HOMILETICS. Ver. &.-Denvnciations of God's wrath upon sinners compatiblil with the deepest pity for them. It is sometimes assumed that those who exert themselves earnestly to set before men the severer aspects of religion, who, like Paul before Felix, " reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to comen (Acts xxiv. 25), must be persons of harsh, stern, and pitiless tempers, devoid of the gentler feelings, or at any rate without keon sympathy with their fellow-men. The advocates of universal salvation claim to be more tender-hearted than their opponents, and brand the latter with e1>ithets denoting a want of humanity and kindliness. But true tenderness and kindness will not lead men to conceal unpleasant truths, but to state them with the utmost clearness and distinctness-to press them U))On men, insist upon them, compel attention to them. Their outspokenness is no sign of want of sympathy, but rather an indication of the contrary. It springs from the deepest love, from the most earnest desire to save souls. Three great examples may be alleged in proof of this. 270 ---------------------------------- I. Tm: EXAllH'LE OF lsAI.AR, i Nowhere do. we find more unreserved donunoi&tions of God's wrath l\i!l\inst ~innel'll tlia'.n in the writings of "the evangelical, pri;,phet." All the enemies of God are in their turn arraigned, coudomned, and sente~ to the ~evcrcst ~uffcringi,;. But cao. it be said that Isaiah is cold, or harah, or unsympnt)Jeijo ?- . ,N;o. bar otherwi~e. His" heart. c1ies out for .Moab" (eh, xv. 5). Ho" bewails with the weeping of Jazcr the vine of Sihmah" (eh. xvi. 9); he" wnters Heshbon and Elealeh ll'ith his tears" (eh. xvi. 9); his "bowels sound like an harp for Moab," and his "inward l'lll.rts for Kir-Haresh" (eh. xvi.11). Nor is itouly the kindred nation of Moab which draws forth such feelings. A vision of the siege of Babylon causes him 'to er~ c•ut, "Therefore are my l.oins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, lis the , .angs of a woman that travaiJeU1; I wa.s bo\,•ed down at the hearing of it; I ~a~ ·famayed at tbe seeing of it. My heart .panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the 'nigli,t of my pleasure h&th he turned into fear unto me" (eh. xxi. 3, 4). _ "" • II. 'l'RE EXAMPLE OF ST. PAUL. No sacred writer i1;1 more direct in his war!}.ings against sin, or more plain in his denunciations of eternal death to sinners, than St. Paul. "AE, many as ha,•e sinned without Law shall also perish without Law: and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be ;fudged by the Law" (Rom. ii. 12). '·' The wages o,f sin is -death" (Rom. vi. 23). " The works of the flesh are manifest1 which· al'e i ~hese'; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasclviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, Jiat'red, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, ~nrders, drunkenness; re-vbllings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I 'Jiav!J also told yori'in time past, that they who do such things shall not in.'li,erit the. kingdom of~od" (Gal. v. 19-2L). • Yet what writer shows greater tenderness towards those whom_ be warps, or a more: atfec,- tionate concern for them, than the great apostle of the Gentries,? 11 B~ethren, my pel!,r~'.s de:;ire and prayer to God for ,Israel is, that they might be .i;aved," (R0m. x. 1). _..."I ·say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bra.ring me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For. I ·could wish that mrself were accursed from Christ for my ·brethren; my kinsfolk accor~g to -the_flesh J' (Rom. ix. 1-3). • ', • • • III. 'l'HE EX.AllPLE OF om LonD. The tenderness of Christ is without a parall~l in the history of man. Not only did he die for men, bu't throughout his life he showed at every turn a love for them surpassing human. love. For. their sake becoming pobr and dr:spi~ed, for their sake .unwea.ried. in works of mercy, moved with compassion if h~ saw them faint or weary, grieving bitterly, even weeping, when he found tliemlmReni- tent, never breaking the bruised reed nor q uenchi1,1g the smoking, flax, on his way to his death of shame praying for his murderers, it is yet he who delivers the warnings con- cerning final judgment, which are most awful and most impossible to explain away. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and- cast into the fire" (Matt. viL 19). "As the tllres are gathered and hurnerl- :in.- the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his :jngels; and they shall gatber out of his kingdom all things that offond, and t?em which do_ iniquity; a,:id shall c~.s.t them into a furnace of fire ~-there shall be weepmg and gnas,I11ng c:>f teeth (~fatt. Xl!J, 40-42). '' Then shall he say to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye clirsed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. . . . And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous, inJo life eternal" (Matt. xxv. 41, 46). "lt is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into bell, into the :fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm diet.h not, and the tire is ,ot quenched" (Mark iL 43, 44).
HOMILIES '3Y VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-9.-0racle concerning Moab. I. HrsTOnY OF Mo~n. Zoar was the (\radio of the race, the house of the tribal father Lot. Wj:iile the brother-tribe of Ammon wandered to the pa.stur-es of the north-caat, Moab reJD.ained nearer the origiµal scat. They were confined to a narrower district by the -invasion of the Amorites (Numb. xxi. 2G-30; Deut. ii. 10, 11). '!'heir long feud with, tho tribe of Benjamin las~d to the time o_f Saul. But in the Book of Huth we have a pleasant glimpse of the !Iltcr- course between tlic people of Moab and those of Judah; and David, by descent from THE B9OJi: OF .THE J'ROPHEri' ISAIAH. 271