Does that sound like a riddle? We won't explain it; but leave it for your afternoon's meditations.

Such, then, is the statement which we want you to think over for a 'Sunday or two. Remember, you do not come here to receive authoritative decisions, but only such guidance in matters of study and thought as a life devoted to study and thought justifies you in expecting, and obliges me to give. Thus, then, our Christian religion is not erratic, but is the necessary outcome of the revelation of God. For God's revelation is constant. The gospel of God which was promised afore by the old prophets, and which developes itself when the world is prepared to receive it, was there from the beginning, but is bodied forth in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Some of you rejoice to belong to that unbroken stream of holy souls who have ceased to belong to the lower creation, and increasingly feel after God, if haply they may find Him. Thus we are related not only to Paul and David and Moses, but to the dim worshippers of earlier time who sought to embody their worship in some fantastic form. We should, however, have ceased to worship idols made with hands, have ceased to reverence arks and covenants, and the bodies of men and women. By Jesus Christ the

new gospel is preached. "The day cometh, and now is, when men shall worship God in spirit and in truth." Thus, the idol gone, Apollo gone, the worship of the false god gone, all localisms over, God the Spirit only shall be truly worshipped in spirit and in truth.

If to be included in so big a family is offensive to you, you can withdraw, and be one of the "elect," and sing if you like that unloveliest anthem that any man can sing in this world, "Lord, are there few that shall be saved?" I can only hope for you that you will be greatly disappointed in eternity. The most poetic and the sweetest souls have sung a different song. One rapt singer says he heard the heavenly song, and its volume was so great, its sound so overwhelming, that he could compare it to nothing less than the great sea. great multitude,” he says, “like the sand upon the sea shore, and I heard their voice as the voice of the great sea." Such was the vision of the sweetest soul that ever lived, the one whom Jesus Christ won to himself, and who was called "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Such was the vision of one who lay upon the bosom of Christ, and whose ear was quickened, because it was attuned to the heartbeat of the Son of God.

"I saw a

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT DISCARDED: THE THREE STAGES OF

RELIGION.

Morning, June 25th, 1876.

"And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more."-JEREMIAH iii. 16.

PLEASANT to the wise, and profitable to the student would it be to follow the history of the Ark of the Covenant of God, from the days when it,was first known to the Jewish people, and from the period when it became known to other nations. For Arks of Covenants are not confined to the Hebrews; the Egyptians knew them, too; and Captain Cook, if you remember, in that far Pacific island, found

an ark with rings and means of carrying it. And these quaint people called it "the House of the Lord." This ark, or chest, was probably kept as some reminder of the Flood-a little miniature ark in representation of that in which Noah is said to have had his escape.

Before there were any tabernacles or temples, the Ark was carried before the Jewish people. Its history is a strange one. Into it were put the tables of the Covenant. According to an old legend, when the Jews wanted to cross the Jordan the river parted for them before the Ark of the Covenant. It is said, too, that the Jericho walls fell before the Ark. Too sadly pathetic are the records I have read to you, and too sadly forgotten. Those Jews were anything but spiritually minded with regard to the Ark of the Covenant of God. They believed it had miraculous powers. When they took it into camp, the Philistines got hold of it, and afterwards the Israelites got hold of it again. And then you read (and may believe it if you like) of how a man put forth his hand to steady it, and the Lord killed that man for doing so. The poor man did his duty, tried to save the ark, and was killed in consequence. In the days of Solomon it is put into the Temple, and one does not hear

much more about it. It got to be a mere curiosity, and was preserved along with the brazen serpent and other relics. But, when Solomon's temple was destroyed, I suppose the ark was destroyed too; for after the Jewish Captivity we hear no more about it. They had no further use for it, so it was forgotten. And then comes Jeremiah, that great prophet (for he was not a priest, but a prophet), and he, looking forward to some great day in the Jewish history or the world's story, puts an end to it altogether, and speaks of the time when they shall leave off even speaking of it, when it shall not even come to mind or be remembered. There's an exodus for the Ark of the Covenant of God!

Now, in following that ark, what shall we be led. to? Not only to many strange things in history, but into some great facts with regard to religious development. You remember I was speaking to you on Sunday last about this, and I was laying down the law that development in religion amongst mankind was no more arbitrary than development in anything else, but that it follows conditions, and that these conditions are inevitable. This does not call for tears and lamentations. A large portion of what you believe is really not worth believing. It is a mere Ark of the Covenant. And think what