First: It involves the sacrifice of what a man is and has. "Thy money perish with thee." Peter took it for granted, that he would perish. Thy hopes, friendships, will perish. Money, houses, &c., will perish. Thy sons come to honour and thou knowest it not. A Good man's money lives in its consequences.

Secondly It forbids an interest in religion. "Thou has neither part nor lot," &c.; i. e. in Christianity, with its teeming doctrines, promises, and provisions. It is no more to thee, than if it had never been, and all the past portion of thy existence is a blank, as far as the realizing of thy destiny is concerned.

Thirdly: It necessitates great personal wretchedness. Two figures are employed to designate it. "Gall of bitterness!" "Bonds of iniquity!

III. THERE IS A

DETERMINATE WAY BY WHICH THIS

ENORMOUS EVIL MAY BE CURED. 'Repent, &c."

First: Repentance. Secondly: Prayer, &c. This implies all the inculcations of Christianity.

IV. ALTHOUGH THIS WAY IS DISTINCTLY DEFINED, THERE IS A TENDENCY IN THE CORRUPT HEART TO PROJECT METHODS

OF ITS OWN. Simon did not pray for himself, but asked Peter to pray for him, and to pray, not that his heart might be changed, but that the consequences of sin might be averted.

First: Men are prone to seek only deliverance from condemnation. "That none of these things may happen to me." To avoid hell and to gain heaven, are the sole aspiration of many. Secondly: They seek this deliverance by any means but the right. "Pray for me." He does not pray for himself. There is proxyism in religion, which has been the curse of millions.

I hold this man up to you as you sail over the ocean of life. shall deliver his soul."

Hackney.

a beacon, to warn you as "He that taketh warning

J. CHAPMAN Davie.

SUBJECT:-The Ineffectiveness of Christ's Personal
Ministry, a Man-revealing Fact.

“Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely," &c.-Isaiah, xlix. 4.

Analysis of Homily the Hundred and Fourteenth.

We shall assume that these words express Christ's experience; and assuming this, they cannot be taken in an absolute sense. Christ did a great work while on earth. He put the great machinery of the world's religious thought, which had been motionless for ages, into operation; and it has not paused since, but moved on with accelerated speed. He will, one day, "see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied." Indeed, no holy effort by any being can ever be in vain. An unholy being may adopt these words in the most absolute sense. But in the lips of Christ they must be looked at only in a comparative sense. He laboured in vain, compared with what the kind and amount of agency employed were suited to effect.

We shall look at this fact, as revealing certain other facts in relation to human nature.

We cannot

I. IT REVEALS MAN'S FREEDOM OF ACTION. conceive of a mightier moral energy being brought to bear upon mind, than that which Jesus brought to bear upon the Jewish mind, and yet it was resisted. The Jews resisted moral omnipotence. He appealed in the most powerful way to three of the most influential principles in our nature. (1). Belief. If you want to influence men, you must take your stand upon their faiths. You can do nothing with souls, if you ignore these. There were, especially, two faiths which Christ appealed to the one instinctive, and the other attained. The former was: that miracles are the works of God. Humanity, through all ages and the world over, refers instinctively any phenomenon contrary to the regular operations of nature to its Deity. Christ appeared before the Jews and performed the most stupendous miracles. The world could not contain the

books which would record them. The latter faith was :-that their scriptures predicted a Messiah. Christ appealed to these predictions. He appealed (2). to their conscience. His character, doctrines, and precepts bore directly on the conscience. He appealed (3) to their interest. He revealed the judgment day, unfolded heaven, uncovered hell. Thus he assailed their souls; and yet they resisted. Do not say that man has no moral power; he has proved himself, by the comparative ineffectiveness of our Saviour's labors, to have power to resist the mightiest moral influences of God.

sensuous.

The

II. IT REVEALS MAN'S PERVERSITY OF CHARACTER. possession of the capacity to resist the highest moral influences, is the gift of God. It is neither subject for blame nor praise, but for thankfulness to God. But the using of that capacity to oppose holy and divine influences, is our guilt and ruin. There were three perversities in the Jews that led to this resistence. 1. Perversity of judgment. Their judgments were They "judged after the flesh." In the scriptures they read of a coming king, priest, conqueror; they identified that king with pageantry-that priest, with flowing robes and sacrifices-that conqueror with mighty armies. When the true king, priest, and conqueror, came, he had none of these, and they would not have him. Their judgments were servile. The scribes and pharisees were their theological masters. They allowed them to manufacture their creed. Christ came and denounced their great leaders as heretics and hypocrites, and they waxed indignant. This sensuous, servile, judgment in religion is ever an obstruction to the spread of truth. 2. Perversity of feeling. There were two perverse feelings, especially, that lead them to reject Christ: an undue reverence for the antique. They loved the antiquity of Judaism. Men who tie themselves to precedents rather than principles, can never advance. An undue respect

for worldly greatness. They thought a deal about worldly wealth and pomp; Christ had none. 3. Perversity of life. Josephus informs us that so corrupt was the Jewish nation in

the time of Christ, that had not the Romans come and destroyed them, God would have rained fire from heaven, as of old, to consume them. These perversities of judgment, feeling, and life, have ever been impulses, stimulating man to oppose Christianity.

III. IT REVEALS MAN'S EXCLUSIVE SUPPORT IN HIS HIGHEST LABORS. The highest labor is that in which Christ was engaged. What was his support? Not adequate success: for he complains of not having it. Here it is, "surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God." Two supporting ideas here involved: 1. That the cause in which we are engaged is the cause of God. My work is with my God. 2. That the reward of our efforts is from God. "My judgment" (reward), "is with the Lord." The good will be rewarded, not according to the success of their labors, but according to the purity of their motives, and the devotion of their power.

SUBJECT: The Power of Christ.

"All power is given me in heaven and on earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations," &c.—Matt. xxviii. 18-19.

Analysis of Homily the Hundred and Fifteenth.

I. THAT CHRIST'S POWER IS UNIVERSAL IN ITS EXTENT. "In heaven and in earth." 1. All power in heaven. In intercession with his father-in the dispensation of the spirit, and in the disposal of the angels. 2. He has all power on earth. He has power over diseases, famines, passions, governments, institutions, societies, &c. "He maketh the wrath of man to praise him, and he restrains."

II. THAT CHRIST'S POWER IS DERIVED FROM ANOTHER. "Is given to me." On the first blush of it, this might seem a drawback. We should prefer an inherent essential power, to a power dependent and derived. But let us think again.

It is given to him as mediator; given, 1. As a reward or testimony. 2. With the specific view of being employed in a particular way. God gave him to be head over all things

"to the church."

III. THAT CHRIST'S POWER IS FOR MAN'S CULTURE. Why does he say, this power is given to him? Does he say, "Now that I have the power, let me send you to avenge my wrongs? Go and tell the nations, that since they would have none of me, I also will laugh at their calamity, I will mock when their fear cometh?" Not at all. In his exultation triumphs, also, the purest benevolence. "All power is mine now." "Go ye, therefore, into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Observe two things: 1. The extent of spiritual culture at which Christ aims. All nations. 2. Christ's instrumentality of spiritual culture. "Teaching." Teaching two ways-by baptism, "baptizing" them; and by speech-" commanding them." &c.

H. M. L. Walker.

SUBJECT: Divine Impartiality.

"God is no respecter of persons."-Act. x. 34.

Analysis of Homily the Hundred and Sixteenth.

THIS passage does not mean either of the three following things:

First: That God pays no regard to men at all. The deist would have us believe this. Reason, consciousness, analogy, and the Bible, however, refute this. Secondly It does not mean that God looks at men indiscriminately-regards them merely in the mass. No, he looks at each individually. Thirdly: It does not mean that he bestows blessings on some, which he imparts not to others. He has given to each some distinguishing blessing of mind, body, or estate. What then does it mean?