What makes the day seem so long?" Oh, he is anxious to see his home, and they to see the boy that cost them so much anxiety. Is it a mansion? No, but a very ordinary cottage. Is there a banquet spread out? No, a very simple fare; rather better than usual that night. What is the hurry then? Oh, he is to see the mother who watched over him, and spoke to him first of Jesus; he is to see the father who worked for him and prayed for him, and the old hearth-stone baptized thousands of times with tears on his behalf. And when he comes what a night of happiness it is! The father, not sure whether he is a member of a Christian church, now wishes to ask him, but the tenderer mother tells him, " No; not to-night." At last it comes unasked. "Mother, we have a good man as minister, and a splendid chapel, and I have been the secretary of the Sabbath School for the last six months." There's the well filling their hearts with joy. "Here is my membership." Oh, how happy they are! now for all the anxiety; it is all joy now!

paper of church What care they

But there is a way of closing up that well. A man told me the other day that he had never seen his mother but twice in his life, although she lived within ten miles of him. She gave him out to be nursed. She avoided the altar of anxiety and trouble; she never was allowed to drink joy from the well. You may obtain a cheap religion, a religion that costs nothing to your time, to your pocket, to your head, but it will be a religion without joy, without the well of happiness.

If the pendulum of experience swings to the altar on this side it will swing back by the same power to the well of joy on the other side, but if it rests like a plummet in the centre, fearing the sacrifice, God will see that it shall never reach the well. It was the same law for Christ as

for us. Jesus "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross," endured the cross that He might have the joy to save, endured their "Crucify Him," "Crucify Him," for the joy of being able to rescue them by thousands from eternal perdition on the day of Pentecost. And that is the joy He seeks here to-day, the joy of forgiving, of receiving not the good son merely, but the returning prodigal. How the old Home would ring with rejoicings were you but to return this day!

Man's Days and God's Mercy.

By the Rev. B. THOMAS, of Narberth.

"As for man his days are as grass; as a flower of the field so he flourisheth for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children."-Psalm ciii. 15-17.

HERE are two very important things, closely connected with us all, presented to us in these words, namely, Man's life, and God's mercy. The one serves as a background to the other, and the contrast between them is most striking and soothing. "The days of man are as grass." Nothing can be more natural than that man's present life should be like the growth of the present world. Should the inspired writer speak of the life of God, or that of an angel, he would doubtless compare it to the growth of a sunnier clime, "but as for man his days are as grass."

I. Man's life as grass, and as the flower of the field.

1. In its connection with the earth.

The grass and the flowers come from the earth, are sustained by the earth, and return again to the earth. So man's life, the life which adapts him specially for this

world, comes from the earth, is sustained by the earth, and returns to the earth. It is only borrowed from the earth, and the earth must have it back in due time. It is only fair and necessary that it should be so. Nature cannot afford to lose any of its substance at present, and the earthly house is of no use to the spirit-tenant in another sphere.

2. As grass and flowers for some special purpose.

Of all the blades of grass which, in spring and summer, carpet the meadows and mantle the hills in beautiful green, there is not as much as one without answering a special purpose in the great vegetable kingdom, and that purpose is set forth by the Psalmist in the following Psalm, in a way more satisfactory to common sense than many volumes written by some authors. "He" -by the laws of nature, or any other process if you like'He, nevertheless, causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herbs for the service of man, that He may bring forth food out of the earth."

I remember at the dawn of thought and reflection wondering how the tiny blades of grass in early spring could cut through the earth's hard and tough crust, and grow up in spite of apparent disadvantages, but I saw all as I read in the good old Book of my fathers and my country that He-the life of every life, the mover of every motion, the invisible cause of every visible effect-causes it to grow, and to grow for a special purpose, "for the cattle." He made the cattle; they want food; and He causes the grass to grow for them. It were a terrible thing if He had made cattle and could not satisfy their wants, but His creative power and arrangements are complete. He causes-makes, compels-the grass to grow

for them.

And if there is a special purpose for the existence of every blade of grass in the vegetable economy, is there not, think you, a more special purpose for the existence of man, the lord of creation, the climax of God's works in this world, His tenant in chief on this stupendous farm, the only being with whom He can reason and speak on this planet? And what can that purpose be but to farm well, improve the soil, cultivate the fields of the mind and the land of the soul, cause some grass to grow and flowers to bloom, and pay rent to His great landlord and taxes to His vast Government.

3. As grass and the flower of the field very beautiful.

How beautiful the springing grass and the blooming flowers! But of every flower life is the most beautiful, and of every life that of man is the most charming. It is the prettiest rose in this world's Eden. Look at it in the little infant; neighbours are attracted to it; they feed and revel on its new-born loveliness; angels fall in love with it and often take it away to their own land; the mother dotes on it, looks and smiles on it, and soon the smile is returned with special sweetness from that little face; it thrives, and grows, and lisps, and moves about, and soon bursts into speech and blossoms into intelligence -into a living soul!

Look at it again in the youth-the lad, happy with flowing health and mad with growing life, skipping in the playground, drinking of the founts of knowledge, bathing in the merry stream, standing on the threshold of the world, and gazing with delight on its dawning and hopeful realities!

Look at it again in the full-grown man, revelling in strength, rich in ripeness and glorious on the throne, and under the crown, of manhood. In all these stages life is