it demonstrates the presence of Him to whom nothing is so minute as to be beneath his notice, before whom nothing is so magnificent as to be beyond his control; it is a proof of the presence of that Being who feeds the ant and ministers to the archangel beside the throne; who will not let a sparrow fall without his control, and who will not let a seraph go beyond and defy that control. So too the command to give her meat, which it is very likely they would forget, is the evidence to me that Jesus not only gives life, but provides for the maintenance of that life; not only gives spiritual life, but will find living bread wherewith to nourish that life.

We have thus seen the dead maiden; we have seen the anxious parents, and the hypocrisy of the hired mourners; we have seen the chamber cleared; we have seen the Sun of righteousness, the Resurrection, and the Life, draw near; we have heard, if not the original, the echo of his words, "I say unto thee, Arise;" and we have seen the soul that had just forsaken, if it had forsaken, the frame in which it sojourned, take up its abode again, resume its throne, begin its sublime functions, and the maid arise, and mingle with the living. Let us rejoice that Christ is still the resurrection and the life of all that are in their graves. That maid, and Lazarus, and the young man, the son of the widow of Nain, and all that fall asleep in Christ, shall hear the last trump, and rise to the enjoyment of everlasting life.

In speaking of the resurrection from the dead, I cannot but notice, what I dare say will be referred to this day in almost every pulpit in the land, the death of one occupying all but the loftiest sphere in this kingdom, whose exemplary and beautiful life adorned the dignities she held -I mean the death of Adelaide, the queen-dowager. All of us must sympathize with the loss sustained by those to

whom she was dear, and who were benefited by her, because never in the history of England, I believe, and I am no flatterer of royalty, was there one whose example was so beautiful, whose charity was so unbounded, and whose munificence so many institutions of our country have beneficially felt. There is, I fear, scarcely a charity in the whole land that will not miss the queen-dowager. There is not in our land a section of the church of Christ which, after having exhausted its own beneficence, has not as its last resort said, "We will make an appeal to the queen-dowager;" and never, I am sure, was a just appeal made that was not answered. I recollect she was asked to give something toward the maintenance of our Scottish church at Holloway, and she sent £50; she was asked to contribute to our mission at Kennington, and she gave £20; she was asked to give something to our schools, and sent, I believe, £10. I quote these simply as specimens of her charity, comparatively minute and trifling; yet instances of charity and generosity on a larger scale, and to nobler and far greater institutions, of which there are many witnesses. I see, indeed, in her life the evidence of a royalty nobler than kings and queens have, and in her character the earnest of a crown more glorious than that of the greatest monarch. It is literally true that she adorned her diadem; her diadem did not adorn her. And while we respect the memory of an illustrious queen, we should rather dwell in our recollections on the memorials of a good, a pious, and a Christian woman. Much as I reverence and much as I respect authority, which God in his providence has either placed or permitted, much and truly as I feel of loyalty to our beloved queen, and reverence to all placed over us, yet I revere the woman more than the queen. The woman is the creation of God; the queen is but the conventionalism of man. And if this be

so, the Christian is higher than the woman, nobler than the queen; for the Christian is the re-creation, the regeneration of the woman by the Holy Spirit of God. It is beautiful and interesting, however, and a matter of gratitude, to see the sacredness of the Christian sustain. the dignity of the queen; the piety of the one and the power of the other allied with beneficence, and charity, and love. And we feel the more pleasure in noting this, because the days were, in which royal pastimes and royal pursuits were of a very different description; war, and revelry, and licentiousness were once the only games at which kings played; and pomp, and splendour, and show, and fashion, and dress were the only amusements that royalty indulged in. A great change has taken place in church and state. No such monarchs are likely to reign now; just as no hunting parsons, as they were called, are now any longer tolerated. A purer air has animated palaces; better feelings are now found in royal bosoms. Our consolation, when we think of the good queen-dowager we have lost, is in the equally consistent, and still more beloved queen that we have-a queen in whose character as an individual so much that is amiable, lovely, and of good report is blended with so much that is wise, patriotic, and consistent in her as a sovereign, that we know not which to admire most, the uncrowned womanhood of Victoria, the sister of us all, or the diademed royalty of Queen Victoria, the sovereign and the monarch of us all; thankful that her dignity in the one is only heightened by her consistent and beautiful walk in the other. If we have lost, therefore, a queen-dowager, whose beneficence all bear testimony to, let us thank God that we have swaying the sceptre, and seated on the throne of these realms, one that even the most intense republican must love, that even the red republican could not refuse to obey, and whom we

Englishmen, and Scotchmen, and Irishmen, Christians, I trust, all of us, obey not only because we are loyal subjects, but because we are Christian men, fearing God and honouring the queen. It was, to my mind, beautiful indeed to see, when the queen-dowager no longer shared the throne of a monarch, how softly she fell into the shadow, and adorned the quiet and retired life that she led, by gems brighter than a monarch's crown can have, by deeds of goodness, of love, and charity, and beneficence. She is gone, we can say without hesitation, to the rest that remaineth to the people of God. I have heard from those who knew well, that as her life was spent in doing good, her last hours were spent in the exercises of implicit trust and confidence in that only Saviour whose blood-blessed be the precious Bible that reveals it!-cleanses beggars from their sins, and cleanses monarchs from their sins also; trusting in the merits of that blessed Mediator, who is the only way to heaven for the highest, and the welcome way to heaven for the lowest. May we be quickened by his Spirit; and when our bodies shall be surrendered to the dust, may we, with the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus, and the queen-dowager, and all that have fallen asleep in Jesus, rise, and reign, and rejoice with him, wearing a crown of glory and partaking of an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

303

LECTURE XVII.

CREATIVE GOODNESS.

When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.-JOHN vi. 5-13.

Ir appears the crowd that had been charmed with the miraculous cures which Jesus had so often performed, having seen the lame leap, the dead even arise, the blind see, and the deaf hear, instinctively and naturally, it may be in some degree selfishly, went after one who was able to do so many wonderful works. They followed him, too, when he sought, it appears from the preceding passages, to be alone. He neither forbade them, nor turned them back it was his meat and his drink to do the will of his Father he suspended the enjoyment of his rest that he might minister to the necessities of the people; his life, like his death, was self-sacrificing and vicarious. This