II. THAT OBSTRUCTION TO THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE IS TO BE EXPECTED. "For it must needs be that offences come." In Luke, Christ is reported to have said to His disciples, "It is impossible but that offences will come." And Paul says, "There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”

There are two facts here which all philosophy is bound to accept as verities; but which no philosophy can logically reconcile. One is Divine prescience, and the other is human responsibility

Here is Divine prescience. "It must needs be that offences come." Christ foresaw all the opposition that in all future ages should arise to retard the onward march of His religion in the world. He knew that the eternal antagonism between the "two seeds" would produce these "offences." He knew that the more His truth spread the more offences would come; as the warmer and brighter the sun the more insects crowd the air. But foreknowing does not involve foreordaining. He foresees all future evil; but He does not predetermine it. All His predestination in the matter is, that souls shall be free; free to obey and disobey; free to do evil and good.

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Here is human responsibility. Though "offences" must come, "wo unto that man by whom they come." The same idea comes out in Christ's statement concerning Judas :"The son of man goeth as it is written of him, but wo unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed." Sin may appear a necessity in our poor logic, but it is not so in our consciousness. We feel that the sinful act is ours, that we are its originating cause, that our moral instincts will not allow us to charge it upon any object out of us, upon any decree concerning us, or upon any arrangements antecedent to us. The simple act is ours. We feel it ;-hence our self-crimination and remorse. No argument can destroy the feeling. Though Heaven foresaw all the demons in our nature that have figured in human history, and all the wicked deeds, even to the utmost minutiæ, they were not the less demons

on that account. Do not ask me to reconcile Divine prescience, or Divine preordination, with human freedom and human responsibility. I cannot-no one has ever done so, no one can; he does not know his mental position in the universe who dares attempt it.

III. THAT OBSTRUCTION TO THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS TO BE EARNESTLY RESISTED. "Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire." The practical meaning of this highly figurative language may be brought out in the two following remarks:

First: That whatever tends to injure our Christianity, however near to us, must be uncompromisingly and earnestly resisted. Though it were as valuable to us as the hand or foot, or as tender and precious as the eye, it must be resisted. (1) However tender in friendship the offender may be. Dear relations, sweet companions, enthusiastic lovers, if their aim and influence be to turn us from Christian virtue and truth, away with them! To the most endeared of them we must say avaunt! (2) However near in interest the offender may be. Though our standing in the world, our prosperity in business, the very comforts and necessities of life, may depend upon them; still, if they tend to turn us from the right way, they must go. Shops, houses, lands-even bread itself must go, if they thus offend. (3) However exquisite in gratification the offender may be. Whatever be your strongest lust, your favorite pleasure ;-music, novel-reading, drinks, money making, concupiscence-if they in their influence are opposed to your spiritual life, they must go. You must "mortify the flesh."

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Secondly That upon such uncompromising and earnest resistance of these offences our future destiny depends. "It is better to enter into life halt or maimed," &c. Paul uses the same argument ;-"if ye live after the flesh ye shall die ;" "but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the

body, ye shall live." This indeed is a necessity of our

nature.

Here, then, is our spiritual interest. We must leave materialism and sinful pleasures. As Abraham quitted Uz of the Chaldeans; as Moses left Pharoah's royal court; as Paul left Judaism with all its gorgeous ceremonies, enchanting associations, great emoluments, and Pharisaic honors and delight; declaring that what things were gain to him he "counted loss for Christ.'

Germs of Thought.

SUBJECT:-The Necessity of Repentance.

"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring therefore fruits meet for repentance."-Matt. iii. 7, 8.

Analysis of Homily the Four Hundred and Twenty-seventh.

THESE words imply the following propositions: (1) That punishment will be inflicted upon sinners. (2) That the way for sinners to escape this punishment is by repentance. (3) That a formal submission to a religious ordinance is not an infallible proof of the existence of repentance. (4) That true repentance is assuredly known by its moral results.

I. THAT THE PUNISHMENT WHICH WILL BE INFLICTED UPON SINNERS IS HERE DESIGNATED BY THE PHRASE "WRATH TO COME." Men are subjects of a superhuman government; that government is exercised according to an established law; that law has its origin in the will of God; any opposition to that will, necessarily incurs the displeasure of God; the displeasure of God will certainly be manifested in a punishment of some form; the date of that punishment is fixed in the

future; the futurity of the punishment will be interminable; the interminableness of its futurity adds to its weight.

Men are governed beings. Every family is a kingdomevery community an empire; and thus we have a kingdom upon a kingdom, an empire upon empire, kings over kings, and finally God the King of all—the "King of kings." After rising from law to law, from cause to cause, from world to world, all are ultimately forced to confess that the universe is controlled by some supernatural, all-supreme monarch:that monarch is God.

This superhuman government is one of supreme mystery; but still it is not one of lawless confusion. In every department of it there is discoverable a definite law according to which it is uniformly executed. This law is written upon the sand of the sea, upon every blade of grass, upon every leaf in the forest, upon the stars of the sky, upon the wing of the seraph, upon the tablet of every heart-it is stereotyped in nature material and moral. By observing its enactments men will be safely directed to proceed in harmony with the all-ruling government, as well as with their own best interests.

This law is not the fabrication of finite intelligences. It is an emanation of the Divine mind-the dictate of the eternal Spirit-the decree of God's will. And it is as eternal, immutable, and perfect, as God. Think not of God as a despot, a tyrant, or an autocrat, who frames a law by His own will, to answer His selfish purposes, irrespective of the well-being of His subjects. The law whereby He exercises His government over men, and which originates in His sovereign will, is a combination of consummate rectitude and unbounded benevolence. God is gracious as well as righteous; and His law cannot be otherwise whilst it results from His will.

Any act of resistance to His will must instantly rouse His indignation. Is it not so with us? and it cannot be otherwise with the Infinite. It is a most serious thought for us to consider that every degree of sin excites the anger of the Almighty! He cannot help being angry with the wicked

because sin comes in immediate collision with His will. This collision is liable to prove fatal to men; and it will certainly prove so unless there should be some merciful interposition. God's wrath will make itself manifest in a punishment of some form. The Antedeluvians and Sodomites brought upon themselves diseases, disasters, and death, as the direct consequences of their vile deeds. But in addition to these God brought upon them the special inflictions of a deluge and a fiery tempest which drowned and burnt them for their extreme abominations. God adopts several ways to chastise sinners in this world. In what terrific forms He pleases to punish the impenitent in the other world we know not. "Bottomless pit," "everlasting fire," "outer darkness,” and worm that dieth not," may be but figurative expressions. But in some direful mode He does and will inflict upon them the punishment they deserve—and that mode, doubtless, is such, that no earthly comparison is powerful enough, no fire hot enough, no darkness black enough, no pit deep enough, no worm loathsome enough, to set it fully forth.

The wrath of God exists now in reference to the wicked. It may not be tangibly felt now. But it will become so. The time for its full manifestation is in the future. That is, in the future to us, to this life, to this world. This life is not to be one of penance and purgatory-this world is not to be the prison-house, the penal settlement, for God's kingdom. This is to take place in the world to come. The calamities ordered by the offended God to befall sinners in this life and this world are only drops, that occasionally come down, from the great thunder cloud of Divine wrath, that hangs over them. The great shower is to come. And mark! sinner, it may not be very long-it may be but very short time before it will come.

And when it has once commenced it will never come to an end. It will come interminably. There will be no end to its coming. Multiply the number of the stars with that of the seasand, and all that with the number of earth's atoms, and put a million of centuries for each of all that, and at the end of