humanity, altogether careless of" flesh" or "blood"

or the will of man.' Let us remember then what He was " A young man—with no advantage of position; the son and companion of rude people; born in a town whose inhabitants were wicked to a proverb of a nation above all others distinguished for their superstition, for national pride, exaltation of themselves, and contempt for all others; in an age of singular corruption, when the substance of religion had faded out from the minds of its anointed ministers, and sin had spread wide among a people turbu lent, oppressed, and down-trodden." Let us remember all this, and then see how He came out from the universal corruption, to speak not for better manners, and a truer keeping to the olden ways, but to fling down, and that with no scornful hand, the whole fabric of the past,-breaking up the old exclusiveness, and tearing asunder the refuges of lies, of a whole nation that had long left their God while they still called themselves His people :-proclaiming that henceforth there should be no children of Abraham, but the children of the faith, and that God was not the God of the Jew only, but also of the Greek—the bond and the free-the far-off and the near. Then came those wondrous utterances, so startling and so strange to the men who heard Him,-such as had never broken their guilty stillness before;-utterances

that seemed to spurn the narrow confines of country or of creed; as though He stood full in the presence of the world He had come to claim for its Lover and its God, instead of in the streets of some exclusive Jewish town. And indeed it was not the Jew, but the man that spake, when he broke the guilty silence of that ancient time. For He had a truth to tell which knew nothing about chosen nations, and narrow confines of place or time;-He had to tell of the Great Father who loves us all, and counts us all His children, and who will bring many "from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South," to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in His dear Kingdom. And in this way He broke down the national exclusiveness of the Jews, and the proud conceits of the nations; and once when they had been advancing their haughty plea of their descent from the fathers and the prophets, He tore the miserable boast to shreds before them, and told them of a wider Sonship than Jewry ever knew, and a sublimer Fatherhood than Abraham ever bestowed." Children of Abraham!" cried He, "and what of that will that save ye? Nay! In that great day of the Lord ye shall say, 'We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets; but the bridegroom will not know you, and the floor of Heaven shall not be stained with

your recreant feet! Children of Abraham! Nay! For they be Abraham's children who do his works, and love his God; and these shall come from the ends of the earth, though they have never heard his name; and they shall sit down with the faithful, at the marriage feast; and there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of Heaven; and ye yourselves thrust out!"

And so, looking on them with His sad, grave eyes, not unlit by a holy and indignant fire, He tramples on their miserable refuges, and turns lovingly, as the world-teacher, to the hearts of all His Father's children: hence His word may come as near to the heart of the Greenlander as to that of the Hebrew; and his utterance is as human in India, as it was in Judæa. His teachings, too, are as new, as fresh, and as applicable, as when their first sweet words were wafted to the people, as they followed Him to the pleasant Judæan hills. Let Him but speak now to the hearts of the people, and His word is clear and plain-nowhere antiquated, and nowhere foreign, because it is true to the heart of humanity, and because it appeals to what is universal in the souls of men: as He Himself said, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." When will all who have to do with the

teaching of the religion of Jesus Christ, be content to make less of their personal hindrances-their creeds, and their definitions, content to let Christ be uplifted, to speak for Himself, as He did in the days of old, that the people now might hear less of us and more of Him!

Look, too, at that prayer of His-Lord's prayer we well call it. Say it in the deserts of Arabia, and the rude wanderer will bow his head, and call it good, and say Amen; so true is it to the heart of the world. Little children can say it, and old men can love it, and the wise will not choose to forget it; and it seems never to grow old like other things.

It is pleasant to think, too, how in fact as well as intention, He has become the world-teacher. Already the Sabbath-bell, that calls to His praise, is heard almost wherever the hand of man can take it; and over many a sweet blue hill, and through many a solemn mountain pass, its tinkling is wafted by the breeze. On many a desert spot, too, and near many a forest home, is reared the humble Church; and in a hundred tongues that sweet song might with truth be sung,—

"O sweeter than the marriage feast,

"Tis sweeter far to me,

To walk together to the kirk,

With a goodly company—

"To walk together to the kirk,

And all together pray,

While each to his Great Father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay."

"THOU MAKEST WINTER."

C

OLD and cheerless, dark and drear,

Wintry days and nights appear;

But they all in order stand,
This is still God's goodly land.

Wind, and ice, and flaky snow,
At Thy bidding, come and go;
Clouds obscure or planets shine,
But they serve Thee and are Thine.

Flowers have faded from the plain,
But their mother-roots remain;
In the crispy earth they lie,
Waiting for the warmer sky.