from this calculating spirit, we have know what the spirit of religion rea are not to do this or that merely beca necessary to our salvation. If we kn shall have but one anxiety, namely, to glory. If we really have attained an GOD's glory, we shall only be satisfied as we can live simply for this. We quickly lose much of that self-seeking even under the guise of religion. but ask ourselves in what way we ca GOD, we should have many a doubt we should see the faultiness of much pride ourselves. The praise of Go coextensive with our lives. Nothin but it must come to nothingness, sacrificed to the praise of GOD. N insignificant, but it may rise to dign brought as a sacrifice to GOD. I holiness with a view to our own p shall probably fail; but if we mak sacrifice of praise to GOD, we s holiness. As it were unconsciously effort, we shall reach the haven wh be. The praise of GOD supplies infinite power: it is an object of su

raise the mind above the care of every earthly chance. The sacrifice of praise is the work that giveth peace. All things rest when they have attained their end. Man was created for the service and praise of GOD. In sacrificing all other ends to this great end, we attain the true end of our being, and find rest unto our souls.

Remember in the next place, that the sacrifice of praise should be to you a work of joy. It was the end for which all were created; but it is also a privilege to which you are restored by the redeeming love of CHRIST. Every act done to the praise of GOD, however painful to the natural inclination, shall have its abundant reward. If you once realize the sacrifice of praise due to GOD, as a privilege, you will not think He asks you to give up much, but you will wonder at yourself because you do not give up more. Being restored, as we are in CHRIST, to a holy communion with God, we may, if we will, find the joy of GOD in every act which we consecrate to Him. As our nearness to GOD is greater by virtue of the Incarnation than that of any other order of created beings, so is the capacity for receiving this joy of GOD greater also. The voice of praise is specially to be found amongst such, as in the words of the

Psalmist, "keep holyday"—rejoice, that is, in the day of CHRIST, in the light of the Incarnate LORD. The sacrifice of praise we must offer to GOD, with the joyous consciousness of our LORD JESUS CHRIST being the great High Priest Who leads our worship, and our joy must be found in the closeness of imitation whereby we participate in His acceptable service.

The time shall come when we shall be made perfect along with Him, if now we persevere. Then shall our outward service be itself a song of unceasing joy, as free from pain as it was before the fall, and gladdened with a divine energy which even before the fall we had not. We must not wonder now if sacrifice is to us a work of suffering. If we suffer with CHRIST, we shall rejoice in tribulations, for since we accept them as the work of GOD they redound to the glory of GOD. There must be suffering to a sinful nature in the process of its restoration. If our whole being is to be restored to the ideal of the divine creation, it must be violently wrenched from those objects to which, by reason of the fall, it naturally clings. Joy in sacrifice was the appointment of GOD. Suffering in sacrifice is brought about by the sin of man. GOD has made suffering to be a means of greater

joy than that we have forfeited; for no man hath made any sacrifice of praise to GOD for the sake of JESUS in the faith of His redeeming love, but he shall receive an hundred fold.*

We, my dear brethren, have a sacrifice to make which our LORD JESUS CHRIST had not-a bitter sacrifice for we are sinners; but though His sacrifice of praise was joyous in the love of His own heart to GOD, yet did He know the full bitterness which a sinful nature has to taste ere it can make the sacrifice, by the intensity of sympathy in which He became one with ourselves. The Holy One suffered pain in the praise of GOD, as the leader of a company of worshippers to whom the praise of GOD was no longer natural. So must it be also in some measure with us. Not only have we the difficulty arising from our own nature in the worship of GOD by our own personal sinfulness, but we must feel the sympathy of our brethren, and we cannot praise GOD aright unless we are consumed with the longing that everything alien to His praise should be purged away from the whole race of man. We cannot offer the sacrifice of praise to GOD in CHRIST,

S. Matt xix., 29.

unless our whole beings thrill with t sympathy of CHRIST.

And when we speak of sacrifice, w that we can offer? What praise can GOD from the jarring voice of our The praise of GOD must be pure and is not enough that we try to pra CHRIST praised Him. We cannot d selves. We must praise GOD with C CHRIST. AS CHRIST gives to us must we present Him in His purity as the one acceptable gift which alon by our sin. In the Christian covena an altar," and JESUS is set forth th true object wherein GOD delight has GOD prepared as our oblation of His Only-begotten SON. He GOD's will: to offer that wherein G well pleased. He gives Himself to may make this same offering, and i therefore, that we must offer the sac to GOD continually."*

If we w

offering acceptable to the FATHER, Him His Only-begotten SON. This must be our primary int