became simply His friends. No: Christ's relation to us as our Master is an abiding relation. "Ye call me Master and Lord; and ye say well for so I am." And Christ speaks as a Master, even when He calls His disciples friends. "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." We do not usually speak of commanding our friends: but Christ's friends are to manifest their friendship in obedience.

We must,

therefore, unite the two ideas of an obedient, faithful servant, and a loving, sympathetic friend, in order to reach the complete ideal of the Christian's relation to Christ.

Now, in our ordinary human relationships there are sometimes to be found instances in which these two elements are more more or less blended, and which therefore furnish some analogy to this peculiar relation of the "servant-friend." Thus, an employer may take one of his servants into confidence, revealing to him the secrets of his business, explaining to him the ends he has in view and the means by which he hopes to reach them, and sometimes even going away for a season and leaving the management of the business in his hands. Such a confidential servant," as we call him, may be none the less-but rather all the morescrupulous in carrying out his master's wishes and plans. The trust reposed in him naturally deepens his loyalty; whilst the insight which he obtains into his master's business enables him to co-operate more intelligently and efficiently for the furtherance of his master's interests. But perhaps a somewhat closer analogy is to be found in the case of the family-servant who has lived in the same household for many years— whose warm attachment and keen sympathy have

given the insight which only love can give--who has been the tender nurse at many a sick-bed, and has shown reverential sympathy in many a trial-who has gradually been taken into deeper and fuller confidence -who can anticipate wishes before they are expressed -and whose loyal devotion would follow the family even into poverty and shame. This one of the most striking and pathetic of all human relationships-the blending of respect and familiarity, of scrupulous obedience and loyal sympathy-is beautiful to look upon. And this may furnish some analogy to the ideal relation of the Christian to Christ. Now, might we not perhaps have more true success in our Christian work if we were to cherish within our hearts more of the spirit of this special relationship of the servantfriend?

There is a tendency in some Christians to speak of Christ with a kind of familiarity which seems to be deficient in reverence. They dwell on the tenderness of their relation to Christ until there is some danger of their forgetting His supreme claims and His absolute authority. And perhaps they even begin to presume on His gentleness, so as to become negligent and careless in the doing of His will. Now, we ought never to forget that our loving Saviour is our Divine Master. A confidential servant has no right, because of the dignity of his position, to neglect his master's interests or to presume on his master's forbearance; rather is he in honour bound to a deeper fidelity. Though friends, we are servants still. We must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ." The Master will "reckon" with His servants according to the "talents" which He has entrusted to their

keeping whether they be talents of faculty, of money, or of influence. Let us, then, take care lest we substitute sentiment for service. Perhaps our work might be more successful if there were more of it— more actual expenditure of energy and time and money in the cause of Christ. May not the fault with some of us lie here, that we have not enough of the spirit of conscientious and obedient service?

But now, on the other hand, let us remember that we are not servants only, but friends also. Our Lord clothes for us the firm, rugged rock of Duty with the sweet flowers of Affection. Our service ought not to be a mere mechanical obedience, however scrupulous. It ought to be a service of intelligent and appreciative sympathy. Christ has given us some insight into His own motives and plans. He gives us His spirit to make us sharers of His own life. "We know what our Lord doeth." We know both His object and His method. We know that His object is the redemption of mankind, the rescue of souls from sin and death, the establishment of the reign of righteousness and peace. We know also something of His method-the method of holy, meek, loving patience the method of the Cross. And so, when He summons us to be coworkers with Himself towards His grand object, we ought to work not only as servants who wear His livery, but also as friends who exemplify His spirit. Christ's disciples are in the world as His representatives, and, so to speak, His confidential agents. They are to work for His kingdom therefore, “in His name,” as those who have been commissioned by Him to promote His cause, according to the spirit of His methods. Hence the promise, "Whatsoever ye shall

U

ask the Father, in My name, He will give it you." We are not to ask God for anything we please, and then to suppose that the mere addition of the words "in the name of Christ" will act as a kind of magical formula, securing a favourable answer to our requests. No: we are actually to ask "in the name of Christ”as His representatives and servant-friends-as organs of His spirit: we are to ask for what will better enable us to carry on His work. Now, can we say view are always

that the objects which we have in Christ's objects, that our supreme desire is to be instrumental in promoting the kingdom of God?

If

we would pray in His name, let us work in His name. But may it not be that, when we pray for success in our Christian work, we are sometimes praying that our own special methods may succeed, rather than that we may be led into a fuller appreciation and use of Christ's methods? Is it not the case, alas! that the work which the church has done in the world has too often been as the work of mere servants who were ready to adopt almost any methods of promoting their Master's interests, rather than as the work of friends who were anxious to adopt only such methods as were in harmony with their Master's spirit? If we are servant-friends who "know what our Lord doeth," let us seek and pray that we may carry out His purposes in His own ways. To exemplify the spirit of Christ in our work for Christ is one of the most important parts of our Christian service. And the spirit of Christ is the spirit of reverence, of faith, of love, and of patience. Christ's kingdom is "not of this world," and the grand instruments for its promotion are spiritual truth, spiritual life, and spiritual character. Might we not,

some of us, be more successful in promoting it if we trusted less in mere organization and more in spiritual forces? Might we not be more successful in the long run if we were less impatient for immediate results, and more willing to carry on a steady, patient work of such kind and quality as would be indicative of fuller sympathy with the mind of Christ?

Some of you may remember reading how, in the month of October last, a little girl stood in the midst of a great crowd of people at the mouth of New York harbour, and, by simply touching a button, shattered an island of rock which had lain as an obstruction in the channel. Now, to any one who was not in the secret, that would have seemed a very strange and sudden event. But we know that it was not so strange or so sudden as it looked. For who was that little girl? She was the daughter of an engineer; and for ten long years men had been at work on that rock-away down sixty feet beneath low-water mark -patiently cutting tunnel after tunnel-four miles of tunnels and filling ever so many holes with gunpowder and dynamite, until the nine acres of rock were like a huge honeycomb filled with 140 tons of explosive material. Then, at the end of all this labour, an electric wire had been laid between the shore and the island; and all that the engineer's daughter had now to do was just to touch the button which brought the electric spark into contact with the gunpowder and dynamite. Thus, by the touch of that girl's finger a huge rock, which had lain there for millenniums, was in a moment shattered into thousands of fragments. But what would have been the use of her touch, and what would have been the