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in Auential than temples. The words of a preacher to his congregation are powerless, compared with the words of parents to their children, of brothers to their sisters, and sisters to their brothers. The words of loving relations to their own members are electric with love. Besides, the influence of the preacher is only occasional-a few times in the week at least. The influence of home is constant -constant as the air we breathe. Thirdly: Home is more permanent than temples. No institution so durable on earth as that of the domestic. Nations die, sects expire, ecclesiastical systems pass away, temples fall to ruin, but home stands as a rock amidst the swelling sea of change. Home, like an indestructible ark, comes floating down the floods of century and of change.

Thank God for pious homes.

"My boast is not that I can trace
my birth

From loins enthroned, or rulers
of the earth,

But higher, far, my proud preten-
sions rise-

The son of parents passed into
the skies."-COWPER.

ROTTENNESS AND RUIN. "For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together."-Matt. xxiv. 28:

[An exposition of this chapter will be found elsewhere in the

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IN this verse Christ states a universal law, that wherever there is rottenness in character, there will be ruin in destiny, The principle is, that "he who soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption," &c.

I. THE ROTTEN CHARACTER. There is a moral character which may be regarded as a carcase. It has no moral life in it. The form of life is there, and that is all. It is without breath, warmth, activity. The character uninspired and uncontrolled by supreme love to God, whatever may be its peculiar form, is rottenness. First: In the sensual form it is rotten. There are men whose characters are formed entirely on the principles of animalism. They are pre-eminently fleshly. Their character is a carcase. Secondly: In the secular form it is rotten. There are men whose characters are formed by gain in some way or other: gain of wealth, power, fame. The character is rotten; it is a mere carcase. Thirdly: In the religious form it is rotten. There are men who have a kind of religious character but have no su-. preme love to God. Sometimes their character is marked by creedism, sometimes by emotionalism, some

times by ritualism. But, whatever its peculiar feature, it is rotten, it is a carcase.

II. A RUINED DESTINY. "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the cagles be gathered together." This is a law. Men whose characters are not formed by a Divine love must become the victims of the eagles of retribution. Moral causation, memory, observation, consciousness, and the Bible, all demonstrate this.

The eagles from afar, upon the rocky height, or from the distant fields of air, scent the prey beneath, and with their ravenous instincts pounce down to devour. Terrible truth this. Wherever there is a moral carcase there will come an eagle to devour.

God's universe is full of moral eagles. They are ever on the wing in search of what is rotten, to clear it from creation. "The wages of sin is death," &c. “He that breaketh through a hedge, the serpent shall sting him," &c.

A TIMELY PERIOD.

"And I gave her space to repent."-Rev. ii. 21.

GOD is the great giver; He gives life and food and happiness to all His creatures. He gave to man an erect body, and a noble soul. Strange that man should want

VOL. XIV.

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II. A LIMITATION OF MERCY. "Space," a definite period of time. Man's "days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass," Job xiv. 5. "He limiteth a certain day," the opportunities to receive gracious visitations are compressed within the lifetime of a day! "The Holy Ghost saith, to-day." Exhort while it is called to-day. (Heb. iii, 7-13.) First: How rash the calculations of the sinner. "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years." Secondly: How simple the reckoning of the saint. "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." (Gen. xlvii. 9.) "All the days of my appointed time," &c. (Jobxiv. 14.) "Brethren, the time is short." (1 Cor. vii. 29.)

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III. A DECLARATION OF DUTY. "Repent." It must be "Repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." "Repentance is the earthly side of faith, faith the heavenly side of repentance;" or Repentance is the tear in the eye of faith." We ask not for the garments and manners of repentance; these the hypocrites can furnish; we want the thing: change of will, of purpose, of object. Oh, sinner, have you not had opportunities, encouragement, instruction, warning? The dark gulf that rolls onward to hell is not without beacon or buoy, or lightship; the coastline, the quick-sand, the rocks, the maelström, are flooded with Gospel light; and he who in our day will push on and despise the riches of the goodness and forbearance and longsuffering of God, will realize in fact the closing words of Bunyan's immortal pilgrim, "Then I saw that there was a way to hell even from the gates of heaven."

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to repent, and she repented not. Behold," &c. How is it that man can foresee his destiny? Because he can pursue a syllogism to its conclusion. In eternity there are two places of abode; a palace and a prison. The path leading to these is on earth, the fitness for these is accomplished in time. The birthchastening, meetening, adorning for heaven, is done here; and evil deeds and wilful darkness done and loved on earth, will most certainly fit a man for hell. Man is related to eternity. His memory is related to the book of God's remembrance; his conscience to the verdict which shall come from the great white throne! They will ever tally and agree. The time for the sinner to stop, to think, to turn, is Now, for the stream of time runs to the ocean of eternity; this limited period. shall melt into the illimitable, this finite into the infinite. Then, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still." (Rev. xxii. 11.) H. T. M.

The Pulpit and its Handmaids.

Extracts from the works of RICHTER. Ephemera die all at sunset, and no insect of this class has ever

sported in the beams of the morning sun. Happier are ye, little human ephemera! Ye played only

in the ascending beams, and in the early dawn, and in the eastern light. Hovered for a little space over a world of freshness and of blossoms, and fell asleep in innocence before yet the morning dew was exhaled.

A woman who could always love, would never grow old; and the love of mother and wife would often give or preserve many charms, if it were not too often combined with parental and conjugal anger. There remains in the faces of women who are naturally serene and peaceful, and of those rendered so by religion, an after-spring; and later, an after-summer, the reflex of their most beautiful bloom.

Honour, honesty, firm will, truthfulness, advancing in spite of threatening wounds, endurance of misfortune, (or the blows of fate) frankness, self-respect, self-equipoise, contempt of opinion, justice, and perseverance. All these, and similar words, denote only onehalf of the moral nature, moral strength, and elevation. The second half includes all that refers to the lives of the kingdom of love, gentleness, beneficence. These may be called moral beauty.

FORGIVENESS OF SPIRIT.

Nothing is more moving to man than the spectacle of reconciliation. Our weaknesses are thus idemnified, and are not too costly, being the price we pay for the hour of forgiveness; and the archangel who has never felt anger, has reason to envy the man who subdues it. When thou forgivest, the man who has pierced thy heart stands to thee in the relation of the sea-worm that perforates the shell of the mussel, which straightway closes the worm with a pearl.

FORGIVENESS, A NECESSARY VIRTUE.

Man has an unfortunate readiness in the evil hour, after receiv

ing an affront, to draw together all the moon-spots on the other person into an outline of shadow and a night-piece, and to transform a single deed into a whole life; and this only in order that he may thoroughly relish the pleasure of being angry. In love, he has, fortunately, the opposite faculty of crowding together all the light parts and rays of its object into one focus, by means of the burning glass of imagination, and letting its sun burn without its spots; but he, too, generally does this only when the beloved, and often censured being, is already beyond the skies. In order, however, that we should do this sooner and oftener, we ought to act like Wincklemann, but only in another way. As he usually set aside a particular half-hour on each day for the purpose of beholding and meditating on his too happy existence in Rome, so we ought daily or weekly to dedicate and sanctify a solitary hour for the purpose of summing up the virtues of our families, our wives, our children, and our friends, and viewing them in this beautiful crowded assemblage of their good qualities. And, indeed, we should do so for this reason, that we may not forgive and love too late, when the beloved beings are already departed hence, and are beyond our reach.

INGRATITUDE.

We do not marvel at the sunrise of a joy, only at its sunset. Then, on the other hand, we are amazed at the commencement of a sorrow-storm, but that it should go off in gentle showers we think quite natural.

DEMAND OF LOVE.

Love requires not so much proofs as expressions of love. Love demands little else than the power to feel, and to requite love.

SEARCH AFTER TRUTH.

According to Democritus, truth lies at the bottom of a well, the depth of which, alas! gives but little hope of release. To be sure, one advantage is derived from this,

that the water serves for a mirror in which truth may be reflected. I have heard, however, that some philosophers, in seeking for truth, to pay homage to her, have seen their own image, and adored it instead.

Theological Notes and Queries.

OPEN COUNCIL.

[The utmost freedom of honest thought is permitted in this department. The reader must therefore use his own discriminating faculties, and the Editor must be allowed to claim freedom from responsibility.]

Queries to be answered.

14. In 1 John v. 16, there are two deaths mentioned, "A sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." What sin is meant by the first? and does the second refer to the sin against the Holy Ghost? In verse 18 it is said, "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is born of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." Does not that rest on the doctrine-once in grace always in grace? Is there not a possibility of falling? What did St. Paul mean when he said, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."-W. H. S.

15. If this world, renovated and reconstituted, is to be the future abode of the blessed, in what sense did Christ go to prepare a place" for His people?

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CAMERON.

16. By the probation of angels, I mean the same as the probation of man in its commonly received meaning. I have no source of information on the subject; it is the very thing I want. The passage in Jude to which you refer, Bushnell says does not refer to angels,

but to man. But that is not exactly
If there was any
my question.
means of ascertaining if all angels
have passed their trial-of course
supposing them to have been, like
man, placed on trial. I have often
seen it stated as an acknowledged
fact that they have, but have never
seen a proof given.-W. G. PASCOE.

17. The surviving friends of deceased persons very rarely appear to suffer from any fears or doubts respecting the favorable acceptance and reception into heaven of the departed. In our daily experience, it is very seldom indeed that we hear the expression of any anxiety or uneasiness upon the point. Whence this apparent indifference or composure?-MEMENTO MORI.

18. As supernatural power is not a converting or regenerative agency, and as miracles would appear to be only adapted to affect minds of a low or wrong intellectual status, may I ask from what point of view the miracles of Christ are of value or importance to the men of the present day? The hand which causes our wonderful planet, with its many millions of inhabitants, to revolve round the sun, can, assuredly, without effort, give sight to the blind, health to the sick, speech to the dumb, life to the dead, and feed thousands with a few loaves and fishes.-CELITUS MIHI VIRES.

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