it. Need that man die? If he refuse the remedy he must die, but since the remedy is offered, and he has the power to take it, his death is needless. It is thus with the sinner. He is infected with the malady of sin, he is on the margin of death; but here is the remedy, the Great Physician of Souls is at his side, offering an infallible antidote. Had not this Physician appeared in our midst our death would have been unavoidable. But now he is at our side pressing on us the remedy, we need not die. Though the malady has assumed the most malignant form, though the spiritual grave yawns at our feet, we need not die.

III. THE EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH YOU ARE PLACED DO NOT RENDER YOUR RUIN NECESSARY.

These are often pleaded as an excuse for indifference, indecision, and sometimes profligacy. It is said, It is impossible for me to become religious. I live amongst the gay, the worldly, the profane and the sceptical. My worldly engagements too are all-absorbing. I live in the bustle of the crowd, I am lost in the din of business. Were I in other circumstances I would become a religious man, I would discipline my soul, and prepare for eternity. Would that I had a home in some rural spot away from all connexion with the thoughtless multitudes, whose corrupt sentiments are ever falling on my ear, and surging through my soul. Some quiet spot in nature where I should hear nothing but the rustling of the trees and the murmuring of the brooks, the warbling of the birds and the other voices of nature, see little but the everchanging, but ever-lovely, face of nature. Were I in such circumstances as these, I would be a religious man: I would train my heart and worship my Maker! My brother, this is all sentiment! Remember that the God who requires you to become religious placed you in the circumstances in which you are found, and if you trust in Him, "As your day, so your strength shall be." Remember that it is the glory of a rational being to bend circumstances to its own purpose, rather than to be mastered by them. "It is not that, which

goeth into a man that defileth him." Bad thoughts may be conveyed to your mind, bad impressions made on your hearts, but they need not harm you; you have a power to transmute them into spiritual nourishment. Remember that some of the most eminent saints that ever lived have been amongst most trying and tempting circumstances. Remember, that the more trying your circumstances may be, the more corrupt the society in which you live, the more need there is for you to carry out noble principles. The deeper the gloom the more need of light, the more parched the soil the more need of the shower. Hold forth the word of life in the midst of the crooked and the perverse. Your circumstances therefore do not render your ruin necessary.

IV. THE CONDITION ON WHICH SALVATION IS OFFERED DOES NOT RENDER YOUR RUIN NECESSARY. What is the great condition? The New Testament teaches us that it is faith. "He that believeth shall be saved, "-"He that believeth hath everlasting life." Now belief as an act is one of the most simple. It is as natural to believe an evident truth as it is to see. Moreover, man has a strong propensity to believe. His credulity is his curse. It is this that has given to the world those monstrous systems of error, under which it has been groaning for ages. But what must we believe in order to be saved? If it be responded, The facts of the Gospel, I ask, Are there any facts attested by clearer or more potent evidence? Or, if it be said. The principles of the Gospel, then we declare that those principles are moral axioms, and recommend themselves to the intuitions and felt necessities of the human soul. Or, should it be replied, It is faith in the Author of the Gospel-the living, loving personal Christ, then we ask, What character is so adapted to enlist your faith and inspire your confidence ? He is honest, loving, truthful, religious, and transparent in all! "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Where is your difficulty in this? No! if you are ruined it is not because you cannot comply with the conditions.

I beseech you, endeavor to

"Why then will ye die"? return some reply. The very effort to make some reply, perhaps may startle you. Can you assign a single reason? Can you tell me of anything that renders it necessary that you should die? Anything in nature? Anything in the Bible? Anything in Christ? Anything in God? Why, Oh! why, will you turn that soul of yours into a demon, which is capable of rising into a seraph? Why will you become a curse to yourself and the universe, rather than a blessing? Why will you spurn a destiny ever brightening in splendor, ever heightening in joy, and select a doom terrible in woe and wickedness?

SUBJECT-Obedience better than Sacrifice.

"To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."-1 Samuel xv. 22.

Analysis of Homily the Three Hundred and Twenty-fourth.

SAUL received a very clear and specific command from God to slay the Amalekites, and utterly destroy all that they had, for they had been the most bitter of the enemies of the Israelites, and were guilty of heinous national sins. Saul disobeyed God's command. He was commanded to destroy the Amalekites utterly,-without exception. But he destroyed only that which was "vile and refuse ;” "all that was good" he did not destroy.

Perhaps Saul thought the command too cruel, or, perhaps he coveted the possessions of Amalek; or, it may be that he wished to gratify his vanity by an ostentatious display of the prisoners he had taken, and the spoil he had captured. His conduct was a deliberate act of disobedience to God's specific command. Saul's conduct is a type of human nature in manifesting-(1) A disinclination to render a full and complete obedience to God's expressed will. (2) A proneness to render that to God which he does not require, and

withholding that which he demands. (3) In the excuses he makes for his disobedience. (1) He told a lie. "I have performed the commandment of the Lord." But in this he was detected by Samuel, who said "What meaneth this bleating of sheep in mine ears?" &c. (2) He throws the onus of his guilt on the shoulders of his people, as though he had no command over them. (3) He offers the very fruit of his disobedience upon the altar at Gilgal, as a bribe to God, and a quietus to conscience. The paramount importance of obedience will appear from the following remarks :

I. ALL THINGS ARE CONSIDERED BY THE ALMIGHTY AS SUBORDINATE TO HIS LAW. "Heaven and earth shall pass away but not a jot or a tittle of the law shall fail." Amongst men, law is the most august principle. To it all men must defer. Kings, nobles, peoples, are subordinate to it. Kings may be dethroned, dynasties destroyed, and nations pass away, but the eternal principles of rectitude are immoveable as the everlasting hills.

II. EVERY INFRINGEMENT OF LAW ENTAILS PUNISHMENT. It is "a terror to evil doers," it knows nothing of mercy. It can wink at no short-coming. (1) Punishment will certainly follow sin, as pain and suffering follow an infringement of the material laws of the universe. The wicked shall not escape. "I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest." (2) The protracting of the punishment is no proof of its abandonment. Therefore let the sinner beware; -let him not say "Where is the promise of his coming?" "The Son of man shall come as a thief in the night." The antediluvians mocked the threatenings of God one hundred and twenty years, but destruction overtook them after all. (3) The final punishment of the disobedient will be eternal in its effect. Saul's posterity lost the throne of Israel for ever.

III. IN ORDER TO ATONE FOR THE GUILT OF MEN WHO HAVE INFRINGED THE LAW OF GOD, THE GREATEST SACRIFICE

HAS BEEN OFFERED.

All the sacrifices under the old dispensation were to illustrate and honor law. Christ appeared in our nature to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. "He was made of a woman made under the law." In his humanity he rendered that obedience to the law which it demands of all its subjects. "Fulfilling the law for righteousness." He came "not to destroy but to fulfil." And through virtue of His deity imparting that quality and efficacy to His sacrifice that He became the propitiation for sin.

Learn the importance of ascertaining what the will of God respecting us is-The importance, present and eternal, of obeying it, and let us pray that we may have obedient hearts that we may serve Him to all well-pleasing.

Rickmansworth.

T. D. JONES.

SUBJECT:-The Reward of the Faithful Servant.

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."-Matt. xxv. 21.

Analysis of Homily the Three Hundred and Twenty-fifth.

CHRISTIANITY does not subject to the sway of mere abstractions, or only of conscience as the assertor of law; it teaches that it is congenial and proper to our nature to serve a person, the highest, owner of all things, the most worthy of confidence, the most endeared. All men are of right His servants, though many are unfaithful.

The reward of the faithful servant :

OF CHRIST. Man pants for

I. CONSISTS IN OBTAINING THE APPLAUSE "Well done good and faithful servant," &c. praise. The vain man lives upon it, and will greedily drink in what he knows to be flattery. What then must applause