April 20

Every one . . . when he looketh . . . shall live.

NUMBERS xxi. 8.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. — JOHN vi. 47.

WE speak of the mystery of life! No doubt obtained in the mind of Christ on this subject which so baffles and perplexes philosophy. To our eager questionings regarding the future he comes with positive teaching, giving us confidence and eliciting our faith. He, the life, out of his own infinite knowledge spoke of himself as the source of life. Life only produces life, and into the deadness of our hearts through the channel of faith pours the living stream in each member and through the whole Church, which is his body.

As Christians how little we realize the dignity of our present existence! "Hath everlasting life" saith our Lord. Even now by the new birth we have begun the heavenly life: and physical death is but the dropping of the leaf, in order to the entrance upon an everlasting spring-time. Christ establishes the unity and continuity of life unfolding from the germ of the present into the glorious fulness of eternity. — the Christian now endowed with all the infinite possibilities of the future only awaiting the development.


Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings,

Thy better portion trace;

Rise from transitory things

Toward heaven, thy native place.

ROBERT SEAGRAVE.