Divine compl\ssions, forbearauces, long-sufferings, and considerationtL I But thero is a Bpccial tone in tbe word. It fits exactly into God's Wl\ys with ue frail, sinful men. l t would hnrdly be titt.ing to speak of God's mercy to the angels whl) have "kept their first estate." It is not the term we should choose by which to express his relations with them. We know the word in our human spheres, It expresses the clemency of the king towards rebel subjects. The guilty man sues for mercy. When the royal rights nre vindicated, we hope that justice will be tempered with mercy, We know the word in our own home-spheres and rclatious. Fathers and mothers are merciful towards their wayward, wilful children, considerate, patient, gentle, pitiful, hopeful. And "like as a father pitieth his childreu, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Many of us have now no father or mother in these earthly spheres; but could we put our idea of the old child-relations in the old home into a single word, that word would ha~e to be "mercy." No other word would worthily gather up their patient, pitiful gentleness. And that word best expr~sses our sense of our heavenly Father's dealin"s with us. It is so suitable ,because it always carries with it the assumption of the lrailty and wilfulness of those to whom it is shown. Only when people try us do we ~how them mercy. Then let us see if we are not really needing God's mercy. 1. It is now a good many years since you discovered your easily besetting sin. Then it ought to have been done with long ago, driven out altogether. But it is there still, spoiling your best things, making trouble for yourself, and for all around you. Then you know what is meant by God's mercy. 2. When this year began you made high resolves; but after the first flush of feeling passed, you never made any really earnest effort to carry them out. Verily God has a call to be merciful. 3. God's mercy to us ought to have made ns merciful to one another. And just in this we are constantly failing. Who could bear to think of the life he has yet to live, if he might no longer hope in God's mercy? Mercy bears with us. Mercy is pitiful and kind. Mercy in God is not mere good feeling; it is active, ever doing for us something kind. II. WE OAN SING OF JUDGMENT. This may stand for "righteousness," or justice :finding practical expresEion. We can always have this satisfaction-God's mercy is righteous. It is never weak indulgence. God never steps aside of the right in order to do a kindness. But that is hardly the precise association of the word that we want. It is rather "the corrective recognition of our faults." It is our holy joy, that our Father-God will never leave our faults and failings, our waywardnesses and self-willed- uesses, alone. He is ever correctively dealing with them. Punishment, as a vindica- tion of violated law, and as the firm reassertion of defied authority, is almost entirely a human conception; it can only be applied to the dealings of our heavenly Father with extreme caution. It is far safer for us to think of God's punishments as always paternal; and paternal punishments are, primarily, ccrrective. And what child could do well without corrections? 1. Divine corrections may come as the natural results of OW' wilfulness. 2. They come as testing losses; or· as wearying strain; or as painful sickness; or as that long, long-enduring which is the supreme soul-test. Ill. WE MUST TAKE CARE THAT WE SL...-G OF THESE TWO TOGETHER-"-MERCY" .il"D "JUDGMENT." It is the blending of them that so brings out the charm of the Divine ways with us. illustrate by the bright light made by combining the flames of oxygen and hydrogen gas. Never can God's full glory shine out until we learn to blend bis mercy and judgment. Mercy that cannot judge cannot be the mercy of OW' heavenly Father. Judgment that is not tempered with mercy cannot characterize our heave1J!y Father's dealings.-R. T.
Ver. 2.-Home-religion. "I will walk within my house with a perfect heart." The royal author may be using the term "house" as a figure for the kingdom he rules; but it is better to keep the term to his private and domestic sphere. Only he who can rule his own house is fit to rule the Church of God. Whatever a man's professions may be, and whatever the exactness and abundance of a man's ritual observances may be, a man·s religion is never really a better thing than it Hhows itself to be in his own home. The home is the .fir8t and nearest sphere in which the religious life finds expression. In the home-sphere it should have its fullest force. Religion begins at home. It always should expand outward from the home. "It is in vain to talk of holine&I! if we can brwg no letters testimonial from our holy walking with our relations." PB, OI, 1-8,) THE BOOK OF PSALMS, 3G7