The triumphant scenes of the Apocalypse are not all future; but even now we know something of living and reigning with Christ in a fellowship above sin and above sorrow. For it was of sorrow rather than of sin that the Apostle was speaking. Our principle is one of holy indifference--an experience far removed from mere apathy. We do not simply say with Buddha that sorrow drops off from him who has finished the path, as water drops from a lotus leaf. We are not sure whether the sorrows always do disappear from the burdened life like that. But when they do not so pass away, the drop is turned to honey in the cup of the flower; it is really the richer for its burden, and so may well be content. And now how do we come to this place of triumph? By what means is it granted us to enter so fully into the songs which shall one day resound through the universe? "Through Him that loved us." It is alliance with God that is the secret. The three steps of the mystics are _Purification_, _Illumination_, and _Union_; and simple as the statement is, it is a better theology than many another of much larger dimensions. Many people do not understand this alliance in which we are led into union with God, through the Holy Spirit. They think it is more like the old story of the dwarf and the giant, who went a warfare together, in which expedition the dwarf lost his arms and legs, and was only saved from imminent death in each conflict by the happy arrival of the giant. One can scarcely blame the dwarf for breaking up the partnership. We must understand that in Christianity the dwarf is the giant, that the despised deformed puny child of faith is, when he recognises his own weakness and leans upon his own God, big with the force that rolls the stars along. The might of God is in him: and though he may have no armour nor sword to match the Philistine, he will come home carrying his head for all that; for Man's weakness leaning upon God, Its end can never miss. THE END The Devotional Library 1. THE KEY OF THE GRAVE. A Book for the Bereaved. By W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D. 2. MEMORANDA SACRA. By Professor J. RENDEL HARRIS, M.A., Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. STUDIES IN MYSTICISM AND CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE SECRET TRADITION. By ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE. LITTLE BOOKS ON RELIGION. Edited by the Rev. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, LL.D. 1. CHRIST AND THE FUTURE LIFE. By R. W. DALE, LL.D. 2. THE SEVEN WORDS FROM THE CROSS. By the Rev. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, LL.D. 3. THE VISIONS OF A PROPHET. Studies in Zechariah. By the Rev. Professor MARCUS DODS, D.D. 4. THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS. By the Rev. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. 5. THE UPPER ROOM. By the Rev. JOHN WATSON, M.A., D.D. WORKS BY THE REV. J. R. MILLER, D.D. A MESSAGE FOR THE DAY. A Year's Daily Readings. DR. J. R. MILLER'S NEW YEAR BOOKLETS. 1. SECRETS OF A HAPPY HOME LIFE. 2. THE BLESSING OF CHEERFULNESS. Dr. Miller's "Silent Times" Series.