preached unto them." Preaching is a Divine institution. Christ gave the commission after His resurrection, and after His ascension He sent down His Spirit to qualify men for the work. In meeting together, therefore, on "the first day of the week, and breaking bread" to commemorate the sufferings of Christ, and preaching the Gospel, we are doing what the apostles sanctioned by their example, and what the good have attended to during eighteen centuries. here

IL-RELIGIOUS

INTRUDING

NATURE.

We have

INSTITUTIONS

THE CLAIMS OF ON "Paul continued his speech until midnight." Night is the time for rest, not for labour. The body, exhausted with the activities of the day, requires the re-invigorating repose of night. Hence, as Paul was pushing the religious services beyond their proper limits, one of the hearers (Eutychus) fell asleep, and "fell down and was taken up dead." Many reasons would, perhaps, justify Paul in thus protracting his discourse. The people were very ignorant on the most vital of all questions. He had much to communicate. His heart was full of sympathy, and he had to depart on the morrow. Still, as this intruded on the claims of nature, a result occurred which marked

such long services as an evil. It is remarkable that no fault is found with Eutychus. He could not help it. Perhaps his body was overtasked: his spirit might have been willing, but his flesh was weak, and he gave way. Religious institutions intrude on the claims of nature (1) when they are employed for the purposes of inordinate excitement. The history of what was called "the revival" in Ireland and elsewhere a few years ago, furnishes many sad examples. They intrude on the claims of nature (2) when they are protracted beyond a certain period. Long sermons are a sin against More than half the sermons preached are somnific. Were there many in every congregation who had to sit like Eutychus, "in a window," during the services, instead of in seats well secured, what accidental deaths would be reported in our journals! Many modern preachers, under such circumstances, would make the sexton busy. We have here

nature.

III.-RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH SUPERNATURAL

POWER. "And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him." This was an undoubted miracle, performed in somewhat the same manner as that which Elisha wrought on the Shunamite's son (2 Kings iv. 33-35).

66

But we are 66 debtors." Sacred obligations are laid on us, even as they were on this apostle. He was a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise." And we are "debtors" to the humble, the little, the obscure, the poor, the sick. Paul would have been neither ashamed nor afraid to preach the gospel before Cæsar himself. He preached it boldly before Felix, Festus, Agrippa. But, like his Master, he loved to speak to "the common people."

III-THE EARNEST SPIRIT AND ATTITUDE OF THE APOSTLE SHOULD

BE IMITATED. Semper paratus. Ready, aye, ready. To the utmost of his opportunity, and to the utmost of his power-"ready." "Ready," not to enjoy the sights of the splendid capital of the world, but to preach the gospel. Blucher received the soubriquet of Marshal Vorwärtz. "Ready" and "Forward" may be our watchwords. Have you ever heard the retreat sounded? Nay, "Forward," cries the captain of the sacramental host of God's elect "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

FAIRFAX GOODALL, B.A.

ST. CLEMENT'S, BRISTOL.

John iv. 46-54. (Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.) MANY lessons spring from this most interesting incident. Among them we may gather

L-THE UNDISTINGUISHING KINDNESS OF CHRIST.

Not, in

deed, that He does not distinguish between the special necessities of one of His disciples and those of another, but that he does not allow any of our distinctions to interrupt

the full flow of His beneficence. He went to heal the centurion's slave: He now heals by His word the nobleman's son. The lines of separation we draw, and too much. observe, are absolutely nothing to Him; they do not enter into His consideration. (Col. iii. 11.)

II. THE IMPORTUNITY OF PARENTAL LOVE. Our Lord uses words of apparent if not actual severity (verse 48). They may

not have applied-I think they did not to this anxious father; he did not want to "see a sign but to secure a favour. But the remark of Christ was apart from his purpose, and threatened to lead to a conversation if not to a prolonged discussion. So the father breaks boldly in with his prayer, begging the Lord to prefer his particular exigency to any general uses, and urges his request. Parental love is a thing which is not to be postponed, which should not be daunted, which will not be discouraged, much less denied: when seeking the highest good for its objects it should be importunate until it is successful.

III. THE BEST INCENTIVE TO CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP. In our Lord's day this was not miraculous power (ver. 48, and see John xiv. 11), but Christ's own character. In our day it is not the wonderful things Christianity has done, but the transcendent claims Christ has on our reverence and love, and his willingness and power to meet the deeper necessities and to satisfy the higher aspirations of our souls.

appointed; nay, he found that, at the very hour of promise, that was done which he looked for, and even more than that. For not only did his child "begin to amend," but at that very time "the fever left him." Christ will do more than fulfil His word to us; not, indeed, in granting sooner what we ask, in the precise way we are expecting; but in His own better time and in His own much better way, in a time and way which will work our truest welfare, He will be better than His word.

V. THE ADVANCING CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. "The man believed the word," &c. (ver. 50). "And himself believed" (ver. 53). From believing Christ's word his faith passed on, passed down, into a cordial acceptance of Christ Himself, into that living faith in a Divine One which ended in something more and better than the curing of a fever. The more we have to do with Christ the more our faith will advance. It may commence in a feeling which is very humble, hardly spiritual at all; but if we continue in His service, it will deepen and grow, and bring forth fairer flower and richer fruit, with added privilege and opening opportunity.

VI. THE BLESSED ISSUE OF WELL-USED AFFLICTION. There was sickness and, therefore, sorrow in the home: but it led to a visit

to the Divine Healer who was also the Divine Teacher and Friend; and the end of it was a new family-life, a life in God, a common inheritance in the blessedness which no after-evils of any kind could disturb. Such an issue will sorrow always have when it leads us, with docile heart, to the feet of Heavenly Wisdom, to the source of Eternal Life.

WILLIAM CLARKSON, B.A.

BRISTOL.

Hebrews iii. 1. (Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity.)

"CONSIDER JESUS."

OTHER religions may make much of ideas, Christianity makes most of a Person. Some forms of Christianity may make much of a Church, Scriptural Christianity makes most of The Christ. Of this Person, this Christ, this instructive epistle has to speak, using figures, that it may be are often more full of meaning to the Jewish than to the English mind. But, whatever be the figures employed, the effect sought to be produced is the same as that of Paul and of Peter and of James and John in their epistles; it is to make known and to magnify The Christ. Let every sheaf bow; let sun and moon and eleven stars make obeisance. Christ is Christianity. "Consider Jesus."

L.-"Consider" THE MANIFOLD REVELATIONS OF THE CHRIST. The writer of this epistle is reminding his readers that our Lord is the Sent, the Priest, the Leader; in other words the Moses, the Aaron, the Joshua of human souls. This threefold revelation of Him, by so many names, is but in keeping with the revelation of Himself in so many discourses, by so many works, and above all in so many events. When a man is fired with Paul's desire about Christ, "that I may know Him," he is eager to study the many-sided revelation of our Lord Himself.

II. "Consider" THE MANIFOLD ADAPTEDNESS OF THE CHRIST TO HUMAN WANTS. There is no season in the history of the soul in which He is not needed, and in which, therefore, we may forget to "consider" Him. He is the Sun of man's day, the Star of his night. He is his Bread in hunger, his Living Water in thirst, his Teacher in ignorance, his Comforter in sorrow, his Saviour in sin. Love, Joy, Duty, Death, all need Him.

III.-" Consider " THE MANIFOLD CLAIMS OF THE CHRIST ON HUMAN HOMAGE AND SERVICE. He is the supremely TRUE whom we are bound to trust, the supremely GOOD whom we are bound to love, the supremely PERFECT whom we are bound to worship. Such lines