they see their cherished doctrine, so peremptorily insist n the word of God-that the blood of Christ cleanses fr in and that there is no other name given under heav ng men whereby we can be saved-all swept away becau v German philosophers of the nineteenth century contrad e doctrines without a fact to sustain their bare assumption shall those who have for twenty, forty, sixty years, liv lives in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God, ar wn all the sweets and joys of a spiritual religion which ga a communion with God through Jesus Christ-shall tho have felt the utter helplessness of their bondage to s have yearned for deliverance from its power, and found r f, no hope but in Christ-all yield the point at last, and se holy religion sunk into hopeless oblivion, and the plac re it stood sown with salt from the hand of a cold, stupi rless philosophy? Shall Christians be so cheated by infide osophers as to adopt and cherish skepticism under the nam profession of religion revised and improved-and admit tha sacred records on which they have leaned, are mere legend sorted and sifted by men who never felt their power-and Jesus of Nazareth was a mere man and God a creature o imagination? O, no, no! These marks are too transparen onceal the infidel features that lurk beneath them. These sions will have their day, but the foundation of God stand

sure.

hese efforts of the adversary to overthrow the church of ist are uncomfortable but will not prove fatal to its interests.

skepticism no facts, FACTS, can be found, and no reasonabl tures formed, which damage the testimony of the evang

3. That the infallable reason of those men who try the God by their own inspiration is like those who testified Christ at his arrest-though all testify, yet their testim not agree.

4. That no human ingenuity is able to cope with the which Christ's miracles furnish that he was divine, sin men do not, and dare not confess the possibility of mira der any circumstances so long as they deny that Christ miracles. This is scarcely less than a confession that if lous power could prove the divinity of any being, Christ miracles proved himself divine.

5. It shows how low a standard of morals, and wh strous conceptions of God, can satisfy the demands of phy, when in the same chapter a philosopher can talk o and the apostles as practising deception on the mult maintain a power over them, and yet bear testimony to t tles as the best of men and "demigods," and say of "He will never be surpassed," and "between thee a there will no longer be any distinction."

h. The gift of Graham some years since in New York for a si ct was hailed with high satisfaction, and now Mr. Ely of the puts down $10,000 as a basis for a Christian Lectureship, and nes is very properly selected to deliver the first course. No d well be found whose words promise more weight than do t Ir. Barnes, and on no branch of the great general topic whose ion is contemplated, would he find a field of inquiry to which ies and his habits of mind are more admirably adapted. The been often traversed by many able and original thinkers, so e is little to be said that is really new. But the need of restatin h forms the evidences upon which the Christian revelation makes eal to our judgment and faith is constant, strong and pressing. are old foes that are met they wear new faces; and if they at old arguments they aim to utter them in a novel and taking

r. Barnes's volume is one of solid worth. He is a calm, clear er; his style is plain and simple, but his thought is weighty; seld iant, he is eminently convincing; rarely irradiating a topic by of genius, he does not often leave it till his analysis has reac core and his ample statement has fairly spread it before us; seld ying his point by means of taking epigrams or a rhetorical char plans his campaign with a wary eye and a cool brain, captures a f ation by siege and steady advances, and conquers by the use of -ed forces and assaults in detail. Candid, thoughtful, serious, nev erted by any side issue, keeping his end always in sight, putting ified courtesy into his words and an oaken strength into his arg ts, patient as though sure of his ground and persistent as though nt that nothing should hinder him from reaching his goal,he has su d a large amount of material which perplexed minds may use ding up within themselves an intelligent and well fortified fait from which the preacher may draw often and freely in giving for he appeals with which he would win the understandings and hear is hearers.

ARTICLE I.-THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING, AS PARED WITH THAT OF RECEIVING.

There is a good surely in receiving, if it be with g and meekness; but there is a greater good in giving, wisely and heartily. There is a choice between good as also between evil things. If a lesser good is preferred to er, that good becomes relatively an evil, and the choice a sin. Or if an alternative of evils is presented, the les comes a good comparatively, and the choice of it—a virtu say evils-and not sins! An alternative of sins is in able. Where but two possible courses or choices are bef both of them cannot be sinful.

right spirit,

Receiving, then, is a good, if it be in the not preferred to the greater good of giving. We gain w give properly; we lose what we withhold selfishly. It he who lays up for self, but he who lays out for Christ a poor, that becomes truly rich! The worldly man say more blessed to get than to give; but the good man say more blessed to give than to gain. With the one, gain is ness; with the other, godliness is great gain! But Ch tled this question when he said-it is more blessed to giv to receive.

We shall not undertake to prove this truth. We assume

1

e need not name here the trials that come often of large rece and large possession; the anxieties and perplexities, tread s friendships and trembling forebodings; but these nev into the experiences of the benevolent and self-sacrifici e could refer to another experience at life's close, when hond ghts come, and just reflections throng. Which will se greater good then, at the sunset of earthly things, a life ving and accumulation, or of noble disinterested givin the thought at that hour that we had done what we could f st, and those for whom he died, how much happier, sweete er, than ever comes of the recollection of what we had r ed or possessed on earth!

The principle of giving is affirmed also in nature, not le in experience. We ask, is it more natural for us to be give receivers? We use the word in a good sense. Benevolen ds with true naturc, right nature, upright nature,—as Go ed it, and not as man has perverted it. God made ma ght, in his own image, to be a benefactor to others, not les a beneficiary from his own hand. God is love. Giving accordance with his own infinite nature. And his offspring made to be like him in this. Receiving is simply the ne ty of nature; giving the grand law of nature. We wer to be a providence to others. Our welfare consists in doas we were made to do. Selfishness is an unnatural thing a perversion of nature. We were made for usefulness and terestedness. The selfish man is a miserable man. He is