on such a plea? The answer would be that of Paul to the Corinthian revilers: "If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant." If men will not know the law that is within their reach, they must take the penalty.

Men can not hold their own unless they hold it legally. To make a contract that can be enforced, a deed that will convey title, or a will that will protect widows and orphans, men must do it according to law. No matter how sincere the parties may be, nor how much better their own way may appear, they must act legally, or not at all. If they do not know, "the law is open, and there are deputies."

This rule holds in religion. For the instruction and the salvation of men, the ministry and the Church are, to a degree, responsible. But not to the extent that scoffers suppose. The world has a responsibility in this matter as well as the Church. It is not the duty of the ministry to track cavilers around the globe, satisfy all their scruples, answer all their quibbles, and make truth clear to those who will not come to the light lest they should be reproved. If one class must take heed, how they preach, the other must take heed how they hear. On the unfaithful watchman the blood of souls will. be found; but a faithful minister may say, "I am 99 of the blood of all men.' pure When all that reason and grace demands is done, those that are ignorant must be ignorant.

No other and no higher proof can be given of God's existence and sovereignty than are found in nature and revelation. If a man has studied these

honestly and fairly, he must remain ignorant if he is not convinced. The same is true of the class that reject the system of grace in the Gospel. Such a system all find who read the Word of God. And men who wish to hold to the Bible, and yet reject what it teaches, have to alter it. Men who disbelieve the incarnation, find fault. with St. Luke. Those who deny the deity of the Saviour, want a new translation of the first chapter of John. Those who deny endless punishment, are troubled with the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. If the system of grace held by the Church is not taught in the Bible, it can not be taught. A new revelation, expressly given,, could not teach it. If men can dispose of the proof that revelation present, they could dispose of more. If they can alter, and make meaningless the words of Holy Writ, they could, in like manner, dispose of a new revelation.

Saul of Tarsus was, probably, as honest an enemy of the Gospel as ever existed. He affirms that all he did as a persecutor was done through ignorance and unbelief. Yet he regarded his ignorance as a crime. He calls himself a blasphemer-unfit for the ministry-the chief of sinners-not worthy to be an Apostle, because he persecuted the Church. There was light in the world, and he ought to have seen. The Jews did not know the Son of God. Paul says, "Had they have known him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." But did their ignorance save them from the doom pronounced by their King, whom they crucified? The Jews demanded a sign; pretending to want evidence that Jesus was the Mes

siah; promising to believe, if a genuine miracle by him was wrought. They were not satisfied, they said, with any thing he had done. They looked on the miracles he wrought on the sea and the land, on the dead and on demons, on the sick and in nature, and they were still ignorant, these miracles not convincing them. A man well known to the Jews was taken sick and died. He was laid in a tomb, in the presence of his friends, and remained in the grave four days. In that hot and sultry clime the work of corruption soon began. The Saviour came from Jerusalem to the house where the dead man had lived. In the presence of neighbors and kindred, the voice of the Son of God called the dead from the tomb, bound hand and foot, with his grave-clothes on. The foes of Christ ate, drank, and talked with him. To deny the reality of this miracle, no one dared. To ascribe it to the devil, no one ventured. The bitter enemies of Christ, in council, with the high priest at their head, admitted that "an open and noted miracle had been wrought," and that no one "could deny it." They added, "if we let him alone, all men will believe on him." They did not accept Christ because of this miracle which he wrought; they did not intend to. From the grave of Lazarus they went to the hill of evil council, to plot the death of Jesus, to make the bargain with Judas, and send the Saviour to Calvary. Their guilt was the guilt of ignorance; they did not "know the Prince of Life," because they rejected the evidence that would have led them to believe. God puts responsibility where it belongs. There is a limit to all labor and all warning. Noah

did his duty toward the race, and then entered the ark to escape the flood. Abraham pleaded for Sodom, and then turned and offered his evening sacrifice for his own household. Jesus gave ample warning to Jerusalem, wept over its obduracy, and left it to its fate. Paul wept and warned for the space of three years, and could then say, "I am pure of the blood of all men." The Word of God makes ignorance a crime. Jesus was the great witness, and testified to the truth. God sent him, and commanded men to hear and believe on the Son. So great was the guilt of rejecting him, so wicked and unreasonable was unbelief, that on all such rejecters the "wrath of God shall abide." The declaration of Jehovah is, "If thou art wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it."

XXXIV.-MOUNT HERMON; OR, CHRISTIAN
UNION.

"One family, we dwell in him,

One church above, beneath,

Though now divided by the stream,

The narrow stream of death.

"One army of the living God,

To his command we bow;

Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now."

LOCATED about fifty miles from the Sea of Galilee is the mountain of Hermon. It is celebrated for its perpetual dews, which are thus explained:-The Sea of Galilee sends forth a continuous vapor. This is wafted northward by the wind. The vapor, coming in contact with the snow-crowned summit of Hermon, is condensed, and flows down the sides in perpetual supplies of moisture. From May to August the dews fall in showers. The tent of the traveler will be drenched. The great plain of Palestine is not far from this mountain, on which great battles have been fought, and the banners of all nations have been wet with Hermon's dew. Hermon is rendered poetically immortal by the sweet psalmist of Israel. He makes it a type of the blessedness of brotherly love: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the