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we have and are is from God. As all the earth's flowers and harvests come, as it were, from the sun, as the coals that warm us to-day are only the "bottled sunbeams" of the past, so our direct and present blessings are from God, and those which reach us through the work and learning and goodness of past generations come also from God. God's uninterrupted working is the golden thread on which all the jewels of our blessings are strung; if that were ceasing for a moment, all would be lost. And I need not tell you of the "unspeakable gift" which lets us know that the love from which all comes is boundless. 'Oh, the depth and height, the length and breadth, of the love of God in Christ Jesus!"

II. GOD SHOWS SPECIAL KINDNESS TO CHILDREN ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR FATHERS.

1. For one thing, the promise of this makes the fathers happy. Was not Abraham happy when God told him how good and great Isaac and his children were going to be? Abraham, thinking of his other child, said, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before Thee!" and he got a promise on his account also. You cannot please parents better than by being good to their children, and God pleases His people by telling them that He will bless their children after they are gone.

2. Then this gives goodness, so to speak, a much better chance in the world. If you were making a machine that took weeks and weeks to finish, you would begin to-day where you left off yesterday. If you pulled all down and started afresh every day, you would never finish it. So God, in making this world better and better, and being determined that He will not give up till He can look upon the second creation as He did upon the first, and see that it is "very good," takes generally the children of good men to work upon. Instead of the fathers, He takes the children; begins, as it were, with them where He left off with the fathers.

III. THE DUTIES OF CHILDREN IN VIEW OF ALL THIS. SurelyI. Love to God. Is there one heart here that can withhold its love from God and His dear Son? There is no ingratitude so black as ingratitude to God.

2. Take great care not to break the chain of blessing. How dreadful it is to be the bad child of good parents! It is like the burning of a grand old house, with its treasures that have been gathered up for centuries. What punishment and shame are too great for that child who sets it on fire, or carelessly lets it take fire?

3. Choose this God as your Father, who has chosen you as His child. 66 Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." Make the right choice, and stick to it. Take Christ as your Saviour and

Leader, and the fathers whom "He loved" and the children whom "He chose " will meet together where there will be no parting for ever-in His own blessed presence.

"THE LORD THY GOD IS A MERCIFUL GOD

(Deut. iv. 31).

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THE text teaches what God is in Himself, and not merely in relation to the covenant people. He is a merciful God." Redemption is the very crown of His mercy; for though it was accomplished by Christ, it sprang from the heart of God. There is a kind of confused notion with many that Christ's salvation is a sort of refuge from God. It is the expression and fruit of His love.

I. NATURAL DEDUCTIONS FROM THE CHARACTER OF GOD HERE GIVEN.

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1. If God is of His very nature a merciful God, His mercy must rest on, and actively work for, the good of all His creatures. And so it is expressly declared, "His tender mercies are over all His works.' How the meanest things are provided for, loved by Him! Outcast things are royally provided for by Him. He has made His love an inalienable right to His creatures. (1.) Our sins, however great, cannot separate us from God's mercy. Love is soon wearied out when it runs in a shallow stream; but the deep current of pity in a mother's heart, what profligacy or ingratitude can drain or dry up that? But God's love is an unfathomable ocean. Mark, that this thought gives no encouragement to sin, for the very reality and depth of that love will cause our Father to chasten us sore to free us from it. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." "I will visit his iniquity with the rod, but My love will I not take from him." Be sure of chastisement, because God has mercy on you. (2.) Neither men's nationality nor any decree or necessity on God's part separates from the mercy of God. A Chinaman or Turk is as much loved by God as an Englishman or Scotchman. Our unfaithfulness in sending the gospel to the heathen does not lock up God's heart towards them. And whatever the election of grace may mean, it cannot mean that our loving Father shuts up His bowels of mercy against any son of Adam.

2. If God is of His very nature a merciful God, He must love His creatures to all eternity. "I am the Lord; I change not." He must be for ever what He is now. If you would say of any act here and now, "That is the Lord's doing," or, "That cannot be His doing," so you can say of His working to all eternity.

The Saviour who had compassion on the multitude, who wept over Jerusalem, is "the same yesterday and to-day and for ever."

II. CONSIDER SOME DIFFICULTIES IN REGARD TO THESE DEDUCTIONS.

1. Are there not great dangers arising out of them? There are. Men inferred from the Apostle's teaching that they might go on in sin, and grace would abound. The love of parents is dangerous to the right upbringing of children. The Spartan mode of public, heartless drill no doubt saved many a one from becoming a prodigal. A perpetual frost would effectually keep weeds from growing. But we must accept the dangers of the gospel of mercy, for only in the felt sunshine of God's love can any soul ripen and bring forth lovely blossoms and rich fruit. "Turn not the grace of God into lasciviousness."

2. But are there not many things both in nature and providence and in God's Word which seem at variance with them? There are. As to nature, the material, so to speak, in which they are written, is not adapted for the perfecting of the characters. They are written in large. The lovely statue is only roughhewn. Providence attains nearer to a perfect transcript. As to God's Word, what seems against the truth of God's perfect love and boundless mercy can arise only from our imperfect vision. The great current of revelation speaks the love of God; seeming exceptions are only little eddies, which will somehow find their way to the mighty stream. "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God.”

311

Fifth Sunday after Easter.

EPISTLE.

"BE YE DOERS OF THE WORD, AND NOT HEARERS ONLY," &c. (James i. 22-25).

IT is assumed that the Word is preached-the same, the one Divine Word-alike to all. But though the Word in itself is the same, the text points out to us that the hearers differ from one another, so that the Word is not the same to them.

Both

I. TO A CERTAIN EXTENT BOTH CLASSES ARE ALIKE. classes are hearers, and may be attentive hearers, of the Word. There is no outward, visible, recognised distinction. Both may be baptized members of the visible Church and partakers of the sacrament of our Lord's body and blood. It is not a question of inattention, neglect, or disrespect of the Word. In every congregation, in every community, the two classes co-exist. "Both grow together until the harvest."

II. BEYOND THIS POINT THE TWO CLASSES ARE SEPARATED BY AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION.

1. The one class treats God's Word and Gospel as a mere mirror, the other as a law. (1.) As one gazing into a clear sheet of water or plate of polished brass sees his image reflected and all stains and deformities mirrored, so the mere hearer of the Word is thereby revealed to himself—and that is all! (2.) To the other class Christ's Word and Gospel are a law. This is a true, a high, a manly, a divine conception of God's Word. A perfect" law, the expression of God's mind; a "law of liberty," as that to obey which with cheerfulness is the highest exercise of freedom.

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2. The one class goes away and forgets, the other ponders and remembers the Word. (1.) The mere hearer forgets alike the revelation of sin and the need of salvation. (2.) The hearer who is more than a hearer "looks into," studies, and applies him

self to the law, and "continueth," abides with it, consulting it as his oracle.

3. The one class omits to do, the other does the bidding of the Word. A vital distinction !

4. Those of the one class deceive themselves; the others are blessed in doing, happy in their deed, their working, which brings their life into harmony with the living Word.

SELF-DECEPTION
(James i. 22-27).

I. IT IS SELF-DECEPTION WHEN MEN THINK THEY ARE SERVING GOD WHEN THEY NEITHER HEAR NOR DO THE WORD OF GOD. "Err not!" Towns and villages alike in this land show their multitudes who live in constant neglect of all the means of grace, and cry, "Peace, peace!" when there is no peace.

II. IT IS SELF-DECEPTION WHEN MEN THINK THEY ARE SERVING GOD BECAUSE THEY HEAR, THOUGH THEY DO NOT THE WORD OF GOD. "Err not!"

I. It is doubtless God's will that we should hear His Word. 2. But this will not avail if we are forgetful hearers. See the lively picture St. James gives of such.

3. Nor will it avail if we show the want of religion by not bridling the tongue. "That man's religion is vain."

4. Nor will it avail without good works. "Pure religion and undefiled," &c.

PURE RELIGION
(James i. 22-27).

I. PURE RELIGION DOES NOT CONSIST IN MERE ATTENDANCE ON THE MEANS OF GRACE. This is a great self-deception, and is consistent with utter self-forgetfulness.

I. We enter God's house and hastily behold ourselves in the glass of God's Word.

2. We pray, but our hearts may be far from God.

3. We sing, but it may not be with the spirit and the understanding also.

4. We hear God's Word expounded, and our Christianity may remain the same in our heart and life-dead and lifeless.

II. PURE RELIGION CONSISTS IN DOING THE WORD OF GOD. 1. God's Word is the perfect law of liberty, into which we are to look for the rule of duty.

2. And there we find, as summarised by St. James, that it has two parts:-(1.) A duty towards others: "to assist the fatherless

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