in some way limited. God to our intellects must be according to our conceptions; and our conceptions are finite. The eye of thought cannot see the unconditioned, and illimitable. Still the lack of power to grasp the Infinite is very different from the intellectual propensity to limit Him, and it is to this evil that our attention is now directed. First: Men in some of their theories limit the Holy One in the sphere of His agency in nature. Some conceive of Him as limited to the grand and stupendous in nature, and as having no connexion with the insignificant and the minute. In their thoughts they exclude Him from the microscopic realms of existence. Secondly: Men in some of their theories limit the Holy One in the range of His mercy in redemption. There are those who consider that the mercy of God in Christ Jesus has a very limited aspect ;-that it extends not beyond the men of their own creed, or the pale of their own sect. They do not regard gospel mercy as a majestic ocean, rising high, drowning the hills, and reaching even unto the clouds; but rather as a little brook, rolling evermore within the narrow circle of the elected few. Thirdly: Men in some of their theories limit the Holy One in His freedom of action in the universe. There are theological writers (the late Dr. Harris, for example), who in their speculations concerning the Divine procedure, give a minute draught of all the stages through which He moves on from beginning to end in His universe. Their philosophy has mapped the road through which the Infinite must march. Such writers seem to us to undeify the Eternal. Their God is the greatest slave in the universe, if He is bound to move according to the indications of their a priori logic.

II. MEN IN SOME OF THEIR RELIGIOUS FORMALITIES LIMIT

THE HOLY ONE. First: In their prostration before material representations of Him. Heathens do this. They form images of the deity, and worship them; thus they limit Him to those dead and senseless forms. This is a sin to which men from the beginning have been prone, a sin against which the

Eternal has uttered most solemn protests and awful denunciations. "To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal?" &c. Secondly: In regarding certain prescribed services as exclusive channels of His grace. The majority of those who call themselves Christians do this. With a miserable narrowness of soul, they suppose that the Holy One has no other way to approach man with the blessing of salvation but through their sacraments and their liturgy. Brother, the ritualism of thy Church, though it be a divine channel, is infinitely less to God, than the water pipes in thy house to the mighty oceans that sail in the clouds above thee, and roll in the channels of the mighty deep. Thy liturgy, though it lets in divine light, lets in less, infinitely less, of God, than thy little windows can let in of the suns that light up the universe. Thirdly: In a superstitious regard for certain buildings as the only place where He is to be met with and worshipped. Not a few here in England think of God only in connexion with a place where they are accustomed to assemble for worship. They limit the Holy One to their little steeple house, or Bethel. The words of Jesus to the woman of Samaria have not yet penetrated them, with their soul expanding and soul uplifting power, "God is a spirit, and they that worship him," &c.

III. MEN IN THEIR MORAL HABITUDES LIMIT THE HOLY ONE. First: Man by his sins excludes the Holy One from the temple of his nature. This is a fearful power with which we are endowed,-a power to shut the door of our spirits against our Creator. The heart language of the depraved man is, "Depart from me, I desire not a knowledge of thy ways." He is without God. Thus he limits Him, as the man who draws the blinds and closes the shutters at noon, limits the light of heaven; or, as the wayward and reckless son limits the power of a wise, loving, and wealthy father, to make him great and good. Secondly: Man by his sins obstructs the moral influence of the Holy One in His sphere. Man was not only made to receive God, but to reflect Him;

not only was he built as a temple for the deity, but constructed as an organ by which the purposes of mercy are to be wrought out.

Brother, duly estimate the fearful power with which thou art endowed ;-thou canst limit the Holy One. Thou canst in thy conceptions make Him such an one as thyself, aye, and even lower. "Thou canst change the glory of the incorruptible God; not only into an image made like to corruptible man, but into birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Thou canst in the moral habitudes of thy soul exclude Him from the temple of thy nature, and obstruct by thy conduct the progress of His holy influence in the world. Talk no more of thy inability as an excuse for thy depraved conduct. Thy power is terrible to contemplate ;thou canst resist the spirit of God. Not only duly estimate thy power, but, tremble at thy perversity. Thou not only canst limit Him, but thou dost do it. The possession of such a power is the glory of thy nature, the wrong use of it is the stigma and curse of thy being. Cease, I entreat, to limit the Holy One. Limit the Evil One; but let the Holy One have His unrestricted sway. As the indolence of the farmer limits those fructifying influences of nature that would yield to him a golden harvest; as the stolid ignorance and base sensuality of the people, limit the influence of the genuine reformer to raise the millions in the social and political scale; as the dulness or idleness of the pupil limits the power of a great teacher to enrich him with the treasures of knowledge; so the perversity of the heart limits the power of the Holy One to help us. He cannot do many mighty works for us "because of our unbelief." Fling open the doors and windows of thy nature, and let the vital air and the living light of the Holy One flow into thee. Clear the channel of thy being, sweep away obstructions, and let the moral influence of the Holy One flow through thee and bless the circle in which thou livest.

Brother, throw open thy nature to the influences of thy Maker. Let the love of God which breathes everywhere

around thee, and overflows the universe, roll and radiate through thee. LOVE is infinitely greater than thy creed or thy church;-feel this and thy miserable days of theological quibblings, and sectarian disputations will be over. have read of three naturalists who once went into the woods to find a nightingale's nest. When they had found it, each took from his pocket his favorite work on ornithology, and began to describe the looks and the size of the nightingale that was not there. All gave a different description, and they quarrelled over the empty nest, and tore each other's books, and made a great noise. But now, from the thicket, where she had been resting, the bird began to pour forth a flood of song. The disputers stopped to listen. The very leaves quiver in the gush of melody, the waves of air were moved, the forest is bathed in music as in a flood. When a hush falls around them-for the song is done-the men straightway shut their books and go home. The universe is God's nightingale of love; in its waves of melody every leaf quivers, every insect sports, every planet rolls, and every seraph sings. List to the melody and be charmed away from self and sect.

SUBJECT:-The Anthem of the Redeemed.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time."-1 Peter i. 3-5.

Analysis of Homily the Fibe Hundred and Thirty-eighth.

GRATITUDE is happiness, and happiness speaks in poetry, and delights in song. Music is the language of a jubilant heart. The soul overflowing with devout thanksgiving would set the world to melody, and have all things make a "joyful sound." Holy gratitude filled and fired the spirit of the apostle; and under its influence he penned an anthem for the redeemed of all lands and all times. The text is verily a

hymn for the redeemed, a hymn that every Christian may sing, whatever his country or his creed. The most ultrapredestinarian in theology, if his spirit has truly been redeemed from all iniquity by Christ, and the most strenuous advocate of free agency and universal redemption, will, in the text, meet and mingle in strains of loving friendship and holy devotion. Godly Arminians will sing this anthem as heartily and as loudly as the godly disciples of the Calvinistic creed. The "abundant" mercy of God is the master theme of this anthem, the burden of the song.

The words of the text present to us certain phases of His “abundant mercy," which may serve to impress it upon the heart, though they must inevitably fail to bring it within the comprehension of the intellect,

I. WE HAVE HERE THE PRODUCING A LIVING HOPE IN THE BREAST OF REBELS AGAINST

"ABUNDANT MERCY OF GOD, IN

HIS AUTHORITY. This expression implies three things: -First: That humanity once had a living hope. The breast of man, in the short but bright period of innocence, was indeed inspired with a living hope. Prospects of ever-advancing power, and ever-heightening joy, through unnumbered ages, without break or hinderance, rose on the clear vision of our first parents in the morning of innocence. They had nothing to fear, nothing to dread. All things to them in the future were full of hope; every sound that fell on their ear was a promise, every event that transpired was a prophecy of hope, every object that met their eye was a lovely blossom foretelling coming fruit. This expression implies:-Secondly: That mankind have somehow or other lost this living hope. We know how they lost it. It was sin that quenched this glorious lamp, and left the soul in the storms of fear and the darkness of despair. A sinner is "without God and without hope in the world." What has a rebel against God to hope for? What has he to expect, but a fearful "looking for"? The expression implies :-Thirdly: That the reproduction of this living hope is a wonderful display of Divine

&c.