rise and fall of empires, &c., all reveal Him. All human history is a revelation of God's excellent name. (3.) In its redemptive economy. This earth has a remedial system, here sins are forgiven, here souls are renovated and saved. Christ is the founder of this system, the Gospel its revealer and its instrument. "Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh," &c.

Secondly: His excellency is above the heavens. His glory is seen in the heavens. "The heavens declare the glory of God," &c. But his glory is said to be above the heavens. How high are the heavens? Too high for human thought to reach. God's glory is above them. How great is God! God is represented here

II. AS HONOURING THE FEEBLEST INSTRUMENTALITY. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength." In carrying on the government of the world he employs even "babes and sucklings." He does not depend like human sovereigns on the great and mighty. In truth, there is no great and mighty with Him. He makes the weak mighty, and the mighty weak. History abounds with examples of God accomplishing great ends by feeble means. Take as examples

First: The exodus of the Jews by Moses. It was a poor babe discovered on the banks of the Nile that crushed Egypt's proud despot, and led forth the chosen tribes to freedom.

Secondly: The redemption of the world by Christ. Who is to make atonement for human sin, establish a system of truth upon the earth, and work out the world's moral restoration? A despised man of Nazareth who was born in a stable and cradled in a manger.

Thirdly: In the propagation of the Gospel by feeble men, Who is to bear the Gospel throughout the world? Frail and erring man. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels," &c. "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the world." This truth serves two important services (1.) To check an unholy humility. The humility which leads a man to conclude he is too feeble in power, weak in talent, to do anything serviceable for the universe and acceptable to God, is a corrupt feeling. And the fact that God employs "babes and sucklings" to do his work

too

serves to counteract this unvirtuous spirit. (2.) To check an unholy pride. There is a tendency even in the best of men to ascribe any work they accomplish of worth and service to their own skill and ability. The fact that God employs "babes and sucklings" shows that the excellency of the power is from God and not of man. God is represented here

III. AS CREATING THE WONDERS OF THE STELLAR HEAVENS. "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers," &c. A figurative mode of representing the skill and delicacy of the work. "The moon and stars which thou hast ordained." How does the study of these heavens impress man with the glory of God! Who can compute the number of yon flaming orbs? The telescope has discovered 100,000,000 fixed stars, each of which is supposed to be the centre of a system, like our own. But these are only a few sparkling sand-grains on the shores of immensity. Think of their infinite variety. No two alike. Think of the swiftness and regularity of their revolutions. Consider the heavens! Man, thou art the only being on earth that can do so. They are stretched over thee like an open volume for the purpose; and their proper study will exert a godly influence on thine heart. It did so now with the Psalmist. "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things," &c. (Isa. xl. 26.) God is represented here—

IV. AS REGARDING MANKIND WITH HIS SPECIAL FAVOUR. The Psalmist seems to be impressed with God's infinite goodness to man in three respects :

First: In the greatness of the attention He pays him. "What is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" He is constantly attending to man; He never leaves him. His constant visitation

preserves his spirit.

Secondly: In the greatness of the nature He has given him. "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels." How great are the superhuman beings called angels! The Bible represents them as wonderful in intelligence, in devotion, in celerity and power. Man is only a little lower." How great his nature! Who can estimate the greatness of a human soul?

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Thirdly: In the greatness of the authority He entrusts to

him. "Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet," &c. The expression, "all things," must of course be taken with limitation: man cannot regulate the planets, control the winds, or govern the ocean, but he has dominion over the things specified here. Over the living tribes of the earth, "sheep and oxen," the beasts of the field. Most of the animals that man now turns to his use were once wild. He has tamed them and made them his servants. "The fowls of the air," these are under the government of man. He shoots them, keeps down their number, checks their ravages, and turns them to his use. "The fish of the sea," he penetrates to the depth of the ocean, and captures the leviathans of the deep. Man received this authority at his creation: "And the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and every fowl in the air." His dominion becomes more extensive and absolute as his intellectual and moral culture advances. Already he has made the fire his steed, the lightning his messenger, and the ocean his highroad.

Are there not, then, good reasons in this Psalm for celebrating the praises of God? No Psalm is more frequently quoted in the New Testament than this-Matt. xxi. 16; 1 Cor. xv. 14-17; Ephes. i. 22; Heb. ii. 6—9.

It reminds us of our heavenly origin, wonderful natures, and sublime destiny. It takes us back to the golden age, the age so beautifully sketched by an old poet :

"Happy those early days, when I
Shined in my angel-infancy!
Before I understood this place,
Appointed for my second race,
Or taught my soul to fancy aught
But a white, celestial thought;
When yet I had not walked above
A mile or two from my first love,
And looking back, at that short space
Could see a glimpse of his bright face,
When on some gilded cloud or flower
My gazing soul could dwell an hour,
And in these weaker glories spy
Some shadows of eternity;
Before I taught my tongue to wound
My conscience with a sinful sound,
Or had the black art to dispense
A several sin to every sense,

But felt through all this fleshly dress
Bright shoots of everlastingness.
O, how I long to travel back,

And tread again that ancient track!
That I might once more reach that plain
Where first I left my glorious train;
From whence the enlightened spirit sees
That shady city of palm-trees!
But, ah! my soul with too much stay
Is drunk, and staggers in the way.
Some men a forward motion love,
But I by backward steps would move;
And when this dust falls to the urn,

In that state I came, return."-H. VAUGHAN,

A Homiletic Glance at the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians.

The student is requested to keep in mind the following things, which will throw much light upon the Epistle. First: The circumstances of the wii er when he wrote. He was a prisoner in Rome. During his residence there, in "his own hired house" (Acts xxviii. 30, 31), from the spring A.D. 61 to 63, he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, Philemon, and to the Ephesians. It is generally supposed that this Epistle to the Ephesians was the first he wrote during his imprisonment. Secondly: The circumstances of the persons addressed. They lived, it is thought, in Ephesus, an illustrious city in the district of Iona, nearly opposite the island of Samos, and about the middle of the western coast of the peninsula commonly called Asia Minor. It had attained in Paul's day such a distinction as in popular estimation to be identified with the whole of the Roman province of Asia. It was the centre of the worship of the great goddess Diana. Paul resided here on two different occasions. The first, A.D. 54, for a very short period (Acts xviii. 19-21); the second, for a period of more than two years. The persons therefore addressed in this letter are those whom he had converted from paganism, and in whom he felt all the interest of a spiritual father. Thirdly: The purpose of the letter. The aim of the Epistle seems to be to set forth the origin and development of the Church of Christ, and to impress those Ephesian Christians, who lived under the shadow of the great temple of Diana, with the unity and beauty of a temple transcendently more glorious. For the minute critical exegesis of this apostolic encyclical, we direct our readers to the commentaries of Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Jowett, Harless, Stier, Eadie, Hodge, and, last though not least, Ellicott. Our aim will be to draw out, classify, and set in homiletic order, the Divine ideas reached by the critical aid of such distinguished scholars.

SUBJECT: Gospel Reformation, Great and Gracious.

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: : among whom also we all had our conversation in

times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph. ii. 1-10.)

ANNOTATIONS..—“ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." The words "hath he quickened" are not in the original, but are supplied by our translators. The apostle describes the past spiritual condition of the Ephesians as a condition of death. What this death is will appear in our Homiletic remarks; the cause of it is, however, here stated, "in trespasses and sins." The preposition by might as well be employed as in. The idea of the apostles, I think, is that their moral death arose from sins, which is the solemn and undeniable fact. Dead by your trespasses and sins, this is the rendering.

“Wherein in times past ye walked,” §c. Their death was not inactivity; they walked, but their walk was "in trespasses and sin." Sinners, though in a sense dead, are earnestly active.

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"According to the course of this world." The course of this world, its general flow, is that of sin, and according to this the sinner walks. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." The reference here is, undoubtedly, to Satan, who, in Corinthians, is called the god of this world; in John, the prince of this world; in Matthew, the prince of demons. "The prince of the power" may be rendered prince of the empire. Perhaps the apostle means by the expression that he is the mighty ruler of all the evil, superhuman spirits that influence mankind. That Satan and evil spirits work in men, influencing their opinions, feelings, and conduct, is often taught in Scripture. (Matt. xiii. 38; John xii. 31; viii. 44; Acts xxvi. 18; 2 Cor. iv. 4.)

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"Among whom also we had our conversation in times past." In this passage, as well as in this epistle, it should be borne in mind that the apostle uses you" to designate Gentiles, and "we" to represent himself and the Jews. He teaches here, therefore, that both Gentiles and the Jews are, before their conversion, in this sad moral condition.

"In the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh of the mind.” Ellicott renders this, Doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts.