the case had paid the special tax to the United States Government, and the evidence in behalf of the State showed that he and his sons had sold liquor from bottles carried in their pockets. The Government purchased of the State of Maine a tract of land known as Togus, on which is located the Eastern Branch of the "National Soldier's Home," having about 1,200 inmates. In the case mentioned above, the evidence showed the sales to have been made on the reservation of the United States Government and to the inmates of the "Home," and is only one instance of many similar cases where this traffic is carried on, and over which the State of Maine has no jurisdiction and no control. And in these cases all that the United States Government can do is to prosecute for trespass and damage, the penalty for which is slight and the charge difficult to substantiate. We do not have a saloon in Maine for every special retail liquor tax paid by a "long shot," and our prohibitory law is of infinite value in dealing with those we do have. Augusta, Me. J. SMITH GLEDHILL.

The Attractions of the Ministry. Will you allow me to say how surprised I was in the sermon upon the "Attractions of the Christian Ministry" to find no prominent place given to its greatest of all attractions, to me and many others-indeed I had thought of every true minister of Christ, viz., that of saving souls. Opportunities of fellowship with good men and of scholarly culture, dealing with noble themes, etc., are all very well as far as they go; but what about having "souls for our hire?" Even the prospect of a crown at last cannot compensate for the want of an "earnest " here, any more than kindred company, chance to botanize, and even a good basket at the close of the day, could compensate the loss of lively biting and catching when on a fishing excursion. If we are, as our Master meant us to be, "fishers of men," surely the capture of men for Him will be the great consideration. Our ministry of to-day wants more of the evangelistic method, to realize its divine ideal and restore and maintain its imcomparable enthusiasm. Thank God it's coming. London, C'an. WALTER M. ROGER.

Preaching Sin and Salvation.

"A FAITHFUL saying" is one that ought to be believed-one worthy of acceptation. Paul, in his pastoral instruction to Timothy (1 Tim. i: 15), declares that the coming of Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners is worthy of all acceptation; of the most complete and universal belief. No fact in history is so well attested; no principle of science or philosophy is so essential to the welfare of men. It concerns every human soul to know and believe it. The importance of Christ's advent does not consist in the mere fact of His miraculous birth and the constitution of His glorious person: the emphasis of the faithful saying is in the design of His coming. What was that design? What

was His mission? Is it answered that He came to reveal God to men, to teach the truth, to set a holy example? All this is true, but only parts, and subordinate parts of the grand comprehensive truth that He came into the world to save sinners. Sin and Salvation are the essential and correlative facts of the Gospel. Christ's suitableness to all men rests upon the admitted fact that all men are sinners, lost and ruined in the fall. The first qualification for a preacher of His Gospel is to receive Him as a personal Savior, under the full conviction that there is no salvation in any other, "for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."

Having declared the faithful saying,

which is the essence of the Gospel, Paul immediately numbers himself among those whom Christ came to save Не is a sinner-yea, the chief or first of sinners. Not the first in the order of time, but the first or chief in his need of salvation. This saying of Paul is not to be interpreted as an exaggeration or hyperbole. Still less is it a specimen of that cant in which men exhibit their own humility by saying of themselves what they would resent if applied to them by others. Paul was not like the old woman who was always complaining to her pastor that she was the worst member in his church, but instantly grew angry when he ventured to agree with her. He said what he believed and felt. His saying may be justified by his remembrance of what he was before his conversion. He was a persecutor of the Church of God, breathing out threatening and slaughter against the followers of Christ. But he obtained mercy, because he did it "ignorantly in unbelief." This was no excuse for his conduct, still less was there any merit in it. Deserved mercy is a contradiction in terms. His ignorance and unbelief simply made him susceptible and capable of receiving mercy. But he ought to have known better. He ought to have believed from the first. The approval of a blind conscience does not make wrong-doing right. Every man is bound to enlighten his conscience. So Paul felt. His sin was forgiven, but it was never forgotten; nor did he ever cease to condemn himself for it.

But his saying, "I am the chief of sinners," is justified not only by his remembrance of what he was before, but by his Christian experience after his conversion. Much is said about the need of a Revival of Religion. But what the Church at large, and individual Christians, most need, and what alone can constitute a genuine revival of religion, is a "Revival of Sin," as that phrase is explained in the record of Paul's experience. "I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came sin revived and I

died." (Rom. vii: 9.) That revival was not a transitory emotion. It continued and increased in power through the whole of Paul's Christian life. It wrung out from his soul the threefold expression, ever increasing in intensity: "I am not worthy to be called an apostle;" "I am less than the least of all saints;" "I am the chief of sinners." The last of the three is the climax and consummation of all. It goes deeper than his apostolic office, deeper than his Church membership, into the very roots of his character, and into his personal relationship as a sinner to Christ. He never counted himself to have attained the end of his calling; he never thought himself perfect; he was always burdened with a body of sin and death, from which, till the end of life, he longed to be delivered. It was this increasing sense of his own unworthiness that made the sufficient grace of Christ so sweet and precious to him, filled his preaching with the essence of the Gospel, and fired it with an unquenchable zeal. Knowing in his own soul both the terror of the Lord and the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, he persuaded men. Paul is for all time a model preacher, as well as a pattern of Christ's long-suffering mercy "to them which should hereafter believe in him to life everlasting."

Secular Culture of Ministers.

It is well said that every kind of knowledge and everything that enters into the culture of mind and taste, will be useful to the preacher. As theology is the science of sciences, so the preacher, whose duty it is to apply theology to the convictions, the consciences and the lives of men, may draw that which illustrates and enforces divine truth from every department of human inquiry. But, while this is true, the preacher may squander much time in endeavoring to master other subjects than those bearing directly upon Bible study. One of the saddest things which occur to us, in surveying the Church of to-day, is that of the immense amount of secular learning among the clergy,

which does not tell at all, or, at best, tells but incidentally, in the line of religious influence upon the community. The clerical profession could supply all the chairs in our Universities, from that of lecturer in metaphysics to that of demonstrator in the laboratory. And yet, in respect to practical, evangelical work, our savants in the pulpit are, as a rule, surpassed by men of inferior grade of scholarship.

Fred. W. Robertson put some suggestive sentences into a letter to a young minister: "Life is very short; and the painter must not hope to be a good seaman, nor is the clergyman to pine because he cannot be a man of literature. . . . Hebrew, Italian and German I learned after leaving the University; and now that I have them, I do not set much value on them. . . . It is surprising how little they tell on the great work of life. . . . I have sighed again and again to feel how much I have to reject as unfit for even an enlightened audience, and how many days and years have been spent in acquiring and pondering over thoughts that will never tell in this world, and, perhaps, never will be even communicated!... Take care that the mind does not become too fastidious and refined. It is not a blessing, but a hindrance in the work of life. For a clergyman who has to deal with real beings of flesh and blood, I believe it perfectly possible for too much of a literary turn to mar his usefulness, at the same time that it gives him more keen sensitiveness in perceiving that it is marred. For this reason, if I were in your place, I should be anxious to give to life as much the aspect of reality as possible, which a student's life is apt to keep out of sight. . . . In vacations I would vary study with systematic visiting of the poor, which, more than anything else, brings a man into contact with the actual and the real, and destroys fanciful dreams."

Strike while the Iron is hot. Every minister is startled at times by the suggestion of topics in the course of his reading or pastoral work, which

are so bright, helpful, and so readliy applicable that he notes them for treatment at his first convenience. But the convenience seldom comes; his notebook is like a seedman's shop in the potential harvest stored within it. Or if, at some subsequent time, he recalls one of these topics, he finds that somehow it has lost its deep diamond lustre, and he wonders why he was once so impressed with its richness.

We should remember that our appreciation of truth depends not solely upon the value of the truth itself, nor upon our general ability, but as much upon our peculiar state of mind at the time the truth is presented. This is especially so of sentiments, or those truths which appeal to our æsthetic or moral disposition. No strength of lens will take the place of the proper focusing of the telescope relatively to the object to be observed; and no general strength of mind can compensate the lack of heart adjustment to the truth we are considering. And perhaps we will never again have our hearts so nicely adapted to it as to feel the subject as we once did. That vision is gone, it may be forever. It is therefore wisest, when such a suggestion comes, to at once pause, at least long enough to formulate it in a definite proposition, elaborate it enough to discover its main lines of development, and feel your way far enough through its discussion to note its most practical application. No after-leisure can accomplish so much as the even, hasty work of those moments when our minds are quick and warm with the novelty of the fresh impulse.

The Man-Pleasing Preacher.

A certain city pastor, devoted and efficient in his way, gives much attention to assembling the masses by such attractions as they naturally feel. In addition to inviting accessories, the preaching in the view he is inclined to, must be popular and entertaining by all means; not too aggressive and radical, it must be juicy with sweet Christian sentiment, weighted occasionally with a morsel of hard truth not too

large to be lost in the mass, and bolted like a pill, unnoticed. There are certain qualities in this good brother's composition that forbid his becoming a preacher of methodical and reasoned doctrine. But what need? There is nothing in him to prevent preaching the living Christ with power, except this servile policy of conciliation, by diluting, muffling and softening. He brandishes a sheathed sword. Shrinking from the root of the matter, and from

the core of the divine life, all the talk of such teachers is "about it, and about it." The fear of men, or, what is often near akin to it, an overweening solicitude to please men (for their good) is the secret of very much pulpit weakness. A profound and vivid faith in the inextinguishable power of the Gospel, Christ crucified-inextinguishable except by worldly-wise paring and adapting-must enter into the very first condition of any revival of pulpit power.

Christian Culture.

BELIEVERS PARDONED YET CHASTENED. Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.-Ps. xcix: 8.

In this Psalm we see, as in a glass, how God deals with His people. Toward their persons He acts in grace, answering their prayers and forgiving their trespasses towards their sins, in justice, taking vengeance on their inventions. The allusion is to Moses, who must die in the wilderness because he sanctified not the Lord at the waters of strife; to Aaron, who joined with Miriam in murmuring; and to Samuel, who was partial to his sons whom he appointed judges over Israel.

I. THE MOST FAITHFUL TO GOD HAVE COMMITTED SOME SINS WHICH NEED HIS PARDON. These may be

1. Concerning His worship. This was Aaron's sin (Deut. ix: 20). Uzziah only puts forth his hand to steady the ark, and he dies. God's order of worship must be observed. Holy acts require holy frames. "The fear of the Lord ever attends on the "comforts of the Holy Ghost" (Acts ix: 31).

other's sins. We are more proud of our graces than ashamed of our sins. Jeshurun (Deut. xxxii: 15), Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi: 16), David prays (Ps. xxv: 5), Job complains (xiii: 26). The sins of youth, if not confessed, will be the sufferings of age. A believer has his sweetest joys with his deepest wounds, his greatest exaltation when most truly humbled. In all our sufferings and joys, sin and grace should never be forgotten. Samuel was faithful to God, but too favorable to his sons (1 Sam. viii: 3). With the administration of justice in his hands he could have put out those he put in. What a commendation it was to Levi

(Deut. xxxiii: 9).

II. WHY DOES GOD TAKE VENGEANCE ON THEIR INVENTIONS, WHILE HE PARDONS THEIR SINS?

1. To prevent the abuse of His mercy. Sampson profaned God's ordinance and fell into the hands of his enemies, Peter, etc. If Christians, like the men of Bethshemish, pay unwarrantily into the ark, they must like them suffer (Jer. ii: 19).

2. To manifest the holiness of God and His law (9). Our sins are known, our repentings and pardon unknown, therefore God publicly vindicates His holy name by a public reproof. He pardoned David, yet the child died.

3. To secure our watchfulness. A believer's very life lies in heart holiness, and when he is chastened for sin, he prays, Cleanse me from secret faults," searches out earnestly his besetting

sin, and walks more closely with God. 4. To warn the impenitent. If the son be scourged, surely the servant more. "If these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

III. WHY DOES GOD ANSWER AND FORGIVE WHILE HE CHASTENS HIS SAINTS?

1. From the relation He sustains to them. Text. The covenant remains firm, while its dispensations vary. Though He hide His face, yet not His heart. Whom He loves He rebukes. He does better for us than we ask or think. He took Moses to heaven instead of Canaan.

2. Because of the ransom which the surety has paid. "The chastisement of our peace" was laid on Him. Love to our person is quite consistent with anger against our sins. God has found a ransom for us, therefore will pardon. Christ has more to say for us than our sins can say against us.

3. It is one of His titles. "Thou art a God of pardons," "a just God, yet a Savior." When He visits most severely it is yet in mercy. He will not be called the "God of all comfort" in vain. The light of His countenance and the love of His heart are two things; we may lose for a time the one, but never the other.

4. If He will not pardon, then we must all perish. "All we like sheep have gone astray." In the most fine gold there is dross. The Canaanite is left in the land to prove, not to destroy us. Grace and mercy are for a time of need.

Application. Not murmur at trials: sin the cause is within us. Agag will die though he walk delicately. Labor to have our affections suitable to providential dispensations. Rejoice in prosperity. Whatever mercy is withheld, bless God for Christ. No acceptance but in the Beloved, no pardon but by His blood, no peace but through the King of peace, no glory but through the King of glory. Let us admire God's patience. So many inventions, and so little vengeance. "Wages of sin is death." Whosever believeth in Christ shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

SPIRITUAL PARENTAGE. Neither shall thy name any more be called

Abram, but Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.-Gen. xvii: 5.

I. The change of name here made was founded on a change of character. The servant and "called of God," had grown into the character of a man of illustrious faith.

II. His fatherhood of Isaac was in consequence of special Divine interposition, and the fact is confirmatory and illustrative of the teaching of a spiritual sonship, so often alluded to in the New Testament.

III. For faith-character he is made the father of the "faithful," or the full-offaith. It is only in the line of Abraham's faith-the reception of and obedience to the moral ceremonial law which he represents-that any are the true sons of Abraham. Mere natural descent counts for nothing; instance the unbelieving Jews, while all true believers in Christ are counted the spiritual children of Abraham.

CONCLUSIONS.

1. Faith is an inheritance: Abraham achieved it for his posterity, and in an important sense, for all true believers to the end of the world.

2. Faith is the sign of our descent; it proves us to be the true posterity of Abraham and entitled to the blessings of God's covenant.

3. Faith may be transmitted: there is a spiritual heredity, as the history of the Church demonstrates. Faith, prayer, obedience, godliness, may be made to flow down through successive generations, and will, if parents are faithful. Mark the special care taken by the God of the Abrahamic covenant to preserve a believing posterity.

Revival Service.

YE SHALL NOT BE ASHAMED. Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.-Rom. x: 11.

1. He shall not be ashamed of Christ. -2 Tim. i: 12; Mark viii: 38.

2. He shall not be ashamed of the Gospel.-Rom. i: 16.

3. He shall not be ashamed at Christ's coming.-1 John ii: 28.