Again. The wide-spread indifference to the things of God. People will neither go to God's house, nor trouble about religion in any shape or form. Religion is to many absolutely nothing, or next to nothing.

Yet again. The world is a strong competitor with Christian religion. Mammon holds men and women with an iron grip. As a thorough reader of human character, Mammon knows how to pamper human weaknesses, and how to work on men's affections. Who is not moved by Music or Art? The world's god knows the fascination there is in social topics, in politics, and so on. Not that these are injurious; they ennoble man, and rouse his choicest faculties; but when they get the rule over man, religion is, in consequence, thrust out.

Here we have a string of facts declaring to every Christian man and woman that God's work is not yet done, and that even more effort must be put forth if we would prove ourselves faithful servants of Christ Jesus.

II. WHY IS GOD'S WORK NOT SO FAR ADVANCED AS IT MIGHT BE ?

1. We who are in the religious circle are to blame. How? In that we have not sought to put religion before the people in its right aspect. We have read Jude to little purpose: "And on

some have mercy," &c. We have told men of the terrors of the law; we have left out the story of God's great love and the Saviour's splendid compassion. After we have talked in mixed fashion of blood and fire, love and vengeance, terror and dismay, and the streets of Paradise, we have said, "Behold the Lamb of God," and "follow Him." Even at our best we have given a dull representation of the most beautiful and most emotional thing that ever came within the range of comprehension.

2. We are told that the disciples often failed to understand their Master. They misconstrued much that the Master said. They stood condemned of many misconceptions of their own status and their duty. In the present-day church there are misconceptions also. That, e.g., wherein there is allowed a line of demarcation between priest and people,—a distinction between

pulpit and pew. And mischief results in two directions. (1) The outside world considers the distinction, and stands a little farther off. (2) Within the church there is hindrance wrought. With such a distinction, what is more natural than that some of the members should imagine that they are not responsible for religious feeling among their fellows; that all the real mission work should be performed by those "ordained to be apostles." ALL should go forth to work!

3. The church has allowed a false notion to get out among men of the world, that there is a strong barrier between things that are sacred and secular. The notion is as false as it can be. The Christian life has two sides, the sacred and secular, and diligence is demanded in both. Many forget this, and, in consequence, open themselves to the sneer that appeared some time since in the "Nineteenth Century," that Christians are a set of psalmsingers. The sneer was not without foundation. But why will people be so one-sided? I would commend to such some of the passages to be found in Dr. Fairbairn's Sheffield address. We are there reminded of the splendid scope of the Gospel. "The Gospel is full of great economical principles." It deals with the rights of property, and the duties of humanity. It has something to say on the question of capital and labour. And concerning men's rights and masters' obligations, masters' rights and men's obligations, religion speaks with no uncertain sound. But these are secular questions! Yes; but religion throws its bright influence upon them, and so dispels the narrowed notion that a godly man must sever himself from worldly obligations. Where we have failed is in this, that we have largely ignored the Gospel's possibilities; we have kept it within the church; we have locked it up for believers only; we have drawn the line at duty world-ward; we have resolutely ignored the fact that religion should go out into the world and control it, but so control it that religion should become "what Christ meant it to be, a real and applied law, opening its unworked mines of social, industrial, and political wisdom and truth."

4. Christians are too dogmatic. The Church has sought to

formulate the Gospel by the introduction of system; by insisting upon the acceptance of stereotyped creeds; by the determination to bind men in an intellectual slavery. If that be so, then the church sacrifices too much to theory, and forgets that the Gospel is a reality, adapted to the people's deep necessities. The Gospel is less a thing of creeds, &c., than it is made by many to appear. There is a spirit of fervency breathing into the deepest depths of any and every human soul. We want less "hair-splitting," and more of satisfying food for the hungry. And this, lest we should offer a stone where a hungry soul is asking for bread.

If there be anything in this Gospel which we have to carry forth that will commend itself to mankind, it is to be found in the double fact of God's love and God's friendship.

God is the Lover of mankind. The Gospel proves a thorough friend of humanity. The truth of God's love and friendship must not be locked up within a book which so few read, and many never get the chance of reading. They who have caught the sound of the Saviour's voice, and have heard Him breathe forth His loving precepts, His glorious promises, and offers of help to needy ones, must go forth and tell man of this Friend of humanity. The fact of the friendship is there, but it needs to be proclaimed far more widely than it is at present.

Insist upon the friendship of the Gospel for one and all. Then would the Gospel penetrate the darkest dens of earth, and not simply touch the happier spots. It would prove itself a god-send to the outcasts of society. It would give the death-blow to brutal habits; it would level low the want of decency; it would broadly mark the distinctions between ignorance and knowledge, between good and evil; it would send a blighting influence upon vice, would discourage recklessness, would set a bound to contumacy, would be a teacher for the mind,--a god-send everyway. Out on the troubled world the Gospel would career; and when it entered the polluted air, foul with every impurity that is poisonous to health and life, it would purify it, and bid earth's loathsome dens begone and God's free air abound.

And so, akin to this, while touching what is physical, while making earth a healthier place,—a social paradise,—while making

man to rise above his brutish instincts, wherein so many revel to-day; while giving men fit homes to dwell in, fresh air to breathe, the dense, black cloud that lowers with moral pestilence would vanish, and the sunshine of God's love would cleanse the earth. Man would rise, would see the nobler side of life, would have his answer to the question,-Is life worth living?

Here is the Gospel's ideal! It has not been realised on earth. Much has been done; much more remains to do. Men can still hear the Lord's command,-" Go ye, and teach all nations."

Shall we say that Christ has given us an impossible commission? Shall we say that He has urged us to a task that never can be completed? Shall we say that Christ has been carried away by enthusiasm? Shall we say that He has claimed a sceptre He can never hope to grasp? Not so! His share in this great work is sure. He treads unfalteringly; He acts almightily; He shakes the prison-bars of hell itself; He laughs at all defiances. All power is given unto Him.

But His ambassadors have often slept at their posts. Again and again the Master's cry is going through the Christian church,-" Awake, ye sleepers!"

Where are our Christian workers? Many sleeping at their posts, alas! Or if not sleeping, wrapped in self, and seeking present things, forgetting future glory.

My brothers, let us rouse to the duty right before us! Go to the ignorant, the blind, the dull, the miserable, the poor, the naked. Go to such with such a Gospel as the Saviour preaches, and let men know of very truth, that in the midst of life's perplexities there is a path to God and good.

GOMERSAL, LEEDS.

ALBERT LEE, F.R.G.S.

"The stars are not a mass but a system, moving and shining in the bosom of the tender ether. And the children of men, in whom dwells the One Spirit, are not a crowd but a divinely organized body. It matters little whether the members be in heaven or earth; they are Body."-REV. JOHN PULSFORD.

"One

B

The Saviour's Call.

"COME UNTO ME, ALL YE THAT LABOUR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST."-Matthew xi. 28.

THE connexion between this verse and the preceding context is apt to be overlooked. Failure, however, to take it into account causes the words before us to lose much of their force. At verse 20 we find our Lord beginning to upbraid "the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not." Sorrow on account of the unbelief of men led Him to seek comfort in the faithfulness and purposes of the Father (vv. 25, 26). Having gained strength and fortitude by communion with Heaven, He proceeded again to address those around Him, asserting (v. 27) His perfect ability and exclusive right to execute the high commission with which He had been entrusted. Upon this declaration the words of the text are based. To the Son was entrusted the work of revealing the Father, and this duty He at once expressed His willingness to perform by inviting the "weary and heavy laden "-the ignorant and those out of the way-to come. Notice

I. THE SPEAKER. In Him we see

(1) Divine majesty. Neither Lawgiver nor Psalmist, Historian nor Seer ever uttered words such as these in his own name and by his own authority,-"Come unto Me and I will give you rest.” No mere human being ever had the right to do so. He only, who in olden times gave expression to these words, "Look unto Me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else," could give the invitation contained in the text. Sinners, however, might be filled with dread, were only Divine majesty to be perceived, and, labouring under a sense of guilt, might fear to come. But terror disappears when His

(2) Marvellous meekness is seen. "I am meek," He exclaims, "and lowly in heart." This affords man the greatest possible encouragement to draw near to Him. And He is ever the same.