indications of the Hardly a day can not be felt, or at

various things, there must be very many evil of sin, and the need of shunning it. pass in which one restraint or other will least be in activity. Some men may reach a state in which they are callous to most kinds of checks, as Balaam seems to have been to the night message of God, and the waywardness of the ass; but it is the callousness which is proved by such a state, not that there are not innumerable restraints.

2. They are progressive. On the principle that every human being is under a process of moral training, there is implied this progression in restraining from sin. If one method does not answer another will be tried, until the whole circle fitted for him is completed. I believe that, up to that season, which is reserved in the Father's mind, each succeeding trial has an element additional in power to that which has gone before. If being turned aside will not induce a retreat, there will be crushing of the foot. Could we distinguish perfectly character and circumstances, we should perceive the accumulation of influences likely to affect the will of each man. a mistake will not rectify him, there may be a loss: if a loss will not, there may be personal affliction. I do not mean that this order in restraints from sin is followed with all, for as widely as men differ so widely will the order of what influences them differ; but I use it in illustration of that light in which this passage teaches us to regard God's dealings against sin, that they become successively more potent, until the will either yields, or sinks into torpidity or powerlessness.

If

3. They are near, though oft unnoticed. The course of remarks will have shown that if the ungodly continue, and even prosper, in ungodliness, there is abundance of restraints placed in their way by God, to withhold and turn them from evil. If they do not notice these various obstacles, still they are near to them. "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and heart." External events bear on you unpleasantly. One or other of the faculties of the soul is affected; but how frequently do you pass on without paying heed to the voices uttered? When the evil has been accomplished, and the

spirit is awakened to recal it as sinful, we can distinguish restraints which were in the path, and may wonder at the overlooking of them. Yes; there the angel is! Our selfish journeys, our mistakes, our ill-judged determinations, our angry words, our neglects of human duty, are going right in opposition to him. We may not perceive that he is so close, we may love the darkness of evil, we may be degraded below the beasts we regard as pre-eminently stupid-for reason, conscience, and emotions, do not bend our wills to God'sS but the time may be at hand when the sword, flashing over us, shall burst upon our sight, and when there will be no space for return-only for the crushing of hopeless regrets! D. G. WATT, M.A.

Analysis of Homily the Fifty-first.

“And brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it and he called it Nehushtan" [a piece of brass].-2 Kings xviii. 4.

SUBJECT:-Nehushtan; or, the Perverting Tendency of Sin, and the True Instincts of a Reformer.

WITHOUT any preparatory remarks, we shall proceed at once to the subject we have announced, and which is suggested by the incident before us.

I. THE PERVERTING TENDENCY OF SIN. In the twenty-first chapter of the book of Numbers, you have an account of the origin and use of the "brasen serpent:" it was a special provision of goodness for a special evil. In this respect it resembled the mediation of Christ. I see God's general goodness everywhere it is in the living sunbeam of day, and in the silvery rays of night; it rolls in the ocean; it breathes in every changing wind; it sparkles in the minerals of the mountains, and blooms in the productions of the soil; it streams through all seasons; it pervades all space. It is the

fascination of all beauty, and the music of all sound-the charm of all sentiments, and the pulse of all life. It is the under-current of all history; it is the deep well-spring of the universe. All I see and hear and feel proclaim to me that "God is good, and that his mercies are over all the works of his hand." But in the mediation of Jesus, as in the brasen serpent of old, there is a display of special goodness. "Herein," says the apostle, "is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." "Herein" the streams meet in majestic confluence ; herein the rays meet in all the intenseness of focal luminousness and fire.

Now, we find the Jews, in the case before us, perverting the special display of goodness; but how? In preserving the "brasen serpent"—its material symbol-for upwards of seven hundred years, after it had answered its end in the wilderness? No. We respect that feeling which impelled this people to preserve it for so many centuries, and to hand it down as a precious thing from sire to son through so many generations. As a relic of a marvellous history, a memorial of heavenly mercy, it was fitted for usefulness: it might have been blessed to many. Many a pious Israelite might have had his faith strengthened, and his piety quickened, as he looked upon that serpent-figure, wrought by that hand which of old divided the sea, and smote the flinty rock. Yes; and many, too, under trial it might have encouraged to look to that God for help who had so mercifully interposed on behalf of his serpent-bitten forefathers. But the perversion was in taking it out of its proper position-in raising a hoary relic of history into a god for worship. "For unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it." To them it was no longer a memorial to remind them of God's great mercy, it was itself deity. In its place, as a memorial, it might be a blessing; out of its place, as a god, it was a curse.

Sin has ever been a perverting power. It wrests things from their true relations, prostitutes them to improper purposes, and thus converts blessings into curses. We see its

perverting action in the secular department of life. WEALTH in its place is a blessing: it multiplies a thousand-fold our sources of pleasure, and facilitates improvement; it enhances our social influence, and wonderfully increases our ability for well-doing. But when this wealth comes to be regarded as a material end rather than a spiritual means; when it engrosses the chief of our powers and time, kindles the master-inspiration, and becomes the predominant theme of thought and end of life; then it is transmuted into a curse, and the brasen serpent has become a god. We see, moreover, its perverting action in the spiritual department of life. TEMPLES in their places are blessings: they afford temporal conveniences for spiritual ends. There, sheltered from the storm, or screened from the sun, amid the darkness of night or the light of day, the rich and the poor can meet together on common ground, to blend their souls and sympathies in imploring prayers and thanksgiving songs. But when these places are regarded as invested with special sanctity; as so constructed that the infinite Father is more accessible, or present, within their narrow precincts than in the open world, the homestead, or the market; they become evils. They are nought but nurseries for bigotry, superstition, and mysticism, and the brasen serpent has become a god. MINISTERS in their places are blessings. Though the world has never acknowledged the benefits which the true gospel ministry has conferred upon it, and though the church is far from being adequately impressed with its value, I feel that I have sufficient evidence to maintain the position, that it has done more to check the advance of crime than all your courts of justice, more to maintain the world's peace than all your armies, more to uplift humanity than all your secular science, and mechanical skill. It is to society what tides are to the ocean it stirs its deepest depths, and helps to keep it But when ministers are looked upon with a superpure. stitious eye-when the imagination robes them with such peculiar sanctity that their teachings are regarded as infallible, and their interests in heaven as special, so that men crouch at

their feet, and sue for their prayers-they are no longer blessings they are evils, and the brasen serpent has become a god. THEOLOGY is a blessing in its place. To have the truths of revelation reduced to something like a system of thought, by fair criticism and honest induction, is a work which I am not disposed to underrate. It serves to guide and stimulate thought. But when theology-which, at most, is nothing more than a class of fallible human notions-is regarded as the gospel truth; when these notions are fought for as absolute truths; when they become the watchword of contending parties; when Christian charity and good feeling are sacrificed to maintain them; then theology becomes an evil. The letter is raised above the spirit-the human form above the divine substance: the brasen serpent has become a god. SACRAMENTS in their place are blessings. Baptism and the "Lord's Supper," when regarded merely as material symbols of spiritual truths, are unquestionably valuable, both transmitting to the inner heart, through the medium of the senses, truths, the belief of which is indispensable to soulelevation the former declaring the truth, that humanity is so corrupt in its first stage as to require the application of an extraneous influence to make it pure; and the latter, that humanity, though it deserves death, can obtain life through the death of another. Viewed in such aspects, they have been helps to piety in every age. But when they are regarded as mystic vehicles, through which, in the hands of a crafty or a superstitious priesthood, grace flows into the souls of men, or made the arena of sectarian and acrimonious controversies, then they are evils: the brasen serpent becomes a god. The SABBATH in its place is a blessing: as a periodical portion of human existence, wrested for us by a merciful Providence from a selfish secularism, and devoted especially to benevolent and spiritual ends, we cannot prize its holy hours too much. It affords relief from the pressure and monotony of worldly business and physical toil; it is a solemn pause in the world's tumultuous career; it is evermore to the good a soul-quickening parenthesis in the chapter of