the believer resides one master-principle, by which all its motions are controlled and compelled to work together to one end. His will to glorify God is steadfast, though he may not, indeed cannot, force sensitive consciousness thereof into every definite act. Its influence becomes almost instinctive, like a gentleman's sense of what is due to himself. He is courteous to ladies, for example, not by virtue of a distinct determination in each instance to be so, nor with special reference to the code of politeness, but because to be thus courteous is his second nature. His gentlemanly feeling is none the less effective because it is half involuntary, so the Christian's desire to please God is none the less powerfal because it is hidden like the mainspring of a watch, in obedience to which the smallest hand travels; though, if we could imagine the watch alive, the hand might not recognise specifically in every tick the force that actuated it. The tone of Mr. Murray's remarks scarcely gives sufficient emphasis to the perpetual government, the continuous secret impulse of regard for God's glory; but he approaches more closely to the full height of his subject when he says, "Be so good that you shall never be able to appear as good as you are. Do not deem this charge strange. Holiness can never perfectly express itself in the flesh. It is beyond and above mortal expression. It needs heaven, it needs the spiritualized form and feature, it needs the celestial sphere of duty and life, it needs God's presence, it needs the employment of the skies, before it can ever be fully seen."

The distinguishing characteristic of Mr. Tyng is his neatness of outline and division. A solitary specimen must fail to do justice to the invariable wholeness and unity of his sermons; for the impression is produced not by the peculiar excellence of any one arrangement, but by the repetition of this harmony throughout his seven sermons. However, here is one skeleton :-Text, Ecclesiastes viii. 8: "There is no discharge in that war."

Introduction: "The soldier's discharge is his honourable dismissal from service."

Subject: "The Christian life and the Christian's life allegiance."

I. "So RUNS THE SUMMONS:" it is to "irrevocable self-consecration." 1. "So runs the summons of the Divine law." Hence, one offence is damnation.

2. "The echo in the Gospel has the same words for its sign and expression."

II. "SO GLADLY RESPONDS THE SOLDIER."

1. "Gratitude inspires consecration.”

2. "Hope expects coronation!"

III. "SO REQUIRES THE SERVICE."

1. 66

First of all, we have the conflict with evil about us."

2. "But beyond that there is the conquest of sin in thine own soul.” There is a fanciful beauty about a new year's sermon of his, entitled, "The Song of the Day," with the text, "Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice." It opens with a brief description of the melody of sunrise and sunset, then continues:

"But day is more than the revolution of the earth upon its own axis. It is the turning away of the earth from the sun, and its return after the

revolution to the beams of its shining. But it defines and designates longer periods and other worlds. It is the expression in Scripture for ages and dispensations in their slow movements and their gradual development of Divine glory; and of these it is equally true as with natural days, that however much of contradiction and dissension, of trial and toil, of waiting and impatience, may mar the testimony of the intervening hours, dawn and decline do respond to one another in the song of the Lord, as do the seraphim and cherubim on high. The dispensation begins with God, it ends with God; it is heralded by song, it ends with a full burst of triumphant gladness. God gives a clear note at the first, which is carried through all the discords of history, and is vindicated at the close by the revelation of a higher harmony than man's wisdom or taste could have divined.

"This is the thought with which I welcome the new year: 'the outgoings of the morning and the evening rejoice.' It will be easy to trace this one truth-(1) through the history of our race; (2) through the records of the Christian Church; (3) in the spiritual life of each individual made a partaker of Divine riches."

This idea is worked out with sustained ingenuity and directness of aim. Mr. Tyng always follows a "bee line," from which no temptation can induce him to deviate one hair's breadth;-an admirable quality, rendering his discourses compact, "easy to be understood" and remembered. Many preachers might learn profitably from Mr. Tyng to cultivate singleness of design and effect.

One discourse in Mr. Dickinson's collection stands like Saul among the Israelites. Its author is the Rev. T. M. Eddy, D.D., a well-known minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Apparently it was delivered before some assembly of his brethren. To convey an adequate notion of its ability would necessitate the copying of the entire sermon. We must content ourselves, however, with a sketch and some extracts. It is based upon John xiv. 12: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father." He commences with an allusion to the temptation to regard such utterances of our Lord as mere rhetoric, on account of the very fulness of promise they involve. To counteract that it is only requisite to remember who spoke them, and when-" Christ, when the shadows of Gethsemane and Calvary were already upon His spirit." He continues: "Self-respect will not permit me to adopt a line of criticism which minifies this statement, and seeks to escape difficulty by throwing out of the comparison the great works of the Lord. He did them-all that are written in the books, and many which are not; He did them, and they were clearly miraculous. He did them, or the sacred Book is deceptive. Let us be frank, and concede that there is no credence of the Gospels without faith in miracles wrought. We may as well squarely accept that, for we are driven to disgraceful expedients if we deny it. Jesus wrought miracles during the days of His incarnate ministry, and the record must float them or sink. For one, I am utterly sick unto loathing of timid attempts to present the Gospels eliminated of their supernatural character. They are as very shams as ever were uttered by a falsehood-monger if they do not record true 2 A

VOL. XXII.-FIFTH SERIES.

miracles wrought by our Saviour. And I repeat, the Book must float them or sink. We have no revelation, or miracles were wrought."

Miracles, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, were wrought in the earliest ages of the Church. These ceased, "and I think for one or two reasons. First, there comes a time when evidence in its outward form is made up. God is not to be for ever kept in the witness-box with uplifted hand. The Divine Being is not to be kept for ever, at the bidding of human curiosity, filing His affidavit to the truth of the Gospel of His Son. There comes a day when the testimony is in, and when the case is given for the reception or rejection of mankind. Then there must be no sudden jar to the apparent course of nature. Men are not permitted to play at will upon the keys of Cosmos. Only the Divine hand may do that." Another reason is now, "the sphere of achievement is the spiritual -not the material.... Power to move men, to sway souls; power, such as is hid in God's palm: this is the heritage of disciples from their crowned Mediator, and by it believers are to accomplish greater works than the material miracles of the incarnation."

Dr. Eddy then states his subject to be "the idea of Christian achievement; its field, agencies, and results."

I." First, we must go into the realm of mind."-Then follows an eloquent passage as to the dominion of mind over the material, the wondrous discoveries and generalizations of science. "But it will not see God. It sees effects, but is too often blind to cause; sees law, but ignores a free, intelligent Lawgiver; sees sin, but not a Saviour or a salvation....Somehow, this must be changed; the spell upon his faculties must be broken; the kingdom of soul must be enlightened. How ?...Force is out of the question....The grand consummation of Christianity is not wrought until every thought—and thought is the kingliest thing in the universe, and the human thought is only below the Divine-is brought into captivity to Jesus. Until that is done the Gospel has not accomplished its work. Now, then, if there is any work God's Church can do toward that; if it can go out into the gloom of the darkened understanding; if it has words to say which shall chase its error and bring in truth; if it can take that thought, and bring it willingly to the feet of Christ, is not that something greater than healing withered arms, quieting a turbulent lake, or healing a paralytic ?

"Again, we must go into the dominion of the will."-Will “ can resist God. He says, 'Thou shalt.' It can answer back, 'Nay, but I will not.' I can respond, 'Not now,' or Never,' to His call. I can do that, so can you. Alas! that we have done it. God forgive us ! God forgive us!... When Jesus spoke to the barren fig-tree, it had no power to resist; when He commanded the waves, they had no choice—they must be still; when He spoke to the dead body of Lazarus, it must come forth; but the living Lazarus could have cursed Him to His face. The mandate of Christ could compel the dead Lazarus to rise, but could not compel the faith and love of the living Lazarus. And somehow this will, usually on the wrong side, must be reached, must be persuaded to make its decision for Christ. And if there is any power in our Gospel to do that, is it not a greater thing, and a grander thing, than is putting obedience on the waves of the sea,-than is controlling ethereal forces? I think so. I had rather do it, anyhow."

A similiar line of argument is adopted with regard to "the empire of revolted affections ;" and, finally, it is observed that "the Master sends us with this Gospel into the midst of unfriendly institutions, which are organized against it.”

II. Reluctantly we omit paragraphs we had marked for quotation in Dr. Eddy's second division. The agencies he specifies are faith—i. e., faith in a personal Saviour, the story of the Cross, the Holy Ghost. One brief extract we are fain to give :-"What is the reason that doubt cuts the sinews of exertion? Atheism can never make a hero. It can make a dogged man, who will stand up and be pounded, stolidly enduring, but it won't make a hero. A man must have faith in something-in his work, in his mission, in God, in the power that he wields,-if he is to do anything for humanity."

III. “Let us study, in part, the results of Christian achievement, as compared with those of material miracle."—Mark what Charity has done. A sentence or two must suffice on this head. "Jesus healed a few blind; Christian beneficence gathers them in asylums by thousands. Jesus healed a few deaf and dumb; Christian charity gathers them almost by myriads, and teaches them. Jesus took a few little children in His arms, and blessed them, and the world has never yet ceased talking about it; but Christianity has been gathering them by thousands, and starting them up the rainbow-arch to the mercy-seat, and to the temple not made with hands!" But "the material miracles of Christ were limited, and not reproductive. Christian achievement is practically unlimited, and is ordained to be divinely reproductive. Let me illustrate. The miracle of the healing of blind Bartimæus was a wonderful one. There he sat by the wayside: the Master came and touched his sightless eyeballs to light. It was a great thing; but that did not heal any other blind man. Bartimeus did not take the healing touch in his fingers. It was one blind man cured, and not another.... Wesley saved, meant a brand plucked from the burning -meant one soul saved, one man changed from a Church-bigot to a Christian hero-all that and more. It means a holy fire kindled in England and Ireland, and South and Western Africa, and America, India, China, and Japan. What does it mean? It means the world belted to-day with the song of

'Jesu, Lover of my soul,

Let me to Thy bosom fly.'

What does it mean? It means a line of sentinels around the world, keeping the tryst of warm, glowing Evangelism. Only one conversion, say you? Ay, God has made through it humanity to clasp hands, and hearts to touch each other; glory to His name! One triumph of Christian achievement means reproduction, immortality of influence.

"But again, there are works of an absolutely higher order than material miracles, for, say you, 'I cannot open the eyes of the blind. My poor little girl comes and stands by my side, and lifts up her hand, and passes it over my hair and down my garments, and then says, “O, Papa ! I am sorry I cannot see you." I cannot do anything for her; she is blind-stone blind, and I cannot heal her.' No; God has not given you that power; but I will tell you what you can do. There, by the wayside, is a poor soul, blinded by sin, with a dark, dark soul, stretching forth its

empty basket for alms. You can take that soul to Him, into His light, and bid him behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,' and as he looks, he lives. Which is the grander achievement,opening your dear child's eyes on your own face, or turning the gaze of that stone-blind sinner on Christ? Your poor boy carries in an almost empty sleeve, a withered, shrunken arm. Paralysed, it hangs motionless and helpless. You tell him to stretch it out; he cannot do it. You make the attempt to restore the flesh, and to give elasticity to the sinews; but there hang those shrivelled, helpless fingers. The mother never washed them that she did not baptize them with her tears! You cannot straighten them. No; but you can teach the boy, in his sin, to reach out the spirithand, and clutch the Infinite; to lay hold on One mighty to save, and hold on there, even in his wrestling, crying,

'In vain Thou strugglest to get free,

I never will unloose my hold!
Art Thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold;
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,

Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.'

And clutching, holding there, until his glad soul sings out,

"Tis Love! 'tis Love! Thou diedst for me!

I hear Thy whisper in my heart;

The morning breaks, the shadows flee,

Pure, universal Love Thou art.'

And you can send him over his Jabbok to find the first real Sunrise that he ever knew. Which is the greater of the two?"

One more extract:

"I measure the results by their duration.-The miracle came and went; the blind eye was opened, but by and by flattened with age, and at last went into the darkness of death. The withered arm was healed; but it again became rigid, and turned to dust. The sea that was quieted by the voice of Christ, when again the winds came in unchained fury, rolled as madly, and tossed as desperately, as before. But the Christian achiever works on mind, and mind is immortal as God. The Christian achiever works on heart; and a grand old Hebrew poet said, ' Your heart shall live for ever.' We work in colours that shall be as lasting as eternity. We work in, with fingers of holy faith and Divine achievement, colours which shall only brighten as the ages go by."

An earnest exhortation to his ministerial brethren to attempt these "greater works" is added-an exhortation to use to their utmost the power of the "grand theology we hold; " of "the religious press;" of "Christian song;" of womanhood and of faith. The preacher closes with an impassioned prayer for an immediate outpouring of the Holy Ghost.

The high excellence of Dr. Eddy's discourse must form our excuse for the number and length of our transcripts from it. That pulpit has not grown effete from which such voices can issue. Our survey of American preaching from the platform of Mr. Dickinson's volume, imperfect as it necessarily is, causes gratitude to the Head of the Church, that sermons,