right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me!" They had no thought that they were ministering to Him, when ministering to the wants and sorrows of the afflicted; but because of the love to Him by which they were actuated, He accredits them with a beneficence they never designed, and astonishes them by discovering the mighty amount of goodness that may be involved in one simple act of genuine Christian love; and how far, how infinitely far it reaches, even from earth to heaven, from the prisoner in his dungeon, up to Christ upon His throne!

"In that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial." Such, then, is the gracious principle upon which He acts towards every one that loves Him. And what stronger encouragement could He possibly have given us to the exercise of Christian love and beneficence ? Let but the thing be done heartily and earnestly from simple love to Him, and He graciously accredits the doer of it, not merely with the good which was designed to be its immediate effect, but with all the beneficent results that follow in the long train of its consequences. A good work wrought for Christ does not die away in the doing of it. It lives on. It lives on in its influence on other minds. It lives on in every good thought and feeling, and desire, which directly, or indirectly, it may be the means of exciting. It lives on from generation to generation, with unspent energy and with immortal life;

and the doer of it lives in it, acting still, and like Abel, "being dead, yet speaketh." And thus Mary is pouring out her ointment still, in constant endless stream; and ever, as it still flows on, it wins for her the Master's blessing. "She did it for my burial;" and so, to the very last result, He will accredit her with all!

Ah, and it is an awful consideration, that the like immortality attaches to the evil that we do. Even though it should not corrupt others, it makes the door worse. It tends to strengthen and inveterate his depravity. But sin begets sin; and that too with a power incalculably prolific. "Dead works," as the apostle calls them, from the result in which they naturally issue, are instinct with terrible, with inextinguishable life life that works by multiplying death. Evil words, evil deeds, evil example, have all their own necessary and pernicious influences; and in these influences the man himself lives on a posthumous life, acting where he is not, acting ages after death, and in the eye of God connected with them even to their very last results: connected with them, aye, and inculpated in them too. A terrible consideration for every man! A terrible thought, but an incontrovertible truth. Just as in a good work wrought upon Christ, or for Christ, there is involved an amount of beneficence absolutely immeasurable, and known only to Him who sees it all; so in the doings of an evil man, in the disastrous efficacy of his example and influence, there is an amount of criminality which eternity alone can declare, but in the whole of which he is implicated; and not more certainly in the evil which he has consciously committed, than in that of which he has been unintentionally the cause. How many a man ought this consideration to bring to a pause! How many a man ought it to prostrate at the foot of the Cross, to lay hold there of the means which God has mercifully provided for the expiation of our guilt, and to seek there that new heart, and that right spirit, which will lead him to labor as zealously for Christ, as he has hitherto lived recklessly against Him.

But looking again at the text, let us endeavor to enter practically into the spirit of this gracious declaration, and to derive from it that stimulus to loving activity for the honor of Christ, which it is designed and adapted to impart. "For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial." In doing what she could, she did far more than she thought of doing, and Jesus accredited her with it all. This is the moral we are anxious to impress.

All of us, then, can do something. However limited our means or ability, all of us can do something; and if the love of Christ be in our hearts, something we cannot but do. Inactive and indifferent we cannot be. To Himself-except as He graciously identifies Himself with all who need help, comfort, advice, instruction-to Himself personally, we can do nothing. But there are those whom He condescends to call His brethren, and to whom He points us as His representatives; and a good work done unto them, He regards as a good work wrought upon Himself. In the very humblest effort honestly and heartily made for His sake to befriend the destitute, to solace the wretched, to reclaim the vicious, to strengthen the feeble, to instruct the ignorant-believe it! there is a virtue and a value with which we indeed can never plume ourselves, but which He, nevertheless, will generously acknowledge to the glory of His grace. Only do what you can, and you will do far more than you think of. Comfort but one heart, lead but one sinner to the Cross, reclaim but one lost sheep or lamb, instruct but one poor child believingly to name the name of Jesus, teach but one of these little ones that he has a Saviour in Christ and a Father in God, and you know not what you may be doing. You know not how many you may be benefitting in benefitting one. Eternity alone can tell you, and then you will stand astonished at the result. Your loving efforts will have an immortal operation and imperishable consequences; and with them all, you will be graciously idertified by Him, who sees the end in the beginning, and the effect in the cause. The poor, the thoughtless, the ignorant, the afflicted, you

have always with you, and He has set them before you as representatives of Himself. Let, then, the love of Him who loved us; let the death of Him who died for us; let the life of Him who ever liveth for us; let these constrain you, and you cannot be inactive. Something you will do; and you will do it heartily and earnestly, as unto God, and not as

unto men.

Standing, too, as we do on the threshold of another year, when the past, with its grave reflections, and the future with its unknown possibilities, are both pressing upon the soul, these considerations seem to come with peculiar solemnity. Another year! And so much more of life is gone, and so much less remains! So much less of ability, and influence, and gracious opportunity that precious balsam, of which, though bought for us at such a price, we are for the most part so unmindful. How much, indeed, has been indolently suffered to evaporate or run to waste! How much has been wantonly lavished on objects, far other, alas, than those which Christian love selects! And how scanty the little that may now remain! Whatever the residue, to Thee, O Saviour, be it all devoted! Though but a drop be left, Thou, in Thy benignity, wilt not repulse the penitential love that offers even that.

Milverton Church,

LEAMINGTON.

J. H. SMITH, M.A.

I Homiletic Glance at the Acts of the Apostles.

Able expositions of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, describing the manners, customs, and localities described by the inspired writers; also interpreting their words, and harmonizing their formal discrepancies, are, happily, not wanting amongst us. But the eduction of its WIDEST truths and highest suggestions is still a felt desideratum. To some attempt at the work we devote these pages. We gratefully avail ourselves of all exegetical helps within our reach; but to occupy our limited space with any lengthened archæological, geographical, or philological remarks, would be to miss our aim; which is not to make bare the mechanical process of the study of Scripture, but to reveal its spiritual results.

SECTION FIFTH.-Acts i. 15-26.

For he was numbered with Now this man purchased a falling headlong, he burst

"And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. us, and had obtained part of this ministry. field with the reward of iniquity; and asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take. Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles."-Acts i. 15-26.

SUBJECT:-The First Ecclesiastical Meeting for Business. HIS paragraph chronicles the First Meeting of the

business. The meeting was held in those days," i.e., in