down rules for a bishop's table. They no more deemed it beneath their dignity to tell young women how to attire their heads and dress their hair, than to warn young men to "flee youthful lusts." They lifted up their warning against the sins of ordinary life: they erected beacons on every quicksand and sunken rock: they buoyed out the narrow channel of salvation. Describing with downright plainness those fruits of the flesh which exclude from the kingdom, they never sacrificed divine truth, human virtue, precious souls, upon the altar of a spurious delicacy. They went in among corruption, like the sunbeam which reveals it, but suffers no taint through the contact. Descending from the loftiest to the lowliest subjects, theirs was the course of the eagle which, now on cloud-cleaving wing, mounts upward, soaring out of sight, and now sweeps down to brush the heather, or settle in her rocky nest.-Dr. Guthrie.

APOSTLES.-Qualification for the Office of

The Apostles were appointed to be witnesses of the life, doctrines, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and in their being witnesses consisted the peculiarity of the apostolic office. In the case of St. Paul, therefore, who was called to this office after the death and resurrection of the Saviour, and who had not had an opportunity of seeing and hearing Him when living, this was provided for by the fact that the Lord Jesus showed Himself to him after His death and ascension, in order that he might have this qualification for the apostolic office.A. Barnes.

APOSTLES. The Success of the

Their success, to the end of time, will stand as an argument of the truth of the scheme that shall confound the infidel, and sustain the Christian with the assured belief that this is a religion which has proceeded from the all-powerful and infinitely benevolent God.-A. Barnes..

APOSTLES.-The Succession of the

We maintain the great general principle-that the apostleship of Jesus Christ is still, and for ever, in the world; as really in all the substance of the office, as when it was held, under circumstantial differences of miraculous attestation, by Peter, and James, and John. That when He to whom "all power is given in heaven and earth," promised to be "always, unto the end of the world," present with His eleven mortal commissaries, He spake not to the men but to the office, or to the men as the temporary symbols, representatives, and occupants of the office. That it, therefore, becomes the same violation of His appointed order, to separate, under any pretext of sanctity, from this succession, without a palpable corruption of doctrine, as it would have been for holy men, during the actual ministry of the Apostles, to have neglected all visible communion with them, under the pretext, however true and sincere, of sufficiently understanding the doctrine they taught, and practising the life they recommended.-W. A. Butler. APOSTLES.-The Successors of the

Blessed be God, we in our Church, by a successive imposition of hands, continued all along from the Apostles themselves, receive the same Spirit that was conferred upon them for the administration of the Word and Sacraments ordained by our Lord, and therefore as they were, so are we.-Bishop Beveridge.

Though you have a straight line of apostolical successors, if your work is poor, you are not in the line of succession; and if your Church does not make

full-grown men, it is not. I do not care anything about the line of succession of my grapes, if my vineyard brings forth better wine than your vineyard does. You may say that yours came from those that Noah planted; but they are not so good as mine after all; "for by their fruit ye shall know them." And the best of all Churches, as of all orthodoxies, and all doctrines, and all usages, and all governments, is this-What are their effects on the generations of men.H. W. Beecher.

APOSTLES.-Types of the

The twelve Apostles were regarded by the ancient Church as typified by the twelve sons of Israel, the twelve wells at Elim, aud by the twelve stones of the Urim and Thummim on the breast-plate of the high-priest, who was a type of Christ; the twelve loaves of shew-bread; the twelve spies of the Promised Land, the type of heaven; the twelve stones taken from the Jordan. Joshua, or Jesus, the son of Nun, begins his office at the banks of Jordan, where Christ is baptized. He chooseth these twelve men to carry twelve stones over with them, as our Jesus thence began to choose His twelve Apostles,-those foundation-stones in the Church of God whose names are in the twelve foundations of the walls of the holy city, the New Jerusalem.-Rev. xxi. 14. They seem also to be represented by the twelve stars in the crown of the woman in the wilderness, who typifies the Church on earth.-Rev. xii. 1.—Professor Baur.

APOSTLES.-The Writings of the

Nothing has been given to the world since the time of the Apostles, which furnishes a view of God so true and full as that which is derived from their writings.-Dean Howson.

APOSTLES.-The Zeal of the

As a tree on fire kindles a whole forest into a flame, so the Apostles, burning with the fire of heaven, have set in a blaze the whole world, and have filled it with the light of truth and the warmth of charity.-St. Augustine.

The Apostles were as burning coals, scattered throughout the nations, blest incendiaries of the world!—Archbishop Leighton.

APPLAUSE.-Conduct in Relation to

When the winds of applause blow fresh and strong, then steer with a steady hand.-M. Henry.

APPLAUSE.-The Danger of

O popular applause! what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms?
The wisest and the best feel urgent need
Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales;
But swelled into a gust-who then, alas!

With all his canvas set, and inexpert,

And therefore heedless, can withstand thy power?
Praise from the rivel'd lips of toothless, bald
Decrepitude, and in the looks of lean

And craving poverty, and in the bow
Respectful of the smutched artificer,
Is oft too welcome, and may much disturb

The bias of the purpose. How much more,
Poured forth by beauty splendid and polite,
In language soft as adoration breathes!

Ah, spare your idol! think him human still;
Charms he may have, but he has frailties too;

Dote not too much, nor spoil what ye admire.-Cowper.

APPLAUSE.-The Evil of Ill-Timed

Ill-timed applause

Wrongs the best speaker and the justest cause.-Homer.

APPLAUSE.-Loud

Such murmur filled

Th' assembly, as when hollow rocks retain

The sound of blustering winds, which all night long

Had roused the sea.-Milton.

APPLAUSE and CENSURE.

When the million applaud you, seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; when they censure you, what good !—Colton.

APPLICATION-Essential.

While the art of conducting a whole discourse by continued application is worthy your highest ambition, it will also be proper in your practice to intersperse some portion of this excellency of speech throughout every sermon. The importance of this essential of a discourse is most apparent. Observation marks your wisdom, argumentation your talent, and close address your Christian feeling. By the first you enlighten the mind; by the second you convince the judgment; and by the third you influence the will and affection.-Dr. Sturtevant.

Thousands of valuable sermons are almost lost for want of this excellence; for what avail laborious investigation, sound argument, and correct diction, if this be wanting? The people are but little moved, and anxiously wait for the end of the discourse. On the other hand, look at those ministers who excel in pathos, and who occasionally incorporate address or application; by what crowds is their ministry attended! and that by enlightened as well as by less cultivated hearers. Here then is the attractive power, and here the sanctified magic of their speech, and nowhere else. Pure nature loves it; while man is man he will own its power.-Dr. Sturtevant.

APPLICATION.-The Faculty of

Whole discourses constructed on the principle of entire or uniform application, and ably supported, I consider the ne plus ultra of pulpit excellence. It is not the study of school eloquence, nor a parade of words, or clustered ornaments of speech, much less a theatrical assumption of character, that can furnish the requisite qualifications for maintaining such a mode of address. It is rather the boon of heaven, a blessed unction from above, a large measure of which was imparted to the great Apcstle of the Gentiles, as his writings abundantly manifest; and, if I may be allowed to select a single instance of modern date in which this gift was eminently possessed, I would point you to George Whitfield. command over the minds of his hearers like that which superior supposed to possess over the inferior.-Dr. Sturtevant.

He held a spirits are

APPLICATION.-A Sermon with an

This is often regarded as a mere conclusion, a winding-up of the sermon, with a remark or two specially applicable to the audience. But in one sense the entire sermon should be application; not indeed in the wearisome way in which some preachers introduce hackneyed expressions, which are often mere expletives to fill up a hiatus; but the whole pith, marrow, and substance of a sermon should have a definite bearing and adaptation to the hearers. This, then, is a fundamental principle to be wrought into every sacred discourse: whether we are expounding, or explaining, or discussing, we must ever keep in view how far what we are saying is applicable, profitable, suitable to the particular congregation we are addressing, so that some, at least, may be excited to ask-"Lord, is it I?”— Dean Close.

APPLICATION. A Sermon without an

A sermon without an application does no more good than the singing of a skylark it may teach, but it does not impel; and though the preacher may be under concern for his audience, he does not show it till he turns the subject to their immediate advantage.-Bishop Horne.

APPROBATION.-A Perilless

There is but one approbation that may be sought without peril,-in heaven, God's; on earth, that of His saints.-Professor Vinet.

APPROBATION.-Popular

He who principally affects popular approbation, runs some danger of living and dying well-known to others, and little known to himself; ignorant of the state of his soul, and forgetful of the account which he has to render up to God. Dr. Jortin.

APPROBATION-Sought in Preaching.

Many take great pains to make a long discourse before the congregation, and when the multitude loudly testify their approbation, they fancy themselves equal to kings; but if they bring their discourse to an end without noise, this is worse to them than hell! This has been the ruin of the Church, that you will listen to no discourse that leads you to repentance, but only to one which can entertain you, and that, too, by the tones of the speaker's voice and the arrangement of the words, as if you were so many singers and musicians. And we are so fainthearted and miserable that we fall in with your desires, we who were bound to combat them. It is the same as if the father of a spoilt child, when he is ill, should give him everything that pleases him, but is not anxious about what will do him good. I should be sorry to call such a man my father. How much better is it to suffer pain for a short time, and then to be made well for ever, than to make some brief enjoyment the cause of some ever-during sorrow! So it is with us who give ourselves trouble to bring together well-arranged and wellsounding words in order to please, not to profit; to be admired, not to instruct; to produce gratification, not contrition.-St. Chrysostom.

ARCHITECTS.-God's Blessing Invoked on

God's blessing on the architects who build
The bridges o'er swift rivers and abysses
Before impassable to human feet,

No less than on the builders of Cathedrals,
Whose massive walls are bridges thrown across
The dark and terrible abyss of death.
Well has the name of Pontifex been given
Unto the Church's Head, as the Chief Builder
And Architect of the invisible bridge

That leads from earth to heaven!-Longfellow.

ARCHITECTURE.-Good

Good architecture is the work of good and believing men.-Ruskin.

ARCHITECTURE.-Gothic

The Gothic Church plainly originated in a rude adaptation of the forest trees, with all their boughs, to a festal or solemn arcade, as the bands about the cleft pillars still indicate the green withs that tied them. No one can walk in a road eut through pine woods without being struck with the architectural appearance of the grove, especially in winter, when the bareness of all other trees shows the low arch of the Saxons. In the woods, on a winter afternoon, one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which the Gothic Cathedrals are adorned, in the colours of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest; nor can any lover of nature enter the old piles of Oxford and the English Cathedrals, without feeling that the forest overpowered the mind of the builder, and that his chisel, his saw, and plane, still re-produced its forms, its spikes of flowers, its locust, its pine, its oak, its fir, its spruce. Gothic Cathedral is a blossoming in stone, subdued by the insatiable demand of harmony in man. The mountain of granite blooms into an eternal flower, with the lightness and delicate finish as well as the aërial proportions and perspective of vegetable beauty.-Emerson.

ARCHITECTURE.-National Religion and National

The

Every great national architecture has been the result and exponent of a great national religion. It is not the exponent of a theological dogma, nor the hieroglyphic writing of initiated priesthood; it is the manly language of a people inspired by resolute and common purpose, and rendering resolute and common fidelity to the legible laws of an undoubted God.—Ruskin.

ARGUMENT. A Bad

A bad argument will go on in its course till it leaps over the boundaries of common sense.-S. Smith.

ARGUMENT.-The End of an

Let the end of thy argument be rather to discover a doubtful truth than a commanding wit.-J. Quarles.

ARGUMENT-sometimes Futile.

It is in vain,

I see, to argue 'gainst the grain;

Or, like the stars, incline men to

What they're averse themselves to do;

For when disputes are wearied out,

Tis interest still resolves the doubt.-S. Butler.