"Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?" The question falls on the ear of universal mind, and produces no response; the challenge rings through the creation, and no one accepts it. "No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon." We refer this mystery not to the Creator's intention, but to the creature's incapacity. His glory is not in concealing, but in manifesting. Concealment arises not from any effort on his part, but from the necessary limitation of finite intellect. The deep purposes of the Infinite can never be unsealed and deciphered by the finite. "His judgments are a great deep." Secondly. Another thought suggested, concerning its mystery, is, that it is frequently the source of great mental distress. "I wept much," says John, "because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.” The most earnest thinkers, in all ages, have shed many tears in wrestling with some of the dark problems of God's government. This mystery, however, is an inestimable means of spiritual discipline: it soberizes-humbles-stimulates.

III. THAT THE MYSTERY OF THIS PLAN IS TO BE EXPOUNDED

BY CHRIST. "And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." Both the meaning of the figures employed, and the statements in the succeeding verses, make it evident that the reference is here to Christ. He, indeed, is the Revealer of God's plans-the LOGOS. He discloses the Eternal purposes in various ways. (1) In his creative acts. "All things were created by him." Creation is a bursting of one of the seals of that book, and a publication of some of its contents. Stars, suns, and systems, are but the palpable forms or diagrams of Infinite ideas. (2) In his redemptive operations. By his personal history on this earth eighteen centuries ago, and his spiritual agency here from Adam to that period, and from that period, in a higher form, to this hour, he burst other

seals, and brought to light some "deep things" of the Eternal mind. (3) In his judicative conduct. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto his Son. In the last day what new disclosures will be made!

Weep not," then, my perplexed friend, on account of the mysteries that surround thee: the Redeemer of the whole is he who has assumed thy nature, and has thy interest at heart. Learn of him, and he shall lead thy spirit on; he will burst new seals, and open new pages, as thy faculties expand. He has many things to say unto thee, but thou canst not bear them yet. What thou knowest not now thou shalt know hereafter.

Analysis of Homily the Forty-first.

"Let all the angels of God worship him.”—Heb. i. 6.

SUBJECT:-Christ the Object of Angelic Worship.

THIS passage directs us to a truth which is frequently expressed,* and more frequently implied, in various parts of God's word-namely, that angels are engaged in rendering worship to Jesus Christ. Assuming this to be the case, the following deductions appear just and important :—

I. IF ANGELS WORSHIP CHRIST, HIS CLAIMS TO WORSHIP ARE UNDOUBTED. There are only two conceivable causes for the worshipping of false gods :-(1) The want of intelligence. The devotees are the victims of ignorance. (2) The want of right sympathies. In Christian England men are found at the shrines of false deities, not from ignorance, but from secularized sympathies. The Bible assures us that angels are distinguished both by high intelligence and high rectitude.

*Rev. v. 11-14.

II. IF ANGELS WORSHIP CHRIST, THEN THE OBLIGATIONS OF MEN TO DO SO MUST BE IMMENSE. They worship him on the ground of what he is in himself, as the brightness of his Father's glory; on the ground of what he is to them as their Author, Sustainer, and Instructor; and on the ground, perhaps, of the salutary influence which his mediation has exerted indirectly on their well-being. But, in addition to all this, he has other claims to man's worship. He wears man's nature-he expiates man's sins-he represents man's interests -he works for man's redemption. How inconsistent and how vile it is for man to despise and neglect him, while angels are bowing at his throne, and hymning his praise!

III. IF ANGELS WORSHIP CHRist, then a preSIDING SYM

PATHY WITH HIM IS THE NECESSARY MEETNESS FOR HEAVEN.

The Bible assures us that all heaven worships Christ; that

"There all

The multitude of angels, with a shout,

Loud as from numbers without number;

Sweet as from blessed voices uttering joy. Heaven rings
With jubilee, and loud hosannas

Fill the eternal regions."

Whatever may be the differences prevailing between these myriads in their ages, the structure of their minds, the extent of their attainments, the rank they occupy in the Divine kingdom-though they differ great as the sainted infant born on earth, from the highest seraph in the creation—still they are one in devotion to Christ. Every eye is fixed on him ; all thoughts are directed to him; around him, as the centre, all souls revolve. There is no heaven in the universe without this presiding sympathy with Christ. It is the air, the light, the beauty, and the inspiration of the scene. It is even connected with two things-an appreciative knowlege of him, and an unreserved concurrence with him. The one is the necessary antecedent, and the other is the invariable result.

Analysis of Homily the Forty-second.

"If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”—Phil. iii. 4—7.

SUBJECT:-Compensation.

THE apostle Paul was well acquainted with the strength of Judaism, and the weak points of Christianity. If, as some tell us, there are flaws in the evidence by which we become convinced of the Divine origin of Christianity, they must have been glaring enough when Paul began to preach the faith that he once destroyed. The haze of centuries now magnifies the marvel with which he stood face to face; but, such as it was then, it vanquished him. In his society we are surely free from all that is narrow-minded and one-sided. He did not renounce Judaism out of pique or prejudice, nor was he so blind to the merit and dignity of the old religion that he ever trifled with or ridiculed it. The phraseology of the above passage is clear evidence of the price he set upon it. With that calm earnestness and quiet strength for which he is so remarkable, he first enumerates several things here that a man might easily be proud of, then gives us his opinion about them, and afterwards his substitute for them. These things, which were counted gain by the old church, have much that is germane to them in the phases of modern faith.

Let us consider

I. The summation which the apostle makes of these presumed privileges.

First. Sacramental regeneration. "Circumcised the eighth day." The respect paid to circumcision was not unlike the feeling with which baptism is regarded by many Christian people. "The church" spoken of in the New Testament is supposed to be a visible organization of the true theocracy,

and baptism is considered the rite and seal of initiation into this community. Such admission to the so-called church being considered necessary to salvation, evils have been conjured into existence for the sake of obviating them by "the grace of baptism." The taint, or evil, of "original sin" has been so described that it matters very little whether its consequences follow or not; and then the effect of baptism has been so portrayed as to make it appear that, if this effect is observable in the life of a man, it is impossible to prove that baptism was not the cause of the change: but, on the other hand, if this effect does not follow baptism, then its grace has been sinned away. Those who think that baptism, like circumcision, admits to the fellowship of that society-which is inclusive of all the saved, and exclusive of none-must also consider that to be circumcised, or baptized, on the eighth, or any earlier or later day, is great gain.

Secondly. Distinguished ancestry. "Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews." Men, generally, are proud of honors which belong to them by providential arrangement. Paul had something to boast of here. In his veins ran the blood which had quivered amid Egyptian plagues, and rushed to the hearts of those that heard the voice of Sinai's trumpet. It must have required great moral courage to ignore the fact that he belonged to the people "whose were the fathers to whom pertained the giving of the law and the covenants." To this day, Jews are proud of their hereditary claims, even if they have renounced all confidence in their traditionary faith; and there are thousands among us who are content to waive the spiritual demands of the gospel, and who stifle all the pleadings of guilty conscience by the proud, but stupid, conviction that they are born in a Christian country, and have inherited a blessing from their ancestry.

Thirdly. Religious persuasion. "As touching the law, a Pharisee." An honest Pharisee, the earnest "tractarian" of the olden time, might well be proud of the life he had poured into a half-dead system-of the galvanic contortions and