the seed. If it is not improved, there will be nothing to gather at harvest-time. Bo the present life is the season for well-doing. It does not appoor tht in the next world we shall be employed .in reclaiming sinners. Let us, then, improve the time that God h1LB given us for doing good, all the more because of the uncertainty of its being con- tinued to us. In the morning let us sow our seed, in the evening let us not withhold our hand. Let us serve well our day and generation. 2. There is the limit of ability. God ha~ given us all th~ m_eans of doing good w~th our p~wers, and money. Up to that pornt we have obhgat1on. Let us, then, faithfully discharge our obligntion as before God. Let us know how to use our powers, not selfishly, but usefully bene- ficently. Let us learn the secret of making ourselves friends of the mam~on of unrighteousness. 3. The objects o/ well-doing. These &re in a manner unlimited. The apostle says, "all men." That is to say, that, if we had time and ability, it would literally be our duty to work that which is good to all men. As it is, wherever there is a human being, he has a claim upon us on the ground of his humanity and on the ground of his being the object of God's love and of Christ's redemption. But there is a defining, limiting of the order in which we are to proceed witq_ those whom we seek to bless. As within the natural sphere our own household have the first claim on us so within the Christian sphere it is those who are of the household of faith. jt is a~ additional and cogent reason for the bestowment of a charity that the objects of it have the same faith and sympathies and look forward to the sa,me home with our- selves. Within the Christian household, too, our own family and friends, our own neighbours, our own ·countrymen, have a prior claim on our interest. But let us remember that, if charity begins at home, it does not end there. We must go out in the spirit of this exhortation in our sympathies and charities and labours to all the ignorant, and to them that are out of the way. "I exhort therefore _that supplica- tions, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for 1111 men. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: who willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth."-R. F. •
Vers. 11-18.-Parting words. L HIS HANDWRITING•. "See with how large letters I have.written unto you with mine own hand." He seems to intimate that not merely the following words, but, against his usual custom, the whole Epistle, was in his own handwriting. This was to be interpreted as a manifestation of his interest in them in connection with the importance of the occasion. He also iutimares that he used 1arge ch&racters. It cannot be imagined that his intention in doing. so, and in calling attention to it, was to emphasize his instructions. It was rather to be inrerpreted as an appeal to them in connection with his defective vision which necessitated the use of large ch&racters. II. Tm; SPIRIT OF THE JUDAIZING TEAOHEBS. L They desired to appear weJl for their own interest. "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh they compel you to be circumcised; only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ." He does not mention the Judaizing teachers by name, but he: graphically describes them. They did not care for reality; what they cared for was to make a fair show. And, though it was to make a fair show in religion, that did not remove it from the sphere of the flesh. It was still self that was the actuating principle. If they had presented the cr06S of Christ in its simplicity, as the apostle seems to imply they were free in their conscience to have done, they .would have offended their unbelieving countrymen, and would have been subjected to persecution from them. The carnal, self~interested way in which they •got over the offence of the cross was to insist on the circumcision of the Gentile converts. 2. Their fal6e glorying. "F;or not even they who receive circumcision do themselves keep the Law; but they desire to have you circur;r;icised, that they may glory in your flesh." They were the party of the circumcision, not merely becauae they were circumcised themselves, but because they made circumcision .a prominent article in their teaching. They had not the zeal that might have been expected of them for the Law; for they were faulty in their own keeping of it, feeling it to be burdensome to their flesh. They displayed their zeal in proselytizing, They. hoped to hold themselves up to the admiration of their countrymen in the nwnbcr11,' not that bad undergone a saving change, but that, through their iPflnence, harl MCeived the mark of circumcieion in their flesh. OB. VI, 1-18,] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 337