wisdom means the loss of nearest kindred, of dearest friends, of brightest prospects. 4. Attainment of the loftier heights of wisdom is the result of patient effort, of sacred thought, of fervent prayer, of self-sacrifice. For we can only see God with the pure heart (Matt. v. 8). Only love understands love; nothing but spiritual excellency will appreciate spiritual beauty. "Only the good discern the good."

III. THE SUPREME WORTH OF WISDOM. As the Queen of Sheba was well rewarded for her toils and her expenditure by the wisdom of Solomon she brought home in her heart, so shall we find ourselves well recompensed for all that we expend in the heavenly wisdom we treasure in our soul. For wisdom is the one priceless thing, the incomparable good. To know God as He is to be known by us, to understand the will of God as that is to be understood by us in Jesus Christ, this is 1. To wear the crown of our humanity (Jer. ix. 24). 2. To possess our great security; for under His guidance our life cannot be a mistake, and under His guardianship we cannot be brought to shame. 3. To have entered upon our real inheritance; for to know Him is eternal life (John xvii. 3). Whatever we expend in the pursuit of Divine wisdom is nothing to the excellency to which we attain, or to the blessedness which we

secure.

TENTH SUNDAY AFTER
TRINITY.

THE MIND OF CHRIST. But we have the mind of Christ.-1 COR. ii. 16.

THIS sentence is a correcting, a relieving, even a satisfying one. Without the fact which is here expressed all would be unsatisfactory because essentially insufficient. We could not and should not have known the mind of God if we had not received the mind of Christ. Neither in the depth of our own human spirit, nor in the length and breadth of the outer world, nor in the range of human history, can we "understand and know God." Long, dark centuries of unrewarded search and (consequently) of grievous and fatal ignorance too painfully prove that this is so. "The world by (the exercise of its own) wisdom knew not God." But-redeeming thought, most blessed alternative!" we have the mind of Christ"; and having that, we are possessed of all that we really need for the ennoblement

of our nature and the uplifting of our life. For with that we know—

I. WHAT TO THINK OF THE DIVINE NATURE. We have Christ's great illuminating word that "God is a Spirit," and that He must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Learning of Him who alone could reveal God to us (see John i. 18) we know that God is a living One; the Divine Will, the holy, wise, pure, supreme Intelligence, to whom we are most closely related.

II. How GOD FEELS TOWARD EACH ONE OF HIS CHILDREN. 1. That He does not despair of His unreconciled children, but is seeking them, is longing to restore them, is making known to them the way of return. 2. That He delights in His reconciled children with a Father's joy; that He is accepting their filial service; that He is working for their highest well-being by a wise, parental discipline (John xvi. 1-8).

III. THE WAY TO HIS FAVOUR AND HIS FRIENDSHIP. That this is not by ceremony or by profession, but by a right spirit, by the spirit of humility (Matt. v. 3; Jer. xiv. 11, xv. 21); by the spirit of trustfulness (Matt. xviii. 3; John iii. 15, 16, 18, 36; Acts xxvi. 18); by the spirit of consecration (Luke xiv. 33.)

IV. THE NOBILITY OF OUR OWN NATURE, and the consequent possibilities of human life. Learning of Christ we know that we are not "animated dust," but are the sons and daughters of God, very dear to Him, to whom He comes and in whom He dwells, living His life, engaging constantly in His service. Neither in ourselves nor in our daily duties need there be anything that is mean or small; for we may be what we are and do all that we do, like Him and unto Him.

V. WHAT IS THE HOPE OF OUR RACE. That we are not doomed to go down to spiritual destruction, but are to rise to goodness and worth. The Gospel of salvation is to be preached in every land, and a once-crucified Saviour is to draw all mankind unto Himself (Mark xvi. 15; John xii. 32.)

VI. OUR OWN INDIVIDUAL PROSPECTS. Whether a man, when he dies, will live again (Job xiv. 14) depends entirely on the will of his Creator. God alone can determine that, and He alone can tell us that. We may well listen with intense eagerness to hear what Jesus Christ, the Truth and the Wisdom of God, has to say to us here. And we know the mind of Christ herein. It is that "all who

are in their graves shall come forth"; it is that "in the Father's house are many man. sions"; it is that we shall be with Him where He is, and behold His glory.

Having the mind of Christ on these subjects of vital interest to us, we may be content until admission to another world will be the accession of clearer light and fuller knowledge (1 Cor. xiii. 12). Meanwhile let us walk in the light that comes from the Sun of righteousness. Having access to the mind of Christ-1. There is nothing to keep any one of us from the possession of the friendship of God, and from the peace and joy which come with His loving favour. 2. We have all that we need in order to grow daily into the likeness of God. 3. We ought not only to be familiar with the thought, but penetrated with the spirit of Christ,-the spirit of reverence, of obedience, of love, of practical kindness. ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE. How long halt ye between two opinions?— 1 KINGS Xviii. 21.

Is the supreme matter of sacred conviction and religious worship Israel was in a distracted state. Under the commanding influence of his strong-willed wife, Ahab had not only established idolatry, but was actively suppressing the true religion. But Divine truth is not easily extirpated, and there had arisen a champion who was "a host in himself," the fearless, uncompromising Tishbite. Swayed by opposite forces, driven hither and thither, the people of Israel were unsettled, were profoundly disturbed. Secret conviction drew them in one direction, policy in another; pure piety made its claim upon their worthier sentiments, while sensuous attractions made their appeal to the unworthier instincts and passions of the people. Elijah summoned this great convention at Carmel, and he made a powerful challenge to the multitude to come forth from that miserable indecision, and to decide once for all in whose service they would live. "If the Lord be God, follow Him, but if Baal, follow Him." Within the small but sacred kingdom of the individual soul there has to be faced

I. THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE. Many important alternatives, on which great issues hang, soon present themselves to us as we go on our way. Shall we be a blessing or a

curse in the home into which we are born? Shall we make a wise use of our educational advantages, or shall we fritter them away? Shall we address ourselves seriously to the business of life and succeed, or shall we be negligent and incapable, and therefore move along the lower levels of our life? Shall we choose the few friendships that will attach us to wisdom and piety, or shall we, like Ahab, give our heart away to one that fascinates, that allures, that ruins? We do well to ask ourselves these serious questions before it is too late. But there is an alternative that is greater than any of these. A little way on in the path of life, when thoughtfulness wakens within us, when we begin to look in and on and up, in childhood, or in youth, or perhaps in early young manhood, we ask, each one for himself, What am I going to make of myself and to do with my life? How am I going to spend my powers and my opportunities? Shall I live for this world only, or for this world and the next? Shall I slight this immortal spirit God has made me to be, or shall I recognize and realize its priceless value? Shall I pass on heedless of a Divine Father's claim, of a Divine Saviour's offer, of the Divine Spirit's quickening touch, or shall I respond and obey? Shall I leave it to others to fight the great battle for truth and righteousness, or shall I take my share in that glorious campaign?" Then we often find

66

II. DISTRACTION WITHIN THE KINGDOM. Within this spiritual realm are opposing forces which contend with one another, and there is deep unsettlement, a harassing and restless indecision. 1. Conscience insists that we ought to live unto Him from whom we came, in whom we have our being, to whom we owe everything we have and are; that we ought to listen, attentively and eagerly, when the Divine Teacher speaks to us; but inclination or passion urges us to live for enjoyment, or for possession, or for advancement. 2. The heavenly voices and the best human voices summon us to consecrate our powers to duty and holy service; while the lower voices of unworthy friendship plead with us to walk with them in paths of vanity and sin. 3. Prudence, wisdom, exhorts us to seek God while He may be found (Isa. lv. 6), to respond to His claim while the mind is open, while the heart is tender, while the will is ready to submit, while the way is clear; but the evil and deadly spirit of procrastina

tion suggests that there is abundance of time, and that the door is always open into the kingdom of God. Thus opposing forces contend within the soul, and there is distraction and spiritual unrest. Can there be any doubt what is

III. THE ONE WISE COURSE. Why halt and hesitate? 1. Indecision is (1) unmanly: we have our mental faculties that we may conclude and act. A man should know his mind and use his strength. It is (2) guilty: God has a right to require immediate obedience. Jesus Christ has a right to instant acceptance and the service of a whole life. We have no right to keep Him waiting. (3) It is wasteful: for while we are halting and choosing life is passing; and with the passage of our life there are left behind us opportunities that are unemployed and that

will not recur. indeed altogether; very high degree. and service less inviting the longer it is neglected. And (5) it is miserable. There is no man more dissatisfied with himself than he who is painfully conscious that he is bound to be pursuing one path and is actually taking another. Indecision is unrest; it is unhappiness; it is the arch enemy of all peace and joy. Decision, on the other hand, is an act that is worthy of our manhood; it makes us right with God; it is the condition and the source of usefulness and fruitfulness; it places us within the confines of God's own kingdom; it is the straight road to lasting blessedness. "O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise." WILLIAM CLARKSON, B.A.

Delay is death, in part if not

for (4) it is perilous in a Duty seems less imperative

THE APOSTLES' CONFIDENCE IN GOD. ACTS iv. 19-31.

THE suggestions and the truths which may be gathered from the lesson of to-day are many and varied, for example

The vanity of combinations and conspiracies against God as affirmed in Scripture and illustrated in history.

The beneficent character of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The necessity and value of mutual sympathy. The power of united and believing prayer as taught in the New Testament.

The care of God over His own.

But the Sunday School authorities in their selection of this passage have suggested as our theme the Apostles' Confidence in God, as illustrated in the incident of their imprisonment and trial. The disciples had in a measure been prepared for trouble by the pre-announcement of Christ: "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." But now it was in sight, and under threat of pains and penalties they were charged to keep silence. But, like the three Hebrew children of Daniel's day, they needed no time for considering the question. We find no hint or shadow that indicates on their part any wavering of purpose.

We look for the grounds of this confidence

and courage, and find them incorporated in the lesson text. This confidence was based

on

The Omnipotence of God, which was (1) a fundamental element of their religious faith. The Mosaic economy had taught them this. The history of their own people, which they still cherished, and the memories of which were dear to them, was full of illustrious evidences of the power and glory of Jehovah. They had not changed in becoming followers of Christ this fundamental faith in the God of their childhood and of their earlier manhood, This element of their religious faith was further buttressed by (2) the convincing events of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

The FACTS were then, as they should be now, the unanswerable factors in the propaga tion of the Gospel. When they beheld "the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it."

(3) In addition, the Holy Ghost WITHIN them enabled them to make forceful and persuasive the truth they advocated. It is true they were neither skilled in arms nor trained in schools; they had neither wealth nor social position, but God was with them, and they were invincible. Pentecost had made them all-powerful.

Let us emulate their dauntless courage, touch the sources, as they did, of supernal power, make regnant in our lives the principles they enunciated, and then the world will be at our feet as it was at theirs, and we shall go forth, as did the apocalyptic rider, on the white horse, "conquering and to conquer."-(John D. Pickles.)

ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA.
ACTS v. 1-11.

THE question may be asked, Was not this punishment of Ananias and Sapphira too severe? No time was given for repentance ; no opportunity was offered for them to consider their transgression, and to cry unto God for pardon.

We may find answer to this inquiry, I think, in the following suggestions-

1. Their sin was an aggravated one. "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God," were Peter's words to Ananias. The peculiar enormity of their sin consisted in its being committed against the Holy Ghost. They knew of the Pentecostal gift. And now they come with a definitely settled purpose to deceive the Spirit of God in the persons of God's chosen ones, thinking Him to be such a one as themselves. Dr. Lightfoot supposes that Ananias was not an ordinary believer, but a minister, and one that had received the gift of the Holy Ghost with the hundred and twenty. Yet he dared thus by dissembling to belie and shame that gift.

2. It was a deliberate sin. It was not committed as the result of a sudden temptation; but these two had consulted together about it, and had entered into a mutual agreement to work this deception upon the Apostles and the Church. It was cold-blooded in every respect. There was apparently no necessity laid upon them by outward circumstances. Ananias shows himself to have been by deliberate choice a hypocrite.

3. Sin must have become the settled purpose of their lives. God does not pronounce condemnation unto death for an initial sin or for a series of sins. It is only when the soul becomes saturated with sin, when there is no longer hope of the man's bearing fruit unto righteousness, that God casts him off. It must have been a crisis in their inner lives marking the determination of their souls-a crisis not apparent to men, but open and plain to the eve of God.

4. The severity of this punishment may have been due in a measure to the conditions surrounding the Church at that early period. The Church was in its infancy.

We may further learn from this lesson (1) That those who presume upon security and impunity in any sinful course are reckon

I.

THE APOSTLES PERSECUTED. ACTS v. 25-41.

THE arrest by the Council.

The arrest

of Peter and his brother Apostles took place at the instigation of the Council before whom they were brought. It was the intent of the rulers to make the new doctrine odious by making its teachers criminals. Thus reasoned the rulers. Moreover, they believed that truth confined behind bars and stone walls could not be very dangerous. But how little they understood the nature of truth! There is a vitality in ideas utterly beyond the power of man to conceive. When once they are fully grasped by and instilled into the mind they become living, permanent influences. The teachings were safely lodged in men's hearts outside the prison, and not confined within the prison

The rulers also made the mistake of supposing that they could prevent the growth of the Gospel by the power of authority. "Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this Name?" They had no doubt as to their power to suppress it. But human authority takes no account of the intense enthusiasm which truth inspires in men who believe it, and the degree of selfsacrifice which it can evoke.

You can never be sure that your authority has stopped up all loopholes of escape. You can never be sure that your authority can inspire fear enough to terrify the advocate of it into silence.

Here

II. Peter's reply to the Council. was another instance in which Christ's words were to come true, for He had said some time previously, "But when they shall deliver you up, be not anxious how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak" (Matt. x. 19).

Peter, in his reply, admitted the truth of the charges. The Apostles had indeed refused to recognize the authority of the Council, because they recognized a higher authority. "We ought to obey God rather than men.'

Peter, however, goes still farther. Not satisfied with merely answering their charges, he assumes the aggressive by re-affiming the doctrines he had been teaching the people, and boldly sets forth the claims of Christ. There is no shadow of a spirit of compromise in his words. Peter makes the startling announcement that Christ was a Prince. "Him hath God exalted. . . . to be a Prince." Peter, nevertheless, unflinchingly declared the new truth, that salvation was not in a system, but in a man.

There was one more step necessary to

complete Peter's argument, which was that he and his fellow Apostles had irrevocably committed themselves to these truths. "We are His witnesses of these things." Thus the reply of Peter's threw the necessity of action upon the Council.

They

III. The release by the Council. began in bluster and ended in ignominious defeat. Gamaliel, the master mind among them, rises to state his position, having first, however, secured a temporary removal of the Apostles. In private session he pleads for caution, his fundamental ground being that they cannot decide upon the merits of the case. They cannot tell yet whether this new movement is of God or of man. If it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; if it be of man, it will come to an end of itself.

They had had two marked instances in their own history of the schemes of men coming to an untimely end-namely, those of Theudas and Judas.

This incident in the history of the early Church clearly shows two or three things which it is well to note.

And one is that ideas cannot be suppressed by persecuting their advocates; and yet the world is very slow in learning this lesson. To shut Peter in jail is no answer to the doctrine he taught, that salvation is of Christ. Fanatic, dreamer, bigot, heretic, are names freely hurled against individuals who are doing what they can for their fellow-men. But

these titles have no more power to prevent thought or action than a thistledown can keep back the tides. The personal equation in persecution makes it the infernal thing it is.

Another thing to be remarked is that persecution serves the hated truth a good turn by causing it to be clearly stated before the public. If you will consider the causes that called forth four of Peter's sermons, you will find that it was the opposition or doubt of unbe lievers.-(Edward Sampson Tead.)

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYR.
ACTS vii. 54-60, viii. 1-4.

I. THE Man. The form of his name would
indicate that he was a Hellenist; that is, a
Jew born among the Gentiles, speaking the
Greek language. His name also signifies a

crown.

1. He was versed in the Scriptures. "When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart." Cranmer and Ridley learned the New Testament by heart. They also saw its truths in relation to present duties of life. This was the case of the first Christian martyr. He exposed the false view of the Jews toward the Temple and the law.

"They were cut to the heart," or, literally, they were sawn asunder in their hearts. It was not one staggering blow which did the work. The truth, laden with rebukes, was gradually making its way through their hearts. The personal application completed the work.

2. Stephen was spiritually enlightened. "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven." We may not all have the privilege of Stephen to look into heaven in this life, but the Holy Spirit furnishes enlightening power. Spiritual

breadth of vision follows. That creates confidence. Moses endured, seeing Him who is invisible; and the angel of God revealed himself unto Paul, saying, "Fear not."

Here was the basis of Stephen's confidence. Facts of the invisible world were newly impressed upon him. We see things here from a short range. Hence mystery and perplexity arise. He is sustained by a higher power, and looks with joy to the end.

3. He possessed a forgiving spirit. "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." This prayer

is without a parallel outside of Biblical history and its influence. Confucius, Isocrates, Seneca, and other Gentile writers hinted at the Golden Rule in a partial or negative form. But praying for one's enemies has thus far been discovered only in the Bible and in the line of its influence. The cross first brings it to view.

II. Stephen's Witnessing to the Truth. 1. He witnessed that God's presence and favour were not limited to any set place. Stephen taught that God's presence was not limited to a favoured few. This was one link in the chain which drew away Christians from Jewish rites.

The disciples loved the Temple. Who could blame them? Here Jesus gave some of His choicest revelations. But lingering amid the incense and smoking sacrifices too long they may bind these practices, only belonging to the past, on the new society, and fetter its future course. They were providentially thrust out into new fields, as we may be, by apparent disasters, to secure in the end the best results.

2. Stephen bore witness that Christ had been elevated to glory and power. "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." Stephen was the first to bear witness to the fact of seeing Christ after His ascension. Paul and John were granted such visions later (Acts ix. 3, 4; 1 Cor. ix. 1; Rev. i. 12-17). Perhaps such witnessing was needed to encourage the early Church. It made invisible things appear as a positive reality. It also confirmed Stephen's teaching. Christ had taught that spiritual worship anywhere was pleasing to the Father. It would follow that a peculiar privilege had been granted to Stephen. Any rabbi might have coveted it. The glory of God had appeared to him as well as to Abraham and to Moses. If his face had shone like that of an angel, his words now had a heavenly support.

3. Stephen bore witness that Jesus receives His people after death. He did not formally affirm this fact, but prayed to Jesus to receive his spirit; or, in bold literalness, "Take my spirit by the hand."--(J. H. Allen.)