doubtless inspired by them. Many of your greatest battles must be in solitude. Still remember God always sees you.

II-If you fight as David fought, like David you will conquer. He fought (1) earnestly, (2) trustingly, (3) prayerfully. If you are not always victorious, be not discouraged. Persevere, and final victory is sure. God will fight for you.

III.-If like David you conquer, like David you will receive a glorious reward. At the beginning I said your giants were worse than David's: now I have to say your reward will be better than his. His was to be man-given, and consequently was insecure, uncertain. Yours is God-given, there fore sure. It will be (1) happiness; such happiness, too, as the world affects not, knows not. (2) Usefulness, usefulness in a sense that angels might envy. (3) Life-life everlasting, life that knows no end, no change, no death, no pain.

Fight on, ye soldiers in Christ's army; the conflict may be fierce, but its results are sure, its end near.

THE USEFUL CHRISTIAN

An Address by the Rev. W. SMITH. THE tendency of Christianity is to do good. A good tree bringeth forth good fruit. Every renewed heart has found' the Lord to be good,' and it will be his high aim to do good to others, as far as possible.

I have been much impressed while reading the message of our Lord to the Seven Churches in Asia, that to each church this sentence occurs, I know thy works.' Seven times the ascended Saviour repeats, 'I know thy works.' This led me to think about my work and the work of our churches, and the words came very solemnly again, I know thy works.' Yes, He that knoweth all things must know my work and your work. The Master's eye is on us; how are we working?

I would wish if I could to impress this thought on every Christian's mind. We are all useful or useless. I trust it is the former with you, but I know thy works,' saith our Lord. Our blessed Master knows we do want to be useful. What will help us to be

SO?

1. I would say, pray to be useful. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? Wait on

the Lord; He shall give thee the desires of thy heart.

2. See that your own heart is right with God. Keep close to God. Get good first yourself, then do good to others. Do not attempt to give what you do not possess yourself; get and then give. Usefulness will all depend upon the power which the religion of our Lord exerts upon the soul. When we have more Christ in our Christianity, then we shall have more life in our religion, and we shall be more useful

3. We must be well instructed in the Word of God. Let us go to God's Word. as gatherers, first for our own souls and then for others. Let us store our hearts and minds with the promises of God.

Bees, when seeking honey, are not satisfied with hovering over the flowers, but they go right into the heart. So must we be buried in the book to extract its sweetness. This was David's plan, and he said it was sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. May we find it so! then we shall be used of God, and useful to our fellow men.

Sundays of the Mouth.

SEED THOUGHTS.

REASONS FOR RIGHT-DOING

Job xxvii. 1-8.

THE man who has no fears is not necessarily either brave or safe. Alarms are sometimes saving agencies. See Paul's conversionsee Luther's conversion. Job was afraid to sin, and his fear assisted his fidelity. Notice

I.-Job's noble resolutions.

He was resolved to guard (1) his lips, (2) his tongue, (3) his judgment, (4) his integrity, (5) his righteousness. His resolutions were settled, though God's ways with him appeared contradictory and were painful to bear.

II.-Job's reasons for these noble resolutions.

(1) The dread of his own heart's reproach; (2) the vanity of the gains of wickedness (3) the certainty of divine retribution; (4) the thoroughness of divine retribution; (5) the mercilessness of divine retribution; (6) the irresistibility of divine retribution.

;

I.-The world's greatest glory lies yet future. The morning stars' sang together when God laid the foundations of the earth, but when the last angel's trump shall sound, a greater choir shall sing a louder song. Eden had only one sinless pair; heaven already contains a great multitude that no man can number. Opposition to God and goodness have been nearly coeval with all earth's history; the conquest lies in the future. There will be peace bye-and-bye. God will put down all opposition and strife, and commit the kingdom to the Prince of Peace.

II. The duties of God's children in view of this fact.

1. Be strong. Be strong in faith, be strong in courage, be strong in endurance. 2. Work. There is hope for a good reward from all work done for God; there is a use in all work done for God. It will hasten the good time.

III.-The encouragements for God's children in the discharge of their duties.

1. The Lord is with you. God has not abandoned his work yet; and until he does we should not.

2. The Lord's Spirit remaineth among you. The ministry of the Spirit is inspiration and guidance, and whilst he remains man's work cannot be useless.

3. God's 'covenant is with his children. The working orders will be cancelled as soon as the working is useless or needless.

The visible is deceptive; the visible is discouraging. The invisible is the only real; the invisible is always encouraging. The life of the godly must be a life of faith. Only those who serve an unseen Christ may expect to inherit the unseen heaven.

SAINT-LIFE AFTER THE JUDGMENT.

Revelations xxi. 1-4.

THE life to come is the goal of Christian aspirations, and it as natural for the soul to speculate upon its contents, as it is to look at the evening sunset for a revelation of the weather of the succeeding day. We all live in the future to some extent; and with the child of God, that future, which contains most for him, is naturally enough the most frequent subject of his thoughts. God has not left it all to be guessed at. The life of the future contains

I. A renovated materialism: A new heaven and a new earth, and no more sea.'

II.-An universally holy society. There will be only one city-that city will commence its post-judgment history with holy inhabitants. Defection and invasion will be made impossible. The pure natures of the inhabitants will prevent the former, and the high walls will prevent the latter.

III.-An intimate and real spiritual association between God and his children. This will be something grander than anything we have had in the present life. We cannot conceive the intimacy of the heavenly state, neither can we form any conception how real the spriritual associations of the future will be. The saints shall be God's people in such a sense as they had not been this before; and he will dwell with them and be their God in such senses as are applicable to no other period of saint-life.

IV. A state of blissful exemptions. (1) Tearless life, (2) deathless life, (3) sorrowless life, (4) perpetual life.

This state is only for those who wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Christ is the only way to this state. They that suffer with him shall also reign with him; they that enter into the city shall go out no more for ever. 'Strive to enter in at the straight gate.'

THE IGNORANCE AND IMBECILITY OF MAN.

Job xxxviii. 1-3,

PRIDE is one of man's greatest perils. God hates it. When Nebuchadnezzar's heart was lifted up in him to appropriate the glory of the Babylonian Empire to his own creative power, and for his own majestic honour, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, The kingdom is departed from thee. It is ever thus: Pride goeth before a fall, and a haughty spirit before destruction.'

I.-Human knowledge is more from endowment or heritage than from original acquisition. Gifts of intellect are from God. Man may improve divine gifts, but he can never succeed without them. All human knowledge is cumulative. God opened up the beginning of the path to all discovery; and all that any man is in the realms of science or art, he is by human heirship and divine help.

II.-Human power is exceedingly limited. Without God's permission it is absolutely nothing; with even divine endowment it is comparatively little. Man's health and food and clothing are prepared for him by other hands than his own.

III. The bearing becoming to man's peculiar circumstances.

(1) He should bear his honours with becoming gravity; (2) he should exercise his God given power with becoming reverence; (3) he should feel no scorn to less favoured brethren; (4) he should exert his ability in the lines and for the interests of his patron.

Knowledge is power, but all power belongeth unto God. 'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally to all men and upbraideth not.' 'Christ is made unto man wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and holiness.' Wisdom is obtainable, but, getting it as it must be got, it should be carried in humility.

GOD'S MORAL DISTINCTIONS.

Genesis iii. 23, 24.

THE lines of right and wrong are sharp and distinct to the eyes of God. He cannot Took upon sin with the least degree of allowance; he cannot be indifferent to virtue in the smallest iota.

1. God cannot allow sin in the places intended for holiness. He can allow sin in hell without interference-that is a place prepared for the devil and his angels. He could not allow sin to occupy Eden, because that was a place prepared for holiness, obedience, and religious service.

2. God cannot allow sinners to occupy distinctions intended for holy men. Holy Adam had his sphere in a garden; fallen Adam was turned out of the garden into the common earth. Holy Adam had only to dress and keep the garden, whilst fallen Adam had to till the ground.

3. God's relation to sin is ever opposite and retributive. All sin has its penalty. God administers the penalty of sin, and cannot, under any circumstances, condone transgression.

The

4. God's opposition to sin and retribution of sin are general and impartial. tempting serpent, the beguiled woman, the seduced man, all alike fall under judgment, with this difference only-their punishment was proportioned to their criminality.

God is the guardian of morality and the judge of immorality. Right-doing has special honour with God, and wrong-doing has specific and certain punishment. The substitution which God has provided for the transgressor is the only averter of deserving calamity. We all have sinnedChrist has died for all. They that reject Christ will have to bear the punishment due to their own sins.

THE GOSPEL: ITS POWER AND CONTENTS.
Romans i. 16-17.

MAN's moral necessities were great when these words were spoken. The speaker, in deep sympathy with the needs around him, passed obliviously all the charlatanism that was prevalent and failing. He introduced to the people at Rome a help he had tested. Notice

I. The power of the Gospel.

(1) It is a divine power; (2) it is a saving power; (3) it is an impartial power. He admits that there had been temporary preferences, but exhibits in striking grandeur present impartiality.

II.-The contents of the Gospel.

(1) Salvation for man. (2) Revelation of

the righteousness of God. (3) The time of life in which this righteous revelation comes

to man.

These are the all-comprising contents of Christ's gospel. He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father. Christ laid down his life for the sheep. That such is the power of the Gospel, the glorified in heaven and the sanctified on earth incessantly testify. That such only are the contents of the Gospel, philosophers complain; but that such contents are in the Gospel, the rightlyaffected thank God and appropriate his provisions.

POST-DELUVIAN REVELATIONS Genesis ix. 1-17.

GOD and man are in every revelation set opposite each other as the governing and the governed. The providences and the retributions of God exhibit the same fact. God is the head of all things: man is subordinate to him, though, in much, man is vice-regal. God's goodness to man is all of free grace. Man's enjoyment of God's goodness comes along the lines of his loyalty. The laws of human life are of divine origin; the revelation of them has been periodic, and this day's lesson exhibits the post

deluvian revelation.

1. The natural enlargement of earth's population is in harmony with God's will. Fears are needless and expedients are wicked where the purpose of God directs human procedure.

2. Man is the monarch of all earthly creatures. All herbs and all beasts have human utilities: man should possess thein with thankfulness, and use them with moral responsibility and intelligent beneficence.

3. Human life is a reciprocal trust. Man is man's keeper, and God will look for all human blood from somebody's hands. How closely related are we! How mutually interested in each others welfare we should be!

4. Humanity's weakness is divinely compassionated. God wants man to believe him to aid that belief he condescends to the establishment of covenants. The bow in the cloud is not a reminder to God of his promises, so much as an encourager to man to believe God. Man's investitures are great; God's condescensions are great; Man's responsibilities are great. Possess

God's gifts, recognize God's love, believe God's alarms.

SIN'S CURSE AND CURE Romans vii. 24-25.

PAUL speaks of man here as a being of twofold nature, capable of alternating and contrary aspirations and aims. The wretched condition pictured in this closing groan, is strikingly painted by Virgil in the Eneid lib vii., verse 485, in the account he gives of the tyrant Mezentius. Pitt's translation is as follows, viz. :—

What tongue can such barbarities record,

Or count the slaughters of his ruthless sword?
'Twas not enough the good, the guiltless bled;
Still worse-he bound the living to the dead.
These, limb to limb, and face to face he joined ;
Oh, monstrous curse of unexampled kind!
Till choked with stench the lingering wretches lay,
And in the locked embraces died away,

I. The terrible curse of a sinful heart.

(1) It is fastened corruptingly close to a man's self. (2) It emits a contagion that corrupts the entire being. (3) The longer the corruption continues, the more helpless the sufferer becomes.

II. The glorious cure for a sinful heart. (1) Medially; Christ Jesus is the cure. lieved, and obeyed, is the cure. (2) Instrumentally; the Gospel, heard, be

The cure may be made in grand completeness and thoroughness and perpetuity. According to thy faith be it unto thee,' is the word of Christ to every groaning, suffering, sin-cursed human being. There is only one cure, and if that be rejected, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. Christ is ready now, waiting now, entreating now. Let him cut the cords that bind thy corruption to thee, and go in peace and sin

no more.

TO OUR READERS.

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PREACHERS'

ANALYST:

CHRIST'S SILVER KEY TO THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Analysis of a Sermon by the Rev. W. E. CROMBIE.

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.-John vii. 17.

IF the sciences amongst men have a claim upon our attention, and if the strength of such claim be proportioned by the good to be secured; then how infinitely great is the claim of the science of God and human salvation, which proposes to confer the greatest good upon the greatest number, to the greatest extent of duration, being 'profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.' If, therefore, our highest interest for time and eternity is involved in the religion of Jesus Christ, it becomes a duty to us personally, and earnestly to enquire 'how can I become most perfectly acquainted with this system.' Our text is the answer to such an enquiry. In it we have the silver key that unlocks the golden treasury. We are here taught by Jesus Christ, that personal obedience to the will of God is absolutely essential, in order to a right understanding of Christian doctrine.

In further consideration of these words, we invite your attention to three particulars :I. The knowledge that precedes obedience -The knowledge of God's will.'

II. The obedience that precedes knowledge- The doing of God's will.'

PRICE TWOPENCE.

you, and of no value to me, some kinds of knowledge might be of great importance to you to-day; and of no importance to morrow; but the knowledge of God's will is of the greatest possible importance to every creature, and to every creature at all times: This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' Not only to know that God exists, but to know the will of that God who exists, It is one thing to know that a person exists. and another thing to know the will-the thoughts of that person to us. Even the will of our fellow creature must be a matter of revelation by speech or by conduct, how much more then must the will of the invisible God be a matter of revelation. Perfect proof of the existence of God is beyond the discovery of the creature, for reason unassisted by any higher light than its own, has confessed its inability to find out God, by inscribing upon its altars to the unknown God.' Such a confession is in harmony with the highest testimony, for there it is written, Man by wisdom knew not God.' We only know the sun by the light that comes from it, even so, we only know God by the light that comes from him, God is the only way to himself, the Bible does not come to us for the purpose of establishing by argument the existence of God, but it comes brim full of the revealed will of him whose existence it assumes, teaching us that God is Light,' 'God is Good,'' God is Love,' not simply that he is the only wise. God,' the everlasting God,' the 'Almighty,' but that he delighteth in mercy,' is slow to anger,' ready to forgive,' and would have all men to be saved,' and that he hath given his Son Jesus Christ that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.'