should be the supreme RULE of man. Theologians have striven to reduce this grand code into speculative creeds and silly ceremonies. This has been an enormous crime and a huge evil. It has made the revelation of none effect." Through the whole of this psalm, no more than in our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount, will you find anything about predestinations, justifications, atonements, ecclesiastical polities and ritualities. All refers to human conduct. This moral revelation is the supreme law. All human laws that do not agree with it should be opposed. All human laws to be wholesome and lasting should be based on it. What does God require of us — "To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God." monies, but in right doing. There is true blessedness for man only in his deed, not in his mere thoughts or emotions, but in his actions. Inaction is torpor, wrong action is misery, right action is bliss. IL-WELL DOING HAS RESPECT TO THE DIVINE. "Who walk in the law of the Lord." If there really be an atheistic world, that world knows nothing of well doing. Well doing can only grow out of a practical regard for the Supreme Existence. III. THE RESPECT FOR THE DIVINE MUST BE THOROUGH. "With the whole heart." God must become the Moral Monarch of the soul, inspiring and controlling the whole. Well Doing. "BLESSED ARE THE UNDEFILED IN THE WAY, WHO WALK IN THE LAW OF THE LORD. BLESSED ARE THEY THAT KEEP HIS TESTIMONIES, AND THAT SEEK HIM WITH THE WHOLE HEART."-Psalm cxix. 1, 2. OBSERVE I. HUMAN HAPPINESS CONSISTS IN WELL DOING. "Blessed are the undefiled in the way." It is not in theories, professions, cere Sin. "WHEREWITHAL SHALL A YOUNG MAN CLEANSE HIS WAY? BY TAKING HEED THERETO ACCORDING TO THY WORD.”—Ps. cxix. 9. SIN is a small word but a tremendous thing. It implies (1) The existence of moral law, (2) The means of knowing moral law, (3) The capability of obeying moral law, and (4) A positive transgression of moral law. Two remarks here suggested concerning it I. It is NOT A CONSTITUENT ELEMENT OF HUMAN NATURE. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? It is a pollution that can be cleansed from human nature. It is not an ingrained substance. Nay, it is something foreign to human nature, something as foreign as the stain is to the linen. Human nature was made without it, is injured by it, and can only become perfect without it. The mission of the Gospel is to wash it out. PERIODS. "A young man cleanse his way." Men are born into a morally filthy atmosphere, and are cradled amidst soul-polluting elements, so that the soul gets stained at the outset of its career. Hence the young man needs cleansing from the wrong impressions he has received, the wrong thoughts that have been generated, the wrong inclinations that have been excited. Alas, some young men soon become loathsomely foul, lepers in society. can do it for him. Heaven has prepared the cleansing font, but he must perform the cleansing deed. Man's Distinguishing Capacity and Fearful Liability. "OH LET ME NOT WANDER FROM THY COMMANDMENTS."Psalm cxix. 10. NOTICE I.-MAN'S DISTINGUISHING CAPACITY. What is that? Power to wander from Divine law. "Oh let me not wander from Thy commandments." This is what the greatest objects in nature cannot do, neither sun, moon or stars can "Wander from Thy commandments." Nor can the mighty oceans that sport with the fleets of nations "wander" from the Divine commandments. Nor can the giant mammoths of the animal creation "wander" from the Divine commandments. They are bound by their instinct, as by chains of adamant. But man has this power. He can bound from his orbit, he has done so, is doing so. Sublimely awful power this, the power that makes us men and links us to moral government. Notice II. MAN'S FEARFUL LIABILITY. "Oh let me not wander from Thy commandments." The possession of this power is a dignity of our natures, the wrong use of this power is our crime and our ruin, and to the wrong use, alas, we are all fearfully liable. "Oh let me not wander." If I wander from this commandment I wander from the right into the wrong, from light into darkness, from liberty to thraldom, from happiness to misery. Moral Blindness. "OPEN THOU MINE EYES."Psalm cxix. 18. MORAL blindness is the worst kind of blindness, it is far worse than physical. L-Physical blindness has its COMPENSATIONS. Other faculties and organs generally become so keen and active as to make up for the loss of the eye. The imagination also, as in the case of Milton, Homer, &c., get power to create sunny worlds. LONDON. II. Physical blindness is not CRIMINAL. It is a calamity. All blindness arises from one of three causes, the want of the visual faculty, the want of light, or the non-employment of the visual faculty. Man is morally blind not from the first cause, for he has conscience, that is, the eye of the soul; not from the second, for he has a moral revelation outside and inside of him. It is the last; he closes his eyes. A man who shuts his eyes is as truly blind for the time as he who has neither eyes nor light. III.-Physical blindness CONCEALS THE HIDEOUS. To look upon the hideous is painful. Nature has hideous objects, monstrosities, human outrages, human agonies, &c. The blind man sees them not. But the man who is morally blind has often terrible visions of the most horrible things, his conscience scares and scathes him. DAVID THOMAS, D.D. The man in conscious virtue bold, Unshaken hears the crowd's tumultous cries, HORACE. Breviaries. The First Miracle. "THE THIRD DAY THERE WAS A MARRIAGE," &c. . . THIS BEGINNING OF MIRACLES DID JESUS."-John ii. 1-11. THIS first Miracle suggests four lines of thought touching Christ's religion— I-It is SOCIAL IN ITS GENIUS. All the pre-Christian religions, including the Jewish, were more or less ascetic. Most of the corrupt Christian religions also are. Christ, to show that His was sublimely social, began His miracles at the "marriage feast." Christianity is anti-ascetic. It is thoroughly human in its sympathies. II. It is ORDERLY IN ITS PROChrist does not move arbitrarily everything," a plan of sequence. GRESS. "Mine hour is not yet come." nor capriciously. He has a "time for Why dost Thou not fulfil Thy prophecies? "Mine hour is not yet come." Why dost Thou not put all enemies under Thy feet? "Mine hour has not yet come," &c. III.—It is HUMAN IN ITS INSTRUMENTALITY. "Jesus saith unto them, Fill the water-pots with water," &c. Christ does His work for man by man. "We have the treasure in earthen vessels," &c. IV.-It is IMPROVING IN ITS ENJOYMENTS. "Thou hast kept the good wine until now." The pleasures of the world decrease in their enjoyment as one passes on through years; but those of personal Christliness increase. It is from better to better. "The end is better than the beginning." LONDON. DAVID THOMAS, D.D. Service a Song. "IN THE MIDST OF THE CHURCH WILL I SING PRAISE UNTO THEE."--Heb. ii. 12. THESE words are quoted from Psalm xxii. The Saviour employed one sentence of that Psalm to utter the deep emotions of Calvary. The author of this Epistle affirms that these words also were used by the Saviour Christ sang. This seems literally true. That our Saviour and His disciples, on the night in which He was betrayed, sang a hymn, for ever consecrates song, and crowns the true singer. But these words are figurative. They illustrate: I.-CHRIST'S ENGAGEMENT IN GOD'S Song is the symbol of worship. Singing praise is the highest act of worship. In all ages, as well as during the thirty-three years of His life on earth, Christ is engaged in God's service. When here as the SERVICE. Incarnate Lord, by His precept, example, sufferings. So since; for not only the Acts of the Apostles, but all true work is the Life of the Risen Lord. II.-CHRIST'S VOLUNTARY ENGAGEMENT IN GOD'S SERVICE. Singing is no slavish act: real singing is not ever perfunctory, but the ideal of spontaneousness. Such is Christ's service; its voluntariness is the merit of His sacrifice, the glory of His service. III.-CHRIST'S JOYOUS ENGAGEMENT IN GOD'S SERVICE. Song utters joy-" Is any among you merry, let him sing." Christ's service was ever joyful—“ I delight to do Thy will." IV.-CHRIST'S SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT IN GOD'S SERVICE. "In the midst of the Church;" in fellowship with the whole assembly of the brethren. Christ's farewell promise-"I am with you always." We may learn, First: The highest engagement of our life is serving God. Second: The true way of serving God is willingly, joyfully, socially. EDITOR. Present Duty and Usefulness of Good Men. "LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN, THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS, AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN."-Matt. v. 16. THERE appear to be two principal modes employed by God to effect the conversion of men, viz.:-the preaching of the Gospel, and the lives of pious men. Light is not more suitable to the eye, music to the ear, than the Gospel is to the condition of man. "It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." The other mode which God signally owns in the conversion of sinners, is the "Good Works" of pious men. I. THE PRESENT DUTY OF GOOD MEN IN RELATION TO THEIR CONDUCT BEFORE MEN. There is a Divine command urging it. First: Let your light shine by cultivating an uncompromising separation from the wickedness of the world. Let the following exhortation be studied and obeyed." Be not conformed," &c. (Rom. xii. 2.) "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works," &c. (Ephes. v. 11.) "Be ye not unequally yoked." (2 Cor. vi. 14-17.) We are to try to confront every crime, and every vice, and every sin by a holy life. Moral evil must be overcome by moral goodness. Secondly By manifesting a loyal and growing attachment to the doctrines of the Bible. We are not alarmed at the enemies of the Bible doing all they can to overturn the truths which have been the consolation of the Christian in adversity, in prosperity; in life, and in death; but we deem it highly important to remind those who are the friends of Christ and jealous for His honour that they should "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." Hence the apostle |