PSALM XIX.

I The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.

2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

II Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

THE UNRECOGNIZED CHRIST

REV. HENRY ALFORD PORTER, D.D., PASTOR FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, LOUISVILLE, KY.

There is nothing in the after-resurrection incidents that comes to us with more melting meaning

than this revelation of our Lord to two of His disciples on their way to Emmaus. They had gone out from the turmoil of the city into the country, and as they walked a Stranger drew near, saluted them, and went with them. As the sun was setting and they approached their home they said to the stranger, "Abide with us, for the day is far spent," and He went in with them. And then they found that He who had walked and talked with them was Jesus, whom they had mourned as dead. He had gone with them all those miles unknown. Beloved, it is so today. As we travel along life's dusty, weary roads, there is one comes and walks beside us, but so often He walks and talks unrecognized.

We sometimes hear the question raised, "If Christ came to Chicago-to Louisville-what would we do?" I want to ask you, when did Christ leave Chicago or Louisville? Open your eyes. He is here -in the jostling crowd on the street, in the marts of business, in the quiet room, wherever we go there is this unseen Stranger whose presence is so often unrecognized.

THE SIN OF THE CITY.

In another place where the story is told we read that "He appeared in another form as they went into the country." Some of us have lost Him in the city. He took another form there in the country, where the hills seemed to touch the sky, and the flowers bloomed and the air was pure. But the city, O the city! How its tumult and clamor beat upon our brain, and we cannot see for the houses, and we cannot hear for the noise. I stood one night on Brooklyn Bridge

and gazed on the great, throbbing city, ablaze with electricity, and I thought of the multitudes of people there; of the homes and of the haunts; of the purity and the sin, and I wondered how many in that city were aware that One was walking beside them, seeing all their sorrows, longing to help them with all their burdens, hearing every sigh and prayer and every word of blasphemy. There was an artist in Paris who got into a cab and drove about the city and make sketches of the men and women on the streets just as they were, going about their daily pursuits. He caught all manner of scenes and incidents, and then he threw these pictures on canvas. The people came to see them and were startled, for he had put into the midst of every group the unrecognized Stranger, Jesus. And there He is, if we would only see Him, in all our common life. We think of Him as on the throne, and so He is; but we need to remember that He is on the street and in the room also.

There is an old Arabic legend that Adam was so tall that when he walked on earth his head was in the sky. It is a crude myth, but it expressed a truth concerning our Lord, who is so high He reigns up yonder, so low He walks beside us.

A college president says he was telling to a little boy of three years old the wonder-story, the old childstory, how Jesus took up the little children and blessed them, and the little fellow said, "I wish I could have seen Him." It is a natural wish. It would be a great thing to see Him, but not everything. Judas saw Him, and betrayed Him. Pilate saw Him, and condemned Him. The priests saw Him, and mocked Him. He was hidden behind His

robe of flesh, and they did not know Him. O beloved, as with the disciples on that walk to Emmaus, there are things that get between, and our eyes are holden, and we do not see Him. Poor, tired pilgrim on life's way, have you missed Him on the road? Poor, careworn Christian, have you come to God's house and not seen your Lord?

BLINDED BY TEARS.

There are various reasons why we do not see Him. Our sorrows cause our eyes to be holden so that we cannot see Him. It was so on the Emmaus way. They had been with Him everywhere; far in the desert, where He spread a banquet for the multitude; up on the mountain, where He talked with God; out on the sea, where He quelled the tempest. But one day He went away, apparently. They went out into the country, and every lily seemed to droop. The sun had lost its smile, the birds their music, the flowers their charm. Their dear one had been taken away, and in their sorrow they could not recognize that Stranger. I have heard of a man in New York, seventy years old, who had lived eight years in a tomb. His wife had died, and every morning when the cemetery gate opened, this man came in and entered the vault where her crumbling dust lay, and there he stayed until the gates closed at night. One day they found him on the stone floor, stricken with apoplexy. Eight wasted years! Worse than wasted, for they testified to infidelity and despair.

Are there not others who are living in a grave with the cast-off bodies of loved ones? They are followers of the Lord, too, but they have got behind the veil of

their sorrows and do not see God's hand in them, and do not see their wondrous ministry of blessing. Blinded by their tears, they do not see the majestic Son of God who has come to lead them through their sorrows into light. Alas! they have missed Him. There is something worse than sorrow, and that is not to learn the lessons that sorrow was intended to teach, not to see the form of the Son of Man in the furnace.

DUST IN THE EYES.

Others do not see Him because of the cares of life, its work, its ambitions or its worries. The dust of material things is in their eyes, and they do not see His radiant figure. The disciples were in that condition, too. "We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel," they said. Their plans and dreams were shattered. Discouraged and disappointed, they did not lift their eyes to see above the fog the calm face of Jesus.

Is there anything hiding your Lord's face today? The cares of life, the deceitfulness of riches, the worries of time? Look over their heads. Get them out of your way if they are wrong. If they are not wrong, look above them. Herod sat in his palace over his card-tables and never saw Him. Pilate was busy with his intrigues and schemes, and saw Him not. Cæsar had his plots and plans, and had no eyes for Him. The busy men in the city of Jerusalem never saw Him. These are but epitomes of history. It has ever thus gone on, it goes on today. Trifles, business, carking cares, become mountains to hide His glorious face, and we do not see Him who alone can make our lives sublime and turn defeat into success.