of pecuniary trouble and embarrassment, it is the more important that we all get a spirit independent of the fictitious wants of money. Times they are when every wise man would wish to secure his resources, to simplify his pleasures, and to carry his happiness in a safer compass. And I confess I do not know how this can be, except by laying out the greatest possible investment into the promises of God, and having property laid up in heaven.

Would it, think you, be such an investment if to-night you were to give something towards the education and training of those thirty-six girls whom we are endeavouring to fit by God's grace, for useful service in this world, and for higher service in the world to come? Would not that be " a good foundation laid up against the time to come?" I can assure you of the good use which shall be made of any money which you may kindly give, and I feel sure it will be well returned, in God's own way to you, an hundredfold.

Therefore I commend this object to your kind sympathy and support. And if your blessed Master, in His great tenderness, does not say to you to-night, what He did to that young man, “Go, sell all, and give to the poor," yet this He does say to every one of us,-"He that soweth little shall reap little; and he that soweth plenteously shall reap plenteously." Therefore, "let every man do according as he is disposed in his heart;-not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver."

XXIII.

Christian Service.

"If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet."-JOHN xiii. 14.

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T is much to be feared that in these last, artificial days,

the Church has so departed from the standard of its early simplicity, that language, which was once spoken in truth and soberness, is come to be accounted rather as the imagery of devotion, than to be taken in the strictness of common life. And he who should go about and tell men to "wash one another's feet," might seem indeed, to clothe his lessons in a beautiful sentiment, though his words would fall outside of the realities of the world we move in.

And yet it was nothing but a plain, literal, unadorned fact, when, in an upper room, after supper, Jesus did undress, and fasten round Him a towel, and pour water into a basin, and went and washed each of His disciples' feet, one by one, and then wiped them with the towel wherewith He was girded.

Perhaps the difference between the Eastern customs and our own, gives to this incident an air of poetry which does not belong to it; for it seems to us as if it were out of all ordinary life. But the thing itself which Jesus did was The uncommonness lay only in the manner in which it was done; and who it was that did it. So that if I had to seek the closest parallel to this act of

not uncommon.

Christ, which could now be found, I should not go out of the way, and look for it in some conspicuous, extraordinary effort,—but I should recognize it in some of the usual charities and offices of life, when they are done for Christ's sake, with a remarkable humility, and a singular affection.

And here let me remind you, that this act of Jesus was not done to persons of whom He knew little or nothing, and with whom He was seldom conversant;-but to those with whom, for more than three years, He had been living on the most intimate terms. And this is the point which

gives its force to the action. For it is comparatively a very easy thing to stoop on an occasion to strangers, and to be willing to go very low to those with whom we are not always living. But to demean ourselves in the eyes of

our own family, that is the cross!

Observe, too, this;-that Christ's act was not a solitary one, the result of a sudden impulse, or one great endeavor. It was only a faithful illustration of His whole life,-"I am among you as He that serveth."

But now, brethren, the question is, How is this spirit to be attained? Of what is it composed?

There are three things which in this world are very kindred, sorrow, love, and an humble spirit. We must never forget that the Man of sorrows was the Man of love. and that the beautiful expression of His love which we are considering now, was inseparably woven in to the hour of His deepest suffering.

Has not the chastened mind always been the tenderly kind one?

I should arrange it then, thus. The Holy Spirit moves over the heart with His own melting power. The great

end He has to produce is softness. Therefore, to that end, it is that Spirit who rules the trials of the Church. The waves of sorrow,-wave after wave, begin to roll over that man,-large and bitter,—the roughnesses are gradually worn away, and a subdued tone, and a quick sensitiveness, and a refined susceptibility are drawn out. When that is done, it is a very little step, under the same Spirit, to love. He who has mourned for sin will be quick to feel affection ; and he who has ever himself really suffered, will be the man charged with sympathy to his fellow-creatures. So sorrow cradles love.

And then, need I say that love always fosters humility? Is any man proud to a person of whom he is fond? Did we ever feel it a degradation to do anything for one we really cherished ? There are characters which nothing ever will bring down from their pride but love. Touch their hearts, and they will stoop. So faithfully does lowliness follow affection. Love a Christian, and you will be his servant. Love God, and your soul will go into the dust.

So sorrow, love, and humility intertwine, to make the grace of charity; and the soul is prepared for the commandment,—“Wash one another's feet."

In heaven, the fabric will be different. There, joy, and love, and humility will go to make the saint. Doubtless as we reach towards a heavenly state, happiness is more and more the spring of love, and love of humility. But we are not yet in a dispensation of cloudless suns, and unshaded joys, and days that never set; but we are going a path, which, like our Master's, lies along a valley, and therefore we must try to make the Baca a well."

You may have been happy, and thoughtless because you

were happy; but you will scarcely come under affliction, and remain the inconsiderate man you are. Shall we not thank God that He teaches us by tears to "wash one another's feet?" Your Saviour did it to you in blood!

But now let me go on to show you a little more particularly wherein lies the duty which I have endeavored to show you, how it is formed.

You will notice that the whole direction relates to the Church, and you are to "wash one another's feet" as fellow-disciples. The command did not go further. In like manner we have it afterwards in the only parallel passage, "Wash the feet of the saints." There are duties, undoubtedly, of great condescension and kindness, towards those that are without; but this concerns the Church. Therefore it has such peculiar closeness and tenderness when it says, "Wash one another's feet."

There is an evident reason for this which lies in the

dignity of the Church of Christ. The Christian sees, indeed, a dignity in every man. Every man has dignity as a man. Jesus was a Man,—Jesus is a Man now,-in Manhood Jesus will judge the world,-every living man is the ruin of a holy temple,-neither is there a man that breathes that may not be, in God's intention, an heir of glory, and you cannot say of the meanest, vilest man that ever crosses your path, that that man shall not be one day far above you in the ranges of light and purity. Therefore every man has dignity. "Honor all men."

But when I have to deal with a Christian, I come into contact with one on whom each Person in the Holy Trinity has been individually engaged,-I touch what God selected from all eternity that He might mould by His own hand, and seal with His own grace, and stamp

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