The greatest army of the ancient world was checked by a few hundred men; the hosts of a modern spoiler were swept away by the winter snowdrifts. But the power of which we speak would be beyond the wildest dreams of ambition. It would be in sober earnest a universal empire.

2. He commands the whole world's wealth. He who in the wantonness of an insane prodigality expended the revenue of an entire province on a single supper, made a display of wealth which might fairly be called exhaustless. Yet it sinks into insignificance when compared with what is suggested here.

3. He gains command of all the pleasures this world can yield. All quarters of the globe would minister to his enjoyment. Whatever and whoever in all the earth could serve the pleasures of the senses or of the mind he could summon around him. He could not enjoy, all these things? Certainly

not.

The story is told of an Egyptian king that, having had the announcement made to him by an oracle that he had only a year to live, he caused the palace and grounds to be lit up every night as if it were day, and so doubled the time he had on earth. But the historian forgets that the Egyptian king had to spend these nights that were turned into day in sleep! No; he cannot enjoy it all. But we may conceive it.

The question then is: What should it profit him if he thus gains the whole world, and loses his own life?

II. This is the other object-the soul or life. At once the question answers itself, and our own souls echo the answer. Not in our hours of utmost levity and carelessness can we smother the consciousness of the priceless value of the soul, or the vastness of the career that is before it. We know that the day will come when all the power, riches, honour, pleasure of the world will have ended for ever; and when that day comes the soul will be still in its prime.

If then we should be losers were we to gain the whole world and lose our own souls, let us take this plain lesson with us. Do not lose it for less.

THOUGHTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

A TRAVELLER who crosses the Alps by night sees only a foot or two before him; and he is as little alive to the extraordinary scene through which he is passing, to the beauties

which encompass, and to the risks which beset his path, as if he were walking quietly along the turnpike-road from London to Cambridge. But as the early dawn breaks upon him, he becomes aware of those mountain pinnacles which tower above him till they hide their snow-capped summits in the very clouds of heaven; he sees the precipice which yawns at his very feet; he becomes conscious of dangers of which he had previously no idea; and he is grateful to the morning light which certainly has discovered to him a vision of unsuspected beauty, and which probably has saved him from an untimely death. And what is the question of our blessed Lord in the text, but the very light of Heaven itself, bringing out into sharp relief the real conditions of our personal existence !-H. P. LIDDON.

WHEN the steamer London was lost some years ago on the English coast, among the many sad tales told in connection with the shipwreck, I recollect reading of one, in some respects the saddest of all. When the condition of the ship was hopeless, one of the passengers had gone down to his cabin, which was already under water, and had with some difficulty found his trunk, which he had carried up to the deck. The captain, who was standing by, waiting in silence for the inevitable catastrophe, shook his head as he saw what the poor man had done. He had saved his trunk ; his life would be gone in a moment.-W. MATURIN.

WE know the force and majesty of the thoughts of Pascal. The realms of space and the worlds in them are full of grandeur in his philosophy; but there is one thing compared with which all this vast material universe is nothing. "All the bodies, the stars, the firmament, the earth and all its kingdoms, are not worth one soul; for that soul knows both itself and them, and they know nothing.”—J. B. MOZLEY.

You may be as ignorant and as rude in your life as a Hottentot, and as poor as Lazarus, and yet have gained the world and lost your life. For this is not merely a question of the things which you acquire by your exchange, it is a question of the law under which you put yourself, of the moral quality of the end which you seek.-M. R. VINCENT,

AN aged Christian once asked a young man who was just entering business and laying out his plans for life, "What are you going to do? You are about to settle in business, I understand." "Yes." "And what do you intend then? "I shall marry.” "And what then?" "I hope to make a fortune. "And what then?" "I shall enter public life." "And what then?" "I hope that I may make a family reputation." "And what then?" "Well, I suppose

I shall grow old and young man was silent. -H. P. LIDDON.

die." "And what then?" The He had never looked so far ahead.

SUPPOSE you should buy a beautiful flask of some precious cordial, with the understanding that there was a secret leak in the flask which you could not find nor stop, and through which the precious liquid was slowly trickling away. Would

"WHAT shall it profit?" He condescends with amazing love to the language of man's self-interest. He appeals to the business-like instinct of those whose every energy is devoted to gaining a livelihood, or to making a fortune; and I am bold enough to say, that Christ seems to address Himself with pointed emphasis to the peculiar temper and instinct of us-the English people. "What shall it profit?" It is a question which comes home to a race like ourselves, who are described in an unfriendly phrase, yet with sub

stantial accuracy, as "a nation of shopkeepers."-H. P. LIDDON.

WHEN Goethe said that " earnestness is life," his genius discerned one of the watchwords of the opening nineteenth century, even if his heart did not prompt the utterance. We cannot be earnest merely because we admire the quality of earnestness. We can only be earnest if we have a conviction-an object. Now, I can conceive nothing more calculated to make a man thoroughly earnest about religion than daily repetition to himself, daily reflection upon the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the text. I would venture to advise every single person to ask each morning and each evening for one month this question: "What shall it profit me if I shall gain the whole world, and lose my own soul?"-H. P. LIDDON.

I.

I.

Acts xiv. 8-22.

WORK AMONG THE GENTILES.

Steadfastly beholding him." The expression is a favourite one with St. Luke when speaking of St. Paul. Does it mean that the apostle had some defect of vision, and had to strain his eyes to see?

2. "In the speech of Lycaonia” (ver. 11), which Paul and Barnabas did not understand. Thus it is clear that the Pentecostal gift did not secure the knowledge of foreign languages.

3. "Which was before their city"-whose temple was at the city gate. Jupiter was their guardian god.

THE lesson before us to-day is full of incident, and so will easily secure the attention of the children. Its divisions are these

1. The Cure of the Cripple.-As there would be very few Jews in Lystra, there could have been no synagogue, and so Paul would take his stand in the most frequented place, and begin to preach the gospel. That was just the place for a cripple beggar to be. As Paul preached, the cripple heard. He heard and he listened. He listened ever more eagerly, till the apostle saw that this Gentile had something of the faith of that other of whom our Lord said, "O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." The first gift was bodily healing; but it was given because of faith, and the same faith no doubt secured the health and life of the spirit. Shall we not think of this cripple as one of the "disciples" who stood round the apostle when the people had stoned him till they thought him dead?

2. The arrested Sacrifice. The cure of the cripple had been instantaneous, and it had been complete. The people could not overlook it, and they had no inclination to do so. They even regarded it as the mighty power of God; for these rude Lycaonians agreed, with the cultured Pharisee, that "no man can do these miracles except God be with him." And they proceeded to offer sacrifice. But it must not be. Jesus did not refuse Nicodemus's homage, nor Thomas's plainer "My Lord and my God." But Paul and Barnabas do everything in the name of Another. "Why do ye look so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk ?"

3. The Sermon.-St. Luke does not report any of the sermons which the cripple heard. But this was now an unusual occasion, and to some extent an unusual sermon, and he gives a short abstract of it. What are its points? (1) There is one God, and all other "gods are idols dumb. (2) He is the Maker of all things, and He made them for a witness. "The heavens declare the glory of God," and we must answer for it if we deny the evidence which they furnish. (3) This witness was "in times past' the clearest of all; but it is

not so now.

4. The Stoning and the Resurrection.—The people were fickle, and the Jews from Antioch and Iconium were clever and cunning. They persuaded the people, not that the miracle had never been performed, that was beyond them,-but that it was done by the power of the devil, no doubt. And then these Jews took the leading hand in stoning St. Paul, for stoning was a Jewish mode of punishment. They dragged him out and left him

for dead. Was he dead? We cannot tell for certain. But some do read it as if he were, and that his rising was a resurrection from the dead. It was a resurrection in any case. For at the least he was on the brink of the grave, and yet he got up and walked into the city as if he never had been hurt.

ILLUSTRATIONS.-A Christian Hindoo was dying, and his heathen comrades came around him and tried to comfort him by reading some of the pages of their theology; but he waved his hand, as much as to say, "I don't want to hear it." Then they called in a heathen priest, and he said, “If you will only recite the Numtra it will deliver you from hell." He waved his hand, as much as to say, "I don't want to hear that." Then they said, "Call on Juggernaut.” He shook his head, as much as to say, "I can't do that." Then they thought perhaps he was too weary to speak, and they said, "Now, if you can't say 'Juggernaut,' think of that god." He shook his head again, as much as to say, "No, no, no." Then they bent down to his pillow, and they said, "In what will you trust?" His face lighted up with the very glories of the celestial sphere as he cried out, rallying all his dying energies, "Jesus!"

Roberts tells us that "when the gods are taken out in procession in India, their necks are adorned with garlands, with which the priests also are decorated. On all festive occasions men and women wear their sweet-scented garlands, and the smell of some of them is so strong as to be offensive to an Englishman. Does a man of rank offer to adorn you with a garland? it is a sign of his respect, and must not be refused. In the latter part of 1832 I visited the celebrated pagoda of Rami-seram, the temple of Ramar. As soon as I arrived within a short distance of the gates, a number of dancing girls, priests, and others came to meet us with garlands. They first did me the honour of putting one around my neck, and then presented others for Mrs. Roberts and the children."

When the French ambassador visited the illustrious Bacon in his last illness, and found him in bed with the curtains drawn, he addressed this fulsome compliment to him: "You are like the angels of whom we hear and read much, but have not the pleasure of seeing them." The reply was the sentiment of a philosopher, and language not unworthy of a Christian: "If the complaisance of others compares me to an angel, my infirmities tell me I am a man."

II.

Acts xv. 12-29.

THE APOSTOLIC COUNCIL.

I. "Simeon" (ver. 24). This is St. James's very Jewish way of expressing St. Peter's name.

2. "As it is written" (ver. 16). The quotation is from Amos; but it is taken from the Greek (LXX.) version, not from the Hebrew, and it does not follow even the Greek version quite closely.

3. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world" (ver. 18). That is to say, this was God's

THIS lesson differs greatly from the last. It contains very little incident or action; and the subject of it is one which has long since ceased to be of practical interest.

1. Let us first speak of the meeting. Paul and Barnabas have returned from their first missionary journey and gone up to Jerusalem. There is joy over their success. But the joy is mixed with doubt and hesitation. For the Jewish Christians are not sure that it was right of them to preach the gospel to Gentiles, and accept them without circumcision into the Church. Some are quite sure it was not right. So a council is called. The apostles and elders are there, and James the brother of our Lord presides. Then Paul and Barnabas tell their story, and there are other speeches, and then James sums up and gives the final decision.

2. St. James's decision. The apostles have won. The Jewish opponents are silenced. St. James, who is emphatically the apostle of the circumcision, decides that the Gentiles shall be accepted into the Christian Church without circumcision. And a letter is sent to the disciples at Antioch with that good news.

3. There were restrictions, however. The Gentiles must abstain from meat offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication. The first three were necessary for the sake of their Jewish brethren; the last is binding always. And how necessary the last injunction was, they know who read the Greek and Roman historians. Fornication was even reckoned a religious duty in many places; in very few was it counted much of a sin. But it was a heinous sin in the sight of God. And it witnesses to the truth of the revelation which was given to the Jews, that they of all the nations on the face of the earth did abstain from fornication.

ILLUSTRATIONS.-Mr. M'Laren and Mr. Gustart were both ministers of the Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh. When Mr. M'Laren was dying, Mr. Gustart paid him a visit, and put the question to him, "What are you doing, brother?" His answer was, "I'll tell you what I am doing, brother. I am gathering together all my prayers, all my sermons, all my good deeds, all my ill deeds; and I am going to throw them all overboard, and swim to glory on the plank of free grace."

A New Zealand girl was brought over to England to be educated. She became a true Christian. When she was

about to return, some of her playmates endeavoured to dissuade her. They said, "Why do you go back to New Zealand, you are accustomed to England now? You love its shady lanes and clover-fields. It suits your health. Besides, you may be shipwrecked on the ocean. You may be killed and eaten by your own people. Everybody will have forgotten you.” "What!" she said, do you think I could keep the good news to myself? Do you think that I could be content with having got pardon, and peace, and eternal life for myself, and not go and tell my dear father and mother how they can get it too? I would go if I had to swim there!"

When Paulinus, the Christian missionary, asked our Anglo-Saxon fathers to embrace his faith, an old warrior rose up in the national assembly, and argued thus before the king: "On some dark night, O king, when the storm was abroad, and rain and snow were falling without, when thou and thy captains were seated by the warm fire in the lighted hall, thou mayest have seen a sparrow flying in from the darkness and flitting across the hall, and passing out into the darkness again. Even so, O king, appears to me the life of men upon the earth. We come out of the darkness, we shoot across the lighted hall of life, and then go out into the darkness again. If this new doctrine can tell us aught of this darkness, and of the soul of man which passes into it, let it be received with joy."

III.

Luke ii. 8-20.

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

I. "This shall be a sign unto you: ye shall find the babe " (ver. 12). The Authorised Version is singularly unfortunate here. "This shall be the sign unto you: ye shall find a babe "-that is the correct rendering; and how great the difference!

2. "On earth peace" (ver. 14). Not peace such as the world gives. "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world gives, give I unto you." It was said when He was on the way to Gethsemane and Calvary.

1. THE keynote of this Christmas lesson is joy, "Good tidings of great joy" is the strong and striking announcement made to the shepherds. And it was more striking than we now understand or can conceive. About this time the world was very sorrowful. Men-even the best men-were losing all faith in God, in such a God as they knew; and, as a consequence, they were losing all trust in their fellow-men. Some rushed into pleasure to drown sorrow, and the games which had

become so passionate and absorbing a pursuit of the Roman populace were one of the saddest spectacles the world has ever seen. Some rushed into early death by debauchery; some chose the gate of suicide. The world was full of sorrow.

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2. But what was this gospel of great joy? It was that a Babe had been born. This shall be the sign unto you: ye shall find a babe." The shepherds could not easily be persuaded that the world, which had become so weary, would experience this great joy. They required a sign. What sign showest thou? they seemed in their hearts to ask the angel. His answer is unexpected enough. "This shall be the sign unto you: ye shall find a babe."

3. Thus from the very first preaching of the gospel-for this is the earliest gospel sermon— faith has been needed to accept it. How easy for the shepherds to scoff! "A babe!" they say. "You spoke of a Saviour; you named Him Christ the Lord, and now you tell us to find a babe!" But they took the angel's word for it, that this Babe was Christ the Lord. Their faith sent them to the manger to see. Their faith

saved them.

4. "Saviour Lord;" in these two words the gospel lies. One points to sin, the other points to surrender of heart. Both are needed to a full gospel-to any gospel at all.

ILLUSTRATIONS.-When the messengers of the Pope told Cincinnatus of his elevation to the office of a dictator, they found him at his plough; and when his term of office had expired, he returned to that humble occupation. So, if you expect visits from angels, they will most likely come while in the discharge of everyday duties; attention to daily duties cannot but command the highest blessings.

Gibbon, writing of Timour, a great conqueror of the East, refers to the millions of victims he sacrificed to the establishment of peace and order. What a contrast to the work of Christ! He, to restore peace to a disordered universe, sacrificed no life but His own; and the results are so grand and glorious, that each soul affected by them may well invoke blessings on His gentle sway.

In the Polar regions, towards the time at which the longabsent sun is to reappear, the inhabitants climb the loftiest hills; and when the first beams of the welcome sun are seen, they hasten with delight to tell their neighbours, exclaiming, "Behold the sun! behold the sun!" Shall not we imitate them and the shepherds by telling others of Jesus?

THROUGH

CHRIST

T. R. BIRKS, M.A. (Bell. 8vo, pp. 401. Ios. 6d.) "The hypotheses," to quote Professor Salmon for a moment, "which have been used to account for the close agreement of the Synoptic Evangelists in so much common matter are threefold. (1) The evangelists copied one from another, the work of him whom we may place first having been known to the second, and these two to the third. (2) The evangelists made use of one or more written documents which have now perished. (3) The common source was not written but oral, the very words in which apostles had first told the story of the Saviour's works having been faithfully preserved by the memory of different disciples."

Canon Birks held the first of these three hypotheses. His son and editor states his position with admirable clearness and brevity thus: "The principal points maintained are, first, that the order of the evangelists is that of our present Bibles-St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, St. John. Secondly, that each writer wrote with a reference to those that had preceded him. Thirdly, that from a careful examination of the Chronology of the Acts, approximate dates may be assigned to the several authors. And fourthly, that each writer had a special class of hearers in view, a special purpose in his composition, a special aspect of the One Life to bring into new prominence."

Canon Birks' position is not popular to-day, as his editor rightly notes. But that is no evidence that it will not be popular to-morrow. So fairly is English scholarship divided between the oral and the documentary hypotheses, and yet so irreconcilable are these two theories, that a place may any day be sought for a third, and it may easily be predicted that that can only be some modification of the late Canon Birks' view. We have already emphatically approved of the republication of the work.

last volume of Professor Gretillat's Systematic Theology has been issued, and a copy has reached us for review. The whole work consists of four volumes. This is the second in order of method, though the last in execution. It covers the two subjects of Apologetics and Canonicity. To say that it is the least interesting and even the least satisfactory, is not so much to disparage this volume as to exalt the other three. The subject here does not offer itself so unreservedly to Professor Gretillat's special method of exposition, nor does Professor Gretillat himself seem to find the same delight in it. His theology is that which we now recognise by the name of "Biblical." He cleaves close to the written Word. Moreover, he finds one great idea carried through the written Word, an idea that is the very spirit which informs the body of the Scripture. That idea. is Salvation. Manifestly, therefore, Professor Gretillat's love- the love of his heart and soul, and strength and mind-is given to the first part of the fourth volume, which deals with Soteriology.

Professor Gretillat's book is worthy to stand beside the works of his great friend and colleague, Professor Godet. French Protestantism has not given us so strong and true a book in this department of study within the present generation, at the least.

DRYBURGH EDITION OF THE WAVERLEY NOVELS. VOL. I. WAVERLEY. (4. & C. Black. 8vo, pp. 498. 5s.) The great feature of this new edition is, of course, the illustrations. Each volume has been put into the hands of a capable artist who will produce a series of about ten full-page illustrations. But the difficulty must be very great. For who has ever succeeded with any of our greatest classics? Who has illustrated Bunyan, though Bunyan seems to lend himself so readily to effective illustration? The illustrations here are well conceived and well engraved. But, after all, the volume itself is the best of it. The volume is, indeed, most attractive, of handsome size, beautifully printed on excellent paper, and a very triumph of the binder's art.