self-revelation ever exhausts God; there are reserves of power and grace in him, when the largest exhibition of them have been made to mortals. God's omnipotence is not an instinct like that which pantheism supposes, but an attribute which he exercises according to his will. He is by no means encompassed by the laws of nature or by the existing universe. "The heaven of heavens cannot contain him." We may look upon the mightiest works of his hands, and yet say: "Lo, these are parts of his ways: only a whisper is heard of him, but the thunder of his power who can understand?" In God is an inexhaustible fountain of new beginnings, new creations, new revelations. Greater than any threatenings is the transcendence of his wrath. Greater than any promises is the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that is in reserve for the righteous. And yet the riches of his glory—the infinity of his majesty and power— that which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath entered into the heart of man, that which is greater than we can think or ask, in short, the unsearchable greatness of God, is declared to be the standard and measure of God's supply of his people's needs. Their needs in life, their needs in death, their needs in sickness, their needs in health, their needs in temptation, their needs in prayer, their needs in labor, their needs in rest, their needs in relation to his church on earth, their needs in the great world of spiritual worship above; all these shall be supplied according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

It is said of George Peabody that during his last visit to this country he was so overwhelmed with

applications for pecuniary aid to this and that benevolent object, private and public, that one day, forgetting that these were but the incidents and responsibilities of wealth, he gathered together more than a thousand begging letters and, in a fit of anger, threw them into the fire. It was hardly to be wondered at; we all pardon him when we think of the millions he gave away. But when I heard it, it set me thinking of the millions of such applications that are made to God, hour by hour and year by year, all over the world, and of the infinite reason for rejoicing we had in the fact that these myriads of petitions do not disturb his constant and gracious heart nor limit his regard for any single suppliant, however humble. On the other hand, he measures his giving as he would have us do, by the greatness of his means, and though he is so infinite in power, he gives according to the riches of his glory. Try but this one promise of his and you shall find that as your need and your prayer expand God's heart is ever larger than your wants; God's willingness to give ever more perfect than your willingness to ask; and you shall find yourselves, in the reception and enjoyment of his abundant gifts, wondering that you ever doubted his word, wondering that you did. not see that the height and breadth and length and depth of his love absolutely surpasses knowledge.

One word only, in the last place, upon the great method of this supply revealed to us in the text: "God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." This phrase "by Christ Jesus" will fail to make its proper impression upon us, unless we remember that in the original it is "in

Christ Jesus," and is one of those incessant repetitions of the thought that Jesus Christ is the only channel, so to speak, through which God's grace flows to men, and the only reservoir in which is gathered up God's life and power for human weal and salvation. This name of Christ may serve as a pledge that God will bestow his gifts in all their fulness upon us. None of his after-gifts are so wonderful and precious as the first gift of his Son. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? When you buy the watch the case is thrown in; you pay nothing additional for that. No merchant adds to the bill for the paper and twine that wrap it up. So, since God has given us Christ, all other blessings are but as wrappings and incidentals compared with him. We may expect them of him who so loved us as to give his only-begotten Son.

And then the phrase implies the everlasting condition of God's giving and of our reception, also. We must be in Christ in order to receive, in communion and living fellowship with the Saviour. Not to the worldly and skeptical is this promise given that all their needs shall be supplied, but only to those who, feeling their need as sinners, have believed in Jesus Christ and have entered into spiritual union with him. For all who have done this, for all who can say, “I am in Christ"; "Christ is my personal Saviour"; "I live a life of faith in the Son of God"; this promise is applicable. Having sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these needed things shall be added unto you. "For your heavenly

Father knoweth that ye have need of these things "; you have but to ask and you shall receive, not according to the narrowness of human giving, but according to the riches of God's glory in Christ Jesus.

Yes, brethren, since you are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, renewed by his Spirit, and kept thus far by his power, this promise is given to you: "God will supply all your need according to his riches in glory." You are in Christ, and your needs are far more manifest to God and far more near to his heart

than they can be to you. He may try your faith by delay, but it will be but to make that faith the stronger and prepare you for a greater blessing. Honor God then by your sense of need, by your dependence not upon the arm of man, but upon him. Call upon him with the confidence that he will grant you precisely what you need. Expect that praying breath shall not be spent in vain, and just so sure as God lives, his word will be fulfilled, and in the fulness of his blessing you shall say: "This is our God, we have waited for him."

And you too, dear friends, who have yet no shelter in Christ, and no supply for the deepest, greatest needs of your nature, I pray you to enter into this fellowship of the Son of God also, that with us you may find in God an everlasting portion and possession.

XLVI

THAT WHICH IS PAST1

And God requireth that which is past. (Eccl. 3:15.)

THERE are certain days in our lives which seem especially designed as days of sober reflection upon the brevity of life and the destiny of the soul beyond the grave. The Sabbath might always be such a day if we would rightly use it, but the frequency of its return too often blunts our sense of its importance and makes it like all other days. Then there are birthdays, when the thought comes over us like a flood that we are getting onward, onward in life's journey, and that soon at the best, life's journey for us must end. There are anniversary days too, in many a household, which bring a deeper sadness with them because they revive the memory of some desolating sorrow; days which stand like tombstones here and there along the green path of life; days whose solemn spiritual influence we cannot, we would not resist, because they draw us nearer to heaven and to the sainted spirits of the departed who worship there. Yet there is another day which seems to me even more clearly intended in God's providence to rouse us from our careless dreaming, to arrest us in our absorbing chase after the noth

1 A sermon preached in the First Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio, on the last Sunday evening of the year.