are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.

Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you."

SETTLING QUARRELS.

into his own pocket.

"How did you come on with the

SOMETIMES difficulties arise the lawyer put the other five pounds among neighbours and among Christians, when honest, wellmeaning people fail to agree, and it shoemaker?" said the debtor torequires patience and shrewdness the lawyer one day. to prevent serious trouble. Often, however, the practical common sense of a disinterested person avails, when argument and invective are in vain.

"Oh, I have fixed him so that he will never trouble you any more;" and so the lawsuit ended.

In M., two widows belonging to the Baptist Church attended service in a country school-house. They occupied seats in the centre of the room. After intermission they

Two farmers quarrelled over a broken fence, through which their cattle passed without restraint. Each insisted that the other should changed seats, and as each had mend the breach. Unable to agree, left her shawl in the chair, they they left the matter to the decision changed shawls. One was very of a neighbour, who, after listen- fine, the other coarse. After the ing attentively to their stories, and service, both claimed the fine shawl. viewing the fence with care, in- No one could tell which was misformed them that he should require taken: the church was about time for thought and consideration equally divided, and the parties were before rendering his decision upon completely alienated. Two church a matter of such grave moment, and meetings had been called without that meanwhile he would put a few success. A third was called, and sticks into the broken fence, as it an old preacher named Brown was needed immediate attention. Ac-sent for to attend it. After each cordingly he fell to work, and in ten or fifteen minutes had the fence mended, while the two belligerents stood by, having nothing left to quarrel about !

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side had presented its case, Mr. Brown rose and inquired what the shawls were worth. Some one said the best one cost about two pounds. 'Well," said he, "let us buy it," and laid down a half-crown as the first subscription. The money was raised, the fine shawl given to one and the money to the other. The coarse shawl was sent to the Missionary Society, and the difficulty was settled.

The grace of common sense is one of the most precious of Christian graces. If persons would only exercise this grace, many quarrels would be very short-lived. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

THE WORDS OF THIS LIFE.

BY REV. JAMES OWEN.

"But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life."-Acts v. 19, 20.

In a simple, unaffected, and unadorned style the Bible speaks of the interposition of angels. Some would call this narrative a myth, a legend, or an embellished account of a natural occurrence. It was, they say, a deliverance effected in a natural manner, perhaps by means of an earthquake, as at Philippi; or by means of the jailor himself; or through some courageous Christian; but described by Luke as the interposition of an angel. The words, however, do not appear like a legend; they are a plain, brief, historical statement; and the object of the historian in this and in his "former treatise " was, not to report legends, but to set forth "the certainty of those things" that had taken place. And there is nothing incredible in this angelic interposition, if we believe in a spiritual world, and if we remember that spiritual beings, like the forces of nature, are under God's direction and control. Some men are denying the supernatural; denying it in the person of Christ, in the inspiration of the Scriptures, in miracles, in prayer, in Providence. There is only, they say, the course of nature, from which there is no deviation; a hard and fast line, along which are seen causes and effects, and from which nothing can diverge. Poetry may speak of angels and miracles, but chemistry knows nothing about them. Physical science, having counted its different original elements and laws, says there is nothing beyond; there is nothing that will break in upon this circle; there is no wave from eternity rushing through this embankment. The house of our mortal life is closed; the doors are locked; the domestic arrangements are complete; there is no whisper from a spirit-world, no sighing wind from the realm of the unseen that ever plays around the house; with our laws, our experience, and our industry, we are sufficient for ourselves. There is no angel that ever comes into this prison.

Why do men wish and try to rid the world of all that is supernatural? Is it because of the mystery that gathers around it? There is mystery in the natural world, as well as the supernatural. We cannot understand much of an order of beings like angels; do we understand a world that is below us-the world of animals? The reason why men deny the supernatural is to be found, not in its mystery, but in the atheism of the human heart. It needs God, and yet shuts Him out, and desires not the knowledge of His ways.

Accepting the plain, literal meaning of the narrative before us, what does such an interposition suggest? It suggests our nearness to the spiritual world. The apostles had not been in prison many hours before the angel came; and such manifestations and deliver

ances teach us that we are living on the borders of a world that has never come within the range of our senses, and concerning which our knowledge is very limited. Just as a man may by night travel through the grandest scenery, and yet be unaware of it, so, in the night of our present existence (for Christ speaks of our present state as night, and of death as the breaking of the morning), we cannot see the spiritual world that is lying around us; when the sun will arise, and the night is over, we shall know even as we are known. Milton says " Millions of spiritual beings walk the earth, both when we wake and when we sleep." As with the servant of the prophet at Dothan, if we had a new sense, a new eye, we should see a new world, a spiritual world, compassing us on every side. We are near it. There is only a thin wall between us and the ocean of eternity; we hear its solemn roar as loved ones are taken away from us; and in seasons of sore affliction and trouble the spray has, we thought, fallen on our feverish brow. Before Daniel had concluded his prayer the angel Gabriel was with him to say that his prayer was accepted; and probably before the apostles had begun to sleep in their prison cell the angel of the Lord was with them.

Angels are ministering to the good. They are servants; and service does not detract from their greatness; but their dignity, their blessedness, consists in service. They are not ashamed to follow the path of duty when it leads down to the valley. They never rejoice more than when they have to carry some poor Lazarus from his hovel to the palace of heaven. They minister to the good in various ways; directing, succouring, protecting, in a manner and at seasons we do not suspect. Here is a prison door opened and closed "with all safety," and the prisoners released, by an angel of the Lord. We call it supernatural, but it was natural to the angel. We know not how it was done. The Sanhedrim did not care to inquire how; but the thing was done the apostles were delivered. And why were they delivered? To escape the hands of their persecutors ? Then it was only a short respite; for the next day they were arrested again. Perhaps they were delivered for two reasons. First, to encourage them in their work. Lest they should be dejected and begin to fear that the opposition of enemies was becoming more formidable, and that the cause they loved would be hindered, if not crushed, there is a revelation of a Power with them, before which prison locks and doors were no hindrance. And as a second reason, this was a warning to the Sanhedrim. Warnings had been given. The healing of the cripple was a warning. Other miracles wrought by the apostles were full of warning. And now, this strange escape from prison was a very plain hint to the Sanhedrim that there was, with those despised and illiterate men, a Power it was neither wise to trifle with nor possible to resist. They might not understand the hint; they might not take the warning; but there it was. God never allows a man to perish without warning. The angel that liberated the apostles was standing before the Sanhe

drim, like the angel before Balaam, and warning them against their course of madness and sin. They "laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple all the words of this life." here a definition of the Gospel, and a command respecting it.

We have

1. A definition of the Gospel. "The words of this life." It is sometimes designated "the word of salvation," "the word of reconciliation," "the word of righteousness," "the engrafted word," "the word of life," and by the angel, "the words of this life." It is not by accident that this word "life" is used in connection with the Gospel. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." "I am come that they might have life." "That believing, ye might have life through his name." "The words of this life." The apostles knew what life was meant: it was spiritual life in Christ. You will observe that the Sadducees were the instigators and leaders of the persecution; and their professed creed was, "there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit." Now, as if in bitter irony, the apostles are released by an angel; and they are commanded to go again, and speak of that which had already provoked the indignation of their enemies-to speak of "life.' "This life," said the angel; he belonged to a world which knew no death, and when he said "this life" he might have meant "a life like mine, of purity, obedience, service, and blessedness." Sin is spoken of in the Scriptures as "death." It not only brings death, but it is death. It not only leads to future perdition, but it is perdition; or waste, loss, ruin. "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." There may be physical vigour and intellectual death, as in the case of an idiot; there may be also intellectual vigour and spiritual death. Man's cry everywhere is for life. You hear it in all ages, in all places, in all tones-More life. This is the meaning of the cry for pleasure, the thirst for riches, the struggle for honour. Men want to make their life broader, deeper-a grander thing than it is. They are unsatisfied; they need a vital principle, that is not to be found in wealth, or pleasure, or fame. A deaf man is dead to music. A blind man is dead to beauty. You have seen men who were dead to benevolence and kindness; they were blind to the wants of all except their own; they were deaf to all appeals of help; philanthropy they could not understand; generosity was to them madness; they were dead in selfishness. And, through sin, every man is dead to God. The windows of the soul that look heavenwards are darkened. He is absorbed in the pursuit of the transient and the perishable; and the Fact of all facts, the Reality of all realities, is forgotten; he is "without God in all his thoughts." He has a sense of the need of God, and yet he keeps aloof from Him. His aspirations and the hopes of his better moments reach forth like the sprouts of a plant in the dark, searching for the light and yet unable to reach it, There

is spiritual death, and the Gospel has been given to meet this condition.

"This life," says the angel. There is a great contrast between the life of an angel and that of an unsaved man; not only in position and circumstances and employments, but in their aims and motives and spirit. By the one, the will of God is done; by the other, it is not done. In the one, self is forgotten, and God is all and in all; in the other, God is forgotten, and self is all and in all. The one is waiting in a listening attitude for the faintest whisper from the throne, and ready, with opened wings, to fly at the Eternal's bidding; the ears and heart of the other are filled with the din of the world, and voices from eternity appeal in vain. The one is basking in the brightness of God's summer; the other is loving darkness, and descending to its gloomiest cavern. But it is possible for man to possess the same life as the angel; he may be made "equal unto the angels; "he may be raised from the dust, in which he has been crawling with the "old serpent," and placed among princes in heaven. The Gospel is a message of life.

I have said that sin is death; then the Gospel is an announcement of forgiveness. And more than this, it becomes a living principle in us. A man may say that he is pardoned, and the world may answer that he is dreaming. He may say the condemnation is past, and the world may call him an enthusiast. But we may direct attention to the power of the truth on every-day life. It has made false men true, and depraved men pure, and licentious men chaste, and proud men humble, and niggardly men generous. This is not a subject that cannot be tested, that is too ethereal to be examined. Around you every day there are men and women whose natures have been refined, quickened, and beautified by the Gospel, as the green fields beneath the warm light and soft breath of the spring. They possess a new life; a life that grows stronger every day; a life that is nourished by the milk of the word, and by the strong meat of the word; a life that is independent of death, and that is only liberated by death from hindrances in the way of its fullest manifestation.

And the expression "the words of this life" signifies that they are living words. Luther said, "The words of St. Paul are not dead words; they are living creatures, and they have hands and feet.' Christ says of His own words, "They are spirit, and they are life." There is a striking expression in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Upholding all things by the word of his power." Upholding by a word. "Our Lord does not need to bear the burden on His shoulders. He does not even need to stretch forth His hand to hold it up." He speaks the word only, and it is done. The omnific word, uttered at first, is still powerful; it is not exhausted. So the word of the Gospel is through the ages a word in force. It is not exploded; it is not exhausted; there is life in it; there is power in it. We turn to the Son of the Blessed, with the old cry, "To whom shall we go?"