And what this living God is to the Church above, He is also to the Church below. In one sense we need Him more! The drooping, pining plant, battered down by rain, and hail, and tempest, stands more in need of the fostering hand and genial sunbeam than the sturdy tree whose roots are firmly moored in the soil, or sheltered from the sweep of the storm. Pilgrims in the Valley of Tears! seek to live more under the habitual thought of God's presence. In dark passages of our earthly history we know how supporting it is to enjoy the sympathy of kindred _human_ friends. What must it be to have the consciousness of the presence, and support, and nearness of the Being of all beings; when some cherished "light of the dwelling" is put out, to have a better light remaining, which sorrow cannot quench! All know the story of the little child who, in simple accents, quieted its own fears and that of others in the midst of a storm. When the planks were creaking beneath them--the hoarse voice of the thunder above mingling with that of the raging sea;--his tiny finger pointed to the calm visage of the pilot, who was steering with brawny arm through the surge, "_My father_," said he, "_is at the helm_!" Would you weather the tempests of life, and sit calm and unmoved amid "the noise of its many waters," let your eye rest on a _living God_--a loving Father--a heavenly Pilot. See Him guiding the Vessel of your temporal and eternal destinies! Let Faith be heard raising her triumphant accents amid the pauses of the storm--"_O Lord our God, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them._" (Psalm lxxxix. 9.) Above all, be it yours to enjoy what David knew imperfectly, the conscious nearness of a living SAVIOUR,--a Brother on the throne of Heaven--"_Christ our life_"--God in our nature--"the man Christ Jesus,"--susceptible of every human sympathy--capable of entering, with infinite tenderness, into every human want and woe--bending over us with His pitying eye--marking out for us our path--ordering our sorrows--filling or emptying our cup--providing our pastures, and "making all things work together for our good!" The words at this moment are as true as when, eighteen hundred years ago, they came fresh from His lips in Patmos--"I am _the living_ One!--Behold, I am _alive_ for evermore!" (Rev. i. 18.) * * * * *