a spur it is to exertion! how deadening to sloth! And if you were to quench it altogether, how few of the present noble works would be done! Again, patriotism is a virtue, but not the highest; you could not dispense with it. Our Master felt it when on earth: He was a Jew, and felt deeply for His country. But when we enter into that clime where there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, then patriotism shall pass away.

Consider also friendship, and other particular attachments. But these are no substitutes for the charity which contemplates likeness to Christ, rather than personal affinities. While on earth, Christ had personal attachments: a strong human affection for St. John, from their mutual similarities of character. But observe His Divine charity: He said, "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren ?" And then pointing to His disciples-Behold them: "For, whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." These things are manly and human now, but will have to be put away then: patriotism, ambition, exclusive friendship, will then disappear, and be succeeded by higher impulses.

The last comparison is to imperfect vision as contrasted with perfect: "now we see through a glass, darkly." Glass in this place more properly means window, for the ancient windows were made of horn, or talc, or thin metal, through which things were seen but in a dim, confused, and colourless manner. So now we see Divine things "darkly." We see God through the coloured glass, as it were, of our own limited human impressions. "The Father" has scarcely even all the poor conceptions we have gained from the earthly relationship from which the name is borrowed. And God, as "Love," is seen by us only as one who loves as we love,-weakly, partially, selfishly. Heaven also, is but a place erected by our earthly imagination. To the Indian, a hunting-ground; to the old

Norseman, a battle banquet; to the Mahometan, a place of earthly rapture; to the man of science, a place where Nature shall yield up all her secrets. "We see through a glass darkly: we know but in part." But just what the going out of a room lighted through horn windows into the clear daylight would be to us now, will be the entrance of the purified spirit into God's realities out of this world of shadows-of things half seen--of restless dreams. "It doth not yet appear," says St. John, "what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."

Here therefore, we bring the subject to a conclusion. All gifts are to be cultivated; let no Christian despise them. Every accomplishment, every intellectual faculty that can adorn and grace human nature, should be cultivated and polished to its highest capability. Yet these are not the things that bring us nearer God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us."

see God."

You may have strong, eagle-eyed Faith: well-you will probably be enabled to do great things in life, to work wonders, to trample on impossibilities. You may have sanguine Hope: well-your life will pass brightly, not gloomily. But the vision of God as He is, to see the King in His beauty, is vouchsafed not to science, nor to talent, but only to Purity and Love.

LECTURE XXVI.

I CORINTHIANS, xiv. 1-24.- -May 2, 1852.

The feet vaid if the twelfth and thirteenth chapters, and

HE first verse of this chapter contains a résumé of all that

serves as a point from whence the fourteenth chapter begins. And we observe that charity holds the first place, and then spiritual gifts follow in the second. And of spiritual gifts, some for certain reasons-as, for instance, prophecy—are preferable to others. And this is exactly the subject of these three last chapters. St. Paul says, graces, like charity, are superior to gifts: "Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy." We will consider why is prophecy preferable?

It will be necessary, in order to explain this, to define what we mean, and to show the difference between a grace and a gift. A grace does not differ from a gift in this, that the former is from God, and the latter from nature. As a creative power, there is no such thing as nature all is God's. A - grace is that which has in it some moral quality; whereas a gift does not necessarily share in this. Charity implies a certain character; but a gift, as, for instance, that of tongues, does not. A man may be fluent, learned, skilful, and be a good man likewise; another may have the same powers, and yet be a bad man—proud, mean, or obstinate. Now this distinction explains at once why graces are preferable.

Graces are what the man is; but enumerate his gifts, and you will only know what he has. He is loving: he has eloquence, or medical skill, or legal knowledge, or the gift of acquiring

languages, or that of healing. You only have to cut out his tongue, or to impair his memory, and the gift is gone. But on the contrary, you must destroy his very being, change him into another man, and obliterate his identity, before he ceases to be a loving man. Therefore you may contemplate the gift separate from the man; and whilst you admire it, you may despise him; as many a gifted man is contemptible through being a slave to low vices or to his own high gifts. But you cannot contemplate the grace separate from the man: he is loveable or admirable, according as he has charity, faith, or self-control.

And hence, the Apostle bids the Corinthians undervalue gifts in comparison with graces. "Follow after charity." But as to gifts, they are not ourselves, but our accidents, like property, ancestors, birth, or position in the world.

But hence also, on the other hand, arises the reason for our due admiration of gifts: "desire spiritual gifts."

Many religious persons go into the contrary extreme: they call gifts dangerous, ignore them, sneer at them, and say they are "of the world." No, says the Apostle, "desire" them: look them in the face, as goods: not the highest goods, but still desirable, like wealth or health. Only remember, you are not worthy or good because of them. And remember other people are not bound to honour you for them. Admire a Napoleon's genius: do not despise it: but do not let your admiration of that induce you to give honour to the man. Let there be no mere "hero-worship "-that false modern spirit which recognizes the "force that is in a man" as the only thing worthy of homage. The subject of this 14th chapter is—not the principle on which graces are preferable to gifts, but the principle on which one gift is preferable to another. "Rather that ye may prophesy." Now the principle of this preference is very briefly stated. Of gifts, St. Paul prefers those which are useful to those that are showy. The gift of prophecy was useful to others, whilst that of tongues was only a luxury for

self. Now the principle of this preference is stated generally in the 12th verse: "Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church."

We come therefore, to-day to the exposition of a chapter confessedly of extreme difficulty, a chapter on Prophecy and the gift of Tongues. It was from a strange and wild misinterpretation of this chapter, untenable on any sound grounds of interpretation, that the great and gifted Irving fell into such fatal error.

For some reasons it might be well to omit this chapter altogether; in simple modesty for one, since I cannot but feel diffident of entering upon ground where so many have slipped and fallen. But this would be contrary to the principle I have laid down, of endeavouring with straightforwardness and simplicity to expound the whole counsel of God.

I must ask you to bear with me while endeavouring to expound this extremely difficult question. There is no minister of the Church of England who can pretend to a power of infallible interpretation. I give you the result of patient study and much thought. Let those who are tempted to despise flippantly, first qualify themselves for an opinion by similar prayerful study.

To-day we shall exclusively direct our attention to acquiring a clear view of what the prophecy was which the Apostle preferred to Tongues, as this will of course be necessary, before we can proceed to apply his principle of preference to our own day.

I. What was prophecy?

In these days, when we use the word prophet, we mean it almost always to signify a predictor of future events. But in the Old Testament it has this meaning only sometimes, whilst in the New Testament generally it has not this interpretation. A prophet was one commissioned to declare the will of God