come home, as last night, so fresh, so calm, so delivered from all my fears and troubles." We have often attended similar meetings; but have not found them so exhilarating. Perhaps the dulness was not in them, but in us. It certainly must be thrilling to hear angels' voices break in upon the discussion of such topics; and to find a dull vestry transfigured by "the light that never was on sea or land." IMAGINATION AND THE LONG VIEW OF LIFE WRITING TO Gladstone, then a young man, Samuel Wilberforce urged him “to look calmly before you . . . and act now with a view to then." The Bishop foresaw the great position which the statesman would one day occupy in the world, and advised that he should project himself in thought upon that future, and act in the present so that he would stand unashamed then. It was a sound ethical principle. Half the evil of the world would remain undone if men would take this long view of life, if they would allow imagination to portray how the deed would appear when they should look back upon it. If Judas Iscariot had done this; if, when he sought opportunity to betray his Lord, he had but visualised the infamous deed, and permitted the mind to contemplate it as it afterwards was seen by him in its own nature, he would surely have turned himself from his evil purpose and repented, before the tainted money had soiled his hand; and, at last, he might have been known as one who was snatched by the Redeemer's grace, from the verge of the abyss. Repentance after the deed is completed is good; but far better is that repentance which turns away from the purpose that seeks fulfilment. Here again imagination becomes the handmaid of religion. It projects the mind upon the future; it shows us how the meditated deed will appear, how the cherished ambition will stand in the light of fulfilment-a blot or a beauty in God's fair world. Under the sanction of the Master, it summons us now, to take account of that high tribunal, where at last every man shall give account of the deeds done in his body. "For he that lacketh these things is blind," declared the apostle, "seeing only what is near.' We have observed imagination's deep view and high view: the Letters abound with suggestions of the long view. James Smetham drew his inspirations from "the land that is very far off." He took a calm steady view of life. Reputation was nothing; only the fact would stand, and this according to the measure of faithfulness it possessed. 'They have opened two new astounding rooms at South Kensington, in one of which is a cast from the pillar of Trajan itself, only it is in two parts. Round the column runs a spiral basrelief." Who was the sculptor? No man knows. But what of that? "These figures were done by him, and though we know not his name nor place, he is here, winding round the pillar of Trajan. What is any one worth except for what he says or does? . . . The work is the man.' That you should be reckoned the means of doing this or the other good-what could that do for you? But to be the means-what can that fail to do for you? It will be found to praise, and glory, and honour, at the glorious appearing, when the true solution of these mystic problems of name and fame will be given, and when some will wake to discover the meaning of shame and everlasting contempt, and some will shine as the stars for ever and ever. It is deeds that will do that. Then shall every man have praise of his own work. Cheer up, then, O Soul. dure." We count them happy that en I have in my possession one of James Smetham's paintings bearing the inscription: "He appeared unto two of them as they walked into the country." The Master walks between the two disciples on their journey to Emmaus, and everything in their bearing and look portrays the spell which fell upon the mind as He talked with them. But the power of the picture is in the background. The three figures stand out against a transfigured world, losing itself in the golden glory of the evening sky. The artist has made trees and field, earth and heaven aglow with the mystic Presence of that Word of God, by Whom "all things were made." And now He is by their side. No wonder their hearts burned within them. It is so He came to James Smetham; it is so He comes to men of every age; manifesting Himself in different forms, but the same Lord. He saves us from ignoble and mechanical views of life and the world. Under His influence the heart sees farther, sees deeper, sees higher. Life has its setting in the Infinite and Eternal. It has |