all the air is love." He who rolls the awful thunders in the law speaks with the "still, small voice" in the gospel. He does not strive nor cry, nor does any man hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed does he not break, nor does he quench the smoking flax. Here he speaks in the soft, the touching, the wooing voice of love. There is everything in Christianity to attract the deepest affection, encourage the most entire confidence, and to inspire the highest hopes.

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II. THERE IS A CONTRAST BETWEEN THEIR INTERNAL QUALITIES. First. The one is ordinary, the other is special. "He who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise.' It is a common thing for thee to tremble at the denunciations of law, and, from fear and selfishness, to attend mechanically to the letter of duty-to do outwardly those things which thy conscience tells thee will appease an offended Deity, and deliver thee from hell. This is according to the ordinary run of things. Chapels and churches are crowded with persons thus acting. But to be moved in everything by love; to lose all controlling ideas of rewards and punishments, heavens and hells, in the great idea of Divine excellence; to regard duty as a gratification rather than a work; is a state of mind which, like the birth of Isaac, is a production uncommon and specially divine. It is born "by promise." Secondly. The one is slavish, the other is free. The law is "in bondage with her children." The men of precept rather than principle, of letter rather than spirit, can never have true freedom. They will have "the spirit of bondage." But they who are inspired with love will ever be free: their meat and drink will be to do the will

* “But there was a great difference between them; for he (who was born) of Hagar, the bond-woman— -that is, Ishmael-was born only according to the flesh, and produced in the common order of nature, without any particular promise of God, or any unusual interposition of his power and providence; whereas he (who was born) of Sarah, the free woman-that is, Isaac-(was born) by virtue of the promise.". Dodridge.

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of God. When love enlarges the heart, men will run in the way of God's commandments. Obedience, in their case, will be a spontaneous and an involuntary soaring of the soul. As," says Vinet, "the waves of a river, once impelled in the direction of the channel, do not require every moment a new impulse to contiune therein, so the life which has received the impulse of love is borne away entire, with rapid waves, towards the ocean of the Divine will, where it loves to be swallowed up and lost." Thirdly. The one is persecuting, the other is kind. "But as then he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." It was said of Ishmael, by the angel, before his birth, that he should be “a wild man, whose hand should be against every man, and every man's hand should be against him." This language implies that he was an overbearing and intolerant man. Well does Paul, therefore, put him as the type of all the mere law on letter-religionists. The history of the Church shows that the narrow sectarians, the intolerant bigots, the acrimonious controversalists, the bloody persecutors, have all been but letter-religionists. So it is; and so, from the nature of things, it must ever be. But "the children of the promise"-men of deep, broad, loving, Christ-like sympathies-never persecute either in word or deed. Instead of seeking to punish intellectual heretics, they address them with all the corrective arguments and expostulations of love; they talk of the enemies of the cross of Christ 66 even weeping."

III. THERE IS A CONTRAST BETWEEN THEIR FUTURE HISTORIES. First. The one is to increase, the other is not. "For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband." Whatever might be the primary application of these words, as used by the prophet, it appears clear that Paul quotes them in order to express the idea that the children of the gospelthe love-religionists,-would become far more numerous than the children of the law-the letter-religionists. Calvary shall

be more productive than Sinai-Jesus shall have more followers than Moses. The men of deep, genuine, imperial, Christian sympathies and free souls shall outnumber in the Church the men of technicalities and precept. We have not yet arrived at this period; indeed, we seem far, far away from it. But we will live and die in the hope of better and brighter days. Secondly. The one is to be expelled, the other is not. "Cast out the bond-woman and her son." Away with the law-element as a motive of action! Let Judaism, in all its elements, be expelled from the Church! Paul did cast out it from his own heart. me, these I counted loss," &c. element in religion be cast out? in it. A complete correspondence of the outward conduct with the written law, without love, would be destitute of all virtue. 2. Because there is no moral power in it. Your men of letter are weak. Your men of spirit are ever strong. 3. Because there is no happiness in it. The religion of such men is a drudgery and a burden.

"What things were gain to But why should this law1. Because there is no virtue

Let us cast it out, then-cast it out from our churches, with all its dogmatisms and formalities, verbal polemics and base servilities-so that our temples may become the home of great, free, loving, Christ-inspired souls. Let us cast it out from our hearts. Let us seek to be "filled with the Spirit" rather than with the letter.

Analysis of Homily the Seventy-second.

"And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him."-Judg. xvi. 20.

THE history of this Jewish Hercules is as wonderful as any of the imaginative creations of romance. He appears before us as a prodigy of strength-not intellectual nor moral, but

physical, brute force. His stupendous feats were those of body, not of soul-of muscle, not of mind. There are four facts which his history brings prominently under our notice :First. That God has respect to the emergencies of his people. The Jews were oppressed by the Philistines, and stood ever in fear of them. Samson is raised up to break their power, and to humble their pride. God could have accomplished this, undoubtedly, without any instrumentality, or he could have raised up a host of men rather than one, who could inflict his judgments upon the Philistines; but we think there was great wisdom in fitting one for it. 1. It served as a more impressive manifestation of Divine power; and, 2, it served to humble, and pour a greater contempt upon the enemy. Another fact which the history of this extraordinary man develops is, secondly, that moral feebleness may co-exist with the highest physical energy. Here is a man who could strangle the furious lion, and slay a thousand men singlehanded, too weak to govern his own passions-the mere creature of lusts—the dupe and victim of a crafty woman. Many giants in body are dwarfs in soul. Many who have slain an army have been slain by their own lusts. Thirdly. His history shows that great physical strength is not the highest good of man. Men have always been proud to glory in their might. In the case of Samson, the Almighty for once furnishes the world with a striking example, that great muscular energy, apart from moral goodness, is of little worth. Look at the misery to which he was reduced-blinded, deluded, destroyed. Fourthly. His history shows that one man, through God, can accomplish great things. What wonders did God do through Samson! Moses, Elijah, Paul, Luther, and many more, are examples of the fact.

SUBJECT:-Samson; or, Man's Power for God's Work. The text leads us to infer

I. THAT IT IS DERIVED FROM A SPECIAL CONNEXION WITH God. No less than four times, in the history of this man, do

we find his strength referred to "the Spirit of God." Some ridicule the idea of Samson performing the feats ascribed to him, but when the philosophical truth is remembered, that all power comes from God, the scorn turns to the shame and confusion of its author. This is true not only of physical, but also of intellectual and moral power.

It is to its MORAL application that we desire here to direct special attention. We read of the Spirit of the Lord being with good men of old-with the prophets and the apostles-and is promised to be with the good always. 1. God is in a good man morally. He dwells in him as the favourite author dwells in the mind of the devoted reader. The mind of a good man has more of God's mind in it than any other. God's thoughts live in his intellect, God's love glows in his heart: he is filled with all the fulness of God. 2. That God is with a good man operationally. The man who is filled with God's sentiments, thoughts, and principles, will move in the line in which God moves, and will therefore have God with him. Thus, morally, our power for God's work is derived from special connexion with God. Without him, we can do nothing in his cause. The text leads us to infer

II. THAT SIN DISSOLVES THIS SPECIAL CONNEXION BETWEEN MAN AND GOD. It was the duty of Samson to wear long hair. This was his vow. This vow he broke, and thus sinned; and sinning, the Spirit of God departed from him, and his strength was gone. Morally, sin always separates us from God, and makes us weak. (Isa. lvii. 2.) It weakens us (1) by destroying our sympathy with God.. Man is powerful when sympathizing with God, but when guilt comes on the conscience, that sympathy is gone. (2) By awakening a dread of God. "The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth," &c. (3) By generating an opposition to God.

"Who is the Lord?" &c.

MAY OCCUR WHEN THE

Samson rose from his sleep