tain us in loneliness and despondency. Nothing can be stronger than the similitude by which Christ assures us of God's love and faithfulness. If we find it difficult to believe God's love to us, His readiness, His willingness to give more than we desire or deserve, it is from no want of assurances on His part."

And now we will leave off for to-day.

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CHAPTER XIII.

ST LUKE XI. 14-26; ST MATTHEW IX. 32-34, XII. 22-30.

"Is this the same miracle as the one related by St Matthew in the twelfth chapter?" said Cecilia.

"I do not feel certain, but I should be rather inclined myself to think that they were different miracles, because in the one, the demoniac is said to be blind and dumb; in the other, only dumb. This may possibly be the same as the one recorded in the ninth of Matthew. Many commentators consider them to be the same, and place it either earlier or later, according as they are inclined to follow St Matthew's or St Luke's order of arrangement."

"The same words follow them both."

"Yes; but the suggestion once made by the Pharisees was very likely to be repeated; and not unlikely to call forth again, from the gentle and long-suffering Son of God, the argument and remonstrance which ought to have convinced them of their folly and wickedness. The first time the accusation was made He let it pass without reply (Matt. ix. 34), but when it was repeated, He condescended to argue with His enemies."

"I cannot understand how any men in their senses could have made such an accusation."

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They hardly were in their senses; at least they had lost the spiritual sense which comes from a pure heart, and readiness to follow God, and which enables men to discern the things of God. They had, from the first, set themselves

against Christ for various reasons; He was humble and lowly, whereas they expected a visible King of kings; He preached humility and purity, and declared His readiness to receive penitent sinners, whereas they were proud and hypocritical, and deemed that they atoned for deep sins by outward and ceremonial virtues; worse than all, He levelled them with the common people, and declared only one way of salvation open to all-faith in Him and repentance."

"There is one question I have been wanting to ask you, mamma," said May; "could the devil enable men to work

miracles?"

"I do not think, my dear, that all the accounts that we read of wonders, miracles, signs wrought by the power of false gods, by magic, by witchcraft, can be explained away, though some of them are mere instances of collusion, of happy accidents, or of natural causes unknown to the multitude. There are some references in the Bible to these false miracles: as when the magicians of Egypt vied with Moses in the plagues which he brought upon the land; when Simon Magus used sorceries and bewitched the people of Samaria; and again, in Deut. xiii., the people are expressly told that if the sign or wonder come to pass by which the false prophet spake unto them, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' they were not to hearken to him, but to put him to death. If we speak of this present miracle, there can be no doubt that Satan had the power to withdraw these emissaries whom he had sent into his victims."

"But he never would have done so !" exclaimed Ellen.

No; and it is there that the folly and diabolical wickedness of the Pharisees' words lie. In their eagerness to find some handle against Jesus, they said what was absurd. If Satan was thus divided against himself, doing one day what he undid the next, possessing men at one time and then

setting them free, he would be utterly devoid of that sagacity in which-alas! for us--he is never found deficient. Still more foolish would he be if he allowed his spirits to be driven out by Jesus, and had thus given his support and assistance to the teaching and doctrine which were undermining his power."

"How could the Pharisees fail to be convinced?"

"I think they were worse than the devils," said Cecilia; "for they, at least, submitted to His power."

"What our Lord demanded from the Jews, what He requires from us, was not the unwilling acknowledgment of Him and submission to His strength which the devils yielded, but the faith of the heart (Rom. x. 10), the obedience of the will. He does all to convince us and to influence our will, but we cannot follow Him unless we wish and choose to do so; were it otherwise, there would be no connection between our faith and obedience and our reward."

"Who are meant by 'your sons,' that are spoken of as casting out devils ?" said Cecilia.

"There are two interpretations; some suppose that it means the disciples, as, for instance, the seventy; others, that it means the Jewish exorcists. I am inclined to think it means the latter; for though the Pharisees do not seem to have attacked the disciples as they did their Master, still I think it unlikely that Christ would have appealed to their works wrought in His name. It seems that there were Jewish exorcists who cast out devils in the name of God, and probably our Saviour refers to them. He humbles

Himself to start from very low ground-let them only judge Him as they would judge one of themselves; but His inference is a very grand and a very awful one, 'If I, by the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come unto you.' I cannot be in league with the devil, you yourselves have sense to see that; what power is sufficient to overcome him but the power of God? You

aspire to the coming to the kingdom of God; you expect the Messiah, your prince; cannot you see that He is come, that only He can, in His own power, thwart and overcome the power of the devil?"

"What can that verse mean, 'They sought of Him a sign from heaven;' He was in the very act of giving them a sign?"

"It was partly, doubtless, the cavilling demand of those who asked for something different from what was offered to them, and who required Him to perform one kind of miracle simply because He performed another; refusing to believe, or pretending that they refused, because God spoke to them in a different manner from that which they expected of Him. Christ's miracles were none of them works of power merely."

“But surely, mamma, Christ's miracles, with all that they showed, all that they taught, all the comfort and the happiness they caused, were far higher than any mere sign of power could have been.”

"Undoubtedly; and it is a sign of the low state of mind of the Pharisees, of their blindness to the things of God, that they could not see this. We must be on our guard lest we fall into a similar error.”

"By seeing God only in startling manifestations of His power. To take an instance from natural objects: trembling before Him in a thunderstorm, while we fail to recognise Him in the mercy and beneficence which crowns the year with goodness. And in spiritual matters it is still more important. His love, His mercy, are shown to us; His help is given us in a thousand ways; we pray to Him continually; and continually we feel His power in the struggle against sin, in the wish and the ability, however feeble, to do His will, and in the support under trials. Now, to return to the miracle, I need hardly point out to you its spiritual meaning."