affections, and if our love be centred on God we are immoveable. Love builds around the soul a rampart,

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invulnerable, that the attacks of the enemy fall on it but to rebound. Thirdly: It is the strongest aggressive power. We have not only to bear up with fortitude under trials, and to resist with success temptations, but we have battles to fight and victories to win. Love is at once the inspiration and the qualification for the warfare; it at once constrains and arms the battle. There is nothing so aggressive in the moral world as love. It is a fire that spreads its flames until it encompasses all the objects within its sphere. Man can stand before anything sooner than love. He who wields the bayonet and the sword may be laughed to scorn, but he who wields the argument of love employs a power to subdue the spirit. Men instinctively throw open their hearts to the admission of the generous and the kind, but bolt them as with irons against the selfish and malign. As a sustaining, resisting, aggressive power, love will "never fail." All the energies of the soul grow under its influence as nature under the sky of spring. It is the breath of God, the atmosphere in which spirits revel

in the vigor of undying youth.

II. IT WILL "NEVER FAIL"AS A PRINCIPLE OF SOCIAL UNITY.

Deep in the heart of man is the desire for union with his fellow. Isolation and division are naturally repugnant to his social nature. He wishes to flow with the race as waters with the stream. His ingenuity has been taxed for ages in the invention of schemes for union. As the result we have a number of confederations, some based on political sympathy, some on material interests, some on theological dogmas, some on mere carnal affinities; but there is no real soul union in these, no coalition of hearts. Love alone can secure this. We are only one with those we love with the moral affections of our nature. But we can only love the loveable. True, but love is the loveable. It is this charity, this Divine love in another that invests him with beauty, and gives him a power to draw to him the love of his fellows. Two really loving souls are one. Love in the moral empire is what attraction is in the material; uniting those together who are united with the centre of their being. This is the principle by which Christ binds His people together in one, and binds

erates in the mind all the elements of spiritual joy,-hope, gratitude, adoration, and delightful sympathies with man, the universe, and God. Love sets all the strings of life's lyre to music, it brings the soul like a wandered orb from chaos, links it to its own centre, and fills it with the light and life of heaven. It " never faileth" as a source of joy.

Brother, get this unfailing thing within thee; it is the pulse of the universe, it is the life of God, it is the river that maketh glad the city of the blessed. Covet earnestly this best gift. Learn to "comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ

which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God."

THE WOMAN TAKEN IN

ADULTERY.

"And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last : and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."-John viii. 3-11. THOUGH Tischendorf, Thier, Alford, Tholuck, Trench, and others, reject this narrative as not genuine, and, therefore, not entitled to a place in the inspired volume, other

and more numerous critics, whose scholarship and authority are unsurpassed, maintain it is a constituent portion of sacred truth. The reasons that Webster and Wilkinson in their Greek Testament adduce in favor of its genuineness, we accept as sufficient for the purpose. The incident is in exquisite keeping with the whole Gospel history. The scribes and Pharisees here, are exactly what they appeared everywhere else; and Christ's conduct here, too, accords with the whole tenor of His life as sketched in the Gospels. Amongst the remarks it suggests, there are three worthy of special attention, and which are true, whether the narrative is inspired or not. It suggests

Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned but what sayest thou. This they said tempting him, that they might have to accuse him." They sought by this to entrap Him, to get Him to do or say something in the matter on which they could found a charge that would lead to His ruin. If He acquitted her, they would accuse Him of violating the law of Moses; and if He condemned her, they would accuse Him of political usurpation, for the power to condemn to death was invested entirely in Roman authority. But whether their conduct in this instance was prompted by a dislike to Christ, or a dislike to the woman, it suggests and illustrates the truth that the greatest sinners are generally the greatest accusers. The more base and corrupt a man is, the more ready he is to charge crimes on others, and the more severe he is in his censures on the conduct of his fellow-men.

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The more unchaste, untruthful, dishonest, a man is, the more ready to suspect the chastity, truthfulness, and probity of others. Take care of social accusers. The demon of the old Scribes and Pharisees is in them.

It

II. THAT THE SEVEREST JUDGE OF SINNERS IS THEIR

OWN CONSCIENCE. See how Jesus touched the consciences of these sinners. He " stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest even unto the last : and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." Observe two things. First Christ's method of waking up their consciences. (1) He expresses by a symbolical act His superiority to their malignant purposes. They were full of unholy excitement. Evil in them was now a passion, and they were impatient for Him to commit Himself; but He is sublimely calm. He stoops down and writes on the ground as if He were utterly indifferent to their miserable aims. They must have felt this. There is often a power in holy silence, which no words, however eloquent, can carry. (2) He puts the question of the

woman's punishment

upon their own consciences. "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." As if He had said, “I do not defend her conduct; stone her if you like; she deserves stoning. But let her be stoned by those who are free from sin, for it is monstrous for one sinner to stone another. Are you without sin? Then stone her. If not, take care. This touched them. Another thing to be observed is-Secondly: The force of their awakened conscience. "And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last." science-smitten, they went out from the presence of Christ as if scared by His majestic purity. This conscience for a time confounded their purposes, and abashed them with their own wickedness. "One by one" they skulked away. Ah! There is no judge so severe and crushing in his sentence as that of a guilty conscience. It suggests

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III. THAT THE GREATEST FRIEND OF SINNERS IS JESUS CHRIST. The accusers are gone, but the accused is there with Jesus alone. "When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman,

he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." First: He declines pronouncing a judicial condemnation upon her. "Neither do I condemn thee." It does not mean that Christ did not disapprove her conduct and condemn her morally, but that judicially He declined passing sentence upon her. He neither possessed nor claimed any jurisdiction in civil or criminal affairs. He left the work of the magistrate for the magistrate to do. He did not come to stone bodies to death, but to save souls to life. Secondly: He discharges her with a merciful admonition. "Go, and sin no more." An expression implying (1) That she had sinned. Adultery is a terrible moral crime. (2) That He forgave her her sin.

"Go,

and sin no more." (3) That her future should be free from sin. "Go, and sin no more." Let bygones be bygones. Let oblivion cover thy past, and virtue crown thy future. "Go, and sin no more.' This is how Christ deals with sinners. He is the sinner's friend. Desolate, branded, forsaken of all, He alone will stand by thee.

VOL. XV.

A SAD SIGHT.

"And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding."-Prov. vii. 7.

HERE is a sad sight. "Understanding," or reason, is the glory of human nature. It is "the candle of the Lord," to light us on our destiny. Where this is not, you have a traveller on a devious path without light; a vessel on a treacherous sea without rudder or compass. Who is the young man void of understanding? First: He is one who pays more attention to his outward appearance than to his inner character. He spends more time at his toilet than with books. His grand effort is not to train his faculties in knowledge and goodness, but to have a fine presence and gentlemanly deportment, to make an impression by his person. This is sad, for it is folly; it is sacrificing the jewel for the casket. Secondly: He is one who seeks happiness without rather than within. He looks for pleasure, not in the contemplation of elevating subjects, and in the harmonious flow of holy sympathies, but in the gratification of his sensual nature. The tavern, the saloon, the ball-room, are where he seeks his heaven. This is a sad sight. Such a young man is "void of understanding."

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