And the lrnave, with his crafty plots and machinations, his insidious lies, drawing int-0 his net the defenceless, honest poor. The age sorely needed true nobles, not of title ancl rank, but of God's own mint and sta.mp-men of principle; men as long-headed in their good devices as the others in evil ; men of firm and constant heart; no time-serving, truckling, tid~wa.iting, opportunist, wavering spirits ; but steady to their convictions, direct in their aims, consistent with themselves. Every time needs such men. God preserve to us the nobility of the land-the kind hearts that a.re worth more than coronets, the simple faith that is worth more than Norman blood; the holy seed, the vital element of a nation.-J. VerB. 9-20.-" Until the Spirit be powred O'Ut.n How constantly does Scripture speak of every happy reformation as due to the " outpouring of the Spirit;" or the send'- ing or breathing of the Spirit on human-kind! Language none the less expressive because mysterious. Those epochs cannot be forecast : no meteorology can explain to llS these movements" from on high." But they may be waited for and prepared for, without fear of disappointment. Again and again they had come to the prophet's heart; and from his heart he knew they must some time come also in a wider sphere of operation. L Ul!ITIL THEN-WHAT? The women are addressed, the daughters of Zion, The manners of the women must be a sure index of the state of a nation. New religious feeling kindles quickly in their hearts; they welcome and further revivals. Their indifference to spiritual things seems to belie their nature; atheism in woman is monstrous. The Jewish women are in a state of careless unconcern. 'rhis attitude of 11 ease," of apathetic nonchalance, arouses the indignation and the alarm of the prophets;
perhaps more than vivacity in sin. It is an ominous symptom in the bodily life, not less so in the soul It offers a dull prosaic resistance to enthusiasm of any kind, which it holds in smiling, sensuous contempt. A psalmist's soul is " exceedingly filled" with perturbation a.t; this attitude (Pa. cxxiii. 4); Amos denounces woe (vi. 1), and Zechariah the great displeasure of Jehovah against them that "are at ease." Perhaps the vintage-harvest was over when the prophet spoke. The time would come when a shudder would pass through those luxurious frames; tho outer garment would be torn off, the sackcloth assumed, the breasts that once heaved only with the sigh of plewmre be beaten in wild lament for the "days that are no more," fur the pleasant fields and the fruitful vine. Those fields will be thorn and briar overgrown ; the houses of the city deserted, its mirth quelled. The wild cattle will sport around the temple hill, the palaces be forsaken. Impossible to dissociate in our minds the desolation of, on. xxxu. 1-20.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 529