ings. They develop energies which otherwise would have remained dormant; they originate feelings of moral satisfaction and triumph which otherwise could never have been experienced. The mightier the foe the more glorious the victory; the higher the mountains we scale the grander the prospect, and the fresher the breeze.

Young seeker after Divine help, be not discouraged then by the difficulties that beset thy path. I see not how thy soul could be saved from lethargy, weakness, morbid fear, and base cowardice, without having difficulties to stimulate thy zeal, challenge thy faculties, and bring out the spiritual energies of thy being. "Tribulation" to man has ever been, since the fall, and must ever be in the path to the empire of spiritual majesty and bliss. Imitate then the example of this Syro-Phœnician woman. Centre thy faith, thy soul, not on mere theories that men propound about Christ; but on the SON OF DAVID. Though He may not for a time answer thee a word," and the heavens above thee seem brass as thou prayest, persevere; His silence is mercy,-still cry on to the Son of David. Though the conduct of some of His professed disciples may, at times, repel thee with their glaring inconsistencies and cold-hearted selfishness, still cry on to the Son of David. Though ideas about the restrictedness of Divine grace may ring in thy ears, and thou mayest fancy that thou art not included amongst "the lost sheep" for whom mercy has been provided, still cry on to the SON OF DAVID. Though a spurious theology may trouble thee with suggestions that thou art too worthless a creature for mercy, and that thou art excluded from the covenant of promise, still cry on to the SON OF DAVID. Let nought divert thy attention from HIM. Hold on to HIM with an unrelaxable tenacity amidst all the trials of life's wilderness, in the Jordan of death, and thou shalt feel on the other side that He has made thee "MORE THAN A CONQUEROR."

Germs of Thought.

SUBJECT:-Sin Clouds.

"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins.-Isaiah xliv. 22.

Analysis of Homily the Three Hundred and Seventy-fourth.

Ir is by no means an uncommon circumstance, to find in the Bible the very same natural object employed as a symbol of very different and even opposite things. Thus, the Lion is used as the emblem both of Christ and of the Prince of Darkness; thus, fire is used as the emblem both of divine purity and of human suffering; thus, water is used as the emblem both of peace and of trouble; and thus the cloud is employed as an emblem both of good and evil. Here the Almighty Himself speaks of sin as a "cloud." Before we proceed to notice some of the points of resemblance between sin and the cloud, let us at the outset, in order to guard against an abuse of the comparison, notice at least two striking points of dissimilarity.

First Clouds are objects of beauty. Clouds are a floating landscape, their forms and hues are ever changing. They have their wide spread plains, their towering mountains, their deep valleys, their craggy cliffs, their wild picturesque and terrible aspects. They appear in every variety of color too -now touched with silver, now fringed with gold, now arrayed in richest purple, and now floating as on crimson waves of glory. We thank the Great Creator for meeting our love of the beautiful and the varied in the firmament. Our heavens might have been one unbroken monotonous expanse. But sin is not like the cloud in this respect; it is a hideous deformity. Robe it as you will, embellish it with poetry and

set it to music, it is still an offence to God and to every

enlightened spirit.

Secondly Clouds are sources of blessing. They are vessels that convey water from the ocean to the dry land,—they trade between earth and sea. They sail through the firmament with rich cargoes of refreshing showers for the parched places of the earth. How such vaporous vessels can carry

such oceans through the air no philosophy but that of the Bible can explain:-" He bindeth up the waters, in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them." But whilst in this, and in many other ways clouds are of service to the world, sin is an evil, an evil in itself, and as a cause, can produce only evil.

In what respect then is sin like a cloud? "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions."

I. He blotteth out sins as a cloud which OBSTRUCTS THE GENIAL INFLUENCES OF HEAVEN. The obstruction which the cloud offers to the rays of the sun is sometimes not only agreeable but useful. It is a protection to vegetable and animal life against the scorching ray. But at other times the obstruction is an obvious evil. The clouds are so

thick and widespread that they make the day cold and gloomy; so that the flow of life is checked, and the spirit of life is depressed. Were the cloudy day to continue, the farmer would have no crops, and the world would perish. It is thus with sin. It rolls like a thick cloud between God and the soul. It hides Him from our view, it obstructs the rays of His love, it makes life gloomy and sad. Men under this cloud grope their way in darkness, they stumble as in the night; they droop and die under the dark shadows of their sins. God blots out this obstruction from the firmament which obscures the moral vision. He does it; no one else can. "I, even I," &c.

II. He blotteth out sins as a cloud which RISES FROM BENEATH. Whence come these clouds? Not from the celes

tial regions. They are exhalations from the earth. From noxious marshy lands and stagnant pools, as well as from restless seas they rise. They are an aggregation of particles and vapors that rise from the world below. So it is with sin. It is an exhalation from the depraved heart. The clouds that roll between the soul and its God are an aggregation of the noxious vapors that have risen from the heart. In nature, we say, on a dark and cloudy day, "the sun does not shine." The language, though popular, is not true. The sun is always shining in his own great orbit. It is the earth's vapors that obscure his beams. It is so with sin. We say, "God is hiding Himself from us," or "He frowns upon us.' Not so. It is the vapors of sin rising from our hearts that veil Him from our view. He blots out these clouds, no one

else can. "I, even I," &c.

III. He blotteth out sins as a cloud which EXISTS IN EVERY VARIETY OF FORM. Clouds are endless in their variety. Some are light and gay, flitting in fantastic forms and silvery brightness before the eye; others are dense frowning masses, standing like black volcanic mountains before you. It is so with sin. In what endless variety is it found! You have it in the fleeting thought, the transient feeling, the passing word; as well as in the deep plot, the cherished passions, the confirmed habits, the dark, dark life. "Who can understand his errors?" When we think of them they rise in the firmament of memory in aspects as varied as clouds that darken the sky. God blots out these dark clouds in all their variety of shade, form, size, density. He does not pardon piece-meal, as priests would have us believe. With the breath of His mercy He sweeps them all from the sky. No one else can. "I, even I," &c.

IV. He blotteth out sins as a cloud which IS CHARGED WITH EVIL. Whilst clouds are sources of blessings to the world, they are often filled with elements of destruction. There are forged the thunderbolts that terrify;

there are kindled the lightnings that consume; there are the floods that deluge; there brood tempests that uproot forests, lash oceans into fury, level human habitations with the dust, and sweep gallant fleets adown the yawning deep. It is so with sin. The miseries of retribution are all nursed in it as storms in the cloud. The thunders and lightnings of hell are all there. Every sin is a "treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath." You have seen sometimes a small cloud on the face of the summer's sky-it was the nucleus around which other vapors gathered; then it spread, and covered the whole heavens with blackness: at length, surcharged, it broke in tempest that struck terror through the world. God blots out those dense clouds charged with tempests that otherwise eternity would not exhaust. He does it, no one else can. "I, even I," &c.

V. He blotteth out sins as a cloud which NO FINITE INTELLIGENCE CAN DISPERSE. Who can dispel the smallest cloud from the face of the sky? The farmer in the harvest-field sees clouds congregate as an army to battle against him in his work, but all the farmers in the world cannot disband them. The mariner too, may tremble as he sees them gathering for a tempest that shall dash his vessel like a plaything on the waters, but he cannot scatter them. He can only prepare as best he may to meet their fury. No skill, no strength, can dispel one cloud. It is so with sin. No finite being can dispel it; only God. "I even I am He." No one else. No church-no priesthood, &c. "Who is a God like unto thee?" (Micah vii. 10-19.)

VI. He blotteth out sins as a cloud, which ONCE DISPERSED, IS GONE FOR EVER. Sometimes you have seen the heavens covered with clouds. You have seen them like a splendid fleet, with the silvery canvass unfurled to the breeze, sailing through the air; a storm has come, and you have looked, and they were all gone-they had vanished into thin air, not a vestige left-all was azure. It is so when sin