Secondly: It is the most extensive. The Word of God goes back to the origin of all things; embraces all from the beginning, and runs on through the interminable future its range is immeasurable. As an inheritance

Thirdly: It is the most enduring. All earthly heritages pass from men, and men from them. But the Word of the Lord "abideth for ever." Look at the Divine Word

II. As an inheritance ONLY PERSONALLY ATTAINED. "Thy testimonies have I taken." Earthly

inheritances often come to men irrespective of effort or choice. But he who would enjoy this inheritance must choose it and win it by his own struggles under God.

Secondly: Always criminal. Man is endowed with the thinking faculty in order to think accurately, righteously, and devoutly.

:

Thirdly Always pernicious. Vain thoughts are the weeds, the fungi, the parasites, the mildew of the soul. Notice here

IL-The LOVED. "Thy law do I love." Here, then, is the hateable and the loveable. Why should the Divine law be loved?

First: It is a revelation of the morally beautiful. It is the transcript of the Mind, that which is the "beauty of holiness."

Secondly It is a guide to the truly happy. It is a map to guide to the heavenly inheritance, a compass directing to the celestial shore.

This hatred, and this love are vitally conjoined. He who loves the law must "hate vain thoughts." Love for the good by a necessity generates hatred for the evil.

God a Shield for the Good. "MY SHIELD."—Psalm cxix. 114.

"FEAR not, Abraham, I am thy shield." Here is―

I.--A SUFFICIENTLY EXPANSIVE shield. A shield large enough to protect the wearer from all attacks whithersoever they proceed, from

I-A great GOOD. Hope. This is one of the most priceless gems in conscious life. It always implies three things.

First: A future. It is a prospective emotion, its eye is always glancing forward. In whatever mind it exists it always implies a belief in a future. It always implies

Secondly: A good in the future. Men always hope only for the desirable. They may expect the undesirable, but never hope for it.

Thirdly: It always implies a good in the future that is attainable. Hope is an expectant desire, a rational man would never hope for a good which he regards as

utterly unattainable. Hope, we say, is one of the greatest blessings in life. It goes to the pauper, and tells him of better days, to the sufferer on his couch, and cheers him with the promise of health, to the prisoner in his cell, and beguiles him with the visions of liberty. Well does Goldsmith say

"The wretch condemned with life to part

Still, still on hope relies, And every pang that rends the heart Bids expectation rise."

Here is

II. A great EVIL. Shame.

Shame

"Let me not be ashamed." is one of the most painful of all our emotions. Some are ashamed of that which cannot be helped, ashamed of the poverty of their ancestry, the supposed uncomeliness of their person, or of the condition in which they have been placed in life. Some are ashamed of that in which they ought to rejoice, ashamed even of the Gospel. Some are ashamed of that of which they have been guilty. This is remorse, and remorse is misery.

"I can bear scorpions' stings, tread fields of fire,

In frozen gulfs of cold eternal lie; Be toss'd aloft through tracts of endless void,

But cannot live in shame."

JOANNA BAILLIE.

against adverse fortunes. When we take into our thought all that the sons and daughters of men endure through poverty, excessive toil, pain and weakness, anxiety and disappointment, bereavement and estrangement, loneliness and separation, the sense of wrong suffered at the hand of others, &c., &c., we may well ask whether life is worth living apart from the comfort, the enlargement, the illumination, the hope which are found in, or proceed from, the service of God, the faith and love which are in Jesus Christ.

II. THE SICKNESS OF SIN. All sickness is strikingly typical of sin sin is the soul's disorder. It is the condition in which the faculties are actively engaged in doing that for which they were not created, or-and this is more common, both in type and antitype-failing to do that for which they were created. The result of this spiritual disorder, answering to the consequences of disease in the bodily form, is (1) pain of heart-weariness, misery, remorse, (2) weakness-incapacity to run, or even to walk in the ways of righteousness or usefulness, (3) death.

healing contact with the Divine Physician; but her strenuous earnestness triumphed over them all. There may be many hindrances, in our hearts or in our circumstances, which lie between us and a redeeming Saviour; but, if we are thoroughly in earnest, we shall certainly surmount them. They need not keep us from restoration now, and they will be no sufficient plea hereafter.

IV. FAITH.

THE POWER OF A LIVING

The faith of this woman was not, probably, a very intelligent one; she thought that if she touched the sacred fringe of His garment she would be cured, and that she might extract virtue from the Prophet without His consciousness and consent. But, though tainted with superstition, her faith in Christ was genuine, and it was accepted; she was "made whole." Our faith may be unintelligent, imperfect, mingled with much that is faulty, but, if we come into close, living, abiding contact with the Saviour-Sovereign of man, we shall escape from the thraldom and the penalty of sin: our heart will become sound in the sight of God; we shall be in the way of becoming perfectly "whole."

V. THE DUTY OF OPEN DECLARATION. The "but," of verse 22, refers to the fact that Jesus did not allow the healed one to go

home without acknowledgement of the benefit she had received (see Mark v. and Luke viii.) It is not His will that we should receive an inestimably greater mercy at His healing hand and not declare to others the supreme blessing He has conferred upon us. WILLIAM CLARKSON, B.A.

BRISTOL.

John vi. 12.

(Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity.) "GATHER UP THE FRAGMENTS

THAT NOTHING BE LOST."

THESE words of our Lord, respecting the fragments, may well suggest to us some thoughts on the attitude of Christianity towards that which is little. We remark

I. THAT CHRISTIANITY IS AN INSPIRATION RATHER THAN A CODE.

If it were possible to devise rules covering all the particulars of human conduct, and to get those rules obeyed, we might still be a long way off the realization of the thought of Christ. The essence of His religion is not found in propriety of behaviour, but in the possession of a reverent, pure, and loving spirit.

II. THAT CHRISTIANITY CONCERNS ITSELF WITH PRINCIPLES RATHER THAN PARTICULARS. Jesus Christ instituted very little indeed. He prescribed very little. When we

seek for literal support for our favourite institutions, or practices, from His words, we fail to find it. So, when we search for literal condemnation of the ways and methods we desire to abolish. Our Lord has left us a few living principles which we must, ourselves, apply to all the varying conditions and relations in which we are placed; principles of righteousness, devotion, truthfulness, love, &c. These will amply suffice if we be sincerely bent on making the application according to His mind. But, at the same time, it is trueIII.

THAT CHRISTIANITY INCLUDES A CONSCIENTIOUS ATTENTION TO THE SMALLEST THINGS.

A supreme desire to honour God, to please Christ, will lead to a serious endeavour to do the right thing, and to speak the true word at all times and in all relations. A pure and Christian love for man will lead to a determination to act fairly and considerately toward every one with whom we have to do. The spirit of consecration, the principles of righteousness will end in a conscientious carefulness which reaches to the humblest details of our life. If we are walking with, and are serving under Christ, we shall not only "distribute the loaves" but "gather up the fragments." This will be true of (a) leisure hours, or fragments of time: we shall