but something more is wanted to command our supreme affection. We must be convinced that He is supremely good in Himself, the infinite fountain of disinterested love. We must "taste and see that the Lord is good." God is the sum and source of all perfections. He is infinitely good. Nature, notwithstanding its storms, its earthquakes and its pestilential blights, declares that He is Love. Human consciousness, notwithstanding its passing trials and afflictions, declares He is Love. The Bible, notwithstanding its anthropomorphic allusions to Him as possessing "jealousy," "indignation," "vengeance," wrath," declares that He is Love.*

"I'm apt to think, the man

That could surround the sum of things, and spy
The heart of God and secrets of His empire,
Would speak but love—with him the bright result
Would change the hue of intermediate scenes,
And make one thing of all theology."

LYRA SACRA.

Thus Christ preached: "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." He declared the Divine character to His hearers in all the glory of its Love; and He did this in order that His Love might fire and fill their hearts.

This subject furnishes us with two things :

First: A test of a truly useful ministry. Who is the useful preacher? The thoughtless herds of nominal Christendom will say that that is the most useful pulpit that attracts the largest audiences,-extracts from men the largest sums of money for charitable institutions, and prompts the largest numbers to join what is called "the Church." A preacher may deal out the most absurd and soul-revolting ideas of God; may systematically essay to degrade all other ministers in order to raise himself; may indulge in silly and flippant jokes touching the most sacred things of being, and use tricks and puffs, and perform "signs and wonders" for * A discourse on “The Wrath of Love" will shortly appear in the "Homilist."

money to support "the cause," that may outvie the ingenuity of Barnum himself;-still of all ministers he is the most useful, inasmuch as he attracts the crowds. The best men in all churches feel a negative to all this. I venture boldly to express my emphatic nay. Such success is no test of ministerial usefulness. That pulpit, we repeat, is the most useful which is the most successful in generating supreme affection for God in hearts where it is not, and fostering it in hearts where it is. "Believe not every

spirit; for many false prophets are gone out into the world." Attend to the warning of the text and adopt its criterion of pulpit usefulness. "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL." This is the criterion. Brother, I will not test thy usefulness by the numbers that join thy Church, but by their character. What are they? Are they those moody and feeble souls whose superstitious fear thou hast excited by thy horrid representations of hell, and sit they there before thee, crouching with a slavish fear; burning with a selfish passion to avoid damnation, and get to Paradise. What are they? Are they those who for years in the neighboring Churches have been slandering their ministers with the charge of not preaching the gospel-which means not preaching their own crude and false notions of the gospel-and are they drawn to thee because thou hast set thyself up as the organ of their miserable opinions and the public censor of the ministers they slander? If so, I cannot congratulate thee on thy great usefulness. Or, are they men and women whose love for "God in Christ," and sympathy with the True and Good of all sects, transcend and control all other affections? If so, I heartily

congratulate thee, devoutly thank Heaven for thy ministry, and earnestly wish thee God-speed, to whatever section of the Catholic Church thou belongest.

Secondly The necessary qualification of a true preacher. He must have this dominant affection himself. Far enough am I from disparaging the importance of superior intellect in those who have to administer the truth ;—for the Pulpit demands intellect of the most imperial type. Nor do I underrate the importance of an educated ministry. I would have the highest intellects, educated to the highest point, for this the sublimest work of mortals. Albeit, the fundamental qualification is supreme sympathy with God. Where this is not, God is not known; and how can He be revealed? Love is the only eye which discovers the infinite. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." This is the "unction from the Holy One by which we know all things :”—all things divine. No man will ever be intellectually ignorant who has this. The works and words of God, the substance of all sciences, will engross the thinking powers, where the Great One is loved supremely. A man's intellect always delights to study the object of his paramount affection, and ever do his lips and life declare it. We are bound to mirror the things we most love. As the lucid lake shows to us the stars, our language and our life show to men the sovereign of our hearts. Still more, we lose ourselves in our paramount affection. The minister, therefore who loves God paramountly will lose all thoughts of self and sect. He will yield himself up as the mere organ of Him who is the All-in-All of his heart.

Oh, dawn the day when Pulpits, the world over, shall be no more the organs of popular platitudes, creedal crotchets, sectarian acrimony, religious selfishness, and audacious rant; but the organs of the soul-quickening truths, and the unbounded love, of that "God in Christ," who "willèth not the death of a sinner," but would have all men to be saved; -when every preacher shall have the "love of God shed abroad in his heart" in such an ocean plenitude that his one

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grand aim shall be to make his hearers love as he loves!
When all his powers shall be employed to present to men in
soul-winning aspects the love and the glory of that common
Father of humanity, "Who is in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,

Were the whole earth of parchment made;
Were every single stick a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade.
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the 'scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."

The Genius of the Gospel.

ABLE expositions of the Gospel, describing the manners, customs, and localities, alluded to by the inspired writers; also interpreting their words, and harmonizing their formal discrepancies, are, happily, not wanting amongst us. But the eduction of its WIDEST truths and highest suggestions is still a felt desideratum. To some attempt at the work we devote these pages. We gratefully avail ourselves of all exegetical helps within our reach; but to occupy our limited space with any lengthened archæological, geographic, or philological remarks, would be to miss our aim; which is not to make bare the mechanical process of scriptural study, but to reveal its spiritual results.

SECTION SEVENTY-THIRD :-Matt. xxii. 1—14.

"And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in

to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen."* SUBJECT:-The Marriage of the King's Son: A Mirror of Christendom.

THE parabolic method of instruction was frequently employed by Christ. In the land in which He taught, it had ever been a common method of teaching. It was admirably adapted to arrest popular attention; and to convey certain infallible truths to His bigoted hearers, with a brevity and potency which no other mode could effect; and as it partook more or less of the character of life and history, it was always deeply interesting both to the learned and the rude.

The proper interpretation of a parable depends upon a knowledge of the circumstance or custom which is employed to symbolize or bring out the truth intended to be taught.

The example employed in this parable is of a peculiarly interesting kind-it is the marriage feast of a king's son. We learn from eastern antiquities, that the case which is here given, corresponds with a well-known custom of the times and country in which Jesus was teaching. In high life, the making of a feast on such an occasion—the sending out servants to inform the invited guests when all things were ready-and then, after they had enjoyed the sumptuous repast, the sending out again of messengers to invite others indiscriminately, however poor, to partake of the superabundant provisions—and the preparing for those, whose means would not allow them to prepare for themselves, a suitable garment to appear in on such an august occasion, are all points in this parable which agree with the actual history of such events as celebrated of old in the Oriental world.

* The following passage from Trench describes the difference between this parable and that in Luke, with which it is often confounded: "This parable, and that which is found at Luke xiv. 16, are not to be confounded with one another, as if they were only two dif