on guard. And how could they testify to what occurred while they were asleep? This story shows the inability of the Scribes and Pharisees to confute the testimony of the apostles. They have made no other denial of the facts.

When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, and in their most august council, charged home upon them the guilt of killing the Prince of Life, by wicked hands, whom God raised from the dead, and in whose name he and the other apostles wrought miracles, would they not have disproved his assertions, if in their power? But "They could say nothing against" what he had said and done. When they were cut to the heart, and took council to slay Peter, would they not have disproved his assertions if there had been any way to do it?

If they made any such attempt, why have not their writ ings come down to us-books written then and there on the spot? They could be as easily preserved as the writings of the Evangelists. They would not have as many enemies-not so much effort would be made to destroy them; and there have always been men ready to preserve and perpetuate them; but there is no evidence that any such book ever existed. While it can easily be shown that we have the record of the story told by the apostles; it has been quoted and copied so often'; guarded by the providence of God from the malice of priests and kings; that it cannot be denied that we have essentially the words of the Holy Spirit, penned so long ago by holy men who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

"Wrath and lightning" have guarded the sacred page, and if even every copy of the Bible were destroyed, it might all be collected again from the abundant quotations made from it in former times.

We remark, in closing, then

1. It is vastly easier to believe in the resurrection of Christ than to disbelieve it. It is impossible not to receive the testimony we have, and account for the facts of the case in any other way.

It amounts, if not to a mathematical, yet, to a moral demonstration; unless we deny the possibility of proving such a fact, on any other, by human testimony, with the addition of Divine confirmation; and set aside all historical evidence.

2. We have here a most convincing proof of the Divinity of Christ. He has the keys of hell and of death. He laid down his life voluntarily, and took it up again. "He was declared to be the Son of God, with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead." He claimed to be Divine: he was put to death on the charge of blasphemy, for falsely setting up such a claim; but he made it good by this act of raising himself from the dead. By the exertion of Divine Power, he proved that he was what he claimed to be, and God acknowledged

it. It was not possible that he should be holden by the cords of death, or the bars of the grave.

3. We see that he finished the work for which he came into the world, made an atonement for sin, introduced everlasting righteousness, and is every way qualified to be the Saviour of the world, for he ever liveth to make intercession.

God has accepted his work; and now on the ground of it, invites all to come and seek the pardon of their sins.

He proclaims to all that feel their wants, to come, and they shall be supplied out of a full treasury in the hands of Christ, who hath done all things well, and is sealed by the Father and by authority offered to the world. All the prophecies, types, and shadows of the Old Testament met in Him.

4. We have in the resurrection of Christ a pledge of the resurrection of his people. "Because I live, ye shall live also." "He that believeth in me shall never die." "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen." "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." He is the first fruits, they are the full harvest. He is the point of union and the principle of life. He was made a life-giving spirit. He has only to order, as in the case of Lazarus, and all the realms of the dead will become instinct with life.

5. But, finally, though it is true that if Christ be not risen, you may be still in your sins; yet it does not follow of course when it is proved that he has risen, that you are not in your sins.

Without personal application to him, and faith in him as your Saviour, you cannot be saved. He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification; but we are justified by faith in his name, and faith is an operative assent to his word.

His precious blood must be sprinkled upon our consciences to purge them from dead works to serve the living God. We may have all remedies for disease at hand, but if not employed and applied, they will do no good. So with the provisions of the Gospel they do not operate in a magical way, and at a distance; Christ must be brought nigh to us, and we to him. He must be formed in us the hope of glory.

THE ELEVENTH HOUR WORKER.

Two great facts at once meet us in the parable of the laborer in the vineyard. One is, that so far as making God's glory the grand end of our being, we are all by nature standing idle. The other is, that God, whose favor we have all forfeited by our sins, is pleased to call and receive the willing and obedient into his vineyard at all hours of the day of life. Wonderful as it is, that he should call us at all, the wonder of wonders is, that at life's

latest evening hour, he should bid us enter his vineyard. But this arrangement is to the praise of the glory of his grace.

God is pleased to call aged sinners into his kingdom, to show the sovereignty of his grace. As every man, young or old, has forfeited his favor, God would teach us that he is under obligation to none, and therefore has mercy on whom he will. So that while it is true that all who seek him early shall find him, it is not true that none who seek him late shall find him. We know that the young, with hearts tender and impressible, are the most hopeful subjects of renewing grace; that in old age the moral sensibilities become more indurated, evil habits more confirmed, and the chains of sin more strongly riveted upon us. But yet God is pleased to interpose by his all-conquering grace, and bring even aged sinners into his kingdom. Nicodemus, though old, could be born again. That so many of the aged do not come to Christ is owing to the fact--not that they are not called-but that they do not hear the voice of God. It is the merciful province of the Spirit to unstop their deaf ears, and so incline them to hear, that their souls shall live.

Again God calls aged sinners into his kingdom to teach us that none should despair of mercy. All who penitently and believingly beg for mercy shall find mercy. If we may not pray and hope because we are great sinners, then the mouths of all, young and old, must be stopped. Many of the young, so rapidly downward is their course, are more bold and hardened in sin, than some on whom rests the weight of three score years and ten. Let the aged then remember that God, who is rich in mercy to all that call upon him, delights in showing mercy to the "poor in spirit" in all periods and conditions of life; that one day is with him as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; that he looks not to the number of years at all, or to the number of sins, but to this man will he look "that is poor and of a contrite heart and that trembleth at his word.”

"And while the lamp holds out to burn,

The vilest sinner may return."

Though they may have stood idle so far as seeking their salvation and God's glory is concerned till the Eleventh hour, yet the voice of the Master is: "Why stand ye all the day idle? Go ye also into my vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive." Life's one hour remains, and that is one of mercy and hope. Luke Short hears the Saviour's voice after an hundred years spent in sin. And if the aged may come, let none despair. Again God may call aged sinners into his kingdom, that by the great good done by them the little remaining time, they may rebuke the inefficiency of those who have been many years in the Church. What multitudes go limping and halting through long years in the church, as with the unequal legs of the lame man!

Oh, how often do young professors, and those of longer standing in the church, need a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost to arouse them from spiritual slumber, that they may gird on anew their armor, and go forth with fresh zeal to the great battle of the Lord.

But whether or not these may be among the reasons why God calls aged sinners into his kingdom, the glorious fact is, that he does call us, poor sinners, by his word, providence and Spirit, at all periods of our mortal life, from early dawn till its last evening hour.

To the young of the third hour of life's day, the voice of the Master is: "Go ye into the vineyard now, lest life's sun, rising so brightly, go down ere noon in darkness forever."

To the middle aged of the sixth hour he calls: "Go ye into the vineyard. You are now in the meridian. Cast your eye back to the morning horizon whence you set out. See with what rapid flight the wheels of time have borne you on. From this high stand-point look down to the evening horizon where sets life's sun, and consider how speedily will that sun hasten to its going down."

To the aged of the ninth and eleventh hour of life's little day, a voice from above is still calling, "Go ye also into the vineyard. The sun still shines, but with a softened, mellowed light. Behold how low life's sun has descended. See the high mountains casting their lengthening shadows far across the valleys. Soon will night spread her dark pall over you. Haste ye to Christ ere the shadows of death enfold you. Go work while it is day. The night is near when no man can work. Believe and love, and work and pray, and great shall be your reward."--Puritan Rec.

DESIRE OF PRE-EMINENCE.

There can surely be no doubt as to the duty of every man to strive after high excellence-at whatever is intellectually and spiritually ennobling. Such excellence is not only worthy the earnest pursuit of all, but its possession comes of aspiring and of labor. But there is quite a difference between aiming at eminence and vaunting of it. The fact that any individual has occasion to flaunt the claim, begets suspicion as to the validity of all such assumption. Certainly this is no part of the religion of Him who taught his followers that they should obey a different law from "the lords of the Gentiles," a law that respected the least as the greatest, which counted the servant as ruler; and whose word, following in the same vein, teaches His disciples while being "kindly affectioned" in honor prefer one another. Modern tendencies are quite as strong as

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when such injunctions were given, to fan, among disciples of a common faith, the desire of pre-eminence. The Saviour enjoined on those bearing His name and wearing His likeness, that they refuse to be called RABBI. This lesson they seem to have faithfully kept. Peter and John and James, and others, are brethren having naught to distinguish them but a common ardor in one great service. Paul and Barnabas are laborers in common. The former, though counselling his loved sons in the Gospel, Timothy, Titus and Onesimus, does not arrogate for himself any superiority over them. Never does he forget, in his salutations, his most unknown or unhonored fellow-workers, not omitting the caution "Help those women who labored with me in the Gospel with Clement also," &c., repeating carefully his remembrance to the cherished household of Onesiphorous which had remembered him in his bonds. Peter knows him, learned as he was, and intellectually "the very chief of the apostles," while counting himself "nothing," as "our beloved brother, Paul."

We will not affirm that the primitive spirit which thus knit in a common " brotherhood" those holding to "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," has died out of modern Christianity. It still lives. But is it not beset with sore temptations? Does the disciple of Christ now, as much as when under the eye of that Divine Teacher, shrink from the awards and appella tons which in name, at least, place him above his fellows? Is the rivalry for excellence-for holiness-the distinguishing rivalry of Christians, of ministers, of those invited to trusts of responsibility? Are churches, societies, Sabbath schools, conference circles, choirs, each and all, animated only to be like Christ -do the work of Christ and receive the reward which he bestows? The beloved John, who desired most of all to see his children walking in the truth," and "fellow-helpers to the truth," was confronted by one of whom he says: "I wrote to the church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, receiveth us not." This love made him a man of "malicious words," and a disturber of the peace of Zion. Of him we have no other-no better record. His love of "pre-eminence" ruled him to the hurt of himself and of others.

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This same spirit still lives clothed in new forms-nursed by new agencies, to oppose which is sometimes to set one's self against the very current itself. The feeling yet clamors for the ascendant that asks not, "How can I bring most honor to my Lord?" but "How can I be most honored of men?" Parity is disliked," pre-eminence" sought. Does not the state of our Zion too much declare it?- Watchman and Reflector.