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in the faith; (2) to know if Christ is in

us.

II. Self-testing.

"Prove your own selves."

Put your religion to the test. What

has it made you do?

Have you combatted error, warned sinners, conquered self, borne affliction, suffering, wrong?

this entrance valley pass into all the treasures of grace and glory.

With little knowledge of the land, with little strength for conquest, if yet the great transition be accomplished, the door of hope will open wide to all the riches of the kingdom.

II. The Valley of Trouble. The first camp became a scene of disorder and

III. Knowledge of an indwelling dismay. The attempt to capture Ai Saviour.

"Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you?"

Do you not know your own character? May not a Christian know some things? "I know whom I have believed." "We know that we have passed from death unto life." "We know that we are of the truth."

IV. Note the conclusion: "Except ye be reprobates"-i.e., cannot stand the test. It is a sad, sad failure indeed if we cannot pass the examination. PASTOR.

The Valley of Achor.

I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope.-Hosea ii. 15.

The valley of Achor is rarely mentioned. At each mention it is a door of hope.

1. The Valley of Entrance. It was the gateway of Canaan. In it was Israel's first camp on entering the land. It marked a great transition. Here pilgrimage ceased; here residence began. Here great changes occurred. Moses is gone. The cloudy pillar has vanished. The manna has ceased.

These great changes are accomplished by a very short march. The last, the shortest march of Israel, was the best, because it crossed a great boundary line, and brought the people home. The Valley of Achor was to Israel a door of hope, because it was the gateway to a full possession of the land.

Across the line within the kingdom of God's grace there is a door of hope. He who obeys the Divine command, crosses, enters, dwells, may through

was defeated. An accursed thing is in Israel's camp. Achan, Israel's troubler, is stoned. The army of Israel marches to victory. Ai falls. The trouble encountered in the Valley of Achor became a door of hope, a pledge of victory.

Hard lessons yield a rich reward. Rough places become monumental. Victory is the outcome of defeat. Joy is made of sorrow. Crowns come of crosses. Success is the fruit of failure. The kite rises on adverse winds. The bird heads toward the source of storm, and keeps its plumage smooth. The forest tree mends its hold in the furious gale.

Rest in the valley is often interrupted. The interruption opens gates that were closed, to treasures that were concealed. The Valley of Trouble becomes a door of hope to brighter scenes and deeper joys.

III. The Valley of Renewal. The silence of centuries passed over Achor's vale. Israel had forgotten God, and broken all their vows. God recalled to Israel the valley of early vows and glad consecration, and proposed to make it the Valley of Renewal. He would blot out Israel's sins, and have Israel begin

anew.

From farthest wandering, greatest sin, saddest ruin, deepest sorrow, God can bring back the troubled one to the Valley of Achor, where he may renew vows long neglected, sing songs of joy long silent, and be as if he had never wandered.

With God nothing is irreparable. Such are His power and grace. He opens to the lowest and the worst a door of hope. A ruined life, irreparable

by human skill, may here be renewed. Its sad record may be erased. Life may be begun again. God invites the wanderer back to the starting point, and in the Valley of Achor opens a door of hope. HOSEA.

The Vision of the Redeemed.

Rev. vii. 9-17.

WE have here John's vision of the redeemed. We see :

I. The great number of the redeemed (v. 9). All who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and who have died in the faith; all who shall believe on Him in the future ages; infants dying in infancy; the great multitude who have come out of great tribulation. Many are the saved.

II. The eternal glory of the redeemed.

First. The glory of their appearance: (1) " Clothed with white robes." They shine in the beauty of holiness. (2) "With palms in their hands." They are conquerors through Him that loved them.

Second. The glory of their service. (1) Their service of song; their song of salvation (v. 10); their song of eternal praise to God (v. 12). (2) Their holy ministry (v. 15).

Third. The glory of their eternal home. (1) Their communion with God (v. 15). "He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." (2) The heavenly provision (a) for their immortal nature. The Lamb "shall feed them." He is their eternal Shepherd. (b) For their constant refreshment. The Lamb shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." (c) For their ever. lasting comfort, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

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III. Our lessons from the redeemed. First. Once they were sufferers such as we, or more than any of us. They out of great tribulation." Second. Once they were sinners such as we. They had need of cleansing. They "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

The same fountain is open for us. Through the merits of the same Saviour we may enter into the same heaven and enjoy the same blessedness and glory. LUD.

STRIKING THOUGHTS FROM RECENT SERMONS.

THE power of the agents in the work of God is, first and last, the power of the Lord working in them, working with them, working above them, and also above all adversaries visible or invisible. Above them, far above out of their sight, is held a sceptre in the hands of the Lamb, who is Lord of lords and King of kings. When the Church had scarcely begun to go forth with the purpose of preaching everywhere, down to a time within the memory of living men, the classic lands of history, of the Bible, and of romance were surrounded with high walls and gates barred against Christian missionaries. The Turkish Empire, the Mogul Empire, the Chinese Empire, the Empire of Japan, and that of Morocco were all in this manner fenced round. The remote parts of Africa were guarded by darkness and death themselves; and in Southern Europe rare were the spots where it was not an offence punishable by the police to circulate the Bible or to preach or worship except under forms prescribed.

But over the walls has passed the sceptre which eye seeth not, and they who before could only blow slender blasts outside the rampart now march up straight before them, and in the name of Jesus of Nazareth enter in. This is the Lord's doing, and how marvellous in our eyes it ought to be, we shall be better able to judge if we weigh the language used a hundred years ago by wise men of politics, showing how silly were hopes of any such change, and by wise men even of the churches, all alarmed at the danger of fanaticism. The same sceptre, in the same hand, is over us this day-over us here present; over all our comrades in the war, now out with the field-force; over every corps bearing any flag which is lowered before the kingly standard of the Lamb, but is held aloft and carried onward against any other-over all these and over every dominion of the earth waves that sceptre in this solemn hour, and He who holds it sits on the right hand of power till the Lord shall make all His enemies His footstool.-Arthur.

BORN from above. Take away that part of revelation, and you have a shorn Samson. We can then no more say, "Out of the strong cometh sweetness." Blot out "born from above," and you and I are left to the hopeless task of trying to polish clay into marble. Rejoice in constitutional gifts thank God for mental endowments. For the genius and consequent power which en thrilling strains of music, of poetry, of marvelwrap the whole being and pour forth sweet and lous invention, of tender life-giving sympathy, rejoice and be glad. But there is something beyond these-beyond them as the stars are beyond the taper. There is a holy of holies in this body-temple. Eye hath not seen it. The philosopher cannot kindle its fires. The scholar cannot write its commandments. The artisan cannot adorn its furniture. The bleeding warrior cannot sprinkle it with atoning blood. Its life, its power, its wisdom, its beauty is the spirit of the living God. The spirit of God, our inspiration!-E. P. Ingersoll.

THERE is an orator greater than Paul. It is the modern world. If any young man is standing on the border of an intemperate life, does he need the augument of those speakers who traversed our land thirty or forty years ago? Do

not the streets speak? Do not the stones cry out? Orators fail to come because the public can outspeak them. We need no orator to tell us that snow falls in the winter. The public scenes so emblazoned have made all speakers dumb. Men blow out candles when the sun is up. There was an ancient orator who so discussed his subject that no other speaker was willing afterward to pass over the same field. Thus our age so paints temperance and intemperance that the individual heart feels little like following a speech so wise, so great, so pathetic. No tongue can paint intemperance as an age can paint it, and no tongue can bestow upon all moderation the rich commendation which the times bestow.-Swing.

MAKING bricks without straw? That oppression still goes on. Demanding of your wife appropriate wardrobe and bountiful table without providing the means necessary: Bricks without straw. Cities demanding in the public school faithful and successful instruction without giving the teachers competent livelihood: Bricks without straw. United States Government demanding of Senators and Congressman at Washington full attendance to the interests of the people, but on compensation, which may have done well enough when twenty-five cents went as far as one dollar now, but in these times not sufficient to preserve their influence and respectability: Bricks without straw. In many parts of the land churches demanding of pastors vigorous sermons and sympathetic service on starvation Salary, sanctified Ciceros on four hundred dollars a year: Bricks without straw. That is one reason why there are so many poor bricks. In all departments, bricks not even, or bricks that crumble, or bricks that are not bricks at all. Work adequately paid for is worth more than work not paid for. More straw and then better bricks. When in December of 1889, at the museam at Boulak, Egypt, I looked at the mummies of the old Pharaohs, the very miscreants who diabolized centuries, and I saw their teeth and hair and finger nails and the flesh drawn tight over their cheek bones, the sarcophagi of these dead monarchs side by side, and I was so fascinated I could only with difficulty get away from the spot. I was not looking upon the last of the Pharaohs. All over the world old merchants playing the Pharaoh over young merchants; old lawyers playing the Pharaoh over young lawyers; old doctors playing the Pharaoh over young doctors; old artists playing the Pharaoh over young artists; old ministers playing the Pharaoh over young ministers. Let all oppressors, whether in homes, in churches, in stores, in offices, in factories, in social life or political life, in private life or public life, know that God hates oppressors, and they will all come to grief here or hereafter. Pharaoh thought he did a fine thing, a cunning thing, a decisive thing, when for the complete extinction of the Hebrews in Egypt he ordered all the Hebrew boys massacred, but he did not find it so fine a thing when his own first born that night of the destroying angel dropped dead on the mosaic floor at the foot of the porphyry pillar of the palace. Let all the Pharaohs take warning.-Talmage.

MR. INGERSOLL, not content with arraigning the God of theology, boldly attacks and criticises the God of nature. He implies that if he had been consulted he could have made a far better world than this. He would "make health catching instead of disease." Because there are earthquakes and pestilence and wars and human slavery, hence there can be no moral governor of the universe, else he would not allow this. This means one of two things, either there is no Infinite mind, and we are all irresponsible atoms in the grip of law, whose tendency even is not for good, or there then is a great controlling mind whose purposes are not beneficent. In other words, an evil God. It is an awful conception. -Taber.

THESE words of our Master-"What I say un

to you I say unto all, Watch"-we will try, more and more, to learn what they mean. We know that they do not warrant us in watching other disciples with the eye of the critic or the censor; we know that this habit of mind is, above most things, hateful to Him. To watch ourselves lest we become suspicious and censorious and credulous of evil tales about our neighbors; to watch our conduct lest we hurt them by want of fidelity or want of sympathythis, we know, is part of the lesson of vigilance that He seeks to teach us. But this is the smallest part of the lesson. To watch for hurts that we can heal for halting steps that we can steady, for burdens of infirmity or trouble that we can help to carry, for ways in which we may give our thought, our care, our love, ourselves, for the enlarging and the brightening of the lives of our fellowmen, serving them with humblest fidelity, and leading them with cords of sympathy and brotherhood in the ways of righteousness and peace-this is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.- Gladden.

THE bond between us and God is simply an infinite thing, infinite in its beauty and strength, its loveliness. There is no such other bond. Think of it for a moment, for it would take a world's time, it does take a world's time, to set it forth to our reception. It is just. I cannot think of a better phrase-the words are constantly failing, they are poor things; I cannot think of a better phrase than that of our own Goldsmith, who uses twice, in his bookin a book that nobody reads now, called the "Citizen of the World"-the words about God, "He loved us into being." That should be a bit of our national Bible: "loved us into being" -that is our relation with God.-MacDonald."

TAKE away Faith from men, and you insure the universal dissolution of all credit, of all commerce, of all civilization. Man would lapse into the savage life, and indeed far below the savage life; for there is not an African kraal which is not held together except by the faith of its members in one another. The world is bound together by Faith, without which there would come in all the disintegrating, disorganizing, and antagonistic elements of human nature, and without Faith the world would be one vast battle-field.-Burns.

THEMES AND TEXTS OF RECENT SERMONS.

1. The Realized Presence of the Lord the Secret of Power in the Church. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion."-Isaiah viii. 18. Rev. William Arthur, A.M., Washington, D.C. of Modern Scepticism. "Their rock is not as our rock."-Deut. xxxii. 31. E. H. Brumbaugh, M.D., D.D., St. Joseph, Mo.

2. Inconsistencies

3. The Union of all the Churches. "Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administra. tions but the same Lord. And there are di versities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all."-1 Cor. xii. 4-6. Rev. Myron Reed, Denver, Col.

4. The Faith a Sacred Trust. "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." -Jude 3. Pres. Francis L. Patton, D.D. Brooklyn, N. Y.

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HELPS AND HINTS, TEXTUAL AND TOPICAL.

BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.

The Mystery of Godliness. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.-1 Tim. iii. 16.

AN alternate reading, favored by not a few high authorities, punctuates this passage differently, as follows:

The pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness or the Godhead,

etc.

Bengel remarks that the reference of the words "pillar and ground" to the Church was not known as an interpretation until the sixteenth century. The reference of this passage is to the incarnation of God in Christ, which is the great revealed mystery of the whole Scripture, and is here declared to be without controversy great. If the reading suggested as preferable be adopted, this mystery is also set forth as both pillar and pedestal or prop of all other related truth, which about this centralizes and crystallizes.

This passage acquires additional interest as a probable relic of an ancient formula of confession or hymn used in the Apostolic Church, a sort of brief Apostle's Creed. It has all appearance of being constructed in poetic form with antithetical clauses or parallelisms, and can be understood best when so arranged.

GOD WAS

Manifest in the flesh,
Vindicated by the Spirit;

Seen of angels,
Proclaimed to the nations;
Believed on in the world,
Caught up into glory.

a mystery. Its mysteriousness we may candidly admit, and abandon all thought of solving. It is one of those thoughts of God which are as high above us as the heaven is above the earth. We should not stumble at the mystery, for it is one sign of the Divine mind and hand that the products of His wisdom shall baffle our power to comprehend.

2. It is declared to be pillar and stay of all related truth. There is a law of scientific unity which arranges all truth in any department about a central principle-such as the crystal in the mineral realm, the cell in the vegetable and animal, the spinal column in the vertebrates, etc. The Incarnation is the scientific centre and principle of redemptive truth. Upon it all other truth rests, and by it is held up and supported. Christ was the God man, and every truth about man and God finds exhibition and illustration in Him.

3. The truth is here set forth in three

couplets, which are remarkable and significant. They briefly cover the entire career of the Son of God from His birth to His ascension; and, taken as couplets, they briefly answer these three great questions: Who was He? What was He? and Where is He?

I. Who was He? He was God; the flesh was His form of manifestation, the Holy Spirit was His vindication as God. Here we must not be misled by the word" manifest." We use it often of a clear and plain showing forth of a truth or fact. Here it means simply that the flesh was the garment in which God appeared, though it did not clearly reveal the Godbead. The flesh was rather a disguise. The humanity of Christ none was disposed to dispute, for that was the apparent fact; the doubt was as to His divinity and deity. And hence He

This arrangement shows the rhythm had to be justified in His claim to God

of thought.

1. Here the Incarnation is, first of all, declared to be incontrovertibly great as

hood by the Spirit of God. That vindication was complete, and may be viewed from three points: 1. Prophecy.

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