some great discovery. Truth opens new vistas to us at every turn. Knowledge is glorious, and he who nowadays will not read and think is like a man deaf and blind in the midst of all the beauty and glory of the opening summer. Science is romance, and there is no novel so exhilarating as is the story of truth. But having said all this, I say more: that it is just as clear that to gain knowledge is not our chief errand here. We have a higher calling; we have a more urgent duty. This mortal stage, in all its lights and shadows, seems arranged for scenes of probation; it is fitted out for the formation of character. Our errand here is to go and bring character out of this earthly life. It is to bring-even though we learn it through our losses and sufferings-the capacity of loving out of this earthly trial and sorrow. Our object is salvation; to work out in this large, grand way our salvation is the end for which all things here are fitted up and adapted. And so God follows through all man's history this supreme moral purpose: the salvation of our souls, the redemption of the race; and to this end everything else in His providence seems to have been subordinated. That our moral redemption is our main errand here appears clearly enough from the reflections which we have just been pursuing concerning the deep things of God; for God gratifies our love for knowledge only in so far as it seems to be for our moral good. How easy it would have been for Him to have granted us revelations of some of these mysteries! A single sentence in the Bible might have settled centuries of theologieal dispute. It may be better, however, for the Church to be taught, by ages of controversy, the sweet lesson of charity, than to have all knowledge. The silence of the Scriptures and God's secrets in nature show that our lives here are for probation. The day of the revelation of all things must, of necessity, be the day of judgment. Too much as well as too little light might preclude the trial of character. Probation seems possible only in a twilight world; and

God, therefore, seems to have drawn the curtains over the windows of our earthly habitation and not to have granted us the open vision of the great realities which lie in the sunlight of truth without, darkening His revelations to us as a wise friend would draw the shade of the sick chamber and attemper the light to the sufferer's eye, in order that brightness of the whole day might not excite the diseased brain to a delirium, and too great a flood of air and sunshine sweep away the very hope of his recovery. Let us remember, then, this fact of revelation: that while the shadows lie over many a field of knowledge, the light does fall directly and straight from the face of God over the narrow path of duty; and though we may not see far into the shadows of the forest on either side, yet, if we will, we can keep with resolute feet the narrow path of duty, and that is the path which leads up into the open day.

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Let us remember, then, in conclusion, that the great duties of life are the illuminated texts of Scripture: "Repent," "Believe," Be converted," "Strive," "Pray, "Have the spirit of Christ,' "Set your affections on things above." These commandments of the Lord are "plain, enlightening the eyes" of whosoever wishes to see. There are many things which Jesus said to the disciples we shall know hereafter; and it is enough, is it not, to make death a welcome thought to us to reflect what wondrous knowledge it may bring to our opening eyes in heaven?-a welcome thought, if only we are doing that work here and now which is the condition of all happiness hereafter.

Our business here, then, in one word, is with conscience. Conscience is our schoolmaster here; conscience is the teacher sent from God to every one of us-conscience which hears the voice of Jehovah and sends us in penitence to the great Teacher for the secret of the new heart. Oh, brethren, it is of minor consequence, after all, what acquisitions of knowledge we may make in this world; it is of minor consequence how far we may be able to peer into the

deep things of God; but it is of supreme urgency that we should gain, every one of us, Jesus' secret of the new heart. May He give us that; may He teach us that blessed, that divine secret. If you have not already sought upon your knees for that, if you have not begun to find the hope and the joy of it, is it not time for you to begin to live now, really to live? Do not be content with mere existence: the trees exist through all the winter's cold; in the spring they begin to live. So let us seek after lifethe life of beauty, songfulness and joy, whose secret is the secret of the Lord. He only can teach us how to live, how to cease from dying and to begin to live to live the true, the real, the eternal life, that pure, loving, blessed life which is hid with Christ in God.

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS MORNING. BY REV. DAVIS W. LUSK, IN UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEWARK, N. J. And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. -Luke ii: 10.

THE birth of Christ is the gladdest event of history. The advent of princes, born to a crown, amid luxurious surroundings, has often been the occasion of great rejoicing all over a kingdom. But when Mary gave birth to the infant Jesus in a stable at Bethlehem, the very heavens rejoiced. The shepherds at midnight on the Judean hills saw the glory of God, and from that effulgent light the angels sang, "Be not afraid, ' etc.; and down from the heavens came the grand chorus, in which a great multitude of angel voices joined: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men (v. 14).

That was the first Christmas morning that dawned on earth, and it was a morning of joy; joy among the stars, joy among the angels, joy in the heart of God, joy that thrilled all heaven and will yet fill the earth, and be caught up and embalmed in the everlasting song before the throne.

I wish to-day to illustrate the truth

of this angel message to the watching shepherds. I can, of course, in a single sermon touch only on a few points of the grand and joyful theme.

I. The advent of Christ was good tidings to the slave. When He came, a large part of the race were held in abject servitude. Slavery prevailed extensively in cultivated Greece, in imperial Rome, and even in Palestine-in the very shadow of the temple of the Most High. Some Roman masters held from ten to twenty thousand slaves, and the condition of the slave was hard in the extreme. He was treated and held simply as a "thing"; bought and sold as men deal in sheep and horses, he was absolutely the property of his master: he had no rights as a man-no place under the law; could be beaten, scourged, and put to death at the will of the master. Such was the condition of half the world when the angel choir sang their Gloria in Excelsis. But that song was the death-knell to human bondage. The Infant that lay in the manger hard by was to be the great Deliverer. From His lips was to sound out the emancipation proclamation that was to give deliverance to captives everywhere, and set at liberty those that were bound. And this has been the blessed effects of Christ's mission and teaching wheresoever the Gospel has prevailed. Slavery cannot exist under the clear light and benign influence of Christianity. Its cardinal principles-the unity of the race, the common Fatherhood in God, the Golden Rule, the new commandment, the doctrine of oneness in Christ and absolute equality in all things spiritual-are fatal to the system and the principle of servitude. And history traces, in characters of light and glory, the career of the Cross as it has made the round of the nations, until there is scarcely a foot of soil redeemed by the blood of Jesus trodden to-day by the foot of a slave. Glorious emancipation! Glorious harbinger of that spiritual liberty which Christ is yet to achieve! II. The advent of Christ was good tidings to the laborer. The mass of men belong to the laboring class-are

forced to earn their bread in the sweat of their brows. The honor, the dignity, of labor was not at all understood before Christ's advent. Labor was looked upon as a disgrace. Men were despised who had to work as a means of livelihood. Philosophers taught that all forms of manual labor were degrading. In Rome only three kinds of ocenpation were considered respectable, viz.: medicine, commerce, and architecture. Free men had to work side by side with slaves.

But Christ taught a new doctrine. He consecrated and made honorable all honest labor, both by the precepts He taught and by His own example. He was a carpenter, the son of a carpenter, and wrought at His humble trade until He began His public ministry. He chose His disciples from the humblest occupations.

And just as the spirit and teachings of the great Master prevail, the laboring classes will be elevated and prosperous, and human society will approximate the heavenly world.

not

III. The advent of Christ revealed to earth the true idea of humanity. The ancients had no just conception of man as man. At best, he was considered of no account, except as related to the State or the crown. The infinite value of the human soul, the amazing dignity of manhood-of man, made in the image of God, a creature of God, and an heir of immortality -- had dawned on the conception of the world at the time of Christ's advent. He, the Divine-Man, the Son of the Highest, conferred an infinite boon on the race when He revealed and taught the true idea of humanity-the real grandeur and nobility of man as man, both in his intrinsic nature and in his relations to God and to immortality. The incarnation and the death of Christ to save individul man is a stupendous testimony that has not been lost on the world, and never will be; and its final effect will be to lift man to an equality with angels. Skeptics and others babble about “the religion of humanity." But their humanity is a humanity utterly desti

tute of one element or principle of divine life; it is "of the earth earthy." The only genuine religion of humanity -a religion that regenerates the soul and lifts man up to fellowship with God and companionship with angels-is the religion taught by Jesus of Nazareth in wonderful words, in His still more wonderful life, and in His death on the

cross.

IV. The advent of Christ was good tidings to the family. The ancients had very imperfect ideas about it. Marriage was simply the means the State had to produce citizens. The sanctity of marriage, the sweetness of the domestic affections, the power of family influence in training, both for the state and the Church, had no place in the world's estimate. But, oh, the power, the blessedness, of the religion of Jesus on the family! It relays, cements, and sanctifies this old foundation. It gives to woman her true sphere and her golden sceptre. It makes the family the type of heaven, the type of Christ's Church, and invests it with a power for good that is well-nigh irresistible.

V. The advent of Christ was glad tidings because it gave the world a new hope. The old religions offered none. Philosophies shed no light on the grave and the great beyond. Skepticism, infidelity, false science, agnosticism, materialism, all end in despair. The best they offer man is the motto of the Stoics: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

The song of the angels on that eventful Christmas morning was the song of hope to a despairing world. It shot light and sunshine into the sad and desolate heart of guilty, lost man, and down into the grave, and athwart the sky of the unknown future. On the gloom and despair of the ages, without God and without hope, the Sun of Righteousness arose in noontide splendor, and illumined the world. Before it the night vanished in the sinner's soul, and joy and peace and blessedness were experienced.

Oh! gladdest day of all the year-the day when angels came down to earth

with their message of glad tidings! Today we join with the immortal Watts, and sing:

"Joy to the world, the Lord has come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing."

THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD. BY JOHN HALL, D.D., IN FIFTH AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, New York.

Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.-Isa. xii: 6.

CIVILIZED Countries have many institutions of a voluntary kind for useful purposes. These are usually the outcome of social instincts, and are found to be necessary to the well-being of society, and to attain great common objects. But it is optional to every man whether or not to associate himself with these institutions. Some of them are the product of the spirit of Christianity, as in the case, for example, of Young Men's Christian Associations. But even with them it is left to the freedom of the individual will to join them or not.

There is, however, another institution in the world, in relation to which men have not their option-where men are laid under direct obligation to Him who has established the institution, viz. the Church of God, in relation to which the earnest appeal in the text is made. This truth of the divine institution of the Church and the consequent obligation upon men to be in it, is one that needs to be stated with clearness, and defended against misrepresentation. It is the policy of Satan, in his work of deceiving men, to connect his lies with half truths, or with a whole truth misplaced, so as to recommend it to the judgment and consciences of men. This he has done in the matter of the Church. The so-called Catholic Church, outside of which, as it claims, there is no salvation, is a gross perversion of the truth. For nearly four centuries this theory has been rejected by the most enlightened of the human race.

The result is that the statement of the whole absolute truth is regarded by many with dislike and suspicion; so that men do not listen to the real claims of the Church of Jesus Christ as they are presented in the Word. Hence it is necessary to clear up the matter, and learn to what extent and in what sense it is that God has founded this Zion, and in what sense it is an obligation laid upon us all to be members of the Church of the living God.

The Church is described by various words. In the Greek language, by a word which signifies "house of God." This refers to the place in which the servants of God met to worship. Another word describes, not the place, but the worshipers. In that sense "God has founded Zion," and His people are "the inhabitants of Zion." Very distinct and definite words are used to describe the members of the Church. They are called "the glory" inspired of God. They are called the faithful, showing that there has been divine communication with them, and that they are believers; and in the third place they are called "holy," consecrated and accepted. These three terms mark and describe the members, the assembly of the people that make up the Church. They are the glory, they are the faithful, they are holy, and when the Church becomes a body of holy, consecrated people, bound to serve and represent God, and to carry out His gracious, blessed will always, it is a holy Church; it is a Church of the living God, having distinct claims upon the attention of mankind. Men forget or overlook this fact. They reason as if all religious systems had the same origin, and rest upon the same basis. But Christ did not die to found Confucianism or Mohammedanism. But that is true of Christianity, and of no other system of faith. So that Christianity is unique; it is matchless; it has claims upon the conscience and over the individual soul that can be claimed by no other religious system.

Accepting this view, we see the meaning of various Scripture terms; for

instance, of the Church as being "the family of God." We know what are the constituent parts of a family. Now, God has made in Zion a blessed counterpart of allthat is in His family. Two conclusions inevitably follow from this truth.

I This Church presents to us the way, under God's hand, to true personal goodness. Men devise many recipes to correct evils and excite to virtue. But Zion accomplishes all these results by one simple method. To be in the Church of God is to be in the way of all goodness. Well may the inhabitants of Zion rejoice, for all spiritual blessings of God's kingdom are given to it. II. Another logical conclusion follows, viz.: that all of us ought to be in that Zion. We are to be in it, not because the Church itself demands it; not because the minister calls for it; not because the influences around us have inenlcated it-not for any or all of these reasons. We are to belong to the Church because God, who founded the Church and created us, has laid this obligation upon us. That is the one solid and sufficient reason by which we are to be influenced. We are to be in Zion, because God has been pleased to enjoin it. We have no option here, because we are but creatures, and bound to obey the Creator. We may use our human wisdom with reference to the institutions that man has founded. But this unique, match'ess, unparalleled institution that God has founded, and founded for us, we are bound to be in, if we would be obedient to Him. we are not to be simply visitors to His Church, or occasional attendants, and especially not to be patrons. We are to be inhabitants, dwelling in it; being in it with our whole souls, and complying with the obligations that are incumbent upon its inhabitants, if we would be pure men. And this is no unreasonable command. 1. The way in which the Word came is both significant and instructive. 2. Another consideration is that, "Great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of her." That is the culminating and crowning glory of God's Zion.

And

It is the Zion of the ordinary human being, and it is the Zion of the Lord. You may take the great political parties of the day-the Republican and the Democratic-and you will find varieties of intelligence, varieties of motives, and greater or less degrees of intensity. But the party retains its unity, notwithstanding these individual varieties. The same thing is in the Church of the living God; it is composed of human beings of different degrees of energy, of capacity. There are times of coldness and times of ardor; times of weakness and times of strength; there are men of the meanest motives and men of pure motives. There is a great deal given for organization and instruction, and I want to make the thing clear to you as a spiritual truth. God is with Zion by His very nature. He is omnipresent and omniscient, and this being so, there are certain natural and necessary results that follow. When you are on the street, you must see things that are going on around you. You know that they are not the same that you would see in your own home. So it is with God. He is with His Church, not only because He has these natural attributes, but because it is His Church that He has founded in Christ, and over which He exercises watchful care. The Church is made Christ's because he is the Son of God. Not a mere man could be capable of filling that high place. He is God also. But it is not simply as God that he is King and head of His Church. He says Himself, This is the kingdom given to Me," but that would not be true if given to Him as God. It was, therefore, as the God-man that the Church was given to him. As a mere man He could not have the kingdom. He is, therefore, in it in His mediatorial capacity. No mere man could fill that conspicuous place, and it is because of the God-man that we see so great human sympathy with divine power in the head of the Church. It is the especial glory of the New Testament that explains and expounds this.

So much for the second teaching of the text with reference to the transcend