Who among us who believe does not prove the truth of these words? It is a bit of experience that none can escape. In our friends-those we love dearest perhaps, in our circumstances, and in our own persons, there is something to keep us constantly reminded that sin is here, and has done its deadly work, and what is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is wanting cannot be numbered. Paul carries it further still in Rom. 8:, and tells us that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." Not some of it, but the whole ; there is nothing that has sense and feeling but what has felt the damaging effect of the fall of creation's head, though the difference is immense between the physical suffering of the mere brute and that of man, with a mind and conscience beside,-a, spirit susceptible of the most intense anguish, capable of self-reproach and condemnation, and of reflection upon and anticipation of the deserts of sin. A buoyant heart may carry over for a time the terrible reality,-the multiplicity of occupations, be it with work or pleasure, may cause forgetfulness, but the time must come when every vail must be torn off, and the stern reality be known in a way there is no escape from.

Yes, "in this we groan," and creation groans, and for the unbeliever it is but the presage of an eternal night of woe. How solemn the thought! Men may live without God, but to pass into eternity without Him, this would be terrible indeed, and many in thinking of it have taken refuge in some of the forms of current unbelief with reference to the future,-setting up human judgment against what is revealed in the Word of God, in place of accepting God's simple way, so perfect and wonderful as it is.

But, "in this we groan " contemplates the Christian, of course, though the world groans too; and therefore the apostle adds to it, " Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." Yes, he brings in a hope,-the one only thing that really meets the difficulty, ministering a remedy divine and perfect. Hope is the anchor of the soul; it keeps it steady in the midst of storms and tempests. It puts God before the soul-the living God, the One who has brought into the scene of suffering and death a perfect and complete remedy. He alone could do it where death was at work, and if He has undertaken it, it will be done in a way to bring Him glory, and full blessing to us. It will be no patch put upon a rent, no plaster for a sore, but, the whole made new, and a body of glory given in place of the body of humiliation we now wear, and in which we groan. We have borne the image of the earthy, we shall bear the image of the heavenly; and whatever may intervene, faith bridges the whole, and looks on to that blessed moment which Scripture links with the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus Paul comforted the saints at Thessalonica, who " were turned to God from idols, to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven," about those who had fallen asleep in Jesus. He did not say, "You shall die too and join them." No, he pointed them to that moment when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God ; when the dead in Christ shall rise first, the living be changed, and all together be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. He pointed them to that day, that God has promised shall come,-a day known only to Him, for which saints here are taught to wait, for which those who are departed wait, and for which the Lord Jesus also waits,-the day when He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and be satisfied ; and if He is satisfied, how surely shall we be so too !

I do not ask, then, if you groan, dear fellow-believer ; I am sure you do, for Scripture says so, though no doubt the more we are in fellowship with God, in His thoughts and ways, so much the more shall we truly groan,-if not about ourselves, at least in witnessing what sin has done in man and brought upon a creature made in the image of God ; but now, alas! fallen so low. But may I not ask if you can add, as that which the faith of your soul has laid hold of, "earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, that mortality may be swallowed up of life." Yes, mortality,-the liability to death-will be swallowed up of life, for those who are called up to be with Christ without seeing death. While for all, living or dead, death will be swallowed up of victory at that same moment. Are you stumbled at this ? Do you not know the Scriptures, and the power of God ? Have you let man rob you of " the blessed hope " ? Then in this, at least, you share in what has shut out from your soul the true and solid comfort God would give. But it needs the power of God assuredly-the God who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, and whose Spirit shall "make alive our mortal bodies," working by that power by which " He shall subdue all things to Himself."

Have you, then, laid hold of that truth ? and is it to you "a blessed hope"-sustaining, comforting, when all may be most dark and trying-the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? Are you watching, through the darkness of this world's night, for the One who alone can bring relief and remedy,-for the rejected One who is coming again-coming to reign over the scene of His rejection- to make His enemies His footstool, and to share His throne and glory with His redeemed ones?

You may say, "I do not understand prophecy." May I ask, Why not ? Are we not told to " take heed to it, as to a light that shines in a dark place"? Is the world not a dark place,-aye, growing darker every clay ? If you do not know this, you will surely despise the light that shines there; it will be unheeded by you, as perhaps it has been. Still it shines in a dark place, and it points to that one object who is the burden of the testimony of the Spirit of God in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation- Christ; and it marks out two periods and events of paramount importance:the coming of that blessed One to suffer and to die, the just One for the unjust ones, to bring us to God ; and next, to His coming to reign,-to be glorified in the scene of His rejection. How near this may be, who can tell ? Do not say, " My Lord delayeth His coming ; " still less take part with scoffers who say He will not come ; but hearken to His own word, "Surely, I come quickly." May you be able to add to this your " Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus." R.T.G.