His works, through all the scenes and events of His life; so may we in heart and mind ascend into the heavens, and with Him continually dwell.

May we gratefully accept God's gifts, the purchase and fruits of our Saviour's humiliation upon earth, the seal of His atonement and intercession, and the evidence of His glorification in heaven; may we not despise nor neglect them, nor render ourselves unfit to receive them by our wilfulness or folly, or ignorance of our own needs, of our weakness or corruption; may we strive to attain to that perfection of manhood, that full spiritual stature, which He intends we should reach; may we be no more children, misled by the cunning craftiness of men, but in genuine sincerity, and thorough love of the truth, in deed, in word, and in heart, grow up in all things unto Him, which is the Head, even Christ; that, when the end shall come, where He is, thither we His members may also ascend in body and soul, have our perfect consummation and bliss, and reign with Him in glory. Amen.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Tracts for the Christian Seasons.

THE SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.

Action and Contemplation.

THE Festival of our Lord's Ascension closes the series of those in which we commemorate Him alone. Under the guidance of His Church we have in the holy season of Advent waited for His coming, we have stood by the manger at Bethlehem, seen Him obedient to the law for man, followed with the wise men the guiding of His star, have beheld Him presented in the temple, heard Him in the same temple questioning the elders; we have contemplated the mystery of His temptation, witnessed His agony, stood by His cross, welcomed Him risen, and finally lost Him in the clouds of heaven. And now the cycle is completed, and we enter upon a long season during which we commemorate Him specially no more.

Seeking then guidance and direction for our minds during this season, listening as it were

for the key-note which is to attune our feelings to the heavenly harmony, we seem to find it in the words of the Angels who stood with the Apostles spectators of His exaltation, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Such, we read, was the remonstrance with which they broke in upon the mute and entranced astonishment of the Apostles, as they were still gazing stedfastly up into heaven, following with straining eyes the track by which their Divine Master had passed into its innermost depths.

And yet we cannot suppose that they intended to rebuke them for their earnest gazing. Surely if ever there was a time when devout ecstasy was natural, to these men and at this time it was so especially. Let us strive for a moment to picture to ourselves somewhat of the intensity of their feelings.

Little more than forty days had passed since they were mourning in hopeless desolation the gracious Master who had walked with them for about three years, instructing, aiding, and comforting them, but who delivered over to the will of His enemies had been cut off out of the land

of the living, and, as they thought, lost to them for ever. On that darkness had dawned the brightness of the Resurrection; heaviness had endured for a night, but joy came in the morning when it was declared to them, in words which long formed the greeting of Christians to one another upon the Easter festival, "The Lord is risen indeed." To all He had shewed Himself alive by many infallible proofs, being seen of them during those forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God; that Kingdom which He had died to raise upon its only and sure foundation, but to complete which was to be their task, aided by that Gift, the promise of the Father, which should soon descend upon them, which they had heard of Him. So soon as He had ended His declaration of the work they were to perform, and the help which they should have in its performance, while they beheld He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

Here then was an end of all their doubts. When He first appeared after His Resurrection some had doubted, but who could doubt now? Now must have burst upon their minds in all its fulness the awful truth that to them had been vouchsafed daily to converse familiarly with

the Son of God, and from His own lips to receive the words of eternal wisdom and truth. Now too must they have first felt the greatness of the blessing they had lost: though they had known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth they were to know Him thus no more: all that now remained to them was to dwell upon the unspeakably precious memory of the past, and by faith, keen and lively faith, to realize His parting promise, "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

And as they gazed on the bright cloud which hid from their eyes their ascending Lord, how could they but reach forward in hope to that time when they too should rise from earth to take possession for ever of those houses not built with hands, eternal in the heavens, which they knew, for He had told them, He was gone to prepare for them.

Surely I say the angels could not mean to rebuke them for their earnest gazing, but to remind them that it must have an end; that the natural feelings of awe, admiration, and regret once indulged, they must descend into the world of stern practical realities, where more pressing duties awaited them.

And a like lesson do their words convey to us.