May 6

With such sacrifices God is well pleased. — Heb. xiii. 16.

But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind; and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. — LUKE xiv. 13, 14.

WHAT the poor and the afflicted cannot do, he who has made such sufferers his representatives will not fail to do. Jesus links the day of final judgment and award with service given on earth to earth's neediest children. We may not always with wisdom copy to-day the Oriental habit of feast-giving to miscellaneous companies of the blind, maimed, and poor. But the celestial spirit of helpfulness and loving hospitality to all who are in physical or spiritual need is the one immortal duty and glory of Christly hearts. Charity to-day should mean not only alms, but Christian friendship. Putting aside social schemes that would turn the masses of men into shiftless and brutalized parasites of the State, there is demanded the bringing to bear on men's lives of all remedial, educating, preventive, and regenerating influences in the spirit of the Golden Rule. When Lowell's Sir Launfal shared with the beggar his crust of bread and gave him to drink from the icy stream, a heavenly light suffused that feast of the Holy Grail, till suddenly the leper rose up before him, "shining and tall," in the awful splendor of the Crucified and the Crowned. He who with a brother's heart shares with the needy brother the bread and water of eternal life, sits down to a holy banquet with his Lord and shall be welcomed to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

John Henry Barrows.

I behold in thee

An image of him who died on the tree.

Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns;

Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns;

And to thy life were not denied

The wounds in the hands and feet and side.