"One Anna." Luke 2 :36-38.

Why so many details about a lone woman, of whom we hear no more ? The reason is simple. God was the center of all the aspirations of her soul so she abode where He dwelt. God therefore takes marked interest in everything which concerns her.

Would that it were so with us all! that as she "departed not from the temple," so we might live more constantly in the word of God, where we imbibe His mind, learn in our own souls what He is, what we are, and the true judgment of everything. This is not looking after new things, though we shall ever find enough to draw our souls along; it is dwelling in the atmosphere of His presence, instead of that of this world; our minds being formed by His thoughts instead of the thoughts of man-man in ourselves or in others.

Here in a fallen, revolted world whose mind is ever against God's, we have need of that walled protection which shuts us off from the one and shuts us in with the other.

"Christ loved the Church." Eph. 5:25.

Nowhere in Scripture does divine love express itself with such pathos as in relation to the Church. It is evident it has made a nest for itself there above every other. The plain teaching of the epistles, especially that to the Ephesians, as well as the various types of the Old Testament which refer to it, plainly show this.

What a loss, therefore, to the people of God it must be to miss the apprehension of it, with its sanctifying effect! What a loss to limit the gospel to the salvation of the individual, as is so largely done, and pass by lightly, if not wholly, that precious part of it which shows what the Spirit is forming with the individuals that are saved!

The holy joy of this made Paul most solicitous for the welfare of the assemblies of Christ, for in each one of these assemblies he saw an expression of "the Church, which is His body," and their first and chief object is for Christ's own delight. With such a thought in mind, what care would he not bestow upon them-what labor, what trials, would he not endure ? It secured the blessing of the saints too, for the greater ever includes the less.

None could be a more earnest evangelist than he, none more self-denying in fishing after the souls of men; but Christ's delights had the uppermost place in his soul; therefore he did not shrink from declaring all the counsel of God-whatever be the responsibilities involved-whatever be the forsaking of men, even from among the brethren.