become mere sentiment and superstition. The house of God where our fathers wor• shipped should be sacred to us. The sanctuary where the truth of God's savin" love first came home to our hearts must seem sacred to us. And it should be easier to win reverence, worship, and power of prayer in such consecrated places. III. 'l'His APPLIES TO A MAN'S PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES IN ms PRIVATE RELIGIOUS LIFE, Illustrate from such instances as may be typified by an instance in t~e life of Lut?er. That spot in the forest where Alexis was struck down by the light- nmg, and he himself spared, must have been ever after a sacred spot to him. Or take a case of prayer under some particular pressure, as when a beloved one, in sicknes,, seemed to be passing away. The place where prayer was offered and answered seems never to lose the hallowing associations. Our lives, indeed, ought to be full of conse- crated spots, where we have raised, again and again, our pillars, inscribing thereon our Ebenezer, "Hitherto bath the Lord helped us." Impress that if our religion is to be, in any real and vigorous sense, personal, we must have made our own sacred place. 'l'he sanctuaries set apart for worship are mo~t precious and most helpful, and the true he~rts in all the ages have said," Lorcl, I have loved the habitation of thy house." But more is needed. Each man wants a temple of his own, raised in response to Divine goodness personally apprehended-a sacrnd place where, with the fullest emotion, he may offer his sacrifice of love and praise, even as David did.-R. T. Vere. 29, 30.-The relics left on feeling from the humbling scenes of life. "Some have supposed that the terror which David had felt at the sight of the destroying angel (ver. 16) produced a bodily infirmity which made it physically impossible for him to go to Gibeon; but probably no more than a moral impediment is meant. David, knowing that by sacrifice on this altar he had caused the angel to stay his hand, was afraid to transfer his offerings elsewhere, lest the angel should resume his task, and pestilenco again break out." David seemed ever after to see that sword before the tabernacle. It may be said that all Divine dealings have an immediate, and also a remote and perma- nent design. We are often dwelling on the immediate lessons that are impressed, but probably the best lessons are those which are learned by-and-by, after a while, when the excitement of the incidents has passed, and the whole is taken into quiet and serious review. Things seem so different when they are cnlmly looked back upon ; aspects and relations come into view which we had not previously suspected. We know how true this is of our review of the lives of those whom we have known and loved; but it is equally true of the events and incidents of our own lives. !. A MAN 1S SINS AND FAILINGS LEAVE THEIR TRACES ON CHARACTER AND FEELING. Even when they are forgiven, and a man is fully recovered from their influence, ho cannot be rid of them altogether. There is a new reverence, or a fear of self, or a perilous openness to particular temptation, or a strange shyness left behind, of which the man will never be rid. Illustrative cases from Scripture and modern life may be given. A ~ood Scripture instance, in which there was a humbling experience, but one free from tho bitterness of personal sin, is that c,.f King Hezekiah (see Isa. x.xxviii. 16, "I ehall go softly all my [spared] years in the bitterness of my soul"). II. SuaH CONTINUED FEELING INSENSIBLY GUIDES FUTURE CONDUCT. This is seen in the case of David. l'erhaps he hardly admitted to himself what it really was that kept him from going to inquire of God at Gibeon. And so we find in our fellow-men 1md in ourselves singular hesitations; we feel difficulties and shrink back, when there seems no real occasion. We cannot tell others, we hardly like to admit to our5lllvos, that it is the relic of some j!;reat stumble, or even fall and sin and shame ; the very re:J.l ghost of our former ill. Compare the man who, late in life, said, remembering his riotous youth-time, "I would give my right arm if I could be quit of the evils loft in thought from my youthful sins." III. SucH CONTINUED FEELING INDICATES A CONTINUED SANCTIFYING WORK. For God graciously uses, not merely things themsel!e.s, but their_ after-effects .. No_ (uflucnco has its bare limits. '!'he after-effects may d1tler greatly m different d1spos1tlons, but some of God's best work in our hearts and lives is donu by means of them. '!'his may be illustrated by the after-influence exerted on tho Apostle St. Peter by his sad and shameful fall. And David expresses this continuous sanctifying influence of remembered I. CIIRONICLEB, 2 A THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cH. xxn. 1-19.
humblin~s when he says," Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now will I keep thy \Vord." Apply especially to that great w~rk. of sanctifyin~, the producing of the humility of the true dependence. Show that 1t 1s most perfectly wrouo-ht in the fallen and for- given, who ever live in the solemn shadow of the great experience.--R. T.