truthful and artless, relates. "On the visit of an overseer ant to the works, when the labourers had begun the roof too soon, he examined it and had it taken down, the wall raised to the proper height, and a new ceiling constructed with the fragments of the old one." Surely these insects are

not automata, they show intention. They recognize their old companions, who have been shut up from them for many months, and exhibit sentiments of joy at their return. Their antennal language is capable of manifold expression; it suits the interior of the nest, where all is dark. "Go to the ant," etc.

Homiletical Breviaries.

No. CCLXXXV.

The Inexorable Law.

"HE THAT DOETH WRONG SHALL RECEIVE FOR THE WRONG WHICH HE HATH DONE."-Col. iii. 25.

"WHATSOEVER a man soweth, that shall he also reap." A man who sows, will assuredly reap, and reap what he sows, according to kind and quantity. This principle is true in many senses. We will notice three: I. It is CORPOREALLY true. The body has its ethics, its laws can be transgressed, and the transgression of the laws of our physical constitution has a moral turpitude. It is morally wrong to injure your constitution. Yet men do this by excesses in animal indulgences, as well as by disregard to the eternal conditions of health. And out of it corporeal suffering must come-disease and premature decay. What millions to-day in hospitals and private chambers are suffering for the wrong they have done to their bodies! II. It is INTELLECTUALLY true. The intellect has its ethics, it demands the light of true knowledge, healthful exercise, and development. Men violate those claims. Some neglect intellectual culture altogether, and some fill the intellect with the rubbish and the filth of what is called "light literature." For this wrong, suffering must come in a feebleness of understanding and the decrease of that mental power which is necessary to qualify man for the duties and enjoyments of life. III. It is MORALLY true. Man has a moral nature. This moral nature demands assimilation to the image and communion with the mind of the Great God. To neglect these demands is a

wrong and a sin against the soul itself, and from this wrong there must come suffering-in the form of remorse, despair, and evil passions that prey as vultures on the heart. "The wages of sin is death."

No. CCLXXXVI.

Good to the Good the Rule of God's Procedure with Man.

"AND WE KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD, TO THEM WHO ARE THE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE."-Rom. viii. 28.

I. WHO ARE THE GOOD? "Them that love God." What love? The text answers :-First: That type which God has predestined. "His purpose." He has ordained the type. Second: That type to which God has called His creatures. How has he "called" them? By the revelation of His moral loveliness as revealed in (a) nature, in (B) conscience, in (y) Christ. This love has three great characteristics. It is (1) Paramount. Love as a passing subsidiary emotion, is not religious love. (2) Practical. Love that goes off in words or occasional acts, is not religious love. It must be a ruling, practical force. (3) Permanent. It must be in everything and for ever. II. WHAT IS THE GOOD FOR THEM? It is good from all things. All things are working, all things are working together, all things are working together for good. What good? First: There is nothing good that does not promote moral goodness in the soul. Wealth, social position, power, health itself, are not only worthless but pernicious if they accomplish not this. Secondly: Whatever promotes moral goodness in the soul is good. suffering, personal bereavement, social losses, etc., when they do this, are good. "Tribulation worketh patience," etc. Our light afflictions." There is a glorious optimism in the history of the good.

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Personal

CONCLUSION.-First: This subject corrects a popular error: that religion is to a man's disadvantage in this world. No such thing. Pauperism with piety, is infinitely better than a princedom with ungodliness. Secondly: This subject affords comfort to afflicted saints. The good can turn all to good. "The same

agency, brought into contact with different objects, will produce totally different effects. A lighted taper inserted into a vial of one kind of gas, will produce a brilliant flame, in another will become extinguished in fetid and offensive smoke, and in a third

will produce an instantaneous and violent explosion. So the same calamity, sickness, bereavement, commercial disaster, will awaken in one man a slumbering conscience, will drive another to distraction, and a third it will draw nearer to God than ever."

No. CCLXXXVII.

The Watchword of Life.

"FOR THIS IS RIGHT."-Eph. vi. 1.

THE motive described in these words is applicable to infinitely more than the one duty with which it is here connected. And in its wide and general application as a rule of all duty, a standard of all conduct, a test of all life, it is to be distinguished from the motives of, (a) ease, (B) popularity, (y) usefulness. This watchword is-I. SIGNALLY COMPREHENSIVE. It includes, (a) all moral beings-from the child up to the Great God; (B) all ages of the world-from the days of Adam, on through the epochs of Moses and John and Paul to the earth's millennium; (y) all the details of life. It is the best inspiration of the task or play of the little child, of the drudgery of the busy servant, of the daring exploit of the traveller, of the legislation of the statesman; of the edict of the king, of the sermon of the preacher. It spans, rainbow-like, the horizon of human life. This watchword-II. LEADS TO CONFLICT. In heaven, it is the music of peace; on earth, it is the clarion of war. Thus Christ said, "I came not to bring peace, but a sword." III. DESTINED TO END IN CONQUEST. Right is to be triumphant. Christ is the pledge of that victory, as He is also the pattern of the conflict and the incarnation of right. Trust, love, follow, Christ, "for this is right." 'He shall reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.” Bristol.

No. CCLXXXVIII.

66

URIJAH R. THOMAS.

The Young Man's Conduct.

"WHEREWITHAL SHALL A YOUNG MAN CLEANSE HIS WAY? BY TAKING HEED THERETO ACCORDING TO THY WORD."-Psalm cxix. 9.

I. IT requires MORAL CLEANSING. There are several elements more
or less impure in a young man's life, that must be cleansed: (1)
Animalism. The senses are likely to control him.
His imagination creates fictitious joys and dignities.

(2) Illusion.

(3) Vanity.

The tendency of the young to overrate themselves is all but universal. From these elements of impurity he must be cleansed.. The animal must give way to the spiritual, the fictitious to the real, the vain to the sober and the humble. II. Its moral cleansing REQUIRES PERSONAL CIRCUMSPECTION. "By taking heed thereto according to Thy word." "Sanctify them through Thy truth: for Thy word is truth," said Christ. And again, "Now ye are clean through the word I spoke unto you." By personal circumspection the word must be applied (1) for Correction. By personal circumspection the word must be applied (2) for Guidance.

No. CCLXXXIX.

The Grandest Pursuit and the Greatest Peril. "WITH MY WHOLE HEART HAVE I SOUGHT THEE: O LET ME NOT WANDER FROM THY COMMANDMENTS."--Psalm cxix. 10.

OBSERVE, I. The GRANDEST PURSUIT of man. "With my whole heart have I sought Thee." Notice (1) The Object of pursuit-God. Not merely His works, but Himself. Not a mere knowledge of Him, but the possession of Him. To obtain God as the Father of the soul, is the grandest end of being. Notice (2) The mode of pursuit. "With my whole heart." Unless it is done with the whole heart, the concentration of the soul, it is never done. Observe, II. The GREATEST PERIL of man. "O let me not wander from Thy commandments." To wander from God's commandments is to wander from light into darkness, from order into confusion, from plenty into pauperism, from happiness into misery, from life into death.

My Ministry at Stockwell, and Public Life.

(Continued from page 397.)

N the year 1862, when the Congregational Dissenters were holding meetings in the metropolis and in every part of the country to celebrate the bicentenary of the Bartholomew ejectment, I became impressed with the necessity of establishing a University in Wales. In the celebration of the Bicentenary by the Congregationalists in

order to raise money for denominational purposes, I could not unite. All the ministers who were ejected were Presbyterians and Establishmentarians to the back bone; and even the best of them, Baxter, would not tolerate either the Socinians or the Papists. I felt, therefore, that the Congregationalists had no right whatever to claim descent from these 2000 men. I agreed with Dr. Winter Hamilton, one of the greatest men belonging to the Congregational body, who said, "It is robbery to keep it as our festival! It is suicide, for it commits us to conclusions at utter variance with our profession." I was in Wales at the time when the celebration was going on, and it struck me that the best way for my countrymen to celebrate the event would be to establish a University after the model of the London University. Scotland has four Universities, Ireland has one and the Queen's Colleges, England and all the States of Germany have each their University. But Wales, whose intellectual possibilities are equal if not superior to any population under heaven, had not one, not even a High School. England paid Scotland £20,000 a year for her Universities, and Ireland £15,000; but to Wales nothing was given. I thought the time had come when an effort should be made by my countrymen; and I thought that the Bicentenary agitation would catch the tide at its flow. Accordingly I wrote a letter on the subject to The Cambria Daily Leader, a newspaper established and owned by my son, David Morgan Thomas, the first daily paper ever started in Wales. A week after the appearance of my letter I met with Dr. Thomas Nicholas, then the president of Carmarthen College. I was then red-hot with the idea, and sought to put him ablaze with my fire. I succeeded. He became an enthusiast, and followed up my letter in The Cambria Daily Leader by six most able epistles on the question-epistles that showed he was in every way competent to work out such an undertaking. These letters were afterwards republished in a pamphlet and circulated at the expense of my old friend, W. Williams, Esq., M.P., whose election at various times for the Borough of Lambeth I had promoted with a zeal which commended me to his friendly regards. Dr. Nicholas, finding that his pamphlet was producing encouraging results, left Wales and came to London with a determination to organize a society that should give practical effect to our purpose. A meeting was arranged to be held at the Freemasons' Tavern. On the day

of the meeting he called on me, and in my library we drew up the first resolutions which we desired to pass at the meeting, resolutions referring to the establishment of the University,