effort to remedy things, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Hope kept him toiling on. It spurred him on to do his best.

Faith makes faithful. Those who are full of faith are characterized by faithfulness; they can be depended upon to do their duty, for they have an abiding principle of obedience within their hearts.

Inventors and discoverers had often fainted after years of unrequited toil unless they had believed that success was coming. Palissy breaks up his household furniture to fire his last batch of pottery. Visions of success keep his heart from sinking as friends reproach him, and his children cry for bread. That final effort, upon which everything is staked, brings a turn in the tide of his affairs. Fame and fortune crown his heroic struggles.

Discouraged heart, toil on a little longer! Life's darkest experiences are often preparations for the greatest joys; the valley of Achor may prove to be the door of hope; the forlorn hope may turn the battle to the gate. To give up now is to lose the fruit of all your toil.

"Yet courage, soul! nor hold thy strength in vain,

In hope o'ercome the steeps God set for thee; For past the Alpine summits of great pain

words, "Where sin abcunded, grace superabounded." It was this spirit of holy hopefulness that made St. Paul a cheerful, faithful worker in the cause of Christ. He knew that he was not fighting a losing battle. And in view of the glorious certainties and rewards of the future, he thus exhorts all discouraged fellow-workers, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord."

TO MEDICAL STUDENTS.* BY REV. SYLVANUS STALL, M.A. [LUTHERAN], BALTIMORE, MD.

The beloved physician.—Col. iv. 14.

I FEEL honored in speaking to a body of young men who have chosen so exalted a profession for their life work. Next to the ministry of the Gospel stands the ministry of the medical profession. If I need any apology for addressing you, it is found in the fact that Christianity is the handmaid of medicine.

The ancients put to death their aged and infirm, but it was left for Christianity to teach the principles which lie at the foundation of the successful practice of the healing art. Skilled physicians are one of the products of Christianity, and they are found only in Christian countries. Jesus was the Great Physician, and the most sacred duties of your life will be most successfully done only when you have faithfully patterned after this greatest of all earth's healers.

I. Why is your chosen profession among the most exalted? The most sacred interests of the home are to be entrusted to you. In your hands and upon your skill will depend the lives of men high in state, those who control the commerce of the nation, those who stand in the sacred desk. Your profes

* Condensed from a sermon by Rev. Sylvanus Stall, pastor of the Second English Lutheran Church, to the medical students of the Maryland University, and College of Physicians and Surgeons, located in Baltimore.

sion will bring you constantly face to face with distress and suffering, and your responsibilities and obligation will be greatly increased by the resources and opportunities for doing good. It is an exalted profession, because money cannot recompense you for the benefits and blessings which it is yours to bestow. Men like William Harvey and Edward Jenner cannot be paid with money. They have laid common humanity of all nations and all ages under a perpetual tribute of gratitude. Although the healing art has made great strides during the past half century, the discoveries have not all been made, and close observation and careful study leaves it in the realm of the easily possible for you to contribute your share toward the advance of science in the alleviation of human suffering. In a ministering life of unselfishness, in some sense, you are to give your life "a ransom for many." You are to come as a benefactor to the poor, the afflicted and the suffering. You have been preceded by illustrious men, who not only in home and hospital, but who, like Dr. David Livingstone, have in dark and distant continents laid down their lives for the elevation and salvation of common humanity.

II. What will the public expect of you, young men? Like the minister of the Gospel, you are each to be a public servant. Your own pleasure, or case, or preferences are to be regarded as secondary considerations. In all kinds of weather, and at all hours of the night, with no recognized right to decline, you are to respond to the call of the afflicted. The public have a right to expect that you shall be fully quali fied for the important and solemn interests which are to be entrusted to you. Inefficiency, if excusable elsewhere, is a crime in a physician. In social life you will be expected to be pure. The defilement of impurity should not be found upon your character. Young men, if you lose the purity of your character, you despoil yourselves of that integrity without which you are

unfit for the honorable and exalted place you have chosen for yourself to fill. Society has a right to require that you should be, every one of you a Christian gentleman. You should be a complete man, with a trained intellect, a quick perception, a good judgment, a wellstored mind, a sympathetic heart, a refined taste, a sound mind in a strong, healthy body, with plenty of faith in humanity and an abounding trust in God.

III. In view of what the public has a right to expect of you, I might ask, what should you require of yourself? You should resolve that, as far as possible, the expectation of the public shall be met. To this end, adopt the principle of close application. In Baltimore. as in any other large city, you will find many diverting influences, and if you are turned from your high purpose you will only be demonstrating your lack of fitness for usefulness in your chosen profession. Stick to your studies. Take the long course of studies in preparation. Resolve to be a master in medicine, and peer of the most proficient in your profession. Beware of the subtle influences of the inebriating cup. Many whose names might otherwise have adorned your profession scaled their own docm by beginning with social drinking. Appetite became strong and the will weak, until they were no longer able to resist. Young man, you will need a steady hand, a clear eye, and an unclouded mind. Be observant. Get information everywhere, and do not be afraid that you will not have opportunity to use it, for it will never fail to be serviceable. Keep records of your cases; observe the symptoms; note varying conditions; be systematic. That you may be a living exponent of your profession, in your preparation to care for the health and happiness of others, do not neglect to look well to your own health. Do not suffer yourself to become unsettled in your convictions, either medically or morally, by investigations which result only in conflicting uncer

tainties. Stand by the great landmarks which have been settled for ages. When your mother's Bible or father's God is sneered at, in ninety-five cases out of one hundred investigation would only disclose the wicked heart or impure life of him who offered it. Do not, if you would be a fully rounded man, neglect the culture of your moral nature. Physicians, like other men, have a threefold manhood-physical, intellectual, and moral. The neglect of any one results in injury to the other two. As in the muscular, so in the spiritual -that development secured in the earlier years is lasting, while that acquired in later life can only be retained by perpetual effort. You should require yourself to remember that you are mortal. It will be yours often to confront death, but some day, in your own bedchamber, he will confront you.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD. BY REV. A. MCELROY WYLIE [PRESBYTERIAN], BROOKLYN, N. Y.

For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron.-Isa. lx. 17.

THIS passage occurs amid the glowing prophecies concerning the millennial kingdom. It has, however, its application to the kingdom in its present

state.

I. The kingdom of Christ recognizes different grades, qualities, values, uses. Each of these is most effective in its own place. We would much sooner commit ourselves to a vessel of steel than to one whose hull was made of gold. No greater calamity could happen to the world than turn all substances into gold. In the Church variety of talent and gifts, differences of classes are essential to prosperity. God never repeats Himself. Equality is impossible, and if possible would be disastrous. II. All things take on enhanced value in the kingdom of God. "For brass I will bring gold," etc. Wherever the Church of Christ comes, instantly all

things leap into higher value-property, schools, trade, institutions, government, the family, the individual. You may interrogate in just four different directions-Nature, the Rational World, Sin, the Kingdom. Nature replies: "I change nothing. I furnish the ore; I cannot bring out the metal; I can't change even the place of a stone." Rational World replies: "I can change the shapes, the places, the combinations of things, but I cannot change the substances. I cannot turn iron into silver, wood into brass, stones into iron." Sin rises in its black monstrosity, and says: "Yes, I have power to change. I can reach up, lay my hand on the twentytwo carat gold and drag it down to silver; I can drag the silver down to brass, the brass to iron, the iron to stone, the stone to wood, the wood I can burn with the torch of hate, and scatter the ashes on the red-hot floor of hell-I can do that!" Sin can drag the genius or the archangel down to the abyss of a hopeless Hades.

It is only the Kingdom that can say: "Everything I touch shall increase in value. I can take even the devil's outcasts and change them into burning seraphs.

III. This enhancement of values is by and through successive grades-wood, stone, iron, brass, silver, gold. God's method of working is by development through grades. There is no such thing as reaching perfection at a bound, It is a walk, a race—meaning steady progress by steps. We are seniors because we were juniors, are juniors because we were sophs, are sophs because we were freshmen, and freshmen because we were drilled in the preparatory school. If we drop a stitch we must go back and take it up, or we cannot proceed. We must have all the wood taken out of us before we can become iron, and the iron out of us ere we become silver, etc.

IV. The divine agency is emphasized -"I will bring." Transformations in human nature are effected through divine power and grace. God speaks,

Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me.-John xiv. 1.

INTRODUCTORY.—1. Circumstances worthy of notice: (1) Christ's approach ing passion. (2) Solemn scenes through which they, the disciples, would soon be called to pass. (3) The effect of these upon their hopes.

2. Christ's purpose, loving, tender, gracious. (1) To prepare them for these experiences. (2) To point out the true source of comfort. (3) To overreach the circumstances of the time in which He spoke and prepare His disciples in all ages for the bitter experiences of the world's sorrow, by setting forth the true source of all comfort and spiritual wellbeing faith in God, faith in Christ.

I. Trouble the common lot of man. "Man that is born," etc. The causes of the trouble that then agitated the Twelve are the same that affect us now. 1. Treachery. Judas's kiss-"Is it I?" Foes still hate and friends disown. Who can measure this source of sorrow?

2. The foretold fall of Peter. Many things foreshow the downfall of our fellow-Christians, and we are troubled by them.

3. Their fewness, and the number and intense hatred of their enemies. Notice comparative fewness of Christians now; the number and character of enemies.

4. The kingdom of God was not set up in the open and glorious way they expected. Notice present-day misconceptions of the character and results of religion, and the distress of mind and heart which they produce,

5. Their separation from their Master. Our loved ones taken, and we have sorrow and trouble.

6. Their dread of the unknown future. Thus many now spend "all their lifetime subject to bondage."

From these considerations we note the appropriate application of these words to us now.

II. From all trouble there is a sure source of comfort-faith. "Ye believe in God, believe also in me."

1. Faith in God affords comfort, because we know: (1) He is all-wise"too wise to err." (2) He is infinitely good-"The Lord is good to all." (3) He is supremely and forever loving. Describe His love-" costly, free, endless." (4) He is true and faithfulchangeless, faithful and just to perform" all that He has promised. (5) He is omnipotent. Stronger than all our enemies. If God is with us we are in the majority. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' Fear not." "The God of Jeshurun," etc. The assurance we often sing is born of heaven, and the Father's will concerning us:

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not-I will not desert to his foes: That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I'll never, no never, no never forsake."

(6) He controls all forces. He can and will make "all things work together for good," etc. (7) He loves us even as He loves His only-begotten Son (John xvii. 23).

Hence we may expect nothing but our highest good from His hand.

That Son went to Gethsemane, but angels ministered unto Him. The hands of the wicked were laid upon Him, but twelve legions of the heavenly host anxiously waited His word. He went to Calvary, but in His greatest pain and weakness He was permitted to see "the travail of His soul" in the salvation of the dying thief. To the trusting disciple there are ever the encamping angels of divine grace and power waiting to deliver.

Thus, to the one believing in God

Him we have access to God. (3) He sends the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, who is the perpetual Immanuel" of the trusting soul, an ever-present Friend and Guide, a near and ever-living Saviour.

Such faith "overcometh the world," vanquishing every foe, and brightening every gloom that falls upon life's pathway.

Heirs of trouble, travellers to the tomb, be commended to the words of Jesus: Let not your heart be troubled;

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Neutrality Impossible.

He that is not with me is against me.Luke xi. 23.

THERE are three classes in every community. 1. The friends of Christ. 2. The foes of Christ. 3. The neutrals. The last are the most numerous and the hardest class to reach. The Bible, however, recognizes but two classes-good and bad; sheep and goats; children and rebels. No midway position. "He that is not with Me is against Me."

In unfolding the text: (1) Define what it is to be with Christ. (2) Substantiate the statement that not to be with Him is to be against Him.

I. What is it to be with Christ? A study of the context shows that the Saviour has in mind the two kingdoms of light and darkness, of which He and Satan are respectively the heads. These kingdoms are in conflict. To be with Christ means to be with Him in the affairs of His kingdom, and implies two things: 1. Sympathy with the principles for which the kingdom exists. 2. Personal identification with Christ in carrying out those principles. Distinguish between being for Christ and with Christ. Thousands are for Him to one who is with Him. They are for Him in the sense that they endorse His principles; but are not with Him in

2. The man who is undecided paralyzes those who are in active service. We influence one another. The command of Moses was that in time of war "the fearful and faint-hearted" should return to his home, lest his "brethren's heart faint as well as his heart." Sins of omission are just as heinous in God's sight as sins of commission.

3. Indecision leads not unfrequently to an utter betrayal of Christ to the enemy. Note again the context. The text comes in between two parablesthat of the "strong man armed” and the "unclean spirit," which represent two classes of men. (1) Those who have made complete allegiance to Christ. (2) Those who are undecided, wavering. The evil spirit has gone out of them, but Christ has not been received in, and to the heart thus left empty the devil returns in a far worse form and effects