yielding a kind of compensation for the wrong they had done. But vain thoughts drink up the vital energies of the soul, and can give back no return. They should be expelled:(2) Because they corrupt the heart. They are pestilential vapors, they drop poison into the fountains of our being. On their downy wings they bear hemlock seed over the whole soil of our nature. (3) Because they imperil our souls. A man full of vain thoughts is like the somnambulist walking on the craggy cliffs, or the drunkard staggering amidst coal pits:-every step is perilous.

How long then will you lodge within you vain thoughts? Are you aware that the whole of the brief period of your mortal life was granted in order to cultivate an acquaintance with the true and a sympathy with the good? "How long"? Know you not that the lodging of these vain thoughts is the harbouring of thieves that are robbing you of all that can make your existence useful, blessed, and glorious? "How long"? Has it ever struck you, that with the first falling ray of eternity, which is about dawning on you, all those delusive thoughts which you now harbour will depart as a vision of the night, but their memory will return to haunt you as fiends for ever? "How long"? Are you conscious that your probationary day is fast running out, and that the shadows of the evening are coming on? "How long"? Oh! "How long"? Insulted reason says, "How long"? An often violated conscience says, "How long"? The spirits of the true of all worlds say, "How long"? The great God who knows the value of your existence, the perilousness of your position, the brevity of your life, the proximity of your eternity, says, "How long will you lodge within you such vain thoughts"? "Seize, then, the present moments;

For, be assured, they all are messengers;

And though their flight be silent, and their paths trackless,

As winged couriers of the air,

They post to heaven, and there record thy folly :

Because, though stationed on the important watch

Thou like a sleeping faithless sentinel

Didst let them pass unnoticed, unimproved;

And know, O thou that slumber'st on the guard,
Thou shalt be made to answer at the bar
For every fugitive."

"Then stay the present instant;

Imprint the mark of wisdom on its wings;
Oh! let it not elude thy grasp, but like

The good old patriarch upon record,

Hold the fleet angel fast, until he bless thee."

Extracts from Foster, on "Vain Thoughts."

Different Classes of Vain Thoughts.-"We can easily picture to our minds some large neglected mansion in a foreign wilderness; the upper apartments in possession of swarms of disgusting insects;the lower ones the haunt of savage beasts;-but the lowest, the subterraneous ones, the retreat of serpents, and every loathsome living form of the most deadly venom."

Their Obstruction to Mental Work.-"You have, perhaps, determined and attempted to apply the whole mind's attention to some important matter. But you found yourself like a man sitting down to study in a room filled with a moving, talking, laughing crowd. Is it any better to have such a crowd and confusion within the mind itself, than outside? But you resolutely and indignantly tried again. But again this mental mob has forced its way in; surrounded you; baffled you; mocked you; distracted you!"

The Tendency of the Mind to Entertain Vain Thoughts.-So far as the mind is left to its freedom, there is a sad propensity to waste itself on trifles; and what an infinity of them to waste itself among! All the frivolous cares about personal display! all the idle nothings of fashion and routine! all the vanities of amusements! all the bubble incidents on the stream of society! the endless dance of atoms through the whole air of the moral world!"

The Evil Influence of Vain Thoughts. It is, as when, in some regions, a swarm of locusts fills the air, so as to exclude the sun, at once intercepting the light of heaven, and devouring what it should shine on, Thus by ill regulated thought we are defrauded of what is the supreme value of thought. We amuse ourselves with the flying chaff, careless of the precious grain.

Vain Thoughts Reveal the Man.-"Just left to themselves, to arise and act spontaneously, they would express the very state of the soul, its inclinations, perversions, ignorance, or any better quality there may be in it. So that if the involuntary thoughts could but strike against a mirror, a man might see his mental image."

The Genius of the Gospel.

ABLE expositions of the Gospel, describing the manners, customs, and localities alluded to by the inspired writers; also interpreting their words, and harmonizing their formal discrepancies, are, happily, not wanting amongst us. But the eduction of its WIDEST truths and highest suggestions is still a felt desideratum. To some attempt at the work we devote these pages. We gratefully avail ourselves of all exegetical helps within our reach; but to occupy our limited space with any lengthened archæological, geographic, or philological remarks, would be to miss our aim; which is not to make bare the mechanical process of scriptural study, but to reveal its spiritual results.

SECTION FORTY-FOURTH :-Matt. xiv. 1—15.

SUBJECT:-Herod and John the Baptist; or, The Power and Weakness of the Sinner.

THIS is a sad fragment of human history. The gross sensuality, daring impiety, and cold-blooded homicide, here recorded, are sufficient to redden us with blushes, on account of the depravity into which our nature has fallen. We would have omitted this scene in our exposition, we would have drawn a veil over it, were it not for the conviction that the lamentable facts would not have found a record on the inspired page, were they not of importance for us to observe and study. Assuming that this book, as a whole, is the Word of God, I cannot believe that any portion of it is useless. Each item has a function of its own in the great sphere of human culture. Such facts as these in the inspired volume, are beacons which Heaven has erected on the high rocks of history, to warn every subsequent voyager on the ocean of life, of the perils that beset his course. The particulars of the scene here are so minutely expressed as happily to require no explanation. Any remarks, therefore, on the details would be more likely to offend the delicacy, than brace the nerves, of virtue. I take the narrative as illustrating the power and weakness of sinful man.

Vol. VIII.

C

I. THE POWER OF SINFUL MAN. What freedom of action did the Divine Ruler of the universe now allow to Herod? He was allowed a free opportunity to carry out his base

purposes.

First: He was allowed to reach regal authority. Herod was the Ruler of Perea and Galilee. He had reached the highest worldly position in the country in which he lived. He was, in fact, the civil ruler of the greatest and holiest personages that ever trod our earth, or breathed our air. Jesus was a Galilean, and politically subject to this man's authority. Antecedently one might have expected that He who is the "prince of the kings of the earth" would have put an interdict upon the ambition of such a man as this ;—that if He condescended to prolong the life of such a wretch, He would, nevertheless, keep him in the lowest ranks of obscurity, where he could have no power for injuring his species; and that he would never have been allowed to grasp a sceptre or to wear a crown. One might have thought that in proportion to the reckless workings of a man's depravity, would be the restraint which Heaven would put on his liberty. Such, however, is not the case. The history of the world furnishes us with innumerable examples similar to that before us; and they serve to impress us with that liberty of action which the great God allows on earth. A man as corrupt as Herod shall rise from the humblest walks of life to opulence, municipal authority, aye, even imperial sway, if he will only play well and earnestly his part. Let moral principles and the claims of conscience be treated as idle puerilities, let the schemes be comprehensive, let the plot be well laid, let every tide be watched and caught at the flow, and the chances are that if life is spared he will reach his point.

Secondly: He was allowed to exercise his civil authority in the imprisonment and death of one of the greatest of God's servants. Of those born of woman there had not appeared "one greater than John the Baptist;"-the sturdy reformer, the faithful preacher, and the herald of the Captain of Human Salvation. His principles were as firm as the moun

tains that threw their shadows on the Jordan that rolled at his feet. He pointed his age away from the ritualism of the past, to the righteousness that was to be for all, and for ever, by saying "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." Antecedently again one might have thought that tyranny would never be permitted to put its ruthless hand upon such a man as this-that the man who dared to injure such-an-one in the slightest degree would be crushed with some thunderbolt from heaven;-that as the men of Bethshemesh fell dead as soon as they touched the Ark, tyrants would be paralyzed as soon as they put forth a hand to injure God's saints. But such is not the fact. The Herods, the Neroes, the Bonners, the Lauds, the Jeffreys, how they have revelled in the blood of martyrs !

Thirdly: He was allowed to murder one of the greatest of God's servants for actually doing what was right. John had reproved him. For "John said unto him," &c. Not, It is not honorable or safe, but not "lawful." As if John had said, Though thou art a ruler of men, thou art subject to God,-thou art bound by moral obligations, and in thy domestic connexion thou art trampling on the laws of thy Maker. Such a reproof as this indicated John's high sense of virtue, and his heroic faithfulness. It is not uncommon for men to reprove the poor and the humble in society for their offences, but it is a rare virtue to charge crime, with unflinching fidelity, upon the higher classes. To get up services and lectures for the poorer classes is popular now-a-days. The poor are lectured on all hands, and the most contemptible clap-traps are adopted to catch their ear. But where are the Johns to lecture the rich and the royal-the Herods? Perhaps there was no other man living who had such an attachment to right, and noble boldness of mind, as to do what John did now, confront his sovereign, and charge crime home on his conscience yet for this he was imprisoned, and for this was he put to a cruel death.

These facts show what scope for free agency God grants to wicked men on this earth. He allows them an opportunity