enemies. We find there were here Jew and Samaritan together, when suffering a common calamity. But it is still possible to be as those described by God himself, "They poured out their prayer when under my chastening hand, but afterwards they forgot me." Read some of the Psalms, and you will see how often the Jews were delivered, and how often they forgot their deliverer.

Let me apply this. Of those who have been spared in the epidemic, that so severely smote our country so very recently, how many are there who will not be a whit more spiritual, more devoted, more thankful! Think of this.

God expects thankfulness for the benefits we receive. Christ said, "Ten have got benefits; where are the nine?" So he said, "Lo, these three years I came seeking fruit from this figtree, and I find none." So he says of his vineyard, "I looked for grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." God looks at, and counts, and weighs the privileges, the opportunities, the means, the money, the influence, the blessings that we have; and he watches for the use we make of them; he waits for gratitude to acknow

ledge them, and for a good use to be made of them.

Let me next draw this lesson -that what your conscience shows to be right, when that conscience is enlightened by God's word, you must not hesitate to do because many do the very opposite. Nine laughed at the idea of returning to thank their Benefactor. No doubt they reasoned, as some newspapers reason on other benefits: "It is a change in the weather; it is a finer climate we have got into; no doubt, in going to the priest, we have eaten something that has agreed with us; or it is good exercise we have taken; it is a "great law;" there is a change in the air, the weather has become colder, or warmer; and as for the idea of returning and thanking Jesus of Nazareth, why, the thing is absurd." And I have no doubt that the priests, and scribes, and Pharisees, and rulers of the land agreed with them, and laughed at and made excellent fun of that pious Samaritan, who felt the weather and its sunshine as they did, but returned amid all the weather, and saw that there was present in his cure the touch and the goodness of the Lord of life, the Healer of disease, the Fountain of health. In

these times we must not mind standing alone. If nine thousand, or nine millions, should go the wrong way, we must still go the right way. We must learn to be a peculiar people; we must not mind being scoffed at; we must not care if newspapers turn us into ridicule, if the whole world should mock at us. Hold by your duty; fix your hearts upon what is right, and true, and holy; and if the multitude laugh at you, pity them, and pray for them. "As for me," let your answer be, "I will serve the Lord."

LECTURE IX.

MATERNAL LOVE.

Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.--MATT. xv. 21-28.

But

IN the Gospel of St. Mark, where the parallel passage occurs, and in which the same miracle is related, we read that our Lord would have no man know it, when he arrived at the coasts of Tyre and Sidon; but the more he seemed to conceal himself, the more he became known. It

R

was indeed impossible that such light should be buried in a world of darkness, that so great a Physician should be unnoticed in a world of sickness, that the very Fountain of life, that overflowed with life, should not be approached where it was unsealed in a land where death revelled and spread around him the trophies of his all but almighty power. His name was as ointment poured forth, and its perfume penetrated all obstructions, and diffused itself over the length and breadth of the land. So will it be with true Christians in their measure. Christianity cannot be hidden. To say one's Christianity is hidden, is equivalent to saying that there is none. If you live,, life will develope itself; if grace be within you, that grace will show itself. Hide the sun, and conceal the stars, and you may hide the life and the love of God existing in your hearts.

This woman, who appealed to Christ, was a Canaanite, or a Syro-phenician, and therefore, of course, a Gentile. Her nation's history was dotted with judgments from the Lord; its guilt had risen to heaven and cried for vengeance, and corresponding retributions had lighted upon it; but in spite of all the guilt which cleaved to her land, in spite of all the