Its proportions may be more regular, its foliage shade a area; but it bears only the fruit after its kind. Its own determine what elements it shall take up, and the going on in every branch decides what fruits it sha There is one way, and only one way, in which the prod be made wholly different; and that is by grafting from another tree into the organism, and so setting controlling forces at work in the laboratory. Do that, a may bloom on one branch, purple plums and golden p hang on contiguous boughs, and apple and peach ma side by side. And by similar processes must the hum be made to yield the higher products of the gospel, if tl hang from the boughs of its life. There is this differenc ever; that, whereas each new and differing product mus of a specific graft in the nursery, the same infusion of t and vital force into the soul flows out in all the branche turing all forms of precious fruit,—" love, joy, peace, lo fering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temper warm affections, resolute purpose, generous deeds, rev for the noble, pity for sufferers, prayer for the wayward, for wrongs, enthusiasm for Christ.

The mingling of races, where the vitality of two di nations is interchanged, marks always the birth of a new zation, and one that might otherwise have been sough waited for in vain. The sluggish blood of the east leaps vitalized by contact with the life of a more ardent people the most stupid tribe from tropical Africa, unquickened b forces of a strong and intense civilization acting from wi

nopes waste, notning can content or relieve it out a re hand. When the plans of life succeed, when each n ing dawns upon a fresh joy, when heaven smiles in th the sun and drops benedictions from all the stars, whe ties are kept at bay, and lips distil compliments, and h cumulate upon us,-then we talk perhaps of the ben natural order, and glorify law, and praise human skill, over our foresight,and feel we have no great need that come near us. But when great perils impend, and our w are thwarted, and our possessions drop away from us, a lips are dumb, and trusted hearts grow treacherous, and of nature is like a massive chariot with scythes h axles cutting down our treasures as it rushes by ;-wh rounding forces are laying life desolate without appa punction or emotion,-blind to our tears and deaf t wailing, then the blasted and quivering soul cries heart, and yearns for a bosom on which the aching te find a soothing.

And especially when the heart reproaches itself for when the Law thunders condemnation; when the s to find itself guilty, desolate and astray; when it feels bution is on its track and the earth has no refuge for the passions wake and ply all their enginery as if to science by storm; when temptation comes every ho fresher and larger bribe; when the public virtue falls the integrity of trusted men fails them; when the ret a wretched life sickens the dying transgressor, and a legal obedience seems only a tattered garment falling a a selfish soul;-then what but the prompt mercy of

and Infinite Redeemer can avail? Will you talk to such a of magnetizing itself, when its very limbs are torpid? Wil point its fears to Law when Law is only Mount Sinai qu with thunders? Will you bid it submit like a stoical ph pher, when its deepest and strongest instincts are leaping to deliverance? Will you offer it a subtle and icy philosophy it pleads for a simple word of love and the uplifting streng a Father's arm? None of these things can satisfy; they mock at its necessities, and reproach while they profess to One word only can bring peace and impart satisfaction ;that is the sentence of the last Jewish prophet,-" Behold Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!" then while the hearer looks and listens He himself draws to say," Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy la and I will give you rest.” "Lo I am with you alway."

The character, too, which grows up under the tuition of f and matures in the sunshine of this conscious presence of Ch is better as well as surer. The spirit of an amiable woma beautiful; the integrity of a strong man is impressive; a mo walking affectionate and queenly among her children, is a s for an artist's skili; and the heroism of a great patriot is wrou into an epic whose grand music goes sounding down the a But if the amiable woman lack heavenly love, her grace be only inherited taste or fashionable etiquette; and if the str man's integrity wants the basis of religious conviction, it go crashing down beneath the next fierce pressure. The m er's royal robes drop from her when we perceive that her h is prayerless, and her children are taught no trust in a Heave Parent; and the patriot keeps but half our reverence when know that his death was no token of fidelity to God. A pu tilious legality is far below an obedient love; a constrained p priety is not half so welcome as a tear that proclaims the thoro repentance of a prodigal. Tithes of mint and anise and cu min are less than one deep gush of affection, making the he over toward a personal Christ. The Magdalen's box ointment was worth a thousand times more than the Pharise anxiety for the moral reputation of his house; and Thoma "My Lord and my God," mounts in its character far above

run

his prudent questioning lest he should be persuaded too soon into the belief that his Master had fulfilled the prophecy of his resurrection. From the humility of a broken heart there springs up the highest nobility of goodness, as the Gloria in Excelsis is never so magnificent as when it bursts up from the orchestra just now wailing out the miserere. The virtue that comes of self-culture and the regulation of the passions may have symmetry and beauty;-that which flows out from the inspiration given to the soul by Christ has warmth and life and motion. One is like the statue of the Venus de Medici, standing century after century in the Floretine gallery to challenge admiration; the other is seen in such daily ministries as those of Florence Nightingale among the wounded soldiers of the Crimea, ambitious only to soothe suffering, and finding her highest reward in the smile of peace which answered her effort when she pointed the dimmed eyes of the dying to Calvary.

4. The practical acceptance of this sentiment is the highest guaranty of a sound theology.

Theology begins its method wrongly when this idea of God's direct and constant contact with the human soul is not laid at its basis. Religion has no vitality, and so no valuable truth, when this is denied or ignored. It is only a set of dry dogmas,—a skeleton system, without nerves or blood, and in which all the muscles are either shrunken or ossified. He who, on the other hand, commences his system of doctrine by putting this great thought into the centre as the nucleus around which all other truths are to be arranged in their order, is not likely to go widely astray. Such a man has one of the highest qualifications for the study of religious truth,—that is, a heart quick with affection, reverential with wondering gratitude, and teachable in its simple trust. Such a spirit as this wins its way where philosophy is bewildered, and sees the morning kindle while irreverent science is searching vainly for a star. Where speculation stumbles love interprets; and many a text of scripture or a hard sentence of Providence that defies investigation gives up its meaning to prayer. For God has "hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes."

Besides, he who accepts this perpetual presence and grace of

Christ, as the end and significance of all religious doctrine, have a special reason for loving and longing for the truth. him each truth will seem a cup with which this living wa to be dipped from the fountain and carried to the spi lips; and so the more clearly the truth is seen the readily can it be used;—the more full our apprehension of it be the larger is the quantity which it holds. As souls seel the water of life, so will they prize the channels offered by along which the tide may pour. True doctrine is an unfa aqueduct; false sentiment is a broken cistern; it is the th spirit, coming often to drink, that will soonest distrust the tered vessel.

And by this test the relative importance of errors is t determined. The worst heresies,-those that most need ing down and hounding out of the world, are those that off the soul from the divine fountain, that palsy its spiritual ulties, that make its higher life stagnate, that cheat its pulse vigor, that take God away from its consciousness, that beg false independence, that drive the spirit out of its appoi orbit, and leave it to moral orphanage. Whether these er be of those put under ban or of those that keep orthodox c pany, they work the chief disasters in the theology of the wo And that is the divinest sentiment that most abounds in nu tious juices;—that feeds the soul without killing its hunger, t allows God all majesty and yet brings him closest the heart, t enables us to whisper our prayers into his very ear, to beh him putting his seal on every task, to realize that he touches soul at every point, and so makes all life the outgrowth of influence, and all work to be done as under our great Taskm ter's eye. That theology is the soundest which, year after ye in many times and lands, on many classes of souls, brings su attestations, stimulates such forces, and matures such fruit. 1 heterodoxy that vitalizes is truer than the orthodoxy t benumbs.

5. The hearty reception of this sentiment will give to t soul courage and to effort effective power.

He who knows most of the world has usually least faith its redemption; they who carry with them most of this sacr