on every side. The patients must first be restored to soundness, for only in proportion as that is done are they capable of joyfulness. Thus a flippant, jovial philosophy ignores the fact of moral evil, shuts its eyes to the derangements and running sores of our nature, and then invokes the sinful, suffering crew: "Be happy! The sun, moon, and stars are yours; you have abundance of corn, wine, and oil; a thousand pleasant things solicit you: laugh and sing, for after all it is not a bad world." It will not do. "Take this fire out of my blood," pleads the angry. "Take this lust out of my soul," cries the covetous. "Take this passion out of my members," demands the impure. Whilst others expostulate: "Take this blindness out of my understanding; this hardness out of my heart; this torture out of my conscience; this paralysis out of my will." We require medicine before music, healing before picnics. The Lord Jesus alone can renew us. He restores us to God, and in doing this restores us to our true selves. He makes us "whole"; and because He has cleansed and healed our whole being we fill the day and night with music.

He gives us the hope of everlasting life. That is the great lesson of this wonderful day. Christ risen from the dead opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Free thinkers say: "Live in the present moment, realize every possible, pleasant

sensation, and let the future alone." It is impossible. Our very constitution obliges us to live in the future. The child lives in the thought of boyhood; the youth in the thought of manhood; the man in the thought of maturer years: we never live in the present. So our nature obliges us to look into the great future. In the risen Lord we find the solid basis for the splendid hope of a blissful immortality, and anticipating that future our joy is full. Paradoxical as it may seem, He who was crowned with thorns can alone explain the mystery of our text: pure and eternal sunshine dawns only in the shadow of His cross.

XVI

SANCTIFIED INDIVIDUALITY

The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together; to beautify the place of My sanctuary, and I will make the place of My feet glorious.—Isa.

60: 13.

N

OTHING is more wonderful than individuality, that each man has a specific character strictly his own, views everything from a special standpoint, moves in a solitary orbit, and is conscious of experiences unintelligible to a stranger. We may sometimes suspect that people closely resemble one another, that they are, indeed, practically identical; such a conclusion is, however, only the result of ignorance and inconsideration. A cursory glance finds sameness and identity everywhere; but he who watches more closely, and knows more intimately, recognizes in all directions striking originality. The incurious eye discerns in the midnight heavens only a vast scene of indistinguished splendor; but the astronomer knows well that one star differs from another star in glory-differs in magnitude, color, and lustre. To the thoughtless the landscape is monotonous; but those whose

senses are exercised to discern marvel at the individual character and charm of grass and leaf, blossom and fruit. As the text reminds us, fir, pine, and box have their special form, foliage, and flower; and not only is there this variety, the differentiation also runs through each species to the most delicate issues. We are assured that the study of the peculiarities of the various types of roses cannot be considered less than a profound science. To any one endowed only with the ordinary sense of smell, the odor of one rose as compared with that of another would seem to be almost identical; indeed, we generally speak of the rose as a very distinct perfume, and not one of degrees, as we are assured it is by experts. We are told by one of the best authorities on perfumes that there are experienced rose-cultivators who can name many varieties of rose in the dark simply from the smell, and that no two varieties possess the same odor. What is called the pure odor of the rose is unique, indefinable, incomparable. Some roses possess very delicate fruity odors. One variety has an odor of peach, another of apricot, another of melon, another of violets, another of pink, while others recall the odors of hyacinth and mignonette. The odors of many are so soft and indefinable that comparison is impossible. But this manifoldness and distinction of nature finds its most exquisite expression in the uniqueness of humanity. Each

soul is like a star, and dwells apart; every man is his own parallel. No soul has a duplicate. Each human personality is the incarnation of a distinct thought of God, bearing express imprints, and perceiving, interpreting, and realizing the universe in its own private, privileged way. No two spectators see the same rainbow; and no two souls see life and the universe in exactly the same light, or give them exactly the same explanation.

In the fear of God our individuality is best developed, its singular qualities being thus most richly and happily realized. Education brings to light and perfection the special qualities of our intellectual nature; and the more general and thorough education becomes, the more rich will society be in gifted and helpful individuality. Culture in man brings out wonderful, unsuspected traits, as it does with the flower. Education reveals men, expressing and accentuating those idiosyncrasies which give so much interest and fascination to character. A distinguished writer, describing a specially cultured man who was accidentally associated with rustics, writes: "He dazzled any thoughtful stranger; so exotic and apart was he-so romantic a grain in a heap of vulgarity-he was as though a striped jasper had crept in among the paving-stones of their marketplace." Thus does education give distinction to the scholar; only we may remember that the dull, monotonous paving-stones may also become