"AND I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another

Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth ;' Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day3 ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.”

I "It may be said that the Holy Spirit's office divides itself into two great divisions answering to the two great parts of man's spiritual nature. These are commonly called the mind and the heart,—the mind being that part which knows and thinks and reasons, the heart that part which feels and wills and acts. The Holy Spirit's work is with both. He enlightens the mind; and He sanctifies the heart. To the former He is the Spirit of Truth; to the latter the Spirit of Holiness. The effect of His work in the former is a right faith; in the latter a right practice."--Canon How.

2 "The coming of the Spirit was in truth not so much in order to supply His place when absent, as to make Him present in a nearer and more blessed way."-Rev. Peter Young.

3"By that day' is meant the time when the Comforter should come to enlighten their understandings. Then would they no longer say, in their ignorance, 'Lord, show us the Father,' for the Spirit of Truth would teach them to know the perfect unity between the Father and the Son,-a unity so close that the Son Himself declares, 'I am in the Father.' But this is not all. For the same Divine Spirit would teach them a still more blessed truth, even that of their own spiritual oneness with their Lord,—'ye in Me, and I in you.' There have been those who would explain away these deeply mysterious and awful expressions, which we meet with so often in the New Testament, speaking of them as Eastern modes of expression, not to be taken too literally, and the like. This is a most dangerous way of dealing with God's Word. Let us accept such language in all humility, and, believing that it speaks of deep spiritual truths and realities, pray that we may by the help of the Spirit of Truth enter more and more fully into its meaning and blessedness."—Canon How.

"The Comforter."

JOHN xiv. 22-26.

UDAS' saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou

wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's Which sent Me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, Which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.":

Judas."] "St. Jude still, as it seems, looked for some outward visible manifestation of Christ as king. Even the Apostles were very slow in shaking off their old Jewish notions of a Messiah who should be a great temporal king and deliverer of his people (see Acts i. 6). This 'Judas' is the same as Lebbæus' of St. Matthew (x. 3)."

2

"However little we can bear witness to our own personal experience of the exalted truth here revealed, let us bow in all humility before the Divine word, and, if we doubt, doubt-not the reality of the promise, but the fitness of our own hearts for the presence of the Heavenly Guest."-Canon How.

.3 "He will enable you to understand all those parts of My speeches which are now obscure, and put you in mind of all things which I have now said to you, how they are fulfilled, and what they mean."-Dr. Hammond.

"Our Blest Redeemer, ere He breathed

His tender last farewell,

A Guide, a Comforter, bequeathed
With us to dwell.

And His that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even,
That checks each fault, that calms
each fear,

And speaks of Heaven.

And every virtue we possess,

And every conquest won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are His alone.

Spirit of purity and grace,

Our weakness, pitying, see; O make our hearts Thy dwelling place,

And worthier Thee."

"O praise the Father; praise the Son;
Blest Spirit, praise to Thee;

All praise to God, the Three in One,
The One in Three. Amen."

"When you have any difficult duty to perform--any strong temptation to encounter, O say to God Himself, from the very bottom of your hearts, 'Givė me, O God, at this time, for Jesus Christ's sake, Thy Holy Spirit."-Vaughan's "Harrow Sermons."

“PEACE

The Peace of God.”

JOHN xiv. 27-31.

EACE I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you : for the prince of this world cometh,3 and hath nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence."

I

"The world promises peace, but it never redeems the pledge. True, the world affords a few slight and transient pleasures, but their cost is heavier than their worth. Jesus Christ alone can make man at peace. He gives harmony within; He subjects passion and restrains desire; He bestows the consolations of His love; He gives joy in the midst of suffering a joy that none can take away."-Fénelon.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, Peace."

"It must be Thy Spirit, O Prince of Peace, that must put us into possession of this Thy last and dying legacy. O give me this peace, which the world cannot give, which passeth all understanding; the peace and pleasure of being in the favour of God; and that I may possess my soul in peace, in the midst of the temptations .. of this present evil world; and let this peace which Thou hast purchased with Thy precious Blood, be with me, and with Thy whole Church evermore. Amen."-Bishop Wilson.

2

"Greater."] . . . "In His Manhood He is inferior to God: 'Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, but inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood' (Athanasian Creed). St. Augustine states this great doctrine most forcibly thus :-' 'Concerning the Word I repeat what ye already know; "The Word was God;" here is that which is equal to the Father. But "The Word was made flesh;" here is that which is inferior to the Father. So the Father is both equal and greater; equal to the Word; greater than the flesh; equal to Him by Whom He made us; greater than He Who was made for us."

3 "Satan was returning for a last conflict with the Son of God."

4 "These words must be taken in close connection with the next verse, the whole sense of the passage being as follows: 'Satan cometh to put forth all his strength against Me, and he cannot prevail against Me, for he can find no sin in Me. Nevertheless, I shall suffer him to effect the death of My Body, in obedience to the will of the Father that I should die for the world, and thus the world shall know that I love the Father.""-Canon How.

"I

The Vine.

JOHN XV. 1-8.

AM the true Vine,1 and My Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away :2 and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;3 and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples."

:

"Marvellously instructive is the figure here used. Its great leading lesson is that of the spiritual unity between Christ and His Church. When Christ says, 'I am the true Vine,' He speaks of stem and branches together, joining His people in a blessed oneness with Himself. His Church is His Body, and this He counts as part of Himself. (See this truth most strongly asserted by St. Paul under the image of the marriage union, in Eph. v. 30.) Under the Old Covenant the Jewish people were God's Vine (see Ps. lxxx., and Isa. v. 1-7). Now Christ declares that they were but a type of the 'true Vine,'-even Himself and His Church, in which the ancient types and shadows found their fulfilment and reality. We must not omit to notice the bearing which this solenin discourse on union with Christ has upon the great sacramental act of union but just before instituted."

"Note well that there are branches in Christ which bear not fruit. Every baptized Christian has been grafted into Christ,- made a branch in His Vine.

It is not every graft that lives, nor every one that lives that thrives, nor every one that lives and thrives for a time that ends in bearing good fruit."

3 "Withered," etc.] "An awful picture of the end of the man who has forsaken Christ! There is first the spiritual death-the withering; then the eternal death-the burning."-Canon How.

"Oh for more faith, more of the principle which cleaves closely in trust, and affiance, and self-surrender to the Lord! It is not in the use of means, generally speaking, that religious persons are deficient; but it is in that believing use of them which recognizes Him as the only Source of Grace and Life, and having done His will in simplicity, assures itself of the blessing. O True Vine, let us cleave to Thee with such a faith, so that the virtue which is in Thee may pass into our souls, and that we may bring forth much fruit to the glory of God the Father! Amen."-Goulburn's " Thoughts on Personal Religion."

"A

Friends of Christ.

JOHN XV. 9-15.

S the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.' Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.”

2

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"With them that believe God and keep His commandments, God entereth into a league and covenant of friendship; for faith and obedience are those very things that qualify us for His friendship. 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.'”Bishop Sanderson.

"Friend of the friendless and the faint!

Where should I lodge my deep complaint?
Where but with Thee, Whose open door
Invites the helpless and the poor?

Did ever mourner plead with Thee,

And Thou refuse that mourner's plea?

Does not that word still fixed remain,

That 'none shall seek Thy face in vain?'"

-Cowper.

"None can become the friend of God without having laboured to amend himself."-St. Augustine.

"O Saviour of the world, Who by Thy Cross and Precious Blood hast redeemed me, save me and help me, I humbly beseech Thee, O Lord."