continual usefulness and duty. That is scarcely to be called a member of our body which is of no use to the body; nor can he be called a true member of Christ who is of no use to the Church (which is Christ's body), according to the calling in life which God has appointed for him. The Apostle says, "there are many members in one body, and all have not the same office." All have some office, but all have not the same office. And thus in Christ's body, every member is appointed to some useful office: some work of faith, and labour of love, in the daily duties of our various callings. No two members are appointed to the same office, but all have some service or other assigned to them. The services of some are more honourable than the occupations of others; but there is no member of Christ that is not called to serve God, in some course of useful and dutiful obedience. As we should cut off from the body a member that became useless and cumbrous, so will Christ cut off such members as are mere encumbrances on His Church; and however diligent we may be in the business of this world, we are cumberers of the ground in His sight, if we are not setting His glory before us as the end of all our undertakings.

3. This similitude reminds us of our mutual dependence one upon another. "The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you." If any member could sever itself from the rest, in a proud independence, it would utterly perish. The members "have the same care one of another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it." Thus in the Church

11 Cor. xii. 25, 26.

there is no member so high but that he may have need of the service of the lowest; and none so low but that he may minister most needfully to the highest. This thought will effectually put down all feelings of pride in those who have higher gifts than others, and all risings of discontent in such as are called to more mean and lowly services. It is God who has appointed each member to his own use and office; and as it is an amazing impiety in those who have received greater talents, to despise such as have less; so also is it in these, if they be not content with such offices as God has assigned to them. It has been well said, that the little brook which waters a few fields, fulfils the office assigned to it by Providence, as truly as the mighty river which bears on its bosom the commerce of a nation.

And we see also what ground there is for mutual sympathy, help, and love, among all the many members. How closely should we keep to those holy ordinances by which our fellowship is affected and realized and how earnestly should we endeavour to give proof of that blessed fellowship, by the truest sympathy with all our fellow-members, and by the most ready exertions of Christian love towards all; whether they be high or low; whether they be in our own land, or in foreign countries! The tie of Christian fellowship unites us to all who have been baptized into the same body; nor is it severed by death itself. It binds together those who have entered into their rest with those who are yet militant on earth. It is the true source of comfort in the hour of bereavement and sorrow.

:

WHIMPER

"I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."-Gen. ix. 13-16.See also Ezek. i. 28; Rev. iv. 3.

THE rainbow is not so much a similitude, as a sign and token in the cloud of God's covenant with man. It is caused by the refraction of the sunbeams in the drops of the falling shower; and is therefore a sign of rain; though by God's appointment it is changed into an assurance and pledge that the rain shall never again prevail, as it prevailed in the deluge. It is thus become an emblem of a covenant of grace and mercy to a guilty world. And the very beauty of that faultless arch which joins the heaven with the earth, and of

those colours which are so brilliant, and so softly blended into each other, seems to render it the more suitable token of that blessed Gospel, which proclaims "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'

And thus we find, that in such visions as were of old vouchsafed to saints and prophets, the more dreadful brightness of the Divine glory was ever tempered by the appearance of a rainbow, blending itself with the colour of amber out of the midst of the fire, or the colour of the terrible crystal." The prophet Ezekiel "saw as it were the appearance of fire; and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about." And St. John says, "He that sat on the throne, was to look upon like a jasper and

a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." And again, "I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire." 1

The rainbow thus proclaims to us an opening of mercy in the midst of judgment and anger. And, since that which is itself a sign of rain, has become a pledge that the rain shall no

more

prevail, it seems especially to remind us that the grace of God makes all things new; and so changes the character even of what in itself is a remembrance of wrath, as to make it a pledge of mercy. Thus the sentence that man shall eat bread in the sweat of his brow2 has become a source of happiness, by enforcing useful employment, and by leading to all the instruction of literature, and all the discoveries of art and science. Thus the 2 Gen. iii. 19.

1 Rev. x. 1.

trials of life are received as the chastisement of a loving Father, and not as the infliction of an angry Judge. The tears of penitence issue in the grace of Christ; and death itself is become the gate of life.

"The bow that is in the cloud, in the day of rain," reminds us also, that in the very deepest affliction there is a way of deliverance. The colours of the rainbow are brightest when it is seen against the darkest cloud; and faith is able to see all is well" written in characters of mercy upon the very darkest visitations of God's providence. Faith still whispers to us, that when "night is darkest, dawn is nearest," and that "man's extremity is God's opportunity."

66

XXIX. THE FISHERS AND THEIR NET.

"And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him."-Matt. iv. 18-20.-See also Matt. xiii. 47-50.

WHEN we see fishermen mending their nets, or