in this conflict and that temptation, the work of grace went on. The meaning of perils, accidents, overtakingfaults, will be read in natural and supernatural history. Merciful guidance, discerned everywhere; and all along the line attendant angels-unperceived before, as to Jacob in the almond groves of Luz. Contemplation becoming more blissful, our love, our admiration, our reverence, find life in growing praise. We know that around Creation, the Fall, the Redemption, and encircling every child of man to make him a very son of God, are miracles grouped: splendid witnesses of the Almighty.

The statement has been made that our Lord in His teaching, and that the Apostles in their preaching and writing, did not lay much stress upon miracles.

The statement is erroneous. Our Lord said that the Jews would be justified in their refusal to accept Him, had He not done among them works which no other man did (John xv. 24). S. Paul states plainly that the whole truth of Christianity rests on the miracle of

Christ's resurrection, and that Christ's resurrection is proof of the general resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 12-17). S. Peter asserts the ascension of Christ, and the second advent of Christ (1 Pet. iii. 22, v. 4); the miracle of divine inspiration and prophecy, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the renewal of the world (2 Pet. i. 21, ii. 6, iii. 10-13). S. James declares that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and that prayers are miraculously answered (Jas. v. 7, 14–18). The whole argument and all the facts of the Epistle to the Hebrews are based on the miraculous. S. Jude, in his small Epistle, mentions at least eight miracles (see verses 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14). S. John states that our Lord's miracles were too numerous for relation (John xxi. 25). It is high time for men to know that all Scripture and the whole of Nature are based on miracle and confirmed by miracle. Is it not a miracle that He, whose sceptre was a reed, whose diadem was a crown of thorns, whose throne was a cross, is filling the world with His doctrine, and winning all men to His sway?