(Matt. 26:56.)

This verse has been of great help to us. We think of our Lord approaching the most sorrowful hour of His life :" My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." On entering into it, when He was arrested like a thief, and in all that followed after, how could He enjoy so immense a peace ?-a peace then as when He was at the sweet home of Bethany-all because some parts of the Scriptures were then getting their fulfilment!

All that we have of the wonderful life of our Lord has been handed down to us in four little and similar narratives, which imply that it is a resume, a very precious condensation, every word of which was intended to afford us some great instruction bearing on the many necessities and occasions of the pathway of faith. Thus, the other day, when a letter of good wishes for the New Year was returned to us by the husband of a most esteemed sister in the Lord, with an appended note:"My wife is not to communicate with destroyers of the faith," my wife said, "This is hardly bearable! " It might indeed be if it were not in fulfilment of Scripture. So, as we remembered the little verse indicated at the head of these lines, the event was made to work out a joy in our hearts such as we had seldom felt before. These fulfillments of " the reproach of Christ " should be very dear to us (Matt. 5:11, 12).

I can never forget these words of the late Mr. Kelly:" The reproach of Christ is a strange thing nowadays, and few are those who know it." J. P. Ribeiro

Brazil.