to two questions, are here suggested, First: What is the method by which God will become consciously the Ruler of man? It will be by "His servant David." Surely here at least we can see, whatever confusion the exact words may seem to involve, as predicting "David" long after David was dead, that the Great Shepherd would be revealed in

"Great David's greater Son."

And this coming into power of the Divine Shepherd, will be by means of retribution, the "Shepherd separates the sheep from the goats in judgment," as it also will be in making Himself consciously felt in the revelations of His love—" Behold I come." "The sheep know the voice of the Good Shepherd." Second: What will be the results of God becoming consciously the Ruler of men? Evidently, from Ezekiel's visions, complete and ever-widening blessings.-

Redland, Bristol.

URIJAH R. THOMAS.

Pith of Renowned Sermons.

OLD DIAMONDS IN NEW SETTINGS.

Subject: Man Saved.

BY RICHARD BAXTER.

"Therefore being justified by faith," etc.-Rom. v. 1-5.

THE words contain a golden chain of highest blessings

bestowed by God upon all true Christians. Notice:

I. THE DIVINE METHOD OF SALVATION.

"There is

First: Faith in Christ removes the condemnation. therefore no condemnation to them," etc. It means both a general trust in God's revelations and grace, and a special trust in Jesus Christ as given by the Father's love to be the Redeemer of His people. Understanding, will, affections, risking their all upon Him. Justification is not perfection.

Homiletical Breviaries.

No. CXII.

Subject: THE INWARD THOUGHT OF THE AVARICIOUS WORLDLING. "Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling."-PSALM xlix. 11–14.

The avaricious worldling has an inward thought,” a thought that lies back behind all his other thoughts, and is a spring to them all. The passage suggests two facts concerning thisI. Their "inward thought" is ABSORBED IN WORLDLINESS. "Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names." The whole of this thought is engrossed in the world: it ignores the existence of the soul, moral responsibility, God, eternity. The world is its all in all. First: It is manifestly absurd. "Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever," etc. Such a thought the worldling would not speak out, would not give verbal utterance to: it is so preposterous that men would ridicule it. Albeit it is in them as a practical power. The interest they show in their dwelling places and possessions, the efforts they bestow upon them, the pride they take in them, all indicate an underlying thought that they will never leave them, that they "will continue for ever." It is a mad thought; but you cannot reason it away; there it remains a mighty central force in the worldling's soul. Secondly: It is outrageously ambitious. "They call their lands after their own names." They ignore all the preceding proprietors of the land, running back through many generations; they take no acccount of the generations that are to come, who shall occupy their territory. They forsooth label all with their own names. How monstrous this! and yet it is going on everywhere. II. Their “inward thought" is CRUSHED BY DESTINY. 'Nevertheless man being in honour"—that is, possessing all these things-" abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish." Destiny-stern, resistless, and relentless destiny-says to the ambitious worldling, Thou shalt not

stand where thou art, thou shalt be brought to a level with the beasts of the field. "Like sheep thou shalt be laid in the grave; and death shall feed on thee."

CONCLUSION: Destiny goes to the inward thought of the holy and the good, smiles on it, encourages it, realizes it; but against the inward thought of the avaricious worldling it stands up with an unconquerable and all crushing hostility. When a man's “inward thought " bears him against eternal realities, his whole soul is like the waves of the sea, everlastingly dashing against rocks.

No. CXIII.

Subject: WHAT WE CARRY OUT OF THE WORLD.

"We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out."-1 TIMOTHY Vi. 7.

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Underlying these words are these facts,—that we came into the world, and that we must go from the world. We were not always here: a few years ago and we were not. We shall not always remain here: a short time hence, and the places “that now know us will know us no more for ever." We are strangers and pilgrims," etc. There is a sense in which the text is true, and there is a sense in which it is not true. I. There is a sense in which it Is true. It is true that we can carry nothing of our material possessions out of the world. We must leave behind our homes, our business, our property, our very bodies. This is, First: A fact the most obvious. Secondly: A fact the most practically disregarded. II. There is a sense in which it is NOT true. There are certain things which we did not bring with us, but which we shall carry away with us. First: Our memories. We came without recollections, we shall carry thousands away. Secondly: Our responsibilities. We came without responsibilities, we shall carry loads away. Thirdly: Our characters.

We came without

a character, we shall carry one away. Fourthly: Our true friendships. We came without true friendships, we shall carry many away. Fifthly: Our true sources of spiritual joy. Powers of holy meditation, hopes of approaching good, communion with the Infinite Father, etc., and all these we shall carry away with us.

CONCLUSION: : Acquire during your short stay here those blessed things that you will carry with you beyond the grave, and that will brighten and bless your being for ever.

The Chief Founders of the Chief Faiths.

Around no men, amongst all the millions of mankind, does so much interest gather as around the Founders of the Chief Religious Faiths of the world. Such men are sometimes almost lost in the obscurity of remote ages, or of the mystery with which they surrounded themselves or their early followers invested them. But whenever they can be discerned, their characters analysed, and their deeper experiences understood, they are found to be, not only leaders and masters of the multitudes who have adopted more or less of their creed and ritual, but also interpreters (more or less partial) of the universal yearnings of the soul of man. Such men may have seemed to sit at the fountains of human thought and feeling, and to have directed or have coloured the mysterious streams; but they have quite as often indicated in their doctrines and in their deeds the strong courses of the thoughts and feelings which are more permanent and deeper than any one man or even any one age could completely discover. The aim of these papers will be, with necessary brevity, to review the chief of such men, noting suggestively rather than exhaustively, their biography, their circumstances, their theology, and their ethics. And in concluding the series, it is proposed to compare and to contrast each and all of them with the "One Man whom in the long roll of ages we can love without disappointment, and worship without idolatry, the Man Christ Jesus."

PRINCIPAL BOOKS OF REFERENCE.-Max Müller's "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature," "The Science of Language," "Chips from a German Workshop;" Rev. F. D. Maurice's " Religions of the World; " Archdeacon Hardwick's "Christ and other Masters;" Rev. J. W. Gardner's "Faiths of the World;" Miss Mary Carpenter's "Last Days of Rammohun Roy;" Rev. F. W. Farrar's "Witness of History to Christ;" Rev. A. W. Williamson's "Journey in North China;" Cannon Liddon's Bampton Lecture on "Our Lord's Divinity;"Cousin's "History of Modern Philosophy; " S. Clarke's "Ten Great Religions;" Father Huc's "Christianity in China,"

No. IX.

Subject: Mahomet, his Times and their Circumstances.

AHOMET, or, as he is equally widely called, Mahommed,

is among the Mightiest of the Religious Mighties of the world. The epoch and the land into which he was born favoured the special work he accomplished. Thomas Carlyle well answers those who attribute entirely Mahomet's success to the sword, by saying, "Before you convert with the sword, you must first get your sword." A glance at the A glance at the age and the surroundings of this great Arabian may help us to understand how he won the power he wielded, and the tremendous influences of which are still manifest in the present place and power of Islamism in the world. About the year 570 of our era, which was the birthtime of this man, the Arabs were living, as they had for ages, almost unnoticed by the world.

Their ancient religion had been, as Renan, Hallam, and others have proved, a strict monotheism. But it had lapsed into idolatry. The whole world seemed to him to be mad upon their idols. Christianity itself, with its professed adherence to the worship of the true God, had become extensively idolatrous, both in the Eastern and Western Churches. So, though in Arabia there were, at the time of his appearance, Christian tribes, Jewish tribes, pagan tribes, idolatry was too much favoured by them all. The more superstitious of the people had been divided largely between the pagan sects: the Isabians, who were worshippers of images; and the Magians, who were worshippers of fire. Thus the worship of the one supreme God, termed by them Allah, was interwoven with much polytheism, not the least popular form being adoration of angels and of men. It is evident, "that a vague syncretism was very common, and there was a yearning for something more simple, definite, and dogmatic." Four of the Koreish,—the chief tribe of the time, to which also Mahomet belonged, had already tried to amend matters. Three of these had become Christians; but the fourth, Zayd, was a clear forerunner of Mahomet, both in his war with idolatry and his proclamation of Monotheism. The many tribes, often at war with each other, were interwoven in their interests by a busy merchandise, and by the periodical religious pilgrimages that brought them together at Mecca. Thither, indeed, their commerce and their religion drew them-the black stone under the Caabah attracting for the latter, and the products of Syria, Egypt, and Italy attracting for the former purpose. Perhaps, nevertheless, it is said as truly as it is eloquently, "that they were held mainly together by the inward indissoluble bond of a common blood and language." Certainly it was true among all of them, to use again Carlyle's words, that "Their idolatries appear to have been in a tottering state; much was getting into confusion and fermentation among them; obscure tidings of the most important event ever transacted in this world-the Life and Death of the Divine Man in Judæa, at once the symptom and cause of