and life came from God; or as the vindicator of his righteousness who alone was able to defend his righteous cause; or as the administrator of righteousness, conducting his government upon righteous principles and bringing even upon him only the sufferings he justly deserved. All these thoughts might have been in his mind, for all are true. There is something deep in the soul of man which leads him to appeal to the righteous God when he feels himself to be the victim of fraud or violence. Even Christ Himself did so; ... O righteous Father.' There is justice at the head Justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne." The Judge of all the earth ever does the right." In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." (Isa. xlv. 24.)

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Secondly: A remembrance of God's goodness. "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress." The reference is, as we have seen, to some deliverance which he had experienced. He remembered, perhaps, the goodness of God to him when in the field guarding his father's flocks, he was delivered out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear; or his goodness to him in delivering him from the giant of Philistia, the terror of Israel, enabling him to smite Goliath with a stone and a sling; or his goodness to him in his many deliverances from the hand of Saul. The memory of God's past mercies to him gave courage to his heart and an argument in his prayer now. In asking God a favour we argue as we never argue when we entreat the help of man. Because God has helped us we expect him to help us again, and thus we plead. Not so with man. The more our fellow-being has helped us the less reason we have to expect his aid. Thou hast, and therefore thou wilt. This is an argument in prayer. The reason of the difference is obvious. Man's capacity for help is limited. The capability of God is unbounded and boundless.

Thirdly: An invocation of God's favour. ".. Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer." Mercy is what we want. Mercy to forgive, to renovate, to strengthen the soul, to labour and to wait.

This poem presents David to us as

II. REBUKING. David having addressed the righteous

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God in prayer, hurls his fulminations of rebuke at his enemies. His rebuke is marked

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First By boldness. O ye sons of men "-ye great men of the land-“. . . O how long will you turn my glory into shame, how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing?" In this appeal the speaker's sense of honour, justice, truth, seems to have run into a passion that fired and flooded his whole being. How long?" &c. What thunder there is in this. His rebuke is marked,

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Secondly: By alarm. Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him," which means, "Know this, the Lord will take care of me whom he has elected king to serve himself, and he will hear when I call on him." Your opposition is futile. Beware, you are rebelling_not merely against me, but against Omnipotence itself. It is a terrible thing to oppress or injure God's elected ones. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." His rebuke is marked,

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Thirdly: By authority. " “... Stand in awe, and sin not, commune with your own heart on your bed, and be still. Selah."-Mind this. This command includes three things. (1.) Cease from your rage. Let your insurrectionary passion be hushed. The soul under wrong passions is like a rudderless bark driven by the tempest; shipwreck is all but inevitable. (2.) Retire to thoughtfulness. "Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” Man has a power to converse with himself, and converse with self is of urgent importance. The divinity is within. It is in man's own soul that God meets with him, and communes with him as he did of old before the mercy-seat. (3.) Practise religion. ". . . Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord." What is righteous sacrifice? The consecration of our energies, ourself, our all, to the service of justice, truth, and God. "... The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart thou wilt not despise."

Another aspect in which this poem presents David to us is

III. TEACHING. There be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon upon us." Few words ever fell from human lips more significant than these, more deserving the profound study of humanity than these. It presents to us two grand subjects. First The universal craving of humanity. "... There are many that say unto us," &c. Although David mainly refers to numbers in Israel at this juncture, whose minds were in an unsettled state, and knew not what to do for the best; he unconsciously indicates at the same time the deep feeling of humanity, the desire for good unpossessed. Men are everywhere craving for happiness. From shops and sanctuaries, from the peasant's cot and the prince's castle, from the bush of savages and the bench of senators, from all lands and lips the cry is heard, Who will show us any good?" We are children walking in the dark, who will show us the way; we are dying with thirst, who will moisten our fevered lips; we are starving with hunger, who will give us any bread? Man, the world over, feels that he has not what he wants. The other subject they present is

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Secondly: The only satisfaction of humanity. What is it? Fame, wealth, sensual pleasure, superstitious observances? No, these have been tried a thousand times, and failed. Here it is: "Lift thou up the light of thy countenance," which means the conscious presence and favour of God. Loving fellowship with a reconciled God is the only satisfaction of the soul. 66 . . . In thy presence is fulness of joy," &c. The great work of Christ is to cause the "Lord God to dwell amongst men.

Another aspect in which this poem presents David to us is

IV. EXULTING. "... Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased." Some render this from the time in which their corn and wine increased, supposing David to refer to the hour when abundant supplies began to come into him, an exile at Mahanaim. (2 Sam. xvi. 1.; xvii. 28.) This may be the correct version. The language in either version expresses the feelings of a soul happy in God.

First: God made him inwardly happy, even in his poverty.

He had lost for a time his palace and his kingdom, and was dependent upon the supplies of friends. Yet he was happy, and who made him happy? "... Thou hast put gladness in my heart." God alone can make us happy anywhere and anywhen. “... Although the fig tree shall not blossom," &c. (Hab. iii. 17.) What does Paul say? I glory in tribulation.” Martyrs have sung in dungeons, and triumphed in flames.

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Secondly God made him consciously secure. His enemies counted their millions. His death they desired. Yet what does he say?". . . I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep." God was his refuge and strength," &c. ". . . If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Brothers, learn from this poem where happiness alone can be found. It is in God. An ancient Italian author, in one of his romantic legends, tells us of a tree, many branched, and covered apparently with delectable bunches of fruit; but whoso shook that tree in order to possess the fruit, found, too late, that not fruit, but stones of crushing weight came down upon his head. An emblem this of the tree of unholy pleasure. It is many-branched, it is attractive in aspect, its boughs bend with rich clusters of what seems to be delicious fruit, the millions of the world gather round it, and, with eager hands, shake it in order if possible to taste the luscious fruit. But what is the result of their efforts? Stones come tumbling down that paralyze the soul. "What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed; for the end of those things is death.”

GREAT MEN.

The great and successful men of history are commonly made by the great Occasions they fill. They are the men who had faith to meet such occasions, and therefore the occasions marked them, called them to come and be what the successes of their faith would make them. The boy is but a shepherd, but he hears from his panic-stricken countrymen of the giant champion of their enemies. A fire seizes him, and he goes down, with nothing but his sling and his heart of faith, to lay that champion in the dust. Next he is a great military leader: next the king of his country. As with David, so with Nehemiah; as with him, so with Paul; as with him, so with Luther. A Socrates, a Tully, a Cromwell, a Washington-all the great master-spirits, the founders and lawgivers of empires, and defenders of the rights of nian, are made by the same law. These did not shrink despairingly within the compass of their poor abilities, but in their hearts of faith they embraced each one his cause, and went forth, under the inspiring force of their call, to apprehend that for which they were apprehended. DR. BUSHNELL.

I Homiletic Glance at the Epistle of
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Paul to the Ephesians.

The student is requested to keep in mind the following things, which will historically throw much light upon the Epistle. First: The circumstances of the writer when he wrote. He was a prisoner in Rome. During his residence there, in "his own hired house" (Acts xxviii. 30, 31), from the spring A.D. 61 to 63, he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, Philemon, and to the Ephesians. It is generally supposed that this to the Ephesians was the first he wrote during his imprisonment. Secondly: The circumstances of the persons addressed. They lived, it is generally supposed, in Ephesus, an illustrious city in the district of Iona, nearly opposite the island of Samos, and about the middle of the western coast of the peninsula commonly called Asia Minor. It had attained in Paul's day such a distinction as in popular estimation to be identified with the whole of the Roman province of Asia. It was the centre of the worship of the great goddess Diana. Paul resided here on two different occasions. The first, A.D. 54, for a very short period (Acts xviii. 19-21); the second, for a period of more than two years. The persons therefore addressed in this letter are those whom he had converted from paganism, and in whom he felt all the interest of a spiritual father. Thirdly: The purpose of the letter. The aim of the Epistle seems to be to set forth the origin and development of the Church of Christ, and to impress those Ephesian Christians who lived under the shadow of the great temple of Diana with the unity and beauty of a temple transcendantly more glorious. For the minute critical exegesis of this apostolic encylical, we direct our readers to the commentaries of Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Jowett, Harless, Stier, Eadie, Hodge, and, last though not least, Dr. Ellicott. Our aim will be to draw out, classify, and set in homiletic order the Divine ideas reached by the critical aid of such distinguished scholars.

SUBJECT: The highest Things in the World.

"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."-Ephes. i. 1, 2.

ANNOTATIONS. "Paul an apostle.” (Gr. aπóσтoλos.) The word means one "sent forth" on a commission, a messenger. So it is cited in the Septuagint. (1 Kings xiv. 6; Isa. xviii. 2.) And in a few passages also in the New Testament, John xiii. 16, where our Lord says generally apostles (persons sent) are not greater than He who sent them. And 2 Cor. viii. 23; Phil. ii. 25, where persons deputed by churches on special errands, are called their apostles or messengers. Jesus Christ Himself is called an apostle, "the Apostle of our profession." (Heb. i. 3,) But Paul was an apostle in an especial sense. He belonged to a class who were apostles in a sense in which no other had been or ever will be. The "twelve apostles," including Paul, were distinguished in four respects. First: In the directness of their call. They were not sent forth from a church, for they existed before any church. They were sent by Christ Himself directly. Paul claims this direct designation by Christ. (Gal. i. 1-12; Rom. i. 1; 1 Cor. xv. 1.) Secondly: In the greatness of their authority. The apostles were authorised to settle everything in the Church by divine right. Christ Himself spake and acted through