bearer; and in his interview with Trajan showed himself so utterly unworldly that the emperor gave him the opprobrious name (Kakodaiμwv), one possessed of a demon, and condemned him to be led a prisoner from Antioch to Rome, and there fed to the wild beasts for the delectation of the people.

As the fierce lions are let loose upon him, the old saint falls on his knees and is heard to say: "O ye Romans, know ye that not for any crime am I brought here, but that by this means I may attain to the fruition of the glory of God, for love of whom I am made prisoner. I am as grain of God's field, and must be ground by the teeth of lions that I may become bread for His people, fit for His table."

How long, think you, the world would wait for the knowledge of this salvation, did the spirit of that martyr burn in Christian bosoms! Such a flame of holy zeal consumes all greed, all pride, all ambition, all selfishness, while it burns and glows and shines with celestial fires, and makes life itself a reflection of shekinah glory! When God's people would rather be ground between lions' teeth than that the hungry souls should go without bread, the world will soon find spread from pole to pole the banquet board of Redemption.

The spirit of missions not only brings its own reward; it is itself a heavenly gift and its own

compensation. Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Jeanie Deans, when pleading for her sister's life with the Queen, those memorable words:

"It is not when we sleep soft and wake merrily ourselves that we think on other people's sufferings. Our hearts are waxed light within us then, and we are for righting our ain wrangs and fighting our ain battles. But when the hour of trouble comes to the mind or the body, and when the hour of death comes that comes to high and low,— lang and late may it be yours! O, my leddy, then it is na what we hae dune for oursells, but what hae dune for others, that we think on maist pleasantly."

Yes, but long this side of that august hour when life passes before us as in procession, for review, the true child of God who hath partaken of His Spirit has learned the higher compensation of fellowship with Jesus. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and even His cross is no longer heavy.

Somewhere I have met a fable, that when God first made the birds He made them without wings. With gorgeous plumage and sweet voices endowed they could shine and sing, but could not soar. Then He made wings and bade the birds go take up these burdens and bear them. At first they seemed a heavy load, but as they bore them upon their shoulders and folded them over their heart, lo! they grew fast-the burdens became pinions, and

that which once they bore now bore them up toward heaven. The fable is fact. We are the wingless birds, and our duties are the pinions. When at the beck of God we first assume them, they may seem but burdens. But if we cheerfully and patiently bear them, they cease to be a load. The burdens change to wings-they bear us up and on toward the cloudless heaven of His presence. As the beloved Samuel Rutherford says, "The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that ever I bore: it is such a burden as are wings to a bird or sails to a ship, to carry me forward to my desired haven.

"Schola crucis est schola lucis."

Fellow-disciples, let us cheerfully take up our duties, and the wingless birds shall find those duties turned to delights, and the burdens borne for Christ transformed to pinions to bear aloft the burden-bearer to the cloudless realm of the divine presence!

V.

THE DIVINE FORCE OF MISSIONS.

ROM man's creation until now, one great question has occupied human research, viz: What is Power?

Whence comes, in any sphere, the faculty or ability to do-to accomplish a work, to achieve a result? Back of effects lie causes, but many causes are also effects, and it is power which makes a cause efficient and sufficient to produce an effect. The question we now suggest concerns the origin of force and the primal secret of efficacy.

What men have sought in the sphere of natural philosophy, we are now to seek in the sphere of the moral and spiritual. In the prosecution of Christian missions what is the secret of success, the source of power? In discussing this question we are getting further toward the heart of our great theme. We have seen what constitutes the spirit of a true missionary; but this inquiry is even more radical.

The secret of power is not human, but divine, and even so far as it is found in humanity has an element of divinity. The Word of God, which

proves in all things such an adequate guide, teaches us the whole truth that we need to know upon this subject.

We select two representative passages, which again we put side by side for comparison and completeness of view.

"And Jesus came and spake unto them saying: "All POWER is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth.

"Go ye therefore and teach all nations. . . .

"And lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the age. Amen."

Matt. xxviii. 18-20.

"And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you;

"But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with POWER from on High." Luke xxiv. 49.

"But ye shall receive POWER after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Acts i. 8.

It will be noticed that here three times we have this word "power," and the repetition is significant. In the first case, it is associated with the Son, who here claims for Himself omnipotence, both in heaven and in earth. In the second case, it is associated with the Father, as proceeding forth from Him, and as His gift in connection with the mission of believers; and in the third case, it is associated with the Holy Spirit, as His enduement and endowment.

Again, it is noticeable that in one case the power is linked with Christ's promised presence; and in the other it is distinctly termed "the promise of the Father." Where such manifest care is taken in the discrimination of language, it would be