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He saw the day of Pentecost; saw the results of apostolic labours; witnessed the triumph of His truth through all subsequent ages; at last saw his character moulding the race to his own ideal.

III. THIS LANGUAGE IMPLIES A PRINCIPLE OF CONDUCT

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COMMON, IN ALL HISTORY. The principle is this: Goodness disregarded when living, and appreciated when gone. We see this principle sometimes in the family. Members of a family may. live together for years, and through the infirmity of tempers, the clashing of taste, and the collision of opinion, excellences may be entirely overlooked.. One dies, the father, mother, brother, sister, and then attributes of goodness come up to the memory of thesurvivors that never appeared before. We see it in the State. Public men devoted to the common good, and loyal to conscience, so clash with popular opinions and prejudices, that they are regarded with odium, and denounced with bitterness→→ they die and then their virtues emerge and fill the social atmosphere with fragrance Burke, Hume,. Cobden are amongst the many illustrations of this. We see it in the Church. A minister labours for years

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amongst a people. He may be too thoughtful to be appre ciated by the thoughtless ; too honest to bow to current prejudices; so that, during his life, his labours pass unacknowledged and unrequited. He dies. His memoir is written ; his discourses are printed; he has a moral epiphany. It was so with Arnold, of Rugby; and Robertson, of Brighton.

THE NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL.

"The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon."-Judges vii. 20.

The context-We shall notice.

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I. SOME OF THE EVENTS IN WHICH WE BEHOLD THE COOPERATION OF THE NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL.

First: In Providence. God works in providence only what man cannot. Man does what he can-but God does all that is beyond natural power.

Secondly: In conversion. All who would be saved must co-operate with the influence of the Divine Spirit. "Draw me." This is the work of God. "We will run after This is the work of

thee."

man

Thirdly: In the sustenance of a religious life.

Fourthly: In the propagation of the Gospel.

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"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."-John iv. 14.

At some future period we may study more fully and generally the analogies of water: but, in this note I purpose to notice those which specially illustrate these words of Jesus. It is not necessary for us to suppose that the woman of Samaria, or the disciples of Jesus, or the philosophers of his time, could appreciate the beautiful shades of meaning which an extensive examination of Nature casts upon our Lord's words. It is pleasing, however, to know that all the analogies which modern researches have discovered between water and religion were known to Him who spoke of his blessed influence on men's hearts as that of water. We are not saying more than we are warranted to say, when we suppose that our Lord had in his mind all the analogies which may ever be discovered. Notice

I. THE BLESSINGS OF RELIGION IN THEIR PHYSICAL TYPE—“WATER.” The flow of water is often spoken of as representing the spread of the Gospel (Isa. xxxv. 6, 7; xliii. 19, 20). The influence of water on vegetation is used to illustrate the power of religion on human life (Psa. i. 3; Jer. xvii. 8). The pleasant quietude of a pool of water represents the repose of soul which faith in God affords (Psa. xxiii. 2). The quickening energy of water is a type of the vivifying power of God's Spirit (Ezek. xxxvi. 25).

1. As there can be no physical life where there is no water, so there can

be no moral life where there is no religion. Both vegetable and animal life are absolutely dependent upon water. The reeds by the flowing river, the alge in the sea, the snow-plant whose home is among the tiny crystals of the snowflake, the grey lichen on the rock whose brow is often beaten by tempest and scorched by the heat of the sun, as well as the clover in the meadow, the violet in the shade, and the oak and cedar in the forest in fact all-live by water. The influence of this discovery on a heathen mind was strange, Thales, the sage of Miletus, found water in the sea which washed the skirts of Greece giving life to fish, porifers, and corals. He found water on the Parnassus, supplying the rustic poet with the inspiration of his song. Life and beauty followed in the track of water, and death and desolation reigned where water was not found. The Grecian sage was so surprised with this discovery that he came to the conclusion that water was God-was the origin of all things—ʼn ȧpxỳ.

But apart from the influence of wator as solvent of its

as solvent of the inorganic food of plants, and the organic nutriment of animals, and as the general conveyer of all building material to the living frame, the discoveries of the last few years have shown that water as an obstacle to terrestrial radiation saves our world daily from univerkal death. Warm objects cool sooner in dry than in damp air, because the heat rays are reflected back to the object by every drop of floating vapour in the latter. If all the moisture in the atmosphere were precipitated at the moment of sunset, the air, being free from vapour, would allow the heat absorbed by the earth during the day to fly off to space, and, before sunrise, the whole hemisphere would become so cold as to be fatal to every form of life. The sun, which set upon a world of life and beauty, would rise upon brie mighty gravelps, blos

The idea of the illustration then is this, that in every way, true life of soul depends upon those powers which reach the human heart from the life and death of Jesus.

2. As there can be no physical cleanliness without water, so there can `be no moral purity apart from Christ. Notice

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II. THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL IN THEIR CONDITION OF PROFIT. "Whosoever drinketh of the Water." God's mercy is for all, and for all on condition, and for all on the same condition-personal appropriation, "Drinketh.". Notice

III. THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL IN THE MEDIUM OF THEIR COMMUNICATION. "That I shall give him." Bearing in mind the simile used by our Lord to represent spiritual energies, we naturally inquire who or what gives us water? remembering that, that which is, to us, the cause of water, is a type of Christ, the cause of spiritual life.

We are indebted to the sun for all water-all water fit for use.

VOL. XX.

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The sun lifts up the water from the sea in the form of vapour, and, by its unequal heat on different sections and divisions of the air, causes the vapour to descend in the form of rain and dew. All our rills and rivulets, lakes and rivers, owe their origin to this. The sun takes the impure compound of the sea, and, having passed it through its own laboratory in high heaven-the air-it gives it pure, and beautiful, and fit for use in the form of rain, &c. Our Lord is such to all the powers of the spirit's life. All its energies come from Him, and He can take all kinds of powers, and by passing them beneath his magic touch, make "all things work together for our good;" make all things help our salvation. Notice

IV. THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL IN THEIR PRACTICAL INFLUENCE, "Shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

The leading idea of the figure is, that the man whose soul is full of sympathies with Christ, becomes a conductor of spiritual influence, and a generator of such vital energies in some form. As the mountain is to water, so is a heart full of Christian sympathies to spiritual energies. The water, in dew and rain, falls upon the mountain. Its flocks, forests, and other living beings, are refreshed. The land is made more fertile. The heath-flower is painted with greater delicacy of beauty. The wings of butterflies, and the elytra of beetles, shine more brightly in the sunlight; the lambs skip with lighter feet, and the shepherd gives more spirit to his homely song. But this is not all. The hill absorbs the excess of moisture, the water percolates through the rock to inner caverns; and when the clouds give no rain; when the grass is free of dew; when the heat is great, and the land is thirsty, then that glorious mountain pours forth, through its wounded side, in a stream like flowing silver the clear cool water it has treasured up from days of yore, to satisfy the wants of thirsty comers. Such is every child of God represented by our Lord in the text. He receives, and is blessed; he receives, and blesses others. If a man, whose soul is full of Christian energies-not dogmas, forms, or creeds-but is full of the loving, holy, living sympathies of Jesus, comes to your home or neighbourhood, his refreshing and life-giving power must be felt; for as the water becomes a well in the mountain, and flows out as the life of many, so do Christian energies become a well in the nature of their possessor; and its constant flow tends to the production of that state of repose in God which our Saviour mentions as everlasting life.

Is religion within us such a life-giving energy?
Preston.

EVAN LEWIS, B.A., F.R.G.S., F.E.S.

Seeds of Sermons on the Book of

(No. LXXXII.)

RETRIBUTIONS

Proverbs.

OF THE LIP AND LIFE.

"A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth; and the recompense of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him."-Prov. xii. 14.

LIP.

I. THE RETRIBUTIONS OF THE "A man shall be satisfied .with good by the fruit of his mouth." The man here must of course be supposed to be a good man for he speaks good. Speech, to be good must be (1) Sincere. It must correspond exactly with what is in the mind, all other speech is hollow and hypocritical. It must be (2) Truthful. must correspond with the facts or realities to which it refers. Speech may be sincere and yet not truthful; it may correspond with what is in the mind, but what is in the mind may not correspond with the facts. It must be (3) Benevolent.

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It must be used for the purpose of usefulness, not to injure, delude, or pain. Now the speech of such a man will satisfy him with "good." If any man offend, not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. (James iii. 13.) How will such speech satisfy a man? First: In its action upon his own mind. There is a pleasure in the act of speaking a true thing, and there is a higher pleasure in the reflection of having done so.

"Speech is the light, the morning of the mind;

It spreads the beauteous images abroad Which else lie furled and shrouded in DRYDEN.

the soul."

Secondly: In the effect he sees produced upon others. He will

see in the circle in which he moves, intelligence, goodness, spring up around as he speaks.

Thirdly: In the conscious approbation of God. "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened, and heard it: and a book of remembrance was written for them," &c. (Malachi iii. 16, 17.)

II. THE RETRIBUTIONS OF THE LIFE. "And the recompense of the man's hand shall be rendered unto him." The hand here stands for the whole conduct of life. It means that man should receive the rewards of his works. And this is inevitable. First: From the law of causation. We are to-day the result of our conduct yesterday, and the cause of our conduct to-morrow, and thus ever must we reap the work of our hands. Secondly: From the law of conscience. The past works of our hands are not lost; memory brings them up to the conscience. And the conscience stings or smiles according to their character. Thirdly: From the law of righteousness. There is justice in the universe; and justice will ever punish the wicked and reward the good. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap."

(No. LXXXIII.)

THE OPINIATED AND THE DOCILE.

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise."-Prov. xii. 15. I. THE OPINIATED. He is a "fool," and his way is always "right in

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