Themes for Week-evening Services. By Love, or by Fear. Morgan Dix, D.D. D.D. Christian Progress. E. Paxton Hood. From the Depths to the Heights. A. Grace of Gentleness, The. A. H. Twombly Gospel Feast, The. Bishop of Bath and Hiding behind others No Continuing City. F. E. Lawrence, D.D. 176 177 120 377 60 173 181 179 ings. T. Kelley 59 122 375 Thorough Amendment. T. L. Cuyler, D.D. 38 The Bible and Modern Discovery. Buried City of Pithom, The. Professor S. Egypt: Its Treasures of Art and Litera ture. 7. L. Porter, D.D. Ditto THE PREACHERS' MONTHLY: STUDIES FOR THE PULPIT. EDITOR'S SERIES. Living Words of Great Preachers. To the Glory of God. 1 COR, x. 31. "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." IN considering such exhortations as this we are never to lose sight of the essential distinctions between the design and the result of all action. For this distinction is fundamental to all moral distinctions. Design is subjective having reference to the agent; result is objective-having reference to the influence. We can, therefore, predicate morality only of design or motive; and an action may be sinful, though resulting in good; and may be virtuous, though producing great evil; because in the one case the motive was good, and in the other the motive was evil. An oversight of this principle in studying our text would lead us to serious error. The apostle is here speaking of the design or motive of conduct, and not of its results or influences. The Greek word rendered in the text, to," or "unto," denotes the intention, purpose, end, or aim of our conduct, and the spirit of the exhortation is, Do everything with an honest desire to honour Jehovah. The serious error, which we said might result from overlooking this, is the supposition that the ultimate result of all action can be other than to the divine glory. It is as evidently a truth of reason as of revelation, that all things whatsoever do work together ultimately for the glory of God, so that whether we design it or not, yet the ultimate results of conduct do all enhance the glory of God. The entire universe, as well material as moral, was made for this, and thoroughly accomplishes it. To do everything for God's glory, then, is the great law of the universe. For this the flower blooms, and the bird warbles, and the rivers murmur, and the ocean roars, and suns and systems make brilliant the firmament; and from the standpoint of celestial science all seemingly anomalous facts and antagonistic forces yield to the same law; and the thunder, and the earthquake, and the comet spreading consternation in its flight, and the awful disappearance of stars in heaven-all these, no less than the exquisite harmonies of all holy and happy worlds, are working out God's glory. VOL. I., SEPTEMBER 1884. K う And just as universally and unvaryingly is this the law of God's moral universe; all actions of all spiritual and sentient creatures work out the same divine purpose. Sin itself, the great mystery, is no exception to this rule in respect of its results. Even sin itself is working out mightily God's declarative glories—like the thick cloud on the sky, a background for His rainbows; like the black night on the firmament, revealing His stars. So far as actions in their results are concerned, Judas wrought as effectually as Paul for the glory of the Divine Son. There was, therefore, no need, so far as the ultimate and divine overruling of action was concerned, of any exhortation on Paul's part unto the Corinthians, that they should do all they did unto the divine glory. They could do it. They must do it. On the conceded principle that a righteous government is as truly honoured in suppressing crime as in encouraging good citizenship, so that its frowning prisons are as monumental of its optimism as its joyous palaces--on this patent principle, not more from the pearl-gates of the celestial city than from the dungeons of despair flash the lustres of God's attributes. Paul understood too well the ultimate results of all things in an economy which Omniscience had contrived and Omnipotence had achieved, to spend words in urging any man to bestir himself lest, peradventure, God should come short of His ultimate and infinite glory. From "the savour of death" of flowers crushed under the conqueror's chariot-wheels, as richly as from "the savour of life" of flowers worn in his chaplet of victory, rose the sweet savour of Christ in the path of Omnipotence. Oh, these moving invitations of the Gospel are not urged by Jehovah out of any fear lest He should come short of His ultimate glory. Love, love only, love omnipotent, brings the Eternal One from His throne thus pleading with rebellious mortals, that they turn and live. The apostle has reference, not to the results of action, but only to motives, when he exhorts the Corinthians in the words of the text, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." The exhortation means simply that we should live ever as in God's presence, and act ever under the inspiration of His love. In other words, that we should be sincerely religious in all things, Practically, the emphasis rests on the word "whatsoever," and is expressive of the breadth and comprehensiveness of Paul's idea of the religious life. PAUL'S NOTION OF THE ABSOLUTE CONSTANCY AND UNIVERSALITY OF THE RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE. 1. Its constancy—as a principle to be kept in every-day exercise. Our religious life is no more to be confined to Sabbaths and sanctuaries than is our eating and drinking. There are few things stranger than this practical demand in our thought of man's work and God's worship. Surely holiness to the Lord ought to be inscribed as well on the bells of our horses as on the bells of our sanctuaries; and market-places, and store-houses, and exchanges, and parlours, and drawing-rooms, and diningrooms should be places as honestly consecrated to God as these Christian sanctuaries. And all the sounds of busy civilization—the axe of the woodman, and the chisel of the stone-cutter, and the saw of the carpenter, and the noise of the wheels on the street, and the ringing of factory-bells, and the voices of trading men and visiting women, yea, the joyous laugh of manhood in its recreations, and of childhood in its noisy sports, should blend with the new song of the redeemed in heaven in harmonious hallelujah unto the glory of God. That it is not so practically, we all know. To profess religion has come |