want is the opening of the spiritual eye which sin has closed. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Analysis of Homily the Seventieth.

"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”—Heb. ii. 10.

SUBJECT:-The Refuting Power of Truth.

AMONGST the many remarkable features of revelation stands its refuting power. Sometimes a single sentence contains a confutation of numerous popular and perilous errors. You have only to elicit the truth which it involves, and certain false notions and theories will pass away as the night-clouds before the solar rays.

This is strikingly the case with the passage before us, especially when we adopt Stuart's version,* which we consider to be a more faithful exponent of the apostle's meaning. The following are the errors of which it is a refutation :

I. IT REFUTES THE ERROR THAT THE UNIVERSE IS EITHER ETERNAL OR THE WORK OF CHANCE.

The text speaks of One things; by whom are all That Being is God. The

who is the Cause and End of all things, and to whom are all things. Bible does not condescend to argue the fact of the Divine existence ; it properly assumes that which is amongst the most primary and profound beliefs of humanity.

"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, through sufferings, to bestow the highest honour upon the Captain of their salvation, who is leading many sons to glory.”—Stuart.

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II. IT REFUTES THE ERROR THAT CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE DIVINE CHARACTER. This error is well stated and met by Gilfillan in his lecture on the "Christian Bearings of Astronomy." The individual who arrogantly states that it is impossible to believe that that God who made a universe so great that this earth, in comparison with it, is less than one of the smallest atoms in comparison with itself, should so connect himself with the suffering nature of one of the tribes of this atom earth, as the Bible states, should remember that, whilst magnitude is nothing to infinity, and locality is nothing to immensity, that the interests of morality are everything to justice, and the happiness of being is everything to benevolence. Nothing, therefore, can philosophically be shown to be inconsistent with the greatness of God but injustice and cruelty, the opposite of which you have in God's connexion with Christ. "It became him," &c.

III. IT REFUTES THE ERROR THAT GREAT SUFFERINGS HERE, IN THE CASE OF INDIVIDUALS, IMPLY GREAT SINS. It is true, in general, that sufferings imply sins somewhere, but it is not true always in individual cases. This was the error into which Job's friends fell; the error, too, into which those fell who told Christ of those "whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." This is a popular error. The fact that Christ suffered is a refutation of it. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

IV. IT REFUTES THE ERROR THAT GREAT HONOURS CAN BE "It became God," says OBTAINED WITHOUT GREAT TRIAL. the text, "through suffering, to bestow the highest honour upon the Captain of their salvation." Had he not suffered, he would not have been exalted "as a Prince and a Saviour." Through Gethsemane and over Calvary he reached the Throne.

The expecting of great things without great trial and struggle is a prevalent and perilous error. A man may come into possession of wealth and titles without effort and struggles, but he will never reach any true honours without it. Intel

lectual dignity-the dignity of a vigorous, orderly, enlightened, and majestic understanding-can never be reached but through much study, which is a weariness to the flesh. Moral dignity -the dignity of self-command, breadth of sympathy, purity of heart, nobleness of aim, and friendship with heaven-can only be reached by an earnest and protracted struggle. There is no kingdom for man worth having that is not reached "through much tribulation."

V. IT REFUTES THE ERROR THAT THE GRAND END OF CHRISTIANITY IS TO CONNECT MAN WITH DOGMATIC SYSTEMS, This is what the sceptic

OR ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTITUTIONS. affirms. This is, alas! what the conduct of professors too frequently implies. But this is not the grand end. It is true that certain things must be believed before the end can be reached. But the end is higher it is to bring men not to creeds or churches, but "to glory"-a glory spiritualdivine-ever-progressive.

VI. IT REFUTES THE ERROR THAT THERE ARE BUT FEW THAT SHALL BE SAVED. There are some who have the idea that none will be saved but those who belong to their own little sect. Perish the notion! The text tells us that the Captain of our salvation "is leading MANY souls to glory;" many, not a few. How many? Compute the stars of heaven; reckon the sands on ocean's shore. The infinite love of God— the illimitable provisions of redeeming mercy-the slow but certain progress of truth in the world—the manifest probability that the human race is but in its infancy, and that the generations that have appeared on this globe are but very few in comparison with those that are to follow ;-all these things, in connexion with the Bible, lead us to hope that the lost to the saved will be but as units to millions.

Analysis of Homily the Seventy-first.

"For it is written, That Abraham had two sons; the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar," &c.-Gal. iv. 22-31.

SUBJECT:-Paul's Allegory; or, the Religion of Law, and the Religion of Love Contrasted.

THE distinction between a law-religion and a love-religion is broad and radical. The religion of law is chiefly concerned. with the code, the letter of duty. Its disciples measure their obligation by the written precept; they move and pause with the letter as the Israelites did with the mystic pillar of old. They do not steal, nor kill, nor outwardly break the Sabbath, because they find a written prohibition. Were it possible to blot out the writing, or to convince them that it had not the Divine signature, they would feel their obligation considerably reduced. On the contrary, those who have the religion of love think more of the Langiver than the law. Their filial affection induces them to anticipate their Father's commandment. Were the written decalogue abrogated, they would not be less holy. They are in love with the Lawgiver, and, sympathetically, every feeling pulsates, and every power moves, with him; subjectively, they are "not under law, but under grace."

The grand object of the apostle, in this epistle, is to expose the worthlessness of a mere law-religion. It would seem that some Judaizing teachers had entered the Galatian church, and endeavoured to reproduce the old law-spirit-to enthrone the "letter" once more. After a variety of argument and expostulation on the subject, our apostle proceeds to illustrate the advantage of the love-religion enjoined by the gospel over the law-religion enjoined by the code, by a reference to the two sons of Hagar and Sarah. He does not say that Hagar and Sarah, with the son of each, were raised up to prefigure

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that whereof he speaks, but he uses it as an "allegory" illustration of the grand subject in hand. We regard him as using Sarah and Hagar to represent the two grand outward economies -the law and the gospel; and Isaac and Ishmael to represent the two grand inward religious states-the legal and the loving; which these outward economies respectively produced.

Let us now proceed to indicate the contrasts between the religion of law and that of love, which this " allegory" suggests.

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I. THERE IS A CONTRAST BETWEEN THEIR EXTERNAL CAUSES. Both these inward spiritual states have an outward cause. The mind is ever dependent upon the outward for its suggestions and development. There is but one mind in the universe that can live upon itself, and that is the mind of God. As Hagar was the mother of Ishmael, so mount Sinai, in Arabia," the law, is the instrumental cause of the legal religion; and as Sarah was the mother of Isaac, so "Jerusalem, which is above," the gospel, is the instrumental cause of this love-religion. It is not easy to see the reason the apostle had for making one woman to represent the law and the other the gospel, but it is easy to see why he regarded one system as "engendering" bondage, and the other as producing spiritual freedom. The grand point of contrast between the two systems is this-the one appeals to fear, the other to love. In the one system the earth quakes beneath you, "the thick cloud" overshadows you, thunders peal around you, and terrible lightnings dart from every point of heaven. "So terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." In the other system the sun shines brightly, "and

* An allegory is "a figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another subject resembling it in its properties and circumstances. The principal subject is thus kept out of view, and we are left to collect the intention of the writer or speaker by the resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject. Allegory is in words what hieroglyphics are in painting. We find an example of an allegory in the eightieth psalm."-Webster.