reason and juetice. The character and relatione of God are ench ae t.o demand the supreme love of all hie intelligent creatures. 8. This enmity ia most miserabui. Enmity to God is the fountain of all the misery in the universe; it is the root of all the cursed passions of the soul. The soul's salvation is in love, its damnation is in enmity. II. THAT IT JS AN ANTAGONIST TO THE HU.MAN. "Ye pull off the rohe with the garment [margin, • over against the garment'] from them that pass by securely as men averso from war." Not content with the outer garment, ye greedily rob passers-by of the ornamental robe fitting the body closely am! flowing down to the feet; and this you do, not to enemies, but to friends, to those who are " averse from war." More," The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses." 'l.'he widows of the men slain by you in battle you have deprived of their homEs. They "devoured widows' houses." This was not all. "From their children have ye taken away my glory for ever." The orphan children you have despoiled. In all this there is the manifestation of sin, as an antagonist to human rights and human happiness. Sin puts man against his brother; hence the slanders, quarrels, litigations, wars, that are rife in every human society. John says, "If a man love God, be will love his brother." The converse of this is true too. If a man hate God, he will hate his brother. CONCLUSION. Look at sin as an antagonist to God and man, shun it with horror, and battle against it with all the force of your being. This is the great battle of life.-D. T. Ver. 10.-The soul's exodus. "Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it sha.ll destroy you, even with a sore destruction." "'The prophet, having overthrown, in vers. 7-9, the objection to bis threatening prophecies by pointing to the sins of the people, now repea.ts the a.nnouncement of punishment, and that in the form of a. summons to go out of the land into captivity, because the land cannot bear the defilement consequent upon such abominations" (Delitzsch). This injunction does not mean either of the three following things: 1. It does not mean. the termination of our morta.l life. Life is a talent which we should guard. Suicide is a. crime. 2. It does not mean neglect of material interests a.nd duties. We are co=anded to be diligent in business, etc. 3. It does not mean absolute retirement from the world. 'l.'he life of the hermit is a sin against our social affections, the claims of our species, a.nd the commands of the Bible. What, then, shall we take it to mean? 'l.'he rising of the soul above the dominant materialism of this life. It is the setting of the "affections upon things above." It is the exodus of the soul from the Egypt of a. dominant materialism. There are three rea.sons suggested here for this moral exodus of the spirit. ---=:::.._ I. THERE IS NO REST FOB THE SOUL IN A DOMINANT MATERI..ALIS.M. "This is not your rest." There are four forms in which this dominant materialism exists amongst us, and in neither of which can the soul find rest. 1. There is the gross, sensual form. The sensua.list and the voluptuary live in this; but they have no rest. Ask the epicurean and the debauchee. 2. There is the thoroughly secular form. The man who is absorbed in the work of making money lives here; but he finds in it no rest. Ask the man who ha.s become the crea.ture of business, etc. 3. The're is the intellectual form. The region of mere flesh wisdom, flesh arts, and flesh literature-poetry and novels that appea.l to the flesh. 'l.'here is no rest for the soul here. Ask Byron, Burne, Dryden, Churchill, etc. 4. There ia the religious form. There is a fleshly religion amongst men-a religion of pictures, music, pompous rites and ceremonies, all appealing to the senses. There is no rest for the soul here. Let it "arise, then, and depart." II. THERE IB POLLUTION FOR THE SOUL IN IT. To allow the material iu any form to rule us is a. sin. 1. Reason shows this. Mind was ma.de to govern matter; the senses were made to be the servants, not the sovereign, of the soul. 2. Conscience testifies this. Conscience is everla.stingly ~rotesting against the dominion of the flesh. 3. Tha Bible declares this. The carnal lIUnd is enmity against God (Rom. viii. 7). III. THERE JS DANGER TO THE SOUL IN 14.ATElUALISllL "It shall destroy you." "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a ma.n soweth, that shall he a.!Bo reap. For he tha.t soweth to hie flesh sha.ll of the flesh reap corruption" (Gal. vi. 7, 8). For to lie carnally minded is death. The work of soul-destruction is going on every ~IOAII, D 84 THE BOOK OF MICAH, [0B, U.1-18,
moment; the soul decays in thia state. Force of intellect, discrimination of judgment, freedom of will, sensibility of conscience, elasticity of soul, are being destroyed. Coi-cLusION. Arise, then I The voice of phil,,sophy, tho voice of history, the voico of the Bible, and the voice of departed se.ints, all combine in the injunotion, "Arise, and depart I "-D. T.