one specified reason. How much is society indebted to Him in whom all the families of the earth are to be blessed, for this beneficent legislation! (Matt. xix. 3-9.)

The formalists of His day assailed Him on another ground. To rub out the grain from the husks as they walked through a corn-field was held to be preparing food, and so to be a violation of the Sabbath. His vindication of them is most ample, but it rests entirely on the Scripture. First, He alleges that positive enactments must give way to the necessities of nature; as David and his companions ate the bread which was by law appropriated to the priests. Next, He shows that as in the temple service the priests habitually violated the law of rest, in order that the people might observe the law of worship, so His disciples, in attendance on Him as on One greater than the temple, might work, if His service required it. And, lastly, He appeals to a general principle which sets love, "the end of the commandment," above all ritual observances, however sacred in themselves. On all these grounds He holds the disciples "guiltless;" and upbraids their censorious accusers with not knowing better. But all these grounds He finds in the Scriptures, where the Pharisees might have found them. "Have ye not read?” or, "Have ye not read in the law?" "If ye had known what that" scripture "meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." (Matt. xii. 1-8.)

The sceptics are dealt with in like manner. They allege a difficulty connected with the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, probably with a view to justify themselves in rejecting it: "When they shall rise, whose wife shall she be? for the seven had her to wife." I would that the principle embodied in His answer were more fully acted upon by all His disciples. It is, in effect, that that which is revealed is to be believed, all real or supposed difficulties notwithstanding; because what God has foretold, He has power to bring to pass, all obstacles notwithstanding. Hence the question, "Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God?" which is pledged to the fulfilling of the Scriptures, however impossible it may appear. So much is preliminary, and bears on the general question. Next, He sweeps away the alleged difficulty at a stroke, by declaring that earthly relationships cease at the end of the world: "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage." Lastly, He proves from the Scripture, (and once again from a single word,) that death is not a sleep, still less a perpetual sleep. "God is not the God of the dead;" but He is the God of Abraham, Himself being witness. Abraham therefore lives, and will rise again. All this follows from the words spoken to Moses at the bush; and thus IIe guarantees the narrative of that miracle, while He brings out the lesson of hope and comfort which it conveys. "The book of Moses" is "Scripture;" the appearance "in the bush is a fact of Scripture history; the voice that was heard was no product of a heated imagination,-for "God spake unto him in the bush." "The Scripture cannot be broken:" but " ye know not the Scriptures.... Ye therefore do greatly err." (Mark xii. 18—27.)

9. But it may be, and indeed is, objected, that this is the argument

of a Jew with Jews. Even the Sadducees received the books of Moses, if no more, while the nation at large held fast to the whole Scripture ; and it was politic in Him to meet them on their own ground. If this implies either that He knew no better than they, or that against His better judgment He appealed to their prejudices to gain their adhesion to His cause, we may leave all Christian hearts to deal with the supposition as it deserves. This is not the place to vindicate either His competency or His honesty. But the objection leads us to remark on His use of the Scripture in circumstances which shut out the supposition of any wish or intention to conciliate prejudice, or disarm opposition; and we point you to three classes of cases answering to this description. (1.) Turn to the history of His temptation. See Him encountering a foe whose hostility could not be mitigated, and who clearly could have no Jewish prejudices to disarm, or objections to remove. What is His answer to every suggestion? O ye tempted followers of a tempted Master, hear it to your joy, and see to it that you defend yourselves as He did. “It is written." "It is written again." "It is written." "Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Ilim." (Matt. iv. 11.) God give us grace thus to withstand our great enemy! (2.) When He prays to His Father, He refers to the fulfilment of prophecy in the falling away of one of His disciples, and thus, as it were, establishes His own fidelity to the trust which had been committed to Him. "Those that Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled." (John xvii. 12.) If we take the words as declaring the certain effect of Judas's treachery, rather than in a causative sense, and this is probably their true intention,—the fact remains the same. In His most solemn address to His God and Father, on the eve of His departure from the world and return to glory, He affirms the validity of the written word. (3.) Trace the history of His most bitter, yet most blessed passion. In the chamber where He ate the passover with His disciples, He warned them of their approaching trial in the defection of Judas, (John xiii. 18,) that the Scripture might be fulfilled. When they had gone out into the Mount of Olives, He warned them again respecting themselves; and explained, while He quoted, the mysterious words of Zechariah, "It is written, Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." (Matt. xxvi. 31.) Then at His apprehension He restrains the attempt to defend Him, on the ground that the Scripture must not fail of its due honour. O what a world of wonders do His words disclose to view! More than twelve legions of angels are waiting to defend their glorious Lord, now treated as one of the outcasts of men. A word would have brought them to the rescue. But that word He will not speak. And why? That He may secure the fulfilment of the Scripture. What He had said to the disciples, to restrain their eagerness, He says again in substance to the multitude who now came out against Him with weapons and lights as against a thief. (Mark xiv. 49.) Of the antecedent necessity which had led to the writing of these wonderful prophecies, He has nothing to say; but, having been written, He will not allow them to fail of their accomplishment in any parti

cular, however minute. In the treachery of Judas after having sat at meat with Him, and in the purchase of the potter's field with the price of blood,-in His apprehension as a transgressor,-in His being carried to the Roman governor, and sentenced by a foreign ruler to a foreign punishment,-in His being mocked, scourged, and smitten with rods, -He had doubtless marked, and we may well mark, the exact fulfilment of the sure word of prophecy. And now He hangs on the cross; and, while His enemies deride, and His friends weep, He sees at His feet the soldiers, who have acted as executioners, taking as their perquisite the clothes of the victim. They "made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also His coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves,"acting with the most entire freedom, while yet they were fulfilling "the determinate counsel" of the Most High, and accomplishing His word to the letter,-"Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots." (John xix. 23, 24.) We can scarcely tell whether the simple words which follow are designed to call attention to the appalling spectacle of indifference amidst the most momentous events, or to the wonder-working Providence which takes up all events into its plan; but this is St. John's commentary on the transaction: "These things therefore the soldiers did." (Verse 24.) Proceeding with the narrative, we find our crucified Lord commending His mother to the care of His chosen friend, and charging him with all filial duty toward her. (Verses 25-27.) The last link which binds Him to earth is severed, His long succession of sorrows past; yet He cannot die, for there is a prophecy unfulfilled. He had refused the stupefying draught which seems to have been administered when He was nailed to the cross; (Mark xv. 23;) but this was not enough to satisfy the requirements of the prophecies which had gone before on Him. Under those mortal agonies He could not hope to conciliate prejudice, or to disarm enmity. Both had done their worst. But "Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His moutb. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." (Verses 28-30.) So, blessed Saviour, was Thy last word a testimony to the fulfilling of Scripture; the last act of Thy life on earth an act of public homage to the written word!

10. Ye see your calling, brethren. If you would be Christians indeed, Christians after the pattern of Christ, you must love and reverence the Scripture. You cannot afford to do anything by which its authority may be impaired, or the habit of reading it with reverence, trust, and prayer, may be interfered with, or the public veneration for it diminished. Would you be complete Christians? Do as they did, or at least were bidden to do, in old time. "These words, which I command thee shall be in thine heart," for there is the root and fountain

of either good or evil. But, if thy heart be full of love for God and His law, "these words" will not, cannot, be locked up there: "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deut. vi. 6, 7.) The conversation of a Jew who was obedient to this rule would undoubtedly be more edifying than that of many Christians is now; and "it is indeed remarkable," as an eminent prelate observes,* "how much the language of this passage is at variance with the opinions of those who connect the ideas of hypocrisy or affectation with every introduction of subjects relating to God......There is no reason to suppose that these injunctions were not meant to be taken in a literal sense; and when it is considered how difficult it is to act up to their spirit in the present state of society, it contrasts very painfully the difference between the world as it actually is, and as God meant it to be." Of this holy book it is truly said, that familiarity increases love; and every day's companionship may bring some new enjoyment. Other authors pall upon us in time; but Moses and the prophets, evangelists, and apostles, never. Unlike the "fairest productions of human wit," which (as it has been well said†) "wither in our hands, and lose their fragrance like gathered flowers, these plants of paradise become, as we are accustomed to them, still more and more beautiful; their bloom appears to be daily heightened, fresh odours are emitted, and new sweets extracted from them. He who hath once tasted their excellence will desire to taste them yet again; and he who tastes them oftenest will relish them best." If such familiarity with his Bible was enjoined upon the Jew, how much more binding must the injunction be upon those who possess the complete volume of revelation! Let us ask ourselves, brethren, Is the word our inseparable companion in the closet, in the carriage, at the table? When we go, does it lead us? When we awake, does it talk with us? (Prov. vi. 22.) O, let us humble ourselves before the God of the Bible, that we have not done more homage to His blessed word; let us believe it more fully, enjoy it more heartily, study it more closely, circulate it more widely, and seek to realize, in ourselves and others, all the great purposes for which the word of God was given.

11. Dear fathers and brethren in the ministry, among these purposes our advantage stands prominent. If all Scripture is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," it is "that the man of God may be perfect." (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.) By them, as the authoritative rule, our ministry is to be regulated. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." (1 Peter iv. 11.) "By daily reading and weighing of them, we may wax riper and stronger in our ministry; nor can we otherwise compass so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of men, than with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the holy Scriptures." I will not

* Bishop Sumner on the Ministerial Character of Christ, p. 278. + Bishop Horne on the Psalms, Preface.

venture to exhort you; but, reminding you of the vows which are upon us in regard to this book, I will pray that it may be more fully understood, and more faithfully set forth, by every one of us. May the Holy Spirit give us more and more insight into the wondrous things of God's law! May the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom!

See

12. There may be in this congregation some who neither love, honour, nor obey the Scripture. To such let me address a parting word. Our Lord Jesus testifies to you, that, having the Scripture, you need not perish. The means of salvation are there within your reach, and you are responsible for your dealing with this book. how the great Teacher sent from God lifts the veil from the unseen world, and shows us a man whose day of trial is over, and who has passed to a state of torment. Not having yet lost every emotion of pity, he prays that a messenger from the other world may go to awaken his relatives from their carnal security. "Father Abraham, I pray that thou wouldst send Lazarus to my father's house for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment." (Luke xvi. 27, 28.) But the request is urged in vain; for the friend of God, like the Son of God, upholds the honour of the word, and proclaims the sufficiency of Scripture. "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them," is the stern reply to this strange request. Once more it is preferred; and we seem to see the train of thought which passes through the mind of the unhappy suppliant as he speaks. The book is old, the messenger will be new. The book is neglected, the messenger will compel attention. The book is objected to, the messenger will silence all cavils. "Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." So, sinner, the lesson runs on, even to our own time. Here is a guide to glory. Neglect it at thy peril. Reject it, and thou wilt find to thy cost that no further help can avail thee. O that I could persuade thee to hear and obey the voice of God in His word! O that He may be pleased now to set this testimony home upon thy heart !

THE GRAVE OF THE MARTYRED MISSIONARY.

(Continued from page 24.)

BUT the persecutors have "reckoned without their host." The gay Duke, representing His Majesty in this colony, shows himself quite ready to endorse and sanction this attempt to add bitterness to the lot of the oppressed, under the hypocritical pretence of conferring benefits upon them. But, to give it permanence, the Act must have also the approval of the King in council; and His Majesty's ministers are not so easily deceived as the Rector of St. Ann's, and his brother-conspirators against the rights and