Church or in Dissent, are not of our Father's planting :—they are worthless noxious weeds of moral depravity.

Secondly: Whoever practically disregards this principle is blind in relation to spiritual things. Our Saviour says of those Pharisees, "they be blind leaders of the blind." They were blind to the omnipresence of God, to the spirituality of His law; to the free and responsible action of the human soul; to the eternal condition of moral progress; and to the essence of virtue and vice. And thus blind must all men be who act upon the idea that what goeth into a man will necessarily defile him. The recluse, who retires from the world, hoping to avoid its defilement, and the religious formalist, who is perpetually moving through a routine of ordinances in order to make his heart clean, are blind in relation to the great facts of spiritual being and relations.

Thirdly: The practical disregard of this principle exposes us to a terrible calamity. Whatever creed, system, character, institution and enterprize, have grown out of its neglect, are "plants that the Father has not planted," and they must be uprooted. "Every plant," says Christ, "which my Father has not planted shall be rooted up." Oh! how much there is in human society, even in its Christian department, that our Heavenly Father "has not planted!" There are not only worthless weeds, thorns and briars in every path, but broad acres of moral hemlock, and mighty forests of upas trees. Thank God they shall be uprooted. "The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and that do iniquity." The blind too shall "fall into the ditch." Inevitable ruin awaits those who are framing a character according to outward rules, rather than cultivating one by the right exercise of the soul's affections and powers.

The passage suggests :

IV. THAT THIS PRINCIPLE IS BUT IMPERFECTLY APPRECIATED EVEN BY THE TRUE. "Then answered Peter, and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable; and Jesus said, are ye

also yet without understanding?" Peter was a representative member of the most true and spiritual society on earththe disciples. Notwithstanding this, he did not fully compass the meaning of this principle. So strong is the tendency of man to over-estimate the outward, and to overlook the transcendent importance of the Divine world of his own soul-the world within, the world of thought, emotion, and will; where character is formed and destiny is settled— that even the most spiritual have difficulty in fully appreciating the principle, that it is not that that goeth into a man that defileth him, but that which cometh out. Hence the exaggerated interest which almost all sections of the Church display in the external. The zeal, the wealth, the energy, of Churches are expended in creating and sustaining that which must be regarded as the mere machinery of religion, rather than in spiritual efforts to generate and foster those principles of the soul, which are the essence of godliness, the spirit of all true power, and the glory of

man.

In conclusion:

First Our subject suggests the best means for religious parents to guard their children against the corrupting influence of society. It is always a deeply anxious period in the history of a pious parent, when the time comes to send his children out into the wide world, to engage in such pursuits as may be the most conducive to their advancement and usefulness in life. This profession, is thought of and given up, because of the temptation with which it is associated. That business, though lucrative, is renounced because of the fallacious and dishonest principles on which it is conducted, and the depraved circles with which it stands connected. There is not a single department of secular life that can be thought of, as suitable for his child, that is not beset with perils to his innocence and virtue. And when after much anxious thought and prayer he decides on that which is least objectionable on moral grounds, still he is anxious. Which is the way to meet this parental difficulty? Teach the child that his Maker has

endowed him with powers of mind and thought that will enable him to stand against all outward temptation; that if he is true to the spiritual nature which kind Heaven has given him, he can pass through the most fiery assaults of the devil unscathed, move through the most polluted scenes without a moral taint. Teach him that his safety is in reliance upon the right use of his own faculties and in the blessing of his God. Teach him that it is not the unchaste conversation, the filthy song, the profane expression, that may go into his ear, that will defile him; but the use he makes of these. Teach him that he has a power to turn this very wickedness to his own spiritual advantage :

Secondly: The subject suggests the only method by which man can reach a blessed destiny. How is he to secure his present and everlasting well-being? By endeavoring, like the anchorite, to avoid outward evil? Whilst no man should put himself in the way of temptation, no man should be afraid to confront evil, to go into its most malarial regions, if duty call. In truth, if man's well-being depended upon escaping outward evil, it could never be realized; because to live in the world he is bound to live in its midst; and evil must stream into him every day. How then is he to reach a blessed destiny? By endeavoring to frame his life according to the outward rules of morality and religion? No, but by a right use of his own spiritual powers. There is a power in the body, when in a healthy state, to appropriate whatever goes into it from external nature that is wholesome and necessary, and to expel that which is noxious and superfluous. The soul has a power analogous to this; a power to appropriate the wholesome and to expel the injurious. This power we call the transformative. Let us use it rightly-use it as Noah used it, who, amidst the blasphemy and ridicule of a corrupt generation, walked with God, and fulfilled a noble. destiny; as Paul used it at sceptical Athens and dissolute Corinth, and in Pagan Rome; who, from experience, left the world this testimony-"all things work together for good to them that love God."

Brother, practically realize this wonderful power of thy soul; a power that may

"Gather honey from the weed,

And make a moral of the devil himself."

Germs of Thought.

SUBJECT:-God in Nature.

"The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes." --Psalm cxix. 64.

Analysis of Homily the Three Hundred and Sixty-eighth.

THESE words seem to suggest thoughts like the following:

(1) Their author was not a Positivist. Nature to him was not a mere thing; it was an agency :-not the mathematical revolution of cycles, but the intelligent manifestation of personal volition. Nature was not the opaque boundary of his vision, but the transparent medium through which he saw the Infinite Mystery beyond. He did not rest in nature as the ultimate fact of his consciousness; but he made it the platform whence his faith might soar to higher and brighter regions. Yet he did not cast off the Material as worthless and evil, but he accepted it as the token and earnest of a greater good. This apprehension of a personal Creator is the first step in religious life :-"he that cometh unto God must believe that HE IS."

(2) The Psalmist recognizes a moral Agent in nature, to whom the spiritual faculties of his soul are respondent. Conscious of the feeling of beneficence in his own breast, he finds the expression of an infinite beneficence around him. Limited as was his knowledge of creation, he had attained to the great

fact that the diffusion of happiness is its central idea:suffering is incidental, enjoyment is designed.

(3) But not only is this Divine beneficence recognized as a fact, it is accepted as the sincere expression of an inward love. The Creator is here not only admired, He is trusted: not only thanked, for what He does, but loved for what He is.

(4) The words seem to intimate that the heart of the writer, listening to the harmonies of outward nature, longed to join in their great Hallelujah. He saw every atom, and every creature in earth, sea and air, moving in its appointed path, obeying the laws of its being, without jar or discord; moving, as in choral dance, about the Eternal Centre

and he would join hands and be one among them. "Teach me thy statutes." Bind my spiritual nature to Thyself by gracious teaching, as this handiwork of Thine is bound to Thee by mechanical and physical laws.

(5) This longing is not satisfied by the Psalmist's natural condition. He needs teaching before he can attain to it. He feels something within that is not ready thus to acquiesce in the Divine Will without a murmur. He is not at present thoroughly within that circle of beneficent law, which he sees around him. He would be at one with the Great Source of so much happiness and beauty; but it is the subject of desire with him, rather than of consciousness.

(6) Under these circumstances he applies for Divine illumination. He needs something more than nature can teach him, and he seeks it direct from God. Thus nature was to him, not the substitute for Revelation, but that which led him to see the need of Revelation. He found that all the organs of sentient life have their fitting correlates in the world around them; but he found none such for the spiritual aspirations of his own heart. Either these must find their Vol. VIII.

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