which the Apostle gives of it is very impressive to my mind. He considers a man's words as express

sive of his character, not of a part of it, but of

the whole, and he does not admit the possibility of our being amiable, kind-hearted, or faithful, if our words are passionate, censorious, or unkind. This is not the common impression; but you can judge whether the world or inspiration, whether God or man, is most likely to err. What he says, too, of the effect of our way of speaking upon our own character and our future condition, is equally solemn; it answers to what our Saviour had said before, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

SERMON XVII.

DIVINE COMMUNICATIONS.

FOR GOD SPEAKETH ONCE, YEA, TWICE, YET MAN PERCEIVETH IT NOT.- Job xxxiii. 14.

THE sacred writers often complain that the Divine communications are disregarded when they are known to be Divine communications; while fully acknowledging the authority with which they come, men pay them no regard. But here it is said that God sometimes addresses men without their perceiving it, not certainly from any want of clearness in the communication, but because they are wanting in reverence. They do not take heed to these things. It is only in the silence of the soul that man can listen to the Divine communications, and in the whole history of some men there is no such time of silence; there is no cool evening at the close of life's busy day.

"God speaketh once, yea, twice, but man perceiveth it not." There are three ways in which we may believe the Deity to hold communication with his children. One is through the visible world around us; another, by direct communion with the

human spirit; and yet another, by commissioned interpreters of his mind and will.

In the first place, let us consider the manifestation of God which is made to us in the works of nature, in which more information is conveyed to us than is commonly supposed. It is said that the visible world reminds us of its Maker. So it does. But it does more than recall to us what we knew before; it conveys instruction which has not yet been searched out, and which gradually opens to an interested and attentive mind.

When we inquire into the history of language, used in its broadest sense as the medium of communication with other men, we very soon ascertain that there can be no direct intercourse of mind with mind. The only way that I can intimate to another what is passing in my mind is by pointing to some visible object, which shall represent to him the unseen thought. The image suggests to him the idea which I wish to convey; and in this way, doubtless, language was originally formed. Thus, when we would describe a man of justice united with firmness, we call him "upright," referring to the outward appearance, which naturally affords a figurative expression of those traits of character. The word "holy" is formed in the same way; the meaning of it is healthy, — and the word health is naturally descriptive of that full, happy, and harmonious action of all within us, which religious holiness implies. In all cases of communication of thought and feeling between two human beings, there is a necessary

reference to something which is manifest to the outward sense; and it would be found on investigation that language consists of images either naturally suggestive of certain thoughts and emotions, or appropriated to that purpose, which are brought up before us by letters or sounds differing according to the dialect of the country. To those who have not the power of speech or hearing, these images are presented through the eye; to those who have the additional infirmity of blindness, these images are suggested by the sense of feeling and varieties of touch. Language does not require voice nor sound; when the Lord turned and looked on Peter, the Apostle could read clearly in that calm, sad, searching eye all that words could have told him of what was passing in the Saviour's breast.

Since this is the language of nature, we might suppose that God would communicate with his children in this way; and most certainly he does, to a far greater extent than is generally understood. We are cold and careless observers. We take notice of natural beauty and grandeur, indeed, but it is as one admires the beauty of a manuscript which he is not able to read, and does not care to read. If we would substitute religious feeling in place of mere taste and sentiment, that feeling

"Which lifts to heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
My Father made them all,''

And, smiling, says, 6 we should enter at once into the rich and glorious fulness of the expression,-"The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament showeth forth the

work of his hands. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech, nor language, and their voice is not heard; yet their sound is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."

There must be very few, who, in looking on the natural world, have not been conscious of strong impressions made upon them at times. We call them accidental, because they are made at one time and not at another. But not so; there is no such thing as chance; every thing must have a cause, and mere lifeless matter has no power of itself to inspire or awaken. Whence, then, do these influences come? Whence can they come, but from the great Source of inspiration, who is at once over all, through all, and in all that he has made. When the breath of spring comes over the heart, as we see it steal over a bed of flowers lifting their golden censers and bearing their incense upward, we feel as if an influence came to us from the world of nature, when in truth it must have come from Him who made it. When we look on a red sunset cloud, floating like an island in the golden west, we are conscious of a feeling of religious repose; we forget the cares of the world; our hearts are softened into a tender solemnity which is not always there. So, too, in the deep night, when we look far into the dark, still heavens, and seem to come nearer to the mysteries of God and eternity through the unearthly silence of the hour, it is the Infinite Spirit who thus brings on that state of mind, in which preparation for heaven