person desires to borrow, it is a duty to lend; but often it would be an injury both to the borrower and yourself so to do. Such expressions as these are clearly to be taken in the spirit in which they are written; for the letter might kill, but the spirit giveth life.

Then he concludes the whole of this most beautiful chapter, "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." You must always in these things err on the safe side. Rather give to two undeserving persons, than send a deserving one away empty. Act in the spirit of him who makes his rain to fall upon the bad man's garden as well as upon the good man's, and his sun to rise upon the evil and the good.

And then he says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." That does not here mean perfect in the sense of perfectly holy, but the word is used as the Apostle uses it in the Epistle to the Hebrews-"Go on unto perfection"-be ye perfect, do not be one-sided, act on broad, liberal, enlightened principles, in the spirit of the Gospel, and of Christian charity, and after the example, and according to the prescription, of that Father who is in heaven, and who is perfect.

Beautiful and perfect law! May he who spake it seal it, and write it upon our hearts, and to his name be the praise. Amen.

NOTE.-Elisha healed the unwholesome water by means of salt (2 Kings ii. 20); and the ordinary use of salt for culinary purposes is to prevent putrefaction: so (see Gen. xviii. 23—33) are

the righteous, the people of God, in this corrupt world. It hardly seems necessary to find instances of the actual occurrence of salt losing its savour, for this is merely hypothetical; yet it is perhaps worth noticing, that Maundrell, in his travels, found salt in the Valley of Salt, near Gehul, which had the appearance but not the taste, having lost it by exposure to the elements [but qu.?] : and that Schöttgen maintains that a kind of bitumen from the Dead Sea was called "Sal Sodomiticus," and was used to sprinkle the sacrifices in the temple; which salt was used when its savour was gone to strew the temple pavement, that the priests might not slip. This, however, is but poorly made out by him.Alford.

CHAPTER VI.

SPRINGS OF MORALITY-MOTIVES-PRAYER-OUR FATHER-PRIMITIVE

WORSHIP-AMEN-FASTING-INSURANCE-CARES.

LAST Sabbath evening we read the 5th chapter, which consists of benedictions pronounced upon certain characters, and also upon the observance of certain practical and obvious duties, either misunderstood by the Jews, or merged in their traditions, and not felt to be obligatory in all the length and breadth in which our Saviour shows them to be. In this chapter we read of the springs, roots, or sources of these duties. In the 5th he deals with acts, in the 6th chapter he deals with principles; and therefore, he begins the chapter by saying, "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven;" and then he guards them against the practice of the Pharisees, who sounded a trumpet, which may be a proverbial expression for making a parade, or, as we should call it now, putting an advertisement in the paper, when they did their alms, and with this object, that they might have glory of men. Now, the great sin that is condemned in this passage is, not letting men know what you do, but the motive and the end which you have in view in letting it be known. If you let what you do be known with

discretion and prudence, and absence of all self-laudation, your object being, that others may be stimulated to follow your example, and so give glory to your Father who is in heaven, you do not only what is right, but what is expedient in the sight of God, and for the good of mankind. But if the object that you have in view is, that others may say, "How charitable is such a one! how liberal is such a one!" if your object be to show that you are more munificent, or richer, or better than others, then you inherit the succession of the ancient Pharisees, you do it to get praise from men; and if you get it, you get all the reward you have reason to expect, or that can possibly follow you. "Verily I say unto you, Ye have your reward." But if, on the other hand, when you do alms, you conceal from a person on the left hand what you have done with your right, and give your alms, or your contribution to a spiritual or charitable object, from the purest motives, laying it upon Christ the altar, and letting the amount be known only to Him to whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secrets are hid, then your reward is, "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and he that watereth others shall be watered himself;" and you will be satisfied with so munificent a reward, when you receive it. It is, therefore, the motive that gives its colouring to the act; it is the design you have in view that gives its tone,—its moral character and bearing, to what the hand does. If the heart be right, the hand will be loyal and obedient to it. If the heart be wrong, the most splendid deed, outwardly seeming so, is the most hateful in the sight of God. And hence, you are not to measure a man's charity by what he holds in his hand, but by what he

feels in his heart. Many a rich man puts pounds in a plate at a charitable collection, and gives truly nothing; many a poor widow casts her mite therein, who gives truly and munificently her all. It is what is in the heart, not what is in the purse, that determines the character and the claims of him who gives. God can judge, we cannot.

Then He speaks of prayer. When you pray, you are not to pray standing in the corners of the streets. The charge here is not against standing. The Jews frequently stood in prayer; indeed, kneeling would have been the more ostentatious mode in the synagogue. The publican stood, and yet he prayed rightly. It is not the attitude that makes prayer, it is the heart. You may kneel, or stand, or sit,—you may be in the sanctuary, or upon the sea sand,-you may be tossed against the gale on the ocean's bosom, or you may be in the coal-pit, or on the Alpine height; it matters not where you are, it matters not what the formula is; if there be the praying heart, praying in the only name, there there is prayer that rises faster than an angel's wing can clip, and receives a response exceeding abundantly above all that we can either ask or think. True, forms are beautiful, expressions of religion are desirable; and if we approach an earthly sovereign with acts of reverence, we cannot do wrong-nay, we must so far be doing right-in approaching the King of kings in the most reverential way in which it is possible to do so; only remember, it is not the bowed knee, but the bowed heart, that is true humility and devotion in the sight of God; and, therefore, when you pray, do not stand and bid people come and see how eloquently you can pray,-how gifted you are with