Lord of lords, sittting upon His throne in the eternal heaven.

3. The harmony of God's providential dealings. As God has to deal only with His own one family He can order all things-not only for the benefit of one individual alone but for the united benefit of all. He can cause one event to fit in with another, one person to assist and help his fellow, and out of the apparently diverse elements to make one perfect, harmonious and beautiful whole.

II. LET US APPLY THE SUBJECT TO OUR OWN IMPROVEMENT.

We are taught from the fact stated by Job.

1.-Some suggestions for our duty towards God. He is our Creator. As our supreme benefactor and Maker we should manifest our sense of His authority over us and our dependence on His care. We are taught more than this. Our gratitude should not be isolated or selfish. All God's creatures are one, and they should all unite in rendering to Him the praise and adoration he deserves. God loves the united worship of his people; it realizes the fact that they are one.

2.--Some reflections on our duty one to another. This is the great thought pregnant in our text. Men are all one family, owning the same Father an Maker, having the same nature, and possessing the same capacities and prospects. Job realized this when he assisted the poor, relieved the oppressed, comforted the sorrowful. The text teaches us unity and brotherly love. We are all brothers; why, then, should we be so separated and divided one from another? How different would our condition on earth become if this grand truth were realized as it ought to be. If we see another sin our language should be, 'Did not He that made me make him.' And we should bear with him tenderly. If we see another in want or poverty our thoughts should be, Did not He that made me make him.' And we should afford our best relief. And so through all the daily transactions of life. And such reflections as these would soften our natures, and render earth below more like Heaven above.

J. P. M.

The following additional remarks on the above subject are worthy of consideration.-ED.

THE relation God bears indiscriminately to mankind is the grand principle of all religion and morals. St. Paul said at Athens, He hath made of one blood all nations.' We should therefore

1. Not be puffed up over those in an inferior condition to ourselves. What does the greatest man possess that he did not receive from the Creator of the meanest ? 2. Not to strive against those above us. It is a growing curse for men in the lower ranks to look upon those above them as their enemies. But God gives no license to men to be contumacious because they are in an inferior condition, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers.'

3. To act in a manner fair and honorable to all. How can a man defame, defraud, or in any way invade the rights of his neighbour, without offending against his conscience. Just and honourable dealing is the first requirement of children of one Parent.

4. To treat even the inferior creation with tenderness and consideration. Did not He who made us make them with all their capacities and perfection? Therefore we should not exercise needless cruelty towards them

Let the subject also lead us to honour and love Him who took our nature upon him for our redemption, and is not ashamed to call us brethren, and to admit us into all the blessedness of spiritual equality and happiness.

THE PAPACY

2 Thess. ii. 8, 9, 10.-For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consuine with the Spirit of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and sight and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.

Verses 3 and 4. That man of sin, shall, be revealed. The son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God. THERE can be no reasonable doubt as to what these words refer. They relate to the Papacy which is spoken of as a gradual falling away. The system of Popery which is our subject now, is but the development of the natural heart, as it was manifested in the case of the Israelites. It is the mixing of idolatry with Christianity.

We would not abuse Roman Catholics, but would derive instruction from their folly.

The system is alluded to in the Book of David. The prophet speaks of four empires divided into ten kingdoms. Out of these grew one horn which cast. the truth to the ground, and practised and prospered. Though coming from an idolatrous heart it was yet as a man with a mouth speaking great things. In dwelling on the subject, we will

I-URGE A FEW REMARKS ON THE SUBJECT AS DESCRIBED IN OUR TEXT.

The representative of the system is called the man of sin. All men sin. He is however the man of sin, the wicked one. This is because he causes others to be cursed. And what iniquities are equal to his and to the system he upholds,

1. In open profligate crime. Trace it through history. Where can be found such a record of murder, uncleaness, hypocrisy, sorceries, blasphemy, as in the history of the Church of Rome. What could equal the iniquity of selling licenses to commit so much murder or adultery, for so many pounds?

2. In enmity and opposition to God. The Pope is called Anti-Christ, opposing God, exalteth himself above God. The question asked by Papists is not what saith God,' but what saith the Pope.' He raises himself above all law, human and Divine, he hides the Bible, and tramples upon God's commands, except so far as suits his purpose

3. In arrogant assumption. Setteth himself in the temple, that is the Church of God. He claims to be infallible, alters God's laws, and compels men to believe a lie, turns truths into falsehood, sets up idols in the most holy place, and encourages men to worship them, idols quite as repulsive as the Israelite's.

4. In its efforts to deceive the world. To gain a hold upon the people, the votaries of the Papacy perform pretended miracles. You may go into a Continental cathedral and see thousands of persons bowing down to a wax doll, while a priest behind is opening and shutting its eyes.

5. In the means adopted for promulgating its doctrines. Papists believe and act upon the view that the end justifies the means. No crime is a crime if it has what they consider a convenient end in view. Think of the martyred saints, burned alive, buried alive, skinned alive. Think of the horrors of the Inquisition, and how its emissaries stirred up nation against nation, excited murder and sedition

And when force failed, and nature would no longer brook such interference, means little less infamous

were adopted. The secret society of the Jesuits was formed to further the interests of Rome. Although its power has been exaggerated, it has accomplished great results. Its members have assumed all sorts of disguises, and have overrun hospitals as nurses, houses as doctors, colleges as students and professors, churches as clergymen, chapels as ministers, submitting to perjure their souls so that they may serve their church.

Such is the system here spoken of. Let us
II.-DERIVE SUITABLE INSTRUCTION.

From the Papal system we

See

1. Learn some important lessons, (a) From their earnestness. In this they shame Protestants. them night and day in their chapels. They consider no toil too great in order that they may win salvation. Fasting, watching, praying, alms-giving. You never see an empty Catholic chapel. (b) From their unity. They support one another universally. Among them there are no opposite doctrines, no diverse sects. How different to Protestants with their hundred sects. (c) From their persistency. They compass heaven and earth to make one proselyte with the same energy as the Pharisees of old.

2. Receive a solemn warning. Let us remember that Popery is only the development of the natural tendencies of the human mind. See it among all sects. The Ritualists who are almost Romanists. The Rock (the organ of the Evangelicals) speaks of the Sainted Cranmer.' The Wesleyans swear by St. Wesley. All classes of Christians may develope towards the same tendency. And this is only what the Israelites did in days gone by.

It is our duty to oppose its inroads at any cost. There are those who for social advantage, for political ends, for selfish gain truckle with popery. Their curse will be on their own heads.

3. Derive a blessed encouragement. All this hypocrisy and folly shall perish at the brightness of His coming that is at His spiritual coming, when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. As the dew in the morning, as the cloud in the azure sky, as the rain on the summer day, so shall the brightness of His coming chase all the darkness and evil away.

IN CONCLUSION. How is it with professing Christians? Do they live up to their light and to the spirit of the gospel? Alas! with all our professions, with all our Protestantism, how many there are who will be destroyed also at the brightness of His coming.

THE EDITOR.

Sermons for the Seasons.

Sermons drawn from the seasons and the operations of nature are always attractive and interesting.

REAPING

Joel iii., 13. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. As we look abroad we see the fields yellow with golden grain, dancing in the welcome sunshine and inviting the hand of the reaper. In some parts of our own country the reaping is already begun. It will soon be universal,

It is instructive to turn aside and dwell upon the wonderful sight here presented to our view. Unless the heart is very

hard it cannot look on the waving corn and the ripening fruit with unmoved feelings. The ripening harvest leads us I. TO THINK OF THE PAST.

It was not so very long ago we saw the fields just ploughed. Then they were empty and bare. The husbandman was tramping over the clods. Plough and rake and harrow were all busy preparing the soil.

Afterwards came the seed-time. The corn was committed to the ground and hid in its earthly grave. It sprouted and grew. first the ear then the green blade. Now it stands and plays in the wind, the first ripe corn.

Does not the reflection lead us back to the earlier period of our lives? Can we think of the season of development and growth without considering our own growth and progress? It is well, for looking back teaches rauch.

II. TO CONSIDER THE POWER OF GOD.

The disciples of Christ and the multitude which accompanied them wondered when the five loaves were multiplied into a sufficiency for more than five thousand people.

But here is the miracle repeated every year before our eyes. Why are we not struck when we see the grain in the earth producing some thirty, sixty, or even a hundred-fold. It is custom. Year after year we have seen the same thing, and it has become common to us, so common as to cease to excite wonder or surprise. The only difference is that the one was sudden, the other is slow and gradual.

III.-TO OBSERVE THE TRUTH OF GOD. When Noah and his family left the ark and saw the new world, every appearance of cloud awakened their fears. But God, to tranquilize them and to calm their fears, set His bow in the cloud, and promised While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, heat and cold, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.'

Every time we see the corn ready for the sickle we are taught that we may rely on His promised word.

IV. TO REGARD THE GOODNESS OF GOD, For whom does he thus constantly and plenteously provide? For our unworthy, guilty, ungrateful world, which will overlook his kindness, and abuse his benefits, and even turn His gifts into instruments of rebellion against Him. Were He to deal with us according to our deserts, or reward us according to our deservings, the Heavens would be brass and the earth iron, the grain would perish in wetness, or be burnt up with drought, and while the children cried tor bread the mother would have none to give them.

V.-TO THINK UPON THE WISDOM OF GOD. For though all things are of Him, yet he does not encourage sloth. Our industry is as necessary as our dependance. Although there is a part we cannot do, there is a part we can do and must perform. If this be neglected God will do nothing. We cannot furnish the soil, but we can prepare it. We cannot produce the seed, but we can sow in the ground. Our language is, What thou givest them they gather,' but we must go forth and sow.'

Let us rejoice in this promising season, and pray for the appointed weeks of Harvest. And let us not forget the more important truths conveyed to our minds by this subject. The spiritual harvest is ripe. Pray the Lord of the harvest that He will send labourers into his vineyard. And let us notice this saying, 'Behold, now is the day of salvation. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.'

Partly taken from W. Jay's Exercices.

Pulpit Helps from the Old Writers.

Some of the most precious gems of English sermon writing were published during the course of the last century. They are mostly too long and complicated for reproduction, but we purpose, from time to time, giving our readers a short analysis of some of the choicest of the productions.

ANALYSIS OF A SERMON ON ANGER

Coloss. iii, 8, But now you also put off all these anger, wrath, malice.

The ancient philosophers had many disputes concerning anger, as to how far it was lawful or commendable, but all agreed that its excesses were to be avoided, and that it should be under the guidance of reason and judgment.

The Holy Scriptures bid us carefully avoid being overtaken or surprised by it.

Anger is an offence taken at a real or supposed injury, attended with a desire of revenging it.

But some will say that God is angry every day with the wicked, that Christ was angry at the Jews, that we are told to be angry and sin not. This statement is to be explained by the fact that the sentiment here spoken is indignation against what is wrong rather than the evil passion of malice. The anger of reason is given us for self-preservation. The anger of passion is an instrument of Satan for our destruction. Let us consider

I.—THE EVIL EFFECTS OF THIS UNHOLV PASSION.

1. It constantly puts us to shame and pain. Anger is an uneasy passion. Those who are under its dominion are like the troubled sea. They get no satisfaction and dwell upon those subjects which disturb and torment them.

2. It leads to disgrace. It disgraces by its deformity and by a thousand follies and indecencies obvious even to a child. It makes men contemptible and odious to all, for it cannot be concealed.

3.-It incites men to acts of injustice and unmerciful severity. Anger demands revenge. It blots out all sense of right and wrong and extinguishes every sentiment of humanity, and even urges men on to break and disregard human laws so that their own persons are in danger.

4. It produces an irreligious and impious temper. Angry people will not only blame their fellow creatures, but when trouble, loss, or disappointments befall them they will even entertain evil thoughts towards their Maker.

5.-It produces a mind totally unfit for Heaven. A soul easily provoked and full of resentment, always discomposed and dissatisfied, must be unfit for the society of spirits who have no such turbulent passions, and for a place in the mansions of love and peace. II.

DUED.

CONSIDER HOW THIS PASSION MAY BE BEST SUB

So far as our own efforts are concerned we should1. Reason with ourselves upon its ill effects and consequences. What a restless, fretful, disgraceful passion it is, making human beings more like beasts than men, and how it causes them to be slighted, shunned, or feared or hated by their neighbours, and how contrary it is to the requirements of the Gospel.

2. Endeavour to form an intimate acquaintance with our own defects, especially when they concern others. We often incur the anger of others and provoke them quite as much as they provke us. The remembrance of this ought to check our unkind feelings. Why should anyone expect from others that which he will not give them?

3. Think of the natural impersections of men, and so learn to make due allowance for those imperfections. We are not to expect that we live in a society of philosophers or saints. Hence when we meet with what is disagreeable we should learn to overlook it.

4.-Learn to curb the first manifestations of the feeling. Taken in the bud it is easy to subdue, but if allowed to run on it will carry us away with its vehemence.

But the great exertion must be made to obtain the help and assistance of Divine grace. Without the influence of the Holy Spirit all the efforts we can put forth will be useless and in vain. It is He alone who can direct us aright how to subdue all evil and be worthy disciples of the Lord Jesus.

JOHN JORTIN, D.D., Archdeacon of London, 1770.

THE TWO GARDENS

EDEN and Gethsemane! How intimately the condition of the world is related to these two gardens! In the first man was placed in his state of innocency. There he was placed on trial for himself and all his descendants, there he fell. In that garden started the bitter fountain, formed by tears of regret over a ruin which man had caused, but which he had no power to restrain. That fountain has coursed its way down through all ages, angmented continually by tears of suffering and sorrow. The world can never forget Eden, both for what it was and for what it became by reason of man's sin.

After four thousand years had elapsed, and the world had experienced the consequences of sin, the second Adam enters another gardenthe Garden of Gethsemane. He entered it by night. It was the night of man's sin and guilt. He entered it to place himself on trial also for the world. When God called to the first Adam, 'Where art thou'? he hid himself from his presence; he was ashamed because he was guilty. When God called to the second Adam, he answered, Here am I. In the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God.' If much depended upon the trial of the first, we may say that even more depended upon the trial of the second Adam. There was a possibility of repairing the ruin of the fall; the world was not irrecoverably lost. But if Christ had refused to drink the cup of suffering put to his lips in the Garden of Gethsemane there could have been no salvation for man.

From the Garden of Gethsemane started another fountain that courses its way through the world. That fountain has its source in the drops of bloody sweat that fell from the Savionr's brow. It was augmented by the stream that flowed from his hands, his feet, and his side, on Calvary. Whoever plunges in this stream is cleansed from the stain of sin and guilt.

Down to the latest generation these gardens will continue to be remembered, and perhaps throughout eternity the scenes that transpired in them will be studied with ever-increasing interest.

TRENCH.

THE ANALYST.*<

(In reply to the continual requests of our readers, we shall, in this column, give notes of sermons preached by eminent contemporary Preachers.)

NAMES WRITTEN IN HEAVEN

Analysis of a Sermon preached in Swindon by the BISHOP OF ELY, July 17.

Luke x. 20.- In this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in Heaven.

These words carry us from the visible to the invisible world. Standing upon earth, our Lord unlocks for a moment both divisions of the life eternal. On the one hand he calls up the hosts of fallen angels, on the other hand he anticipates the disclosures of St. John in the Revelation-the ever open books receiving the record of of human action and the Lamb's Book of Life written within and without with the names of the blessed.

Our

The occasion was this. Christ had divided the country into thirty-five mission circuits, having sent seventy disciples two by two to preach the Gospel. And now they returned to detail the results. Apparently they had prospered beyond their expectations. They returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us through thy name.' Lord did not answer them directly, but appears to have looked forward to the time when Satan shall fall from heaven and the work of triumph shall be complete. He then turned to his disciples giving them greater authority, Behold I give you power to tread upon Scorpions,' &c. Notwithstanding, rejoice not in this-but that your names are written in heaven.

The importance of this passage lies in thisI.-It brings out clearly the real nature of that struggle with evil which is ever going on.

From childhood all are sensible of the power of temptation. There is a drawing towards what moral instinct tells us is wrong. But there is a vast difference in temptations.

(a) Some spring manifestly from ourselves. Our nature, disposition, tempers, tastes or education.

(b) Some come from sudden impulse. Dark, evil thoughts flash into the mind, and before we have time to recover we are swept away in their grasp. But all these tendencies to doing evil point to some external cause. Revelation teaches the same, that there are hosts of darkness as well as hosts of light. Satan is at the root of all evil. In opposition to Satan is ranged the power of Christ.

It is in relation to this mystery of iniquity that Christ seems, in the text, to set the seal of truth. He admits the power of his name over the power of Satan, but he warns them that even this victory ought not to be the highest ground for his disciple's joy.

II.-IT TEACHES US THE GROUND OF A BELIEVER'S SATIS. FACTION.

Remember that the disciples rejoiced at the power they found they possessed of power over evil and disease. Our Lord contrasts this with the blessedness of their call to be his servants and their consequent hope of heaven. It might seem much to be able to arrest the advance of disease and the power of the evil one, it was more to have the prospect of being sanctified body and soul. There are great lessons for us here.

Are there not many who measure human progress by the increased power of man over the resources of nature? Bound hand and foot in what is called progress we are its slaves. There is an eagerness to be rid of the presence of suffering and of poverty without the proportionate eagerness to remove that which lies at the root of all pain and all want, that is SIN.

There is not the same zeal even amongst good people to bring souls to Christ as there is to minister to their suffering, a hospital is a more popular institution than a church. I do not wish to depreciate philanthrophy but to remark on the danger of forgeting that the struggle of the followers of Jesus should be more with sin than with misery. You do but touch the surface of the wound if you rest content with healing bodily pain.

And so Christ warns us against exulting in the mere mastery of physical evil and keeping in check the outward effects of sin, and he bids us look to the sanctification of man to the raising and ennobling of a nation's life as the loftiest triumph.

God's mercies are great to all of you-but the greatest of all is salvation through Christ. And unless, above all things, men can thank him for the reception of the Saviour into their hearts, they do not realize the meaning of the command and the blessedness spoken of in the text.

OBSERVATIONS.-We think that Our Lord's object in these words was to inculcate among His disciples two things, Personality of Religion and Faith in their Master. Personality, or individuality of religion, means that after all, the great things which all disciples had to seek for, was their own personal salvation. It was far more important that they should rejoice in what Christ had done for them, than that they should glory in what they could do for Christ.

Secondly. Faith in Christ implies that our Lord wished to point out that there was but little to rejoice in when a few diseases were cured, such as they had just perceived. What was there to rejoice in at the small amount of good done by them, when the whole evil of all time was still reeking under heaven. This was a matter to be left in the hands of Christ. He would in his own good time crush and destroy all evil and all power of darkness.

The great thing to learn is that trast which will leave all things in the hands of our Master, making sure and striving chiefly for the one thing, to have our names, through him, written in Heaven.

VOL. V.

LEADING+SERMON.*<←

SLEEPING IN HARVEST

A HARVEST SERMON

By the REV. GILBERT HEATHCOTE,

Late Vicar of Colerne, Wilts.

Proverbs x., 5.-He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.

he chief design of the Scriptures is to make us wise unto salvation. The soul is the most precious and important part of our nature, and therefore its interests are set before us as deserving and demanding our supreme and most anxious care; and He who alone is capable of duly estimating the value of the soul, and who revealed the estimate He set upon it when He offered up His own life to redeem it, solemnly asked-'what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?' There is no possibility of gaining any earthly possession that would compensate for the loss of the soul. It is as superior to all that the world can offer, as eternal ages are more enduring than man's present life. But although the principal design of the Scriptures is to set before us the method of our salvation, and to enforce upon us the duty of securing it, yet while promoting this, its chief design, it does not overlook the interests of the present life. It enjoins diligence in business as well as fervour in devotion; and were all men to act in accordance with its maxims in the ordinary transactions of life, their attention to the affairs of this world would be no less exemplary than their anxiety to secure the interests of the world to come. The soundest maxims of worldly prudence are given here, as well as the most solemn exhortations to repentance, faith, and holiness. For instance, is not industry one of the chief excellencies of the human character, and one most essential to the success of all our

No. 9.

worldly undertakings? Now where can we find this more directly or more impressively enjoined upon us than in the Scriptures? The necessity of diligence, the wealth it accumulates, the honour it ensures, and the pleasures which arise out of it are all set before us; while on the other hand the misery and ruin which idleness entails, are most faithfully pictured to our minds. He becometh poor, says Solomon, that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.' He that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.'

The Scriptures constantly illustrate spiritual things by similes derived from nature. Following this example, we propose upon the present occasion to direct your minds to some of those important reflections which the present season of harvest suggests.

Although the words of Solomon in our text relate ostensibly to diligence in the natural harvest, yet they appropriately introduce the subject upon which we wish to fix your thoughts. 'He that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.' This declaration taken in reference to the affairs of the world alone, is literally true. Let us imagine a case by way of illustration.

A farmer has prepared his soil, sown his seed, and watched with great care and anxiety for the crop to be brought to perfection. The showers and sunshine of the spring and summer have combined to cover his fields with plenty, and the harvest season having arrived, he has only to exert himself with all possible industry to gather in the abundance with which Providence has rewarded his anxiety and toils. But if when the corn stood ready instead of reaping it, he were to fold his arms in indolent neglect, or squander away the precious days of the harvest-season in sleep, would not such conduct be universally condemned as the most ruinous and unpardonable folly? Let me then remind you that our present life in relation to the work of salvation, may be compared to the season of the natural harvest. At this season of the year