will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin." "Ye shall seek Me and find Me and search for Me with all your heart." "He shall call upon Me and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him." Elijah prayed, and God unsealed the heavens for him. Daniel prayed, and Gabriel was despatched with the swiftness of lightning to his den. The publican prayed, and Omnipotence rolled away the load of guilt from his conscience. Stephen prayed, and the Father drew the curtains of the invisible world and revealed to him the Son of

God in all His glory. “ The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." "Man ought always to pray and not to faint;" and thus have always the strength of God with him. We cannot pray too often or too much, He is ever ready to

listen.

Man's plea to man is, that he never more will beg, and that he never begged before. Man's plea to God is, that he did obtain. a former suit, and therefore sues again.

"How good a God we serve, that when we sue,
Makes His old gifts the examples of His new."

FRANCIS QUARLES.

No. XCIX.

Subject: A CALL TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND HAPPINESS.

"Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust."—ISAIAH Xxvi. 19.

Primarily, the words refer to the restoration of the captive Jews from Babylon to their own country. Politically, as captives, they were dead and buried in the dust. A civil resurrection awaited them; and in prospect of that, they are here called upon to “arise and sing." This call may be addressed to three classes of men amongst us:-I. To the SENSUALIST. The sensualist is a man who is literally "in the dust." His life is that of a mere animal. All his thoughts and activities are directed to the pampering of his animal appetites and the gratification of his animal lusts. His soul is under the dominion of his senses; his conscience is buried in the flesh; he is " carnally sold under sin." His mind, made to wing the realms of spiritual light, freedom, and blessedness, is like a swine wallowing in the mire. To such, the word may

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be fairly addressed: "Arise from the dust." Why live in mud, when you ought, and might, live in "heavenly places"? Come out of that filthy state. Thou art made to live rather like the eagle, aloft in the sunshine, than like the swine, shut up in the sty. Come out, and thou shalt sing. There is no jubilation in the dust. This call may be addressed-II. To the WORLDLING. By a worldling, I mean a man who gives his heart and energies and time to the accumulation of wealth; a man who has no idea of worth but money; no idea of dignity apart from material parade and possessions; a man whose inspiration in everything is love of gold. Such a man is literally in the dust. He is a grub. He cannot mount beyond dust; cannot see beyond dust. Now, to such a man the call comes with power: Arise from the dust; break away from that wretched materialism that imprisons thy spirit." A man's life "consisteth not in the abundance of the things of this world." Come out into the spiritual domain, where all is vocal with joy. There is no true soul singing in the dust. This call may be addressed-III. To the RITUALIST. By a ritualist, I mean a man who seeks to develop and gratify his religious nature by sensuous ministries and ordinances. Religion, to him, is a matter that has to do with sounds and sights, sacraments and sensations, gestures and grimaces, places and periods. To such, the words may be well addressed, "Arise from the dust." His region of thought and feeling is all dust. Arise, brother, from this gross and degraded state; and rest assured that neither "circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but a new creature in Christ Jesus."

"He that

Conclusion: All unregenerate men are in the dust. is born of the flesh, is flesh"-is flesh in experience, in character, known by his compeers only by fleshly or material characteristics. "He that is born of the spirit, is spirit"—the spirit has been liberated from the bondage of the flesh, called up to his true regal position, and is known hence on, not by material features, but by high mental and moral characteristics.

"A life of honour and of worth

Has no eternity on earth,

'Tis but a name;

And yet its glory far exceeds

That base and sensual life which leads

To want and shame.

"The eternal life beyond the sky
Wealth cannot purchase, nor the high
And proud estate:

The soul in dalliance laid, the spirit
Corrupt with sin, shall not inherit
A joy so great."

MAURIGNE.

No. C.

Subject: HUMAN HAPPINESS.

"Oh that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!"-DEUT. v. 29.

The text implies three things:-I. That OBEDIENCE TO DIVINE LAWS IS ESSENTIAL ΤΟ THE HAPPINESS OF THE WORLD. God

has laid down laws for the regulation of man. These laws are physical and moral. Obedience to the physical laws of his existence is essential to the well-being of his body. Obedience to the moral laws is essential to the well-being of his entire existence -body and soul. God's laws are not arbitrary institutes; they rise out of the constitution of things; they are not made for the sake of the sovereign, but for the sake of the subject. They are incapable of any improvement or modification, they are settled as eternity. In the lower world around us all the sentient creatures have as much happiness as they can desire or receive. All the higher beings above us enjoy the raptures of heaven. Man is not happy because he is not obedient. Christ came, worked, taught, suffered, died, not to free us from the duty or necessity of obedience, but "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us ;" and, consequently, that "it may be well with us and our children for ever." Another truth contained in this passage is-II. That RIGHT-HEARTEDNESS IN MAN IS ESSENTIAL TO THIS OBEDIENCE. "Oh that there was such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments!" A right heart is a heart that fears-that is, that has a supreme filial reverence for the Great God-a heart that loves Him supremely. Such a heart is essential to obedience. This is implied-"Keep all My commandments." Genuine obedience is not formal or mechanical service; it must spring from the heart. Were it possible for a man

to come up fully in conduct to the letter of God's commandments, if his heart were not in supreme sympathy with God first, Heaven would hold him as guilty of disobedience. "I will run in all the way of Thy commandments, for Thou hast enlarged my heart." "He that loveth Me keepeth My commandments." Obedience

then requires a right heart, and a right heart is a heart that rightly fears the Great Author of our being. The text implies: III. THAT THE GREAT DESIRE OF THE ETERNAL FATHER, IN RELATION TO HUMANITY, IS THE EXISTENCE OF THIS RIGHT-HEARTEDNESS. "Oh that there were such a heart in them!" The chief interest of the Eternal in our world is not in our markets, our governments, our arts, and our sciences, but in our hearts. "Oh that there was such a heart in them!" What wonder there is in this exclamation! How amazing it is, that the Infinite should feel such an interest in insignificant man! What an abyss of love there is in this exclamation! It would seem as if the heart of the Eternal went out in this Oh. Why should He feel such an interest? Not because our love and obedience are of any service to Him, but because without them we cannot be happy. He wishes us to be obedient that it may "be well with us, and our children for ever." He wishes us to be happy; and He has so formed us that there is no happiness without obedience, no obedience without a loving heart, and therefore He bends over the world with all the interest of a loving Father, and says, Oh that there was such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments!"

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Not the Church established

WHAT is the truly established Church? by human law. Such a Church is like a vessel chained to a floating body. It can have no stability. It heaves on the ground-swell of worldly sentiment.

THINK of the significance of each separate sin; each one implies the thought, the wish, the volition of an immortal soul standing up in hostility to its Maker. Each is a seed of poison capable of indefinite multiplication. Every act of a moral agent, whether good or bad, has a germinating and multiplying principle in it.

CULTIVATE purity in every faculty of being, in every act of life. Let the heart be clean and the life stainless. One hour's pollution may stain a whole life. Life is made up of littles. The pasture-land of a thousand hills is but separate blades of grass. The bloom that mantles the prairies is but a combination of separate flowers.

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 feeling 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 haustively, 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."

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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."

Homily delivered by Professor Max Müller in Westminster Abbey, Dec. 3rd, 1873, on Missions.- (Abridged.)

THE number of the real historical religions of mankind amount to no more than eight. The Semitic races have produced three-the Jewish, the Christian, the Mahomedan; the Aryan races an equal number-the Brahman, the Buddhist, and the Parsee. Add to these the Chinese systems of Confucius and Lao-tse, and we have before us what may be called the eight historical languages or utterances of the faith of mankind from the beginning of the world to the present day. All these religions have a history, for religions are not unchangeable. Indeed, if they cease to grow and change, they cease to live. Some of Some of these religions stand by themselves; others are closely united and have influenced each other, and can only be understood by being studied together. Mahomedanism would be unintelligible without