II. When the dove came back it came without anything. Bring no excuse. Excuses will not pay their transportation. The prodigal brought nothing back.

III. God has provided but one ark. In all that waste of waters the dove saw but one spot of safety; all the rest was a drowned world. I am thankful that there is but one name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. If there were many might get confused. Men of culture, do not blush to bend the knee in the dust before this ark. There knelt Paul, and Luther, and Calvin, and Wesley, and Knox.

I

IV. That ark had only one window, and that window was open. I do not imagine that the returning bird flew round and round blindly, trying to get in here and there, but went straight to that one open window. A woman, who was striving to find rest for her soul, was sitting in her summer house, when in, through an open door, flew a bird. It was alarmed and flew up toward the roof and tried to get out at this window and at that. It flew from side to side until i: panted with fright and weariness. The woman said, 'Poor bird, why do you not come down lower, then you would see this open door and you could fly out easily?' But the bird kept wounding itself against the closed windows and at every crevice. At last its wings grew tired and it flew lower and lower until it was on the level with the open door, when quickly it escaped, and soon its song was heard in the trees of the churchyard close by. A new light dawned upon the mind of the woman; I, like that poor bird, through my pride and self-sufficiency, have been flying too high to see the door which stands wide open.' Her heart was humbled, and soon she too was singing songs of gladness. There is but one way of escape. Many a poor fellow I have helped out of the gutter, and as he signed the pledge I have sought to have his feet planted on the rock of salvation. The pledge is not sufficient. Jesus saves: I hang my eternity on those two words. The Church and its ordinances do not save any more than the cup at the springs of Saratoga gives health. It is what the Church conveys to the soul that gives spiritual cure.

I would press these truths home upon your hearts, dear friends.

(1) Faith without works is dead. I ask you, Do you believe in Christ? You answer, Yes. But are the affections of your heart, are the activities of your soul alive -active for Christ?

(2) Have you a certain faith? You say. "Yes, I hope I am a Christian. I have a trembling faith.' Will you trust your immortality on such a faith? Would you so answer if the cry of fire leap: through your street, and a ladder was placed to your window, and I called out to you, have you a sure hold of the ladder?' Would you answer, I hope I have, I have a trembling hope?' Would you not grasp the round until the wood sunk into the muscle of your hands? You would know that you had a sure hold.

3. Another says, "I am doing the best I can." The best you can is to lay a firm hold of Christ.

4. Do not say that you cannot come. Christ stands at the open window, and is ready to put forth His hand and take you and pull you in unto Him into the ark, as Noah did the weary dove.

Seek that perfect rest in Christ. The dove, resting on its perch in the ark, is not troubling itself with questions as to how the ark was built and who built it. It is satisfied with the perfect rest provided. In Christ there is peace. The conscience no longer troubles. It is in harmony with God. All the power of earth, flesh and hell, cannot take the soul dove from the perch Christ has provided.

See

KENNAWAY, C.E. Ser. at Cheltenham, 75.

CHRIST THE SHEPHERD.

And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, eren my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.-Ezek. xxxiv. 23.

This prophecy refers to Christ. In the New Testament we have three descriptions of Our Lord as a Shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd.

1. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

John x. 11. The idea here is that the flock are attacked by an enemy who tries to destroy them. The shepherd goes forth to their protection, and dies in their defence. The flock is saved but the shepherd dies; or to express it otherwise, the sheep are saved by the death of the shepherd. He thus proves that He is the Good Shepherd. Applying

the particulars of this parable to Himself, Our Lord says, "I am the Good Shepherd."

Now there are two powers from whom the Christian requires to be delivered. First, there is the law. What an array of duties and responsibilities does it bring before us. They may be summed up in Matt. xxii 36-40. And then, when it has opened out to us this vast field of duty, it says "this do and live."

And now it is that Satan comes forth in his character, as the Accuser of the Brethren He points to these duties. He asks have they been performed. And then, as he has been punished for his sins, he calls aloud for our condemnation. And his demand is just, for "the wages of sin is death." Must the sinner then be destroyed! Nay! For verse 11. The law has been broken, Jesus has kept it. Punishment must be inflicted on account of disobedience. Jesus has endured it. The Good Shepherd has died for the sheep. Have you had personal experience of the goodness of Jesus?

Shepherd.

II. Jesus is the Great Hebrews xiii. 20, 21. What is the office of the Great Shepherd? It is to make us perfect through making us partakers of His resurrection life. Having freed us from the guilt of sin, He now delivers us from its power. Christian Brethren, let us look boldly at some of the possibilities of the spiritual life.

Is it not a fact that many Christians have set up too low a standard of personal holiness, and that they tolerate certain sins which they complacently call infirmities, infirmities of tongue, temper, &c. But see what God expects. Col. i. 21, 22. Phil. i. 9, 10. ii. 15. 2 Pet. iii. 14.

But how shall we be able to reach this standard?

With the assistance, and through the power of our Great Shepherd. Our Lord tells us in John xv. 5, that we have spiritual union with Him. In virtue of this union we die and rise in Him. In Him we die unto sin, and rise again unto righteousness. Rom. vi. 1-11. The same doctrine is contained in 2 Cor. ii. 14; the proper translation of which is, Now thanks be unto God who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ.' Christ is here represented as having triumphed over us, over our sins, &c., and as then leading happy, willing captives in His triumphal procession. The same truth also in Gal. ii. 20. Here then is the secret of our success in overcoming sin, and grow

ing in grace. We must realise the constant presence of Christ within us. We must hold constant communion with Him. The best preservative against evil thoughts and unchristian temper and worldly affections, is to have the heart filled with Christ. Let the heart be emptied of self and filled with Jesus. And there will be no room for that which is sinful.

III. Jesus is the Chief Shepherd.

1 Pet. v. 4. He bestows on us a crown of glory. A crown signifies:

I. Victory. 1 Cor ix. 24. The race is run, the battle is over, and the armour and the sword are succeeded by the white robe and the crown. No more contentions with sin. It is for ever conquered.

2 Rest. The crown is not put on till the contest is ended, and all difficulties and dangers are over. In the New Jerusalem, the city of the crowned, there are no labours or sorrows. Rev. xxi. 4.

12.

3. Honour and glory. Rev. iv. 4., xix.

If we desire to obtain this crown of glory from the Chief Shepherd, we must go to Jesus the Good Shepherd for pardon of sin, and we must walk with Jesus the Great Shepherd in the way of sanctification. JOHN DAWSON,

Vicar of St. Peter's, Clifton.

SeeSIMEON, C. Works, 9, 425. GORDON, R. D.D. Christ has made, etc., 4, 221.

ROOM STILL.

Luke xiv. 16-24.

This parable is both consolatory and admonitory consolatory, for it compares the kingdom of heaven to a feast of joy; hence it is not, as the world imagines and falsely declares, something sad and gloomy, but Christianity offers pleasures and delights, which the world neither knows nor bestows; it is a feast to which we bring nothing, but where we receive everything as a gift; the guests are invited continually, even to this day. Admonitory-it shows us the guests who excused themselves, and asks us whether we do not belong to them? It frightens us with the declaration.-V. 24. From this wonderfully rich passage, let us take the words of the servants :

"Yet there is room!"
We ask :
I. Where?
II. For whom?

III. How long yet? I. Where is there room? At the table, in the house-casting aside the figure, in the kingdom of heaven. Since Paradise there exist two kingdoms, which war against one another the kingdom of heaven and that of hell, that of God and Satan, that of light and of darkness. Every one belongs to one or the other. We know that there is room in the kingdom of Satan; every man by nature belongs to it, and the road that leads to it is broad, and on it is room for many. On earth is the beginning of the heavenly kingdom, in heaven is its completion. There is room yet in this kingdom.

(a) With the King thereof, Jesus Christ. He calls incessantly: Come unto Me, etc. Him that cometh unto Me, etc. Room through His wounds to His heart.

(b) With His flock-which is yet small. He cares for the lost.-Luke xv. 1.

(c) At His table-where are offered consolation and peace, joy and salvation, life and fullness of pleasures. He still cries: Compel them to come in.

(d) In His large, expansive heaven, where they shall rest from their labours, where there shall be no weeping, etc. In this house of our Father there are many mansions, and hence much room. II. For me, do you ask? not for every one?

For whom, if

(a) There is no room for persistent sinners, who do not wish to be converted, neither here nor there.-1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.

(b) Neither for sinners who feel secure and careless, who are sunk in earthly schemes and worldly pleasures so that they care nothing about heavenly affairs. (See the people in the parable, Vs. 18, 19, 20.) Phil. ii. 11 is applicable to them.

(e) Neither for self-righteous souls who depend on their uprightness, virtue, churchliness, etc.; for Luke v. 31, 32 speaks of these. The Lord addresses them in Revelation iii. 17, 18.

(d) Neither for mere talkative Christian. professors whose faith is dead, and who, notwithstanding their profession and Scriptural knowledge, indulge all manner of sin. The Lord speaks to them-Matt. vii. 21.

(e) Neither for those who believe only for a little season, who are described by the Lord in Luke viii. 13, and who, like Lot's wife, turn back to look toward Sodom soon after their conversion. Those He addresses in Rev. ii. 4, 5.

But there is room for sincere, penitent souls. For every one! If you deem yourself too great a sinner, read this parable and notice how the lame, the halt, the blind, the beggars, and the most wretched are permitted to come in to the feast, i.e., the most despised, greatest, and most wretched sinners, the most abandoned among the lost. If you sincerely wish to be saved from your sins through Christ, if that is your eager desire there is yet room for you!

III. But how long? Yet there is room, i.e., now. What mercy that He offers it yet after so many refusals! But be admonished by the word yet. To-day yet! but tomorrow it may perhaps be too late. To-day you hear the gracious call; to-morrow death may close your ear and the door of mercy. Here we have a call to the believer, since he has found room-to the anxious, to come, to come without delay or hesitation; to the impenitent, to consider where there is yet room, and how long.

PASTOR BALL, Coblenz.

CHRIST ABSENT AND YET PRESENT.

For Christ is not yet entered into the holy place made with hands which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.-Heb. ix. 24.

OUR text contains the doctrine of Christ's real presence that is to say, the doctrine which teaches us in what sense he is absent, and in what sense he is present.

(I) Then in what sense is Christ absent? In his outward bodily manifestation he is gone. That closed on the hill at Bethany. We know him no more in the flesh. He has entered into no holy places made with hands; he dwells not in any altar, in any chalice, or bread. Even the Roman church, in its very form of expressing this doctrine, has protested against it. With a desire to exalt the Sacrament, or to bring down this presence to the level of our senses, all sorts of fancies and fables have been imagined, but the truth remains; he is not here.

II. Let us now show in what sense Christ is present. The Bible mentions three senses in which he is present with us still.

(a) While he is gone from us in the flesh, he remains with us in the spirit. Had Christ remained, two evils might have beset the Church. It might have been too much influenced by its Eastern centre to become universal, and too much might have been made of Christ's bodily presence, too little of his essential character. The dispensation

of the Son is over. It is the spirit that quickeneth. He is with us as long as we retain a fragment of his discourse, a sparkle of his spirit.

(b) Every Christian man, woman and child, who can show forth his grace is his witness. These graces are the signs of his presence. A father dies and leaves his children as his legacies, his likenesses. Inasmuch as ye have done it, &c. Paul speaks thus of the Church as the body of Christ.

(c) Then he is present with us as God, the whole universe is filled with this presence. He is thus always present, but there are times of greater nearness. When two or three, &c.

The highest, most real, most spiritual presence of Christ is as the Bible describes it, in the heart and not in the hands. DEAN STANLEY.

See alsoDEYLING, D. S., Obsur. 4, 539. BATTY, ADAM, Sermons 1, 277. BROWN, Bp. P. Sermons 1, 285. DEHON, Bp. The Ascension, Ser. 2, 52.

SUNSHINE IN THE SOUL.
(FOR AN ADDRESS.)

THAT is what we all need, and all may have. So obtain it.

1. Look at your mercies with both eyes; at your troubles and trials with only one.

2. Study contentment. (a) In these days of inordinate greed and self-indulgence, keep down the accursed spirit of grasping. (b) What they do not have makes thousands wretched.

(3) Keep at some work of usefulness. Working for Christ brings heart-health.

(4) Keep your heart's window always open toward heaven. Let the blessed light of Jesus' countenance shine in. It will turn tears into rainbows.

See

MANTON, T. 2 Ser. Works 4, part 2, 756. BARROW, ISAAC, D.D., Rejoice evermore, Ser. 2, 553. BRETLAND, J., Nature and Sources of Religious Joy, Ser. 2, 244. USHER, Abp. Sermons, Works, 13, 452. SIMEON, C. Joy in the Lord inculcated, Works, 5, 226.

Persons may resemble each other for a season, but in subsequent life and in eternity may be vastly different.

Sundays of the Month.

SEED THOUGHTS.

DIVINE KNOWLEDGE AND ITS USE.

The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.-1 Sam. ii. 3. Or,

God is the I AM of knowledge, understanding, intelligence or wisdom, and by Him actions are weighed, examined' tested.

NOTICE-I. The character ascribed to God.
II. The work imputed to him. Or,

How wonderful the omniscience of God. It is all brought to bear in judging of human conduct. Let this be kept ever in view by (1) The Christian worker. Men may misjudge; God will not. (2) Those who desire credit for qualities and traits they do not possess. (3) Those who, though struggling hard and doing their best, seem ever to fail. God judges not by results, but by actions. Or,

I. How wonderful the knowledge of God (1) In its source, underived, he is the Jehovah, the I am of knowledge and wisdom. (2) In its accuracy. (3) In its scope and extent.

II. How important the end for which it is employed. (1) To human actions. (2) To test, try, weigh them.

In conclusion, let the revelation here made be ever kept in view. Let every action be done under its influence. Let us remember God will not mistake; he will not commend the worthless, nor blame the worthy, though men may.

See

SPURGEON, Ser. No. 606. DEALTRY, Adn. Ser. 208. HORSLEY, Bp. Bible Crit. 2, 430,

CHRIST'S BIRTH; HEROD'S FEAR. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.-Matt. ii. 3.

On this text we may observe (1) However high our position we are still liable to trouble, nay, the higher the position the more liable are we. (2) We are often troubled by things which ought to bring peace, and grieved by what ought to cause us joy. 1. Brevity of earthly life. 2. Character and attributes of God. 3. Greatness and nearness of eternity. Or notice

I. The result produced. He was troubled.' The words used for waves of sea in storm, the same word as used by Christ, John xiv. 1.

II. The cause of these results, the news of Christ's birth. This was because (1) He did not comprehend the nature of Christ's kingdom, or, in other words, through lack of clearer knowledge, and (2) He preferred his own glory to God's, the things of time to those of eternity.

Gallio cared for none of these things.-Acts xviii 17. THESE Words may be interpreted in two ways,

1. That he cared not for the doings of the men who tried to vex and annoy him by their lawlessness and sin, or, 2. That he cared not for the things in dispute the things of religion Interpreting the text in the latter of these senses, how sad is it to think of the fact it states. We remark: may 1. Gallio-like, indifference is still sadly prevalent.

2. Let us ask is this indifference justifiable- is it wise?

3. From what does it more especially spring? or.

1. The things which concern God, Eternity, and the Soul are of such inconceivable importance, that they demand our highest consideration, our most careful thought.

2. It is only by giving to them the thought and position they deserve that men are fully fitted for the duties and responsibilities of this life. as well as those of the future.

Or,

1. The things referred to, viz., those of the soul and its concerns; of God's will and his dealings with men. These things it will be readily admitted by all. ought to have our first and best thoughts. Consider then

2. How they were treated in this case. "Cared not for," the word used is emelen, not even concerned, a different word from that used by Christ in Matt. vi 31, and not so strong as that. How strangely suggestive, the use of these different words in the two cases referred to. Men are not even concerned about the things of the future after all the work of the Spirit and the Love of God and the sufferings of Christ. Yet they are concerned even to anxiety about the trifles of the present. Oh, foolish, shortsighted, deluded beings, when eternity breaks upon you, how different then! But you may ask who are they who treat these things thus? Notice

3. Who (1) Men. Yes, not those who are not yet arrived at years of discretion. (2) Men of power and good judgment in worldly

TO WHOM POWER BELONGETH.
Thy kingdom shall not continue.-1 Sam. xiii 14.
From this subject we may remark:

1. In a sense, we are all kings and bear rule. Some in one realm and some in another. Some over much, some over little. He is king in a real, true, deep sense, who only rules his own spirit.

2 This power and authority is God-given. It all belongs, by right to Him. He has raised some of us, Samuel-like to high positions in the social, moral, or spiritual life. Let us not forget the source of our blessings.

3. He who has given them may recall them. Given say we? Nay, they are but lent, but on probation. He still holds sway, still retains the right the right to withdraw. How often has the sentence of our text gone forth in all ages. Don't rely on your own efforts, nor It is He trust your own wisdom. He rules. who will decide, therefore look to Him, rely upon Him.

4. God delights not to recall His gifts and blessings, it is only sin that causes their withdrawal. He is not man that he should change. Has he bestowed upon you precious gifts, has he made you a king? If so, do not, as Mary, be in continual dread lest these should be snatched from you. No mercy no blessing is lost by chance. It is God only who can recall it. Be sure of this. if you use it for the purpose he gave it he never will recall it. Nay. he has given you present gifts, that by using these you may be fitted to receive still greater, which he longs to bestow.

J. DAWSON KILBURN.

SeeCLEAVER, Bp., Seven Ser. 375. PORTEUS, Bp. Char. of David. D'OYLEY, G., D.D., Ser. 1, 291. GOODWIN, H., Ser. 3, 136.

TO OUR READERS.

We shall be glad to receive brief plans, original or selected, on the following texts: Rom. iv 25, Matt. xxii 37, Rom. xv 13, Mark i 15.

These plans, to ensure insertion, ought to reach us not later than the 12th, addressed Ed. P.A., care of Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row, London, E.C.