to preshadow a future state. Whilst I would at all times studiously endeavour to avoid the sin of what is called spiritualising God's Word, I feel that it is lawful to use an incident like this as an illustration of spiritual realities. The incident which occurred in the grave of Elisha on this occasion, viz.: the deriving of life by contact with the holy dead, is, in the material depart

ment of things to which it belongs, sublimely singular. Such an event as this, perhaps, will never occur again; but a thing analogous to this in the spiritual domain is, thank God, of frequent occurrence. The dead minds of earth are constantly deriving life from contact with the spiritual remains of the dead.

DAVID THOMAS, D.D.

LONDON.

THIS verse is supposed by some to close the letter. The remaining verses are considered to be the postscript in which the apostle gracefully acknowledges the generous contributions he had received from them through the hands of Epaphroditus. The text directs attention to the trans

mission of the knowledge of Christ. Observe

I. This knowledge of Christ is to be transmitted FROM MAN TO MAN. "Those things which ye have both learned and received," &c. It is suggested that the transmission of this knowledge includes

two things. First: Teaching on the part of the minister. Paul had received the Gospel (1 Cor. xv. 3; Gal. i. 12.), and received it as a message, received it to communicate. This he did, did to the Philippians as well as to others. He did it in two ways (1) By words. "And heard." After his commission Paul used all his oratoric force for this purpose. He spoke to men rationally, devoutly, intelligently, earnestly, and with invincible persistence. The story of Christ is to be handed down from man to man by human lips. The pen can no more do the work of the tongue in this respect, than the moon can do the work of the sun. Under the influence of the former the landscape will wither and the rivers will freeze. He did this (2) By example. "And seen in me." Paul embodied the Gospel. His life confirmed the doctrine that his lips declared. In him, as in his Master, the "word became flesh." Here then is the Divine way of transmitting from generation to generation the story of Christ.

Men have tried other ways and have signally failed,

The

Sec

hence the wretched moral condition of the world to-day. This way is, to a great extent, practically ignored. transmission includes, ondly: Learning on the part of the hearer. "Ye have both learned, and received, and heard." A man may tell the story of Christ with the utmost accuracy and fullness. The spirit of the story he may breathe in his life and embody in his conduct, but it is only vitally transmitted so far as it is learnt by the auditors. We live in an age when people through a vitiated moral taste, theological prejudices, and sectarian proclivities turn away their ear from the true teachers of their time. They resort to places where they can be tickled, not taught, flattered, not corrected.

II.—This knowledge of Christ is to be transmitted IN ORDER ΤΟ BE PRACTISED.

"Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, DO." A Gospel sermon should never be regarded as a lecture on philosophy, literature, or art, a mere subject for specu

lative thought, or a subject of discussion. The Gospel is a law, it comes from the highest authority, and with a binding force. What is said is to be done, not merely approved, criticised, thought on, or sighed about, but done. The ideas communicated are to be translated into actions, and such actions will ever be Christly in spirit and tendency. But into what actions are the conventional sermons of England translated? Turn to the columns of our daily journals and read of the mercantile swindlings, the courtly depravities, idlenesses, and sports, the political intrigues, senatorial slanderings and quarrellings, the barbaric executions, the bloody wars, and other nameless iniquities sanctioned and enacted by the hearers of what are called Gospel sermons. Ah me! What boots preaching?

III. The practice of this knowledge of Christ ENSURES

THE SUBLIMEST GOOD.

"The

God of peace shall be with you." In verse seven we read of having the "peace of God," here of having the "God of peace." To have His peace is something glorious; but to

have Himself is something transcendently greater. “The God of peace." Elsewhere He is called the "God of Salvation," the "God of consolation," the "God of hope," &c.; but this title seems to transcend all others. First: He is at peace with Himself. A moral intelligence to possess peace must be absolutely free from the following things,malice, remorse, forebodings. The mightiest revolutions through all the millenniums and the hostilities of all the hells of the universe awake no ripple upon the boundless sea of His ever-flowing love. Secondly: He is at peace with the universe. He has no unkind feeling to any sentient being; He contends with no one; He is at peace with all. He contend, forsooth!-Does the immovable rock contend with the waves that break at its feet? Does the sun contend with the fleeting clouds?

Now they who translate the Gospel into their life shall have the " God of peace" ever with them, with them as the sunny heavens are with the earth.

DAVID THOMAS, D.D.

LONDON.

BEFORE gathering the primary and principal lessons of this word of the Lord Jesus, we may pluck a truth which is quite incidental, but of which we are fairly reminded; viz.

L-THE STARTLING ELEMENT IN CHRIST'S TEACHING. Surely the Great Teacher could hardly have uttered anything more surprising than this: exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees in order even to enter into His kingdom! Be better than the best, holier than the holiest men, in order to take rank among the humblest citizens of the kingdom of God! This was more startling, if possible, than the word spoken to Nicodemus, (John iii.), than that uttered after the miracle on the other side the Lake of Galilee (John vi. 35, 51, 53). Jesus made frequent use of paradoxical and perplexing sayings.

The generation He addressed needed to be startled out of a deathful torpor, or out of a fatal spiritual pride, and He spoke words which astonished the people, which arrested their thought and aroused their consciences. The minister of Christ often finds it to be his bounden duty to act as his Master did on these occasions; he is not merely to be forgiven, he is to be commended for saying things which startle and astonish, which seem to be false but, on investigation, are found to be true.

OF

II. THE WORTHLESSNESS THE PIETY HE CONDEMNED. The righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was not that of Moses, of David, of Isaiah; it was the righteousness of observance and propriety, of ordinance and abstinence. Their supreme anxiety was to render every smallest detail of devotion which the law prescribed, and leave undone every single act which was legally disallowed. Their piety spent itself in mere correctnesses and proprieties; it was lost in regularities of behaviour and niceties of speech. But although there might be a great quantity of infinitesimal

Ꭺ

goodness in this, there was nothing in them satisfying to God or elevating to the human heart. All this formal, mechanical righteousness was worthless, inasmuch as it might exist (1) Without any love to God in the heart: it might be nothing more than habit contracted from childhood, or conformity to custom for the sake of man's approval, or unwilling and even laboured obedience with a view to future recompense. man might be a perfect Pharisee without any touch or trace of pure affection for the Father of his spirit. (2) Without any love for man: ceremonial assiduity and proprieties of behaviour may coexist with positive malignity and even murderousness of spirit, as they did in the lives and hearts of these sanctimonious and unscrupulous scribes. (3) Without any nobility of spirit and, therefore, without any excellency of life: men may multiply prayers and may cut off all excesses and irregularities, and yet they may be mean, selfish, ignoble, in the very last degree ungodly and unchristian. If a man have nothing more to show to God than attention to Christian ordinances and conformity to external Christian morals, he is a Pharisee in heart, his righteousness is fatally defective, he is not within the

kingdom of Christ.

THESE words express or suggest,—

I. THE THREEFOLD DESTITUTION WHICH PREVAILS SO

PITIFULLY. (1) Physical: this is in large measure and in various degrees; occasionally reaching actual starvation, the depopulating famine; often the presence of hunger, positive suffering from craving for food; very frequently an imperfect supply of nourishment, resulting in weakness or disease; quite commonly a fierce struggle for the necessaries or comforts of life, ending in nervous disorder and death before the time.