If we think otherwise, it seems to me that in denying the possibility, or indeed the reality, of communion between mortal and immortal humanity, we cut ourselves off from the comfort of the human sympathy of Christ as our friend and brother; or if, on the other hand, we suppose that He is not subject to laws common to the glorified human nature, we deny practically that He is the Head of a body, and that He has entered upon a throne to be shared with its members. "Hence it is, my dear friend, that I think the doctrine of the Communion of Saints so important. It is not merely as a source of present consolation; as such it is sweet indeed, yet altogether secondary. It is because Christ is the King and Head of saints, and because He is the Prototype, the Exemplar of celestial humanity, that, wherever we place the limit of communion of spirits-of human spirits above with human spirits below-there, in truth, we limit the intercourse of the Church with its living Human Head. "The law of the saints' communion in the glorified humanity of Christ (for are not His children more closely united to Him than our limbs to ourselves?) give us all we have loved in Him as Man, oh, how closely, how dearly, how reverently, but in a more enduring and more vital relation. Oh, how precious is the thought that the measure of human communion with Him is the measure of human communion with them! But, passing sweet though it is thus to have all our hallowed human ties bound together in our dear Lord, and to receive them anew from His loving hand, yet is it far more sweet and blessed to remember that this law of the communion of celestial with terrestrial human beings is in fact the bond by which we, creatures of dust, can rely on the brotherly help of Him who is God over all, blessed for ever. 66 "I ought to add, that I apprehend all passages in Scripture in which blessings are mentioned as coming from the Lord Jesus must be considered as referring the bestowal of them to the humanity as well as the divinity of Christ, and are therefore an evidence that the spirit recognises a communion of the Head with the members through laws proper to humanity, the same holding good through every vital part of the body, the Church. "I do not wish to press this subject upon you, but I love to tell you my mind. To me it is a subject of deepest feeling. I never loved our Lord till I felt His humanity. Oh, what a blessed link of light and love it is, embracing all, uniting all, that the heart truly, eternally, deeply, sacredly loves! And how often, at my poor little chapel, has my very heart thrilled through all its depths at those verses of my favourite hymn: "Jesus, the whole creation's Head, Thy blood-bought Church in mercy own, "Ye spirits of the just above, On Good Friday 1850, Mrs. SchimmelPenninck made the exertion, which for many years past had proved beyond her strength, to attend the public worship of God. On that day, and for the last time, she joined the services of the Moravian Church in Bristol. Almost at the moment of setting out, she learnt that one, whom in former years she had much loved and honoured, was in dying circumstances. She took a scrap of paper, and hastily wrote the following lines: "My very dear and honoured Friend, "May all the blessings of Him, who at this hour hung upon the cross for us, be with you on this day. May He give you the full, deep, double blessing of the rich atoning blood and the purifying stream of water. Oh! may He make your bed in your sickness, and as the heavens open to you, may you, like Stephen, see Him in glory at his Father's and your Father's right hand. "Remember me still before Him. "Thank you, thank you, for the many blessed hours of sweet communion we have taken together before Him, in the land of our pilgrimage. Oh! may we once rest together in His holy presence, and rejoice before Him together! "My dear and very honoured friend, to Him whom your soul best loves, I commend you. I know His angel encamps around your bed, encamps with a double purpose — to watch over you under the eye of Him whose love neither slumbers nor sleeps, and because, even the holy angels, by seeing His works in His living temple, the hearts of His children, learn more of the manifold wisdom and love of God in Christ. And thus both the angel in glory and the disciple in dust are privileged to minister to each other out of the rich abundance that alike replenishes both. Farewell! Pray for me in finishing my pilgrimage, as I give thanks for you on the threshold of His glory." Again she writes to an intimate friend : 66 At six I rode out over the Down, and got out to walk in the shade. I felt the soft green turf so pleasant, and the tall grove of firs and their rugged stems just marked by a thread of golden light, the grateful expanse of the shadowing lime and ash over our heads, and then the deep long shadows of evening ever stretching further, and beyond, far away, the blue hills and mountains rich with light, the sea like an expanse of gold. Bright was that sea, telling of the ocean of eternity beyond the evening shadows of age, bright the hills, like the eternal landmarks of Divine truth and oh! how bright and radiant did the sails appear of those ships which had reached the ocean. How many of them in the morning looked poor, dusky, and tattered, hemmed in between the banks of our muddy river, but once arrived at the ocean, once illuminated by that bright sun, how glorious did they look in His glory!" CHAP. XI. 1840-1848. "Jesus Christ is the corner and foundation stone of the Church, which is the Temple of God. He supports and holds together all the parts, and it is by a lively faith that each subsists in Him, and is united to Him."-Quesnel. FROM early youth the study of architecture was a favourite pursuit of Mrs. SchimmelPenninck. Forty years before a knowledge of architecture became a fashion, and while pinnacles and sockets, bosses and cusps, were words in an unknown tongue, her mind, in most things before the age, had perceived its beauty, and she had diligently sought to make herself acquainted with its principles. She fully appreciated the exquisite perfection of Grecian architecture, but she dwelt with most delight on Gothic, because she saw in it a symbolic utterance of Scriptural truth. Being one day asked to state her reasons for this preference, she wrote in a few hours the beautiful little 66 Essay on the Comparative Value of Grecian and Gothic Architecture," which will be found among her miscellaneous works. With Durandus and others, she believed that ecclesiastical buildings were intended not only to afford the means |