II.—The probable fruit of this most desirable gift.

1. It informs the unlearned.

2. It convinces the unbelieving.
3. It exhibits hidden guilt.

4. It compels spiritual worship.

5. It evidences the spirituality of the ministry. The gospel plainly preached is the camp and sword of the Lord of Hosts. It searcheth the hidden things of man and divideth the thoughts and intents of the heart. From pulpit and counter prophesy, preach the great facts of the future, and their bearing on the life of the present.

GOD'S PRESENCE FOR GOD'S WORK

Exodus iii. 12.

GOD's appointments are not always pleasant. Sometimes he calls men to leave home and friends, and appoints them to go into the very camp of the enemy. Moses knew the cruelty of the Egyptian Court, and knew the ingratitude and unkindness of some of his countrymen. He had attempted kindness for the oppressed Hebrews, and had to bear violence from his own flesh, and fear from the Court of Pharoah. Now God calls him to the work, and no wonder he hesitates before espousing the undertaking. Notice

I. Two main lines from whence God's work is opposed.

1. The antagonism of ruling authorities. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed.'

2. The indifference and spiritlessness of the oppressed. Ephraim is joined to his idols.'

II.-The main hope for the success of God's work.

1. God's presence with his workmen, This supplies confidence, directs operations, inspires with strength, and blesses the means used.

God is with all that are working for human good. Kings are weak as reeds before his power, and peoples may be moved by his impassionating spirit. Any work is possible with a good man engaged in it and God supporting the good man. Consecrate yourselves to God's service, and keep with you God's presence.

APOSTOLIC TRIUMPHS

2 Cor. ii. 14.

THE successes of early Christianity present more than any other evidence an insuperable barrier to the belief that this religion ranks only with human philosophies. It did not gain its way by compromises. It was from the first true to its avowed principles and precepts. This text introduces three main truths.

I.-The Christian is always the conqueror. 1. Christian principles carry the palm over all others for rationalistic coherence and spiritual fruitage.

2. Christian life carries the palm over all other life for internal purity and external beneficence.

II.-The Christian's connection with Christ is the philosophic cause of his triumph.

1. Christ's doctrine is the triumphing preaching.

2. Christ's example is the triumphing life. The doctrine, assistance, and example of Christ overcome unbelief, opposition, and impurity.

III.-The triumphant Christian manifests the savour of Divine knowledge.

Bare Bible truth is to the Greeks foolishness and to the Jews a stumbling-block. The triumphs of Christianity make the cross appear as the highest Divine wisdom. The savour of the Gospel is sweet in every place where its products are seen. Depravity is healed, excesses are corrected, virtues are cherished, and society is elevated The glory of this grand work is due to God in Christ. The joy of the glory is ours. We are public benefactors, and need fear no shame in lifting up the standard of the crucified Nazarene.

TO OUR READERS.

We shall be glad to receive suitable contributions of Analyses, Outlines, or Illustrations, from any of our numerous readers.

To ensure insertion post them not later than the 10th; addressed Ed. 'P.A.' 155 Roman Road, North Bow. London, E.

PREACHERS'

VOL. III.

ANALYST:

THE UNJUST STEWARD

Analysis of a Sermon by the Rev. J. G. BUTLER, D.D., Washington, U.S.A.

Luke xvi. 1-13.

THE life-picture in this parable of our Lord is neither unusual nor overdrawn. There are confiding lords and unfaithful stewards in every age and everywhere. This steward was simply an unscrupulous man, entrusted with the management of the landed estate of his unsuspecting lord. He managed it in his own interest, regardless of the landlord or of the tenant. Of the tenant he expected a large rent, probably farming upon stores of oil or of wheat. To the proprietor he made small returns, always having an eye to the prime interests of a conscienceless steward-himself.

The sins of men always find them out, though not always in this world. And there were not wanting men who accused this steward to his lord. Investigation, with which all are quite familiar, soon followed. A guilty conscience needs no accuser, and this now wretched man at once took it for granted that he would lose the stewardship. The question with him was not, How shall I repair the wrong I have done? but, What shall I do? where shall I get bread? how shall I live? For life to him meant nothing more than food and raiment. Men of industry, and frugality, and thrift-honest men, are neither friendless, nor penniless, nor helpless in emergencies. In common with most fast men, this steward had lived fully up to his income, possibly beyond. He had been improvident as well as thievish. He was too indolent to dig, and though not ashamed to steal, was yet ashamed to beg. Honest and industrious men are seldom, if ever, reduced to beggary.

PRICE TWOPENCE.

Stripped of fortune any man may be, but the 'good name,' a character marked by industry, and integrity, and frugality, can never be taken from us, and no man is poor who has retained that amid the crumblings of business and of wealth. 'He that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.' That is what God says.

He

This steward soon adopts a policy. will make friends of his lord's debtors. They will give him help when his lord dismisses him in disgrace. He calls every one' of his lord's debtors-one by one, no doubt. 'How much owest thou?' said he to the first. A hundred measures of oil,' is the prompt reply. Take thy bill, sit down quickly and write fifty., Possibly to his lord, from year to year, he had been returning but fifty, while grinding from the burdened tenant a hundred. It requires no vivid imagination to picture this procedure, as one after another reaped the advantage of this unscrupulous policy. Not apprehending the guilty conscience and criminal fear of this hitherto heartless and oppressive steward, they may have gone from his presence overflowing with the praise of the man so generous and considerate of their toil and poverty. He made these debtors of his lord his friends. To them it mattered not how. If capital does oppress labour, labour is not always jealous of the rights of capital. An atheistic communism respects no rights but its own.

The lord-his lord, not ours-commended not the injustice and wrong, but the prudence and shrewdness of this steward, in providing for his bread and butter when disrobed of his stewardship and disgraced. We would call him a sharper and an unscrupulous knave.

What are some of the lessons our Lord teaches us by this parable?

Upon its surface lie the twin truths of God's proprietorship and man's stewardship. As between you and your neighbour, you and he have rights to property. The fruits of your inheritance and of your toil are your own-yours and not your neighbour's-to use and to enjoy. But as between you and your God you have no rights of property. He is the sovereign proprietor. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. And what have we that we have not received? You and I are God's stewards. What you have is not your own. Ye are not your own. To God you must give account for all the property, and brain, and influence, and opportunity, entrusted to you. You may forget God, or defy God, but to God you must give account of this stewardship. Are you living for it?

Our Lord does not mean to commend the dishonesty of this steward. Truth, as opposed to untruth, in thought, word, and act, is the rock basis of Christian character. When Zacchæus came as a disciple to Jesus he restored four-fold' the fruits of his unrighteous gains. There will ever be a 'conscience fund' growing as men's consciences are quickened by the power of the Gospel. If professing Christians are dishonest, they are so in defiance of their professed faith.

Nothing but truth before his throne
With honour can appear.

Christ and his Gospel, in their power, are needed in all commercial and business circles, and nothing but God's grace can keep us from falling amid the temptations to wrong-doing which lie all around us.

The Great Teacher does mean to impress us with prudent forethought for the future. As this steward provided for the time of need, so are we to make friends of the unrighteous

mammon.

I fear it is presumption and not faith which so often makes us careless of to-morrow. On the one hand, some of you wholly distrust God, and live only to get and to hold money, forgetting all your obligation to him, and heeding none of the demands he makes upon your purse. We may rob God by witholding what he requires. On the other hand, prodigality spends the last farthing, having no provision for the day of sickness and of need. Much abject poverty is the necessary result of improvidence and a sinful prodigality, even among professed disciples.

Preparation for the 'everlasting habitation,' not purchasing a title with money, but using that which God has entrusted to us as faithful stewards; being faithful in the unrighteous mammon, we have committed to us the true riches-true because satisfying and enduring.

This thought dignifies labour, employment, life, in whatever channel they may flow. Your trust may be in the counting-house, in the workshop, in law, in medicine, in statesmanship, in the pulpit. It is not so much what we do as the spirit animating us in doing it. There are two men-in the same business, it may be, both equally diligent, devoting all energy to it, and both equally successful. To your eye and mine they are wholly alike; to God's eye they are wholly unlike. The one is serving God and the other serving mammon. Into these two classes we divide before God. Life is a service. Even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Your life and mine, no matter in what channel they may flow, are accomplishing our divinely-appointed mission, as they are Christlike. There may be church-going and all the round of religious life without a true service. Men try to serve God and mammon, but they cannot. Mammon-service, how devoted and faithful, self-sacrificing and earnest! Such must the service of God be, diligently improving time, talent, opportunity, using money with all the moulding and controlling influences with which God has entrusted us, as good stewards of Jesus Christ. Give account of thy stewardship, says Jehovah.

See

Fuller's Sermons-The Unjust Steward'; W. Upjohn's Discourses- The Unjust Steward'; Village Preacher, 2, 16-'Our Stewardship'; W. Gilpin's Sermons, 1, 129 -Spiritual Stewardship.'

RECRUITING

An Analysis of a Sermon by ROBERT S. LATIMER, Willingham, Cambs.

There was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul; and when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he took him unto him-1 Samuel xiv. 52, THESE Hebrews, and indeed ancient nations generally, were always fighting. Marauding expeditions, and the pitched battles of regular warfare, appear to have formed the great excitement of their political life. Every nation held its own by force of arms. The man who to-day is a ploughman, or a dresser of vines,

perhaps to-morrow will be found in the thick of deadly strife. Their peace and prosperity, and even their very life, had little protection beside the sword. Their national circumstances are illustrative of the spiritual circumstances of Christians.

I.-The war.-'There was sore war against the Philistines.'

a. This world is a battle-field. Christ is our commander. At Calvary, Satan received his crushing defeat, and Jesus gained a glorious victory.

Chapter 13,

b. The human soul is a battle-field. 1. Our enemy is mighty. verses 5-7, point out the contrast between the armies of Israel and of the Philistines. In striving against sin we are helplessness itself apart from our leader. But we are more than conquerors by his aid.

Though numerous hosts of mighty foes,
Though earth and hell my way oppose;
He safely leads my soul along,

His loving kindness, oh how strong!

2. Our enemy is near. Their countries were contiguous. In fact there were Philistian fortresses almost in the very heart of Dan and Simeon. The Christian wrestles not against temptations which are wholly outside of himself. On the contrary, they derive their strength from the depravity of his own nature. Sin in the heart is the believer's greatest foe.

3. Our enemy is a natural foe.-' Israel was had in abomination with the Philistines.' There was no possibility of reconciliation. A treaty of friendship was altogether out of the question. Either the Philistines or the

Israelites must be exterminated. The former nation was of the old inhabitants of the land of Canaan, who had been partly driven out by Israel. Sin and grace in the human soul never can agree. The old and the new natures will be a continual plague to each other.

4. Our enemy is a treacherous foe. (a) Chapter 13 verse 17 relates one of their stratagems. So, Satan does not always attack at the same point or in the same manner. We fortify against one temptation, and we are assailed by another. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.' (b) The Philistines were careful to deprive Israel of all possible advantages. They were prevented from having either blacksmith or sword (chapter xiii. 19). Satan would de

prive us of our weapons-Prayer, Word of God, Public Services, &c.

Restraining prayer we cease to fight;

Prayer makes the Christian's armour bright,
And Satan trembles when he sees

The weakest saint upon his knees.

II.-The king who prosecuted this war.— 'All the days of Saul.'

Represented Christ in some particulars. 1. A Model man. Head and shoulders above all others. Think of the excellencies of Jesus. His person, his character.

No mortal can with him compare,
Among the sons of men;
Fairest he is of all the fair
That fill the heavenly train.

2. A dauntless warrior.

There are points of striking dissimilarity. a. Saul was anointed and yet rejected. Christ the anointed is accepted. He has no rival as Saul had, he will have no successor.

b. Saul was wounded in defeat, Christ in victory. The battle of Gilboa ended in Saul's ignominious death. Our leader's death is our boast and glory.

III.-The soldiers who fought in this war.— 'Strong and valiant men.'

These two qualifications are essential in a soldier designed for active service. Men intended for toys, to strut about in front of an empty palace, need be neither hardy nor brave. There is something more required of a Christian soldier than vain and 'empty profession. He must fight. This requires

1. Strength. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.' The soldier's power of endurance would be tested by the fatigue and discomfort of camp life, the exertion of forced marches and of protracted battles. The weakly and sickly had better remain at home, for such give more trouble than the We find this true in our Church life. enemy. People who need fussing and nursing, hinder and hamper those who are desirous of doing good. 'Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.'

2. Valour. A powerful man may be a coward. Bigness and bravery are two distinct things. We need valour becausea. It is a hand-to-hand conflict. b. It is a life-long conflict.

c. Victory must be secured.-Rev. xvii. 14.

Ye that are men now serve him,
Against unnumbered foes,
Let courage rise with danger,
And strength to strength oppose.

IV.-Saul's manner of recruiting.-' When he saw such men he took them to himself.' 1. Many would eagerly volunteer. Some of these would be rejected. None are rejected by Christ.

At

2. Many would be compelled to serve. the word of Saul they must leave their home and family. There is no compulsion here. But what a honour it is to serve in Jesus' army!

3. The class of men sought for would be young, enthusiastic, and vigorous, both of body and brain. We especially seek such for our King.

4. Saul would meet with many recruits at the annual gatherings to the temple. All males were compelled by law to appear at Jerusalem three times in the year. May God's sacred Spirit meet with you here-in his house.

5. They who shared the toils and dangers of the battle would share the honours and rejoicings of the victory.

An Analysis of a Missionary Sermon by the Rev. EDGAR WOODS.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.-Mark xvi. 15.

IF you reflect for a moment, you will see that no more important command was ever given -to men. It was Jesus who uttered it; and he is the Lord, who knows all things. The interest he took in the work which is here described he often displayed as he mingled with the crowds of perishing sinners who gathered around him on earth.

Suppose, now, this command were fully carried out, what an unspeakable blessing it would be to the souls of men! And who is to obey this command? Was it intended only for the Apostles? No, no. It was not given to them personally, but it was given to them as representing the whole Church. And if we have a place in the Church of Christ, if we love and obey him as our Saviour and

Lord, the great duty here commanded rests on every one of us. Let me show you three ways in which it may be done.

1. The first is, by Christians giving themselves to this work, and going as missionaries to the heathen.

A very remarkable instance of this took place in the case of William Carey. It was by his efforts chiefly that the plan of forming regular missionary societies was begun.

2. The second way in which the Church is to preach the Gospel to every creature is by parents giving their children for this work.

3. The third way in which the Church is to preach the Gospel to every creature is by giving its money to carry on this work.

If you cannot go to distant countries yourselves, you can do your part in supporting those who do go. You can contribute as you are able, to furnish them with Bibles and books, school-houses and churches. We ought all, old and young, to give something for this important work, and who is there that cannot do it? Now, my young friends, will you not feel that this last command of the Saviour rests on you? Bring it home to your own hearts that it is your duty to preach the Gospel to every creature. And, Oh, try to perform it! Are there not some of you who will resolve to carry the lamp of life' to the heathen? And if you should never go, will you not fervently pray for the success of this work? For its support and spread, will you not always give?

See

Craddock's Works- Good News '; O'Beirne, Bp., Sermon 2, 101- On the Christian Religion'; Venn, John, Sermon 1, 16-'On Preaching the Gospel'; Johnson, John, Sermon 1, 161-' The Good Tidings and Extent of the Christian Ministry.'

MAN'S REFUGE. STRENGTH, AND HELP. An Analysis of a Sermon by the REV. ROBERT BRUCE HULL, New York.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.-Psalm xlvi. 1.

CHRISTIANS in all ages have drawn encouragement, comfort, and strength, from the strong promises and the triumphant declarations of this psalm. Luther, in trouble, was accustomed to say to his bosom friend, Philip Melanchthon, Čome Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm,' when his face would brighten like the sky after a summer shower.

The text presents God in three aspects, refuge, strength, help.