ness.

Thirdly As blending in His conduct severity and kindHis severity is seen towards these buyers and sellers. In John's account we are told "that he made a scourge of small cords, and drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen." There is no reason to believe that He either made the scourge for the men or applied it to them; though they fully deserved a severe corporeal chastisement. The scourge was obviously for the "sheep and oxen," which could not understand the force of His words, or feel the moral flash of His eyes. Whips for brutes, suasion for souls. Christ has no honied words for incorrigible hypocrites, or hardened worldlings. Terrible were His fulminations against such. But whilst there is severity there is kindness too. Whilst He drove out the corrupt amidst the thunders of His indignation, He heals at the same time "the blind and the lame," who approached Him and sought His aid. Severity towards wrong is not incompatible with kindness, but necessitated by it. As kind nature requires its winters; and even the genial days of summer its tempests, the highest love must ever speak in thunder when the selfish and the wrong appears.

It is not the man who keeps an unclouded smile upon his face, and speaks only buttered words in softest tones that is the kindest at heart. The reverse is always the case. That man has the most real love in his heart that can throw the blackest frown, dart the most scathing flash, or peal out the most terrible invective against meanness, hypocrisy and wrong.

As a temple or a religious reformer, He appears in the passage before us :

Fourthly: As having an all-conquering command over their guilty consciences. What made these mercenary barterers rush away from His presence? They were undoubtedly a numerous body, they had their priests with them and popular sentiment too. Why did this strong body of wellbacked men flee at the rebuke of this poor peasant? There is something strange here; and yet I think I know the

reason. The burning rays of rectitude flashed from His looks upon their guilty consciences. Heavens! how men will flee as panic-struck cowards before the ghosts of their own crimes.

As a temple, or religious reformer, He appears in the pas sage before us:

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Fifthly As evoking the enthusiasm of genuine souls. The religious natures of "the children," that were now in the temple, were so wrought into excitement that they were crying and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David." The Chief Priests and Scribes complained of this to Christ as something unbecoming the place. But what said the Heavenly Teacher? "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise." The ideal temple should promote religious excitement; I say religious excitement not sensuous passions, nor superstitious fear; but the excitement of the moral soul in holy gratitude and devout adoration.

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Germs of Thought.

SUBJECT:-Behaviour in Church.

'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.”Eccles. v. 1, 2.

Analysis of Homily the Five Hundredth.

We learn from these verses :

I. THAT YOU SHOULD ENTER THE SCENE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP WITH DEVOUT PREPARATION. "Keep thy foot," &c. The man whom Solomon addresses is supposed to be on

The character of a man's

his way to the house of God. step is often an index to the state of his soul. There is the slow step of the dull brain, and the quick step of the intensely active; there is the step of the proud and the step of the humble, the thoughtless and the reflective. The soul reveals itself in the gait, beats out its own character in the tread. "Keep thy foot," &c.

"Put off "How

First Realize the scene you are entering. It is "the house of God." Whom are you to meet? "The high and holy One," &c. Draw not hither thoughtlessly. thy shoes from off thy feet," &c. (Ex. iii. 5.) dreadful is this place!" &c. (Gen. xxviii. 16, 17.) Do not rush hither. "Keep thy foot," &c.

Secondly Realize the solemnity of the purpose. It is to meet with the Mighty Creator of the universe, whom you have offended and insulted. It is to confess to Him, and to implore His forgiveness.

We learn from these verses:

II. THAT YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO THE INSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC WORSHIP WITH DEEP ATTENTION. Having entered the house of God, it is your duty to be more "ready to hear, than to offer the sacrifice of fools."

First: You should attend with profound carefulness to the services of God's house, that you may avoid a great evil,— that of "offering the sacrifice of fools." Mere bodily sacrifices are the sacrifice of fools. "They come unto thee as thy people cometh," &c. (Ezek. xxxiii. 31.) Lip services are the sacrifice of fools. "This people draw near me with their mouth," &c. (Isa. xxix. 13.) The hypocritical services are the sacrifices of fools. "I thank thee, that I am not as other men are," &c. (Luke xviii. 11, 12.) What are the sacrifices that God will accept? "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:" &c. (Psal li. 17.) "To this man will

I look, saith the Lord :" &c. (Isa. lxvi. 2.)

Secondly: You should attend with profound carefulness to the services of God's house that your mind may be in a

right state to receive true good. "Be more ready to hear," &c. Be ready to hear teachably. Away with all self-conceit, preconceived notions, and old dogmas, that seal the ear of the soul against all that is new. Let the soul be open as the parched garden in summer to the gentle showers. Be ready to hear earnestly. Wonderful things are propounded in the house of God; things vitally connected with your everlasting wellbeing. Be ready to hear practically. All the truths are to be appropriated, embodied, and brought out in life. We learn from these verses :

III. THAT YOU SHOULD ATTEND TO THE ENGAGEMENTS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP WITH PROFOUND REVERENCE. "Be not

rash with thy mouth," &c. Let thy words be in harmony with thy real state of soul; and see that thy state of soul is truthful and right. There seem to be two reasons here against vapid verbosity in worship. (1) The vast disparity between the worshipper and the object he addresses. "For God is in heaven," &c. Duly realize His presence and greatness, and you will become all but speechless before Him. Isaiah did so. "I saw the Lord high and lifted up,” &c. (Isa. vi. 1-6.) (2) The fearful tendency of an empty soul to an unmeaning verbosity. "For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by the multitude of words." How do visions and phantoms crowd upon that soul at night in its dreams, which has been highly excited with absorbing business in the day! Such dreams are pictures of the words of an empty soul in worship. Inappropriate, incoherent words, roll from the lips of such. The fuller the soul is with the Divine the more mute. "Keep," then, "thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy

mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few."-Eccles. v. 1, 2.

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SUBJECT:-The Bible better than Money.

"The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver."-Psalm cxix. 72.

Analysis of Homily the Five Hundred and First.

BECAUSE IT GIVES

THE Bible is better than money :-I. US BETTER FOOD. Money can buy very fine food; it can load your table with dainties. But it cannot give you food for your moral and immortal soul. The Bible can. It is well designated the "word of life," because by it the life of God is implanted in the human spirit and by it preserved. Christ is "our life," and the support of "our life;" and the Bible is full of Christ. He is its beginning, middle, and end. The Bible is better than money II. BECAUSE IT GIVES US BETTER RAIMENT.

very

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Money can

buy fine raiment. It can give you silken robes sparkling with diamonds. But it cannot give you the best robe. The Bible can. It offers you "the robe of righteousness," and "the robe of joy ;"-robes that adorn, protect, exalt, and endure. Robes that will wear through all the changes and vicissitudes of life, wear when the heavens and earth flee away in flames, wear brighter and brighter through the millenniums of eternity. The Bible is better than money :— III. BECAUSE IT GIVES US BETTER FRIENDS. A true friend is the dearest treasure of earth. The good man sings :

"I leave the world without a tear,

Save for the friends I held so dear."

Money can give you friends; but they are seldom true. And even the richest friends that money can buy for you are not to be compared with the poorest friends the Bible can give, men of earth, the angels and archangels of heaven, "the spirits of just men made perfect," "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity," and the praises thereof, these are the friends the Bible offers you. The Bible is