his attention and his love. Every Christian family which is comfortably circumstanced ought to have some neighbor, not so plentifully supplied, whom they are fraternally helping; and helping not in any spirit of condescension, not with any taint of pride or of position, but with real interest and personal friendship, and delight in giving pleasure.

"Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy." Considereth!-the benediction comes not to the careless giver. "Give to him that asketh thee "give what? Give your attention, your best thought, your helping hand, yourself.

THE GOSPEL AND POVERTY.

"And the poor have the gospel preached to them."-ST. MATT. xi. 5.

THIS is the end of the authoritative list of the credentials of Christianity. It is the climax of the appeal of Jesus to the trust and loyalty of men.

People asked questions in those days as they do now, and found it hard to believe in the Christian religion. Even Jesus Christ himself did not satisfy, did not convince, all those who heard him. One would think that people who had been taught by John the Baptist, and who had actually looked into the face and heard the voice of Jesus of Nazareth, would find faith easy and natural, not to say inevitable. How could they help believing? But it is more than suggested in the narrative from which the text is taken that even John himself had fallen into doubt. Certain came from John to inquire of Jesus, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" And they are sent back with a message to their Master, as

if the question had been his, and he had been the one who stood in need of reassurance, "Go and tell John."

Jesus of Nazareth was so different from all men's idea of Christ, that it is no wonder if some doubted. They had speculated with regard to his coming as we to-day speculate about his second coming. They had all sorts of vague and mistaken notions about him. They thought that the advent of Messiah would be like the triumphal entry of a king, only a thousand-fold more gorgeous and dramatic. He would appear enthroned amidst the splendid clouds of sunrise, a hero more of heaven than of earth, a supreme, magnificent archangel. They had looked for one with such countenance as the sun shineth in his strength, with hair as white as snow, and eyes like a flame of fire, and a voice deep and thunderous as the sound of many waters, holding the stars in his right hand. He would come, they imagined, in glorious majesty, as St. John saw him in the Revelation.

And when he came, looking like any other man, only not half so well dressed as many, not rich, not politically influential, not acquainted with kings' palaces, not learned in

the ostentatious learning of the schools, walking about the streets and talking to the commonest people in simple language such as they could understand, it is not strange that people wondered, and asked questions, and doubted. Men and women were as blind in those days as they are now. The Lord Christ comes and stands beside us, and we are looking so hard into the clouds that we do not see him. He speaks to us, but we are so busy debating about him that we do not listen. Every call of need is his voice: he has told us that plainly enough. The man whom we pass in the street, with the sad face and the shabby coat, with his idle hands thrust into his empty pockets, looking for work, and going hungry till he finds it, - who is he? We do not recognize him; he is not one of our acquaintance. We are as dull-sighted as the old scribes. For here to-day, in these streets, Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.

So John's disciples came with their question. And there was Jesus, who appeals to us to-day in the person of his needy brethren, revealing himself by his gracious ministrations to the needy. And he gave them an answer, whereof the text was the last sentence. They desired to be assured that Jesus was the Christ, and

he invited them to observe what he was doing.

"Go," he said, "and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them."

"Ye shall know them by their fruits." Not by any Latin label stuck into the ground to certify what sort of seed was planted there, but by the green stalk which the seed pushes up out of the earth, with leaves and branches, with blossoms in their season, and then with fruit. The fruit is the only assurance that is worth anything as to the excellence of the seed. If we are Christians we will be like Jesus Christ. If we speak as he never spoke, if we act as he never acted, we are none of his. The Christian Church is Christian not by reason of its origin, and not in proportion to the orthodoxy of its creed, but only as it has the same purpose which Christ had, and can answer the doubting questions of men as he answered them. What are you doing, you Christians, that we may see if you deserve your name?

Nothing can be plainer than that Jesus of Nazareth set the emphasis both of his life and