side embraced the party of the Christians, they did not consider him as for ever lost to their pleasures, assemblies, and customs. In a word, see, if in all ages the saints whose lives and actions have been transmitted down to us, have resembled the rest of mankind.

THE KING'S POWER.

JOHN KNOX.

As the skilful mariner (being master), having his ship tossed with a vehement tempest, and contrary winds, is compelled oft to traverse, lest that, either by too much resisting to the violence of the waves, his vessel might be overwhelmed; or by too much liberty granted, might be carried whither the fury of the tempest would, so that his ship should be driven upon the shore, and make shipwreck; even so doth our prophet Isaiah in this text, which now you have heard read. For he, foreseeing the great desolation that was decreed in the council of the Eternal, against Jerusalem and Judah, namely, that the whole people that bare the name of God should be dispersed; that the holy city should be destroyed; the temple wherein was the ark of the covenant, and where God had promised to give His own presence, should be burned with fire; and the king taken, his sons in his own presence murdered, his own eyes immediately after be put out; the nobility, some cruelly murdered, some shamefully led away captives; and finally the whole seed of Abraham rased, as it were, from the face of the earth -the prophet, I say, fearing these horrible calamities, doth, as it were, sometimes suffer himself, and the people committed to his charge, to be carried away with the violence of the tempest, without further resistance than by pouring forth his and their dolorous complaints before the majesty of God, as in the thirteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth verses of this present text we may read. At other times he valiantly resists the desperate tempest, and pronounces the fearful destruction of all such as trouble the Church of God; which he pronounces that God will multiply, even when it appears utterly to be exterminated. But because there is no final rest to the whole body till the Head return to judgment, He exhorts the afflicted to patience, and promises a visitation whereby the wickedness of the wicked shall be disclosed, and finally recompensed in their own bosoms.

THE KING'S POWER-Continued.

JOHN KNOX.

WOULDST thou, O Scotland! have a king to reign over thee in justice, equity, and mercy? Subject thou thyself to the Lord thy God, obey His commandments, and magnify thou the Word that calleth unto thee, This is the way, walk in it;" and if thou wilt not, flatter not thyself; the same justice remains this day in God to punish thee, Scotland, and thee Edinburgh especially, which before punished the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Every realm or nation, saith the prophet Jeremiah, that likewise offendeth, shall be likewise punished, but if thou shalt see impiety placed in the seat of justice above thee, so that in the throne of God (as Solomon complains) reigns nothing but fraud and violence, accuse thine own ingratitude and rebellion against God; for that is the only cause why God takes away "the strong man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, the prudent and the aged, the captain and the honorable, the counsellor and the cunning artificer; and I will appoint, saith the Lord, children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. Children are extortioners of my people, and women have rule over them."

If these calamities, I say, apprehend us, so that we see nothing but the oppression of good men and of all godliness, and that wicked men without God reign above us; let us accuse and condemn ourselves, as the only cause of our own miseries. For if we had heard the voice of the Lord our God, and given upright obedience unto the same, God would have multiplied our peace, and would have rewarded our obedience before the eyes of the world. But now let us hear what the prophet saith further: "The dead shall not live," saith he, "neither shall the tyrants, nor the dead arise, because Thou hast visited and scattered them, and destroyed all their memory."

MORAL COURAGE.

HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D.D.

all circumstances, and Founded, as it is, upon

MORAL Courage dares TO DO ITS DUTY under looks not to man but to God for its reward. Christian principle, it is, in its better manifestations, combined with the other Christian graces. When we hear of "courage," we are apt to think of a character that is somewhat harsh and violent; and these attributes may certainly coexist even with that admirable endowment of which I am speaking. But they are so far from being of its essential elements, that they uniformly detract from its real worth. Nothing is more remarkable in the conduct of these three young Jews than

their modesty. Their reply to the king is a model of blended humility and firmness. History presents no finer model. There is no blustering, no ostentatious proclamation of their creed or their readiness to suffer for it, no effort either to awaken sympathy or to insult their royal persecutor. They announce in the simplest words, their determination not to comply with the imperial edict. And this calm dignity is the proper concomitant of true heroism. "It vaunteth not itself, and is not puffed up." It is neither clamorous nor dictatorial. It is the little heroes who boast much; great ones can afford to let their works praise them. The twittering swallow that skims the surface of the earth, and bolts the insects for his evening repast, makes far more ado over his achievements than the eagle who seizes a lamb with his huge talons and soars away with it on majestic wing to his lofty eyrie. Both have their archetypes. There are men whose twitter is as constant as the swallow's; and over achievements perhaps of the same relative calibre; men who are constantly crying with Jehu, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord." And there are others whose lives are read, not in the jubilation of their own trumpets, but in the track of light which marks their footsteps. The image suggested by the spectacle of a truly great mind contending with difficulties in the meek and lofty spirit of these Jews, is that of a massive and polished machine, which moves with tranquil dignity and strength, unimpeded by obstacles, and never swerving from its prescribed sphere.

From "Sermon before the Young Men's Christian Asso. of Philadelphia."

THE INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE.

ALONZO POTTER, D. D.

OUR literature is wielding a mighty power alike over the many and over the few. It penetrates everywhere, under the guidance of the press, and of popular education; and it speaks with a directness and force which have rarely been surpassed. It deals too with the most momentous social and political problems, and discusses them often with a reckless and ignorant audacity. Let us at the same time acknowledge, that, in its better forms, it breathes a spirit of more genial humanity, and manifests a truer reverence for the moral and spiritual capabilities of our race, than it once did. Even its poetry and fiction now plead for social amelioration. Its daily labors send light into the dark places of crime and immorality, and it causes its voice to be heard as it cries aloud in behalf of the poor and down-trodden. Would that we could see in it a due appreciation of the origin and causes of those ills under which mankind still groan. Would that it dealt more wisely and anxiously with the reconstruction of institutions on which it draws a displeasure that may prove simply

destructive; that it probed with searching hand the great spiritual disease that affects our whole race; and that it saw with earnest heart and taught with impressive power, the utter insufficiency of all social palliatives and all political reforms, which do not include as their ground and ultimate aim, repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

From "Discourses, Addresses," &c.

BISHOP WHITE.

ALONZO POTTER, D. D.

No monument of stone or brass can worthily commemorate the services of Bishop White. No care, however pious or affectionate, can guard his memory or honor his services too well. Thanks then to the godly women who in all meekness, but with indomitable patience, have striven through five long years to provide here a lasting and most appropriate memorial. In a church, the seats of which are to be always free, and which is to open its doors alike to poor and rich, they would remember the destitute and needy, and they would remember him, too, who through all his useful life was distinguished by devotion to their wants. The sick, the indigent, the vicious, the ignorant and neglected, the prisoner in his cell, and those bereaved from birth of the most important organs and faculties, ever found in William White a friend and benefactor. May the mantle of his benevolence and meek wisdom descend on those who survive or follow him. May the example of pious zeal and of gratitude to his memory, which our sisters have given us, be gladly imitated; may we take shame to ourselves that this good work has been so long delayed, and may we resolve-would that this resolution could be adopted by every household in our communion in this city,-may we resolve that we will each of us bear some part, however humble, in its early consummation. From "Discourses, Addresses," &c.

PENN'S MOTIVE.

ALONZO POTTER, D.D.

THAT trust in God, that simple love of Jesus and of those for whom he died, which prompted William Penn to come out to this new land, that he might make what he calls "the holy experiment," setting “an example to the nations of a just and righteous government," that spirit of true and universal brotherhood which drew from him, as he stood unarmed and undefended under the great elm at Shakamaxon, and saw, "as far as his eyes could carry," the painted and plumed children of the forest gazing upon him as a new and strange ruler;

that love to God and man, which then impelled his great heart to say to them, "I will not call you brothers or children, but you shall be to me and mine as half of the same body;" which two years later, when he left for England, prompted him to send to this city of brotherly love, which he had founded, the message, "And thou, Philadelphia, virgin of the province, my soul prays for thee, that faithful to the God of thy mercies in the life of righteousness, thou mayest be preserved unto the end:"And again, when he wrote replying to the charge, that he had manifested, while here, restless ambition and lust of gain, and made this memorable prediction: "If friends here (i. e. in Pennsylvania) keep to God, and in the justice, mercy, equity, and fear of the Lord, their enemies will be their footstool; if not, their heirs and my heirs too, will lose all." Brethren! Has our course as a people, been thus loyal to God? Has it been true to this, our beginningfaithful to justice, mercy, and the fear of the Lord? If not, we may plume ourselves upon our wealth and enterprise, upon our far-reaching domain, upon our achievements in arts or in arms; but we should tremble, when we remember with whom, as a nation, we are to reckon. We should tremble, when we consider that his retribution is unerring for nations as for individuals, and that, while in the case of individuals, just punishment may wait to another life, in the case of nations it must fall here.

From Discourses, Addresses," &c.

LIFE IS AN EDUCATION.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

LIFE is an education. The object for which you educate your son is to give him strength of purpose, self-command, discipline of mental energies; but you do not reveal to your son this aim of his education; you tell him of his place in his class, of the prizes at the end of the year, of the honors to be given at college.

These are not the true incentives to knowledge; such incentives are not the highest-they are even mean, and partially injurious; yet these mean incentives stimulate and lead on, from day to day, and from year to year, by a process the principle of which the boy himself is not aware of. So does God lead on, through life's unsatisfying and false reward, ever educating: Canaan first; then the hope of a Redeemer; then the millennial glory. Now, what is remarkable in this is, that the delusion continued to the last; they all died in faith, not having received the promises; all were hoping up to the very last, and all died in faith-not in realization; for thus God has constituted the human heart. It never will be believed that this world is unreal. God has mercifully so arranged it that the idea of delusion is incredible.