atoning death and sacrifice, will bring peace to the conscience, purity to the mind strength to the will, hope to the head, and final and eternal acceptance in the presenc; of God. Very much of what it can do for the soul in this life he knows it has done for him, anli he has seen it do yet more for otbers. He sees, not only the need of such great salvation as God has provided in Christ Jesus for guilty and miserable man, but also the fitness and adaptation and the actual power of this grace of God. Such is bis conviction concerning the Word of the Lord, the gospel of the grace of God; and, thus persuaded of its power to bless and save mankind, he hears on all sides, and coming up from all depths of sorrow and sin, the imperative summons to him to tell of this Saviour and this salvation, and by no means to keep silence. From every hospital and asylum where the victims of vice and sin are reaping what they have sown; from every prison cell; from every place where the ruined in health, in fortune, in character, and in soul are dragging out the remainder of their wretched life; from every gallows-tree ; from every impenitent's grave; and from the sinner's hell ;-there comes the solemn adjuration which the apostle so keenly felt, " Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel I " .And not the sins alone, though they most, but the sorrows of mankind also, utter forth the same appeal. For the gospel of the Saviour is a healing balm to the sick at heart, oil and wine to the wounded spirit; it is the gospel of consolation, of hope, and of peace to the sorrowing myriads of mankind. Feeling all this, how can it be otherwise that "the Word of the Lord is in his heart as," etc.? ill. But there is one other gift needed to the full possession of that Divine Spirit which finds expression in our text. It is THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST. By this is meant, not merely an acquaintance with and belief in the truths concerning our Lord's nature and work, nor even simply such belief in him as will save the soul, but such knowledge of him as is involved in deep love to him and sympathy with those objects on which his heart is set. To know Christ as your own loving Saviour, who bas died for you, redeemed and pardoned and accepted you, and given you an inheritance amongst his own ; to know him by oft and earnest communion with him, by toil and suffering for him ;-this is that knowledge of Christ which, when added on to that other knowledge of sin and of the gospel of which we have already spoken, will lerLd to that irresistible desire to serve him which his true servants have so often felt aud shown. The love of Christ must be the constraining motive, and then there will come love and labour for the souls for whom Christ died. 1 do not know that it is possible for us to have a deep regard and concern for those whom we have never seen or known unless we see in each individual member of mankind one of the brethren or sisters of Christ, part of Christ's body, one of his members, he being the Head o/ all. If this be believed, then we see that the soul of each of these men and women, though they may be of different clime and colour, and be altogether strange and perhaps repulsive to us, still, the soul of each of them is as precious to Christ as our own, and as capable of honouring and as ready to honour him as was our own. This love of Christ will lead to the love of Christ in all men, for indeed he is in all men, and this will beget a Divine charity which will be ever a mighty motive to seek their good. Then shall we possess the mind which was in him who wept over Jerusalem and prayed for his very murderers. Then shall we willingly bear disappointment, reproach, loss, or aught other ill which may come to us as we toil on in our Mastor's service. Here, then, in this deep knowledge of sin, of the gospel, and of Christ, have we the secret of that burning zeal which consumed the heart of Jeremiah and of others like minded to him. May God, of his mercy, give to all who labour in his cause tbis holy and quenchless zeal! Labouring under such impulse, let come what will to us in this world ns the result of our toil, we will still labour on, messed Lord Jesus Christ, let thy Word be in our hearts as a burning fire, so that when tempted to forbear making mention of thee and speaking any more in thy Name, we may be weary of such forbearing and feel we cannot stay.-C.
Vers. 14-18.-" Is life worth living 1" Here is one who evidently thought it was not. How bitterly he grieves over the fact that he was ever brought into existence! It is an illustration, as has been pointed out, of the maddening force of suffering. It drives II man to the use of wild language. For great sufferings generate great passions in the soul, They rouse the whole man into action. And these great passions thus 474 'l'HE DOOR OF THB· PllOPHE'r JEREMIAH. [err. xx. 1-18,