By Love or by Fear.

MALACHI iii. 7.

"Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?"

OUR life in this world, if there be in it health or hope, is, in subMost stance, a returning to God. of us are like wayward children, following the road for a while, then straying; anon recovering it, and, with repentance, proceeding. So, all the life through, we are returning to God; lapsing here and there; erring and straying like lost sheep; finding the way back, we often wonder how; and so, as for our general direction, working a slow course, toward final safety, through the temptations and dangers of the track by which we go.

But it says in the text: "Wherein shall we return?" The question suggests some thought on motives which may act to lead men back to God. How shall they that are astray be brought home? By what shall they be persuaded to seek the Lord? If we, one by one, grow lax, cold, and hard; if, becoming careless, we fall below the mark, how shall we rise again?

There are two great motives that can keep men near to God, and keep God's name in honour in the world. It is true of men, one by one; it is true of men in society. Were both those strong moral and spiritual forces to fail at once, the race would pass, for the time, under the shadow of an eclipse. Those two motives are Love and Fear the Love of God for His Mercy, the Fear of God for His Justice. Either of these may save a man; either may keep a race alive and strong; but where neither exists, in the individual spirit, or in the public general consciousness, darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people."

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I. THE FIRST GRAND MOTIVE TO DRAW MAN TO GOD IS THE LOVE OF GOD.

With the heart we lay fast hold on Him, as the Father, and the Saviour. This is the first of motives, and the noblest: cold must be that soul which this fire cannot warm. God calls Himself our Father; the word includes His act in giving us our being, His providence which keeps, upholds, and blesses us day by day. God, as Creator, Ruler, and Governor, asks of us our love. But again, He reveals Himself as God our Saviour. He who brought us back when we had gone astray, and reconciled the world unto Himself. That relation of Redeemer-God is so wonderful, that what went before is often forgotten. The symbol of the mighty, all-constraining Love, is, and must ever be, the Cross. God's love for us is manifested in countless ways besides, but that way seems to make all other ways little; it amazes, it astounds.

II. THERE IS ONE OTHER MOTIVE TO BRING MEN TO GOD; IT IS THE LOWER MOTIVE OF FEAR.

Not merely the fear of punishment; that is common to all; even bad men when they sin count it among possibilities that they may suffer punishment: the dread of that does not stay them. Nor the fear of suffering; we all suffer, first or last, and men can face that, and come through it, not altogether badly, when helped by material or immaterial anodynes such as are at hand. The Fear that may bring a man to his senses, and so to God, is a deeper dread than that of a suffering which can be alleviated, or a punishment that will end. It is the fear of irreparable disaster, of everlasting loss. That, men cannot face. That is the dread of dreads.

But there are those in whom is no such dread; they do not feel the lov

of God, they cannot be shaken by the fear of God. I ask what next? What other motive can you name, when both these fail? There is no answer. Show us the man who neither loves God nor fears God: who finds in his present life nothing to inspire thankfulness, and in the uncertainties of the dim future nothing to awaken alarm; and in his case our resources are at an end. Let him take his way, and let the Almighty decide what shall be done with him at the last.

But what will men do when fallen so low? Let us consider. Can love and fear die out of the heart? Never. The love and fear of God can die; but love and fear of something will remain. Toward what shall these direct themselves? Nothing is left above man: he has built up a wall between himself and heaven, Love and fear live on their objects are no longer high objects, but low. They are no longer spiritual instincts, raising and ruling us; they are earthly passions and human appetites, centering in ourselves. When man will no longer love God, he must come to loving himself; and when it comes to loving himself, his main fear is lest, in that selflove, he should be interfered with or balked. He loves his ease, his pleasure, and those persons things in life which minister to his content and satisfaction: no high and disinterested passion is left, but all is personal and mean: the apprehensions which sway him, are dread of the loss of power, of sickness or of poverty; dread of not being able to keep what one has; dread of the blank, chill future; dread of the hour of death, not for that which it hides, but for the end which it sets to all. Such men are everywhere about us; wrapped up in their own thoughts, projects, and pleasures.

or

Men left to themselves, forsaken and cast off by the Lord, as they have been, and will be, when their

sins are ripe for judgment, are so destructive to each other, that no agents but themselves are needed to wreak the fulness of the penalty incurred.

The world, as soon as it becomes infidel, if ever it does, -as soon as it comes to the final and formal denial of the Creator, the Saviour, and the Righteous Judge,- that world shall be its own executioner, and with sword, rack, wheel, and bonfire, with whatsoever of the formidable and frightful men can invent, shall the vengeance come. God is the shield over us all; if that shield be taken away, we are lost. There are red phantoms which society knows too well. They cannot walk out at noon; not till the light of religion fades do they venture to emerge. When that light grows dim, look for them in their place, stealing forth from their ancient haunts and gaining boldness as the atmosphere thickens. Each of those figures has its name and pedigree: expect them at the hour and in the region where you see knowledge without love, and sin without fear.

MORGAN DIx, D.D.

The Gospel Feast

LUKE xiv. 16, 17, 18.

"Then said He unto them. A certain man made a great supper and bade many : And sent his servant at supper-time to say to them that were bidden: Come for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse.'

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as the chosen people of God. They became outcasts, and the Gentile Church was accepted in their room. It is to this that this parable in the first instance refers: the rejection of the Gospel salvation by the unbelieving Jews, and the consequent invitation to all nations, kindreds, and people to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, and to be baptized into His name, that they might become the people of God.

But the parable has another application, suited to all times, and no less fitting to us now than it was to the Jews eighteen hundred years ago. The Gospel is slighted and rejected in its spirit and power, and its gracious offers of mercy are unheeded as truly and as effectually now by many among ourselves as by the Jews of old. The world at large is not more ready to embrace Christ crucified as its only life and hope now than the Jewish people were in the days of the apostles Three things are here suggested :I. WHAT THE GOSPEL INVITATION IS. It is set forth under the similitude of a certain man, who made a great supper and bade many, and sent his servants at supper-time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready. The leading idea of the Gospel is, not that something is required of us, but that an immense gift is offered to us. We are told that God has made vast preparations for the happiness and salvation of mankind; that for four thousand years these preparations were going on; that at last all has been accomplished that was necessary to deliver man from the curse and death, and to open to him the gates of life; and that now it only remains for each individual to lay hold of and appropriate to himself the great salvation. 'Come, for all things are now ready.'

What is the gift of salvation which we are invited to come and partake of? It is the deliverance of our souls from the second death; it is

the gift of righteousness or justification before God; the pardon of all our sins, be they red like crimson, and more than the hairs of our head in number. It is adoption into the family of God, so as to become his sons and daughters; it is sanctification, or the new creation of the soul in the image and likeness of God's holiness; it is a title to the inheritance of the saints in everlasting glory, and a share in the resurrection of the just, when they shall awake, and come forth from their graves clad in the beautiful garments of salvation, and take their place among the children of light around the throne of God. It is an eternal feast, an everlasting rest, an imperishable kingdom, an uninterrupted joy in the glorious city of our God.

What are the means, the costly preparation, by which God has provided such a great salvation, and placed it within the reach of man? He has sent His only begotten Son into the world, in the likeness of sinful flesh, to bear the sins of the world in His own body, and to make atonement for them by the shedding of His own precious blood on the cross. He has ransomed and redeemed us by providing a substitute and a surety in the person of His own well-beloved Son. He has exacted from Him what was due to our transgressions, and provided for us an inexhaustible treasury of righteousness in His merits and perfect obedience to the law of God. In His person He has visited upon us the awful wrath for sin, the vengeance of death; and in His person He bestows upon us resurrection, and life, and glory. In a word, He has washed us from sin in Christ's precious blood. All things are ready. Come. Nothing has been left undone by Christ which was needful for salvation. II. How IS THE INVITATION BY MOST RECEIVED ?

They all with one consent began to make excuse." "They

would not come." The Gospel still meets with the same neglect, and the same contempt, from numbers to whom it is preached in our day and in our land. Numberless are the excuses which men give for not repenting, for not coming to Christ, for not being saved.

With some, it is old custom and old habit which prevents them. Just as the Jews could not forsake the religion of their fathers, so they, having been brought up, perhaps, in formal religion, cannot now so far change as to admit any new light, not even the light of the Gospel of Christ. Or, perhaps, they are grown old and cannot change their opinions at their time of life; no, not to save their souls.

With others, it is pride and self

conceit that induces them to make

light of Christ's invitation to dying sinners. We are rich, say they, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. We never stole; we never committed murder; we are not drunkards or adulterers: what need to make so much ado about our souls ?

Then there is a large class of triflers; mere lovers of pleasure; mere enjoyers of the world. These

have no thought but about amusing and enjoying themselves; they cannot be brought to serious thought.

Another very large class of hearers of the Gospel who do not accept the invitation of Christ, but make excuse, are those who are prevented doing so by some favourite sin, some habitual indulgence which they will not give up. If two men meet on a very narrow plank, one must turn back and make room for the other to pass over. And so, when the holy Gospel and sin meet together in a man's heart, either the Gospel must drive the sin away, or the sin, if it remains, will keep the Gospel out. The latter case is sadly common, much more so than most people think. Have you accepted Christ's invitation? have

you come to Christ? And if not, why have you not?

III. THE CONSEQUENCE OF SLIGHTING THE INVITATION.

The lord of the feast says of those who make excuses, "None of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper." The day will come, and heaven's gates shall be thrown open and the heavenly banquet will be spread; Jesus Christ will be there; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets and holy apostles shall be there, joy in their faces, bliss in their hearts. All the humble and holy men of heart, who received the Gospel invitation in faith and love, will be there, everlasting songs and praises on their lips; but where will you be? If not at the feast of heaven

ly love, and redeeming grace, and spiritual victory, where?

BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS.

Christ, the Christian's Life.

JOHN xiv. 6.

"I am... the life."

IN the answer to the question, "What think ye of Christ?" is contained all that is of supreme interest to man. Christ came to reveal to man God, to give to the world redemption eternal life. All is embraced in Christ; all comes to us through the life of Christ. The life of the dying saint and the life of the infant believer are alike in Christ. He is the first, and will be the last. The experience of each Christian is like that of the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration who saw the Law and the Prophets, in Moses and Elijah, disappear, leaving Christ only. We may believe rite, ceremony, form, important; but we will find, at last, that all these must give way to Christ; that waiting on Christ, that coming to Christ, that yielding our hearts wholly to Him, is the sum and substance of

the saying of the old saint who said that he had not time to speculate, for Christ so absorbed his attention that he found that when he was all taken up with Christ, he was all taken up by Christ.

I. LIFE IN CHRIST.

As the life of the mother is imparted to the child, so Christ's life is imparted to the Christian. Варtism symbolizes our being born in Christ, and the Lord's Supper symbolizes our being fed by Him. Both exhibit a common life between the believer and Christ. In this lies the security of the Christian. I have in my life the life of Christ, who has declared that His life is everlasting. If you saw a rill running down a mountain side, you might wonder if that stream would not soon cease to run; but if you found out that a fountain fed it, then you could readily believe that it would keep on running, and that, whatever obstacles might cross its course, it would go on and on toward the ocean. Christ is the eternal fountain-the life of the soul. Not anything can separate us from this life. With Paul we are persuaded that "neither life nor death," etc., Rom viii. 38-39. We may not understand this, but, thank God, we may experience it. II. A LIFE ON CHRIST.

Some plants lean and grow on that on which they lean. So the life of Christ is to the Christian a support and a supply. This life is given to us through (a) the Word. The words of the Bible are life. Christ is in them. There is not a word here in which, if you go down deep enough, you will not find Christ, as there is not a spot

of ground where, if you go down deep enough, you cannot find water. This life is given to us through (b) the Sacraments. We do not value these as highly as we ought. In that marvellous 6th chapter of John we read that if we partake of Christ we shall live. This, of course, is but the outward expression of the infinite truth. There is an inward oneness with Christ revealed in the sacraments.. We can never understand this. union unless we have experienced it.. It is the coming down of the New Jerusalem into the soul, in which there is no night, no sound of sorrow. It is lying down on the bosom of Christ, where no shaft can reach us, no storm ruffle us, from which no hand can pluck us. Oh, the triumphant, the glorious experience of the child of God who has his life in Christ and on Christ! III. IT IS A LIFE FOR CHRIST.

No one can realize Christ's worth to his soul until he works for Him, until he consecrates his life to Him.. In consecration Christ is revealed.

But now, if we need compensation for a life in Christ, on Christ, for Christ, consider:

IV. A LIFE WITH CHRIST.

The entire life of the Saviour, from Bethlehem to Calvary, is, I may say, an allegory, a mould in which the Christian's life is cast. Christ was born: the Christian is born in Him, &c. We have no trial that Christ did not experience. I shall never forget a conversation I had with a brother who had been. sorely tried. Said he: My great burden filled me with anguish. I went home; I threw myself on my knees, and cried out in the bitterness of my soul to God. Suddenly the room seemed filled with light, and I heard a voice say, Son, I have borne the trial you bear. I will never leave you. I will sustain you. My burden at once rolled from me. I had spent sleep