and beyond the need of rest. The man who loves God, being in the path of the Divine order, being in harmony with the Divine mind and will, is a man of progress-both steady and sure in the advances which he makes. (4.). The course of the sun is one of increasing brightness. From sunrise to mid-day the light grows more intense. Not only upwards, but brighter and brighter the higher he ascends. Glorious in his splendour; life-giving in his influence. Clouded only that he may burst again upon the earth. And so the man who is on God's side, is as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. The Christian's condition is not one of safety merely, it is one of growth also. As he ascends from the region of night to the region of the day, he both has and manifests more of this light. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

H. G. PARRISH, B.A.

SUBJECT: Life in Christ.

Sir, we would see Jesus," &c.-John xii. 20-26.

Analysis of Homily the Seven Hundred and Fifty-Seventh.

THE Greeks had heard of the wonder-worker in Judea.

THE

His name had reached their ear, or perhaps a word of his, like a seed, had dropped into their minds, or his fame, like a magnet, had attracted their hearts. His fame was by no means confined to Palestine; the traveller had conveyed it into distant lands. Though men differed in their opinions concerning Him, all felt that He was the wonder of the age. The Greeks had heard enough to make them very desirous of seeing Him."Sir, we would see Jesus."

I. THE GREEKS WERE

REPRESENTATIVES OF MEN WHO CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY FEEL AFTER GOD.

They were

not Jews living in a foreign land, and speaking the Greek language, but Gentiles as distinguished from Jews. They were probably acquainted with the religion, philosophy, and faith of Heathendom; they knew that no salvation, no satisfaction, no rest was to be found in them. Impelled by moral want, or by the Spirit of God, they left their homes in quest of light and repose. The restless action of the human mind is a significant fact bespeaking unconsciously its pristine state, and saying, "I am not what I was; am not what I ought to be; I am not what I wish to be." Sin returns upon the sinner, bearing its own frightful image in its punishment. He who refuses to rest in God is punished with restlessness; he who hates the light is punished with darkness. How awful, yet how just the retribution!

The Greeks went up to Jerusalem to worship at the feast. No vain desire or idle curiosity led them thither. Between the Jew and the Gentile a strong line of demarcation was drawn; outside that line men of faith-men who believed in a real communication from God to man-were found. The nations had their desire. Their literature abounds in reference to the Just Ruler, the Conqueror of Evil, and the Restorer of Paradise. The Temple had a court for the Gentiles. God's Word was translated into their language; his light cannot be monopolised; his lovely flowers are not confined to your gardens; they are in the fields and hedges, on the bleak mountains, wild moors, and in the crevices of rocks. Melchisedec, Jethro, Job, Cornelius, were not Jews; they were not flowers growing in the garden of Israel; they were Gentiles; they grew and blossomed, and fructified amidst the wilds of nature. These Greeks, like the treasurer of the Ethiopian queen, were moved by a devout desire-a Godward desireone that may be often suspended and severely tried, and yet never extinguished-a desire stronger than any other-the dearest, noblest, and divinest feeling of the mind.

The Greeks sought and found Christ. It is not expressly stated that they saw Jesus, neither is it denied. The narrative, however, fully accords with the supposition that they

did; the contrary would ill accord with the character of Him who said, "He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out;" "Seek and ye shall find." No man can seek Christ without finding Him. These earnest and devout men, doubtless, found Him, and what a treasure did they find! The Messiah! How great their joy! Augustine, when under religious conviction, felt, it hard to part with the joys of the world, but it was given him to taste of the joys of God, and anon he parted with all. Is not this the experience of every Christian?

II. THE APOSTLES ANDREW AND PHILIP WERE REPRESENTATIVES OF CHRISTIAN MINISTERS WHO INTRODUCE MEN TO CHRIST. A minister of Christ is not a priest except in the sense that all Christians are. "Ye are a royal priesthood." This is affirmed not of the priesthood of Melchisedec, or Aaron, or Christ, but of the community of believers. A minister of Christ is not endowed with apostolic power to heal the sick, to forgive sin, or cast out devils; he is called by God to preach the Gospel, to warn all men, to feed the flock of Christ, to be a faithful steward of the grace of God, to point all to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. The Spirit of God is ever guiding men to one person, and that person is Christ. Judaism was a fingerpost set up in the centre of the nations, pointing them to the "Coming One." All religious institutes are directories of men to Christ. This, most assuredly, is the end of the Christian ministry. A minister of Christ has to do with souls in all conceivable states, in their sins, their woes, and their helplessness, when stricken with a sense of guilt, when combating with evil from within or without, when rejoicing in the path of duty and the favour of God, when passing from one world into another; he is often in the chamber of sickness and death, hearing the word of victory or the wail of despair. In all places, to all men, his duty is one, his aim is one. Like Andrew and Philip, he guides men to Christ.

III. THE WORDS OF CHRIST TO THE GREEKS ARE THE

WORDS WHICH HE ADDRESSES TO ALL WHO COME TO HIM. He tells all (1), that death is the condition of a new life. Christ may at once have accompanied Andrew and Philip into the outer court where the Gentiles appeared, as the earnest of a great harvest, and the token of coming glory, and in the interview, said, "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." The crisis is at hand; the hour to which all the ages look, on which the eternity of the world is hinged-the hour of death, and yet the hour of glory. You see glory in nature, intellect, life; see the eternal glory in death-in the death of a corn of wheat. The importance of death corresponds with the value of life. All lives are valuable, but some more so than others. The life of a good king or a wise parent is more valuable than the life of a little child. Of all lives the life of Christ is the most important, and, therefore, his death the most momentous. His death is set forth as the act of his own will; by an act of love He put himself under the law of death. Many feel and keenly feel the mystery of the Christian atonement, but is it not a mystery in its own right, common with countless mysteries? Is not life a mystery, and death, and the resurrection? Is not the sun a mystery, and yet it is a mystery full of joy and power. As the eyes of men are opened to see God and themselves in God's light, sin is felt to be a crushing evil, causing unutterable agony-something more than reason, more than the voice of nature, more than words is felt to be necessary to re-assure us that God loves us-to calm us, and draw us to Him-some irreversible fact, some mighty deed, some tangible act, fraught with all that is holy and kind, for conscience refuses to trust even in a God that tampers with righteousness, or connives at sin, is felt to be necessary. Such act is the death of Christ. See Death with its halo of glory-Life emerging from death. Christ is the propitiation. God is the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. (2) Selfabnegation is the condition of glory. You must die to live. "Verily, verily I say unto you except a corn of wheat die," &c. Laying aside the figure, he that loveth his life, shall lose

it, and he that hateth his life, shall save it. Do you wish to live in Christ, and with Him? There is but one way. The death of self is the pathway to life.

Walthamstow.

JOHN DAVIES.

SUBJECT: Colossal Image; or the Aggregation of Evil.

"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay."-Dan. ii. 31-33. Analysis of Homily the Seven Hundred and Fifty-Eighth.

THI

HIS is a part of Nebuchadnezzar's vision. The vision was mental. Man has other eyes than those in his body. The vision was Divine. Many of our mental visions are anything but Divine; they are the creatures either of a diseased brain, or heart, or both. But God gave the Babylonian monarch this vision. The vision was prophetic. It pointed to future revolutions in the kingdom of men, and to the establishment of Christ's kingdom on the earth. The vision was SYMBOLIC. Generally in dreams the objects that appear to the mind's eye, are very grotesque, and of strange combinations as here, but they are not always, as here, symbolic, they have not always a meaning. We have shown, elsewhere, that the image and the stone represent good and evil.

We have now to look at evil as represented by this colossal image, and we observe that-

up

of

I. IT IS A COMPOUND THING. The image was made various substances; gold, silver, brass, iron, clay. Evil does not often appear here in its naked simplicity, it is mixed up with other things. Errors in combination with truths,

* Sec HOMILIST, second series, vol. iii. page 277.