unto b11bce. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight" (Matt. xi. 2:3 26). The rnvclation is for babes; for men of a childlike-not a childish-spirit; for men' who liave laicl r1Siclo their pride and presumption, and can take truth trustfully from the Infinito F11ther. The idc11 is surely monstrous that God cannot break his Divine bread small enou"h 0 for his human children; tbf1t none but men of a certain mental calibre can get hold of tho food or digest it. It is Burely a diviner plan to bring the truth so plainly home that none have any excuse for rejecting it. III. LET EACH OF UB GIVE UP OUR GRAND EXCURSIONS B0TII SKYWARD A~"'D BEA• WARD, AND RECEIVE Goo's MESSAGE BROUGHT NEAR us DY HIS Sm,. Pride is for ever leading men upon some aerial ot· aquatic adventure, searching the heights of heaven on the wing of fancy or of speculation, or exploring the deepest depths, profosserlly to find truth and God. Philosophy is invoked, and everything brought to the test of it. Now, all this must be sacrificed before we receive the truth. We must humble ourselves, and recognize the truth brought in Jesus Christ to our very door. If we required terrific effort to reach the truth, we would boast that we had succeecled through that effort. If it depended on great mental powers and struggle, we would take credit for both. But the fact is, it is brought so near to each of us, and so plainly home, that not one of us can boast of our discovery, but only chide ourselves that it was so long near us and so long overlooked I IV. IT IS HERE THAT WE MUST DEGm WITH THE JEWS. As a rule, they are so pnffcd up with pride and self-importance, that the gospel is overlooked in its glorious proxi- mity and adaptation. They think they ai;e such linguists and such thinkers that none can instruct them, and the result is that the simplicity of the gospel escapes their notice altogether. The grandeur of what is simple and comprehensible by all who are not too proud to consider it must be urged with earnestness. The apologetic now needed is, not what follows speculation to its utmost height or utmost depth, and boasts itself of learning as great as the objector has ; but what takes its firm stand upon the simplicity of revelation as the supreme proof that it is Divine. It seems to us that some of the apologetic to which we are now treated is as pedantic as those it desires to convince, and, in a contest of mere pedantry, it is sure to be defeated. Rather should we assure men that it is pedantry and pride which keeps them from discovering the wondrous reve- htion that lies ~o near us. Let Gentile and Jew give up the weary wandering, the " will-o'-the-wisp" work of pride, and recognize the God who is knocking at each man's door.-R. M, E. Vers. 15-20.-Death and life set 'before the people. In this earnest word which concludes a section of his address to the people, Moses is summing up his deliverance. It has been called by Ha.vernick "the classic passage" upon the subject of death and life as understood in Old Testament times.1 "Shut out from the true community of life ( Lebensgemeinschaft)," says Ha.vernick," the sinner puts in only a pretended life ( Schein- leben ), without God, endnring and promoting ruin in himself, until death physical, with . its terrors, overtakes him. The Divine penalty manifests itself to the sinner as death." Let us consider what is here suggested. And- I. Goo 1s THE FoUNTAIN OF LIFE. He was before all things; in him they live and move and have their being; by him'all things consist. Life physical is from him; but so also, and in a much fuller fashion, is lifo spiritual. The inner man is from him, and depends upon him for sustenance. And when his only begotten Son came into the world, he gave him to have life in himself (John v. 26), so that of him it could alone be said, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John i. 4). We recognize in God, therefore, "the Fountain of living waters," from which, to their own great damage, men are separating themselves, as if the broken cisterns of their own hewing could ever slake their thirst ( J er. ii. 13). II. LovE ATTACHES us TO THIS SPIRITUAL FoUNTAm. As we love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, we find that we have begun to live. On the other hand, the loveless life is only a pretended life, and carries within itself the "Anathema Maran-atha" (cf. 1 Cor. xvi. 22). Love places our heart at a level with
a Of. Kahle's ' Biblische Esohatologie,' note p. 29. 4-78 THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [OH, :OX, 1-20,