in the question, "What is man?"

I. NEGATIVELY. First: He does not mean to imply that man constitutionally is a contemptible being;-a creature too insignificant for notice. The very next verse shows that he could not mean that, for he says thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, &c. Man is an immortal intelligence, and therefore great. Secondly: He does not mean that man is insignificant in comparison with the heavens. The heavens it is true are greatgreat beyond all conception; but man is greater. The heavens cannot reflect upon themselves; man can. The heavens cannot think upon man; man can think upon them. The heavens are incapable of studying their Maker; man can. The heavens have no power of selfmodification;-they cannot move slower or faster, grow brighter or dimmer, of their own accord; man can. heavens will not continue their identity for ever. "The stars shall fade away," &c. ; but man will abide. Thirdly: He does not mean to imply that there is a probability of man being overlooked amidst the immensity of God's works. It is true that the space that occupies in immensity

man

The

is less than an atom to the whole globe. But it is also

true that the whole universe is infinitely less to that God who made man, than man is to the whole creation. Fourthly: He does not mean that it is essentially inconsistent with God's greatness for Him to notice man. This cannot be entertained. Great and small are relative terms to creatures

only. To the Infinite they have no meaning.

II. POSITIVELY. What then does he mean? The great sentiment in his mind at the time was undoubtedly the infinite condescension of the great Creator and Proprietor of the heavens. He was contemplating God in the regard which He manifests towards man. First: This condescension would impress him, as he thought of man as a spiritual creature. What is man as a being to Thee? A thinking immortal spirit though he be, he is less than the dimmest spark to the central fires of immensity, when compared with Thee. Secondly This condescension would impress him much more as he thought upon him as a mortal creature, a creature only of a day, "who cometh forth as a flower and is cut down," &c. Thirdly: This condescension would impress him most of

:

I. OF ALL OBJECTS IN NATURE THE SUN IS THE MOST GLORIOUS IN APPEARANCE.

How glorious is the sun as it rises in the morning, tinging the distant hills with beauty! How glorious at noon, flooding the world with splendor! splendor How glorious in the evening, fringing the clouds with rich purple, crimson, and gold, as he sinks beneath the western sky! Glorious object! There is nothing so glorious on this earth as a truly good man. He is the highest reflection on earth of Heavenly Glory.

II. OF ALL OBJECTS IN NATURE THE SUN IS THE MOST COMMANDING IN ITS IN

FLUENCE. The sun is "the ruler of the day." At his appearance the world wakes from its slumbers-winds and waves obey him. As he moves, nature moves. So with the truly good man. There is no authority on earth equal to his.

All the moral spirits

within his sphere must bow to his influence. He is as truly felt in his circle, as the sun is felt in his majestic sphere. He is the organ of Heaven, "and mighty through God."

III. OF ALL OBJECTS IN NATURE THE SUN IS THE MOST USEFUL IN ITS ACTION. The sun enlightens his system, and maintains harmony He through every part. renews the earth, quickens the seeds into life, covers the landscapes with beauty, and ripens the harvest for man and beast. How useful He is the is a good man! light of his circle. "He shines

in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation."

IV. OF ALL THE OBJECTS IN NATURE THE SUN IS THE MOST INDEPENDENT IN ITS

EXISTENCE. Troops of black clouds may roll over the earth, but they do not touch the sun; furious storms may shake the globe, but the sun is beyond their reach. Mists and clouds may obscure the sun at times, but he, shakes them off, and breaks forth with wonted brightness. So with the good. The good man lives above the world. He can sing, "Although the figtree, &c."

V. OF ALL THE OBJECTS IN NATURE THE SUN IS THE MOST

CERTAIN IN ITS PROGRESS. How certain moves the sun in his circuit. He is never out of time. Whatever happens in the affairs of men and nations, he is in his place at the right hour. He never disappoints us in his course. It is true that the progress of the good man is not so inevitable and regular. For he has within him, what "Nature's Royal Orb" has not, a power to alter the rate of his motion, and even to reverse his course. Albeit, the progress is certain. The good work begun within him will be carried on.

But the good man excels the sun. The sun does not increase in size or splendor; he is not greater or brighter now than when he shone on Adam. But growth, everlasting growth, is the destiny of the good. From "strength to strength," from "glory to glory," through circling ages without end, is the career which kind heaven has decreed for sainted souls. They feel

"Their orbit to be immensity; Their work, to make it radiant With the reflected beams of God."

GOD WORKING WITH MAN.

"Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit,

to be enlightened with the light of the living."-Job. xxxiii. 29, 30.

THESE words of Elihu suggest certain well attested facts in the Divine procedure towards man :

I. THAT GOD WORKS WITH MAN. Reason, consciousness, and the Bible, attest the fact that God works with individual man. The objections which are urged to this on the ground of God's greatness are simply absurd. (1) God works with the circumstances of individual man. Prosperity and adversity, sickness and health, friendship and bereavement, are with Him. (2) God works with the body of the individual man. His constant visitation preserveth our lives. (3) God works with the soul of individul man. He suggests thoughts, unseals the fountain of feeling, touches conscience, &c. He is always working with individual man.

II. THAT HE OFTEN WORKS WITH MAN IN SPECIAL WAYS.

"Lo all these things." What things? Undoubtedly the things to which Elihu had been referring. They were, (1) Special visions of the night. "In a dream, in a vision of the night, &c. (14, 15.) (2) Special afflictions. "He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,"

THE TRUE MINISTER.

(Continued from page 103.)

IV. He doth not clash God's ordinances together about precedency.-Not making odious comparisons betwixt prayer and preaching, preaching and catechising, public prayer and private, premeditate prayer and extempore. When, at the taking of New Carthage in Spain, two soldiers contended about the mural crown, due to him who first climbed the walls, so that the whole army was thereupon in danger of division, Scipio the general said he knew that they both got up the wall together; and so gave the scaling crown to them both. Thus our minister compounds all controversies be

twixt God's ordinances, by praising them all, practising them all, and thanking God for them all. He counts the reading of Common Prayers to prepare him the better for preaching; and, as one said, if he did first toll the bell on one side, he made it afterwards ring out the better in his ser

mons.

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V. He carefully catechiseth his people in the elements of religion. -Except he hath (a rare thing!) a flock without lambs, of all old sheep; and yet even Luther did not scorn to profess himself discipulus Catechismi, a scholar of the catechism." By this catechising the Gospel first got ground of Popery; and let not our religion, now grown rich, be ashamed of that which first gave it credit and set it up ;-lest the Jesuits beat us at our own weapon. Through the want of this catechising, many, who are well skilled in some dark out-corners

of divinity, have lost themselves in the beaten road thereof.

VI. He will not offer to God of that which costs him nothing.-But takes pains aforehand for his sermons. Demosthenes never made any oration on the sudden; yea, being called upon, he never rose up to speak except he had well studied the matter; and he was wont to say, "that he showed he honored and reverenced the people of Athens, because he was careful what he spake unto them." Indeed, if our minister be surprised with a sudden occasion, he counts himself rather to be excused than commended, if, premeditating only the bones of his sermon, he clothes it with flesh ex tempore. As for those whose long custom hath made preaching their nature, [so] that they can discourse sermons without study, he accounts their examples rather to be admired than imitated.

VII. Having brought his sermon into his head, he labors to bring it into his heart, before he preaches it to his people.-Surely, that preaching which comes from the soul most works on the soul. Some have questioned ventriloquy, (when men strangely speak out of their bellies,) whether it can be done lawfully or no: might I coin the word cordiloquy, when men draw the doctrines out of their hearts, sure, all would count this lawful and commendable.

VIII. He chiefly reproves the reigning sins of the time and place he lives in. We may observe, that our Saviour never inveighed against idolatry, usury, sabbathbreaking, amongst the Jews. Not that these were not sins, but they were not practised so much in that age, wherein wickedness was spun with a finer thread; and therefore Christ principally

bent the drift of his preaching against spiritual pride, hypocrisy, and traditions, then predominant amongst the people. Also our

minister confuteth no old heresies which time hath confuted; nor troubles his auditory with such strange hideous cases of conscience, that it is more hard to find the case than the resolution. In public reproving of sin, he ever whips the vice, and spares the person.

IX. He doth not only move the bread of life, and toss it up and down in generalities, but also breaks it into particular directions.Drawing it down to cases of conscience, that a man may be warranted in his particular actions, whether they be lawful or not. And he teacheth people their lawful liberty, as well as their restraints and prohibitions; for, amongst men, it is as ill taken to turn back favors, as to disobey commands.

X. The places of Scripture he quotes are pregnant and pertinent.

-As for heaping up of many quotations, it smacks of a vain ostentation of memory. Besides, it is as impossible that the hearer should profitably retain them all, as that the preacher hath seriously perused them all; yea, whilst the auditors stop their attention, and stoop down to gather an impertinent quotation, the sermon runs on, and they lose more substantial matter.

XI. His similies and illustrations are always familiar, never contemptible. Indeed, reasons are the pillars of the fabric of a sermon; but similitudes are the windows which give the best lights. He avoids such stories whose mention may suggest bad thoughts to the auditors, and will not use a light comparison