that somehow or other in the maturer life the child will cutgrow the disease, that it will purify itself. Nature does sometimes work marvels in this way, but it is a deceptive rule, an uncertain light to follow. The seeds of moral leprosy once planted are seldom eradicated except by the power of healing medicines, by the potency of specifics constantly and laboriously applied and administered.

One great principle can be laid down in regard to dealing with the leprosies of this modern world, and that principle is to purify that which is pure and innocent in itself, but which has become contaminated by the presence of defilement, by the constant and positive touch of that which is pure. This is just what Christ intended to teach when He lifted up with His loving touch the leper of Gospel story. We are altogether too willing to draw ourselves away and let the disease take its course.

Take the great subject of popular amusements. The only way in which they can be kept from degradation is by the association and watchful guidance of the Church. The Church has no right to let them alone. She ought to make her power and touch felt by anathematizing and condemning that which tends to degrade them, and to cling unyieldingly to those which are pure and lovely and of good report. We permit too much the mingling of the evil with the good. We ought, as Christians, to discriminate. How can we do that? Why, by touching and uplifting and countenancing that which is good, and sternly frowning down the bad.

To send our sons and daughters away from the Church and out into the alluring world to find that which the spirit of youth demands, is to expose them to

dangers ten-fold multiplied, and to render irresistibly fascinating the very pleasures which we disapprove.

The personal lesson to be learned from this significant miracle of our Blessed Lord is obvious:

Wherever men are losing hope in the conflict with the temptations of the flesh, wherever a soul is struggling up from the malarial atmosphere of moral degradation toward the heights swept by the exhilarating currents from the table-lands of God, there is our place to minister courage, hope and cheer. Out along the highways and hedges of life, away from the seemingly safe precincts of our own contracted self-hood, we are to go in the spirit and purpose of the Master, lifting up the fallen and binding up the wounds of sin and shame. With the divine heart throbbing and vitalizing our own weaker life-centers, we shall find the nobler, purer, grander meaning of the purposes of our existence. In the environment of purity and holiness where Christ's presence is seen and felt, in the stimulating atmosphere of the deeds of the noble and true, before God's Altar, where verily and indeed we touch and are touched by His fingers of love, we shall find safety from the leprosies of the world. Out from the riven side of the Crucified "flow rivers of living waters," and

"Sinners plunged beneath its flood

Lose all their guilty stains."

THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY.

TEXT:

CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST.

What manner of man is this, that even the winds and

the sea obey Him!-St. Matt. VIII. 27.

By the REV. GEORGE S. BENNITT, B. D.,

Rector of Grace Church, Jersey City, New Jersey.

HE Sea of Galilee, otherwise called in the Gospels,

Tiberias and Gennesaret, is situated in the northeastern part of Palestine. Various travellers have described its beauty, but no one comes nearer to its charms than he who wrote:

"How pleasant to me thy deep blue wave,

O Sea of Galilee!

For the glorious One who came to save,
Hath often stood by thee.

* * * * *

"It is not that the wild gazelle

Comes down to drink thy tide,

But He that was pierced to save from hell,
Oft wandered by thy side.

* * * * *

O Saviour! gone to God's right hand,

Yet the same Saviour still,

Graved on Thy heart is this lovely strand,

And every fragrant hill."

It is in this light, then, that we approach the sheet of water, which lies embosomed amid the hills of Galilee. Not so much to study its natural beauties, as to

be impressed with the power and majesty of Him, who, in an hour of wind and storm, such as caused the "waters thereof to rage and swell," and "men's hearts to fail them for fear," lay sleeping on a pillow in the hinder part of a little ship, "rocked asleep" as it were, "in the cradle of the deep;" but who arose at His disciples' prayer, "Lord, save, or we perish;" and, with all the dignity and authority of that One to whom "all power is given in heaven and in earth," exclaimed, "Peace, be still." "And the wind ceased and there was a great calm."

St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke, record this act of stilling the tempest, and in considering it, we shall note here and there something from each.

St. Mark tells us, "when the even was come." Now Jesus had been engaged all the day in teaching the people. It was on this day that the parables concerning the kingdom of Heaven were delivered, and great multitudes had gathered to hear Him. It was, then, after His labors for the day were over, that He would go away from the people. He therefore said unto His disciples; "Let us go over unto the other side of the lake." And He entered into a ship and His disciples with Him. "And behold there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves." St. Luke puts it; "And there came down a storm of wind on the lake."

The expression "came down" is noteworthy, for in this lies the reason the sea of Galilee was so easily and violently disturbed. On the east there are high hills rising nearly two thousand feet above the lake, and these stretch away in broad table-lands. An east wind, therefore, sweeping over these table-lands, rushes

with great velocity, until coming suddenly to the eastern shore of Galilee, they come down upon the lake and lift the waters from their bed.

And "the ship was covered with the waves," or "the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full;" and they "were in jeopardy;" that is, in great danger, in peril. But He was "asleep," apparently unmoved, unconcerned about the situation. "And His disciples came to Him and awoke Him," saying, according to St. Matthew; "Lord, save us, we perish." St. Mark: "Master, carest Thou not that we perish!" St. Luke: "Master, Master, we perish." With these three records grouped together, we gain a truer insight into the real feelings of the disciples.

It was not merely a prayer, or even a request to Jesus to help them by the interposition of His Divine power, but a reproof because He slept when there was need of the help of every man in the ship, to keep her from capsizing, or going to the bottom. Master, we need your help, grasp an oar that we may gain the shore. This is no hour for sleep, but for united action.

Let us now gather up what we have before us.

At evening the Saviour of the world called unto His disciples to go over with Him unto the other side. "And when He had entered into a ship, His disciples follow Him." The distance to be gone over was about six miles, so that the night began to hover over the lake, ere the company had reached its center. O silent night! O peaceful lake! Well may the Christ, who as man is weary with the labor of the day, take a pillow and lay His head to rest; for be the ship under sail. the noise of the spray as she divides the waters, or be