star." What is a lamp to a "star ?" And what is truth in a book to truth in the soul? The one is a shadow, the other a substance; the one is a symbol, the other is the thing; the one is the letter, the other is the spirit.

Secondly: The one is without, the other is within. The lamp is outside, so is the record. But truth in consciousness is a star in the heart. The lamp only throws its radiance on a narrow spot below, and it may be extinguished; but the star throws its radiance not only upon continents below, but upon the brilliant arch above, and burns on for ever with an unquenchable light.

Thirdly: The one is temporary the other is permanent. "Until the day dawn." When men shall get truth thoroughly into their sciousness they will not require the document. Christly souls will become one day independent of the Bible.

con

Fourthly: The one is the harbinger of everlasting day; the other is not necessarily so. The Bible (to use language we have elsewhere employed), whilst it is always necessary to kindle this orb of Christian consciousness within, does not always do so; its lamp-light has fallen on millions that have lived and died morally in the dark. But this

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morning star" of consciousness is a certain harbinger of

a glorious day. As sure as it shines the sun is on its march and it shall rise. Its beams soon shall skirt the horizon and play upon the summits of the holy hills. It shall not pause until it reach the meridian, and pour its rays over the whole hemisphere of soul, thawing every fountain of the heart into love, quickening every latent germ into life, and making the whole beautiful as Eden and fruitful as the garden of the Lord.*

Subject: INGRATITUDE TO GOD. "Neither were thankful. ROMANS i. 21.

This is one of the charges Paul brings against the pagan world. They did not thank God. They gave Him no thanks for the untold mercies He showered them. upon Herein he stamps the sin of ingratitude towards God as a sin of great enormity, and so it is. Why are men ungrateful to Heaven?

I. Is it because HEAVEN DOES NOT BESTOW FAVOURS ON

MEN? There can be no gratitude without favours. What favours have we received from Heaven? "He hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are the sheep of His pasture." What has He given us? Existence, the world, His

*For further treatment of these points, see Homilist, Series I., vol. i., page 127.

blessed Son. Were He to withdraw from us all that he has given, what should we have left ? Nothing. We should sink into utter annihilation, and be no more. Ingratitude to man for favours is bad; but to God it is infinitely worse, for the greatest favours we receive from men are only borrowed from Heaven, and are contemptible, mean, and few in comparison with what God bestows.

II. Is it because THOSE FAVOURS ARE DESERVED? Great favours, have not power in themselves to generate gratitude. The recipient The recipient must feel that he has no claim whatever to them. He who gives me that which I feel to deserve, will fail to inspire with thankfulness by that act. Is it possible for any man to feel that he deserves any favour from his Maker? Is there not, deep in the consciousness of all, the impression that whilst all claim to Divine beneficence is forfeited, liability to Divine malediction is justly incurred? The favours therefore that come from Heaven to man come upon enemies, transgressors, rebels, who deserve damnation and nothing else. How base then is this ingratitude!

III. Is it because GOD IS NOT FREE IN THEIR BESTOWMENT? If I know that a man is constrained by another or by any circumstance to be

stow on me a favour, his gift will fail to inspire me with thankfulness. I care not how valuable his gift in itself may be, nor how greatly it may serve my interest; the feeling in me that he could not but do it, will destroy the possibility of gratitude. Is there any contract on God's part to bestow favours on men? None whatever. whatever. He is absolutely free, uninfluenced, and uninfluencible. To give or withhold rests entirely with Him. Few human benefactors give freely, nor in the sense in which God gives. Since God is so infinitely free in giving, how base is the ingratitude of the recipient!

IV. IS IT BECAUSE HE IS NOT DISINTERESTEDLY KIND IN GIV

ING? If in the man who bestows on me a favour I discover indifference to my interests, selfish motives, or any lack of pure kindness, I can feel no thankfulness for his gift, however intrinsically or relatively valuable the gift may be. Men often bestow favours on their fellow-creatures from other motives than pure kindness; and hence ingratitude in such cases is natural and right. Not so with God. Who doubts His kindness? The intuitive language of all human hearts is, "God is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all the works of His hand." has nothing to gain by giving. He gives, not to glorify

He

Himself, but to bless the recipient.

CONCLUSION: Ingratitude to God is not only without all reason, but against all good reason. It is the basest of all vices, and lies at the root of nearly all the evils of life. "As the Dead Sea," says an old author, "drinks in the river Jordan, and is never the sweeter; and the ocean, all other rivers, and is never the fresher; so we are apt to receive daily mercies from God, and still remain insensible of them, unthankful for them. God's mercies to us are like the dew on the fleece. We are like fishermen's weels, wide at that end which lets in the fish, but narrow at the other end, so that they cannot get out again; greedy to get mercy, tenacious to hold it. The rain comes down from heaven in showers; it goes up but in mists. We sow in our land one measure, and receive ten yea, Isaac received a hundred-fold; but God sows ten, it may be a hundred, mercies amongst us, when we scarce return the praise and the fruit of one. Our hearts in this case are like the windows of the Temple wide inside,' to let in mercies, but narrow outward,' to let forth praise."

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Subject: GRATITUDE FOR WRONGFUL SUFFERING.

"This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.— 1 PETER ii. 19.

The words imply,

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First That man has a conscience. Men may differ in their definitions of conscience, but all unite in recognising the fact of its existence. It is that in the soul which concerns itself, not with the truth or falsehood of propositions, nor with the expediency or inexpediency of conduct, but with the right and wrong of actions. It is not so much the faculty of the soul as that in which all the faculties inhere, "the inner man." It is implied,

Secondly: That conscience sometimes leads to suffering. A Christly enlightened and inspired conscience always prompts to actions that clash with the prejudices, pleasures, interests, and carnalities of mankind. Hence persecution. It was conscience in Christ, in the apostles, in all true martyrs, that led to their sufferings. It is implied, Thirdly That sufferings that spring from the following out of a good conscience are reasons for gratitude. "This is thankworthy."

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Sufferings coming on us on account of our loyalty to truth, rectitude, and God, are sources of gratulation and thankfulness. Why this?

I. Because THEY INVOLVE THE HIGHEST MORAL TRIUMPH.

It is a triumph,

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First: Of the spiritual over the material. When a man follows out conscientious convictions which he knows will bring on him persecution, it demonstrates that the spiritual in him has obtained the mastery over the carnal; it shows that the things that are seen and temporal" are not equal in their power over him to those things that are unseen and eternal; it shows that he has more respect for his soul, with all its high relations and imperishable interests, than he has for his dying body. A man may well rejoice who has got his spirit thus in the ascend

ant.

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It is a triumph, Secondly: Of the right over the expedient. A vital and ruling sympathy with right,-that is, with the will of God,is the only true, dignified, and happy condition of a moral creature. He who can say from the depths of his being, "Not my will, but Thine be done," has gained the crown and reached the paradise of his being. The man who suffers on account of carrying out his conscientious convictions, has attained, to some extent at least, this blessed state of being. Virtually he says, I hold everything pertaining to my material in terests, estates, kingdoms,

life itself, cheap as com

It is a tri

pared to right. umph, Thirdly: Of the Christly over the selfish. The spirit of Christ was the spirit of inviolable loyalty to the will of the Father. This led Him to

the cross. The highest destiny of man is to take up the cross and follow Christ. If their suffering wrongfully for conscience sake involves the triumph of the spiritual over the material, of the right over the expedient, the Christly over the selfish, the sufferer has indeed reasons good and strong for rejoicing.

Another reason is,

II. Because THEY OPEN UP WITHIN THE MAN THE HIGHEST SOURCES OF HAPPINESS. "Con

science says Dr. South, "is undoubtedly the grand repository of all those blessings that can afford any solid refreshment to the soul; when this is calm and serene, then, properly, a man enjoys all things and, what is more, himself; for that he must do before he can do anything else. It will not drop, but pour in oil upon the wounded heart; it will not whisper, but proclaim a jubilee to the mind."

A man who suffers wrongfully for conscience sake sweeps away those fogs and mists that conceal the spiritual world, and leaves the whole blooming in beauty and glowing in sunshine. More, he drowns within him the din

and tumult of selfish passions, and fills his being with transporting strains of heavenly music.

Thus Paul and Silas

felt in prison, thus many a martyr has experienced in the severest tortures of persecution. There is no joy like the joy of an approving conscience, no joy so settled. As in the centre of old ocean there is an unruffled calm when storms are lashing its surface into mountain billows, so in the central depths of him who has an approving conscience there is a peace which no storm can ruffle, which the world can neither give nor take away. Another reason is,

III. Because it IDENTIFIES THE SUFFERER WITH THE ILLUSTRIOUS ΜΕΝ OF ALL TIMES.

Moses, Daniel, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, the apostles, confessors, martyrs, Christ Himself, with all those men, in fact, "who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance: that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of

bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins, and goatskins: being destitute, afflicted, tormented: of whom the world was not worthy."

"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."

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Subject: CHRIST AT JACOB'S WELL.

"Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water."-JOHN iv. 10.

In this chapter we find two wells-Jacob's well, and Christ the living fountain. He was in Samaria at that time, and the Samaritans could not boast of their John the Baptist, of their unsurpassing temple, of their noble rulers. But they had a well given them by their father Jacob, of which they were very proud. Jacob's well could supply very few, while Christ can supply the whole world. After drinking once, they would thirst again; but after taking of the living water,