of Christian service. Of such promises there is
surely a varied and glorious store, and for all of them there is need
enough. Never do we preach but before us is some toiler almost ready
to give up because of long delay in the appearance of the first signs
of harvest. _Encourage him_! Tell him that the God of the sowing is
also the God of the reaping. Tell him not to be "weary in well doing,
for in due season" he "shall reap if" he "faint not." Tell him that
"he that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Tell him _this_.
He has heard it all before, of course, or else he had not so long
struggled on in the work. Tell it him again and again, for again and
again the need to hear it all will come. Tell it him gloriously,
confidently. He will go back to his Sunday School class, back to his
labour among the poor, out to his next appointment on the plan, with a
new hope which will be also a new power!

And let us remember that there has been given unto us for the
comforting of His people the revelation of the glory laid up for them
that fear Him. To the writer a little while ago an able and
spiritually minded Unitarian minister made this statement:--"In every
service I conduct I announce, at least, one hymn on immortality. The
people need to hear of it." There is food for thought in such a
confession from such a source. Once upon a time it was common in
Methodism to hear sermons on Heaven. To-day how infrequent such
sermons are! Yet surely the King has not withdrawn this portion of the
message from our hands. And surely there is occasion for such
reminders to be given. How many there are to whom "Earth's but a sorry
tent;" how many, again, who go in bondage to the fear of death all
their days; how many more who look mournfully after departed dear ones
and wonder how it goes with them across the stream. To all such people
is the preacher commissioned, and they look wistfully toward him for
the word that may let the glory in!

And that word we do not speak nowadays as often as we might, perhaps
not as often as we ought. Here, again, is something to be recovered by
the present-day preacher. Possibly when he comes to talk of the
glories "laid up," this same preacher may find need for some new forms
of expression. Perhaps he will not find it possible to speak with the
old literalism of his predecessors. But the living core of the me