end creation came into being, that it might be a mirror of Go<l, and eyes were made that in the mirror they might behold him and rejoice in the vision. Every creaturn hos this for its highest end, to glorify God, because that was God's end in its creation. Of creatures man is the highest revelation of the Divine character; and among men, man redeemed is the highest. This great thought as to God's supreme end being the manifestation of himself has oHen been stated so as to repel, and to make God almighty selfishness. "For a man to seek his own glory is not glory," and the same thing is true about some forms into which this truth has been thrown. But rightly under- stood, it is but another way of saying, " God is love." For the impulse and need to impart one's self is the very life of love, and he seeks in all his acts to reveal himself, because, being love, he delights to give himself to his creatures, and because their highest blessedness anci their eternal life stand in the knowledge of his Name. II. WE DAVE, SECOND, AN IMPRESSIVE THOUGHT AS TO THE MANNER IN WITTCH THIS GREAT PURPOSE 1s EFFECTED. It is largely entrusted to the members of the Chri5tian Church, who are, as George Herbert says of mankind as a whole, "the secretarie~ of his praise." And there are three ways in which they are and should be so. 1. The very existence of the Church proclaims God's exct!lencies. Its founding, in the one wondrous act of Christ's death, proclaims his wisdom, power, and love, all in superlative degree. All his character shines forth there with brightness before which the reve- lation of him in creation pales and dwindles, and is as a nebula to a sun. Its preser- vation, notwithstanding the imperfections and sins of its members aud the opposition of its enemies, shows forth his guarding and sustaining power no less than his long- suffering. If the Church had less than almightiness to preserve it, the faults of Christians would have destroyed it long ago, and would have provoked him to destroy it if he had not been infinite in patience. 'fhe great evidence of Christianity is Christ, and the second is the Church. 2. The characters of Christian men proclaim God's excel- lencies. They are "called out of darkness," as the text says, "into his marvellous light." That implies, as part of its meaning, that Christian men do in some measure enter into and walk in that light in which he is. The process of conversion is their passage from the darkness of self, which is ignorance, and sin, and sadness, into the possession, in part at least, of his light,.which brings knowledge and goodness and joy. The black thunder-clouds are borne into the sunlight, which pours on their ebon masses and touches them into lustre or thins them away. Thus we may and should become means of making God visible and lovely to dim eyes which could not bear to look on his brightness except as reflected in the mirror of our characters. All the beauty of self-sacrifice which has ever irradiated a saint, all the heroism of the martyr, all the wisdom and eloquence of the teachers, all the prudence of the leaders, all the charity and benevolence, are but the reflex of his excellencies. All these, which gleam so brightly in the dark world, are hut diamond dust, microscopic fragmeuts, as it were, from the solid rock of bis infinite perfection. They tell of him, as the stream of its source. How profound the depth, how wide the expanse, how pellucid the watn~ of that great lake which pours through the ages that broad stream of human goodness that flows between the banks of the Christian Church! 3. We sl1oiild proclaim God's excellencies by direct words, as occasion serves. Every Christian is bound both to witness for God by a life made fair by communion with him, and by speech, when speech may be used. It is not enough to show forth his Name in our iives, for some• times life needs a commentary, and a Christian will often have to avow the principles which guide bis actions, in plain words, if the actions are to be intelligible or he to bo faithful. Common honesty requires it. Loyalty to our Lord requires it. Ordinary humanity requires it. God has entrusted all Christinn men with the treasure of his love in Christ, not that they may themselves be enriched only, but also that by them it may be ministered to others; and the dumb Christian who has never opened hi~ mouth to press the gospel on others incurs a worse "curse" tban that which falls on him who "withholdeth bread" from starving lips. Alas! for the many professing Christinns who do their best to thwart the Divine purpose in their conversion by cowardly indolent silence I Their duty cannot be delegated, their responsibility onnnot be evade<l, nor the puuishment whi0h comes in their feeble hold of the concealed truth eluded. Hl, WJ!l lJAVE PEIIE, TOO, AN r:xurniTioN 0F SOME OF TIIE MO'l'IVES u1rELLING Tu:s: !l4 THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETEil. [ea. n. 1-25,
mscrrARGE 0F THrs DUTY. The !!reatness of the blessinii; is suggested by the emphntio words which describe God ns calling us out of darkness into his marvellous li(J'ht. His love and his p01,er have summone,l us into light which is bis own, thus gi~in(J' U8 to participnte in the very element of his own being, and which is marvellous, a:bein" bestowed by processes beyond nature ,vhich may well call forth wonder, and ns in it~ own lustre so far trnnscending all other light. A gift so wondrous is meant to call forth gratitude, and that gratitude should express itself in a continual offerin(J' up of self to manifest God's glory. Thankfulness, then, to him who has called us is t"he first motive to which the apostle appeals. It is a poor gratitude which never mentions the 11ame of its her,efactor. Dumb thirnkfulness is no thankfulness. If his praises die on 0•1r lips, gratit.ude must be dead in our hearts. A second motive is a sense of responsibility arising from possession of the gift. If we have the light, and are walking in it, how can we bear to know that there are poor souls stumbling in the dark! Put the candle in your window. It may light home some lost ,vanderer ou the dreary moor. A third motive a.rises from the consideration of God's purpose to which we havo already referred, Surely his purpose should be our aim. Our own happiness or salvation is not all Gou's meaning in his mercy towards us. "Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves." We have received Christ that we may impart Christ. "God bath shined in our hearts, that we might give to others the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Let us see to it that we fulfil that Divine purpose. Let us not be silent recipients of his gre.ce, like the sand that sucks up the rain and bears no flowers; but let us give back in praise and witness what his mercy gives to us.-A. M.