traveler that the guide knows the way. It is, also, much for the one wearied by the journey that his guide is meeting first each difficulty and danger. It is good to hear him say, "This is the way, walk ye in it." It is better to hear him say, "Follow me." The second thing Christ's leadership means is sympathy. Christ knows the full meaning of every experience to which he calls his disciples. His own feet have felt the way we tread, and his own strength has been tested by all which tries ours. Faith must, at this point, have her perfect work; but, if we are conscientiously doing the duty necessary for the hour, we may be sure our Master is leading us.

III. Christ feeding.

Christ leads the soul to green pastures and still waters. The soul is never hungry which follows him. The beautiful picture of the Eastern shepherd leading his flock over the hills and through the woods to the pastures and waters, Christ employs to set forth his own work for his own. Christ satisfies. He is the bread of life, and the water of life. In himself, he is sufficient for all who follow him. He honors all demands of the soul. Man asks to know God, and Christ satisfies his craving for truth. Man asks for a key to unlock the future, and Christ opens wide the doors. Man asks for peace, and Christ tells where he may find such peace as the world can neither give nor take away. The hungry child of God feeds on his word and is satisfied. He finds Christ anticipating all his wants. He follows his Shepherd, to learn that no actual want is left unsatisfied. The growth of Christ's disciple in all things pertaining to the spiritual life is evidence of his power to feed his own. There is no contrast in life more striking than that between the man of the world and the man in Christ. The former never attains to the perfection of his manhood; the latter comes to the symmetrical development of his powers. The former is a tree planted on thin soil;

the latter, by the rivers of water. The former is stunted ånd bare; the latter brings forth his fruit in his season and his leaf does not wither. Until they began to feed on Christ, Peter and John were fishermen, Matthew, a moneychanger, Saul, a bigot. They fed on Christ and grew into manhood of such intellectual and spiritual power that they have been teachers of ages, prophets for all races.

IV. Christ knowing.

If

The shepherd knows his sheep. Many flocks may be massed in the fold. All are alike to the eye of the observer. The fold presents a hopeless confusion. But the shepherd never fails to select his own. He calls them by name. they do not hear or will not follow, he enters and finds them and leads them out. Numbers and confusion are nothing to him. Nothing can hide from him his own. That is what Jesus means when he says, "I know my sheep." As every man, wherever he may be on the earth's surface, is always beneath the center of the heavens, so every sheep of Christ is ever and everywhere the center of the Shepherd's thought. Christ was the discoverer of the individual and he has never lost sight of the individual he has found. The heathen viewed men in the mass. The youth was taught that the State was everything and the individual nothing. The heathen view still prevails among heathen of our day. They forget the individual. They speak of "the masses" and of the men and women who do much of the world's work as "hands." Jesus knows neither "the masses" nor "hands." He knows individuals. It is easy to be lost to men, but impossible to be lost to God. Neither the uttermost parts of the earth, nor the heights of heaven, nor the depths of hell, have hiding-places where the least of his children may escape his eye. He who is the fulness of the Godhead has marks whereby he knows all his own. He knows his own as we know each other. Not by some miraculous process, but by the ful

ness and tenderness of his love for us does he know us all.

By his perfect humanity he is one of us. His knowledge knows no error. He saw the evangelist in hot-tempered John, the rock disciple in denying Peter, the triumphant faith in doubting Thomas, the betrayer in lying Judas, the repentant and adoring disciple in the highwayman dying at his side. Christ never was deceived in men. He surprised them again and again by his perfect knowledge of individuals. For those who follow him, glad surprises of his perfect knowledge of his own are in store.

From this picture of the Christ, we learn one lesson above all others. Following Christ is the first and last duty of the Christian. There is no other way of knowing him. The Christian life is not to be attempted as the means of acquaintance with Christ, but following him as the condition of being a Christian. Apart from him, any attainment in the Christ-life is as impossible as life apart from the source of life. He is the vine, we are the branches. Whatever his call is, follow him. Keep Jesus ahead of you in everything. If he is not leading you, wait-at whatever cost, wait; for all paths in which he does not lead are paths away from him and life. Perhaps it was morning when the shepherd came to the fold and called his sheep by name. The porter knew his voice and opened the door, and across the hills the shepherd went leading his flock in the early day to the green pastures wet with dew. In the morning of life, Jesus comes to the door and calls for his own. His own hear his voice and follow, and he leads them out to be fed and made strong for all life's demands. The noonday comes with scorching sun and parched air. The shepherd calls his flock and leads them to the shadow of the trees until the heat goes by. So Jesus, when the fierce heat of midlife beats upon his disciples, and temptations fierce and pitiless are seeking to dry up the fountains of their love, calls his sheep to the shelter of his side and keeps them safe

in the testing hour. The night has come, and back to the fold the shepherd guides his flock. The straying are gently led back to the flock, the wearied lambs are carried in his strong arms, and the wild beasts are beaten away from the helpless sheep, until, at last, all are safely housed and the door is closed. At the evening hour, Jesus waits to guide his own home. The faltering and faint he tenderly cares for; the stumbling and falling he upholds; the discouragements and temptations that crouch in the oncoming darkness to assail his own are driven back, and, at last, the flock is safely home in the Father's house of many mansions. This is something of the meaning of this wonderful chapter. No one can learn it for another. Christ is not known by representation but by repentance. A deaf man does not hear music, neither does a bad man, an unrepentant man, hear Christ's voice. Love is the lane of learning. His sheep hear his voice and follow him.

John E. Tuttle.

SECOND QUARTER

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS

JOHN 11: 32-45

"Mary therefore, when she came where Jesus was, and saw him, fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."

This is the pilot miracle of the resurrection series: Lazarus, Jesus, the disciples of Christ throughout the world. The herald chariot is driven through the gates of death to clear the path for the royal train.. On other and earlier occasions, indeed, the dead had been brought to life, as in the case of the widow's son and Jairus' daughter. But hitherto the process of dissolution had not been so marked, nor the details and deliberation so conspicuous. The raising of Lazarus coming, as it did, so near the close of Christ's life, when tremendous events were culminating and the movements were rapid, there has not been proportionate attention given to this preliminary passage of the portals of the grave. We are really with the forward column of a heavenly host in its attack on the strongholds of death. We hear the shock of that first assault on the tomb, which was succeeded by the struggle in Joseph's garden. As if more closely to connect this awakening with that of Jesus, we have the later scene of the anointing by Mary of the Master, of which he said it was "against the day of my burying."

We observe concerning this miracle:

I. The raising of Lazarus displayed all the great principles and powers of all resurrections.