judgment-scene (Luke xiii. 25, 30). A parallel to this judgment-scene is found in Matt. vii. 21, 23. It is evident that the kindred Logion-Matt. vii. 15, 20-has been inserted between the two. Luke has changed the original 'gate' into 'door' to suit the phrase of the judgment-scene; but it seems to me that he alone has preserved the original first

word of the line 'strive' which is omitted by Matthew. This pentastich has an introductory line of exhortation, followed by two antithetical couplets contrasting the two ways.

The following is the best specimen of introverted parallelism that can be found in the entire range of the Wisdom literature:

Music.

THE earthly echo of eternity.

IN its tones the successive waves of the sea of eternity beat on our hearts, we who are standing on its shores, and are yearning to embark. Art thou the evening zephyr of this life or the morning breeze from a future one?

Love.

As Moses died because God kissed him, so may thy life be a long kiss of the Eternal One.

IF thy friend have a quarrel with thee, furnish him with an opportunity of doing thee a great favour.

THE noblest love can forget no one, for it is built on the needs of man, not on his qualities.

HE who has not where to lay his head often suffers less pain than he who has not where to lay his hand.

WHY do we not thank God every time a man finds some one he can love, even although he may not at once be loved again, or even ever?

MAKE others happy, for with each one you gladden, you bless others also who belong to him. For the same reason forbear to wound.

How often have I longed to be present at all the reconciliations of the world,-for no love moves us so deeply as returning love.

THERE are those that are linked together from their very cradles, their first meeting is but a second one, and they bring to each other, as do long-parted ones, not only a future, but also a past.

LOVE but one warmly and purely, and thou lovest all. LOVE needeth verily no explanation, only Hate needeth such.

Memory.

THAT Indian summer of human joy.

True Wisdom.

RE great enough to despise this world, be greater in order

to esteem it.

IF self-knowledge be the road to virtue, then is virtue yet more the way to self-knowledge.

God revealing Himself.

THE Eternal One has shown His name in the heavens in glistening stars, but on the earth in soft flowers.

How unbrokenly the rainbow hovers over the stormy waterfall! So standeth God in heaven, and the streams of time are plunging and roaring, yet over all the waves hovers the rainbow of His peace.

EVERY virtuous man, and every wise man is a direct proof that God eternally lives; and every one that suffers without cause.

Do thou rejoice in that which can never depart from Thee, in Him who is at once the greatest and the most beautiful of all objects of joy, who has given thee all, thyself and Himself.

EVERY devout soul is a word-a look-from the allloving One.

Self-revelation.

A MAN never shows his own character more clearly than when describing another one.

THERE are words which are deeds.

PRAYER is a keeping silence, not only with the lips, but with the thoughts. But the great Spirit, who knoweth our

weakness, has given us brethren, in order that we may reveal ourselves to them, and so complete the prayer that we have begun.

THERE is a shining order that marks the nobler soulhe raiseth his eyes to the higher life even in his very joys.

THE tears flow faster and heavier the less the earth can give you, and the higher above it you stand,- -even as the clouds which are farthest from the earth send the largest drops.

WE accept contradiction or blame far more willingly than is believed, only we can bear none that is hasty, even if it were just. Hearts are flowers. To the light falling dew they remain open, but they close themselves before the heavy raindrops.

CERTAIN people appear hard in the very moment of tenderness or emotion. They are like the snow, which freezes shortly before melting.

To a strong character, great joys and great sorrows serve as heights from whence to survey the whole path of life.

'GIVE me great ideas,' a great thinker used to exclaim. Grace is one of the greatest ideas that ever entered the mind of man. And it is as delightful as it is great. It is also so intelligible that a child can understand it. We can scarcely exaggerate its expulsive and creative power, for the apostle says: "By the grace of God I am what I am'; and Samuel Rutherford confesses: 'I am grace's man.'

This idea belongs exclusively to the Christian religion. For it is found in no heathen religion, in no pre-Christian writer. The gods of Greece | and Rome had no touch of grace about them, except in their pictures and statues; they were mean and envious towards one another, and specially so towards man. The name for prayer was votum, which means a mercenary bargain, an offer made in the hope of bribing their gods, or buying off their anger beforehand. I am not aware that there is one graceful heathen idol on the face of the earth to-day. The heathen gods of to-day are selfish and malignant, the horrid projections of the natural fears of the consciencestricken. The heathen do not pray to them for good things, but only deprecate, or pray-off, evil things. Devil-devil is the only word for god among the Australian aborigines. This original word must mean that to their thinking all the gods are doubly devilish. Demonology is their theology.

A passion for clear ideas ranks high among the noblest endowments of the thinker and teacher.

It is often baffled in the theologian; but it may be gratified by the study of grace.

Etymology is here the handmaid of theology. Xápis, as the last article showed, is that which has charm and gives joy. Gladness is thus an essential part of our idea of grace.

Analysis shows that the Bible idea of grace is not perfectly simple; for it embraces grace both in its fountain and in its streams, grace in the heart and in the hand of God. The former is incommunicable, the latter is for us. This idea, logically divided, contains 'the grace of God,' and 'the gift by grace.' But this distinction need not embarrass our study, as each text and context shows which side of grace is intended.

Our average hearers miss much by not catechising themselves closely upon their conception of grace. They often confound grace and love. Now there can be no grace without love, but there may be love without grace. Love unites those who are like each other; it finds equals or makes them; it is the intensity of the feeling which recognised likeness creates. Grace has not play between equals or those who are like each other. Love flows forth on a level; grace flows down to the sunken. The Queen loves her children, but shows grace to her subjects. God's love in presence of our sins reaches out a saving hand to us in our deep degradation. That is grace in action. It is God's amazing, stooping love pouring itself out, with infinite delight, upon the unloving and unlovely, and finding its reward in

the gladness which comes from the act. It is God's free favour to those who deserve nothing but punishment, the whole of God's loving kindness to sinful men.

'Grace and mercy' is a double phrase, which helps to reveal the scope of the idea. Grace and mercy are twin sisters, and their mother's name is love. Grace is God's love in action towards the sinful; mercy is God's love in action towards the miserable. As we are both sinners and miserables, grace and mercy are to be distinguished, but never divided. In the saint's heart, as in the formula of benediction, they always go together, and their united product is peace.

We find the salt of the ocean in shining crystals on the shore, but we also find it in solution in every drop of sea-water. Grace pervades the Bible as the salt pervades the sea. This masteridea of grace has nearly as many facets as the flashing diamond. Let us note a few of them.

1. Grace is the very crown of God's attributes, 'His darling attribute,' from which He takes His title, as His whole nature is seen in it. Mercy and judgment both belong to God, but not in the same sense. 'He delighteth in mercy,' but judgment is His alienum opus, 'His strange work.' Contrast God's delay in punishing Adam in Eden with the father's eager haste in welcoming the returning prodigal: He walked then, nor did He start till 'the cool of the day'; but the father ran at once, and with his kiss of forgiveness he cut short the prodigal's confession in the middle. Punishment is thus God's work, not properly, but improperly, through the sin of man; the work of His hand rather than of His heart. He punishes with an unwilling willingness'; but salvation is 'according to the good pleasure of His will.' He is pleased with nothing that He willeth so much as with this. He is thus called 'the Father of mercies,' never 'the Father of revenges,' though He takes vengeance on our inventions. Grace is thus an essential and eternal property in God's nature. But it is not the only property; for He is love, and light, and a consuming fire.

2. Outgoing or action belongs to the idea of ' grace. God, the giver of grace, is as the sun (Ps. lxxxiv. 11). Now the sun is 'the hearth of the universe ;' for the sun to be is to shine, and to shine is to give. Grace is an ocean seeking an outlet upon the dry land, as a full spring that must overflow and bear every barrier down. Bonum est sui diffusivum. The genius of grace, its divine necessity, its business is to go forth. It is God's nature, as it is His joy, to impart.

3. Grace implies sin, and such sin as makes self-salvation impossible. Grace can reign only among those who have sins to be forgiven and wants to be supplied. We are never told that God offers grace to the unsinning angels. Το minimise sin is to minimise the grace that pardons and conquers it. The doctrine of sin and the doctrine of grace flourish and decay together.

4. Grace always gives freely. 'Gratia, nisi gratis sit, non est gratia,' says Augustine. 'A deserved grace' is as unthinkable to the logical and theological mind as a 'holy sin' or 'a learned ignoramus.' A deserved grace ceases to be grace, and must take the name of justice. Grace is not of merit, but merit is of grace. 'Freely by His grace' might be written across every page in the New Testament. Its theology is the gift theology. Even its rewards are rewards of grace. Yet Faber somewhere speaks

of 'freights of merit shipped hourly from the harbour of faith for the suffering church in purgatory.'

5. Grace covers the whole of salvation, from its first purpose in the heart of God, through all its developments in time, and on to its final consummation in glory; and it also covers the whole of a Christian's experience. Thus we speak of preventing grace, pardoning grace, restraining. grace, etc., dying grace, and the grace of final acceptance. Grace and gracings-Xápis, Xápiopara-that is the Bible style everywhere. Each power for service is a Charism. The whole New Testament palpitates with grace. All the sacred writers work con amore in the climates and life-sphere of free grace.

HEAVEN. BY J. HUNT COOKE. (Baptist Tract & Book Society. Crown 8vo, pp. 128. 2s.) Something of what Mr. Cooke tells us here of Heaven is told in Scripture of the City of God. And the City of God is not just Heaven. But he uses the word familiarly. And he speaks familiarly about it. He gathers together and plainly opens up the meaning of most of the things we find in Scripture concerning the future state of the blessed. It is a fascinating subject, and this book will find a ready welcome.

MORALE CHRÉTIENNE. PAR JULES BOVON, D.D. (Lausanne: Georges Bridel et Cie. 8vo, pp. 437. 8 fr.) There is no spot on the face of the earth that feels a keener interest in the study of theology at the present moment than the Canton de Vaud. Professor Bovon is one considerable manifestation of it. No man who himself had not, or who was not surrounded by men who had, the keenest interest in systematic theology would have undertaken so great an enterprise as this 'Study in the Work of Redemption.' Two immense volumes have already appeared on the Theology of the New Testament, and two on Christian Dogmatic. This is the first of the two that bring the undertaking to completion, and deal with Christian Ethic.

What has been said on previous volumes might be repeated on this. But it is not necessary. It is enough to say that Professor Bovon's reading covers every country and every age; and yet his work has all the delight of the independent and original thinker. His style is limpid as the running rivulet; and while we never hesitate as to what he means, we never fear that he means to lay any other foundation than that is laid, or build upon it anything but gold and silver and precious

stones.

THE MISSION OF ST. AUGUSTINE TO ENGLAND. BY ARTHUR JAMES MASON, D.D. (Cambridge: At the University Press. Crown 8vo, pp. xx, 252. 5s.)

This is a companion volume to the late Archbishop Benson's St. Cyprian. The subject is different, and differs in time. The author is dif ferent. Yet it is a companion, for Archbishop

Benson suggested this book, sketched the plan of it, saw it begun, encouraged its progress, and just missed giving it his blessing. It is the story of St. Augustine of England told from the original sources, and the sources themselves are here,— chiefly Bede, of course, and an excellent idiomatic translation of them. Then there are notes and explanations; and the whole is rounded off with four most valuable dissertations on various important problems by various men. It is the story of St. Augustine of England told for the first time thoroughly.

THE ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN LIGHT. (T. & T. Clark. 8vo, pp. xxvii, 416. Ios. 6d.) First came Lux Mundi by some typical Church of England writers, young and old; next, Faith and Criticism by some prominent Congregational writers, mostly young; and now comes The Ancient Faith in Modern Light by Nonconformist writers of high standing and wide experience. It is the most 'responsible' volume of the three. It is written by men who have borne the burden and heat of the day, a long and testing day; men who have come out of the great tribulation. No storm will rise over the volume; these writers have passed their storms and found anchorage. They are the men who do the world's best work; healing work it often is, and will be here; saving work it will even be, for there is no dulness or dissipation that would weary the youngest reader. There is the living mind, fearless in face of the living problems of to-day; and the young minds who come to this volume will find rest to their souls, for they will come to the mind of the Master Himself.

The writers' names and their subjects have been given, and need no repetition. One word, however, must be said on the editing. It is admirable; the Index a very model, where a model is so much needed.

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. BY STEWART D. F. SALMOND, M. A., D.D., F.E.I.S. (T. & T. Clark. 8vo, Third Edition, pp. xiv, 709. 145.)

The issue of the third edition of Professor Salmond's Christian Doctrine of Immortality so