to sleep, with cold stones for his pillow and the sable heavens for his covering. In his sleep he had this dream. This dream reveals two things. I. THE EXISTENCE OF A SPIRITUAL CAPACITY IN MAN. He "saw," and "heard," and "felt" things which lie beyond the reach of the senses -things which belong to the great universe of spirit. (1) He saw angels, and God Himself. (2) He heard the voice of the Infinite; words came unto him fresh from the mouth of the Eternal Himself. (3) He felt emotions which mere animal existence could not experience, which the material universe could not produce. Man, thou hast a capacity within thee which connects thee with the spiritual, the Divine, and the eternal. of God, it is vocal with the thoughts of the Eternal Two or three remarks are suggested about the waking of this spiritual capacity now. First: It is sometimes unCLpected. Little did the patriarch think what a new world would open up to him at Bethel. The woman of Samaria, Saul of Tarsus, the Philippian jailer, are all examples of the unexpected way in which this change takes place in man. Second ly: It is always Divine. God came to him in this dream, unsealed the ear, and opened the eye of his spiritual capacity. Thirdly: It is ever glorious. Jacob now had a new universe, a new experience, a new life. Fourthly: It is ever memorable. He raised a stone to commemorate it. Wherever this chang takes place, is a memorable place a consecrated place. There, is the starting of a new history, the dawn of a new epoch, the birth of a new life. In conclusion, a word to the worldling. God and His spiritual universe are round about you, and you know it not. You deny the fact, perhaps, because you do not realize it; but you perceive it not because your spiritual capacity is dormant, your spiritual sense is closed in sleep. The man who is born blind, may say there is no light, no beauty. He who is He who is deaf, may say there is no such thing as sound. Still a thousand orbs light up the world, beauty floods the universe, and melodious sounds float in every breeze. Open the eye and the ear, and he will feel them. So it is with spiritual things. A word to the godly. How great your privileges! There is a God watching over you, and angels are your attendants. They are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." "How oft do they their silver bowers leave, To come to succor us, that succor want? How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant, Against foul fiends, to aid us militant? They for us fight, they watch, and duly ward, And their bright squadrons round about us plant; And all for love, and nothing for reward." GOD'S RELATION TO THE GOOD. "Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting."-Isa. lxiii. 16. THE text leads us to consider The preceding verse evidently shows, that the good people who employed the words of the text, where in sore trouble. "Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies toward me? Are they restrained? Yet under their distress, they take encouragement in the close and tender relationship which existed between God and them. First: He is their everlasting Father. "Thou art our Father." "Thy name is from everlasting." The word "Father" implies (1) Spiritual causation. He begot them to a new spiritual life. He gave them that new heart and new spirit that constituted them, His children. The word "Father implies (2) Spiritual resemblance. Children are like their parents. Like begets like. The good resemble the Infinite in the controlling of the spirit and purpose of their being. The word "Father" implies (3) Spiritual education. The work of the Father is to educate his children, to train their faculties, to discharge the ever multiplying responsibilities of their existence. God is the great teacher of the good. "Who The God's relation to the good teacheth like Him?" in two aspects. I. As a fact MOST ENCOURAGING UNDER TRIAL. word "Father" implies (4) Spiritual providence. The work of a father is to provide for his children, to make all the necessary arrangements | father, though Abraham be for their future well-being. God provides for the good. His provisions are varied, abundant, complete, everlasting. Is not this relation a source of the highest encouragement to the good under trial? To have such a Father as this, whose name is everlasting! Earthly fathers die and leave their children orphans. Secondly: He is their everlasting Redeemer. "Our Redeemer." This imThis implies-original captivity. The best of men were once in moral bondage, once in a slavedom worse than that of Egypt. They were servants of sin. It implies-present deliverance. That deliverance was effected by God Himself. Noarm but His could break the chain, and unbolt the prison doors. He did it, the everlasting One. Earthly friends, who have rendered us services, die, but He our great Redeemer lives for ever. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever. then is encouragement for the good. "Can a woman forget her sucking child," &c. "Who shall separate us from the love of God," &c. The 'text leads us to consider God's relation to the good. Here II. As a fact independent of MAN'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. "Doubtless thou art our ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not"-two of the greatest men in Jewish history, the venerated ancestors of the Hebrew race. The idea is that their relationship to God was a fact, whether these great men knew it or not. A good man's relation to God is a fact, independent of the recognition of the greatest men. First: It is a fact independent of the recognition of the politically great men. Kings, nobles, heroes, may regard you a pauper beneath their notice; albeit you are a child of God. The fact remains unaltered. Secondly: It is a fact independent of the recognition of scientifically great men. Astronomers, geologists, physiologists, metaphysicians may not know you, or may despise you as ignorant and uncultured; albeit you are a child of God. The fact is unaltered. Thirdly: It is a fact independent of the recognition of ecclesiastically great men. Primates, bishops, doctors of churches may denounce you as schismatic or heretic; albeit you are the child of God. The fact is unaltered. "Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us," &c. Blessed be the man who has JEHOVAH for his Father and Redeemer. He will rise superior to all the trials of life, and exult in the prospects | ill-tempered, that they fail to of all that may await him in the future. THE BURIAL OF STEPHEN. "And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.". Acts viii. 2. THERE is a fact here in connection with a dead man not very common. I. NOT ALL MEN THAT DIE ARE BURIED. The bones of many are left to bleach in the open winds, or rot in the depths of ocean. Some are consumed by fire, some are devoured by wild beasts, and some are thrown into the rivers as in the case of the Ganges and left to the mercy of the elements, and the ravenous beasts of prey. God alone knows how many of the human race moulder into dust unshrouded, uncoffined, and unknelled. II. NOT ALL THAT ARE BURIED ARE LAMENTED. The death of many is felt to be a deliverance, and often, too, where there is the mimicry awaken any sympathy in their circle, and their death is felt to be a blessed relief. Few sights are more sad to a thoughtful mind than to witness-as most ministers have a deceased father, mother, master, committed to the earth, with relations around the grave, with no tear in the eye, no regret in the heart. Their lives had won no love, and their death could draw no tear. LAMENTED III. NOT ALL THAT ARE ARE LAMENTED BY THE DEVOUT. There is often the sorrow of the worldling and the selfish, because of the secular loss experienced. A politician who has served the temporal interests of his country, a merchant on whose transactions numbers are dependent, the companion who has ministered to the gratifications of others will be lamented, but not by devout men, as such. Now Stephen was not only buried and lamented, but lamented by devout men. of sorrow and the pageantry | Why was this? The following of mourning. Who could lament the death of the tyrant, the oppressor, the persecutor, the churl, or the heartless miser? The lives, alas, that many live here are so thoroughly cold, selfish, VOL. XV. reasons may be suggested. (1) He had embodied their ideal of man. They felt they. carried the corpse of one that approached their idea of what a man ought to be. They had witnessed his self-sacri BB 2 ficing labors, heard his noble defence for the truth, and observed the sublime spirit with which he met his martyrdom. They felt they were burying a man-not a merchant, not an artist, not a priest, &c.—but a man. Well might the devout weep over the death of a man! (2) His martyrdom had revealed the iniquity of their age. The moral obliquity, injustice, and heartless cruelty which their countrymen displayed in his persecution, must have filled them with inexpressible grief. (3) His departure was a grievous loss to the cause of godliness and humanity. His zealous efforts and his earnest prayers were over. No wonder that these devout men lamented Stephen's death. THE POWER OF SATAN OVER MEN. "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace."-Luke xi. 21. CHRIST employs this sentence in speaking of the devil's influence over men, and whilst we remember that it is figurative, we must give to the figure more than ordinary significance, for it is a figure of the Great Teacher whose every word was weighted with wisdom and fraught with truth. Concerning, then, the devil's power over men, this figure reminds us I. IT IS THE POWER OF A STRONG BEING. Our own experiences and the history of the world would lead us to believe this; but our proofs now shall be drawn from the Bible. First: The names by which the Bible denominates him. Almost every such title has reference to his power. Apollyon, Beelzebub, Prince of this world, Prince of the power of the air, God of this world. And the creatures that the Scriptures use as emblematical of him are the strongest. The serpent, whose mortal fang stings, and whose awful coil crushes to death; the roaring lion, the king of the beasts of the forest; the old dragon, which was to eastern minds an incarnation of almost resistless power. Secondly: The work that the Bible attributes to him. He introduced sin into this world, and is the arch rebel in God's kingdom; he is the leader of the legions of sin in earth and in hell; he "leads the world captive at his will;" he is so mighty, that in the encounter with him even the youths faint and are weary, and the young men utterly fall; so mighty, that to obtain the victory over him the Son of God becomes incarnate and dies; so |