of the body, inordinate recreation, vain company, too much worldly business, or indulgence of his own appetites, is below the standard of his high calling; these are robbers of time, and it must be rescued from their grasp.

There are three reasons why we should improve our time for the benefit of others.

1. The glory of God our Saviour is connected with the right employment of time in this respect. "Whatever ye do," says the apostle of the Gentiles, "do all to the glory of God, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." The great design of our creation, our preservation, and our redemption is the manifestation of the excellences of His glory, therefore our chief aim in our transactions with men should be its advancement in their salvation; all other considerations should sink into nothingness beneath the responsibility under which we are placed in respect to this great end of our redemption. Happy is the Christian man or woman who, when the eyes are closing in the shades of death, can adopt the satisfactory expressions of our Redeemer, "I have glorified thee upon the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." Such persons can look back with satisfaction, can look forward with hope, and in the throbs of expiring moments can join with St. Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me in that day."

2. The present and future happiness of others is involved in the use we make of time for their instruction and conversion. The young must be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, or the seeds of natural corruption may grow up and destroy all future hope of goodness. The ignorant must be taught the way of salvation, or the god of this world will retain them in the gloom of spiritual unconsciousness, and lead them captive at his will. The thoughtless must be warned of their danger, or they will blindly proceed to their own ruin and perdition. The sick must be

directed to that Physician who is able to save to the uttermost, or they will sink under the weight of hopelessness and despair. The dying must be pointed to the resurrection and the life, or they will fall a prey to the corroding reflections of their past sins, having no prospect but the shades of death and the midnight darkness of the grave. Such results of the neglect of seasonable opportunities should rouse every Christian to the exercise of energetic efforts "in season and out of season" to rescue souls from sin and from hell. Shew them the necessity of repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; shew them that the gospel is replete with sources of mercy and happiness; shew them that Christ can save to the uttermost all that come to God through Him; shew them that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin; shew them that God in Him reconciles the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses unto them; shew them that these are the only means to constitute peace, and hope, and happiness and life," redeeming the time."

3. The time for doing good is short and uncertain. Every emblem of Scripture declares the shortness of life; it is compared to a handbreadth-to a tale that is told-to a ship passing on the sea-to an arrow flying in the air-to an eagle rushing on its prey-to a cloud that vanisheth away. What makes the shortness of time still more serious is, that we know not how short it may be ; at the longest it can be but a few years, it may be but a few months, or weeks, or days, or hours. You may go out in health in the morning and return a corpse in the evening. There is no time to waste-no opportunity to be lost; an hour misapplied may involve the perdition of a soul. The individual was placed in your way, you neglected the opportunity, the season glided by, and it can never be recovered. May there not be some in misery whom you might have been the means of saving if you had redeemed the time, walking in wisdom toward them that are without? If you saw a man in the water within the reach of your arm, almost sinking to rise no more, would you not rush at once to his rescue? Knowing that another wave would

drive him beyond reach, would you take time to hesitate in such an emergency? In this case you are called upon to rescue from a sea of eternal ruin-you are to save for eternity; how much greater the necessity for immediate and strenuous action! A celebrated artist being once asked why he exercised so much pains in colouring a certain picture replied, "I paint for posterity." You, my fellow-Christian, paint not only for posterity, but also for eternity; your work will continue when the works of art and of nature shall have fallen into decay. We need therefore no further argument to excite in us a desire to carry into diligent practice the admonition of the text, "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.”

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The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.

MORNING SERVICE.-Second Lesson: John iii.

Verse 7.-" Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again."

You must have observed that the Scriptures always divide mankind into two classes, the wicked and the righteous, sinners and saints, unbelievers and believers, heirs of hell and heirs of heaven. These are mingled together on earth, but they shall be separated at the day of judgment, when their eternal state will be fixed according to their real character in the present world. What then can be of greater importance to us than to know our true condition? It is also to be observed that although there be the difference which we have just mentioned, still we are all naturally of the same moral stock, that is, sinners, and the heirs of wrath; so that unless a change pass upon us we continue in it, we live in it, we die in it, and are lost for ever. This was the solemn truth which

our Lord declared to Nicodemus.

It may be proper before we proceed, to tell you something of this man. In the first verse it is stated "There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews." Probably he was among the number that believed in Christ through the miracles which He performed at the feast of the Passover, of which we read in the preceding chapter. He was no ordinary man, but a man of note and eminence. He was of the sect of the Pharisees, which was the strictest sect in respect to religion and external holiness among the Jews, and which, corrupt as it was, held also the soundest doctrines, as having not only a regard to a Messiah, and to all the writings of the Old Testament, but believed also the existence of angels and spirits, and the resurrection from the dead, which the

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Sadducees denied. Notwithstanding all this, they were implacable enemies to Christ, and therefore it is more surprising that such a man should come to Him. He was also a ruler of the Jews. Not a civil magistrate, for the civil power was then in the hands of the Romans, but he was an ecclesiastical ruler-perhaps a member of the Sanhedrim, which consisted of the doctors, the priests, and elders of the people; he was a master of Israel. "The same came to Jesus by night." He evidently came to Jesus to be instructed in the new and powerful doctrines which He promulgated; but why he came by night we are not informed; it might have been to avoid detection; he was not prepared to suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, he was not prepared to be cast out of the synagogue, which the Jews threatened to inflict on those who would acknowledge the teaching of that despised Nazarene; he was not prepared to endure the reproaches which might be cast upon him that he, being "a master of Israel, should go to be taught by a carpenter's son; he was not prepared to give offence to his brethren of the Sanhedrim, and thus suffer his name to become a bye-word and a reproach among them. Or he came by night under the impression that that season would afford the best opportunity of entering into conversation with our Saviour on subjects of the greatest import. But whatever were his motives he thus came, and having acknowledged Him as a teacher sent from God, the Lord Jesus Christ directly begins to teach him, entering at once into the most important truth that could be taught—the necessity of the new birth, which he asserts in the strongest manner possible. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee," &c., v. 3. As if He had said, I, who am Truth itself, assure you that no man, considering his fallen and corrupt nature, can understand or enjoy the blessings of that kingdom of grace which I am come to set up, nor can he enter that kingdom of glory to which it leads unless his heart be changed by a power from above. Nicodemus, according to the general notion of his nation, thought, doubtless, that being a descendant of Abraham, and as such claimed a right to all the privileges of God's