"I go away." Christ was free in His death. "I have power to lay down my life," &c. Sublime power this! "I go"-through Gethsemane, over Calvary, down into the grave, up through the clouds, on to the central throne of the universe-"I go." All power is in His hand.

Secondly: The greatest blessing is under His direction. He sends the Spirit. "I will send Him unto you"-Him, not it. A person, not an influence. He "hath received gifts for men. "" Our destiny is in the hands of God in Christ. Let us trust Him. The whole of our life is made of loss and gain; but if we are His, He takes away one good thing in order to give us a better. Trust Him my brother!

"Trust in the Lord in days of sorrow,

And meekly tread the thorny way;

It may be thou wilt see to-morrow

The love that chastens thee to-day."—MAURICE.

SUBJECT:-The Christianity of Christ.

"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."-John iv. 14.

Analysis of Homily the Five Hundred and Twenty-third.

THE biography of Christ is living and life-giving. At whatever point we touch Him in the sacred page we feel a quickening impulse; there is life in everything He does and says. That which to human eyes appear the merest incident, through His connexion with it, becomes a mighty epoch in history. The meeting with the woman of Samaria, now at the well, seemed the most fortuitous and simple affair; yet, what results grew out of it, and still grow! It roused the Samaritan mind from the slumber of ages; it set hundreds at once to earnest thought. We are no judge as to the magnitude of events. A spark may burn a city; a word may convulse an empire, and change the history of the world. The words of the text lead us to consider the religion of Christ in three aspects :—

I. AS AN INESTIMABLE BLESSING. It is here spoken of under the figure of "water." Christ employed natural objects to represent spiritual realities. Thus by attaching divine ideas to material things, the worth even of material nature is enhanced. The lily, the vine, the bird, the water, the stars, the sun, get a new value. He made them vehicles of those great thoughts with which He came to regenerate humanity. Here He speaks of His religion as water. And what so valuable as water? First: It is a life-giving power. We can scarcely wonder at old Thales referring all life to water. Wherever it is found, in the floating mists, the falling shower, the placid lake, the dancing brook, the rolling river, or the rushing cataract, it is fraught with a life-giving power. So is Christ's religion;-it is life-giving. "The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and life." Secondly: It is a thirst-satisfying power. Physical thirst is of all animal sensations the most painful. The Oriental traveller on the burning sands has often told the tale of its scorching anguish. Material water alone can allay this thirst; and the more simple its form the more effective. Man's soul is fired with a spiritual thirst, his one great burning desire is for happiness. Man has sought for the allayment of this thirst in wealth, fame, pleasure, literature; but all have proved in vain ;-the passion burns on. The religion of Christ alone can satisfy this thirst; it has done so in millions of instances; it is doing so now, &c. Thirdly It is a nature-cleansing power. Water is the great cleansing power of nature. Man's soul is polluted by sin; Christ's religion is the cleansing element. It is the fountain opened for the washing away of sin, &c. The text leads us to look at Christ's religion :

"The water that I

II. AS A DIVINE COMMUNICATION. shall give him." First: This godliness is imparted as the gift of Christ. He is the giver of that system of truth, that can alone produce it. In fact, He is not only the author, but the very substance, of the Bible. He, too, is the giver

of that Spirit. Who so applies His gospel to the heart, as to make it a quickening power. It is, then, Christ's gift. In that great day of the feast, "Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Secondly: It is imparted as the gift of Christ in connexion with man's agency, "But whoso drinketh." Man must drink. The Oriental traveller will die of thirst, though the crystal fountain bubble at his feet, unless he himself will drink. No one can drink for him;-it is a personal act. The gospel is the well, but men must drink of it before it can serve them. The rock has been smitten in the wilderness, the refreshing streams wind along their path, and a thousand voices of mercy are heard issuing from its verdant banks, “Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.” The text leads us to look at Christ's religion

:

"It shall be in

III. AS AN EVER-ACTING INNER LIFE. him a well of water." First: It is essentially active within. Godliness is an active principle. It is not like the sleeping lake or stagnant pool ;-it is a well, a spring whose very essence is activity. Take away the activity of a spring, and it ceases to be. The frosts of winter and the beams of summer will consume it. Godliness is activity. Secondly: It is spontaneously active within. The spring is free. If you attempt to force the spring, you stir up impurities, and destroy the clearness and the sweetness of the waters. You must not attempt to meddle with the free action of religion in the human soul. British legislation has done so ere now, and it has stirred up the worst passions of the soul and inflicted a serious injury on the cause of truth, &c. Thirdly: It is perpetually active within. "Unto everlasting life." It is a principle of endless evolutions. It originates a series of delightful operations that will multiply without end. It is a law of water that it will find its own level. The well is springing, because of its connexion with the great Piled mountains cannot prevent the water from rising to its level, and the spring from bubbling up. The

ever

ocean.

godly soul will ever be happily active, because of its connexion with God, the great ocean of life.

All this is within ;-in you, and therefore independent of all outward circumstances. Whatever in the world leaves you-friends, property, earthly joys-they cannot take this from you. You may leave the world, but you cannot leave this. You must lose your being ere you lose this. Death will tear down your earthly tabernacle; fires will devour these heavens and burn up this globe; but this will remain unhurt, amid the war of elements, the wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds. True happiness does not stream from without, but swells up from within. Brother, trust not the outward to yield thee happiness. It cannot do so.

"How oft the world's alluring smile
Has tempted only to beguile!

It promised health-in one short hour
Perished the fair but tender flower:

It promised riches-in a day

They made them wings, and flew away.

It promised friends—all sought their own,
And left my aching heart alone."-CUNNINGHAM.

SUBJECT:-Trust.

“Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man,” &c.—Jer. xvii. 5—8.

Analysis of Homily the Five Hundred and Twenty-fourth.

To trust is to place confidence in, to believe, to commit oneself with confidence, to venture confidently. There are various degrees of trust. Examples from commerce and common

life.

Trust is the subject of the text. As the object of the Bible is to teach us religious truth, so the trust here spoken of is religious trust-a trust which has reference to the soul and its eternal interests.

Many are trusting in something for obtaining heaven. We might have trusted in our goodness as a

proper ground of our hopes of heaven, if we had never sinned. But "all have sinned";-therefore we seek some other ground of trust. We all believe that there is a way to heaven still open to us, and that some find it to the saving of their souls, while others fail to do so. How important, then, that we should place our confidence in something that may be worthy of it! We may make unsuccessful speculations in business, we may venture all we have on some ruinous enterprise, we may even put our lives in jeopardy and lose them; still all may not be lost :—the soul may be safe. But if we trust the soul to something that will fail us at the day of judgment, then the loss will be tremendous and irreparable.

As to what is trustworthy and what is not, God alone can determine; and He communicates to us the momentous decision in the text;—where there are two grounds of confidence mentioned, Man and Jehovah.

I. MAN, AS A GROUND OF TRUST.

First In what consists this dependence upon man for the salvation of the soul? (1) In being led by the example of others to the commission of sin and neglect of God. (2) In looking for that rest in the creature which is only to be found in God. (3) In depending on our own good works, in part, for our justification before God. (4) In taking our religion from the opinions of men, instead of the word of God. (5) In resting in the means of grace.

:

Secondly See the consequences of trusting in man. "Cursed," &c. He that does so shall be, (1) Useless “ as the heath in the desert." (2) Miserable. "Shall not see when good cometh." (3) Solitary, or forsaken of God. "Shall inhabit a salt land not inhabited." (4) Cursed by Jehovah Himself. "Lord, is it I?"

II. JEHOVAH AS A GROUND OF A TRUST.

First: What is meant by trusting Jehovah? With the light of this dispensation, we may safely say it embraces dependence