men." "My father, let Job be tried," the margin has it. The reading in our present version does not alter the sense. This seems to mean, that he desired Job's great trials to be continued, that the old man should continue to writhe in agony. As a young man, one might have expected that he would have broken into tears and sobbed out prayers for the patriarch's relief. Such heartlessness is truly horrible in a young man ; it is worthy only of those intolerant religionists who have been ready in every age to martyr those who will not adopt the credenda of their own little souls. "If I am right, Thy grace impart, Still in the right to stay; If I am wrong, oh, teach my heart Fourthly: There is calumny. "For he addeth rebellion unto his sin, he clappeth his hands among us and multiplieth his words against God." Where is Job found guilty of this conduct? Where is he found adding rebellion to his sins, clapping his hands in derision, and multiplying his words against God? Nowhere in this book. It is one of those religious slanders common to bigots. CONCLUSION.-Whilst we would follow this young man's counsels, as laid down in these verses, we would hold up his vanity, arrogance, heartlessness, and calumny as a warning to young advocates of religious opinions. 1 DO THE RIGHT, WHETHER THERE BE A FUTURE OR NOT.-If a captain knew that his ship would never reach her port, would he therefore neglect his functions, be slovenly and careless, permit insubordination and drunkenness among the crew, let the broad pennon draggle in filthy rents, the cordage become tangled and stiff, the planks be covered with dirt, and the guns grimed with rust? No, he would keep every inch of the deck scoured, every piece of metal polished like a mirror, the sails set full and clean and with shining muzzles out, ropes hauled taut in their blocks, and every man at his ordered post, he would sweep toward the dooming reef, and go down into the sea firing a farewell salute of honour to the sun, his stainless flag flying above him as he sunk.-Alger. SERMONIC GLANCES AT THE GOSPEL OF As our purpose in the treatment of this Gospel is purely the development, in the briefest and most suggestive form, of Sermonic Outlines, we must refer our readers to the following works for all critical inquiries into the author and authorship of the book, and also for any minute criticisms on difficult clauses. The works we shall especially consult are:-"Introduction to New Testament," by Bleek; "Com. mentary on John," by Tholuck; "Commentary on John," by Hengstenberg; "Introduction to the Study of the Gospels," by Westcott; "The Gospel History," by Ebrard; "Our Lord's Divinity," by Liddon; "St. John's Gospel," by Oosterzee "Doctrine of the Person of Christ," by Dorner; Lange; etc., etc. No. LXXII. Christ's Mission to the World. "AND JESUS SAID, FOR JUDGMENT I AM COME INTO THIS WORLD, THAT THEY WHICH SEE NOT MIGHT SEE; AND THAT THEY WHICH SEE MIGHT BE MADE BLIND. AND SOME OF THE PHARISEES WHICH WERE WITH HIM HEARD THESE WORDS, AND SAID UNTO HIM, ARE WE BLIND ALSO? JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, IF YE WERE BLIND, YE SHOULD HAVE NO SIN : BUT NOW YE SAY, WE SEE; THEREFORE YOUR SIN REMAINETH."-John ix. 39-41. EXPOSITION: Ver. 39." And 66 are Pharisees which were with Him character of a challenge, and was meant for them. They also rightly discerned that, if they were to become blind through Christ's manifestation, it must follow that they had been before, although in a certain sense seeing, yet in another and more important sense blind; just as in Matt. xv. 14 they were exhibited as blind leaders of the blind, apart from their relation to Christ, through which they only became more blind. For nothing but such a previously existing blindness could, as being misunderstood and denied, bring down upon them the judgment of blindness. And it was this charge on the part of Christ that excited the pride of the Pharisees to the extreme of rebellion. But this moral perturbation was itself a proof how well grounded was the reproach. 'It was a manifest sign of their blindness,' says Quesnel, that they knew not that they were blind.'"-Hengstenberg. Ve.. 4. 6 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." This seems to mean, If you were spiritually blind for want of capacity, or means to obtain sight, ye would have no sin; as in chap. xv. 22. "No sin ;" that is, none of the guilt of shutting out the light. But inasmuch as you say that you do see, that you claim vision, and at the same time you are rejecting Me, you seal your guilt of unbelief. HOMILETICS.-These verses present to us Christ's Mission. Christ Himself tells us why He came into the world; and it is certainly well to have an explanation of the reason of His advent from His own lips. In relation to His advent, as here stated, two remarks are suggested. I. That His mission to the world HAS TWO APPARENTLY OPPOSITE RESULTS. It was to give sight, and to make blind. "That they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.” First: The one result is the greatest blessing; the other, the greatest curse. "That they which see not might see." All men in an unregenerate state are spiritually blind: God and the great spiritual universe are as much concealed from them as the ten thousand objects and beauties of this mundane scene are from those who from their birth have been physically blind. They walk in darkness, and have no light. They grope their way through this life and stumble on into the great future. A greater blessing is not conceivable than the opening of the spiritual eye. It involves the translation of the soul into the real Paradise of being. This Christ came to do, this was His purpose. The other result is a great curse. "That they which see might be made blind." Which means this :-that those who are unconscious of their blindness, and conceitedly fancy they see, are still stone-blind, would be incalculably injured. By rejecting the remedial agency of Christ, they would augment their guilt and intensify their moral gloom. These two results of Christ's Mission are taking place every day. The Gospel must prove either the "savour of life unto life" or of "death unto death." Secondly: The one result is intentional, the other incidental. The grand purpose of Christ was, to give spiritual illumination. He came to preach "the recovery of sight to the blind." But the other result is incidental, and directly opposed to His supreme aim. It comes because Christ does not coerce men, does not interfere with their liberty, treats them as free agents, and also because of the perversity of the unregenerate heart. Spiritual illumination takes place by His will, spiritual blindness against His will. In both cases the human will is free. As men may get food out of the earth or poison, fire out of the sun that shall burn them to ashes, or a genial light that shall cheer and invigorate them, so men get salvation or damnation out of Christ's mission. II. That His mission to the world is MISINTERPRETED AND ABUSED. First: Misinterpreted. "And some of the Pharisees which were with Him heard these words, and said unto Him, Are we blind also ?" Dost Thou mean to say that we,-educated men, trained in the laws and religion of our forefathers and devoted to the work of teaching the nation,-are blind? They did not seem to understand that our Saviour meant by spiritual blindness, blindness of heart. So it has ever been. Men misinterpret the grand purpose of Christ's mission. Some treat the Gospel as if its grand object is to give a speculative creed, an ecclesiastical polity, a civil government, or a social order and refinement, while they practically ignore the fact that its grand object is to open the spiritual eyes of men, so that they may see, not the mere forms and phenomena of being, but the spiritual realities that underlie all pervading substance. His mission to the world is, 66 : Secondly: Abused. "Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." Notwithstanding My mission, 'ye say, We see." With Me you have the opportunity of being spiritually illuminated; if you had not such an opportunity, your blindness would be a tremendous calamity, but now it is a crime. "Therefore your sin remaineth.” If, like the man whose physical eyes I have just opened, you were without the power of seeing, and had not the oppor tunity of being cured, you would have no sin; for no man is required to use a power he does not possess. Your spiritual blindness is a crime. What should we think of a man living in the midst of beautiful scenery, with the light of heaven streaming on him every day, and possessing eyes healthy and powerful enough to descry all the beauties, but refusing day after day for years to open those eyes? We should say he was either mad or under the influence of some strange enchantment. But the case of men who are spiritually blind with the faculties of reason and conscience and the sun of the Gospel streaming on them, is worse than this. "Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.” The Preacher's Germs of Thought. Successful Conflict. "HE THAT OVERCOMETH SHALL INHERIT ALL THINGS."-Rev. xxi. 7. HERE is in this Book for the world a most rare and sumptuous provision for the spiritual instruction and comfort of all the sons of need: a sure and sufficient support for every Christian, giving him not only "a very present help," but all the stimulus of promised help. Whether called to wander with Abram, weep with Job, to champion and direct the right with Moses, or toil with Paul, he here finds furnished to him the sure guarantee of Divine nourishment, direction, and success. Wrestle, fight I. TO LIVE AS A CHRISTIAN, IS TO FIGHT. the good fight of faith." There is a life of the flesh, of sense. This carries the marks of ease and popular acceptance. Christianity reveals a "higher life "-the healthy exercise of our highest powers- -a life that can resist the alien and unfriendly, appropriate the kindly and suitable, and propagate its own self, and thus show its sweet use and fruits in an individuality and |