ders and encourages selfishness, that freezes the affections, roughens the manners, indurates the heart; they brighten the home, deepen love, invigorate exertion, infuse courage, and vivify and sustain

the charities of life. It would be a terrible world, I do think, if it were not embellished by little children."

LONDON.

DAVID THOMAS, D.D.

Matthew xxi. 1-11.

(First Sunday in Advent.)

IN stately order Jesus and His disciples moved toward the sacred city, the Lord Himself on a colton which it comported as well with oriental ideas of honour as with Christian ideas of peace for Him to ride, the disciples immediately surrounding Him, and a company of the curious and of the devout surrounding them as they went onward, others joined their ranks, till the simple cavalcade swelled into a triumphal procession. As they neared Jerusalem, the contagion of newborn faith and of unbounded joy spread, from centre to circumference, from the disciples to the multitude, from the aged, whose long-cherished hopes seemed on the eve of a glorious fulfilment, to the young children who shouted their praises from hearts from which hope and joy are never absent long: "the whole city was moved."

But what is the explanation of it all? There is something exceptional in this scene, something unlike the ways of Him who "did not strive, nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets," who, on other occasions, so strongly repressed excitement and notoriety. It was—

I.-A VALUABLE INCIDENTAL PROOF OF CHRIST'S POWER ;—a power which He mercifully restrained. It shewed how easily our Lord could have taken to Himself earthly power, temporal sovereignty, if He had chosen to do so. There is, perhaps, no single thing more difficult to do than to hold conscious power in check; there is no truer triumph than to be able to crush an adversary, and to refuse to do so for the sake of others. This scene suggests to us the restraint which our Lord exercised on Himself throughout His course. How easily could He have assumed command, have silenced His foes, have wielded the sceptre, if He

had chosen to take that course. But He contented Himself with this one brief flash of honour, choosing rather rather the path of suffering, of shame, of death, in order that we might be made "kings and priests unto God, being washed from our sins in His own blood."

II.-A STRIKING INDEX OF HIS

ACCEPTANCE WITH THE PEOPLE.

No one can say that our Lord's teaching was not profound: it was deep as the very fountains of truth. He struck far below the surface and fathomed the deep places of the human soul. Yet while all philosophers had made their appeal to the cultured of their time and land, this Great Teacher addressed Himself to the people, and was appreciated by them. "The common people heard Him gladly." The officers of the Sanhedriem declared that "never man spake like this man." So now, while Scribes and Pharisees stand by silent and sulky, or are even fain to ask Christ Himself to still the agitation, a ringing voice of welcome comes from the multitude of men, and women, and children. A striking historical instance, and a graphic pictorial illustration this, of the worldwide and age-long truth that the things of God and of eternity are hidden from the wise and prudent and are revealed unto babes. The

essential truths of the kingdom have ever been more apprehensible, and the offers of Divine mercy and friendship more appreciable, to the humble-hearted, the lowlyminded, and the ill-conditioned, than to those who have stood on the high places of culture and of power. The heights of heavenly wisdom are steeper to the student than to the child.

III-A BEAUTIFUL EMBLEM OF A SACRED TRUTH. The Messiah was to be a king: to this, prophecy pointed with unfailing finger, and on this, Jewish faith rested with a gathering hope. The Son of David was to be a Sovereign greater than his earthly ancestor. When Jesus thus rode in simple triumph into Jerusalem, He said, "I am the King you wait for, behold your Sovereign." That extreme simplicity, and the transciency of this demonstration pointed to another rule in another realm. That regal state in Jerusalem was only the outward emblem of a spiritual sovereignty immeasurably higher and nobler. Sweet to His ear may have been the acclamations of the people, and the hosannas of the children, but sweeter far to Him is the resolve of a heart which, finding no peace elsewhere, goes heavy laden unto Him for rest: sweeter far to His ear is the voice of man or woman, or little child, saying,

I.-CHRIST'S CONSCIOUS CONNECTION WITH THE ETERNAL FATHER. Had there not been in Him a profound and abiding consciousness that, in a sense far transcending our own experience, God dwelt in Him and He in God, these words would have been wholly indefensible they would have been in the last degree immodest. Proceeding from any other than the Son of God Himself, they would have utterly repelled us, and they would have thrown grave discredit on every other utterance from the same lips. It was because He was Divine and felt the authority which His Divinity conveyed that He could use such words as these without

NESS OF MATTER. It is only in a limited and figurative sense that we can speak of material things as eternal. The hour comes when they will perish indeed they are perishing as we speak. The immovable rocks, "the everlasting hills," are being disintegrated by sun and rain; the fixed earth rises and falls; the "changeless rivers are cutting a new course for their waters. Only truth abides; it is only the words in which the thought of The Eternal is expressed that do not pass away. The truth which won the consent of the patriarchal mind, which enlarged the soul and sanctified the human spirit in the most ancient times, now commands our homage, and will for ever raise and purify the souls of men. Fashions do not touch it with their finger; revolutions cannot overthrow it; dispensations leave it in its integrity.

II. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE

THOUGHTS OF CHRIST. (1) We have found Him a true prophet: events have happened according to His word. (2) We are finding

Him to be the Teacher of truth to-day. He has that to say to us, which, in our better moods and worthier moments, we hunger and thirst to hear. He has, for us, in His deathless words, salvation from our sin, comfort in our sorrow, sanctity in our joy, strength in our struggle, companionship in our loneliness, peace and hope in our decline and death. Unto whom shall we go if we sit at His feet no longer? (3) We shall find Him the Source of truth in the other and after life. Death will not make His words less true, even if it makes some of them less applicable than they are here and now. His thoughts will never lose their hold upon our heart, never cease to affect and shape our course. The truths which Jesus spoke eighteen centuries ago will beautify our life and bless our spirit in the farthest epochs and the highest spheres of the heavenly world. Surely (a) if we would render the truest service to ourselves we shall do our utmost to fill our minds with the thoughts of Christ; and (b) if we would best serve our race we shall consider in how many ways we can impress His thoughts upon the minds of men and weave them into the institutions of the world.

WILLIAM CLARKSON, B.A.

BRISTOL.

Matthew xi. 7-10.

(Third Sunday in Advent.) WHEN We hear our Lord thus speaking of a man in terms of cordial and, indeed, enthusiastic praise, we feel such commendation is most extraordinary, honourable, and encouraging; (a) extraordinary, for thus, though in a world of erring and sinful men, the lips of wisdom and holiness utter an encomium on a man. Moreover, the eye of Him who thus spake was not less searching than His lips were veracious. Often He had to rebuke, oftener to pity, now He praises. Such commendation is (b) honouring. It is good to have the approval of good men, specially if they be wise as well as good. The approval of one such is worth thunders of

thoughtless applause. How unspeakably above such highest approval of a good and wise man is a eulogium from the Son of God. It is (c) encouraging. It makes us feel that there may be attainments in our character on which Christ may smile; a spirit cherished in a human heart which Christ may honour. He is not, as some heathens conceive the Divine eye, angrily and sternly seeking for defects, flaws, evils, but wanting to find in all what won His admiring verdict on John Baptist. We have in the passage, then, a fact that is extraordinary,

honouring, encouraging; viz. the Saviour praising man. Three points are notable

I.-THE SAVIOUR DOES NOT PRAISE MEN ACCORDING TO OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCE. Of whom does He utter this eulogy? A king, a courtier, a successful merchant, a fortunate prizeman in any of life's struggles? Oh, no! of a man immured in a dungeon; of a man who was the sport and prey of a weak monarch; of a man whose life-work seemed to have collapsed into a miserable failure. Yet that man He wreathes with fame. So, often, Jesus declares the pauper, rich; the slave, free; the condemned, honourable and famous. Not by his environments, his status, or successes, does the true Judge, judge any.

II. THE SAVIOUR DOES NOT HONOUR MEN ON ACCOUNT OF PUBLIC OPINION CONCERNING THEM.

Nothing is commoner in many classes and populations, than to give a man an ovation simply because elsewhere he is popular. Of fame it is strikingly true,"to him that hath shall be given." But Jesus contravenes public opinion, corrects it, defies it. For He lauds a man whom the worldly evidently scorned, and of whom even his own disciples were beginning to have their fears. His judgment is just, and is based,

not on the shifting foundation of popular favour or blame, but the eternal standard of absolute rectitude.

III. THE SAVIOUR HONOURS

MEN ACCORDING TO THEIR CHARACTER. Character is almost equally independent of environments and of reputation. But it alone is the true " causa honoris.” Many elements in character are honourable. They are revealed at different times, and by different tests. Those in John's character, that Jesus considered so highly praiseworthy, were (a) Stability. He was not like the waving reeds, with whom he, and the crowds that followed them were SO familiar, on the banks of the Jordan, reeds bending with every breeze, carried, now this way, now that, by every current. (b) Strength; not soft and effeminate, but vigorous and manly.

EDITOR.

John i. 19, 28.

(The Fourth Sunday in Advent.) EVERY worker is, from time to time, interrogated as to himself as well as his work. The cry is not only, what are you doing? but, who are you? Sometimes messengers, friendly or unfriendly, ask this; sometimes the very claims and pressure of his work seem to