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ABUNDANT LIFE.

HE LEADS HIS OWN.

How few who, from their youthful day,
Look on to what their life may be;
Painting the visions of the way

In colors soft, and bright, and free.
How few who, to such paths have brought,
The hopes and dreams of early thought!
For God, through ways they have not known,
Will lead his own.

The eager hearts, the souls of fire,
Who pant to toil for God and man;
And view with eyes of keen desire

The upland way of toil and pain;
Almost with scorn, they think of rest,

Of holy calm, of tranquil breast,

But God, through ways they have not known, Will lead his own.

What matter what the path shall be?
The end is clear, and bright to view;
We know that we a strength shall see,
What e'er the day may bring to do.
We see the end, the house of God,
But not the path to that abode;

For God, through ways they have not known,
Will lead his own.

-Hymns of the Ages.

ABUNDANT LIFE.

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

man.

JOHN X, 10.

F the many words of Christ, my thoughts dwell most upon those where he speaks of life. Life with him was the use and enjoyment of all the faculties of our being. Eternal life is to know God. Finding life is finding what we are, and what we are for. Life is a joyful service. It is a beautiful thing to liveto live in harmonious response to the call of the manycolored wisdom of God. Fullest life is realized when every faculty is called into play by the manifestation of God in nature. Without is beauty-in flower and form, in wonderful sunset, shimmering sea, and the face of Within, responding to it, is a perception of beauty, a joy, a growing beautiful. Without is music, the rhythmic beat of worlds that go singing along their measureless path, the tinkle of rain, the song of birds, and the laugh of children. Within is a recognition of rhythmic order, melody, harmony and song. Outside is truth-things as they really are-the hidden laws, the methods and the meaning of creation. Within is a perception of order, a desire to know. Outside is a moral order-"a unity of morals running through all animated nature;" each thing under authority. Justice lies at the heart of a crystal and of a man.

The Very stones keep faith with God and "joyful the stars perform their shinings." Within is a sense of obligation, duty-a love of justice. Without is a world of joys and sorrows-humanity in all its pathos. Beauty, music, truth, righteousness, humanity-these are the mind and heart of God impressed on natureimmanent in nature. And life is responding to them, fulfilling them. Anything less than this is incomplete life. He who lacks sight or hearing is shut out from some of the beauty and truth of God. He who has no eye for beauty, no ear for music, no heart for delight and sympathy, no desire to know, no wish to be good, is incomplete. Some one of the thousand strings which God gave him to make music with is not struck. The Creator hears no music from it.

The Christ, in his day and age, saw life as a whole. He saw the beauty in nature and in humanity; saw the truth, and loved to think God's thoughts after him; saw the divine goodness in rainfall and sunshine; saw the justice which binds man to man in social union; saw all this and responded to it, "I do always the things that please Thee."

This is why he has been in the mind and heart of the world ever since. The whole, the complete life was in him. He enjoyed life, overcame difficulty, used every means for helping others. Can you doubt that he would have kindly criticised all ideas of life which were less worthy? A young man came running to him who was exceedingly rich, but he had not life, for he had found no place to serve. Nicodemus had not life, because he was turning over musty parchments, shaping his life by dead opinions of men. Pilate was not alive, do justice. To the

since he did not, and dared not monk he would have said, "This is not life, this fasting and pain;" to the artist, "Life is beauty, but more —it is thiuking high thoughts and doing noble deeds."

Life is when every faculty is employed; the glad leap of muscle to its task; the thrill of nerve; the quickening of Kepler's mind; the patience of Darwin's observation; the harmony of Beethoven's music; the philanthropy of Wilberforce and Garrison; the humanity of Florence Nightingale; the love of fathers and mothers and children. The life of the Christ is the possible life of each one of us, "writ large." It is the life which God loves to give us all. It is the birthright of each one. It is the life we are to try to give to all who by birth or unfortunate surroundings or by misfortune miss it.

About us we see those who emphasize single points of life. He gave all equal emphasis. Life was duty, but life was delight. Life was worship, but life was practical world-business. Life was translation on Mount Hermon, but it was also healing lunatics at its base. Following Christ is but another way of saying live! "My springs are in Thee," says the Psalmist. All life is nourished by the secret springs which are in God. The Christ life was thus fed. He was in immediate contact with God. From Him came his thoughts and affections, sympathies and comforts. Christ meant to lead us there, to see, hear, know for ourselves. "The Father himself loveth you." "I am the way" is the Oriental way of saying "I am in the way, come with me." "I am seeking the truth, join me." "I am living the life, follow me."

Life can not be nourished by facts, traditions, opinions; but only by the truths which come directly from God. Each must go directly to God, commune with the voice within, interrogate the divine instincts, the sacred intuitions. God has many things to say, the inspiration is perpetual, the revelation is continuous. History is full of voices. It shows the movement of eternal righteousness; how nations rise and fall through

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