help? Or is He impotent? Will He? Or is He heartless? I confess that the very supposition that in such a case He exerts no personal agency, is repugnant to my instinctive notions of a God-to all my reasonings, too. He paints the lily-He directs the sparrow in its flight-and, oh, will He not help the struggling soul? The great Parent, will He not solve the questions of his anxious child? Would any human author be thus present with the mind of his reader, having a power to help-help needed-help, perhaps, sought-and not help? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?'"*

Let us, then, Brother, adore the infinite love of God, as well in the gift of the Spirit as in that of the Son.

SUBJECT:-The True Life of Humanity.

"Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."-1 Thes. v. 10.

Analysis of Homily the Hundred and Thirtieth.

AMONG the many facts which distinguish man from every other species of animal existence on this earth are, the different modes or forms of life which he adopts and pursues. All the members of every other species of existence live exactly the same kind of life; they are swayed by the same impulses, they contract the same habits, and move with the same bearing, in the same tract.

Not so with men; they differ widely in this respect: some yield allegiance to one impulse, and some to another; some pursue one end, and some another; some form one class of

* We give this extract from a work which we published some five years ago; not merely because it comes to illustrate our present subject, but because it serves to show one or two of our readers, who have informed us that they have been told that we do not believe in "the work of the Spirit," that such reports are but theological slander, and should be treated as such by our friends.

habits, and some another. The cause of this is, not the fact that man has a larger variety of impulse and faculty than any other species of animal existence, but that he has somehow or other, lost the great guiding principles of his being.

There are at least four forms of human life around us : (1.) There is the mere animal form. This form is developed in the multitude who live merely for appetite. "The things of the flesh" control and mould them. (2.) There is the mere secular form. This form is developed in those whose chief aim it is to amass wealth and gain fortunes. (3.) There is the mere speculative form. This form is developed in those whose love for abstract studies induces them to give up their existence to reading, meditation, and research. They live in the shadowy realm of ideas. (4.) There is the christian form. This form is developed in those "who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit," who work out all the energies of their being in harmony with themselves, the good of the universe, and the glory of God.

Now, which of these four is life-the true life of man? Is it the first? No! that is the life of the gross animalistthe life of the beast, not the life of man. Is it the second ? No! that is the life of the mere barterer, not the life of man. Is it the third? No! that is the life of the mere theorist, not the life of man. The last only is the true life of man.

To this we shall now call your attention.

I. THAT THE TRUE LIFE OF MAN INVOLVES A VITAL CONNEXION WITH JESUS CHRIST. "Live together with him." The apostle always associated the true life of men with it. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live," &c.

Christ, himself, speaks of the true life of man as being connected with him. "I am the true vine-as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself," &c.

We may be said to live with Christ in two senses:—

First: Sympathetically. We say, we are with a man when we sympathize with him in any great question, sentiment,

or aim. Indeed without a figure, do we not live with the men who feel as supreme the same thoughts, and pursue as supreme the same aims? Our souls meet and mingle with theirs. The meeting-place of souls is ever the supreme thought and aim. Persons who have not this, though, personally, they live in the same house and room, live not, in the highest sense, "together."

Now, he lives with Christ whose aims are the same. What is Christ's aim? To spread truth, to glorify God, and promote happiness through the universe-to carry out the divine will. "I have declared unto them thy name," &c. Paul lived with Christ in this sense. He had the same aim. Не sought to glorify God. He sought to spread truth, &c. He had, too, the same spirit, which was love. "The love of Christ constraineth me." The same kind of love which Christ had "Constraineth me," &c. "For me to live, is Christ," &c.

Secondly: Personally. There is such a thing as fellowship with Christ. "If a man love me, my father will love him," &c. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," &c. And John says, "Our fellowship is, indeed, with the father." Faith pictures Christ, gives him a living form, and brings him into the soul.

If it be said, How can we have fellowship with an invisible being? How do I hold fellowship with you? How with a friend removed by distance? Words, memorials and writings, are the media through which we hold fellowship with the distant and, often-times, with the dead.

Now, this is the true life of man. This is a life, in which every part of our nature is fully developed-every desire gratified; a life of which the conscience approves, by which the universe is benefitted, and which will wax in strength and bloom in beauty for ever.

II. THAT THE GRAND DESIGN OF CHRIST'S DEATH WAS TO AWAKEN IN HUMANITY THIS LIFE. "Who died for us."

The death of Christ for the world is the greatest fact.

Hence the apostles discourse so frequently upon His death. But he died for us. Millions have died, but they have died

for themselves.

First: This fact explains his history. Notice two things: (1.) He dreaded death; (2.) Possessed power to avoid it. With these two, the supposition, that he died for himself, renders His history inexplicable. But, when we are told that He died for others, all is clear.

Men die

into the But look

Secondly: This fact vindicates divine justice. because they sin. As by "one man, sin entered world," &c. We see justice in the death of man. at the history of Christ.—He is holy.-He is useful.—He consecrates himself to God. Yet, He dies. Why was it allowed? On the supposition that such a being died for himself, there is a dark cloud upon the public justice of the universe. But when we are told that He voluntarily died for others, all is clear.

Thirdly: This fact displays His love. gave himself for us."

"He loved us, and

"Scarcely for a righteous man, will one die." &c. Christ died to awaken this right life in humanity. "Unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die," &c. His death is the moral life of humanity.

"He siezed our dreadful right; the load sustained,

And heaved the mountain from a guilty world."

III. THAT THIS LIFE, THUS AWAKENED IN HUMANITY, IS INDEPENDENT OF OUR PHYSICAL DEATH. "Wake or sleep." The reference is to the body. There are two reasons for this opinion: (1.) Because the apostle was speaking to those who expected Christ to appear at once. (2.) Because the word "sleep" will not apply to a soul who has this life. The body is awake now; all its senses are opened. In death it is asleep ;-the senses are closed, and the limbs motionless.

These remarks suggest :

We

First: That this life does not prevent dissolution. must die. It matters not how holy men are; they must

die. Moses and Aaron; David, and the prophets; and the apostles, too, have "fallen on sleep." "It is appointed," &c.

Secondly: That this life modifies physical dissolution. 'Sleep." Who dreads sleep? What weary man does not hail it? The bodies of the blessed are sleeping; and they shall rise-rise refreshed. (1 Cor. xv. 43, 44.) It is but sleep!

66

""Tis but a night, a long and moonless night;
We make the grave our bed, and then are gone.
Thus at the shut of eve, the weary bird
Leaves the wide air, and in some lonely brake
Cowers down, and dozes till the dawn of day,

Then claps his well-fledged wings and bears away."

Thirdly: That this life survives physical dissolution. Whether we wake or sleep." "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord." Death does not interfere with this life. It will interfere with the life of the animalist, the secularist, and the theorist; but not with this.

SUBJECT:-The Second Scene in the History of Redeemed Humanity; or, the Age of Moral Triumph.*

"And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones," &c.-Rev. xx. 3-6.

:

Analysis of Homily the Hundred and Thirty-first.

THE first scene in the history of redeemed humanity, namely, the scene of moral struggle, occupied our attention in the last number. The passage before us is a very glorious, though highly symbolical, view of the scene which will *Continued from p. 47.

Vol. IV.

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