better than money :-IV. BECAUSE IT GIVES US BETTER HOMES. Money can give you very fine houses. But it cannot give you a building of God, an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens." The Bible can. Well then might the Psalmist exclaim, in looking up to the author of such a wonderful book, "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.”

J. DUNLOP.

SUBJECT:-Gethsemane; the Two-fold Crisis.

"Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out."-John xii. 27-31.

Analysis of Homily the Five Hundred and Second.

ALL things have their crises—some periods which determine a new course in their history. Inanimate nature has its crises. It has periods when it seems to oscillate between opposite points. There are times when the subterranean fires seem to hesitate as to whether they shall burst into fury, cleave the mountains, or decline-times when the storms of heaven reach a point, and they either rise to greater fury or die away. The various strata of the earth indicate the critical periods to which material nature has ever been exposed. All life has its crises. Every living creature has its critical periods. Indeed all life is but a perpetual oscillation between health and sickness, life and death. Human history has its crises. In the life of the individual man they are found. "There is a tide in the affairs of man.' There are moral moods on which the destiny of souls depend. In the investigations of science, in the progress of empires, and in the march of commerce, critical periods are manifest.

The passage brings to our notice two of the most important crises that have ever occurred in the history of man—a crisis in the mediatorial history of the Son of God, and a crisis in the spiritual history of our fallen world.

Here is :

I. A CRISIS IN THE MEDIATORIAL HISTORY OF THE SON OF GOD. "Now is my soul troubled, &c." The Saviour at this moment seemed to hesitate as to whether He should recede or advance. He had reached a point when some change seemed inevitable. This crisis suggest four facts in relation to this trying juncture in Christ's history.

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First: It was caused by mental suffering. As yet there were no wounds inflicted on His body-the hand of violence had not as yet touched His physical frame. "Now is my soul troubled," He says. The sufferings of the body are not to be compared to the sufferings of the soul. The soul has the power to bear away physical sufferings, and to make the man unconscious of them. Martyrs have sang in the flames, &c. "But a wounded spirit who can bear." Christ's mental suffering, however, had none of the elements which enter into the miseries of the sinful mind. Remorse, envy, malignity, despair, which burn in the bosom of the lost, had no place in His holy nature. His mental sufferings were, (1) The sufferings of a perfectly holy, and exquisitely susceptible, nature in view of crime. In proportion to the purity of a mind will be the poignancy of the pain which the view of sin inflicts. Lot's mind was "grieved." Paul's spirit was "stirred." Jeremiah would "weep fountains of water," &c. (2) The sufferings of an exquisitely tender, and benevolent, nature in view of misery. This He manifested when He wept over Jerusalem. Christ saw the world as no other being ever saw it-lying in the wicked one. His intellect could grasp the whole history of all sins. (3) The sufferings of a merciful Saviour endured on behalf of humanity. "He was wounded for our transgressions," &c. He suffered "the just for the unjust," &c.

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Suppose the whole history of one sin made known to a holy soul,-its rise, progress, and bearings, upon the universe, as well as upon the individual,—the tremendous woes and miseries it would produce, what agony would it give to that soul. But Christ saw the agonies which would spring from every sin of every man. These sufferings brought Christ's soul to a crisis-and what a crisis!

Secondly: This crisis developed the trial of His principle. It was only for a moment that He seemed to hesitate between His sufferings and His engagements. His mind soon passed into its wonted determination. "Father glorify thy name," &c. Not, Father take away my sufferings,-not, Father deliver me from this woe,-but, "Father, thy will be done." In this we should imitate Him. "Thy will be done," should be our prayer.

It

Thirdly This crisis displays the power of prayer. was by prayer that He came off victorious. Oh, how Christ prayed! (Luke xxii. 41, 42.)

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Fourthly This crisis furnished a true theory of His history. "It is for your sakes." Those who were present could not determine what the voice was. "For your sakes," this explains Christ's history. Without this, (1) You cannot harmonize His sufferings as an innocent being with the justice of the Divine Government. Without this (2) You cannot harmonize His dread of death with His assurance of a happy future. "It is for your sakes." For you He drank the bitter cup, &c.

Here is :

II. A CRISIS IN THE SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF OUR FALLEN WORLD. "Now is to come," &c. Satan is here called "the prince of this world," and Paul called him "prince of the power of the air," &c. He leads the world captive at his will. From the Bible we learn that this being is endowed with wonderful powers. He was created pure, for Benevolence never created an unholy being. In heaven he commenced his career. He learnt his first lessons under the smiles of

infinite love and light. A high seraph for ages he stood amidst the principalities and powers of the universe,

"High in the midst of all the throng,

Satan, a tall archangel sat."

But he rebelled and became the leader of myriads, who followed his example, and ever since the introduction of sin he has been "the prince of the world."

Christ never

spoke lightly of the devil. To His eye, he appeared a being of immense energy and vast resources. But now he is to be cast out. But how would the death of Christ cast him out?

First: It would give a new force to the system of remedial truth. Satan rules by error. Error in relation to religion, error in relation to happiness, error in relation to glory. Remove these errors and you break his power. Remedial truth, it is granted, had been displayed under the old law, but in a dark and cloudy way. At Christ's death it blazed out with power. Under the law too, it came out only in statements and ceremonies-it never came out in a perfect life. After Christ's death it came out in the whole history of a perfect life. Truth embodied in a holy life is truth in its most powerful form.

Secondly It would give a wider theatre for the action of remedial truth. Truth under the law was limited, circumscribed to Judea, but after Christ's resurrection the command was given "to go into all the world," &c. Under the law it was like a flickering lamp hung up for Israel, after the death of Christ, it was planted as a sun to enlighten the world.

Thirdly: It would procure new agencies to promote remedial truth. (1) Increased its propagandism. Truth in Judea had but few advocates. But when Christ ascended up on high he gave some apostles, prophets, &c. (2) Procured the Holy Ghost. "Our gospel came not only," &c.

Learn from this subject :—

(1) The dependence of great results upon apparently trivial events. The destiny of humanity hung at one

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moment upon the expression "what shall I say." (2) The vast obligation of humanity to Christ. (3) The glorious issue of events in our world. "Satan shall fall," &c. Then our moral heavens shall be clear, salubrious, and bright.

Brothers, ponder this crisis. Whereunto shall I liken Christ's position? I think of the physician, when, the disease of his patient has reached a crisis, and when he feels that his next prescription will determine the fate of one, who is the father of a large family, or the ruler of a great people. I think of the pilot, who under the starless vault of heaven, and amid the fury of the hurricane with the foaming billows dashing against his vessel, feels, that on his next direction the fate of all on board depends! I think of the general, who, after many encounters with his foe, is determined to make another and the last; who feels that, on the calculations of that hour, the fate of armies and the existence of empires are suspended. But such crises are but as faint shadows to this crisis in Gethsemane. "What shall I say?"—It would seem as if there were an inclination to retreat; but what if He had retreated? His pledges would have been broken, all the hopes of the world would have gone out.

SUBJECT:-The Pillar of Cloud; a Symbol of the Bible.

"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: he took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." -Exodus xiii. 21, 22.

Analysis of Homily the Five Hundred and Third.

Most of

MATERIAL facts are symbols of spiritual realities; the visible is everywhere the expression of the invisible. This is especially true of the history of the Jewish nation. its outward facts were symbols of spiritual truths. emancipation, for example, from Egypt, their journey through the wilderness, and their entrance into Canaan, are striking

Their