the Scriptures, for in them ye have eternal life." This mental position is, Secondly: Most ennobling. The man who

stands in the counsels of the Lord, who lives in the Scriptures, will have an elevation of spirit, a nobility of nature, a dignity of bearing that will give him power over the minds of men. Such a man will never temporize, never be afraid of the face of man. Why are preachers so often weak, trimming and despicable? Because they stand not in the counsels of the Lord, but in the opinions of others, and in their own conceits. They reflect the rushlight of human learning, not the sunbeams of divine thought. The true preacher must stand in the counsel of the Lord, stand to listen with reverence, and to learn with zeal. We have here,

II. HIS GRAND WORK. "Caused my people to hear my words." God has spoken words to men, and his words are their life. "Thou hast the words of eternal life." First: This is the most difficult work. There is no work so difficult as that of making men hear-hear believingly and practically the words of the Lord. Man's spiritual ears are so sealed by carnality, worldliness, and sin, that they will not listen. Notwithstanding, this is the preacher's work. Secondly: This is the most urgent work. The words of the Lord are a man's only light, hope,

and salvation. Human words are utterly ineffectual. No work so urgent as this. Alas, that any preacher should aim at anything lower than this, that they should aim rather to induce man to hear their own feeble words, or the utterances of their own little Church, than to listen to the voice of the Lord. We have here

III. HIS TRUE TEST. Jehovah declares in the text that if his prophets had done the right thing, then "they should have turned their hearers from their evil ways, and from the evil of their doings. Two things are here implied. First: That conversion from evil is the great want of mankind. Until man is turned from his evil ways, and his evil doings, he must remain in his ruined condition; -moral conversion is essential to his well-doing. Secondly: Conversion from evil is the great tendency of God's Word. If men had rightly listened to God's Word they would have turned from evil. The Bible is against sin. Th strongest argument in favour of Christianity is that it leads men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, &c. What is the test of the true preacher ? Not the attracting of multitudes to listen to his voice, not the rousing of passions, not the charming of the imagination, not even the enlightening of the understanding, but the turning men from evil.

THE ETERNITY OF GOD'S LOVE FOR MAN.

"I have loved thee with an everlasting love."-Jer. xxxi. 3. FIRST God loves. He has, therefore, a heart, and is not mere cold intellect. His infinite power of thought is associated with affectional sensibilities. Secondly: God loves man. Glorious truth this! A truth clearly revealed. "God so loved the world," &c. The text teaches, however, that this love for man is eternal. It never had a beginning. All the individuals in all the generations of men were as real to Him eternal ages before they were created as they ever were, as they ever will be. To Him nothing old appears, to Him nothing new. Amongst the many things in which his everlasting love for man appears, we may mention three.

I. It appears in the SPHERE OF MAN'S BEING. "The earth hath he given to the children of men. What a glorious world is this, fitted in every way for us! First-It is a magnificent hall of beauty. Man has an instinct for beauty, and the universe overflows with it. Secondly: It is a bountiful banquet of provisions. Whatever fruit we require to gratify our appetites, to strengthen and support our bodies, is here in exuberance. Thirdly: It is a suggestive school of culture. Man has an intellectual nature which thirsts for knowledge. The

world abounds with lessons in pictures, and in voices sweet and varied. Fourthly: It is a majestic temple of devotion. Man is made for worship. He "cries out for the living God." The world is full of Him.

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II. It appears in the PLAN OF MAN'S BEING. Man is a being who seems to be organized for every kind of enjoyment. First Sensuous enjoyment. Through his five senses he receives every day a thousand pleasurable sensations of sight and sound, touch and taste, and smell. Secondly: Intellectual enjoyment. How great the pleasure of contemplation! The pleasures of discovering truth, of rising from particulars to generals, from forms to things, from phenonema to laws, from matter to mind. What a heaven man can create by his thoughts. Thirdly: Social enjoyment. How great the joys man derives from the interchange of thought, the blending of sympathy, the commerce of soul with soul ! Who can exaggerate the pleasures of real friendship? Fourthly: Religious enjoyment. Man has the power to enjoy the Creator by meditation, adoration, fellowship. This is the highest kind of creature joy, "In his presence there is fulness of joy." Now has any creature greater powers of enjoyment than man? The brute has the sensuous, but none of the rest. Some creatures may have the intellectual with.

CONCLUSION.-First: Human misery is a human creation. Human misery is not in the plan of God, does not well up from the constitution of things. Misery is an exception, not a law in the universe. It is begotten of the creature, not produced by the Creator. Israel thou hast destroyed thyself," &c. Secondly: Human worship is an unquestionable obligation. Ought not man to worship a God that has been so specially good to him, who has placed him in such a world as this, endowed him with such manifold sources of pleasures, and who hath provided for him a Redeemer to raise him from his guilt and misery? Surely were angels to lay aside their harps of worship it were man's duty to take them up and ring out the swelling strain: "Blessing and honour and glory and power be

VOL. XXIII.

unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Amen.

HUMAN GLORYING.

"Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord."-Jer. ix. 23, 24.

THERE is in man a strong tendency to glory in something. There is a vaunting spirit in all This tendency, like every other natural propensity, has a right as well as a wrong The text leads us to

men.

use.

consider

I. WRONG GLORYING. There are three improper objects of glorying mentioned in the text. First: Wisdom. Wise men are very prone to intellectual pride and to glory in their attainments. But our wisdom, even the wisdom of the wisest, affords no ground for glory. How little the wisest man knows compared with what is to be known, with what he ought to have known! What said Newton, &c. Another improper object of glorying mentioned in the text is, Secondly: Strength. "Let not the mighty man glory in his strength." Men have ever been proud of their physical energy. But this

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assuredly is no good reason for glorying. First, because the strongest of us are weak compared with other inferior creatures; secondly, because the strength we have is the gift of God. Another improper object of glorying mentioned in the text is, Thirdly: Wealth. "Let not the rich man glory in his riches." How men do glory in wealth, but how foolish. What they have was not theirs a few years ago, and will not be theirs in a few years time. "Naked we came into the world and naked shall we return," &c.

II. RIGHT GLORYING. What are the right objects of glory? There are two things in the text in which men may glory. First A spiritual knowledge of the Lord. "Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth me." A man who really knows God in Christ may well glory. Paul gloried in the cross of Christ. Secondly: The supreme delight of God. What is the supreme delight of God? Moral goodness. "I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Ought we not to glory in the fact that our God, the God of the universe, does not delight in impurity, injustice, or wrong?

THE GLORIFIED CHRIST.

"And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals," &c. -Rev. v. 1.

OF THE The book God, like

I. THE SOLUTION MYSTERIES OF GOD. in the right hand. the painter, poet, builder, works by plan. It is not fate, or accident, or destiny, that rules in this world. This is but a confession of difficulty-no solution. John wept, so may we if this disordered life has no other solution. Is the conflict of life purposeless? Evidences of plan and purpose: in nature:-no chance: the laws of tides, stars, even comets we know, and shall probably know other hidden things, e.g., law of storms, &c. Everywhere there are proofs of an intelligent mind and divine purpose. This truth is stamped on our lives from first to last. We are limited, dependent, controlled everywhere. Life itself is not ours to determine, nor its particular form and circumstances. Even where we have a choice, the circumstances between which we choose are not in our power. The duration of life is determined apart from our choice. If thought is ours, the power to think is given. Again, the great variety there is among men, modified, too, by so many circumstances of birth, education, &c., variety in regard to temperament, position, success, anticipation. And so in regard

to the inner life and the life and course of the Church. Wise builders always work by plan. The wisest are most like God.

The Book: characteristics of this plan, order, completeness, duration. Sealed: its secrets are hid. Who can unseal? No creature. Men can unveil mysteries in nature, in human nature, in science, and even in Providence sometimes, but the mysteries they discover are always more numerous than those they solve, the questions that start more than those that are answered, and the perplexity arising from the former often greater than the comfort arising from the latter. Christ, the revealer of the secret things of God. The mystery of life has its solution in him. True in relation to history-the cross the central fact; as Christianity shook the mighty throne of the Caesars, so will it all that oppose its spirit and rule. True in relation to the soul-the cross the central thought: nothing can stir the soul so deeply as Christianity. The clue to our life is to be found only in Jesus. The purpose of the Christian life, to reveal his glory, and promote it.

II. THE OBJECT OF WORSHIP. The redeemed worship him. Whatever mysteries this book contains, that is clear. The sacrifice of worship to Christ a reasonable and suitable service. He is worthy to receive it, for He is divine, and the endless fountain of blessing. With Him

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all things. "Whatever ye ask in my name, I will do it." The assumption of the Divine attributes of knowledge and power, at least; and though it is said, Fall power is given unto me,' as though it were not his otherwise, still it is an infinite attribute, and could not be held by a finite being. In chap. i. how many divine attributes are assigned to him; the might, keenness, purity, righteousness, love, duration of God. This chapter in harmony with that, (ver. 8, 9, 10.) A new song, and the incense of prayer rise to Him who (ver. 13), shares the throne of the Father. They honour Him, not as a hero or teacher, but as their Priest and King. Before God He is our Priest; we are washed in his blood. In our hearts He is King; all are subject to Him. This praise is his due, and shall be perpetual. A writer has been bold enough of late to prophesy that two centuries hence his name will be forgotten. We are not struck with the modesty of the prophet who will compete with John. We should do better to believe him than any self-appointed seer of a cold and hateful rationalism.

We read the

signs of the times otherwise. His praise is taken up by people awhile ago in darkness, and, amid all modern controversies, the Christ is coming out more brightly before men's eyes. The prayers of his Church are heard, and, as the result, a