to come to pass; you think it would be so full of advantages for you; and when it comes, it proves the fruitful parent of a thousand ills. You desire some request from God, and perhaps its fulfilment would be the greatest curse that could befal you-would open the door to a hundred temptations hence it is that so many prayers seem to go unanswered. Salome asked for her sons that they might sit, "one at His right hand, the other on His left." She little knew who were to occupy that place on Calvary; she little knew who are to stand on the left hand when the Lord comes again to judgment. Ah, she would not have so framed her petition had knew not what she asked.

she known all.

She And is it not often so Parents ask for their

with our own prayers? children, people ask for themselves, things which they think blessings, but which it is the truest mercy in God to refuse us. To guide our own course what greater misery could there be? what surer way to perplexities and entanglements? To have all our prayers granted, to receive always what we count to be good things,ah, it would often be misery and sorrow. I have read of one who, after long blindness, had her sight restored, only to discover from the changed appearance of things around her that the circum

stances of her family had undergone a reverse, which before had been hidden from her. And I have read of another, a widow, who had a son long detained upon the Continent a prisoner of war: no wonder, we may think, that she should have been earnest in desiring his release, that public prayers to that effect should have been put up at her request. And yet, when the boon was granted, he returned to her a spendthrift, to disgrace her by his profligacy, and ruin her by his extravagance; and at length to be found dead, a wretched outcast, on a brick-kiln. Surely in these cases it might have been said to the petitioners, "Ye know not what ye ask." They were not blessed in the fulfilment of their prayers. And so it must often be said, so long as man seeks to guide himself. In our shortsightedness we shall constantly desire just what is most prejudicial for us. We shall put on armour for defence, as we think; and it will prove to be only an encumbrance. We shall fly into temptations just when we think to avoid them. We are only safe in our prayers, we are only safe in our choice, when we ask and choose in subordination to the will of God. Our wisdom is not to guide ourselves; not to think we can form our course more prudently and safely, by declining some

right choice because it threatens to bring with it the baptism and the cup. Dangers which attend a course chosen for God's sake we need never fear. Dangers which are the result of a selfchosen course we may well fear. Let us cast in our lot with Christ, choose as we think His will would have us, and continue in this spirit, and all will be well at last, and we shall be brought safely through all.

SERMON XIV.

Many Mansions.

ST. JOHN xiv. 2.

"In My Father's house are many mansions.”

THE true interpretation of these words must

be sought from a consideration of the circumstances in connection with which they were spoken. Our Blessed Lord was about to leave His disciples, and sorrow would fill their hearts at the separation. With that sympathy, therefore, that desire to console, which were ever so noticeable in Him, He utters these words, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions." As if He would say, 'I leave you, it is true, in bodily presence; but do not sorrow, or suppose that any break is thereby interposed between us. The members of a family are not separated in heart and affection because one of them remains in one room of the house, and one passes into another. They see each other no

longer, there is a wall of separation as to bodily presence, but only as to that. They are still one family, one in interest and mutual love. And so it is now with you and Me. "In My Father's house are many mansions." Earth and heaven and Paradise, the world visible and the world invisible, these are only so many chambers, as it were, of His vast abode; we are near to Him in all. 'I leave this world, but I do but go, as it were, into another and inner apartment of My Father's house; I do not therefore really separate Myself from you; I am still with you under one roof, as it were, associated with you in the one great household of God, of which I am the Head, and which is constituted in Me-still, therefore, bearing you in My heart-no more forgetful of you, though ye see Me not, than is the mother of her child in an adjoining room.'

And see what light is cast on death, on the world invisible and the state of the departed, by this language which our Blessed Lord here employs. If the whole universe be His, if His power and His love be everywhere present, everywhere paramount, if He be everywhere near, how can we fear to part with our beloved ones? We do but commit them to God; they may go from our sight and love and care, but not from His;