by to witness the death-throes and fearful anguish of a stricken soul, a spirit left to die alone, in noonday darkness; a divine eclipse, a midnight pall-most fitting emblem of celestial mourning-thrown over material nature and the spotless Spirit of Jesus, when He made His soul an offering for sin.

"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." These, the faithful few, faithful to truth and love, form the back-ground of the suffering realities of Mercy.

Here is a mother, while losing one Son, finds another; and the beloved disciple, in the loss of a Friend, finds an affectionate parent. At the cross of Jesus the sinner may find compensation for two worlds, the present as well as the future.

THE NINTH VIEW.-If Jesus died, Mercy did not die. The cross was but the cradle where Mercy wept, and sighed, and bled, to save the erring and the lost. Jesus slept in the tomb, but only to rise therefrom. "The Lord is risen indeed." With what joy does Mary receive Him from the tomb when He addresses her in His well-known voice-the same voice, the same Jesus, in His second, His resurrection-life, as in His first, His incarnate life. He is the same Jesus now, the Prince of Mercy, the same in benevolence and sympathy; and He says to the weakest disciple seeking Him in the spirit of the resurrection, "Why weepest thou? The sorrows, the pangs, the misery and death of the cross, are past, and Mercy is triumphant."

And Mercy lives, Mercy loves, Mercy triumphs still. It has ascended to the Father. From the mountain top of Olivet it took its flight, with uplifted hands and parting words of blessing. Mercy was parted from the earth, and carried up to heaven.

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Mercy shall enter in." Such was the ascension song. Mercy promised to come again in the promised Comforter. And now, in the presence of the Eternal Father, amidst the choir of glory, the harpers harping with their harps, and the spirits of just men made perfect, Mercy is crowned Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins.

And the work of Mercy on earth is a resurrection from a death of sin unto a birth of righteousness, a pressing upward on the hill of life to the bed of death, an ascension from the mountain top of faith to the celestial abode, the heavenly home of love. The divine hand pointing a little higher up, with the divine voice saying, "Come up hither."

CHAPTER II.

Blessing, or Words of Mercy.

"Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy." (Matt. v, 7.)

A HOLY Soul, fitly set in a perfect body, is like a costly gem placed in a golden framework highly wrought. A perfect man existed once upon the earth, but in a pure and holy state he did not continue long. Heaven waited 4000 years to see if the earth could supply his place, with a perfect, holy law, written and given to men by God himself, for a guide and model to form his thought and frame his life; yet all the generations of men could not present to God one perfect, holy man.

To supply his place, heaven had to provide another from itself. And this new man, "the Lord from heaven," in order to preserve His virtue, integrity, and purity, had to be possessed of the God-like element of constancy, by which He would be enabled to be faithful to righteousness and truth, holiness and love. The tempter came, but found no weak, no inconstant place in Him.

This most holy person is heaven's last direct-created work on earth, and given as the most perfect model ever formed by celestial wisdom for the faith of men to rest upon, and for an example for them to imitate.

The spirit of Mercy has found a home in a pure and holy form. A new man now walks the earth— His name is called JESUS. New features strike the eye, a new countenance attracts the mind, a new voice

now falls upon the ear of the world, and, like chords of music, charms the spirit of man—a new, a heavenly voice, and, like the heavenly wind, now moves the feelings of the human soul.

The golden light of heaven has a body to live in, a home in which to reside, a never-ceasing source, a never-failing power of sunshine for the world, a body of light which knows no weariness, no selfishness, and shows no partiality to age or rank, to race or sex. The mercy of God has found a body, and made it for its own abode a glorious body of holy light and love, "the light of the world." "God is love," the fountain of benevolence, the outflow of blessing. The spirit of Mercy in the gospel of Jesus is the perfect standard of the person and character of the Merciful One.

The Proof-The spirit of Mercy is a blessed spirit, and lives in acts of blessing.

The Incarnate One once sat on the mountain, and taught the people in words of blessing. A man may be known in three ways- by his feelings, by his words, and by his actions.

A man may be known by what he feels. Feelings reproduce themselves. But how are they produced? By becoming one with the subject in which an interest is taken. If there be a desire to make another feel, the man who has such a desire must, in the first place, feel himself. So says the Latin poet-" If you would have me weep, you must first express the passion of grief yourself." And if there be a desire to bless, the blessed spirit must be first felt in the individual's soul before it can be infused into the souls of others.

And this the blessed Jesus knew and felt, as He

* "Si vis me flore, dolendus est
(De Arte Poeticá.)

Primus ipse tibi."

sat upon the mountain top, the pulpit of His ministrations, and delivered to the people his sermon of many blessings, opening the eight celestial gates of entrance to His heavenly kingdom.

A man may be known by what he says and by what he does. In this mountain pulpit, the spirit of Mercy was clothed with the richly wrought robes, the princely garments of the court of heaven, and crowned with the diadem of the holiest benediction. The spirit of the law was clothed with the lightning and spake with the thunder of Sinai, but the spirit of the gospel came with grace and truth.

The objects selected for blessing show the nature of the Merciful One. The heavenly voice that speaks is one, and in each instance there is a blessing with a promise.

THE FIRST BLESSING.

Poverty of spirit and heirship to the kingdom. "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

The first gate opened is a blessing for the poor. Here Jesus begins. This is the first step of the Merciful One in the road to heaven. Jesus had himself to walk it. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now highly exalted. Through this gate the sinful soul must go before it can get into the path of Mercy. It is a strait path, a narrow gate. It opens immediately the soul feels its own inherent, deeply seated poverty and nothingness. God's poor

are the poor in spirit.

The First Illustration.-In such a state of mind was Mary, the Virgin Mother, after the salutation of the angel, and she said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my Spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,