MOST INFLUENTIAL SUBJECT.

What is the subject? Not a thing, or a vast system of things, not a creature-being, or a universe of creaturebeing-but God Himself, the primal source, the animating spirit, the directing Lord of all. "I meditate on thee." Meditation on Him serves several important purposes. First: It serves to rouse the intellectual fuculties to their highest effort. The mind turned to Him in thought, feels the stirring of a new life through all its powers. The faculties of inquiry leap into the most

ear

nest action, the whole soul labors after the Infinite. It serves Secondly: To prostrate the soul in humility. Fellowship with inferior objects is the garden of pride. Communion with the great makes us feel our native littleness. In the presence of God the soul loses its egotism, and feels its nothingness. Like Job, men have only to see Him in order to abhor themselves in dust and in ashes. It servesThirdly To spiritualize all the sympathies of our nature. Living in the world, mingling ever with the objects of sense, girded and canopied by materialism, our sympathies get sensual and secular. But when, by thought, we bring the Infinite into our sphere,

the universe of material objects dwindles away, and our souls go forth to Him, feeling that Spirit is the all in all. It serves-Fourthly: To assimilate the character to the perfect One. By a law of mind, those upon whom we most dwell in thought we become most like. The constant object of thought transfigures us into its own image. Thus dwelling in thought upon God, we shall become like Him, "Beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," &c.

II. IT IS EMPLOYED IN A MOST INFLUENTIAL SEASON.

"In the night watches." Night is pre-eminently the season for solemn thought. First: It gives the mind an inward direction. In the night, the world and all its attractious are buried from man, as into a sepulchre of darkness. As all outside of him is thus entombed in silence and sable, his soul becomes solemnly conscious of itself and its responsibility. Shut in within itself, it concentrates its thoughts upon the great ideas of God, and moral obligation and immortality, which are recorded there in characters plain and imperishable. Secondly: It gives the mind a solemnity of mood. Night is the emblem and minister of seriousness. Man, alone, in "the night

watches," is in the best position to become serious. Hence, thoughts in the dark night have a greater power over us. A thought which heaves the whole nature with solemn emotions in the night, has often but little influence over us in the day.

"Oft in the stilly night,

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond mem'ry brings the light
Of other days around me.
The similes, the tears of boyhood's
years,

The words of love then spoken,
The eye that shone, now dimm'd and
gone,

The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Sad mem'ry brings the light
Of other days around me.
When I remember all

The friends, so linked together,
I've seen around me fall,
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one who treads alone
Some banquet hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled, whose garland's dead

And all, but he, departed!

Thus in the stilly night,

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Sad mem'ry brings the light
Of other days around me."

Aye, and the "stilly night," too, is the season for making thought upon God most powerful.

MAN'S POWERS THE GIFTS AND

EMBLEMS OF GOD.

"He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?"-Ps. xciv. 9. FROM this passage we infer—

I. THAT MAN'S POWERS ARE THE GIFTS OF GOD. The ear and the eye are here given

us only as specimens of those powers with which Heaven has endowed our nature. They are the chief organs of the soul's communication with the external world. Through them, mainly, the outward comes into us. These, the text tells us, are God's works. He "planted" the ear, and "formed" the eye. This is true of all the powers we have, both of body and of soul. What we have, He imparted to us; all our faculties are His gifts. First: This fact should check all tendency to pride in the man of superior endowments. Ye men of towering genius and giant intellect, pride not yourself on your brilliant endowments. No thanks to you that you have them; they are the sovereign gifts of the Creator. Be thankful for them, and use them for His service. Secondly: This fact should check all tendency to envy in the man of inferior ability. The man you envy on account of his superior endowments, cannot help his greatness; and if you are inferior in power, your obligations are also less. With your smaller gifts you may be happy and even illustrious. The radiance of the glowworm in its sphere, glittering on the green leaf, is as beautiful and Divine as the beams of Jupiter on the blue ethereal. A holy child is as much

an object of admiration as a seraph of light. Do not be envious.

IL THAT MAN'S POWERS ARE THE EMBLEMS OF GOD. "He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see! The argument implied is, that what He has given us, He has in Himself. The artist can only put into his production that which he has in himself. The life-form into which the skilful artist has chiselled the marble; or the blooming, breathing forms which he has thrown upon the canvas are only pictures of ideas dwelling in his own mind.

We

are the workmanship of God, and the powers He has given us are emblems of the powers that dwell in Himself. If He has given an 66 eye," He sees; an "ear," He hears; an intellect, He thinks; a heart, He feels; a will, He resolves, &c. The picture of a grand landscape, struck off by photography,may not be larger than your hand; still, if true, it has in it all that is in those widespread acres. Man is as nothing to God; still, what he has, has come from God, and is a picture of the Infinite. The dew-drop is the ocean in miniature. Let us descend for a moment to a few particulars. First: Man has a sense of moral justice. He

VOL. XIV.

has a faculty for discerning moral distinctions, and a nature which rises in indignation against the wrong. In other words, he has a conscience. He that " planted" within us this sense of justice, is He not just? All the honest denunciations of humanity against the wrong, are but the feeble echoes of His eternal rectitude. Secondly: Manhas an affection for hisoffspring. By a law of his nature he loves those who have derived their existence from him as the instrumental cause. His love is deep and tender, prompting toils and sacrifices without number. He that "planted" this parental love in us, has He not this fatherly affection? Could He give what He has not? The Bible is explicit on the subject; "Like as a father pitieth his children," &c., "Can a women forget her child," &c. The deepest, mightiest, most constant stream in human life is parental love, yet all that ever has been, is, or shall be, is but a drop from the exhaustless ocean of Divine affection. Thirdly: Man has a power of spontaneous action. He has a consciousness of freedom. He feels that he has a sphere of action, in which he is the absolute lord, that he is the originator of his own purposes, the master of his own acts. He that "planted" in us

E

this power of spontaniety, is He not free? Is He not, in a sense in which we can never be, the uncontrolled and uncontrollable sovereign of His own conduct? "He does what seemeth good in His sight," &c. "He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," &c. Fourthly: Man has a sense of personality. He feels that he is an individual distinct from all external things, and that he has an orbit of life through which nothing else rolls, nothing can roll; an orbit belonging exclusively to himself as long as he shall be; that he is, in fact, a conscious indivisible unit. He that "planted" in us this sense of personality, is He not a Person? Is He not a Being as distinct from the universe, as the architect is from the building, the engineer from the machinery, the lyrist from his harp.

In conclusion: Man! adore thy Maker. Thankfully trace all thou hast to Him, and use all thy powers in His service. Man! See and study thy Maker in thy own constitution. Thou hast more of Him in thee than all the myriad oros that roll in splendor through the sky. Wipe from the mirror of thy being all the pollutions of sin, that, having a pure heart, thou mayest see God Himself, and be blessed for evermore.

THE LAURELS OF A VICTORIOUS LIFE.

"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."-Rev. ii. 17. THESE words were addressed by Christ to the Church at Pergamos. The Church there has long ceased to exist, and Pergamos itself has long since been buried in the gulf of ages. The words suggest that life is a battle, a fact with which every man is consciously acquainted. It is a battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil; a battle with wrong of every kind, degree, and in every form. The seventh chapter of Romans gives a sketch of the struggle. Now, we are here informed that victory in this battle will be rewarded. What are the rewards.

I. DIVINE SUSTENTATION. "I will give to eat of the hidden manna." By the "hidden manna," is meant the spiritual blessings of which the manna given to the Israelites in the wilderness was the type. In one word it means- Christ. "I am the bread of life." "I am the bread that comes down from heaven," &c. First: His doctrines are bread to the intellect. They are full of

nourishment for the mental powers. Secondly: His fellowship is bread to the heart. Loving intercourse with Him will develop, strengthen, and gladden all the sympathies of the heart. Thirdly: His Spirit is bread to the whole life. To partake of His Spirit, the spirit of supreme love to God, consecration to the true and right, and universal sympathy with man, is to get that which will invigorate every faculty and fibre of our being. His Spirit is indeed the strength of humanity. It is the moral wine that gives at once the highest elevation to soul, and the strongest tone to character. "He that eateth me"-my moral spirit " even he shall live by me."

II. DIVINE DISTINCTION. First: "The sign of distinction." "A white stone." This (1) may be a sign of acquittal. In the ancient Greek courts of justice, it was customary to signify the judgment pronounced upon the accused person by throwing a stone. into an urn; the black stone expressed condemnation; the white, acquittal. Thus Socrates was convicted and condemmed. There will be a public expres sion at the last day of the acquittal of those who have won the battle. This may be a sign of qualification (2) It

ceremo

seems, that before the Levites and the priests, under the law, were allowed to minister at the altar, they were examined, in order to ascertain whether they were nially clean or not. Ritualistic purity was regarded as the necessary qualification for office. Those who were found to have this qualification, had a "white stone" presented to them. He who came forth from the examination bore this sign of fitness for his sacerdotal vocation. Thus, the "white stone" here may mean that he who wins the moral battle of life, will be regarded as fit for the high services of the celestial world. (3) This may be a sign of public honor. It was customary in the Grecian games to give a "white stone" to him who had won the victory. He who held this stone was entitled to be supported at the public expense, had free access to all the festivites of the nation, and was regarded as illustrious in all great gatherings. Thus he who wins the moral battle of life, shall be publicly honored. "A crown of glory is prepared for him, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give unto him at that day." He will have full admission into all the honors of eternity. Secondly: The character of the distinction. What is the character? It

is something new, it is a "new