B.C. cir. 536. gling, as it were, with the ever pealing tone of ancient Eternity, their outer churchyards, where crumbled up cast coffinboards were glimmering, while the once bright eyes that had lain in them were mouldered into grey ashes. Cold thought! clutch not like a cold spectro at my heart. I look up to the starry ingly, children are often led to feel that their parents govern them because it is their duty to do it. And there come exigencies in children's lives when they are impatient of authority at home, and when, if they are sent away from home to school, they will take the same amount of government patiently, without resisThe limbs of my buried ones tance. A person outside of the family can sometimes influence a touched cold on child when its parent can exert but little influence upon it. And my soul; I walk there are a multitude of instances where laymen can do what ed silently through little no minister can. The minister is a professional man, and people hamlets, and say, "His attention to me is not an evidence of his personal close by sympathy for me, but a matter of business." I stand here on Sunday, and preach to men, and my influence upon them is diminished by the fact that I am appointed to do it. They say, "He is hired, and the message which he delivers to us is not his own message of love. He is paid, and he labours among us on that account." A man at the bank hands you the money for your cheque. It is ten thousand dollars, and it is going to save you from bankruptcy. But you do not account him a benefactor. You express not a word of gratitude to him. He is the cashier; you hand him the cheque, and he pays you the money; he does not care for you, and you do not care for him. It is his business to hand you the money, and he does it, and that is all there is of it. And so men seem to think of a minister, salaried and apsky, and an ever-pointed to stand in the pulpit and dispense the Gospel, that he lasting chain does it professionally and as a matter of course. A business friend whose life is consistent, and whom you believe to be a good man, comes to you and says, "My friend, I do not believe anybody will tell you what you ought to know; but the fact is, you are becoming hard and selfish; you are becoming sharp and grasping. I feel it, and your friends all feel it. Probably nobody would have said this to you if I had not, and I never told "Men say their it to a soul but you, and I never would have said it to you if I pinnacles point had not been your friend. Now do not be angry with me, but SO does every just think about it." He will give heed to him. But if I should tree that buds. go to you with like message, saying, "Sir, do not you know that and every bird you are getting very worldly and very hard ?" you would think to yourself," Oh, yes, my minister gets a good salary, and feels that he has a duty to perform ;" but what effect would it have? When a man who is not paid a salary to teach you your duty, and whom you do not expect to do it, comes to you and concerns himself in your welfare, there is a freshness about it that does not belong shore. But this to mere professional service. The general feeling of men is, they have as "Let every one take care of his own business." It is very hard distinct and indisputable glory, to tell a disagreeable truth to a friend; and when a man makes -that their the self-sacrifice to do it, you feel it. And so an officer can help mighty walls an officer as a minister cannot; a business man can help a business man as a professional man cannot; a poor man can do what a rich man cannot; an ignorant man can do what a learned man cannot. There is not a man, though he is not a minister, that has not power to accomplish great results in this way. There is an opening for laymen to do this work that can be filled by none but such.g stretches thither, and over, and below; and all is life, and warmth, and light, and all is godlike, or God." -Richter. to heaven; why, that rises as it sings. Men say their aisles are good for worship; why, so is every mountain glen and rough sea were never raised, and never shall be, but by men who love and aid each other in their weakness." Ruskin. 9 H. W. Beecher. the Levites singers and porters 40-42. (40) Levites, "their office being more mechanical and material than that of the priests; they seem to have declined a Bp. Words-in religious zeal and earnestness."a Hodaviah, or Judah, called also Hodevah. (41) an.. eight, or 148.d (42) an.. nine, or 138.e Church music.-When the poet Carpani inquired of his friend Haydn, how it happened that his church music was always so cheerful, the great composer made a most beautiful reply. "I cannot," he said, "make it otherwise. I write according to the thoughts I feel; when I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen; and since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful spirit.' 43-48. (43) Nethinims, appointed by David to aid the Resort to sermons, but to prayers most: 49-54. (50) Nephusim, or Nephishesim. (52) Bazluth, or Bazlith.a Straggling from the church.-Standing one day before a beehive, Gotthold observed with delight how the little honey-birds departed and arrived, and from time to time returned home laden with the spoils of the flowers. Meanwhile a great yellow hornet-that wolf among the bees-came buzzing up in eager quest of prey. As it was eventide, and the bees, after the heat of the day, had settled about the mouth of the hive to breathe the cool air, it was amusing to observe that their fierce adversary lacked courage to attack their combined host and serried ranks. True, he often advanced for the purpose, but, seeing how densely and compactly they were sitting, was forced to retreat empty handed. At last, a bee, somewhat belated, arrived by itself; and on this straggler he instantly seized, fell with it to the earth, and dealt with it at his pleasure." b 55-60. (55) the.. servants, prob. Canaanitish labourers, whom Sol. employed, and who had bec. proselytes. In some places they seem to be included in the Nethinims. Peruda, or Perida. (57) Ami, or Amond (59) Tel-melah, Tel-harsa, names of Chaldæan cities. Addan, or Addon. they..house, hence their claim, like that of the priests, stood over till it could be settled by authority seed, pedigree. B.C. cir. 536. a worth, who adds, there is warning to the Church in the latter days." b iii. 9. c Ne. vii. 43. d Ne. vii. 44. the Nethi- a Ne. vii. 54. b Scriven. was built to dis- it does not per the Church. What kind of artillery practice would that be which declined to fire for fear of kicking over the gun-carriages, or waking up the sentinels asleep at their posts?" Beecher. the children of Solomon's servants a 1 Ki. ix. 20, 21; 2 Ch. viii. 7, 8. 6 Ne. iii. 26, 31, How to destroy a church.-To do this effectually, you must I. Discourage the pastor. II. Discourage your fellow-members.. 29. III. Destroy the confidence of the community. I. To discourage c Ne. vii. 57. the pastor-1. Absent yourself from one service every Sabbath, d Ne. vii. 59. or miss at least one in three-if he is not very strong, once in four times may answer; 2. Neglect the prayer and class meet-e Ne. vii. 61. ings; 3. Criticise your minister freely; praise him sparingly; | ƒ v. 63. B.C. cir. 536. The Albigensian war, in the beginning of the thirteenth cenmenced with the storming of Bezières, and a tury, com massacre in which fifteen thousand persons, or, according to some ac were counts, sixty nesses assure us. It was here that a Cistercian monk, who led on the Crusaders, being asked if the Catholics were to be dis tinguished from heretics, answered, "Kill them all! God will know His own." "An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I am a pepper horse." Shake corn, a brewer's speare. g Dr. Cumming. the children of the priests find fault plentifully; pray for him little or none; 4. If he proposes to hold extra meetings withhold your co-operation; 5. Give yourself no concern whether his salary is paid or not; 6. Never call on him socially, or allow him to think that his comfort or that of his family is a matter of any importance in your eyes. II. To discourage your fellow-members-1. Observe the directions given above; 2. Complain about everything they do and don't do; 3. Contrive to make yourself the head of a clique, and by their assistance and your own industry keep the church in hot water generally; 4. While doing this, lose no opportunity to complain of the bad treatment you are receiving; 5. Be as much like Diotrephes and as little like Paul as you can; 6. Discard charity and candour, take distrust to your bosom, and make scheming your specialty. III. To destroy the confidence of the community-1. Observe the foregoing directions; 2. Tell the people that you are in the church by force of circumstances, but have no respect for the way in which business is conducted; 3. Publish the faults of your brethren, taking care to magnify them; 4. Make no effort to induce people to attend the church; 5. Take no part in the labo urs of the Sunday school; 6. Publish it on all occasions that you have no confidence in the concernpredict that it must fail-go down-blow up-never can succeed. By observing these directions faithfully, you may have the satisfaction, if the church is not unusually vigorous, of witnessing the fulfilment of your predictions. Quarrels in a church.-Any physician will tell you that if there be fever in the body, if the pulse be 120 instead of 70 or 80, the body will waste and pine away. If there be the fever of ceaseless quarrels and disputations about little crotchets in a church or congregation, instead of growing it will decline; instead of advancing in its majestic mission, it will positively decay, until it die out, a suicide, having turned the weapons that ought to have been combined against the foe, against its own bosom and into its own heart.g 61–63. (61) Habaiah, prob. their ancestor mar. one of the house Barzillai, the Gileadite.a (62) sought, this shows their anxiety to be found among the children of Israel. register, i.e. the register called "the enrolled." (63) Tirshatha, Persian for 1 "governor." Here Zerubbabel is meant; a title also given to Nehemiah.b should.. things, the priest's portion. stood.. Are we as anxi-Thummim,d by wh. he would try them, and pronounce them ous that our of the line of Aaron or otherwise. a 2 Sa. xvii. 27, names should be See Mal. iii. 16. Ne. viii. 9, x. 1, xii. 26. c Le. xxii. 2, 10, 15, 16. in the Lamb's Joining the church.-Do men go to school because they know Bk. of Life, writ- so much, or because they know so little? Do men go to a ten in heaven? physician because they are sick, or do they wait until they are well, and then go? Yet to hear people speak of uniting with the church one would suppose that they thought it their duty to stay out till they were perfect, and then to join it as ornaments. They who are weak, but who wish strength; they who are ignorant, but hunger for knowledge; they who are unable to go alone, and need sympathy and society to hold them up; they who are lame, and need crutches; in short, they who know the plague and infirmity of a selfish heart, a worldly nature, a sinful life, and who desire above all things to be lifted above them, have a preparation for the Church! If you could walk without limping, why use a crutch at all! If you are already good d Ex. xxviii. 30; Nu. xxvii. 21. "The Church has a good stomach; she has swallow ed down whole enough, why go into a church? But if you are so lame that a staff is a help, so infirm that company and ordinances will aid you, then you have a right to the fellowship of the church. To unite with a church is not to profess that you are a saint, that you are good, and, still less, that you are better than others. It is but a public recognition of your weakness and your spiritual necessities. The church is not a gallery for the better exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones, a nursery for the care of weak ones, a hospital for the better healing of those who need assiduous care. Beasts of total number of the a Ne. vii. 66. b Ne. vii. 67. "Now had the childr. of Israel taken down their harps fr. the wil 64-67. (64) the.. threescore,a the total of those who came to Jerus., and prob. counted there. (65) two.. women, or 245. (66, 67) horses, etc., same as in Neh. burden to carry baggage: the vessels, and offerings, etc. Stragglers from the church.-There are stragglers in the church as well as in the army, who fall out of the ranks and are lost. Sometimes they follow the regiment for days, by the ashes of its camp-fires, and subsist as best they can on the charity of the people, and the scraps left by those in camp. They sleep anywhere, or where night overtakes them. Three such from a Minnesota regiment have just arrived, after an absence of two lows of Babylon, weeks. They fell out of the ranks from sickness and exhaustion, and could sing and were thenceforth most truly wayfarers. They dodged guerillas, unbidden the they slept in the brush, they feasted on the food left in deserted songs of Sion."Bp. Hall. camps, and finally reached a point where they could obtain transportation to their regiment. Stragglers are not always c Ne. vii. 68, 69. thus fortunate. One found his way, by the aid of a stranger, into the hospital at Sedalia. He was dying even then, and could not give his name or regiment. He was a mere boy, and unequal to the toil of marching. He was wet and cold and weary, and in a few hours died; and we buried him in a nameless grave, thinking of the fond hearts that far away would bleed for tidings of him, the absent, the missing one, never, alas! to return to them.d 68-70. (68) some.. fathers, names and gifts diff. fr. Neh.'s acc. when.. Lord, i.e. to the site on wh. it was to be built. (69) drams, Heb. darcemonim. A Pers. gold coin. (70) all Israel, those who returned, and those whom they found in the land. in.. cities, prob. allotted to them by public authority. Gifts to the Church.-The gifts of poverty are the richest gifts to the churches. I refer not now to the widows' mites, richer though they be than all the gifts of wealth, but to the gifts richer even than the widow's mite. A few years ago, on a wintry morning, a boy in the habiliments of poverty entered an old school-house among our western mountains, and avowed to the master his desire for an education. There was poverty, laying one of her richest gifts on the altar of religion. For that boy was Jonas King. On his humble shoemaker's bench Carey laid the foundation of British Baptist Missions. John Newton found in his congregation an unfriended Scotch boy, whose soul was then glowing with new-born love to Christ. He took him to see John Thornton, one of those noble merchants whose wealth, whose piety, and whose beneficence increase together. They educated him, and that boy became Claudius Buchanan, "The way to pre- d Army Corre- the offerings of the people for the work a Neh. vii. 70shows the inde 72. The differ. pendence of the lists. See Ld. A. Hervey in B. D. ii. 492. b Ne. vii. 73. c Bertheau. Use churches as not to live in. you do hotelsbut to take your food and refreshwent in, on your Father's house. The Father's house is the only place that is fit way to your for the permanent abidance of need, or that you can find all you want in it. d Dr. J. Harris. "The truth is, when we are under any affliction, we are generally troubled with a malicious kind of melancholy; we only dwell and pore whose name India will bless when the names of Clive and "In fair proportion, running from the red Every We saw two such bows, one within the other, and we fancied that we discovered traces of a third. We had looked upon such a sight but once before, and were greatly delighted with "that arch of light, born of the spray, and coloured by the sun." It was a fair vision to gaze upon, and reminded us of the mystic rainbow which the seer of Patmos beheld, which was round about the throne, for it strikes us that it was seen by John as a complete circle, of which we see but the half on earth; the upper arch of manifest glory we rejoice to gaze upon, but the lower and foundation arch of the eternal purpose, upon which the visible display of grace is founded, is reserved for our contemplation in another world. When we read in the first verse of the tenth chapter of Revelation, "I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head," it greatly assists the imagination to conceive of a manycoloured circlet, rather than a semicircle. We lingered long watching the flashing crystal, dashed and broken upon a hundred craggy rocks, and tossed into the air in sheets of foam, to fall in wreaths of spray; we should not have tired for hours if we could have tarried to admire the harmonious hues of that wheel within trees, checkered a wheel, upon the sad and dark occurrences Providence, of but never take notice of the more benign and bright ones. Our way in this world is like a walk under a row of with light and shade; and be cause we cannot all along walk in upon the darker fort of our com "Of colours changing from the splendid rose, To the pale violet's dejected hue;" the sunshine, we but we were on a journey, and were summoned to advance. therefore per- As we mounted our mule and rode silently down the pass, amid versely fix only the pine forests and the overhanging mountains, we compared passages, and so the little stream to the Church of God, which in peaceful times lose all the com-flows on like a village brook, quiet and obscure, blessed and forts; we are like blessing others, but yet little known or considered by the sons of froward children men. Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, are greater than who, if you take all the waters of Israel, and the proud ones of the earth despise one of their play- that brook which flows "hard by the oracle of God," because her things from them throw away all waters go softly and in solitary places; but when the Church the rest in spite." advances over the steeps of opposition, and is dashed adown the -Bp. Hopkins. crags of persecution, then, in her hour of sorrow, her glory is "In thy silent revealed. Then she lifts up her voice, like the sea, and roars as wishing, thy a boiling torrent, quickening her pace till that mighty river, the voiceless unuttered prayer, let river Kishon, sweeps not with such vehemence of power. Her the desire be sons and daughters are led to the slaughter, and her blood is cast cherished not abroad, like the foam of the waters, but onward she dashes with |