fore ; which love was deeper than hers, and more protracted. Long years ago she vanished, but God stays by me still, embracing me in my grey hairs, as tenderly and carefully as she did in my infancy, and giving to me as my joy and the principal glory of my life that he lets me know him, and helps me, with real confidence, to call him my Father." This truth of God's permanent gracious relations with those who put their trust in him was stated in its Christian form by the Apostle John (John xiii. 1), when, speaking of his Master, be said, "Those whom he loveth, he loveth unto the end." It may be noticed that., while mother's love and interest never flags or fails, mother's work, of bearing, tending, carrying, does change and pass as the children grow older. So even with a mother God may be contrasted; for he tends even to old age, even to the end. Opening the general topic suggested by the text, we may'observe that the promise- !. ASSUMES us TO BE IN GRACIOUS RELATIONS WITH GOD. Sometimes those relations a.re presented under the figure of a "covenant." At other times they are seen as relations brought about by " redemption "-work in our hehalf. Here the closer, more natural, more personal, relations of parents and children are referred to. God is repre- sented as feeling towards us like the mother who bore us. Compare the psalmist's sense of the motherly relation in his plea, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." 11. DECLARES THAT THE RELATION SHALL BE KEPT UP TO THE END. Such an assurance is necessary, not because we fear any changeableness in God, but because we fear that the wilfulness and changeableness in us may grieve him, and lead him to remove his grace from us. The comfort of the promise of the text lies in the confidence it gives us that our waywardness will not outweary our God. "Though we believe not, yet he abideth faithful." III. INVOLVES GRACE SUFFICIENT FOB MAINTAINING THE RELATION. It is not a promise of grace at the end, but unto the end. All along the way we may be quite sure of adaptations of Divine grace such as may go into the words "carry," "bear," "deliver."-R. T. Ver, 8.-God's call to exercise right reason. "Show yourselves men." This is the language of irony. Worshippers of idols should have the courage of their convictions. 'l'hey should not be such children as to confound the spiritual God with dumb, senseless idols, who can neither counsel nor save. "Remember this, that has often been told you, what senseless, helpless things idols are, and show yourselves men-men, aud not brutes; men, and not babes. Act with reason, act with resolution, act for your own interest. Do a wise thing, do a brave thing, and scorn to disparage your own judgment, as you do when you worship idols" (Matthew Henry). 'l'he point presented for con- sideration is-tho.t God is served by the diligent and faithful use of our faculties, and not by crushing them. I. GoD IS BEST SERVED DY MAN AT HIS BEST. A very curious perversion of St. Po.ul's glorying in his infirmities is the notion, which prevails in some quarters, that the more ignorant, weak, and foolish we are, the better we can sen'e God's purposes. It is the universal truth that God works out his best JJUrposes through the consecrntion of man's best and most cultured powers to his service. It is only the exception of Diviue grace that Goel is pleased sometimes to use man's feebleness. Sometimes, indeed, it is so, that "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God perfects praise;" nnd his s,J doing efficiently persuades us of the absolute sovereignty of Divine grace; but tho normal law is that God shall be served by the best culture and the wisest use of just those powers and faculties which he bns himself given us. Let babes be babes, und honour God with infant songs. Since we are men, it is the best-cultured and most fully matured manhood that we must lay upon his altar. When reprnached by a mere sentimentalist that "God bad no need of his learning," the culturecl diviue very wisely as well as smartly replied," Ancl he has as little need of your ignorance."' We must be in every way the best possible for God, and this includes our mental best. II. MAN AT HIS BEST IS DUT A SKRVANT OF Goo. This conviction will keep him in his place, whatsoever his attainments may be. It is the constantly observed fact that fulnees of learning and a genuine humility go together hnnd-in-hand. It is e. "little knowledge" that puffeth up, a " little culture'' that nourishes self-will. The things 202 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oH, XLVI. 1-13.
we have in the household and family life, for daily use, need not be ohlpped ugly, or inefficient things; they may be in the best shapes, and may bo nrtistio in appearance, pleasant to the eye, without losing their practical usefulness. So we can be the truest wisest, most cultured, most beautiful men and women, and yet keep in perfeot simplicity the humility and the joy of our aervice.-R. T.