SERMONS.

behind clouds of incense and groups of ceremonies. I do not know whether zeal for good causes is increasing in the world or not. There is abundant zeal no doubt, but often

After some general comments on St. Paul's Epistles, showing how the Apostle himself grew in that love, which he prays may abound with the Philippians, his lordship said :

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HE love which St. Paul would see possessing and reigning over the hearts of men was to be a strong, wise, discerning, well-regulated love, not a mere ideal passion, flickering up and down, and wandering to and fro, hardly knowing where to settle, like some poor bee, fluttering hither and thither amongst the flowers of Summer, but settling nowhere. The love which he would have men grasp and apprehend is the Divine Love of God, in the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ, and that redemption, and the sense of it, did not consist so much in a man's being able to say "I am saved, I am converted," but rather appearing, by its fruits, in a really changed and sanctified life, that was the fruits of righteousness with which the Apostle desired to see men's souls filled. "And to approve the things that are excellent." The man who had this love must possess the faculty of being able to discriminate between things that differhe must be filled with knowledge. And, dear friends, never was there a time when this teaching was more applicable than at the present, when so many men are zealous. It is, indeed, the temper that made the Gospel of Christ conquer the world; but do you think that those great Apostles and Evangelists, who went about, taking their lives in their hands, daring to defy the great power of Rome, and setting the world at naught, do you think that they occupied their time with such vain and idle questions as oftentimes are occupying our attention at this time? If you think so, read the second chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians one of those Epistles of the imprisonment, to which I have been referring, and see how he warns those Christians to take care and not be beguiled on the one hand by false philosophy, and on the other hand by idle ceremonies,

"For in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye are also risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."

I say these men did not occupy themselves with trifles, they had the rare faculty of being able to discriminate between things that differ, and being able to approve all things that were excellent. They had learned what things could administer grace, and strengthen their own souls, and they taught the people who heard them, to seek for the same grace in the same way. They pointed ever to Christ, who was to them a living person, close to hand, and they would not hide Him

ought likewise to be zealously affected, but to be zealous in a matter of no importance, is waste of energy, and sometimes disastrous consequences flow from it. In what are called fashionable circles there is none of this zeal. There a fashionable apathy reigns supreme, and earnestness is thought to be fatal to a man's secular prospects. How could an earnest man hope to succeed in the highly-polished society of the present day? How could an earnest clergyman succeed in a circle of this kind? A sort of tepid Laodiceanism, which begins to doubt whether there is such a thing as truth at all, is the spirit which is fashionable in the world just now. Men will discuss most solemn topics at their dinner tables over their wine, and wonder how people can be so excited and interested over things which, to those who are discussing them, are of no interest at all. This lack of interest in things which require earnestness, has not, however, rendered the case of the young Englishman of the present day hopeless. On the contrary, there are some very hopeful signs. I am told that there are Officers in the Guards who are not too proud to go and seek out the poor and wretched of the East end of London, and relieve their wants; and certainly these men were not found to be the last to take their places against the enemy at the storming of Tel-el-Kebir. Our golden youth can throw off this fashionable apathy when the occasion demands, but too often when zeal is shewn, it is wanting in those qualities which the Apostle requires. Apostle wants a discriminating power, discerning what is good and excellent. Zeal to-day is partisan in character. If a man does not belong to a party, he is nowhere. He looks round and finds that everyone with whom he might like to work shoulder to shoulder, expects him to pronounce "Shibboleth" as in their way. He does not care how he pronounces it. He cares not so long as he can speak in the tone that is needed to stir up men's torpid hearts. It is a sad and discouraging thing that one must look to the right hand and to the left in the stress of the battle, to find someone standing aside and saying

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"Just let me hear how you pronounce the watchword Shibboleth before I join you in the fight." So our zeal becomes first partisan, then unintelligent, then it becomes narrow, then ungenerous, and then unfair. Controversy is a hateful thing, and acts with terrible effect upon him who uses it, if he is not upon his guard. Those of you who are at all aware of the currents of controversy, must be aware that I am not exaggerating, when I say that it is narrow, ungenerous, and unfair. Men are jealous for what they call the Church, but when you come to look at what they mean by the Church it is for their party. They would, if it were possible, crush out those who do not belong to their party, that they might stand alone in the earth. They seem to be unaware of one of the first conditions of the Church's well-being and prosperity. The prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ for the

ever do anything because He wishes you to do it? Look at my text-" Enemies in your mind " says St. Paul, and then he seems to think "I had better prove that." Enemies in your mind. If you want to have a better definition of the word, look at what you do. If you love me keep my commandments is the one side, and the other is, if you do not care to do God's will, do not say that you are God's friend. I do not say that you feel strong enmity, that you are guilty of rank blasphemous thoughts blossoming into foul speech. I am not charging anybody here with that, but I do say that the average feeling of the great mass of people, is that they do not want to be in the love of Jesus Christ. That is the feeling of many dear friends here this morning to God, in whose hands is their very breath. They do not keep His commandments because their hearts do not bound at the prospect and the opportunity of doing anything to please Him. That is what I want to lay before the hearts of my friends this morning.

The language of my text is, "Be ye reconciled." There is no enmity in the Divine mind. There is no aversion in the loving heart of God. There is nothing there of hate and fury -nothing of bitterness. There is nothing but infinite and perfect love. "God was in Christ reconciling the world

unto Himself."

And then notice the agent of the reconciliation. The Apostle is exuberant in his language, "in the body of his flesh." That we may see the whole humiliation to which Christ stooped, the actual corporeal condition into that which the great Creator and Reconciler in whom all fulness dwelt condescended to go. Mystery and Paradox are like the two twin pillars of some great arch, the arch and fabric of our Redemption and the bridge by which we can cross into Glory. On the one side is the image of God, on the other side the body of His flesh.

The man Christ Jesus and the Incarnate God, whose manhood and whose Divinity conspired together for our redemption. "The body of His flesh through death." It is by his death that his body becomes our redemption and our peace. God reconciles us to Himself thereby. The death of Christ affects the incidence of Divine government, and makes it possible that forgiveness and the assurance of forgiveness should come to you and to me. For us, it is that deep and wonderful picture of Divine love, matured with death, which draws us near. There is here one thing which will ever change my alienation into friendship and melt the frost and unbelief of my cold heart into love for God.

Oh dear brethren, if you want to feel the reality of life, do not fling away your faith in the Incarnate Son of God, who reconciles the world unto God upon His cross. It is the only faith that makes men love God, and binds them to Him with mighty bonds that never can be broken. All other types of Christianity are tepid. Lukewarm water is an abomination to everybody. The one thing that makes our heart glow with love, that makes us cast down our weapons and say, "Lo, I surrender, Thou hast conquered," is to see in Christ the perfect love of God, and in His death an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. Dear brethren, what does it avail to you and me though the whole universe were bound by silken blood-red cords to the Cross of Christ, if you and I are not.

We then ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you, we pray in Christ's stead "Be ye reconciled to God."

By the Rev. Dr. H. W. CROSSKEY, F.G.S., Minister of the Church of the Messiah, Birmingham, on Sunday morning, the 5th November, at Upper Brook Street Free Church, Manchester.

heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."-Deut. VI., 6 & 7.

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HERE are two courses open to a minister upon whom devolves the duty that falls upon me to-day. He may assume the worth of Sunday School work to be so thoroughly acknowledged as to need no direct appeal-select some general subject of interest, or he may address himself to the specific task, and speak of Sunday School work in its relation to the Christian Church. The first course is far away the most attractive to the preacher, because to speak of Sunday School work is to speak of matters that have been discussed ten thousand times over, and therefore a minister can only dwell upon what to many would appear commonplaces. At the risk, however, of again going over familiar ground, it is of such importance that a Christian Church should understand the new conditions and responsibilities that devolve upon it of the religious instruction of the people, that I propose to address myself specifically to the subject which gathers us together to-day. The determination of the Legislature that every child in Great Britain should be educated marks an epoch second to none in the development of our English civilization. It is true that that determination was arrived at at a late period in our history; late almost beyond comprehension. There was no necessity save the necessity imposed by national carelessness and folly, that education should not have prevailed in England centuries back. The end is not yet accomplished, but the day of its fulfilment is near at hand. The very advantage of educating the people was questioned within our own memory. To-day it is honourable to engage in educational work. The question whether a child should be educated or not is decided for us by God himself. The very fact that a child possesses faculties is the claim of God upon man for its education. We might as well propose to cut off the child's limbs, or expose it to death if sickly, as useless, as to leave it without the opportunity of educating its every faculty. But within human memory men were dubious of this. Even now some excellent people are inclined to think that too good an education may be given to poor people. Even now we have people who hold what to me is the supreme blasphemy, the idea that for social or political reasons we have to give to the poor man's child only the education of part of its nature. There is still the theory afloat in England that Rugby and kindred schools are for the rich, grammar schools for the well-to-do, elementary schools for poor people as though education were to be doled out like the contents of a shop to people that had money to pay for them; as though in our social organisation it ought not to be that God's gift of faculty should be recognised as God's command for its noblest culture. The density of the ignorance against which our predecessors struggled is beyond imagination. Even now it appears like a troubled dream.

I recently read in a book on the social condition of the people, published in 1850, an authority in that day, now little more than thirty years ago, that at that time in England and Wales there were eight millions of people who could neither read nor write, and that of all the children in England and Wales between the ages of five and fourteen not more than half were attending any school. I find among papers collected when 1 was a young man a note of a return as to Manchester when the population was 303,000, that then there were 40,000 children not at school at all. Doubtless in those days noble work was done in Sunday Schools in redressing the tyrannical oppression of ignorance. But this duty no longer rests upon the Church, and we have to accept new conditions, and rise to our new responsibilities. To my mind a day school is as unable to give religious instruction as the Sunday School is to take the place of the day school. I am perfectly aware that in Manchester you are attempting it, and that you have an elaborate system of scriptural instruction in your public schools. But that is not religious instruction. A child may know all the history of the Jews, every detail of the chronicles of the Jewish kings, and never have the heart touched or the conscience awakened. When you make religion a lesson on a par with grammar, and spelling, and writing, and arithmetic, you drive it from the secret chamber of the heart. When you associate religion with the routine of day school life you take away the splendour of its charm, the grace of its power, the steadiness of its strength. Religion cannot be taught as a lesson. It must be awakened as an emotion, and the evils of attempting to teach it in day schools are to my mind three-fold. In the first place, you associate it with the ordinary routine of school life. In the next place, you fail to connect that with the healthful and strengthening associations of a Christian Church. A child's religion should be associated with some place of worship. Blend it with offerings of prayer and praise, and you make it a life-long power. In the next place, you take away the feeling of responsibility from a Christian Church. The motto for every Sunday School appears to me this-teach the child to love, to admire, to hope, and to trust. Here, however, comes the especial difficulty of churches like this-believers in a free spiritual Christianity. A catechism is easily taught a child can readily learn it by rote. To hear a catechism is a work the stupidest teacher can undertake on conditions which any child may fulfil. The Bible, taken letter by letter, can also easily be taught. There is no difficulty in taking a chapter as it stands, hearing it read, and asking questions about the little incidents. What are we to do whose theology has passed into the realm of spiritual faith? What are our difficulties? How are we to meet them? Certain principles stand out for the guidance of our Sunday Schools and of our teachers. No teacher should teach a child as true what he does not believe himself—a simple proposition, but cutting to the root of many matters. If you do teach what is not personally believed, the child will find it out some day, and the retribution of scepticism will come. The first law of religious teaching is the absolute accordance of the thing taug the personal conviction of the teacher. There is a famo of Channing in his youth, how he was taken by his fath hear a great preacher, and impressed with the notion that e might learn glad tidings of the invisible world.

He heard the old Calvinistic tale of man's utter helplessness, his absolute doom without the interference of sovereign grace, and it seemed to the lad that a curse must rest upon earth, and darkness and horror veil the face of nature, and that every living soul ought strenuously to exert itself to deliver man from the fearful doom. When he came out he imagined that people would give up their amusements and their business and seek out the salvation of their race. He heard his father say to some one else as they came out, "Sound doctrine, sir." "Sound doctrine, sir." "It is true," the lad thought. "It is all true," and the effect weighed heavily upon his heart. He expected his father would speak with him. They got into the chaise, and presently his father began to whistle. They reached home, but instead of calling the family to tell them the appalling intelligence, his father took off his boots, put his feet on the mantelpiece and read the newspaper. Everything went on as usual, and the question came to the lad"Could what he heard be true." Let those who do not believe any special doctrine never attempt to teach anything like it. Teach children, for example, that the world was made in six days; that Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, and betrayed by the serpent; that there was a universal flood; that God commanded; the slaughter of men, women, and children in the Canaanitic wars; that Christ sent devils into the swine. And what will happen when they grow up? They will see that these things are not true. Their religion will go with the legend they have been taught to associate with it. I do not think there is any more fruitful source of scepticism in modern days than the ordinary way of teaching the Bible. When children become men and women they hear lectures upon science; they read of the new discoveries that have been made, and conscience asserts its own life. Then all the Christianity which has been so persistently and inextricably associated with ancient legend loses hold upon their hearts, and with the legend the faith falls. At the same time, let the teacher remember I am only giving here the negative side. The positive duty is as great or greater than the negative one. All great things in this world have been done by believers. It is a great mistake to suppose that liberal Christianity is a series of negations. It is a series of profound convictions. I reject the common notion about the Bible-that it is a mere collection of infallible texts, because I believe more grandly in the Bible itself as a Book of Life, the record of mortal struggle to reach the heights of God from the depths of sin. The human Bible is the Book of Life, the textual Bible the Book of Death. I believe that the world was not made in six days, because I believe more grandly of creation, because this world shines forth more brightly as a star of God when we trace its growth, as of the growth of the flower from the seed; because it is a grander world when we look upon as the growth of countless ages by means of unceasing processes than as a mere miraculously placed sphere in an empty sky. I disbelieve the scheme of salvation, because I believe in a larger mercy; because I have faith in God as my father; his great tenderness is vaster far than the creeds of man. Educate the sense of right by drawing out the faculty of the child. The evil of common methods is that they are external, that the appeal is to the outward, not the inward, authority. In a certain school, for example, of which I heard, the case of Ananias and Sapphira was made to exhibit the