flowing with more or less speed in one direction or another.

Secondly: Spiritual indifferentism is a most incorrigible condition. Theoretical infidelity we may break down by argument, but moral indifferentism cannot be touched by logic. The spiritually indifferent man shouts out his creed every Sunday, damns the Atheist, and yet himself is " without God in the world." Truly such a state of mind must be abhorrent to Him who demands that all should love Him with their whole heart, soul, and strength. What an awful supposition that man can sicken and disgust the Infinite. "I will spue thee out of My mouth." Moral depravity nauseates the holy universe. Observe

III.-Its SELF-DECEPTION IS TERRIBLY ALARMING. Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods (have gotten riches), and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched (the wretched one), and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."

First Look at the condition in which they fancied

themselves. "I am rich and increased with goods." They fancied themselves rich and independent. "Have need of nothing." They wished to be all this, and the wish is evermore the father to the thought. Ah me, it is by no means uncommon for men to fancy themselves to be what they are not. If you go into lunatic spheres there you may see dwarfs fancying themselves giants and illustrious heroes, paupers thinking they are millionaires, and poor beggars kings of the first order. But elsewhere I find in all the departments of human life that is considered to be sane, scenes scarcely less absurd. In the so-called world of aristocracy and fashion what do we find? Human bipeds, male and female, priding themselves in their breed, imagining that some Norman or other blood flows in their veins altogether different to that which courses through the veins of the tradesman, the mechanic, and the labourer. The so-called sane men must be mad not to laugh at this madness, and fawning flunkeys must be mad not to denounce it.

Secondly: Look at the condition in which they really are. "And knowest not that thou art wretched (the wretched one), and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." "Wretched," though they may dance and sing; pitiable, though lauded by princes, premiers, and peers. "Blind," though the physical optics are sound; and "naked," though robed in splendour. Wretched, pitiable, blind, naked in soul. What a condition is this! What terrible self-deception! "The first

and worst of all frauds," says Festus, "is to cheat oneself. All sin is easy after that." Observe

IV. ITS MISERABLE CONDITION NEED NOT BE HOPELESS.

First: Recovery is freely offered. "I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried (refined) in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment" (garments), &c. Is there irony here? How can the poor buy gold, become rich, procure white garments, and salve for the diseased eyes? No, there is no irony here. The blessings here offered require no outlay of material wealth.

All is to be won by true faith,

Divinely urged. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." Here observe (1) Christ's attitude towards the soul. "I stand at the door, and knock." He does not come occasionally and depart. He "stands," implying His deep concern, His infinite condescension, and His wonderful patience. He waits to be gracious. Observe (2) Christ's action upon the soul. He stands not as a statue, but knocks; knocks at the door of intellect with truths, at the door of conscience with principles, at the door of love with transcendent charms. Observe (3) Christ's purpose with the soul. His mission is not to destroy but to save it. "I will come in to him." The language implies (a) Inhabitation. will come in to him." (b) Identification. 'Sup with him and he with Me." Thus sinners are urged to deliver themselves from their miserable condition.

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Thirdly Recovery is Divinely rewarded. "To him (he) that overcometh will I

DISROBE this chapter of its strange metaphorical costume, brush away all the symbols, and there appears a super-mundane world, here called heaven,-man's higher sphere of being; a world this, unseen by the outward eye, unheard by the outward ear, untouched by the tactile nerve, lying away altogether from our five senses. That such a world exists is, to say the least, highly probable, if not morally certain. Universal reason conducts to the belief in, and the universal heart yearns for, such a scene. He who is so thoroughly acquainted with the universe as to be incapable of a mistake, so inflexibly sincere as to be incapable of deception, has said, "In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you."

Now this super-mundane world, or man's higher sphere of being, we have here presented in two aspects,-humanly accessible and

spiritually entered. Each of these we shall employ as the germ of a separate homily. In the text it appears as humanly accessible Notice

I. THERE IS A DOOR TO ADMIT "A door was opened in heaven." What is the "door"? Christ says, "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John x. 9). He shall enter into this supermundane world with absolute safety and abundant provision. He is "the way." Christ's absolute moral excellence makes Him the door of admission to all that is pure, beautiful, and joyous in the universe. "Beholding, as in a glass, the face of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory," &c. Two things may be predicated about this door.

First: It is transparent. He

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II. THERE IS A VOICE WELCOME. "And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking (speaking) with me; which said (one saying), Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be (come to pass) hereafter." Whither? Up the heights of the starry universe. Thither in imagination we might ascend. Who, indeed, in the stillness of the night, has not heard as it were a "trumpet" coming down into his soul from those bright orbs which in teeming legions traverse the infinite fields above.

"Whoever gazed upon their shining, Nor turned to earth without repining,

Nor longed for wings to fly away,
And meet with them eternal day."

"Come up hither," they seem to say. Let not your minds be confined to your little, cloudy, stormy,

perishing planet. Earth was only intended as the temporary home of your bodies, not the dwelling place of your souls. The great

universe is the domain of mind. We roll and shine in our mighty spheres around you to win you away to the serene, the height, and the boundless. "Come up hither" immortal man, wing your flight from orb to orb, system to system; count our multitudes, mark our movements, guage our dimensions, breathe in our brightness, rise beyond us, scale the wondrous heavens still far away, revel in the Infinite, be lost in God. But the elevation to which we are called is not local but moral. "Seek those things which are above." What are they? Truth, rectitude, holiness, fellowship with the Infinite. Herein is true soul elevation. To this the

trumpet" bids us. Hear this trumpet from the infinite silences around you, from departing saints above you, from the depths of conscience within you, 66 come up hither."

CONCLUSION.-Are we morally ascending? Then we shall experience three things. (1) Increasing dominion over the world. (2) Constant growth in moral force. (3) Augmented interest in the spiritual domain.

LONDON.

DAVID THOMAS, D.D.