to construo the text ns the language or stern rebuke, yet it may imply some rebuke. And this deserves rebuko, when men are so willing to touch human life at all its points of contact with pleasure, solf-interest., honour, privilege, but are so very shy of it at its points of contact with duty, effort, sacrifice. With the many, the strongest bent, deepest inclination of their life is still but what they can get and have, what they can say or think to the advantage of themselves. The choice is a mournfully sorry one, when it is considered to what it comes. For it-s one-sidedness it earns rebuke. For its cowardice it earns rebuke. For its certain unprofitableness it earns rebuke. And not least does it earn rebuke because of its higher opportunities forfeited, and nobler passions and principles wasted and alienated. The harvest is too surely reaped, of disappointment, vanity, and vexation of spirit, or self-stricken darkness itself. But lilt some one begin life from the diametrically opposite standpoint. Let him accept thl! theory that life is for duty, that it is responsible for the vaster advantages with which it began than those with which it was begun by preceding generations, that it calh for work more strenuous, and sacrifice more willing, and self-surrender more entire by very virtue of the honour and advantage it has drawn from its own forefathers; and that life is shaped for high ends. It will not fail of real fruitfulness; it will not expi:e, a. sorrow and a shame. 'l'he gentle suggestive rebuke couched in the text touches the essential difference between two such lives. You are not the children of possession, and of ease, and of the "rest and be thankful" school; you are the descendants of a noble, strenuous, solemn race. They had large brains, they had bone and muscle a.bout them, sinew and nerve were firm and firmly tied, and their heart was capacious. Ay, to other sort men ofttimes prefer to trace their lineage; but to thia sort, the kindly rebuke of Peter, of the Word and Spirit of God, of his providence, and of our own conscience, should oftener turn us and our ambition. Ill. A WORD EQUIVALENT TO A STIRRING SUMMONS FOB A PEOPLE OF EXTRAORDINARY DIGNITY AND PRIVILEGE. It will be graIJted that the Jews were such a people. Yet, with all their honour and splendour, their unique religious privileges, and their pre- eminent politica1 prestige, it must be allowed that they show but a faint type of ourselves. 'fhey rose to a pinnacle of national greatness, and great was their fall ; but it was no mystery. The beginning of it was plain, the course of it was plain. It was often pointed out by priest, prophet, preacher, and by that man of the people themselves, who "was an Israelite indeed." Yet they wrought their own downfall, and cruelly undermined their own proud position, because they lost ear, hl'art, and pride for that which was their glory, and to its announcement greatly preferred to sound their own trumpet. But were there ever heirs like ourselves? 'vVas there ever an heritage like ours? or what propheb are we the children, when we think of the accumulations of knowledge, of conviction, of attestations of God's existence, providence, government, revelation, which the stream of time has been bearing down, richest freights to our shores? In such sense we are children of no obscure parentage, "citizens of no mean city," owning to a history of unsurpassed significance. Ages and centuries of the past ben<i their surprised gaze upon us; they compass us about with clouds of witnesses. And when the gentle reminding is pas8ed, and the suggested rebuke seems to fail, one thing only remains-impassioned appeal, a summons that must wake all but those who are securely dead. Live we, then, worthily of our antecedents, mind- ful of our responsibilities as heirs of such a past. Let us fie~ from unfaithfulness, and scorn the seductions of ease and luxury. Let us purge ourselves from vanity, per- verseness, and self. Let us pray for a divinely opened eye, mind, heart. And show by God's grace that we have not forgotten, but on the contrary do make it our business to remember, whose" children we are."-B.
Ver. 1.-Habits of public praye:r. The Lord Jesus set the example of regular attendance on the synagogue services; and both he and his apostles seem to have daily attended at the temple at the appointed "hours of prayer," when they were resident in the" holy city." Some illustrations may be given or the prayer-habits of both Jews and Mohammedans; and the value, but also peril, of customs of public prayer may be pointed out. "We read in Scripture of three specified hours of prayer, In accordance with which the psalmist speaks of his own custom (Ps. lv. 17). In likE> manner Daniel prayed 'three times a day' (Dan. vi. 10). The hour of morning 4cm!, • lU THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [on. 111. 1-26.