ship with the Father. It had interrogated nature, it had consulted priests, it had presented sacrifices of all descriptions, it had tried everything that reason could discover, that superstition could suggest; but in all it had failed! "The world by wisdom knew not God;" a depressing gloom gathered around it, its heart lost its force for any new effort: at this crisis, Christ came. "When we were without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly."

We go now to the depressed and morally infirm world, and we show it a method by which we can clear the guilt that has gathered over its conscience, satisfy the deep longings of its heart, bring it into the fellowship and friendship of its Creator and Lord. Let it believe in that method and it will get moral strength,-strength to fulfil its obligations and reach its high destiny. This, then, is the "bread" for which to spend your "money" and your "labour."

III. HERE IS THE RECOGNITION OF THE FACT THAT MAN, AS A VOLUNTARY WORKER, FREQUENTLY MISAPPLIES HIS POWER. He spends his "money" for that which is not "bread,” and his labor for that which "satisfieth not."

ment.

What is it to expend your property and labor in vain ? First To strive after power as the chief end is to do so. The love of power is an instinct in man, an instinct, which, when rightly directed, contributes greatly to his advanceBut where this instinct becomes a ruling passion, which is frequently the case, propelling and directing all the energies of the soul, it is an immense evil. It cannot satisfy. At no stage in his advancing course does the ambitious man feel at ease. Make him master of the world,let kings fall down before him; let all nations pay him a loyal homage; Would he be happy then? No. It is said, that Alexander, who had conquered the world, wept because there was not another world to conquer. Power is not "bread." Were it so, you would find that the men who had gained the highest summit, the most strong in principle, the most satisfied in soul. But it is far otherwise. Solomon, who sat on

the throne of ivory, said "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit." Ambitious men then are spending their money, talent, time, and energy, for that which is not "bread."

Secondly: To strive after wealth as the chief end, is to do so. We live in an age when the desire for wealth has become an imperious passion. Parents seek to impress the importance of money upon their children; they foster a love of riches in their offspring. They poison their young hearts with sordid thoughts. The sum of their teaching is, too often, the way to fortune. The young with fiery zeal strive after it, the old clutch it in their time-stiffened hands; all ages and all classes are running the race for wealth. It is the test of a man's respectability and worth. But wealth is not bread. It neither strengthens nor satisfies. I have read of a rich man who, on his death-bed, called for his bags of money, and having laid them to his heart, after a little while, ordered them to be taken away, saying "It will not do! It will not do!" No! Riches will not do for man as a spiritual and immortal being.

Thirdly To strive after knowledge as the chief end is to do 80. To seek knowledge is natural and right. "For the soul to be without knowledge it is not good." By knowledge we improve our own material and spiritual condition. Never, perhaps, was there an age in which men were more earnest in quest of information than this. But have mere literary and scientific men been marked by spiritual strength and moral composure? Neither scientific ideas, nor poetic creations, nor artistic embellishments are bread. Men who have been most illustrious in these respects have often been morally weak, and restless. Knowledge is not bread.

Fourthly: To strive after happiness, as the chief end, is to do so. To be ruled by a supreme desire for our own happiness, would only be to nourish that selfishness which is the very core of sin. The man who reads his Bible, attends to the ordinances of his religion, ever with the object of his own interest in view, is laboring for that which satisfieth

not. The meat and drink of the soul are to do the will of God. "He that saveth his life (said our Saviour) shall lose it." He that seeks the kingdom of God, gets the salvation of his soul.

From this subject we may infer :

First: The immense amount of waste human labor that is constantly going on in the world. Men are laboring everywhere; but for what? For what are they expending energy, time, talent, all? For what are they working their bodies and their minds? It is for that which profiteth nothing.

Eccles. ii. 1-12.

Secondly: The well-being of man consists not in the form of his labour, but in the principle that inspires and controls it. The Bible does not say that you are not to get power, or wealth, or knowledge; but it says-“Whatsoever ye do," whether you are cultivating the field, or ploughing the ocean; whether you are in the warehouse, or in the library; whether you are in recreative sports, or in the earnest toil;-" Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Love to Him must be the root uniting all the branches of your conduct, and thus giving an organic unity to your life. When this is the case every act tells in your favor, even the most menial ministers strength to the soul.

"Man, like the generous vine, supported lives

The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives."

:

Thirdly The exquisite fitness of Christianity to man's condition. It provides "bread." "The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life." The Gospel is a feast provided for all nations.

"What are you working for, brothers? Is it for power? Is it your aim to reach some pedestal around which the empty crowd shall gather and applaud? Such power is chaff, not wheat; a bubble that must burst. Is it for wealth? Thou canst carry nothing away with thee. "Naked came we into the world, and naked shall we return." Is it knowledge? "Tis all in vain," a mere ignis fatuus, which only serves to light up thy dark nature for a few short days, and then

goes out and leaves thee in utter darkness. "Labour not for the bread that perisheth." "Lay up treasure in heaven." Drink of the water which "shall be in you as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life." Eat of the " manna which came down from heaven." "inheritance which is incorruptible." which hath foundations, whose maker and builder is God."

(No. VI.)

Strive after that Seek for that "city

SUBJECT:-The Condition of Man as a Wreck.

"O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?"-Hosea vi. 4.

Analysis of Homily the Three Hundred and Twenty-second. FROM this book we learn two things, which may serve as an introduction to our present discourse.*

First That man is a wreck.

The picture which this book gives us of the Jewish people is truly a hideous and lamentable one. Sin rolls its warm, sparkling, but poisonous, current, through the veins. This picture of the Jew, alas! is the picture of Man everywhere is in moral ruin. "From the

of all. the race.

• The author of this book was contemporary with Isaiah and was a native of Israel. He lived during the reign of the last six or seven of Israel's monarchs, from Jeroboam the Second, to Hoshea; a period extending over sixty years. His prophecies, which in style are exceedingly concise, abrupt and metaphoric, are addressed chiefly to the ten tribes. Those tribes he addresses under different titles. He speaks of them sometimes under the title Israel, a name derived from the successful prayer of Jacob, one of their renowned ancestors; sometimes under the title Samaria, because it had been the capital since the days of Omri, and sometimes as Ephraim, one of the most distinguished of the tribes, and to which Jeroboam the first king belonged.

Whether the prophet addresses the people as Israel, Samaria, or Ephraim, they appear in the same hideous aspects of depravity. The idolatry which commenced under the first king at Dan and Bethel, had continued for upwards of one hundred and fifty years, and propagated corrupt principles and manners through all the varied classes.

crown of his head to the sole of his foot there is no soundness, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores.” All our notions of infinite wisdom and goodness urge us to the belief that humanity is not in its normal condition, and that some fearful catastrophe has befallen it. Physically man is a wreck. He comes into the world with a shattered frame, the most helpless of all creatures. From the dawn to the close of his brief life, he has to struggle against that tyrant death, beneath whose stroke he falls at last. His body, like a fragile barque, no sooner floats on the sea of life, than it gives signs of decay, and the first strong billow beats it down and buries it out of sight. "The moment we begin to live we all begin to die." Can it be that this was the original state of the human body? I trow not. Man intellectually is a wreck. The function of reason is to form and classify true ideas of self, God, and the universe. But such ideas we have not. Our ideas not only clash with those of others, but with our own. We are in perpetual controversy with ourselves as well as with our erring brothers. The light of instinct guides all brutes alike in the true path of life; but our reason has failed to guide us. Instead of being a sun to light up our souls, it is a dim torch flickering amidst the gusts of passion, and sometimes clouded by the thick mists of impure desires. The eye of the intellect is diseased, it is subject to optical illusions. Man morally is a wreck. He is at war with himself, at war with the universe, at war with God!

Were evidences wanted in support of the position that man is a wreck, I would compare what man is, with what our notions of Divine wisdom and benevolence would lead us to conclude he would be. I would refer to the universal consciousness of man, and show that man's ideal world ever transcends immeasurably his actual state. I would refer, in one word, to that Oracle whose decisions are ultimate. There we learn that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God;" that "All like sheep have gone astray;" that "There is none that doeth good, no not one ;" that the whole world "lieth in wickedness." Humanity is in a sad con