instance, for the intellectual and critical study of the higher mathematics or metaphysics, then would its evidence be utterly beyond the range of the vast majority of men, and the humble and illiterate might justly be exonerated from all responsibility for their ignorance or unbelief. But the gospel is no philosophy. The truth of Christ is to be verified, not by the critical intellect, but by the common heart and consciousness of humanity. Wherever there is a heart that throbs with the common sensibilities of our nature-wherever there is a soul capable of love, and pity, and tenderness, and truth-there is fit audience and sufficient attestation for the gospel. The lisping babe, that stammers forth its first prayer of wondering awe and love to the great Father; the poor daylabourer, whose intellect never ranges beyond the narrow round of his daily toils; the weak worn sufferer, stretched on the bed of pain, incapable of the faintest approach to consecutive thought or reasoning, bereft of almost every other power but the power to love and pray, these as much, nay more, than the most erudite assemblies of high and philosophic minds, constitute the auditors to whom the gospel appeals for the verification of its claims.

It is true that the highest minds may fitly occupy their ratiocinative powers in the investiga

tion of the evidence, and the systematic study and development of the truth. But let us never confound the gifts and acquirements necessary for the theologian with those of the believer. The powers sufficient to perceive and know and relish, are ever to be distinguished from the powers that are needed in order to theorise. It may imply much intellectual power to draw out and digest the theory and laws of music, but many who know nothing of the subject theoretically can sing and be delighted by song. And to make a man relish music, a good ear is better than all the analytic powers in the world. It may demand the most subtle intellect to discuss metaphysically the theory and laws of beauty, but no such powers are needed to gaze with delight on the glory of the grass and the splendour of the flower. In investigating the problem of the foundations of morals, metaphysical minds of the rarest order have been employed for ages; but to honour an unselfish or noble act -to perceive and hate baseness and selfishnessto appreciate what is pure and lovely and of good report-needs qualities which no metaphysic skill can confer, and yet which may be found in the garret or hovel where rude and unlettered poverty dwells. And so it is not the scholar's or the theologian's acquirements that best qualify for apprehending and appreciating the evidence of the

truth as it is in Jesus. These may be indispensable for the theoretic analysis and development of the truth, but the consciousness of spiritual need -the yearning after pardon and reconciliation with God-the orphan instincts of the spirit towards its lost Father-the contrition, the humility, the meek trust and self-devotion of an awakened and earnest soul,-these are the qualities which, apart from all theologic talents and attainments, constitute the humblest, rudest mind that possesses them, a deeper critic of divine truth than the profoundest intellect or the rarest scholarship. The truth of the gospel, hid from the wise and prudent, may be revealed to babes. Ages of intellectual study will not serve to teach that of the gospel's truth and power, which may be learned by one upward glance of a tearful eye at the great Deliverer's feet. Honour to those who bring their genius and their intellectual lore to the service and illustration of the truth! But be your gifts of reason what they may, to you, as capable of knowing it-as bound to receive it, the gospel appeals. Open your heart to it-yield up your spirit to its blessed teachings-pray for the grace and guidance of the Spirit of God, and the truth will constitute to you its own evidence. It will carry conviction to your heart of hearts. As you listen to it, the music of a heavenly voice will

steal upon the inner ear; a beauty that is not of this world-a beauty more glorious far than that which sits on mountain and stream and forest, will shine forth upon the inner eye of faith, in the discernment and recognition of which the Truth will "commend itself to your consciousness in the sight of God."

SERMON II.

SELF-IGNORANCE.

"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults."-PSALM XIX. 12.

Or all kinds of ignorance, that which is the most strange, and, in so far as it is voluntary, the most culpable, is our ignorance of Self. For not only is the subject, in this case, that which might be expected to possess for us the greatest interest, but it is the one concerning which we have amplest facilities and opportunities of information. Who of us would not think it a strange and unaccountable story, could it be told of any man now present, that for years he had harboured under his roof a guest whose face he had never seena constant inmate of his home, who was yet to him altogether unknown? It is no supposition, however, but an unquestionable fact, that to not a few of us, from the first moment of existence, there has been present, not beneath the roof, but within the breast, a mysterious resident, an inseparable companion, nearer to us than friend or