of travelling life's journeys and sailing life's voyages without the divine presence. Let our prayer ever be, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." (Exodus xxxiii. 15.) Seek divine companionship, and follow divine guidance.

Secondly Distinguish between a permissive and an ordinary providence. This storm was permitted. Some men by thoughtless act or vicious behaviour create storms about themselves, and then flee to God for protection. When they have done their utmost to violate all moral and natural law, they talk about the mysterious dealing of divine providence! It is but right that when men oppose God, that they should be punished for their sin. It is wrong, therefore, to create a tempest, and then console yourself by singing

:

"He plants his footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm."

Thirdly As we cannot have Christ's bodily presence, there is the greater scope for the exercise of faith. There is a blessing in reserve for those who believe without seeing. (John xx. 20.) Keep your faith alive-fix its eagle eye right on the centre of the sun. Believe in the God of the storm, and he will crown your faith with inconceivable reward. It would indeed be delightful to gaze on the unveiled presence of the Saviour-but we shall love him none the less because obedience preceded sight.

Fourthly: Sinner! shall all nature respond to the voice of Christ, and wilt thou be silent? Shall the stars whirl their harmonious revolutions-shall the storm hold its raging breath-in obedience to the divine command, and will thy heart not yield to the entreaties of mercy ? Sad thought! that man alone is the jarring note in creation's anthem. There are storms in his moral nature which refuse to be quieted; there are fires within him on which tears have been shed and blood has been spilt, and still they burn!

Be softened! Consider thy greatness-thy nature-thy destiny. Christ has spoken-his tones are full of love: in sight of his cross and his grave, I call upon thee to join the concert and heighten the strain which the green earth and the blue heaven are evermore sending upward to his throne. Banbury. JOSEPH PARKER.

SUBJECT:-Spiritual Qualification for the Reception of the

Spiritual.

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”—1 Cor. ii. 12.

Analysis of Homily the Hundred and Thirty-sixth.

INTRODUCTION.-General illustrations of the fact, that there are many free gifts which one man seeks to present to another, which the other cannot receive without spiritual sympathy with the giver.* Sometimes the person for whom a surprise is prepared, has no spirit to understand the kindness that has dictated it, or to appreciate the gift itself; --and so the gift is thrown away.

I. THERE ARE MANY THINGS FREELY GIVEN TO US BY GOD. Of course, the gifts that are the least exclusive are the most free. The lavish and skilful hand which has adapted the world to man by the excess of bounty, often hides from us the fact that we might have had to contend with "conditions of existence" that could only have been the causes of wretchedness. "The great things of his law" are "free gifts." Pardon, holiness, "heaven upon earth," are free gifts. Christ is "the unspeakable gift" "given up for us all"—a gift not to be recalled, "for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance;" and "eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

* Coleridge and his guest. The Picture that was made into a Floor Cloth, &c.

II. THESE FREE GIFTS MUST BE KNOWN AND APPRECIATED, OR THEY WILL NOT BE RECEIVED BY US. Allowing that some free gifts of providence can be physically received by the thankless and the fleshly mind, they are only partially received by such: e.g., the nine lepers, the woman who would have stolen away with half a blessing. If I do not understand, or appreciate, the labour of the artist-the feeling which he has embodied-he may have given me some sheets of canvass and some ounces of paint, but he cannot give me his picture. I should not have received it, because I do not know what he has freely given to me. The musician may freely give me the treasures that have enriched his soulhe may fill the air with melody-my ear-pan may respond physically to all the mysterious harmonies of Bach-and yet "I," my inner self, through my lack of knowledge, fail to receive a single emotion: so, the Divine Harmonist who would ravish humanity into fellowship with Himself, may ply all instruments of soul and sense, and freely give the harmony of heaven, but these joys are only received by those who know them. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee," &c. "We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true; this is the true God and eternal life."

III. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S FREE GIFT IS DEPENDENT ON THE SPIRIT THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED. We are apt to forget and to reverse this truth. It depends on the spirit of a man what is the truth that is forced upon him by any circumstances in which he is placed. Imagine the impressions received, the truths conveyed to a group of men of different spirits, who may be gathered now before Sebastopol; the scientific spirit, the spirit of the historian, of the politician, of the artist, of the soldier, of the philanthropist; they would all receive different things, because they would virtually perceive different objects. The same thing occurs in the repose of spiritual life. If our spirit is

haughty or selfish, how can we know, or receive, free gifts that require for their appreciation self-condemnation and self-forgetfulness? If our spirit is false, how can we receive, or know, that which depends on the faithfulness and truthfulness of God? "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." If there is no spirit of selfdissatisfaction-no conflict between our actual and ideal life, -how can we appreciate the promise of pardon and life, through the holy Judge and everlasting Friend of the human race? The spirit of a man is open to influences from other spirits. One man may pour his spirit into another's, communicate it to society, enshrine it in the common motives and aspirations of the race. And just as every man has a spirit of his own, so societies, communities, nations, the world itself, may have a spirit which reacts upon the individual spirits which compose them. We speak correctly, if not scientifically, when we speak of the spirit of our age, the spirit of a system, of a class, and of the spirit of

THE WORLD.

IV. THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD IS UTTERLY INSUFFICIENT FOR THE PURPOSE HERE INDICATED. Endeavour to draw a distinction clearly between "the soul of the world" and "the spirit of the world." The spirit of the world has differed at different times in the world's history. Review the

world as it shaped itself to the eye of Paul. Some day the spirit of the world will be the spirit of God. Ignorance identifies them now. Philosophy tries to prove that they are the same. The apostle was not deluded by the false philosophy of Greece. We must not be deceived by the dicta of either France or Germany.

First:

Let us enumerate some characteristics of the spirit of the world-of humanity as a whole, in the days of Paul. Sensuality. materialistic.

If not sensual now, still it is sensuous and But the things given by God are spiritual and eternal. "Therefore," &c. Secondly: Selfishness. The

government and the army; the proconsul and the priest; the bigotry of the Jews, and the philosophy of the Greeks ;were all selfish. The spirit of selfishness blinds the eye to God's gifts. We suffer as much from the selfishness of trade, of commerce, of politics, of religion, of art, even of philanthropy, as Paul did; though it may be more subtle in its manifestations. "Therefore," &c. Thirdly: Cruelty. The harsh repression of natural instincts: parental, filial, conjugal; e. g., the amphitheatre, modes of warfare, court-intrigues. How could a man, reeking with the blood of beasts and men in the circus, or a high-born maiden, gloating over the mangled corpses of the arena and unshamed by illicit love, know the things that were freely given to us of God or understand the grace and purity of Christ? The spirit of the world is materially changed in this respect, but its traces are still to be seen, and they war with God's free gifts. Fourthly The love and lust of conquest. Fifthly: The love of money. Sixthly Enterprise.

But in all these

respects, in proportion as we catch and embody the spirit of the world, we incapacitate ourselves for knowing or receiving the things freely given to us of God.

V. THE RECEPTION AND EMBRACE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD WILL STRIKE A RELATION AT ONCE BETWEEN OUR UNDERSTANDING AND THE TRUTH,-between our hearts and the divine appeals to our feelings-between our wills and the calls of duty and self-sacrifice. "The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." We may have this spirit if we will; we have quenched and resisted more of this spirit than is enough to do for us all we want. Receive the spirit. Pray for an abundance of it. "If ye, 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?”

Leeds.

J. H. REYNOLDS, B. A.