or of God's "giving up to their own heart's lusts those who will not hear His voice ?" Or, lastly, when I read in the twenty-fifth verse, "He that watereth shall be watered himself," may I not think of that doing of good and looking only to reward in heaven which He encouraged who inspired the words, "God is not unrighteous, that He will forget your works and labour that proceedeth of love; which love ye have shewed for His name's sake, who have ministered to the saints, and yet do minister."

We repeat, that if a man is able thus to read the Book of Proverbs and to profit by doing so, we shall not dispute with him, but rather rejoice that his moral and spiritual vision is so enlightened as to penetrate into the highest meaning of which the words of inspiration are susceptible. But we consider the theory that the Book of Proverbs is an educational one, and intended for the less advanced, to be at once more true and more in accordance with the compassionate love of Almighty God for His weak and erring creatures. Only let this caution be fully borne in mind. Though we have spoken

as we have done of the book and its contents,
we do not wish men to rest satisfied with
any motives but the highest which their
redeemed nature, sanctified and aided by
the Holy Spirit, is capable of entertaining;
we do not bid them be contented with any
standard short of the measure of the stature
of the fulness of Christ. Though we have
urged thankfulness for what is imperfect,
and considered even that to exist by God's
appointment and permission, we have en-
couraged men to imitate the spirit of that
ancient general, "who held that he had
done nothing so long as anything remained
to be done." This was what the American
poet shadowed forth in the significant word,
"Excelsior." This was what the Apostle
had before him when he said, "Not as
though I had already attained, either were
already perfect, but I press forward." This
is what we pray for, when we beseech God
to "cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by
the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, that
we may perfectly love Him, and worthily
magnify His holy Name, through Christ
our Lord.
Amen."

"

Tracts for the Christian Seasons.

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

WE

THE GREAT CHANGE.

E are told by St. Paul that our Lord Jesus Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." This, it need hardly be said, will be at the great day of His appearing. Now it is just the very change here spoken of that is so constantly set before Christians in the New Testament as the great object of their keenest hopes and most ardent longings. For when Christians are spoken of as looking for, hoping for, waiting for the second glorious coming of their Lord, it is plain that this is because they hope, when He comes, to awake up after His likeness; for "we know," as St. John says, “that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him as No. 76. THIRD SERIES.

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He is." I much fear that our faith is so dim that this great and glorious change, which was to the saints of old the very spring of joy in all their weariness and sadness here below, is to us a thing but little thought of, and but little hoped for. Perhaps, if we meditate upon it for a while now, and try to gather from Holy Scripture what we may concerning it, we may be able more heartily to long for its fulfilment. There is another thing, too, which will help us, and that is to feel the present vileness of that which is to be changed. It is "this vile"-this poor, worthless"body" for which such wondrous things are in store. And when we regard the present state of the body, whether in its bearing upon the spirit, as the source of so much sin and misery, or simply in itself, as so weak and helpless, and ofttimes so full of pain and suffering, surely it must be a comforting thought to know that Christ is coming to "change this vile body." Ye who know what it is to wrestle with the strong and subtle temptations of the flesh, who have tasted the remorse of bitter falls,

and mourned over that sad law of your still struggling being, that when you would do good evil is present with you; ye who know as who that has striven to follow Christ knows not?) how this wretched body, with its active promptings to evil, and its dead weight of sloth and self-indulgent idleness, is evermore thwarting, and hindering, all good impulses-in a word, how the flesh is ever lusting against the Spirit; ye must sometimes have felt how blessed a thing it would be to have this "vile body" changed; ye must have sometimes known what it is to cry, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" ye must have sometimes longed for the time when ye will cast off and leave behind you for ever all that is earthly, and impure, all that now drags you down and keeps you so far from your Saviour and from heaven. And ye, too, who have drunk deeply of the cup of bodily suffering, ye can tell something of the bliss and the glory of the change ye have learnt to long for. Ye have had hours when ye would have given all ye could to leave this "vile body," and to