harmony with His Father's will and purposes. This yearning He was now uttering in the car of that Father to whom all things were possible.

We are safe in following Jesus. We know not what we should pray for as we ought. How many things are earnestly desired by us, rcgarding which we may be for a long time uncertain as to what the will of God is! If we have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father," that Spirit will help our infirmities, and teach us how to pray, "If it be possible," "If thou be willing, let this cup pass from mc."

Final issues are often very different from what present providences seem to indicate. Our heavenly Father will not misunderstand our clinging to the last hope, our hoping against hope; and, with the memory of Gethsemane before Him, our Intercessor will not disregard our oft-repeated prayer.

(3) The submission of Jesus's will is complete. "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."

A certain amount of time is taken up in reading the different clauses of Jesus's prayer, but the thoughts embodied in them are simultaneous. The words now quoted rule the whole, and give all the clauses tone and texture. It is easy to fancy one who has presented some earnest petition to God, and become hopeless of a favourable answer, using the words, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt," and doing it in a spirit of petulance or pride. In uttering them Jesus is expressing His joyous choice of the Father's will. He is not ready to adopt it only if He cannot have His own. From the beginning He has chosen and gloried in His Father's will in preference to His own; for the regulation of His own; as His own; as holy, just, and good. There is nothing He would less desire than the substitution of His own for His Father's will. "Not my will, but thine be done." And there is nothing He more desires than that His Father's will should be carried out. "Thy will be done." "Even though the doing of it be the drinking of the cup, 'thy will be done. Thy

will done is glory to Thy throne, and gladness

to Thy universe."

Let us try to feel as Jesus did. When, in ignorance of our Father's will, time after time, we lay any desire before Him, let us seek to do it in hearty submission to that will, whatever it may turn out to be. Nothing could be more unwise than pressing our will on God irrespective of His. In the wilderness of Sinai the Israelites lusted exceedingly, and tempted God. Flesh they would have-must have. What was the result? "He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul." On the other hand, when, in ignorance of God's will, day by day we spread some petition before Him honestly desiring that His will shall be done even when ours comes to be crossed, we may speedily find that we have more than prevailed with God. The answers which are returned to prayer make it very manifest that God's foolishness is wiser than man's wisdom, and that the perfection of wisdom is God's will. The commercial scheme in which our means were

invested may give way; we may have to face the dreaded poverty and humiliation; and yet, through the wondrous kindness of our Father in heaven, our home may be happier than before, and brighter days than ever be at hand. The fair young mother may be taken away, the household may sit in darkness; and yet by the sadness of the countenance the heart may be made better, and heaven be more than ever sought as the abiding home. So long as there was hope that the loved one might remain on earth, the throne of grace was besieged by prayers; now, even if it were known that one prayer might bring her back, that prayer dare not be presented.

"We sought to stay

An angel on the earth, a spirit ripe

For heaven; and Mercy, in her love, refused;

Most merciful, as oft, when seeming least!

Most gracious when she seemed the most to frown!"

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In his essay on Burns, Carlyle says: Manhood begins when we have in any way made truce with Necessity; begins even when we have surrendered to Necessity, as the most part only

do; but begins joyfully and hopefully only when we have reconciled ourselves to Necessity; and thus in reality triumphed over it, and felt that in Necessity we are free." Substitute for Necessity the will of our Father in heaven, and we have the conditions of Christian manhood. "It begins when we have in any way made truce with our heavenly Father's will; it begins even when we have surrendered to it; and it begins joyfully and hopefully when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have reconciled ourselves to it; we then in reality triumph over it, and feel that in that will we are free." The lowest point of degradation was reached when a created being, radiant in glory, set his will in opposition to that of God, and was thrust down to darkness, with his will still unconquered. And the highest pinnacle of grandeur was attained, when an uncreated One, as Mediator, bowing before God over all, exclaimed, "Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart,"