Unity.

By unity we do not mean uniformity. There is none; there can be none in the free universe of God. You have it not in nature. You may go out into the waving woodland, when death is on the trees, and you may prune their riotous growth, and mould, and shape, and cut them into something like a decent, a decorous uniformity; but the returning spring, when it comes, will laugh at your aimless labour. Wherever there is life there will be found variety of engaging forms which attract and fascinate the eye. We do not mean uniformity, therefore,—the harmony of voices, or the adjustment of actions, the drowsy repetition of one belief, or the harmonious intonation of one liturgy; but we mean "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

"Many are the sorrows of the righteous."

One reads that passage so far and stops, and turns away, and says, Oh, what a melancholy system! how clothed in sackcloth!

how its hymns are all wailing and doleful psalms! how cypress is there instead of the laurel or the bay! how everything is gloomy! You cannot expect us to forego the pleasures and enjoyments of the world for such a doleful subject as that-" Many are the sorrows of the righteous"-their own book says so. "But the Lord delivereth them out of them all." That is the other part, and the world leaves that out, cuts the passage, mutilates it in order to suit its own purpose, and in order to furnish it with excuses for neglecting the gospel claims.

The Widow of Nain.

There is a young man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she a widow. Death had been an early visitant at her dwelling; but the first shock had had some element of mercy in it, for the son was living still, and in him the husband was reproduced, and while the fair promise of his glorious youth was there, the oil was not all dried up in the poor widow's cruse. But the son has died now. The last refuge and shelter of the deso

late heart is torn away, as with the pomp and wailing of the funeral they bore the dead upon his bier. And now in the gate of the city, where the crowd are gathered, and the noise and discord is greatest, there comes suddenly a silence, and the sounds of woe are hushed. What does it mean? The Son of God is passing by, and He came and touched the bier. The widow, who followed in the train, wept, not noisily; but they who looked upon her saw that her sorrow was of that crushing kind that was far too deep for tears. And the Lord pitied her, and said, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother." Oh that calm and solemn brow, lighted up with a joyous benignity, chased away the shadows of the grave. Well might the discord be changed into music such as no orchestra could compass.

The Adaptation of Scripture.

How marvellous is the adaptation of Scripture for the race for whom it was revealed!

In its pages every conceivable condition of human experience is reflected as in a mirror. In its words every struggle of the heart can find appropriate and forceful expression. It is absolutely inexhaustible in its resources for the conveyance of the deepest feelings of the soul. It puts music into the speech of the tuneless one, and rounds the periods of the unlettered into an eloquence which no orator can rival. It has martial odes to brace the warrior's courage, and gainful proverbs to teach the merchant wisdom. All mental moods can represent themselves in its amplitude of words. It can translate the doubt of the perplexed, it can articulate the cry of the contrite, and it fills the tongue of the joyous with carols of thankful gladness. Happy we, my friends, who, in all the varieties of our religious life, have this copious manual divinely provided to our hand.

Christ the Theme of Scripture.

God anointed holy men of old, and made them prescient of the future, and appointed certain types, and ceremonies, and ordinances

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to be observed in the ritual of the chosen people, the children of Israel. Why was all this? Were prophets ushered into the presence-chamber, and did the flood of light burst upon their previously-clouded vision? It was that they might foretell the glories of Christ. Were there types and ceremonies in the grand Levitical economy? Those types, every one of them, foreshadowed Christ. To Him give all the prophets witness. He was the Shiloh that blessed the expiring Jacob. He was the burden of the songs of the royal bard of Israel. He was "The Wonderful, The Counsellor," of whom Isaiah speaks. was "The Lord our Righteousness," spoken of by the plaintive Jeremiah. He was the "Ancient of Days" whom Daniel describes. He was the "Desire of all nations" whom Haggai said should come. He was the "Branch out of the stem of Jesse," of whom Zechariah prophesied. He was the "Sun of Righteousness" whom Malachi, last of the bright-robed and radiant train, saw arise upon the earth with healing in His wings. Each of these looked at Him from his own standpoint, and presented Him in his own aspect; but they all gazed upon Christ, just as the

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