3. If we are to imitate God, we must possess the requisite faculty, and that faculty man has.

It is a law of our nature to imitate. We unconsciously model from those among whom we live, while they are influenced for good or evil by the character we continually present to them. Our characters in early life are shaped in the home circle. The child is ever imitating. The actions, words, and spirit, of the parent are mighty moulding forces, though child and parent may be as unconscious of them as they are of the force which binds them to the solid earth. Even after home is left, how active is this law in youth! A companion neutralizes the good effected by years of parental training, and he who bid fair to be crowned with honour is covered with ignominy and shame. It is, perhaps, only in maturer years that we become less, unconsciously, the imitators of others, but even then we see the potency of this law.

If, then, we look at man as a religious being, and mark his religious developments, we see this law still at work. There are gods many and diversified, too, in character; but the people are as they, ever bearing the impress of their likeness. The moral characteristics of a people will determine at what shrine they bow the knee, and the god whose favour they propitiate. The temple of Mars must have its worshipperswarriors; and that of Bacchus must resound with the song of its drunken devotees. It is only when the God of the Bible is worshipped and adored that man begins to assume his right position in the world in which he is placed, and to approximate to the moral likeness in which he was originally created. Fellowship with purity begets purity: communion with God, frequent and lengthened, produces in us God-likeness. "We

all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord."

The practical deductions from our subject are obvious, as well as solemnly important. If, in our daily life, we are constantly influencing others, what a stimulating motive have we to seek the Divine model, and to conform ourselves to it.

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While this alone can prevent us from living to injure and destroy human souls, it can alone render us mighty as preachers of righteousness. No influence among men, for good or evil, is so potent as unconscious influence-the influence of our daily character. Compared with this, the burning eloquence of an Apollo is but as the "sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." Men preach by a look, by intonations of voice, by the utterance of a word. Voiceless sermons are not less powerful because they are voiceless. If there are sermons in stones, and books in running brooks," surely there are homilies in the unfoldings of character. In the moral world, as in the physical, quiet forces are the most powerful. The rolling thunder shaking the firm earth, the winged lightning scathing the forest-tree, the electric fluid shivering the seabound rock, are feeble agencies compared with the falling dew or darting sunlight. These are mighty forces, for they restore a drooping creation, and fill the world with life, beauty, and joy.

Our subject, too, may, and should, become a powerful test as to our future destiny. It makes the end of Bible doctrines everything; it points us to that for which we believecharacter, and not creed, as the ultimatum of our probationary existence. That which makes us God-like bears with it its own credentials that it is Divine; and he who possesses this character has the strongest evidence that he is an heir of heaven. The foundation of his hopes for the future is the Rock which the rude winds and rough waves of life's ocean can never bear away. God will never cut off from himself the holy soul. Heaven-the holy place-draws to itself, as by a moral gravity, all holy souls, and will for ever keep them there. A glorious church will be that on earth when the harsh voice of controversy shall be hushed in the silent and anxious listening to the higher Voice from heaven66 Be ye therefore followers of God."

W. BEALBY.

Germs of Thought.

Analysis of Homily the Fifty-sixth.

"And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite:" &c.-Isa. xxix. 7, 8.

SUBJECT:-The Visions of Sin.

THERE are two grand truths of most stirring import unfolded in the context, as explained below:- *

First. That wicked men are frequently employed to execute the Divine purpose. The Almighty determined to humble Jerusalem, and he employed Sennacherib as the engine of his justice. Whilst we are far from intimating that he inspired the Assyrian king with his murderous ire and projects, we are

* The word "Ariel" literally means the "Lion of God," and is here applied to Jerusalem, probably because that, under the reign of David, it was far-famed for its heroic deeds and unconquerable prowess. The first eight verses of this chapter are a prediction of the invasion of Judea by Sennacherib, and of its sudden deliverance. In the first four verses, the invasion is represented as being under the direction of God. "And I will camp against thee," &c. The idea is, That thou, Jerusalem, which hast prided thyself in thy great power and privilege, shall be greatly humbled and subdued. Thy loud and vaunting tones shall be changed; thou shalt speak in the low and whispering voice of fear and alarm; thou "shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." From the fifth to the eighth verses there is a change in the scene. Jerusalem is assured that, although the terrible invasion would take place, the invader, in his attempts, would meet with a sudden and tremendous overthrow. "Thou"-that is, the invader-"shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake," &c. A reference to the history of the case, contained in the 18th and 19th chapters of 2 Kings, and to the 32nd chapter of 2 Chronicles, will show how accurately and fully this was realized.

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forced to the conviction that he made this wicked man's intentions the means of executing his own eternal plans; and this he ever does. He makes "the wrath of man to praise him." What a revelation is this of his absolute command over the fiercest and freest workings of the most depraved and rebellious subjects! All the raging billows of depravity are at his command. He can, at pleasure, either stay their proud waves, or make them bear his purpose on their bosom to their final destination.

The other truth which the context teaches is

Secondly. That whilst wicked men execute the Divine purpose, they frustrate their own. Sennacherib worked out the Divine result, but all his own plans and wishes were like the visions of the famished traveller on the oriental desert, who, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted, lies down and dreams, under the rays of a tropical sun, that he is eating and drinking, but awakes and discovers, to his inexpressible distress, that both his hunger and thirst are but increased. No intelligent being has any choice as to whether he shall work out God's plan or not the greatest sinner and the greatest saint, the purest seraph and the blackest demon, are alike bound to this. But all moral beings have to choose whether they shall work out God's purpose so as to fulfil or to frustrate their own. Hell works out God's plans, and frustrates its own; heaven works out God's plans, and fulfils its own.

Let us look at the vision before us as illustrating the visions of sin :

I. IT IS A DREAMY VISION. It is " as a dream of a night vision." There are waking visions. The orient creations of poetry, the bright prospects of hope, the appalling apprehensions of fear-these are visions occurring when the reflective powers of the soul are more or less active, and are, therefore, not entirely unsubstantial and vain. But the visions which occur in sleep, when the senses are closed, and the consciousness is torpid, and the reason has resigned for a few moments her sway to the hands of a lawless imagination, are generally

without reality. Now, the scriptures represent the sinner as asleep. But where is the analogy between the natural sleep of the body and the moral sleep of sin? Natural sleep is the ordination of God, but moral is not. The kind Author of our existence appointed that, once in the diurnal revolution of our earthly home, this body should close its senses and rest its powers. But moral sleep is against the plan of God. Natural sleep is restorative, but moral is destructive: the one is a "sweet restorer," the other is a fell destroyer. Howbeit, there is yet an analogy in both there is the want of activity. The inactivity, however, of the moral sleep of the sinner is not the inactivity of the senses, nor of the intellect, nor of the imagination, nor of the passions-all these are often exceedingly active in the sinner; but the inactivity of the moral faculty-the CONSCIENCE. In both there is the want of consciousness. Man, in physical sleep, is dead to all outward objects the bright heavens, the green earth, and all the ten thousand forms of life and loveliness around, are nil to him. So with the sinner in his moral slumbers. God-Christsoul-heaven-hell-all are nothing to him. The sinner being thus asleep, his visions are dreams.

His

II. IT IS AN APPETITIVE VISION. What is the dream of the man whom the Almighty brings under our notice in the text, who lies down to sleep under the raging desire for food and water? It is that he was eating and drinking. imagination creates the very things for which his appetite was craving. His imagination was the servant of his strongest appetites. So it is ever with the sinner: the appetite for animal gratifications will create its visions of sensual pleasure; the appetite for worldly wealth will create its visions of fortune; the appetite for power will create its visions of social influence and applause. The sinner's imagination is ever the servant of his strongest appetites, and ever pictures to him in airy, but attractive, forms the objects he most strongly desires. Every man has his ideal world, reared and furnished by his imagination; having elements and provisions according to the