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SUBJECT:-Death Avoided.

"Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." John xi. 26.

Analysis of Homily the Four Hundred and Thirty-eighth.

NEVER die! What does this mean? Does it mean (1) Freedom from corporeal death? Nothing does the world dread so much as death, and nothing would it hail with greater exultation than a deliverance from it. Albeit, so long as mankind are sinful, a deliverance from corporeal mortality would be an evil rather than a good. Death serves to arrest the course of sin, and to prevent the world from becoming a pandemonium. Does it mean (2) Freedom from annihila tion? We are in no danger of this; and this in itself is no boon :-non-existence is better than a miserable existence. What then does it mean? Generally it means this :-That nothing that gives value to life, nothing that makes life worth having, shall ever die if we truly believe in Christ.

I. THE HEALTHY ACTION OF OUR SPIRITUAL POWERS WILL NEVER CEASE. What is life without activity? Worthless. And what is activity unless it be healthful? Misery. Faith in Christ secures the healthy action of all our spiritual faculties. The perceptive, reflective, imaginative, recollective, anticipative, will work harmoniously for ever.

II. NOTHING VALUABLE IN OUR SPIRITUAL ACQUISITIONS WILL EVER BE LOST. What is life without ideas, emotions, memories, habits? A blank. And what is it with these if they are not of a truly virtuous character? Despicable and wretched. But when these acquisitions are holy, life is blessed. Faith in Christ secures the permanency and perfection of all true ideas, affections, principles, habits, &c. "Our works do follow us." We cannot "labor in vain in the Lord."

TINUE FOR EVER.

III. ALL THE SOURCES OF TRUE PLEASURE WILL CONWhat are the sources of true enjoyment? Intellectual:-study, &c. Social:-friendship, useful ness, &c. Religious :-communion with God, worship, &c. Faith in Christ, then;—in Him, not in propositions concerning Him; not in what theologians say about Him; but in Him, as the living, loving, personal, Son of God, and Saviour of mankind, is the condition of a happy immortality.

SUBJECT:-The True Spiritual Life of Man.

"I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman; every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." &c. John xv. 1-5.

Analysis of Homily the Four Hundred and Thirty-ninth.

THIS beautiful passage gives us several striking ideas concerning true spiritual life in man. It teaches :

I. THAT MAN'S SPIRITUAL LIFE IS DERIVED FROM CHRIST. Religion is not a mere creed or form;—it is a life, and the life is a "branch" of Christ's life. It grows out of Him. The vital sap—the spirit-comes from Christ as the root, and runs through every branch, leaf, and fibre. There is no true spiritual life where Christ's spirit is not the inspiration. "Without me," &c. It teaches :

II. THAT MAN'S SPIRITUAL LIFE IS DEVELOPED IN FRUITFULNESS. "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away," &c. The production of fruit is what is required; it is not to pass off in foliage, and blossom, it is to yield fruit. Unless we yield fruit we are worthless and doomed to destruction. What is the fruit? "Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." It teaches :—

III. THAT THIS FRUITFULNESS IS PRODUCED BY THE JOINT AGENCY OF GOD AND MAN. First Man must seek an

abiding vital connexion with Christ in order to produce it. “The branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine." Cut the branch from the tree, it will wither and rot. “Abide in Him." Secondly: God must act the part of the great husbandman in order to produce it. The mere abiding in Christ will not do of itself. "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." "He prunes," &c. "Unto him that hath shall be given."

SUBJECT:-Strength flowing from Divine Joy.

"The joy of the Lord is your strength."-Neh. viii. 10.

Analysis of Homily the Four Hundred and Fortieth.

THE physical strength of a man as a laborer is not unfrequently regarded as the measure of his worth; but mental strength is as much superior to the physical as the soul is to the body. Physical weakness often co-exists with mental might; but both bodily and mental strength may be found in combination with the utterest spiritual weakness. Solomon and Samson blended in one produced only the most puny spiritual being, whilst a Hebrew captive maid in Syria stands forth in strength to move a host of valiant warriors. The strength of the captive maid was the strength of faith. And this is within the reach of all, whilst strength of body and mind are independent of human volition. To every human being as to Israel is this declaration addressed, for "God calleth things that are not as though they

were."

I. HUMAN JOY IS IDENTICAL WITH DIVINE JOY. First: The joy of atonement with God. God and man atoned by Christ's death, de facto as well as de jure, produces joy in God and man. "For the joy that was set before him," &c.; and "We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom

Secondly: The joy

also we have received the atonement." of reciprocated love. Antecedent to reconciliation with God, His love to us is love of pity and compassion; but atoned in Christ, God's love to us is that of moral esteem, and our love to Him is the re-percussion of His love to us. "We love him because he first loved us." "If any man love me," &c. (John xiv. 23.) Thirdly: Joy of assimilated character. As an element of the kingdom of God joy is a Divine attribute, inherited by those who are "One with Christ." "That they might have my joy fulfilled." (John xvii. 13.) "That they all may be one," &c. (John xvii. 21.) Divine strength and joy are our everlasting inheritance.

II. HUMAN STRENGTH IS GENERATED BY DIVINE JOY. First:

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As experienced in freedom from man-fear. Only fear the

Lord," is one of the first lessons of Christian manliness. God-fear annihilates man-fear, which ever "bringeth a snare." Secondly: As experienced in freedom from death-fear. Really in birth we take up death; but in Christian decease death dies. "That through death he might destroy," &c. (Heb. ii. 14, 15.) Thirdly: As developed in all holy action and endurance. The strength of health must be operative. To use is to gain. strength. "They go from strength to strength." (Ps. lxxxiv. 7.) W. R. P.

Theological Notes and Queries.

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[The utmost freedom of independent thought is permitted in this department. The reader must therefore use his own discriminating faculties, and the Editor must be allowed to claim freedom from responsibility.]

BISHOP BUTLER'S IDEA OF THE
INEXPLICABLE CHARACTER
OF THE ATONEMENT.

REPLICANT. In answer to QUERIST, No. 6, p. 102. "The dictum of Bishop Butler and of Profes

Vol. IX.

sor Vinet," referred to by your Querist No. 6, p. 102, "to the effect that the scripture has left the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ unexplained," appears to me at variance with the argu

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ment of Hebrews ix. 13, 14. There the author of that epistle institutes a comparison between the sacrifices of the Mosaic economy and the sacrifice of Christ. Assuming, as a matter well known to his readers, that the former did cleanse to the purifying of the flesh, he argues, "How much more," &c. i.e., If you see as a matter of fact (whether you understand the link of connexion or not), that the external things of the blood of bulls and of goats (Lev. xvi.), and of the sprinkling of the water containing the ashes of the red heifer (Num. xix.), did sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, much more obviously efficacious for the purging of the conscience is the internal thing of the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot unto God. A recent writer,* indeed, while he admits this to be the natural meaning of the verses, denies that in either case "the fitness of the offerings to produce such effects is explained ;" and alleges that "in both cases alike it is presupposed as a matter of Divine arrangement." But conscience is not a matter of arrangement. Nor can it be cleansed by any arbitrary arrangement. If it could, where would be the argument for the necessity of Christ's sacrifice? A "Divine appointment" could have made the blood of beasts efficacious for the cleansing of the conscience, contrary to Hebrews x. 4; or at least something less than the death of Christ might have sufficed.

Let us look at the two sides of the comparison in Heb. ix. 13, 14. In regard to the Jewish sacrifices. First: The end to be gained was that the people might "Serve God"(λaтpeúε-worship).

* Donnellan Lectures for 1857, by John Cotter Macdonnell, B D., p. 46. London: Rivingtons.

Secondly: To this end it was a prerequisite, that they should approach God, and occupy a particular standing "near to God." Psalm cxlviii. 14. Amos iii. 3. Thirdly But as unclean, they were unfit to appear before God, and unable to stand in His sight. Psalm xxiv. 3, 4. Fourthly: To remedy this defect sacrifice with various accompaniments was appointed. Micah vi. 8. Fifthly: Animal sacrifices sufficed for this end, so far as the flesh, or outer man, was concerned, but were inadequate to cleanse the conscience or inner man. The relative nearness of Israel after the flesh was still a real distance from God. Heb. ix. 8. Their services were unsatisfactory. Rom. viii. 3. The law made nothing perfect. Heb. viii. 19.

But now, in contrast to its deficiency, Christ has by this "one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Heb. x. 14. First: The end He proposed to gain was that men should "worship the Father in spirit and in truth." John iv. 23. Or "serve Him in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." Rom. vii. 6; xii. 1; 1 Peter ii. 5; Phil. iii. 3. Secondly: For this end he brings them near unto God. 1 Pet. iii. 18; Eph. ii. 13,18. Thirdly: To this spiritual nearness cleansing of the conscience from dead works is indispensable ;-for fools shall not stand in God's sight. Psa. v. 5. Fourthly: To effect this cleansing, Christ's sacrifice is adequate, because it is not a mere external thing but the embodiment of absolute truth in human nature. Christ is a priest having in him "the power of an endless life," and "through the eternal spirit he offered himself without spot unto God." He is in this respect "the way" unto the Father, because he is "the truth;" who as the repre

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