the go,pel. "Fe.ith cometh by bee.ring." 3. le is the duty of the mmiBttlr to p1'11'~vere wieh a pious insistency on all the objects of his ministry. "Continue in them." 4. Nothing is BO well adapted for the salvation of ministers as their pious labours in behalf of the salvation of others. 5. There is to be a double service in thi.~ ministry. The minister must first look well to his life, exemplifying the holiness of the gospel in word e.nd deed (vcr. 12); e.nd then his teaching must be good (ver. 6) and salutary (eh. i. 10). Thus he will be the instrument of much good; he will thus cover the multitude of sins. and eave a soul from death (Jae. v. 20).-T. C. Ver. 4.-.A false asceticism. "For every creature of God is good." The gospel stood in a difficult position. On the one hand was asceticism, with its hermits of every creed, and its retreats in Asia, Africa, and Egypt; on the other hand was Epicureanisrn with its philosophy of enjoyments, which ran into lawless excess. We must judge a new religion by its first teacher; for Christ was his own religion alive and in action. John the Baptist was an ascetic; but Christ came eating and drinking, and his enemies said, "Behold, a wine-bibber, and a friend of publican and sinners." His first miracle was at a marriage festival, and he dined with the Pharisees. We have here an example 11 morale. Every creature or creation-not necessarily a living thing-is good. Show hat it is from God, and then it must be goo<i. In the story of Creation, after every new day, "God saw that it was good." I. ASCETICISM MAKES A FALSE WORLD OF ITS OWN. It narrows life, it empties the fountains of joy, it destroys the hopes of youth, it degrades the body, and treats matter as though it were evil. God's idea of life ie that body, soul, and spirit are to be redeemed. II. 'l'HE CHRISTIAN FAITH MAKES A TRUE WORLD OF MEN. We are to be trained through use, even when use is dangerous ; for test makes manhood. " Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." We are to have the analogy in Nature. She is to stand the storm, and be str~ngthened by it. So the atmosphere is purified, so the roots of the trees take faster hold of the soil. What a world of disease and death this would be without currents and wav~e and storms ! III. 'l'HE CHRISTIAN FAITH BAD FALSE INTERPRETERS. It could but be that the surrounding tendencies affected the Christians. Just as there were J udaistic Chris- tians, BO there were those affected by the old Manichean doctrine "that matter was evil." Consequently they would treat the body as corrupt and evil. The apostle, therefore, is not only general, but specific in his statement, "Some forbid to marry and forbid to eat meats;" and he repeats the expression, "which God hath created." The same tendency appeared, and was fatally developed, in the monastic life of the Church. The monk and the nun appeared to possess e. sp<"cial sanctity, but it was not really so. The forces of nature, if they have not pure a.venues of enjoyment, will be sure to find impure channels; e.nd history shows that monasteries have been associated with hidden vice and criminal deeds of shame, though softened O\'er with vesper chants and morbid garments of melancholy hue.-W. M. S. Ver. 4.-.A universal URI!. "And nothing to be refused." The apostle has shown that government ie a creation of God; we are to pray for kings and all in authority, and this ie acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. And he has taught us to obey the powers that be; for they are ordained of God. He has shown that the place of man in the Creation is of God. A woman's lot is not to be the world's leader or teacher, but the equal companion of man. All social economies break to pieces that deny God's ordinations in the universe. No order that he has created is to he refused. To REFUSE IS TO IMPLY A SUPERIOR JUDGMENT TO THAT OF Goo. The wiBest must know best. He who ie from everlasting to everlasting has given a revelation for all aspects of society and all ages of men. Individual liberty is left. We are not to forbid to marry or to command to abstain from meats; though, if any thought the meat wae offered to idols, and that they sanctioned idolatry, they might refuse it; as our temperance friends think that ,,hen use runs to abuse, and is a stumbling- hlock, they b.. ve a perfect right Ii> use liberty of abstinence. "Nothing to be refused." Wonderful words I The imagiuation of the mind ie a creation of God. Poetry, affec- tion, and art alike may be used in the Christian sphere. The iDtellec,t of the wise is a 80 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO 'l'IMO'l'llY. [OH, IV, 1-16.
creation of God; it is not to be blindfolded. We a.re not to say, as Rome said to Galileo, " Faith does not inquire; " but we a.re to use it in its own sphere reverently looking up to God for more light. "Come, and let us reason together, sa.ith the Lord," All natural beauty is of God. It is no sign of religion to love ugliness. Only let your ooa.uty not be meretricious beauty, Let it be pure, as God is pure, "Nothing to be refused."-W. M. S.