ordered by Him. A daily practical faith of this kind, is one grand secret of happiness, and a mighty antidote against murmuring and discontent. We should try to feel in the day of trial and disappointment, that all is right and all is well done. We should try to feel on the bed of sickness, that there must be a "needs be." We should say to ourselves, "God could keep away from me these things if He thought fit. But He does not do so, and therefore they must be for my advantage. I will lie still, and bear them patiently. I have an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure.' (2 Sam. xxiii. 5.) What pleases God shall please me."

NOTES. LUKE XII. 1-7.

1.-An innumerable multitude.] The Greek word so translated means literally, "The myriads," or tens of thousands of the people. Lightfoot thinks that these words are an evidence of the success of the seventy disciples.

[He began to say.] Let it be observed, that the discourse which follows these words is remarkable for the great number of sayings which it contains which were also said by our Lord upon other occasions. It is clear that our Lord repeated the same words in different places, and taught the same lessons on different occasions. All teachers and instructors repeat their lessons over and over again, in order to impress them on the minds of those they teach. It is absurd and unreasonable to suppose that our Lord Jesus Christ did not do so. To maintain, as some do, that St. Luke, in this chapter, is only stringing together, for convenience sake, sayings which our Lord used on many different occasions, appears to me a very irreverent mode of dealing with an inspired writing, and a very needless explanation of the repetitions which the chapter contains. The things repeated are things which it is especially important for Christians to know, and therefore our Lord repeats them, and Luke was inspired to write them.

Burgon remarks, "Of the fifty-nine verses which compose the present chapter, no less than thirty-five prove to have been delivered on quite distinct occasions; not in single verses only, but by seven, eight, and even ten verses at a time."

An excessive desire to harmonize the various Gospel histories

has led to many strange dealings with Scripture. "Harmonies," however well meant, have done little good to the Church of Christ.

Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees.] This is a warning which is given in another place, on a totally distinct occasion. It is a great standing caution to the Church against formality and hypocrisy. Few warnings have been so much needed and so much overlooked. "Leaven" is the word used to express false doctrine, because it works secretly and silently, because its quantity is small compared to the whole mass of dough,—and because, once mingled, it alters the whole character of the bread. This is precisely the case with false doctrine. It seems "a little one.' It works stealthily and noiselessly. Insensibly it poisons the whole Gospel. If men will add to or take away from the great prescription for the cure of souls, the divine medicine is spoiled.

2.-[Nothing covered...revealed.] This verse seems to admit of two interpretations. It is a general statement of the uselessness of hypocrisy. Everything shall appear in its true colours at last. It is an injunction to the disciples to reserve and keep back nothing in their teaching. They are to "declare all the counsel of God." The distinction between interior and exterior doctrines, inward truths for the learned and outward truths for the unlearned, however approved by some philosophers, finds no countenance in the Gospel.

3.-[Darkness...light...closets...housetops.] These expressions all seem to be proverbial. They all teach the duty of keeping nothing back in teaching the Gospel. To understand the "housetops," we should remember that Eastern houses generally had flat roofs, which were much used by the inhabitants.

4.-Them that kill the body, &c.] The distinction between body and soul, and the separate existence of the soul after the body is dead, are clearly brought out in this passage. The use which martyrs have often made of this verse at the moment of death, is a striking and remarkable fact in Church history. 5.-[Fear him...hath power...hell.]

Some commentators think with Stier, that this means the devil. This however seems very unlikely. The power of life and death is not in the hands of the devil. Most think that it means God, who alone kills and makes alive, casts down and raises up. This view is fully and clearly set forth by Chemnitius.

The reality and fearfulness of hell stand out awfully on the face of this verse. There is a hell after death. The state of the wicked man after this life is not annihilation. There is a hell which ought to be feared. There is a just God who will finally cast into hell the obstinately impenitent and unbelieving.

Let us not fail to notice that "fear" is an argument that ought sometimes to be pressed on professing Christians. Christ Himself used it. Burkitt says, "It is good to raise a friend's fear, when that fear is for his good." To say, as some ignorantly do, that love, and not fear, is the only argument which should be addressed to believers, is a modern and unscriptural notion. 6.-[Not one of them is forgotten.] The providential care of God over all His creatures is strikngly taught in this and the following verse. Nothing was too little for God to create. Nothing is too little for God to preserve. Nothing that concerns God's people is too little for Him to manage, or for them to bring before Him in prayer. Our least matters are in God's hands. Major remarks, that this providence of God over the least things was a truth of which the heathen philosophers had no conception. The Epicureans, the Academics, the followers of Aristotle and others, maintained that the gods regarded the universe in general, but not particular persons and things.

LUKE XII. 8-12.

it shall not be forgiven.

8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever | blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:

9 But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.

10 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that

11 And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:

12 For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

WE are taught, firstly, in these verses, that we must confess Christ upon earth, if we expect Him to own us as His We must not be ashamed believe in Christ, and serve

saved people at the last day.

to let all men see that we Christ, and love Christ, and care more for the praise of Christ than for the praise of man.

The duty of confessing Christ is incumbent on all Christians in every age of the Church. Let us never forget that. It is not for martyrs only, but for all believers, in every rank of life. It is not for great occasions only, but for our daily walk through an evil world. The

rich man among the rich, the labourer among labourers, the young among the young, the servant among servants, —each and all must be prepared, if they are true Christians, to confess their Master. It needs no blowing a trumpet. It requires no noisy boasting. It needs nothing more than using the daily opportunity. But one thing is certain ;--if a man loves Jesus, he ought not to be ashamed to let people know it.

The difficulty of confessing Christ is undoubtedly very great. It never was easy at any period. It never will be easy as long as the world stands. It is sure to entail on us laughter, ridicule, contempt, mockery, enmity, and persecution. The wicked dislike to see any one better than themselves. The world which hated Christ will always hate true Christians. But whether we like it or not, whether it be hard or easy, our course is perfectly clear. In one way or another Christ must be confessed.

The grand motive to stir us up to bold confession is forcibly brought before us in the words which we are now considering. Our Lord declares, that if we do not confess Him before men, He will "not confess us before the angels of God” at the last day. He will refuse to acknowledge us as His people. He will disown us as cowards, faithless, and deserters. He will not plead for us. He will not be our Advocate. He will not deliver us from the wrath to come. He will leave us to reap the consequences of our cowardice, and to stand before the bar of God helpless, defenceless, and unforgiven. What an awful prospect is this! How much turns on this one hinge of "confessing Christ before men!" Surely we ought not to hesitate for a moment. To doubt between two such alternatives is

the height of folly. For us to deny Christ or be ashamed of His Gospel, may get us a little of man's good opinion for a few years, though it will bring us no real peace. But for Christ to deny us at the last day will be ruin in hell to all eternity! Let us cast away our cowardly fears. Come what will, let us confess Christ.

We are taught, secondly, in these verses, that there is such a thing as an unpardonable sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ declares, that "unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven."

These awful words must doubtless be interpreted with scriptural qualification. We must never so expound one part of Scripture as to make it contradict another. Nothing is impossible with God. The blood of Christ can cleanse away all sin. The very chief of sinners have been pardoned in many instances. These things must never be forgotten. Yet notwithstanding all this, there remains behind a great truth which must not be evaded. There is such a thing as a sin "which shall not be forgiven."

The sin to which our Lord refers in this passage, appears to be the sin of deliberately rejecting God's truth with the heart, while the truth is clearly known with the head. It is a combination of light in the understanding, and determined wickedness in the will. It is the very sin into which many of the Scribes and Pharisees appear to have fallen, when they rejected the ministration of the Spirit after the day of Pentecost, and refused to believe the preaching of the apostles. It is a sin into which, it may be feared, many constant hearers of the Gospel nowa-days fall, by determined clinging to the world. And worst of all, it is a sin which is commonly accompanied