s, do exercise pity and compassion and help, I believe that for
the basing of a lasting, wide, wise benevolence, there is nothing solid
and broad except Christ and Him crucified, and the consciousness of
having been--sinful and needy as we are--received and blessed by Him.
Let the philanthropists learn that the surrender of self, and the fruit
of the lips giving thanks to His name, must precede the highest kind of
beneficence. Let the Christian learn that benevolence is the garb in
which religion is dressed. 'True worship and undefiled ... is this, to
visit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction.' Morality is the
dress of Religion; Religion is the body of Morality.

IV. Lastly, there is the sacrifice of death.

'I am ready to be offered,' says the Apostle--to be _poured out_, as a
libation. And again, 'If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of
your faith, I rejoice with you all.' And so may

'Death the endless mercies seal,
And make the sacrifice complete.'

It may become not a reluctant being dragged out of life whilst we cling
to it with both our hands. It may be not a reluctant yielding to
necessity, but a religious act, in which a man resignedly and trustfully
and gratefully yields himself to God; and says, 'Father! into Thy hands
I commit my spirit.'

Ah! brethren, is not that a better way to die than to be like some poor
wretch in a stream, that clutches at some unfixed support on the bank,
and is whirled away down, fiercely resisting and helpless? We may thus
make our last act an act of devotion, and go within the veil as priests
bearing in our hands the last of our sacrifices. The sacrifice of death
will only be offered when a life of sacrifice has preceded it. And if
you and I, moved by the mercies of God, yield ourselves living
sacrifices, using our lips for His praise and our possessions for man's
help, then we may die as the Apostle expected to do, and feel that by
Christ Jesus even death becomes 'an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice
acceptable, well-pleasing unto God.'

MIRRORS OF GOD

'... That ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called
you out of darkness ...'--1 Peter ii. 9.

The _Revised Version_, instead of 'praises,' reads _excellencies_--and
even that is but a feeble translation of the remarkable word here
employed. For it is that usually rendered 'virtues'; and by the word, of
course, when applied to God, we mean the radiant excel