is the ground within, as well as the ground without, for man's sake; and in labour, in pain, in sorrow, and in death, does he eat of its fruit.

And

From all these thorns Jesus came to deliver us. The Second Adam in the poverty of His condition has recovered for us all that the first Adam in the plenitude of his blessings lost. The Son of Man was tempted in that wilderness to which sin had reduced the world; and in consequence of His overcoming the temptation, He has obtained a pledge that the wilderness will become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. His miracles were first-fruits of the world's restoration, symbols of man's recovered dominion over nature. day by day, as the influence of Christ's great victory over the tempter is more widely and deeply felt, the prophecy is being fulfilled, that "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." The Roman soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it upon the head of Jesus; but they little knew the significance of the act. Upon the august brow of man's surety and substitute was thus placed in symbol, what was done in spiritual reality, a chaplet woven of those very thorns which the ground, cursed for man's sake, produced. None of these thorns grew in the sacred soil of Jesus' heart. But He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. He could, no doubt, by the exercise of His almighty power, remove the thorns of man's life.

He who created the world by a word, had only to command, and it should be done. But not in this way could the necessities of the case be met. It was not mere arbitrary power that called the thorns into existence; it was justice and judgment: and, therefore, mere arbitrary power could not eradicate them; it required mercy and truth. And mercy and truth could be reconciled with justice and judgment only by the obedience and sacrifice of the Son of God. Jesus had, therefore, to wear the thorns which man's sin had developed, in order that man might enjoy the peaceful fruits of righteousness which Christ's atonement had produced.

And who can tell what suffering the wearing of these thorns occasioned Him? The mere physical laceration and pain of the material thorns were as nothing, were altogether unfelt under the pressure of far heavier sufferings in His soul. It was not outward thorns, but inward spiritual thorns, that caused Him to sweat great drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane. It was not the sharp sting of the crown of thorns upon His brow on the cross, that bowed His head with agony, but the pressure of that "sorrow's crown of sorrow," the mental anguish of imputed sin so abhorrent to His high and holy nature. Made a curse for us, Jesus was made liable to every sorrow to which the curse has subjected us. Every thorn which the sinful soil of man's heart has produced, was woven into the crown of thorns which pierced His brow. And what is the result? By wearing these thorns He has blunted them, plucked them out of our path, out of our heart, out of our life. By enduring them He con

quered them. The crown of pain became the crown of triumph; and the submission to ignominy and suffering became the assertion and establishment of a sovereignty over every form of suffering. Evil is now a vanquished power. Every woe bears upon it the inscription "overcome." He bore the thorny crown of labour, and labour is now a sacred thing, a precious discipline, a merciful education. It is the lowest step of the ladder by which man ascends the Edenic height from which he fell. It is the necessary physical foundation upon which his education as a spiritual being is based; standing in the same relation to his growth in grace, as the work of the coral zoophyte to the intelligent labour of man who inhabits the island which it builds. There is no labour in vain in the Lord. No disappointment mars or embitters any work done in Christ and for His glory. He wore the thorny crown of pain, and pain is now robbed of the element that exasperates our nature against it. By His own example He teaches us that we must be made perfect through suffering; and knowing this, we do not feel pain to be less, but we feel a strength and a patience which enable us to rise superior to it. As the Prince of sufferers, He wore the thorny crown of sorrow, and He has made, in the experience of His afflicted ones, that abortive thorn to produce the blossom of holiness and the fruit of righteousness. Sorrow is no more to the Christian the curse of Adam, but the cross of Christ. It is the crown and badge of his royal dignity, the proof of Divine sonship. Wearing his crown of sorrow, the Christian is a prince in disguise, and bears the marks of the Lord

Jesus, and has a fellowship with Him in His sorrows; a fellowship which involves unspeakable blessedness and assured victory. And, lastly, He wore the thorny crown of death; and therefore He says, "If a man keep my sayings, he shall not see death." He has indeed to pass through the state, but the bitterness of death for him is past. He has only to finish his course with joy; to fall asleep in Jesus; to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Wonderful love, stronger than death, overcoming death, swallowing up death in victory! Wonderful that by the light and power of that love, the sharpest and deadliest thorn on life's tree, should be developed into the immortal flowers and fruits of the all-perfect paradise of heaven!

Such, then, is the way in which our Saviour has borne, and in bearing has removed, the thorns from the life of those who believe in His name. In all our afflictions He is afflicted; and therefore the angel of His presence saves us. That thorny crown of His humiliation and sufferings is henceforth the emblem of victory, in which all His redeemed shall triumph. Jesus has conquered for us, and we have conquered in Him. In the endurance of the thorns of the primeval curse, labour, and pain, and sorrow, and whatever else of evil may be in our lot, let us seek then to be distinguished from the world, and likened to our Lord, by the patient, trusting spirit in which we bear them! And let us use them, under His blessing, as a discipline and a preparation for that crown of glory which is the purchase solely of the Redeemer's crown of thorns!

PREVENTING MERCIES.

"Let Thy tender mercies speedily prevent us."-PSALM lxxix. 8.

THE hawthorn hedge that keeps us from intruding,
Looks very fierce and bare,

When, stripped by winter, every branch protruding
Its thorns that wound and tear.

But spring-time comes; and, like the rod that budded,
Each twig breaks out in green;
And cushions soft of tender leaves are studded,
Where spines alone were seen.

And honeysuckle, its bright wreath upbearing,
The prickly top adorns ;
Its golden trumpets victory declaring
Of blossoms over thorns.

Nature in this mute parable unfoldeth

A lesson sweet to me;

God's goodness in reproof my eye beholdeth,
And His severity.

There is no grievous chastening but combineth
Some brightness with the gloom;
Round every thorn in the flesh there twineth
Some wreath of softening bloom.

The sorrows that to us seem so perplexing,
Are mercies kindly sent,

To guard our wayward souls from sadder vexing,
And greater ills prevent.