follow a great victory. 2. Mere oontinuance tends to develop into formality. Aa with constant practioe at the piano, the player comes to play without thinking. 3. Energetic people, who must be doing, are always in danger of neglecting the culture of t.he interior life. It may be well searchingly to examine ourselves and see whether we need requickeuing. ' II. REQUIOKENlNG IS IN THE POWER OF GoD ALONE. we must not only admit that as an abstract truth; we must feel that as a truth beariug direct relations to ourselves. The limit of man's doing may be illustrated by the garden plants. We water them, and they do not care for our work, or respond to it. We can do little more than wash the dust from their leaves, and moisten the air around them. God rains his heavenly rains upon them, and they respond at once; lift up their heads, hold out firmly their leaves, and evidently feel the thrill of new life. One of the most delightful and inspiring views we can get of God sees him ever at work, restorin" things that have gone wrong, and reviving things that are flagging. He is the Sourc~ of all life,-that we admit. He is the Restoror and Requickener of all life,-that we want to feel. III. WHETHER WE BE IIEQUICKEN'ED DEPENDS UPON OURSELVES. There are con- ditions in us for which God ever waits. His work cannot be all that he would have it be until we are in right condition. 1. We must see our need of requickcning. 2. We must put away the self-indulging things which have been injuriously telling on our life. 3. We must be in attitude of prayer-of united prayer.-R. T. Ver. 6.-Revivals; or, discern.ing the sigm of the times. '!'hey who read the times, with keen interest in the spiritual vitality of the Church, cannot fail to recognize the need of spiritual revival. The features of religious life may, in essence, be those characteristic of every age, but there may be subtleties and severities in their forms and settings at particular sea.sons which make them unusually effective for evil. I. ONE SIGN OF OUR TnlEB IS VASTLY INCREASED INTELLIGENCE. Science has developed. Literature has unfolded. Education has become a. mania. In our pride we are saying, " We are wiser than our fathers." But this is attended with perilous moral evils. It is so easy now to become proud in our imaginations, confident in our reasoning, and scornful of the higher powers of the soul, in our admiration of the powers of the mind. II. ANOTHER SIGN IS THE INTENSE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE. Facilities are now afforded for meeting the cravings of bodily pleasure which have nourished the cravings into a soul-mastering passion. The world of landscapes, of art, of science, of music, of poetry, of play, lays its treasures now at the feet of the poorest. And no good man "-an begrudge the world's toilers the relief which these later days can provide. But the passion for that which is pleasing is telling seriously on the sense of duty, and even on the higher moral qualities, on the reserve and self-restraint, which belong to the essence of noble character. What we like is coming to rule, rather than what we ought. Ill ANOTHER SIGN 1B THE PBESSUBE OF BUSINEBB, AND THE HASTING TO BE BICH. Typified in the man who regretted the compulsory Sunday rest, because then he had no chance of making money. Success in life is fast becoming the modern Baal that outrivals Jehovah. IV. ANOTHER SIGN 18 THE CALL FOB INTELLECTUAL AND III0BAL, BATHER THAN SPIRITUAL PllEaCHING. Men ask for "essays;" they chare under "persuasions." They seek for" soothings;" they do uot want "reproofs," "correction in righteousness," and inspirations to the pursuit of holiness. V. ANOTHER SIGN IS THE MULTIPLICATION OF ORGANIZED F0BIIIS 01!' CHRISTIAN woBK. Machinery taking the place of life. Men paying for the doing of what they should do themselves. Christ claims our personal service, the expression of our soul's vitality; and that claim can never be commuted for any money payment, or entrusted to any substitute. If, then, we can see signs of the Church's falling from its vocation, let us see that: 1. God must not be thought of as separated from the interests of e. decaying Church. To cease to connect God with its condition ie the last stage of a Church's decline. 2. God must be sought as the only Source of spiritual revival. "\Ve cannot remedy spiritual evils by any form of personal effort, if those are made PR, l,X:,:XV, 1-13.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 211
opart from dependence on God. 3, The revival or God's Church begins in the revival uf individual eoule.-R. T.