Jesus concludes with a solution of a difficulty, that of unanswered prayer. No prayer really remains unanswered; but if one asks God for what would hurt him, he receives instead what would help him, though he may not see it in that way. Many a one prays to be released from pain whose very salvation depends on patience in suffering: "And which of you if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?"

Our good Father will not only hear our prayers, but He will set them right, discover for us our own best mind, give it the truest expression by the inspiration of His Spirit, and then grant more than we have asked. He is surely the best judge in selecting the time and all other circumstances which will serve us best.

Thus passed two happy months, between the Feast of Tabernacles in September and that of the Dedication of the Temple in December. They must have been among the happiest of the Master's public life. He was near a welcome solitude for prayer and contemplation and communion with the celestial spirits on Mount Olivet; He was close to Bethany, where the two holy sisters, Mary and Martha, could entertain Him and His Apostles in a home of all cheerfulness and affection; and He was ever free to instruct His disciples privately either in that house, or by the pleasant wayside or walking in the fields. Meantime He did not shrink from contemplating His approaching death. The hills and valleys were brown

with the autumnal decay which told Him that His earthly life was drawing to its close, and this quickened His purpose to complete His teaching. His Father's providence held off His enemies, who, besides, were quieted by His own intermission of miracles, which were always calculated to enrage the Pharisees. Excursions were often made by the Master and His disciples into the surrounding country, and the people drawn together and instructed.

St. Luke gives us many of our Lord's discourses spoken at this time, most of them almost exact repetitions of those delivered in Galilee the year before and related in St. Matthew's Gospel.

St. Luke also inserts in this part of his narrative various other teachings, without saying when or where they were delivered. It was a custom of Jesus to repeat His discourses in different places, using even the same words, doing so even in the same places upon returning again to them. This deepened the impression upon the people's minds, and made their knowledge of His doctrine more accurate. It also gave every one fully to understand that He had a stated system of teaching, simple and readily known, but also exact, and that His purpose was that all should accurately possess themselves of it. Furthermore, this custom imparted to His Apostles in a thoroughly practical way both the doctrine and the way to teach it. They could not but become proficient after hearing over and over again the same. rules of conduct laid down in almost verbal repetition, the same principles of faith, and the same outlines of their organization as a Church. Our Saviour by this means wrote His Gospel on their memories in deep and unmistakable characters. It was thus that He was the author of that oral Gospel which

alone was used by the Church for many years after the Holy Spirit had been breathed upon it, and which still remains the substance and fulness of the revelation of Christ, holding within it the written Gospel supplied in a subsequent inspiration of the Evangelists by the Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER LXV.

THE WATCHFUL SERVANTS.-THE THIEF IN THE NIGHT.

Luke xii. 35-56.

ACCORDING to our Saviour, the true antidote to the fear of death is a constant fitness to die. For what is dreadful in death? The accounting to the Judge which instantly follows; the settlement of an eternal fate. Other than this there is in death only pain of body and loss of earthly joys. Now, pain worse than death is often endured for a silly point of honor or for love of money; and earthly joys are, in the spiritual life, like intoxication, lowering our level of existence and always followed by reaction. All this the Master taught His Apostles; and for nothing do we thank Him more affectionately than for His help to resist the awful dread of death: "Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands. And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding : that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that He will gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find

them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you, then, also ready for at what hour you think not the Son of Man will come."

It seems that the foregoing lesson had been given to the Apostles when alone with Jesus, for Peter asked: "Lord, dost Thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all?" Doubtless to all, both as to watchfulness and its recompense. But it was intended in an especial manner for those who shall stand for the Lord by their office, or by high position of any kind. Such are parents, the clergy, civil leaders and rulers of the people, and the rich. Office-holding in church or state or family is a burden of responsibility, therefore a gift of grace to bear the burden and strictness of accountability. The Apostles needed this lesson of humility, too often forgotten by men and women in high places.

He added a frank statement of what it would mean to be an Apostle, and even to be an obscure follower of the Lord. It meant, to begin with, three hundred years of indescribably cruel persecution; and in all succeeding ages it has meant an incessant struggle of

reason

WATCHFUL SERVANTS.

And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing. Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth. But if that servant shall say in his heart, My lord is long a coming; and shall begin to strike the men-servants and maid-servants, and to eat and to drink, and be drunk: The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers. And that servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.

against rebellious appetite, of faith
against pride of opinion, of meekness against world-
liness. The Apostles, naturally enough, would have
chosen a peaceful career as teachers and as foun-

ders. But the Lord tells of fire and sword-yes, and He even longs for the struggle to begin: "I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I but that it be kindled? And I have a baptism, wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished. Think ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you no, but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided; three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-inlaw, and the daughter-inlaw against her mother-inlaw."

"Shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers."

were a sigh of anticipation of His Passion. He was glad to suffer for us; He was eager to begin the ordeal; but it was a baptism of blood which it wrung His very soul to think of.

And why did not the multitude who followed Him appreciate this? He had told them over and over again that He must be tormented and put to