Ver. 6.-The self-giving qf <JArist. "Who gave himself a Ransom for all, to be testified in due time." We are indebted to the slavery of St. Paul's time for the use of t.he word "ransom." So literature, in its words, enshrines history. We c11nnot make a perfect theory of the Atonement. Many have tried. Some have taken the idea of slavery; some have taken the idea of debt. There has been the "commercial" theory, and the "legal " theory; but no theory is complete that does not contain all the ideas. The i<lea of" ransom" bas had its false theory; for in the seventh century some theologians ,aid, "It was a price pa.id to the devil." That we are the slaves of sin, and that Christ :ansoms us, is the great doctrine of the gospel. I. CHRIST GA VE HIMSELF. The humanity of that age gave others. What is the great study of the dying Roman age? Selfishness. The patricians, wrapped up in togas, saw, in the Colosseum, the gladiators fall to amuse them. The great generals brought home as slaves-physicians, musicians, and workmen, and used them as good invest- ments. Rome bore away the native art of Greece to decorate its own homes. Not only the humanity of that age, but the humanity of every age without Christ, tc11<ls 10 self-ism. The philosophy of the cross is the only social philosophy. It does not take. It leaves men to the personal use of their gifts and possessions ; but it says, 11 Give yourself- your purest ideals, your best impulses, your noblest powers, for the good of others." II. THE C..ESARS OF THAT AGE HAD NO TRUE POWER. They held men by the throat, and not by the heart; and they were lifted to Cresarship by the Prretorian guards. They rose and fell by the sword; and the dagger or the Tiber saw the last of them. The words were a satire on the Saviour, "saying that he also himself is Christ, a King" -an unconscious prophecy, and yet how true! His kingdom came without observation; it was an empire within the heart; it was not in word, but in power; it was not with ubservation, but it silently grew like the mustard seed. Its foundation was in this, "He gave himself"-his exquisite sensibilities, his sacred energies, his unwearied endurance, his contact with shame and scorn; and then, on the cross, he died, 11 the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God. "-W. M. S.
Ver. 9.-Modest adornment. "That women e.dom th::m~l!lves in m0t\est apparel." The gospel never permits asceticism. As God is the God of beauty, and nature is dothed with garments (like the high priest of old) of glory and beauty, so here we have the tr11e idea carried out in religion. Women are" to adorn themselves." God's most beautiful work in creation, the human frame, is to be fitly apparelled ; for, to this aay, art knows no higher subject than the human face and form. But- L MODESTY 1s TO BE THE sPmIT OF ALL ADORNME1'T, because the nature of the being adorned is a sacred nature. Woman is the true guardian. of virtue. Her manner, her temper, her spirit,-all these constit•Jte the best defence of virtue. II. DREBB 1s THE SYMBOL OF CHARACTER. If there is absence of shame-heartedness, there will he absence of shame-facedness. The womanhood of that age had sunk very low. By tUfllB woman had been Lhe toy or slave of man. The gospel uplifted her· for we are all equal in the Hight of God. Then, was neither male nor female there; and she must help the great ideal, and by modest apparel show the innate modesty of her thought and feeling. For, say what we like, dress acts upon the mind and character. Dress like a clown, and you will feel like a clown. Modest apparel need not be shorn of ta.~te and refinement and true beauty. It is no dishonour to a woman that she likes dress. It is not Christian to destroy that taste; but that which becometh women pro- fessing godliness is modest though beautiful apparel.-W. M. S. Vers. l-1.-Univer,alism. l. UNIVERSALITY IN OUB APPEARING BEFORE Goo ON BEHALF OF 01'HERH. 1. Broad teaching. "I exhort therefore, first of all, that suppli- cations, prayers, intercessions, thanhgivings, be made for all men." This is the first duty which preued upon the apo~tle's mind, as claiming attention. If a priest ia ODe OIL D, 1-16,) THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY,