felt his conscience struck, his heart laid open, and was forced to acknowledge, what hitherto he had not been willing to believe, that the Power of God was with this Doctrine, and dwelt among these men. If the connected addresses of the Teacher tended to lead those farther into a knowledge of the Gospel who had already attained unto Faith, and to develop in their minds a clearer understanding of what they had received, the Prophet served rather to awaken those to Faith who were not yet believers, or to animate and strengthen those who had attained, and to quicken afresh the life of Faith. On the contrary, to one 'speaking in tongues,' the elevated consciousness of God predominated, whilst the consciousness of the external world vanished. What he uttered in this state, when carried away by his feelings and intuitions, was not a connected address like that of a Teacher, nor was it an exhortation suited to the circumstances of other persons, like that of the Prophets; but without being capable, in this condition, of taking notice of the mental states and necessities of others, he was occupied solely with the relations of his own heart to God. His soul was absorbed in devotion and adoration. Hence prayer, singing the praises, testifying the mighty workings of God, were suited to this state. Such a person prayed in the Spirit; the higher life of the mind and disposition predominated, but the intelligent development was wanting. Had St. Paul held the 'speaking in tongues' to be something quite enthusiastic and morbid, he would never have allowed himself to designate by the name of a spiritual gift an imperfection

in the Christian Life,

but it was consonant with that wisdom which took account of the interests of all classes in the Church, that he . . . . left the manifestations of such moments to the private devotions of each individual, and banished them from meetings for general edification; that he valued more highly those spiritual gifts which gave scope for the harmonious coöperation of all the powers of the soul, and contributed in the spirit of Love to the general edification; and that he dreaded the danger of selfdeception and enthusiasm, where the extraordinary manifestations of Christian life were overvalued, and where that which was only of worth when it arose unsought, from the interior development of life, became an object of anxious pursuit to many, who were thus brought into a state of morbid excitement. Hence he wished that [in such moments] every one would pour out his heart alone before God; but that, in the assemblies of the Church, these manifestations of devotion, unintelligible to the majority, might be repressed, or only be exhibited when what was thus spoken could be translated into a language intelligible to all." #

Whatever obscurity may attach to these details of Christian Antiquity, the great spiritual and providential View into which they are introduced as subordinate illustrations, is still full of the clearest and freshest truth, and of truth which the World, like the Corinthians, in the strength of selfish partialities,

* “The Planting and Training of the Christian Church.” — Biblical Cabinet.

still neglects. The world requires nothing more than for some Christian Apostle again to lift his voice, — "Now, concerning spiritual gifts, Brethren, and all other gifts of God, I would not have you to be ignorant. There are diversities of gifts, but all from the same Spirit; and his own peculiar manifestation of the Spirit is given to each, for the profit of the whole. And as the human body is one, although it hath many members, and all the members make but one body, so also is it with the Church of Christ. Be satisfied, that you serve the Community, whether with the directing mind, or the inspired utterance, or the working hand. All have not the same gifts or functions, but all may be members set in the Body by God himself. Dread nothing except to have no place in the body, and to be cast out as a withered branch, or a dead limb. But if you live, and do work, God hath tempered the Body together, that all the members are mutually dependent, and must have the same care one for another, so that if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or if one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it."

A combination of the gifts, and powers, and peculiarities, of all individuals, makes a perfect Community, as the freely contributed gifts of all climes and soils would make the wide Earth a perfect and blessed Home for that family of God.

Would to God that the spirit of exclusion, in every corner of this World which calls itself Christian, would take the Apostolic Doctrine to its heart!

SECTION II.

LOVE THE SOUL OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND GREAT: ITS CHARHIGHEST SENTIMENT IN SPIRITUAL

ACTERISTICS.

THE

MAN, AS THE ONLY ONE COMMON TO US AND TO GOD HIMSELF, AND THEREFORE ABOVE HOPE and above FAITH.

XII. 31. BE zealous after the bes' gifts; and yet I show XIII. 1. unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak in the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Love, I am become sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so as to 3 move mountains, and have not Love, I am nothing. And though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not Love, I am 4 profited nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind: Love envieth not: Love vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up; 5 doth not behave itself unseemly; seeketh not its own; is 6 not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in 7 iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; covereth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things; endureth all 8 things. Love never faileth. But whether prophecies, whether tongues, they

they shall come to an end;

shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But

10 when that which is perfect is come, then that which 11 is in part shall come to an end. When I was a child,

:

I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child but when I became a man, I put away 12 childish things. For now we see as by a glass, in hints; but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as I also am known. 13 And now abideth Faith, Hope, Love, these three but the greatest of them is Love.

THE Unity of Spirit apparent in Creation is the highest evidence of the presence of a pervading God. One Will must be the Author and Ruler of a Universe, amid whose infinite variety of kingdoms and regions there are no conflicting Purposes, and no inconsistencies of Law. This is not merely the argument from Design, which, from observing the adaptation of means to ends, and organs to functions, and faculties to the media through which they act, infers that there is a great Mechanician in the Heavens; for all that this Argument from design establishes is an intellectual God, with a Power and Goodness commensurate with what appears in His works. It is good thus far:-"If the World proceeded from an originating Mind, then it affords evidences that it is the work of an Intelligence possessed of kindred qualities to that which we call Design in Man. But in this Argument, the only theological part of it is taken for granted. If a living God created this World, then the Argument from Design comes in to prove the commensurate