night." The soul has many | ing soul from nature, from instinctive cravings, cravings for knowledge, for beauty, for order, for society; but its deepest hunger is for God. "My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." For what in God does it hunger? First: For the assurance of His love. We are so formed that we crave the possession of the object of our love; we do not want His, but Him. Were all the works of God ours, we should be hungry without Him. It is only as we are assured of His love that we become conscious that He is our "portion." He who gives His strongest love to us, gives Himself. Until we feel that God Himself is ours, our portion, our sense of emptiness and want will doom us to misery. But to feel that He is ours we must be assured He loves us, that we have His heart; and if we have His heart we have Him. It hungers, not only for the assurance of His love, but also, Secondly: For revelations of His mind. It yearns for ideas from the Great Fountain of intelligence and love. It wants to hear its Father's voice giving counsel and comfort and inspiration. How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! If I should count them, they are more than the sand, when I awake I am still with Thee." His thoughts come into the long the Sacred Word, and from the suggestive force of His influence upon the spirit. In these words we have,— II. The soul's religious SEARCHING in the night. "Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early." First: The soul seeking for God implies a consciousness that it has not got Him. Who would seek for that which he possessed? All have God's works everywhere, God's influence everywhere, God's presence everywhere; but only a few have Himself, the assurance of His love. Hence the searching. Secondly: The soul seeking for God implies a belief that He may be obtained. We may all have God as our portion by seeking Him in Christ. He gives Himself to us in Christ. Men hunger for some things they can never getwealth, power, social influence, the distinctions of genius, etc. But all who hunger for God obtain Him. "If a man love Me he will keep My words and My Father will love him, and we will come in to him and make our abode with him." CONCLUSION.-Brother, God is the great want of the soul. Without Him what are we ? Planets detached from the sun, wandering stars for whom are reserved blackness and anarchy. "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none that I desire on earth beside Thee." The Faithful Ministry of Truth, "I AM AFRAID OF YOU, LEST I HAVE BESTOWED UPON YOU LABOUR IN VAIN."-Gal. iv. 11. MAN was made to care for man-each to work for each, and thus promote the common good. In consequence of sin such generous care does not generally exist. Selfishness rules the millions: each for self. One of the great designs of revealed religion-the Gospel-is to redeem man to his his normal state, to give him a practical interest in the welfare of others. History abounds with examples of this-Moses, the prophets, the apostles, reformers, philanthropists, etc. Paul was one of the most distinguished: he laboured for others. The text presents to us the faithful ministry of truth in three aspects. It is a I. As a LABOUR. labour that involves,First: The discovery of Divine truth. This requires philological, critical, and philosophical research. Secondly: The exposition of Divine truth. This requires invention, illustration, argument, etc. Thirdly: The indoctrinization of Divine truth. The working of it not only into the understandings, but into the consciences and hearts of the people. This requires patience, zeal, perseverance, and burning enthusiasm. Ah! the Christian ministry is a "labour." It is not a pastime, not an official performance, a mere "doing duty," as the phrase is, but a labour--a labour of brain and heart. There is no labour so hard. The text presents to us this ministry,— II. As an ANXIOUS labour. "I am afraid of you." Paul was afraid he had laboured in vain. He is anxious,— First Because he knows something of the strength of the influences that oppose his aims. There is stolid igno rance, spiritual indifferentism, reigning prejudices, mighty habits, Satanic agencies-all these are against him, working constantly, silently, and insidiously. Secondly: Because he is sensible to some extent of the enormous issues that depend on his success or nonsuccess. When he succeeds, imperishable souls are stored to the knowledge, the image, and the fellowship of the Great God. When he fails, souls are injured and become more the children of re the devil than ever. The Gospel must prove "the savour of death unto death, or of life unto life." Of all labour, therefore, no labour is so anxious as that of a faithful minister of the Gospel. The text presents to us this ministry, E III. As a labour that may fail in its results, even by the LABOURER OF THE HIGHEST QUALIFICATIONS. "I am afraid that I have bestowed upon you labour in vain," says Paul. Was there ever a man so highly qualified as Paul-qualified, not only by his great intellect and his extensive erudition, but by his burning love for Christ and souls ? "The love of Christ constraineth me." And yet this man was afraid he had laboured "in vain." Two things render the failure of the greatest man possible here. First: The constitutional freedom of the soul. Every man has the power of resisting outward appeals. He can close his eyes, seal his ears, and harden his heart. Sometimes the human soul is spoken of as a soil; but it is a soil that has spontaneity, it can resist the efforts of the husbandman. Secondly: The moral depravity of the soul. This depravity sets the willagainst it. They love darkness rather 66 than light, because their deeds are evil." There is therefore no absolute certainty of success in this labour, because it is moral. The farmer labours for his crop, and he has it; the merchant for his fortune, and he gets it; but a man may labour for souls and never win one. CONCLUSION.-Brothers, do not let non-success dishearten us! The most eminent labourer cannot command it. Even Christ Himself is represented as saying, "I have stretched out my hands all day long, to a disobedient and gainsaying people." And Paul said, "I am afraid." At last we shall not be rewarded according to the results of our labours, but according to the motives that have inspired us. Let us go on. In the morning let us sow our seed, and in the evening withhold not our hand, not knowing which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether both shall be alike good. FERVENCY IN PREACHING. "Still thinking I had little time to live, My fervent heart to win mens' souls didst rise; Though God be free, He works by instruments, R. BAXTER. Seeds of Sermons from the Minor Prophets. If the Bible as a whole is inspired, it is of vast importance that all its Divine ideas should be brought to bear upon the living world of men. Though the pulpit is the organ Divinely intended for this work, it has been doing it hitherto in a miserably partial and restricted method. It selects isolated passages, and leaves whole chapters and books for the most part untouched. Its conduct to the Minor Prophets may be taken as a case in point. How seldom are they resorted to for texts! and yet they abound with splendid passages throbbing with Divine ideas. It is our purpose to go through this section of the Holy Word; selecting, however, only such verses in each chapter and book as seem the most suggestive of truths of the most vital interest and universal application. But little is known of NAHUм, whose name signifies comfort. He was a native of El-Kosh; generally supposed to be a Galilean village. He lived probably in or about the year B.C., 714. The burden of his prophecy is the destruction of Nineveh, which destruction was predicted by Jonah a century before. Nineveh was destroyed about a century after this prophecy was uttered, and so complete was its overthrow that the very site where it stood is a matter of conjecture. The prophecy, though divided into three chapters, is a continuous poem of unrivalled spirit and sublimity, and admirable for the elegance of its imagery. "The third chapter is a very striking description of a siege-the rattle of the war chariot, the gleam of the sword, the trench filled with corpses, the ferocity of the successful invaders, the panic of the defeated, the vain attempts to rebuild the crumbling battlements, final overthrow and ruin." No. CCLX. NAHUM. Opposite Types of Human "THE LORD IS GOOD, A STRONG- THE previous verses were introductory to the subject which the prophet now takes up, namely, the safe keeping of the Jews by Jehovah, in view of the tremendous attack the king of Nineveh was about making on their country and their city, and also to announce the terrible doom of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian foe. In these verses there is a very striking and significant contrast (1) between the characters of men, and (2) between the lines of Divine procedure in relation to them. Here we have, I. Two opposite TYPES OF HUMAN CHARACTER. First: Here we have the friends of God. There is here a two-fold description of them. (1) "They trust in Him." This is the universal character of the good in all ages. Instead of placing their chief confidence in the ever-changing creature, they centre it in the immutable Creator. They trust His love ever to provide for them, His wisdom as their infallible guide, and His power as their strength and their shield. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord." (2) He acknowledges them. "And He knoweth." This means, that He recognises them as His loyal subjects and loving children, His people. In Hosea xiii. 5, He saith, "I did know thee in the wilderness," which means, "I did acknowledge thee and took care of thee!" The words imply the cognisance of special sympathy with the just. He knows them, they are always in His mind, His heart. "Can a mother forget her sucking child"? etc., etc. Secondly: Here we have the enemies of God. "Darkness shall pursue His enemies." The men who misrepresent our characters, oppose our expressed wishes, seek to undermine our influence, and are ever in association with those who are opposed to us. Such men, whatever may be their professions of regard and friendship, we are bound to regard as enemies. Is it not so with men in relation to God? Those who pursue a course of life directly opposed to the moral laws of Heaven, whatever they may say, are His enemies. How numerous are God's enemies! These two great classes comprehend the human race today. The race may be divided into very numerous classes on certain adventitious principles, but on moral grounds there are but two-God's friends and God's enemies. Here we have,— When the hosts of Sennacherib were approaching Jerusalem, Hezekiah, the king, under Divine inspiration, said to the people, "Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah." Thus it is ever, God is always the refuge and strength of His people in times of tribulation. As a refuge, He is (1) Ever accessible. However suddenly the storm may come, the refuge is at your side, the door is open. "I will never leave thee," etc. He is (2) Ever secure. Once entered, and no injury can follow. Amidst the most violent convulsions of nature, the wreck of worlds, the shatterings of the universe, there is no endangering the security of those who avail themselves of this refuge. Secondly, He sends destruction to the other. "But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies." The image of a flood which breaks through every barrier is not unfrequently used in the Bible to represent overwhelming armies of inva sion. The primary allusion here, no doubt, is to the way which Nineveh was captured by the means of the Babylonians. A flood in the river, we are told, broke down the wall for twenty furlongs. The rolling tide burst its barriers, bore |