we of the well-being of all rational, moral intelligences are more settled than the hills, as unalterable as the Divine character itself. He who here and now links misery to depravity and happiness to virtue, is the Father of the future, and He will never snap the chain. Had we been assured that the future would have been placed under the authority of a being different to Him who has managed the past and who is managing the present, might have entertained the thought that what is right now would not have been necessarily right in coming ages, and that the character that now leads to happiness or to misery would not necessarily do so in the centuries ahead. But since the authority is the same overall duration-future as well as past-there is no room to question the fact that what is sown to-day will be reaped to-morrow, and that the reaping will be according to the quantity and quality of the seed. Out of the present will always grow the future, as out of the seeds of one autumn grow the harvests of another. Would you be happy on the morrow, you must be good to-day. If your future is to be blessed, your present must be virtuous. You need not speculate about coming times and seasons. Your imagination need not brighten them into splendour or darken them into clouds. The moral principle that now rules you is a correct key to interpret all your coming states of being. And the practical lesson is III. EXPECT THE FULFILMENT OF ALL THE DIVINE PROMISES. The Bible abounds with Divine promises-promises referring to individuals and the race. It is promised in the Bible, that truth shall triumph over theoretical and practical error; and it shall work out the moral regeneration of the entire race and bring on the reign of holiness over every member and section of the human family. These promises are the bright stars inthe horizon of human hope. What ground have we to believe that these promises are to be fulfilled? Here it is,-Its Author is the Absolute Manager of all the future. He has a fixed season for the fulfilment of them all, and that season will as surely come as the seasons of the year come and go according to His promise. Do not talk of tardiness. He has plenty of time. "One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" with Him. Do not talk of difficulties. The thought of difficulty in a work where Omnipotence is concerned is a contradiction. Wait, then, patiently for the moral summer of the world. It will come. Times and seasons are with Him. Another practical lesson is :- IV. CULTIVATE THE STRONGEST LOVE FOR THE FATHER. Supreme love for Him is not only your duty, but essential to your happiness. (1) You are bound to live for ever under His control. Through all coming ages His hand will be upon you, His eye will watch you. You will live and move by His sufferance. There is no possibility of your ever escaping His notice, of your ever going beyond His inspection or influence. Ever and ever will His hand beset you behind and before. Your happiness or misery will depend upon your state of heart in relation to Him. If you hate Him, your subjection to Him will be slavery and hell; if you love Him, it will be liberty and heaven. What is slavery? It is not merely subjection to the will of another. If the slave loves his master, he obeys his mandates from his heart; however firmly bound in servitude, he is a free man. The essence of slavery is subjection to one disliked. Generate in (2) the breast of the greatest slave on earth love for his master, and you will make him truly free, although you leave intact, or indeed strengthen, all the external ties of his bondage. What will be the slavery of a soul who through all the ages of his future will feel himself in absolute subjection to one with whom his heart has no sympathy but positive hostility! This is hell. What burning anguish will be in the thought, Here am I, bound for ever to one I hate; I shall never escape His fiery glance; no trump will ever sound my jubilee! On the contrary, where supreme love is, there is the highest liberty, the highest enjoyment, in feeling that the Father is ever with you and over you. CONCLUSION:-Let us enter, then, on this year with the ennobling assurance that our future, as well as the future of the universe, is under the control of a Father, and that every wave that will break on the shore of our being is directed by His all-loving hand. I HAVE read of a lark which, when pursued by a hawk, rushed into the bosom of a traveller. He kindly lodged the little refugee until he had walked a considerable distance, and the ravenous persecutor had disappeared; then he took it from his bosom and held it on his hand for it to go free. Forthwith it soared unto the sun, and poured its grateful music from the sky. It is thus with the soul that takes refuge in God. There it will hide until the dangers are all passed, and then go forth on seraphic wings into the azure regions of liberty and light. Seeds of Sermons from the Minor Prophets. If the Bible as a whole is inspired, it is of vast importance that all its Divine ideas should be brought to bear upon the living world of men. Though the pulpit is the organ Divinely intended for this work, it has been doing it hitherto in a miserably partial and restricted method. It selects isolated passages, and leaves whole chapters and books for the most part untouched. Its conduct to the Minor Prophets may be taken as a case in point. How seldom are they resorted to for texts; and yet they abound with splendid passages throbbing with Divine ideas. It is our purpose to go through this section of the Holy Word; selecting, however, only such verses in each chapter and book as seem the most suggestive of truths of the most vital interest and universal application. We begin with HOSEA. The remembrance of some facts connected with this man will greatly help us in our endeavours to reach the meaning and feel the power of certain of his utterances. He was a native of Israel, and lived in Samaria about 700 or 800 years B. C. His prophecy seems to have embraced a period of about 60 years, from Jeroboam's death to Hezekiah's accession to the throne. He was contemporary with Isaiah, and preceded Joel, Jonah, and Amos. His prophecies are directed almost exclusively to the ten tribes, who had sunk into the deepest idolatry. His style, as a writer, is very peculiar. It is," says De Witte, "abrupt, unrounded, and ebullient, his rhythm hard, leaping, and violent." Like a bee, he has been said to fly from one flower to another, to suck the honey from all the blossoms. No. LIII. Subject: THE LIFE OF THE WICKED. "Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney."-Hosea xiii. 3. This verse may be taken as a picture of a human life unregenerate, out of vital sympathy with God and goodness. I. IT IS DECEPTIVE.- "Like the morning cloud." In Palestine and countries of the same latitude, dense clouds often appear in the morning, cover the heavens, and promise fertilizing showers that never come. The farmer whose land is parched by drought looks up with anxious hope as he sees them gather and float over his | head. But they often pass away without a fertilizing drop, and leave him with a disappointed and anxious heart. A life without moral goodness is necessarily deceptive. It walks in a vain show, it deceives itself and deceives others; it is an acted lie from beginning to end. How many lives seem full of promise! They awaken as much interest and as much hope as clouds that float over parched lands; but they result in nothing but disappointment. Oh, what lives there are which are like clouds without water! II. IT IS EVANESCENT:-" The early dew that passeth away." In such latitudes too the copious dews that sparkle on the hedges and the fields soon evaporate and disappear. How transient is life! Not the life of the wicked only, but the life of the righteous as well. Just like the dew, appearing for a short time then gone for ever. The Bible abounds with figures to represent the transientness of human life-the grass, the flower, the vapour, the dew, the shadow. The millions that make up this generation are only as dewdrops, sparkling for an hour and then lost and gone. As III.-IT IS WORTHLESS. chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor." Like chaff stowed away from the threshing-floor. Chaff, empty, dead, destined to rot. How empty the life of an ungodly man! The life of the righteous is grain: it will grow and flourish; but that of the wicked is only chaff. It is destitute of moral vitality. "Driven away." "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, whilst the righteous hath hope in his death." The wicked die reluctantly, they hold on to the last; it is only the strong storm of death that bears them off. IV. IT IS OFFENSIVE. As the smoke out of the chimney.' The ancient houses of Palestine were without chimneys: the smoke filled the houses, and smoke is a nuisance. A corrupt life is evermore offensive to the moral sense of mankind. To what conscience is falsehood, selfishness, carnality, meanness and such elements that make up the character of the wicked at all pleasing? To none. The aroma of a corrupt life is as offensive to the moral soul as "smoke out of the chim ney." "Like to the falling of a star, Or as the flight of eagles are, Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue, Or silver drops of morning dew, Or like a wind that chafes the flood, Or bubbles stood which on water E'en such is man, whose borrowed light Is straight called in, and paid tonight. The wind blows out, the bubble dies, The spring entombed in autumn lies, The dew dries up, the star is shot, The flight is past-and man forgot." Henry King. Subject: No. LIV. MERCY IN BENEFICENT ACTION AND IN RETRIBUTIVE DISPLEASURE. "I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten Me. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them: I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them."-Hosea xiii. 5-8. Mercy is the subject of these words; and mercy, like the mystic pillar that guided the Israelites in the wilderness, has two sides a bright one to guide and cheer, and a dark one to confound and destroy. In these two aspects the text presents it: : I. Here is mercy IN BENEFICENT ACTION. "I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. Accord D ing to their pasture so were they filled."* What mercy did the Great Father show the Israelites in the wilderness! The wilderness was a trying region (Deut. viii. 15. Jeremiah ii. 6). How constantly the Almighty interposed on behalf of His people! He gave them water from the rock and manna from the clouds. He fought their battles, guided them through perplexities, and helped them in every exigency and trial. The hand of mercy was ever outstretched on their behalf, supplying them with all that they required. In truth, mercy gave them, not only necessities, but luxuries. "Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked," Thus mercy is treating us now, giving us "all things richly to enjoy" in nature, and offering to us all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. The bright side of mercy gleams on us in this life, lights up our path and cheers us on the way. 66 II. Here is mercy in RIGHTEOUS DISPLEASURE. "They were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten Me." Observe: First, The CAUSE of the indignation. "They have forgotten Me." They abused His mercy. His mercy led them to self-indulgence, the pampering of their appetites, the gratification of their lusts, and the fostering of indolence and pride. Alas! I how often the mercies of God in providence are abused. Whilst they should lead men to repentance and to a higher life, they lead them to worldliness * A sketch on this verse will be found in "Homilist," Vol. XXVIII., page 366. and impiety. Because of this, mercy becomes indignant, the oil breaks into flame. Observe: Secondly, The SEVERITY of the indignation. "Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them." What terrible words are these! As a lion, savage and strong,― a "leopard," crafty and vigilant, watching an opportunity to wreak destruction,-a "bear," bereaved of her whelps, terribly exasperated and heartless, "will rend the caul of their heart." It is said the lion always aims at the heart of the beast he falls upon. "Devour them like a lion; the wild beast shall tear them." What does all this mean? It does not mean that the Almighty is carried away by a savage impulse, that He has in fact aught of passion in Him. No, but it means that after His mercy has been abused it will assuredly become the destroyer. Mercy abused becomes a determined resistless destroyer. A plant that is not strengthened by the sunbeam is scorched; the soul that is not saved by mercy is damned. "Thy mercy, Lord, is like the morning sun, Whose beams undo what sable night had done; Or, like a stream, the current of whose course, Restrained awhile, runs with a swifter force. Oh! let me glow beneath those sacred beams, After bathe me in those silver streams; |