Jeremiah, whom in his heart of hearts he believes to be a man of God, over to the tender mercies of the princes. 66 Behold, he is in your hand for the king is not he that can do anything against you." In a dungeon now, sinking in the mire, left to perish, what are the prophet's meditations? Does he lose confidence in God, and cry out, "O Lord, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived"? "But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one : therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten." There was never yet dungeon with doors double barred deep enough to keep down the man whom God has commissioned to speak His truth. The crisis comes. What a mournful tragedy greets our eyes! Jerusalem and the sacred Temple a heap of smouldering ruins; captive nation toiling in mournful procession over the burning sands of the desert. Among them is their one-time king reaping the reward of his timidity and self-seeking.

This lesson suggests a few practical questions.

1. Why was Jeremiah persecuted? He was naturally of a mild and gentle disposition, he did not love strife. The priests and prophets persecuted him because he, a priest and a prophet, ventured to attack his own order and announce truths which had not received their sanction.

The princes strove to put him out of the way because he denounced the corruptions and the idolatries of the court and the folly of their nation's policy. From his more elevated standing-place he took a broader and more extended view than others of public affairs. looked the evils of his times squarely in the face. He was called to fulfil the most melancholy mission that ever fell to the lot of prophet or reformer.

He

His persecution is an inevitable accompaniIment of his career as a faithful and true witness to divinely given truth.

The man who bears witness to truths that bring the lives of his contemporaries under condemnation will suffer persecution. If he is called to denounce political institutions, long established, honoured, or social customs inwrought into family, church, and national life-as, for example, caste, slavery, the drink evil-he will be denounced as a visionary, a fanatic.

It is, however, our duty and privilege to bear witness to the truth as God gives us to see it.

2. In what sense was God with Jeremiah to deliver him? What constitutes Divine deliverance? Exemption from suffering? No. A life of ease and self-iudulgence? No. That life is divinely delivered which God utilizes for His glory. That man reaches life's chief end in spite of rack and dungeon whom God uses to root out the evil and plant the good; to hunt down the honoured error and bring to place of power the despised truth.

3. How may we know what is the will of God? If it is important that we stand firm, it is not less important that we stand for the right thing

Several safeguards are to be suggested, one to be emphasized.

(1) Consult the Word of God prayerfully, with all available helps.

(2) Seek guidance in direct communion with God.

But are these sufficient? Not always. What follies are sometimes wrought by those who vainly imagine that they are led by the Spirit of God-who mistake wilfulness for the will of God, party spirit for holy zeal!

of

(3) Have regard to the consensus thought, or the prevailing sentiment in the Church of Christ.

(4) The safeguard to be emphasized is this: Seek prayerfully and in a spirit of absolute personal surrender to do the will of God when known.-(James Harrison Humphrey.) WHEN God commissions men, why such exposure to persecution? Were this prevented, then we should be without the help of martyr testimonies to the genuineness of the Divine life in the soul and of sustaining grace equal to any extremity. Zedekiah is a type of a great host. He had the best of counsel from Jeremiah. Had he heeded, instead of being the last king of Judah and Jerusalem, he might have had a long line of successors till Shiloh came. Perhaps not bad of heart, his will was weak, and therefore he was not the man to be at the head of affairs in times of great crises. He was in the hands of the princes of his court. "Against them," he bemoans himself, "it is not the king that can do anything" (Jer. xxxviii. 5). From this story of bygone ages, living and imperishable lessons may be drawn :

I. Earth's wildest tumults, darkest depravities, and most formidable armies are

powerless to arrest the Divine plans. Starving and desolated Jerusalem; Judah bleeding and dragged into cruelest captivity; heathen kings holding Palestine under their conquering heel-these have no power to stay the plan of bringing a Divine Deliverer to Israel and the world. Earth's cyclones never touch the sun.

II. Prophetic warnings have a merciful intent. A condition is always implied when not stated. Jonah, calling out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," was God's mouthpiece offering a door of escape. It may be that Zedekiah, however repentant and obedient, would have been in thraldom to Babylon; but the Divine resources were ample for his restoration to a better life and substantial happiness, had he obeyed. Warnings always have their merciful possibility and intent.

III. Like Jeremiah, God's servants, while bold and aggressive, should be meek and quiet about personal grievances. The prophet knew well, and keenly felt, the gratuitous malice of his persecutors, but he had nothing to say about it when face to face with Zedekiah the king. He asked the king in bold irony, "Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?" This honoured the true God, and gave proper warning to Zedekiah. Jeremiah properly petitioned the king for release he tried to help his future, but the past had gone, and he turned his back upon it, so far as individual grievances were concerned.

IV. The weakness and futility of human refuges in opposition to God and duty. Egypt seemed strong; she was learned, and her

hosts were numerous and mighty. Great had been her conquests, but she was only a broken reed when alliance with her was preferred to alliance with God.

V. Times of commotion and public peril are the opportunities of bad men. The princes of Jerusalem could conspire against the prophet when the city was in extremity because the people were too busy to defend him, or too agitated to give dispassionate judgment. The proverb has long been current because continually illustrated in experience" In times of war, laws are silent." Great the sum of gratitude due for mighty but almost unappreciated forces of peace which hold down and back the minions of wickedness who lack nothing in will or character for imperilling every good interest.

VI. The folly of turning to God only when in trouble. When Zedekiah saw the armies of Babylon entwining their ponderous folds about his city, then he bethought him of God's prophet as he had done in former days.

VII. The duty of all possible diligence in self-preservation when faithful to God's commands. Invading armies withdrawn, Jeremiah longed for the rest of country quiet and scenes. He tried to get it. Alert and ready for action, at the dawn of opportunity he besought the king, and appealed to his judgment and humanity.

VIII. The need of another life to equalize the experience of this. The world, even where the Bible has not gone, expects such a readjustment. Universal expectations are prophetic. Jeremiah in a dungeon and wicked princes in palaces may be permitted for a season, but it is only for a season. -(S. Lewis B. Speare.)

the same thing to all who subscribe it. It is only in the exact sciences that a formula has absolutely the same value for all men and for the same man at all times. But theology is not an exact science. The multiplication table is one thing. A doctrinal symbol is a very different thing. And loyalty to such a symbol is perfectly compatible with individual interpretations of it which differ in no small degree from one another.

We are not to conclude that because a man does not use our language he does not think our thoughts; that because he repudiates and even reviles our formulas he repudiates the essential truth which they contain. But we conservatives are bound to make sure that the truth itself is not there, before we either take fright or raise the cry of heresy.

2. It is the second duty of conservatives in a time of theological conflict to recognize the margin of error in all human views of truth. If the writers of the Bible were infallible, the readers of it are not.

But have we not, it may be asked, the promise of the Paraclete to lead us into all the truth? Yes, and wonderfully has the promise been fulfilled. But here again two things should be observed. The first is that that promise was not given to any particular branch of the Church. But it guarantees infallibility to no one.

3. It is especially the duty of conservatives at the present moment in the history of the Church to discriminate between those who are seeking to defend and those who are seeking to overthrow the fundamental principles of Christianity.

Criticism must be met by criticism, scholarship by scholarship. The evangelical critics are fighting our battle, and they alone, in the present state of the conflict, are competent to fight it. The ancient mode of warfare seems to have returned again, where the rank and file on either side stand still and let the champions do the work. Only do not let us stab our champions in the back because we do not approve of their manner of fighting. There is a tremendous issue at stake, and they are on our side. They may at times be indiscreet. They may take positions which they will have to give up. They may yield points which they will have to reconquer. But they deserve our confidence and sympathy, not our suspicion and abuse. It is a grievous mistake and shame to confound them with the enemy.

4. I shall detain your attention only long enough to refer to one point more. We should beware of testing the views in regard to the Bible, which are now more and more freely expressed by what seem to be their tendencies.

One of these is the tendency to unsettle the minds of simple and devout believers. They certainly have such a tendency, and it is much to be regretted. But the questions are here.

We are not responsible for their presence. They are forced upon us.

Another thing concerning which no little apprehension is entertained is that these discussions may tend to diminish the reverence which is felt for the Bible, and to weaken the faith of men in Christianity itself. The apprehension is natural. So Erasmus felt concerning what he called "the noisy quarrel of religion" that had broken out in his day, when (as he says) "I wrote frequently and industriously to my friends, begging that they would admonish this man (Luther) to observe Christian meekness in his writings, and to do nothing to disturb the peace of the Church." The true conservative is always prone to apprehend the worst results from anything that disturbs the ancient order of ideas and practices. But how many times over has experience shown these fears to be groundless? How often has the faith of the Church been strengthened, rather than weakened, by the trials which it has had to sustain? The honest and fearless study of the Bible has not destroyed, but deepened the reverence in which it is held.

In quietness and in confidence is our strength. Let us be honest. Let us not be afraid. "If this counsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, ye will not be able to overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against God.”—REV. E. B. COE, D.D., in "The Christian Intelligencer."

DEWDROPS.

THERE are many Bible references to the dew. When Isaac, on his death-bed, blessed his son Jacob, in mistake for Esau, he said, "God give thee of the dew of heaven." The favour of God is described as "Dew upon the grass." In countries where rain falls but seldom, the dew moistens the earth and makes it fertile. The dew God's minister ! How feeble, yet how mighty! And has He not many little ministers ? 1. For instance, there is the silent ministry of patient suffering. The flowers of peace and love and joy bloom through quiet patience. 2. Then there is the gentle ministry of simple, unaffected piety. A dewdrop. It is a little globe that reflects the light, but it is so small that it might ask the question, "Of what use am I?" But the drops combine together in their useful ministry. One flower will not make a wreath. One pearl will not make a

necklace.

One rivulet will not make a river. One silkworm will not spin silk enough to make a scarf. One candle will not light a palace. One star will not illuminate the sky. One tree will not make a forest. We must combine many littles if we would exert great influence upon the world. Your little drop of influence must be added to another drop. All the children in a family, all the boys or girls in a Sunday-school class trying to do good may make an impression upon the world such as they never dreamed of. God wants all of you.-REV. G. D. EVANS, in "The Baptist Magazine."

ON KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES
FROM A CHILD.

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.-2 TIM. iii. 14, 15.

Ir were easier to think that a material structure like St. Paul's Cathedral could be produced by miscellaneous thoughts and influences than that the greater, more subtle, and complex structure of character can be so built. Upon the wisdom of parents, who lay its foundations and determine its earlier formation, and then upon the docility and wisdom of youth when it builds for itself, the entire result depends. Hence the momentousness of a true canon of life. Here St. Paul tells us what had been the training of Timothy -the formative influences which had developed his singularly pure and pious character. The two influences that are specially mentioned are, first, the nurture of a pious home; and secondly, the moral influence of Scriptural teaching. Timothy had before him in his home a holy example in the piety and rectitude of his parents.

"From a child, Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures." Many questions are suggested by the record-about the Scriptures which he knew, and about his means of knowing them. I notice only one: the moral and religious effect of the great ideas of the Bible upon youthful character. Somehow or other, these great ideas about God and Jesus Christ, about holiness of life and immortality, about piety, and worship, and righteousness, do make men good. Whoever knew the Bible to work moral injury? If we would be noble in manhood, we must begin to mould

and attemper character in early youth. It is God's eternal law; it is the manifest natural law of things. Now, let me urge upon you the momentousness of early piety.

Every

I. THE NATURAL FITNESS OF IT. thing is beautiful in its time. Nature has its spring-time of sowing, and quickening, and early growth; without which the full corn in the ear and the harvest reaping can never be realized. Youth is the spring-time of life; its learning, and its training in right thoughts and feelings and habits prepare for manhood. So the physical body grows in health and vigour, so the mind is educated to intelligence and thinking power. Neglect these in youth, and manhood will be maimed and incompetent. Can you think that moral and religious character has any other law? Religious thought and feeling and habit must be cultured and developed, just as faculties of the body and mind are. Indeed, we are so made that religion seems to begin with our very being. What strong religious instincts there are in a child! It is easier for a child to love God than to learn arithmetic. And then early piety most accords with what is right as well as what is wise. If God has any claims at all, upon what principle are Hisclaims to be deferred until we are grown up? Is it not as wrong to rob God in childhood as it is in manhood? You give yourselves to God when all the possibilities of life are before you. II. THEN YOU GET THE FULL ADVANTAGE OF WHATEVER BLESSINGS THERE MAY BE IN PIETY.

If religion be good at all, it is surely desirable to realize its good at once. It needs only a very short experience of life to learn that religion is the truest and highest happiness. What else can satisfy its affections, fill its desires? In youth, it is most susceptible, plastic, ductile; it waits to be directed. Early piety secures all possibilities of religious life. Piety is easiest in early life. Repentance after years of sin is hard and bitter work; to reform strong habits of evil is an arduous Polluted affections are thing. a terrible capital to begin with. Suppose a later life is not given you! How many die young!REV. H. ALLON, D.D., in " The Quiver."

THE DUTY AND ADVANTAGE OF ATTENDING CHURCH.

It is too much for you to go up to Jerusa lem.-1 KINGS Xii. 28.

BESIDES being brave and industrious, Jeroboam was also ambitious. Perhaps his

ambition was the natural complement of his courage and industry. A kingdom was now thrown in his way, which he was nothing loth to accept. Owing to the extravagance of Solomon's reign, and his countenance of idolatry, the people were heavily taxed, and the anger of the Almighty was provoked. Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam, and his counsellors-like George III. and his advisers in dealing with the American colonies-refused to make any concessions. Had the unfortunate Louis XVI. of France made half the concessions at first with a good grace that were afterwards wrung from him by pressure, they would have been received with gladness instead of with sullen silence, and he would probably have saved his kingdom and his life. Had George III. and his Ministers pursued a policy of conciliation instead of exasperation and bullying, the United States might still have formed a portion of the British Empire. Had the bishops and clergy of England in the days of Wesley been such as the bishops and clergy of the Church of England now, in all probability a division would never have taken place.

Laban said (Gen. xxx. 27), "I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake." Experience is a very effective teacher, but the fees are sometimes very costly. The tribes revolted against Rehoboam and made Jeroboam their king. And now having received a kingdom, his great study and concern was how to keep it. Knowing that man's religious feelings are the strongest of his nature, and fearing that if his subjects went up to Jerusalem every year to worship, a desire might spring up in their hearts for reunion with their brethren, he proposed to provide them with a "religion made easy."

Thus men conceal their selfish purposes under plausible pretensions; they profess great anxiety for the comfort and welfare of others. And in religious matters especially people are often too easily influenced, and too ready to be led astray, provided the religion be easy and cheap, and causes them little trouble, or self-denial, or inconvenience. And as it was in the days of Jeroboam, so it is now. The devil or some spirit of evil whispers to a man on Sunday morning, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem " (Church). You have been very busy all the week, and must sadly need rest. Besides, what will you hear in church after all, or profit so much by being there? Furthermore, it is to be borne

in mind that your going to church, especially in such weather, may not be altogether without risk to your health, and God is too good to expect you to injure yourself, and health is too precious to tamper with or throw away.

Reasons why every one should go up to Jerusalem (or go to church on the Lord's day):

1. First and most weighty of all reasons is because God Himself commands it.

2. By staying away, therefore, they are setting God's commands at defiance, and slighting His invitations, and losing the opportunity of joining in and profiting by the service; and we also set a bad example to others, and injure them as well as ourselves.

3. People do not allow trifling inconveniences and small difficulties to prevent them attending to their secular business.

4. Sunday is the time specially given us for soul culture and preparing for eternity; and since none can tell how many more such opportunities they will have, is it not unwise and dangerous to misuse them, or throw them away?

How to benefit by attending church.

1. To do this, you should take an earnest and hearty part in the service.

2. To be prepared to thus follow and join in the service earnestly and heartily, every one should come provided with Bibles, Prayerbooks, and Hymn-books.

3. People should attend church regularly. When once they begin the bad habit of staying away it grows on them.

4. Every one should go to church in a prayerful spirit; without this all else will do little good.-REV. J. REID, in "The Church of England Pulpit."