ty, meekness, and patience of the suffering
believer, had he not drunk deeply of the cup of suffering for himself
and lived in constant anticipation of the martyr-death of which the
Lord spoke?

John's work, on the other hand, was to declare, as he does in the Book
of Revelation, that Jesus is the Living One, unchanged and unchanging,
the King of earth and heaven. And how could he have produced that
marvellous work, and received and reported those sublime visions, if he
had not lingered on, in loneliness and exile, till Jerusalem had fallen
before Titus and his legions, the Temple been destroyed, and the Jews
scattered to every nation under heaven?

Neither of these men understood at the time what he was being prepared
for. But as each now from heaven reviews the work he did, and the way
in which he was prepared for doing it; as each compares the discipline
through which he passed with the peculiarities of the people he was to
address, and the testimony he was to deliver, he must be full of glad
acknowledgments of the perfect adaptation of means to ends, of
instrumentalities to results.

And what is manifestly true of them is equally so of each of us. Not
always in this world, but in the next, we shall discern the admirable
fitness of the discipline through which we passed, to prepare us for
our position and ministry both here and hereafter.

"Great and marvellous are Thy works,
O Lord God the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Thy ways,
Thou King of the ages."

III. WHILST GOD IS WORKING OUT OUR LIFE-PLAN, WE MUST GIVE OURSELVES
TO PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE.--"Follow thou Me." The Master reiterated this
command, both when He told Peter his destiny, and when His apostle was
prying into secrets with which he had no immediate concern. Whatever
threatens us, looming in the future, we must not be deterred from
following our Master; and we are not to waste our time in speculation
as to matters which lie beyond our ken, but apply ourselves to the
practical duties, which lie ready to our hand.

But what is it to follow Christ? It is not to live an Oriental life
beneath these Northern skies, nor wear an Eastern garb, nor speak in
the Hebrew tongue. A man might do all these, and in addition wander
like Him, homeless and outcast, through the land, and yet not follow in
His steps. No! Following Jesus means our identification in the
principles that underlay His life, in His devotion and prayer, in His
absolute