one another; how they ought to be redy to do all kind offices for one another. We ought not to think it too much to do anything we possibly can to help a brother in the Lord. We have every reason to believe that Philemon did take his unfaithful servant back again, and especially when we consider the words of the Apostle in the twenty-first verse: Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say." If Philemon did not tike Onesimus back again, then the Apostle had misplaced his confidence; but the Apostle knew Philemon too well to put confidence in him and then to be deceived.

Let attention now be directed to the following particulars:

First of all, let us see if we can find anything in the conduct of Onesimus in relation to his master analogous to the conduct of men in relation to God. We shall not find this a difficult task at all. It will not require much thought to find in the conduct of Philemon's srvant, that which illustrates and resembles much the conduct of men generally towards God.

Let us see in the apostacy of Onesimus a far greater one, namely, that of man's, from the true and living God. That man has apostatized from God, from Him to whom he is indebted for his life, and its multifarious blessings and mercies, is as certain as that Onesimus foorsook his master, and wandered off to Rome. The Prophet says, "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." The fall of man was evident to the wise man; nay, it was impossible that such an obvious fict should escape the observant eye of Solomon, when he says, "So this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." The Apostle Paul speaks of men as being alienated from the life of God, and as giving themselves over to lasciviousness, and to work all un

cleanness with greediness. Let such discriptions of man, as he now is, be compared with that given him when he came out of the hands of God: "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." We cannot but conclude from such descriptions of man, of what he once was, and of what he is now, that some great change has come over him for the worse; that he is not now at home, that he has left his father's house, and wandered away into the far off country, where the demon sin flaps his blighting and destroying wing over the inhabitants thereof. Stephen Charnock says, "When we see, therefore, the course of nature overturned; the order Divine goodness had placed disturbed, and the creatures pronounced good and useful to man employed as instruments of vengeance against Him, we must conclude some horrible blot upon human nature, and very obvious to a God of infinite goodness, and that this blot was dashed upon man by himself, and his own fault; for it is repugnant to the infinite goodness of God to put into the creature a sinning nature, to hurry him into sin, and then punish him for that which He had impressed upon him." The apostacy of man, as taught in the Bible, is fully corroborated both by human consciousness, observation, and history. The Bible is not so much needed to tell us that we have fallen from God, as to tell us how we are to be restored to Him.

It is not what we may say of a few of the human population, that they have apostatized from God, but it is what may strictly be said of the whole race. It is said in the book of Genesis, " And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." The historian might well use the word, behold, in drawing such a horrible and frightful picture of the descendants of him who had been created in the glorious image of Jehovah. In Psalm xiv., it is said, "The fool hath said in his

heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek after God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." The Apostle Paul says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." It is impossible to calculate the havoc and mischief done by sin. How it has blighted the soul, once beautiful as the garden of the Lord. When we think of those direful effects which sin has produced in the moral world, it is enough to heave our breast and draw tears from our eyes, or, as Thomas Adams puts it in his quaint and forcible way, “He that sees heaven lost, paradise vanished, earth cursed, hell enriched, the world corrupted, all mankind defaced, and all this by one fall, were his tears as deep as a well this would pump them out."

Let us further see in Onesimus, the irrationality of man's departure from his Maker. We may fairly conclude, from what the Apostle states concerning Philemon in the espistle addressed to him, that Onesimus could have no just reason, arising out of the conduct of his master, upon which to justify himself in running away from him. The strain in which Paul speaks of him, is as follows: Hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother." Such a man could not be unkind or despotic in his bearing towards his servants; if he were, he was a great hypocrite, and the Apostle was most certainly mistaken respecting him. But whether Onesimus had reason or not, for his conduct towards his master, this we know for certainty, that man's departure from God is entirely without

reason; he cannot produce the shadow of a reason for his justification in so doing. There is nothing like unkindness or despotism in God. He does everything to woo man, but nothing to alienate him. Where is the man that will dare to blame God for his apostacy? God makes man good and virtuous, but he makes himself evil. He needs no help, except from the devil, to make himself into a demon, or a Nero. Nature will produce her Judases and Jeroboams in abundance, but the grace of God alone can produce the Hezekiahs and the Johns of society. But men have always been disposed to lay the blame of their sins upon something. They have always had their refuges of lies. This is not to be so much wondered at, when we find it so conspicuously displayed in our progenitors. Adam and his wife had their subterfuges ready, their palliations for their sins, when called to an account by their Maker, and so have all their sons and daughters. The woman laid the blame upon the serpent, and the man the blame upon the woman, which was anything but manly of Adam. How very unusual it is to find the sinner acknowledging his sin, with such ingenuousness as did David, when he said to Nathan the prophet, 'I have sinned against the Lord." Tell some they are sinners, and they will very soon tell you they are not. If we succeed in getting an acknowledg ment of sin from some, it will be indirect, and it is sure to consist largely of apologies and palliations. They will tell us of the circumstances in which they were placed when they sinned; of the peculiarity of their physical, moral, and mental constitution, and of the influences brought to bear upon them. These are just so many ways of blaming God for the sins of our life. It is not from these things that actions derive their moral character, but from the will of the actor.

I will conclude this part of the subject with two remarks. The first is this, Onesimus left his master a sinner, and returned to him a saint; but we, through

Adam our representative, left God when we were saints, and must return to Him as sinners, in the way of repentance and faith in Christ. We must return to God as the Prodigal Son did to his father's house, with confessions of our sin and prodigality in our mouths, saying from the very depths of the soul, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." Let us come in this way to God our Heavenly Father, and we shall have the look of compassion, and the sweet kiss of forgiveness from Him. Let us, also, in coming to God as sinners for mercy, remember the words of Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailor, when he asked them what he must do to be saved:

"Not the best deeds that we have done

Can make a wounded conscience whole; Faith is the grace, and faith alone,

That flies to Christ, and saves the soul." The second remark is this: Onesimus was reclaimed from his apostacy; but here let me say, that this is not so with all, but with some only who have apostatized from God. This is a very solemn thought, but no more solemn than true. The Almighty has not told us how many He will save from their moral fugitiveness; but He has plainly marked out the persons whom He will save, and this ought to be sufficient for man. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." If we have these characteristics, the Lord will save us; but if we have not, He will not do so; and if we are not saved, hell will be the aphelion of our apostacy; and once there, we shall find that there is a gulf between God and us never to be bridged What God in His mercy has re

cver.

vealed, is the rule of our conduct, and not those secrets or mysteries which He has left unexplained.

There is a second main thought I I wish to direct attention to, which is this: We have in what the Apostle does for Onesimus, an illustration of what the Lord Jesus has done for sinners, in mediating between them and His heavenly Father. The Apostle, in the epistle before us, acts as a mediator between Philemon and his unfaithful servant, endeavouring thereby to effect a reconciliation between them. This is exactly what Jesus Christ does for sinners; for those who have proved themselves unfaithful to God, and worthy of hell-fire; He acts between Gcd and them in order to bring them to terms of amity. The Apostle John says, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." It is further stated, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." There are a few points of similarity between Paul's mediation and that of Christ's, which we will now notice :

First, let it be observed, that it was through the interference of St. Paul that Onesimus was restored to his master; and so it is through the gracious and merciful interposition of Jesus, that sinners are reinstalled in those great blessings and privileges which they had forfeited by their disloyalty. I do not say that Onesimus miglit not have found his

way back to his master without the mediation of Paul, but this I do say, that apart from the mediation of the Lord Jesus, not one solitary soul out of the vast millions of Adam's posterity could have prevented his moral retrogression, and have worked his way up to God, to heaven, and eternal life. Those impassable barricades which sin had placed between God and man, could never have been removed by the sinner, but let everlasting praise and glory be given to Christ, that He has done this for us, which is put in a very beautiful

way by the Apostle Paul, when he says, "And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; bloting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; and, having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Christ said to Thomas, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Take the following paraphrase upon these words of Christ: "The way without error, the truth without darkness, the life without end. The way in exile, the truth in counsel, the life in reward. Oh, whither shall we go from Thee? Lord, thou hast the words of eternal life. All the word calls us to Christ. Post me, per me, ad me. After me, by me, to me. After me, because I am the way; to me, because I am life." We may well say with Paul, "Christ is all and in all." Christ is made by the

Father, to be to us wisdom, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Take another passage which bespeaks the doom of all those who reject Christ: "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Secondly: The mediation of Paul between Philemon and Onesimus was optional, was disinterested; and so was that of Christ's between His Father in heaven, and the guilty and helpless sinner. He was under no obligation to the sinner to lead Him to assume the office of Mediator, which involves—yes, involves the sublimest results; results which will call forth ceaseless songs of praise in the heavenly world. Christ did not become man's Mediator on contingent grounds; but when He became such, He knew that the results would be most glorious. He knew that all those who had been given to Him by an act of Divine sovereignty from all eternity would be saved as the result of His per

fect work, and become sparkling gems in His diadem for ever. The Apostle, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, speaking of Christ, says, "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Another Apostle speaks of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that was to result from them. But all this on the part of Christ was disinterested, and resulted from His voluntary choice. Hear what He says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Again, He says, "Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me, to do Thy will O God." Christ, then, might have refused to come into the world, and if He had, He could not have been reproached with the neglect of duty, or an oversight of the least obligation to man. He became man's surety out of pure, disinterested love: "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Thirdly: The Apostle, in pleading with Philemon in behalf of his son according to the faith, offers to come between him and any wrong that he might have done, or any debt that he might have contracted; and this is just what Jesus has done in becoming the sinner's substitute. The words of the Apostle are, "If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account." What a fine illustration we have here in the aged Apostle, of what Christ has dore for our redemption. Christ, when He stepped into the sinner's place, He vir tually said to His offended Father, I will be answerable for all his debt, lay all his guilt upon me, and I will bear for him what he is not able to bear for himself. Christ, in taking the sinner's debts, incurred the severest chastenings of His Father's wrath, chastenings which led Him to say, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," and, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

"All ye that pass by to Jesus draw nigh,

To you is it nothing that Jesus should die?

Our ransom and peace, our surety He is, Come see if there ever was sorrow like His. The Lord in the day of His anger did lay, Our sins on the Lamb, and He bore them away;

Our ransom and peace, our surety He is, Come see if there ever was sorrow like His."

Let the poet's feeling be ours, and let us seek to give it a practical embodiment in our daily life.

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine,

my

Demands my soul, my life, all." WILLIAM ALNWICK.

Harmer Hill, Salop.

PEACE.

PEACE ranks high in the scale of wordly blessings. Without peace there can be no happiness, no solid enjoyment. There is no happiness to the man whose soul is filled with the tumult of contending passions, whose mind is oppressed with fear or distracted with doubt. There is no comfort in the family where strife and confusion prevail, where filial reverence and parental rule are unknown. There is no prosperity in the state which is torn with intestine faction, where the several orders are mutually opposing. "If a kingdom be divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand." This blessing of peace, so important, and so intimately connected with human happiness, was the object of Christ's mission to confer. He was predicted to the fathers," as 66 the Prince

of Peace," and peace was the blessing He bequeathed to His disciples when about to leave the scene of His sufferings.

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Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you."

JESUS GIVES PEACE.

Scripture asserts, observation confirms. When we cast our eyes abroad and look through society we see iniquity abounding, vice rampant, men defying the heavens and suffering in consequence.

The evils of life, death, and disease, war and pestilence, mildew and blight, are obviously the result of transgression. Evil cannot spring from the ground. There cannot be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it.

The question is therefore pressed on our attention, How are we to be saved from sin and its dismal consequences? How are we to be delivered from death and hell? This is a question of great, of paramount importance, a question human intellect never can answer. Without Divine direction we wander in the mazes of error and at last go down by the sides of the pit. Without light from " on high," we are always disposed to depend on works of the law for acceptance with God. Hence has arisen the idolatry of both pagan and papal lands. The rites and ceremonies, the fastings, the pilgrimages, and prayers of paga nism and popery, are but so many expedients which human reason blindly suggests for peace with God. In vain such devices. In order that man be restored to the Divine favour there must be an atonement made for transgression. Without shedding of blood there is no remission." Peace with God can never be had till His justice be satisfied, His law magnified, and made honourable. This work we never can accomplish. Finite beings; we never can pay an infinite debt, we never can expiate an infinite offence. Though we offer the fruit of the womb for the sin of the soul, we are still debtors to justice and heirs of hell: "by deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." What man can never accomplish, Christ performs. He is our peace." He took away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. By His cross He took away the middle wall of partition, so making peace. He bore our sins and carried our sorrows, thus bringing life and immortality to light. When we accept Him as all our salva

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