He felt it was not to be trifled with, though he had been a believer in Christ twenty or twenty-five years when he wrote this epistle !

II. PAUL'S EMOTIONS IN THE FACE OF HIS EXPERIENCES.

1. He felt wretched. "O wretched man that I am!" Whatever reading we adopt of these words the meaning is not much altered, and the conviction is pressed upon us that the apostle, by keeping his eye fixed on the enemy, felt his whole nature give way, and experienced that sense of wretchedness which a long, bitter, protracted, mortal struggle produces in the mind of the sorely-tried and hard-pressed combatant.

2. He felt himself to be loathsome. The body of this death." Sin was as hateful to the apostle as a corpse is repulsive to living men. It was a "body of death" to him. Something hateful, accursed, repugnant, loathsome!

3. He fell helpless. "Who shall deliver me?" The longer he gazes on the foe the more formidable it appears. And upon reviewing his defeats in the past he feels as if in the grasp of a mighty giant, he is powerless and helpless, and in agony cries out for help and deliverance.

4. He felt hopeless. There seems to be the wail of despair in the whole verse. "Who shall," &c. Weary with the constant conflict, sick at the thought of being burdened with a loathsome "body of death," powerless to deliver himself from this horrid antagonist, a momentary cloud has crossed his sky-his brain darkens his nature reels-his courage wavers-his hope staggers, and the darkness of despair sets in! But faith hastes to the rescue, and his vision is directed both from self and the foe. And we perceive—

III.-PAUL'S DELIVERANCE.

"I thank God," &c. It is often asserted that the darkest hour is nearest the dawn. It was so here; and frequently is so in Christian experience. While Paul was possessed with a feeling of wretchedness, loathsomeness, helplessness, and hopelessness, which he never experienced in the face of persecutions and sufferings in the discharge of his apostolic duties, the light

dawned upon him and he again caught sight of the way of deliverance. It was

1. From God. "I thank God." "Who shall deliver me?" God. God alone is able. "Who can forgive sins but God?" It is He only who giveth us the victory, &c.

2. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul knew of no way whereby God saves from sin but "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Paul did not divide the Christ. The Man Christ Jesus was Mediator between God and men to Paul. To him He was also "God over all, blessed for evermore." The life of obedience and the death of suffering were factors in the scheme of redemption. So also was the resurrection from the dead and the ascension into glory. If he hoped for mercy it was from God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

If a good moral life were sufficient the apostle could plead, "touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless." If mental culture delivered from sin, who more cultured than himself. Witness his speech at Areopagus (Acts xvii.). If zeal for the cause of God could secure deliverance, see 2 Corinthians xi. None of these does he plead, and in nothing does he hope, but in "GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST."

IV. PAUL'S INFERENCE FROM THE WHOLE. "So then with the mind," &c. Victory is at hand. The enemy is routed from the citadel.

1 The better part of his nature-the immortal part—was in the service of God.

2. Only the inferior part-the mortal members of the fleshwere in any sense in the service of sin. "So then with the mind I myself (avròs ¿yú)" however paradoxical, or even illogical, it may appear to the inexperienced-"I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin." Soon the victory would be complete, and the body also brought into subjection to the law of Christ.

For encouragement I would ask all who have been interested in reviewing Paul in the midst of the conflict, to follow him to the end of his career, and behold him victorious over sin, the flesh, and the devil-triumphantly shouting, "I am now ready to

be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ."—Amen.

ABERDARE.

R. T. HOWELL.

The Four Winds.

"COME FROM THE FOUR WINDS, O BREATH."-Ezekiel xxxvii. 9.

Jesus Christ,

THE winds are emblems of strong, strange forces. who interpreted to us the life of the bird and of the flower, as they never would have been understood but for Him, interprets to us the wind, and makes the zephyr and the hurricane alike in their viewless mysterious courses, types of the presence and power of the Spirit of God.

First, let us think of the winds themselves, and afterwards of such forces as they seem to illustrate.

I.—THE WINDS, THEIR OPERATION AND PURPOSE. The variety of the influence of the winds is as wide as you can describe. It would be impossible to exaggerate this influence in the vast apparatus we call the natural world. Science would rival Poetry in the recital of what the winds have done, are doing, can do in the material realm,-nay, even in the intellectual and moral realm also; for bodily health unspeakably affects mind and spirit, and the quarter whence the wind blows affects the condition of lungs, nerves, and livers of myriads of men, and so affect their manners and moods, and even their religion, more than many like to confess. All this we see. But he who gets at the back of the winds finds, not simply this manifold variety of operation, but one great purpose, a purpose not to be judged by their workings

in some limited area, or on some one class of life. He will not only understand how Charles Kingsley could utter an Ode to the North East Wind

"Bracing brain and sinew,

Blow, thou wind of God,"

but will know that the pious soul who bravely believes in God, who has the winds in His fists, can say to every wind in its season-"Blow, thou wind of God."

II. SOME OF THE FORCES TYPIFIED BY THE WINDS, and their operation and purpose. Events and circumstances that are joyful find their emblem in some winds. Prosperity in health, in home, love, business, study, fortunate events, are like the "south wind blowing softly." These winds are not the children of chance, but the messengers of God. Events and circumstances that are saddening find their emblem in some winds. Severe bodily pain, family anxiety, bereavement, business cares, poverty, are like the blowing of the north and north-east winds. They, no more than soft and genial winds are the children of chance, but "stormy wind fulfilling His Word." Get behind these winds. Here is a man who has been before them-beaten upon by fiercest gales-in labours, prisons, strifes, death, &c. Now he is behind these winds, he has heard their secret-" All things work together for good to those that love God." Yes, that is the teaching; “all things." The whole circle of the circumstances and experiences of life are like the combination of the influences of all the four winds. Each is right in its season; each has its own function that no other could fulfil. A tree beaten upon by one wind only becomes twisted and deformed. Yet again, and chiefly, the great Force of all Forces, Life of all Lives is typified, in the best influence that comes from all the winds. Behind the winds and above them the Spirit of Christ comes to us if we will but give Him place. Whether in such sudden storm of keen north-east as when He came to Saul of Tarsus, or in exquisitely tender zephyr as when John, the Beloved, confessed, "We have seen the Messiah," matters not; but that, somehow, that Spirit should come to us is of infinite matter.

EDITOR.

The Divine Perfection and Our's.

"BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT, EVEN AS YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT."-Matt. v. 48.

WHETHER we regard these words as a command or an exhortation, we may be sure that they had a real and definite meaning, and that we must not overlook them or put them aside as visionary and impracticable, for they are the words of Him who is our only guide in the way that leadeth to everlasting life; they are the words of Him who never wasted instructions, who never misleads His people.

I. THIS COMMAND IS VERY DIFFICULT TO OBEY FULLY. In our own strength we cannot do this. But God never enjoins a duty without supplying grace for its fulfilment. The world is full of distractions, deceits, temptations. Let us start in life ever so hopefully, and with all desire to live as becomes our high calling, we find ourselves often entangled, pressed down, drawn aside, and thus content ourselves with a much lower standard than we had at first proposed. We cannot do the things that we would, "The world is too much with us," &c.; and so when we examine these words closely we say, how far above us is this precept! To attain perfection, to be perfect as God is, we must be content with no lower standard than that of our Heavenly Father, the holiness of the Everlasting God! And yet, if we be indeed children of the Heavenly King, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, it is surely meet, right, and our bounden duty, to try to live in accordance with that relationship.

In earthly families we find that children take great pride in the illustrious deeds of their ancestors. The trophies of their prowess become monuments of the family glory. The traits, marks of noble character, are carefully recorded for after generations, and hence are derived both power and influence in the world (among men). This may help us to understand how