blind beggar stops him with his tale of sorrow; the cripple, the mourner, and the oppressed, hail him as their common friend; the infant prattles freely in his arms; the fisherman reclines upon his breast, and asks him questions; the fond sister, weeping for her dead, runs to meet him on the way; the villagers of Bethany witness his sighs and tears over his departed friend. Here was majesty! He preaches to the crowds of Galilee on the mountain and the shore. His truths are inscribed on no tablet, yet he declares them more lasting than the universe. His life-which the Father beheld with eulogy-was a ministry of benevolence; his last breath was a prayer for the forgiveness of his foes; his blood was shed as a ransom for the race. This wondrous life gave a new impulse to the world, which has revolutionized its laws, literature, and commerce; its social habits, character, and life. To myriads it has been the great object of faith-the source of consolation—the basis of hope-the incentive to zeal and activity-the theme of admiration-the centre of love-the model and the life of the soul!

O ye votaries of wealth and power! study this Model, and learn that the highest greatness consists not in rank, in fortune, or in fame, but in the mind! The grandest embodiment of excellence in history was a poor Man, who came forth from the toil of the workshop; whose dwelling was the abode of a carpenter; whose birth, companions, and attire, bore the impress of poverty.

IV. THIS PROCESS IS

PROGRESSIVE. "We are changed from glory to glory." Just in proportion to the steadfastness of constancy with which we look upon this mirror, will be our advance in assimilation to God. Piety, or godliness, is represented as a life in the soul; but, like life in every form, it is progressive. There is "first the blade, then the ear, afterward the full corn in the ear." Some people expect to wake up some day from their dreamy state, and find themselves saved-perfected. This spiritual life is a race to be run. It is a work of cultivation: the vintage comes only

after planting, pruning, weeding, and watering. It is a warfare those who would bear the "palm," and reign over themselves, must engage in a tedious strife. Many a citadel must be scaled, and stronghold stormed; many a foe must be vanquished. Every conquest here is greater than the subjugation of a people; it arms the spirit with new power, and conducts it a step nearer to the victor's crown.

This progress may be as a "strait and thorny road," but how glorious the eminence to which it leads-the perfect development of the soul! The mind will be clear and cloudless, filled with light and beauty; the heart will be free from conflicting appetites and inclinations, its affections concentrated upon Infinite excellence; the corporeal frame will be perfect in activity and power, invested with unfading beauty, free from the debility of pain and age. And this perfection will know no limit: our Divine Model will ever be infinitely beyond us. Our capacity of assimilation will never be exhausted every truth gained will only render our appetite the stronger; every advance onward will only be the prelude to a loftier flight. When the progress of ages shall have conducted us to the heights where archangels now stand, even then we shall regard ourselves as only in the infancy of our spiritual existence-as on the shores of the boundless eternity.

V. THIS PROCESS IS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE SPIRIT. "Even as by the Spirit of the Lord." His influence is essential to the result; he superintends the work; he implanted the capacity; his inspiration supplied the revelation; he enables us to admire the perfections it discloses. In our spiritual growth he sends the balmy breezes to invigorate; he causes the genial rays of light and warmth to descend; he makes countless influences around contribute to our advance. Yea, the bleak winds and the dark tempests are subservient to our growth, by giving us, like the oak, greater stability and strength.

GUYNE HUGHES.

Analysis of Homily the Seventy-sixth.

"Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him," &c.-Isa. xxviii. 24-29.*

"THE entire moral and visible world," says Trench, "with its kings and its subjects-its parents and its children-its sun and its moon-its sowing and its harvest-its light and its darkness-its sleeping and its waking-its birth and its death, is, from beginning to end, a mighty parable, a great teaching of super-sensuous truth, a help at once to our faith and to our understanding." Material phenomena are emblems of the mental; secular relations and operations are the types of the spiritual. Hence the inspired writers-who had a deep insight of the analogies subsisting between the seen and the unseen, the temporal and the eternal-are constantly employing the former as pictures to illustrate the latter. Physical husbandry is one of the most common temporal images they employ to represent spiritual training.

SUBJECT:-Physical Husbandry the Effect and Emblem of Divine Teaching.

The passage reminds us

I. THAT PHYSICAL HUSBANDRY IS THE EFFECT OF DIVINE TEACHING. "His God doth instruct him" (the husbandman) "to discretion, and doth teach him." Mark the operations

* This chapter refers to the approaching calamities of the Assyrian War-a war which would prove the entire overthrow of Samaria, and bring considerable suffering upon Judah. It contains the assurance that although the true should be grievously afflicted, yet they should be saved, and that their very affliction would work out their good. The prediction, probably, was delivered in the reign of Hezekiah, when Samaria had entered into a league with Rezin, king of Damascus.

as here described; see the various methods the husbandman adopts in order to bring out a certain result. Whence did he get the knowledge that this manifold labour would produce the specific end he sought? How did man come to know that by depositing a seed in a soil which had been dressed after a certain fashion, that solitary seed would produce thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold? We are familiar with the operation now, and the wonderfulness does not strike us; but, antecedently, nothing seems to us more marvellous. We think that had we never seen the operation, and it had been told us that the one seed would thus multiply itself, we should have discredited the information as an absurdity. Whence, then, came this great agricultural truth? It is not innate, nor of necessary discovery. The text gives the most satisfactory "His God doth instruct him."

answer:

The point suggested, and which we wish to insist upon, is, that all true secular ideas, as well as spiritual, are from God. This is a truth not generally realized even in the Christian Church. Theology too frequently circumscribes the mental sphere of Divine operation. That God imparts what are called spiritual ideas-ideas in relation to himself: moral relationships, rights, and duties-is admitted and strenuously urged; but that he imparts true ideas about our physical relationships and duties, is a doctrine which, if not denied, is all but universally overlooked. Christians refer true ideas of worship to God, but not true ideas of commerce, agriculture, navigation, medicine, architecture, and the like. In fact, they do not regard God as having much to do with the practical mind of this working world.

First. Our position is suggested by a priori reasoning. One might justly infer that He who gave us an organization, which so connects us with the material world as to render a certain course of conduct indispensable to our physical well-being, would give us some ideas to guide us in the matter, and the more so when we remember that the welfare of the soul itself greatly depends upon the condition of the body.

Secondly. Our position is sustained by scripture. There

Vol. III.

E

are specific examples in the Bible, of God condescending to teach men secular work, such as the building of the ark and the tabernacle; and the passages are numerous which imply that God acts upon the general mind of mankind.

Thirdly. Our position is implied in the doctrine of providence. How does God interpose on behalf of men now? Not miraculously. He does not feed men now by showering manna, or multiplying the loaves and the fishes. The age of miracles has long since passed away. And yet there is a Providence. How does it come to our help? By giving us directing ideas. A good man is brought to a painful crisis in his business. He is filled with anxiety. One step will decide his commercial fate. What will help him? A true directing idea would dispel his darkness, and clear his path. Or a government is brought to a solemn crisis in its history. The fate of nations depends upon the next act. How can Providence help it at that moment? By suggesting an idea that will reveal the true and safe path. Ideas are Our guides in all the labyrinth walks of life, and all our true ones come from God.

This doctrine-which can be satisfactorily established by such considerations as we have hinted at―should lead us (1) to recognise God in all the true developments of mind. All true ideas are divine, whether embodied in husbandry, building, legislation, or in any of the arts that tend to make man a greater and happier being. All the true ideas of human genius are rays from the infinite Father of light. Let us learn (2) to seek his aid in all secular undertakings. Men advance physically by the discovery and application of material laws. There are many laws of nature yet undiscovered, which, if known to man, might lift him, in physical comforts, to a height of which he has never dreamt. Since all true ideas come from God, why should we not pray for the revelation of these laws? Here is a sphere of prayer for the man of business and the man of science. It has been lately asserted that it is useless to pray for the removal of that fearful pestilence which is throwing its dark shadow over our land,