now taken into the Potter's hand, to fashion it another vessel, as it pleases Him.

The story of this operation, as I said, is solemn indeed.

"Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish." In honour, indeed, Nebuchadnezzar had been, but he had not understood, and now he becomes as a beast. "He was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws."

Thus he is made to know himself, and to learn the lesson that he was, in all his honour, as brutish as the cattle of the field, having no understanding.

The occasion was special, and the display of the operation of God signal almost without a parallel. But if he learn that "he has destroyed himself," he shall learn also that there is One that lifts up even from dunghills; and under the further working of His gracious as well as mighty hand, Nebuchadnezzar revives. He becomes a risen man in due season. The field and the oxen are left His understanding returns to him, his kingdom and its glory, his honour and its brightness, his nobles and his counsellors, all return to him, and even excellent majesty is added to him. And then, as one of understanding indeed, who had come to the knowledge of God and himself, he no longer thinks of honouring God by state decrees and ordinances of his realm, but bows before Him as Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, and publishes His doings. He is no longer the king, but the dependant. The old thing is passed away, and all is become new.

THE OVERSEERS OF THE HOLY GHOST.

ACTS xx. 28.

We are all losers by reason of tradition having made the word of God of none effect. It is as much part of our redemption, in the age in which we live, to be redeemed from our "vain conversation received by tradition from our fathers," as it was for the Jewish believers to be redeemed out of their hereditary and traditional religion through the precious blood of the Lamb (1 Pet. i. 18, 19). But there is danger lest in seeking to emancipate ourselves from tradition we throw aside that which is really valuable, because it is scriptural.

Episcopacy has been so generally known in its traditional character of prelacy, that many in repudiating prelacy have also with it thrown aside episcopacy, as if it had no scriptural foundation. Our duty is to separate the precious from the vile, and to recognize every gracious provision which the Holy Ghost makes for the present well-being of the saints.

"This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work" (1 Tim. iii. 1). It is an honourable work; for its high pattern is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. "Ye were," says the apostle, "as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls" (1 Pet. ii. 25). The Shepherd and Bishop, although having one common object-namely, care for the sheep-are, nevertheless, to be distinguished in their functions. If the Lord Jesus presents Himself to us in all the gracious characters of the Good Shepherd (John x.), we find

Him exercising the no less important functions of the Bishop in His inspection of the Churches. (Rev. ii. iii.)

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Sheep not only need green pastures and still waters, but diligent inspection also, lest there be disease among them; as disease in one sheep, if not checked, might infect the whole flock. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds" (Prov. xxvii. 23). Tender care and suited teaching, together with "vigilant" inspection, would be found in one whom the Lord had gifted to be, under Himself, a shepherd and a bishop. But these qualifications are not always found in the same servant of the Lord. The ready detection of any departure from the faith, or of any attempt to corrupt it, the detection of an evil principle at work, before it is manifested in its results,- are truly valuable qualifications; and yet they may be unaccompanied with that truly shepherdly characteristic to strengthen that which is diseased, to heal that which is sick, and to bind up that which is broken, and to bring again that which is driven away, and to seek out that which is lost (Ezek. xxxiv. 4).

Among the gifts of the ascended Jesus for the building up of His body, the Church, "pastors and teachers" are linked together. (Eph. iv.) "Apt to teach," is also one of the needed qualifications of a bishop, but it is not the only qualification, and may be found where other qualifications of the bishop are wanting. Many of these qualifications are moral and circumstantial, of which those without are quite competent judges. Sobriety of demeanour, not addicted to wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, not passionate, and being at the head of a well-ordered household (see 1 Tim. iii.), do not re

quire a spiritual judgment in order to be recognized. But a great deal of the truly shepherdly character can only be appreciated by those who are spiritual, and often finds its exercise among individuals at home, rather than among the congregation in public. If the Lord in mercy gives pastors, He gives them according to His own heart, to feed His people with knowledge and understanding (Jer. iii. 15). But in Israel the accredited pastors-those who made pretension to be so, and those whom the people acknowledged had scattered the flock-they had "become brutish and sought not the Lord" (Jer. x. 21; xxiii. 1—4). It was so again in the days of the Lord Jesus Himself. He came to " the lost sheep of the house of Israel"there was an accredited fold and accredited shepherds; but the fold was no place of safety for the Lord's sheep, so He put them forth from it, and pronounced the most withering woes on the accredited shepherds; and then assumed that blessed title Himself. Jesus, the Lord of glory, feeds His flock like a Shepherd: He gathers the lambs with His arm, and carries them in His bosom, and gently leads those that are with young (Is. xl. 10, 11). We learn from Jesus Himself, "the good Pastor" and the true Bishop, what would be according to His heart; whom love led both to "lay down His life for the sheep," and to counsel, rebuke, and chasten them, in their diseases, wanderings, and lukewarmness (Rev. iii. 18, 19). If it be according to the heart of Jesus to, unite in the same individual the pastoral and episcopal qualifications, so as to relieve and help one another, how gladly should we accept what He graciously bestows. But to "every

one is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ;" and we are equal losers, if we recognize not all that Christ is pleased to give; or, if any presume, because one gift is manifest that therefore another is present. This is the way of office, but it is not the way of Christ. In the parting address of the apostle Paul to the elders of the Church of Ephesus, he pointedly addresses them as Bishops, yet at the same time recognizes them as called upon to tend the flock. These elders were "stewards of the manifold grace of God"-among them doubtlessly some were more apt to teach than others, some more qualified to rule, others more able in meekness to instruct and to sympathize with the sheep in their wanderings and trials. But "all are yours," says the apostle; and the flock would be losers if they did not profit by all as their several circumstances might require. Now, the assumption of office, on the one side, and the appropriation of a teacher to oneself, or to a congregation, on the other, has tended to hinder this gracious provision of the Shepherd and Bishop being carried out for the blessing of the flock. The Church at Philippi, in the absence of immediate apostolic superintendence, flourished under that of bishops. The provision at Philippi was not a bishop, but bishops; and in this plurality we may safely conclude that vigilant inspection and tender pastoral care were alike secured to the Church at Philippi, as the both were secured to the Church at Ephesus, by the gracious provision of the Holy Ghost. "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, [i.e., bishops,] to feed the Church of God, which He hath