of the pursuits and joys of heaven, than a Church in which the service is performed with great joyfulness, devotion, and solemnity. Do we find then, when we are called upon to join in such a service, that our hearts are not in tune for it, that the element is uncongenial, that it forces the mind into an attitude which is unnatural to it and therefore painful? Or do we seem to be at home in such an element, as having been acclimatized in the course of daily life to the consciousness of God's presence and to the exercise of communion with Him? These are questions which, if faithfully followed up, may shew us, under God's blessing, very much of our own true state before Him, may perhaps force upon some of us the alarming conviction that we have never at all accepted God's overtures of reconciliation, or surrendered ourselves to His will-may reveal to others that they have of late been unfaithful to God's guidance, and not careful to walk closely with Him— while from some, who feel that God's house is the true home of their soul, the ark, where the flitting bird, which finds no rest for the sole of its foot on the waste waters of the world, may be sure of welcome and shelter these questions may elicit the answer of an approving conscience;-" All is well."

VI

The Cathedral a Retreat for Contemplation

LUKE X.

38. And a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

40. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

41. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

42. But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

WE

E shall very seriously misapprehend the moral of this beautiful story, if we suppose Martha's occupations to have been censured by our Lord. So far from this being the case, her occupations were positively praiseworthy. To have neglected the duties of hospitality on the occasion of a visit from the divine Master, would have been simply inconsistent with that profound

to the rule) many things which might be amended by zeal and discretion. The Church does not provide systematically enough for foreign missions; or she does not leaven in her teaching, as she ought to do, the education of the people; or she does not reach at all the lowest stratum of society, nor evangelise the masses; or she wants a real legislative body, to readjust her system from time to time, and adapt it to new forms of society ; or her formularies and liturgy want revision; or she wants elasticity, breadth, and comprehensiveness; or her services are dull, and need to be made interesting and attractive. But even independently of the correction of abuses, there are many spheres of useful labour in the system, as at present worked. Look at the organization of a large and well-administered parish. How many fields for Christian workers are opened up in it, for persons ready and anxious to lend assistance to the pastor, and work with him and under him! There are schools to be superintended and taught; sick and bedridden people to be visited; charitable funds to be administered; working men's institutes to be held together, and watched, and guided; various forms of instruction and recreation to be provided for the vacant hours of the labouring classes, so apt to be ill spent. There are in our own Church, and doubtless in other communions also, many persons who address themselves

most energetically and zealously to one or more of these tasks, and who willingly spend and are spent in any undertaking which holds out a promise of usefulness. Most valuable members of the Church they are; they supply the motive power of external activity. They have their vocation, and a most necessary one it is. There is a strong sedentary tendency in our nature arising partly from its constitution, but partly also from indolence and dislike of trouble, which leads us all to acquiesce in negligences or abuses of long standing, and to let things go on as they have done, without much consideration whether they might not be altered for the better. Persons of an active and energetic turn of mind, who take up earnestly with true religion, serve to correct this tendency. Their instinct is to put the house of the Church to rights; they initiate new movements, and suggest reforms, which, if conducted with judgment, may have the happiest results. But their very temper of mind induces them to think a great deal more of the outward symptoms of God's kingdom than of its development in the inner man, and not to heed sufficiently such profound words as these; "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in

the Holy Ghost." And so very often they come to mistake business for progress, stirring for growing; and the inevitable result is a loss of peace, and therefore a loss of power; a distraction of mind amidst the external activities of religion, instead of that calm collectedness of thought, which enables us to dispose of work without hurry and without anxiety as to the ultimate results. And so far as this is a true representation of their state of mind, to them belongs the reproof; "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful."

There have always been in the Church, and there always will be, though more in some nations, and at some periods, and in some states of society than in others, characters of a totally different, and we must add, of a higher stamp. These characters supplement the busy workers for Christ, furnish what is wanting in them. Mary of Bethany, who, dismissing worldly business, quietly sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word, is one type of these characters. That greater Mary, who brought forth the world's Salvation, and of whom it is recorded that she kept and pondered in her heart all the great things which God was doing in her days, is another. And as there are two Marys who represent this class of characters, so, by a singular coincidence, there are two Johns. John the Baptist, reared in the desert amid the