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singularly suggestive of our distinction between the invisible God, the manifested Son, and the indwelling Spirit.

Since, according to the Egyptians, the night precedes the day, Tum was considered to have been born before Ra, and to have issued alone from the abyss of chaos. Theology reunited the three manifestations of the solar power in a divine trinity.

947.-COMMUNION OF THE HOLY GHOST.

2 Cor. xiii. 14.-" The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen." Illustrative.-When the tide is out, you may have noticed, as you rambled among the rocks, little pools with little fishes in them. To the shrimp, in such a pool, his foot depth of salt wafer is all the ocean for the time being. He has no dealings with his neighbour shrimp in the adjacent pool, though it may be only a few inches of sand that divide them; but when the rising ocean begins to lip over the margin of the lurking-place, one pools joins another, their various tenants meet, and, by-and-by, in place of their little patch of standing water, they have the ocean's boundless fields to roam in. When the tide is out—when religion is low-the faithful are to be found insulated, here a few and there a few, in the little standing pools that stud the beach, having no dealings with their neighbours of the adjoining pools, calling them Samaritans, and fancying that their own little communion includes all that are precious in God's sight. They forget, for a time, that there is a vast and expansive ocean rising— every ripple brings it nearer,-a mightier communion, even the com. munion of saints, which is to engulph all minor considerations, and to enable the fishes of all pools-the Christians-the Christians of all denominations, to come together. When, like a flood, the Spirit flows into the churches, church will join to church, and saint will join to saint, and all will rejoice to find that if their little pools have perished, it is not by the scorching summer's drought, nor the casting in of earthly rubbish, but by the influx of that boundless sea whose glad waters touch eternity, and in whose ample depths the saints in heaven, as well as the saints on earth, have room enough to range.-DR. HAMILTON.

GALATIANS.

GALATIANS I.

948.-" FOR AGES OF AGES.”*

Gal. i. 5.-"To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." [R. V.] 1 The glory.

Expository.These words are a very literal rendering of a Greek phrase which occurs many times in the New Testament, and is most frequently translated in our Authorized Version "for ever and ever." As examples of its occurrence we cite Gal. i. 5; Phil. iv. 20; Heb. i. 8; 1 Pet. iv. 11; Rev. i. 6; iv. 9, 10; xiv. 11; xxii. 5. In Eph. iii. 11, it is rendered "world without end." It is to be noted that this phrase is not used in the Gospels or in Acts; and it is also to be found in more places in the Apocalypse than in the whole of the Epistles, a circumstance we at once understand, as that book deals particularly with events extending to the far distant future. The Greek aion, which forms the basis of the expression, is a very singular word, because capable of great variations of meaning, yet having an indirect connection with each other. Made up of two words denoting "always" and "being," it is applied not only to a duration without limit, but to any long period, especially an undefined period of time. It is used also to signify a condition or state of being, as in Luke xx. 34: "The children of this world marry,” &c., and again, in Mark x. 30: In the world to come eternal life." In various places it is thus lawfully rendered "world." Occasionally, as in Ephes. iii. 9, it is applied to the successive periods of the world's history; and, in a remarkable passage (Heb. i. 2), it seems to be used to denote the various systems of the universe. Of the sudden change in the signification of it we have an instance in the Epistle to the Romans. In chap. xi. 36 we read, "to whom be glory for ever;" and, in a few verses farther on, "be not conformed to this world" (chap. xii. 2), the word aion standing for the English "ever" and "world."

Undoubtedly there is a vagueness about the common rendering "for ever and ever," though it does not misrepresent the Greek. Of eternity, considered as an abstraction, no human intellect can form any concep

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tion. A million of years is a tremendous period to contemplate, yet it is made up of a number of periods, which are conceivable of separately, and therefore the aggregate is not overwhelming. So the word "age," if understood to mean a vast yet not unlimited period, gives a certain degree of assistance to the mind when dealing with the future; and in the compound expression "ages of ages," we may grasp an idea which eludes us in the phrase "for ever and ever."-J. R. S. C.

949. PERSECUTORS BECOME PREACHERS.

Gal. i. 23." He which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed." [R.V.] 1 Of which he once made havoc.

Illustrative.-The Rev. J. Perkins, one of the American missionaries, has recorded the following remarkable anecdote in his Journal :—A physician who had been personally acquainted with the infidel Paine, had embraced his sentiments, and was very profane and dissipated. After more than a year striving against the convictions of the Spirit of God, which were so powerful, and his stubbornness so great, like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, as to bring him to a bed of long confinement, and the most awful depression of mind, he became a humble, zealous, and exemplary Christian. And as soon as his health was recovered, he qualified himself, by preparatory studies, to go forth to the world and preach that Jesus whom he had for many years considered as an impostor, whose name he had habitually blasphemed, and whose religion he had counted foolishness, and a base imposition on the world.

GALATIANS II.

950.-BAD INFLUENCE OF OTHERS.

"To whom we gave place by subjection, ne, not for an hour." Gal. ii. 5.

Illustrative.-Judge Buller, when in the company of a young gentleman of sixteen, cautioned him against being led astray by the example or persuasion of others, and said: "If I had listened to the advice of some of those who called themselves my friends when I was young, instead of being a Judge of the King's Bench, I should have died long ago a prisoner in the King's Bench."

Be sure you set your pattern right. Take not the most noisy and airy Christians, who glory in talk and censures. Take not one who hath an affectation of being religious after a new mode and fashion. Take not one

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REFUSAL TO EAT WITH OTHERS.

who seeks to raise a fame for piety only by decrying or condemning this or that form of profession, and who, if there were no differences among us, would lose very much of his reputation for sanctity; for these are only torrents that run with a violent stream ; but they are shallow, and we know not how soon they may grow dry. But propound those to yourselves for examples who are of fixed principles and sober practices; who are grave and solid, and, in all the duties that belong to a Christian conversation, labour to do them substantially rather than ostentatiously; that live within God and themselves; that have deep thoughts and solid expressions of them, and whose actions are suitable and correspondent to both.-HOPKINS.

951. REMEMBERING THE POOR.

Gai. ii. 10." They would that we should remember the poor." Illustrative.-Among the graces for which Mr. Foxe, the celebrated martyrologist, was eminent, may be noticed his extensive liberality to the poor. He was so bountiful to them while he lived, that he had no ready money to leave to them at his death. A friend once inquiring of him whether he recollected a certain poor man whom he used to relieve," he replied, "Yes, I remember him well; and I willingly forget lords and ladies, to remember such as he."

A gentleman seeing a little boy take out his purse, and give some money to a poor blind man, said to the child :-" My little friend, you do very right to assist people who are in distress; but you must have a great allowance to be so generous; or else, you are not fond of sweet things, nor of toys." "Sir," said the little boy, " mamma is very good to me; she is almost always giving me something. It is very natural to give part to the poor; to poor blind people especially; they are so much to be pitied because they cannot see the light of the sun. I give but little; if I were rich, I would give more."

952.-REFUSAL TO EAT WITH OTHERS.

2 Cor. ili. 12.-"For before that certain came from James, he (Peter) did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself." Illustrative.—If the laws of Moses concerning things and persons unclean were intended to keep the Jews from mingling with the surrounding nations, nothing more effectual could have been devised for this purpose. I know by experience that it renders it very unpleasant to reside in a Metáwely village, and is an effectual barrier against forming any intimate

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relations with them. These Metáwelies live separated, both in fact and feeling, from their neighbours, hating all, hated by all. They refuse to eat with all classes except themselves, and so it was with the Jews.Land and Book, p. 191.

Miss Gordon Cumming, in narrating the story of American Missions to the Hawaian Group, speaks of "the oppressive laws of the tabu-that terrible system of prohibitions, which in some form or other existed throughout the Pacific, embittering the lives of all men, and especially of all women." For instances of it she tells how "the highest chiefess dared not, on pain of death, taste food that had been prepared for any man, even her own son. Nor dared she ever taste the daintier sorts of fruit and fish, which were tabued for the exclusive use of men. From its earliest infancy the female child was taught to avoid the food that had touched its father's dish, as if it were poison."

953. NOT JUSTIFIED BY WORKS.

Gal. ii. 16.-"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law." Illustrative.--In the parish where Mr. Hervey preached, when he inclined to Arminian sentiments, there resided a ploughman, who usually attended the ministry of Dr. Doddridge, and was well informed in the doctrines of grace. Mr. Hervey being advised by his physician, for the benefit of his health, to follow the plough in order to smell the fresh earth, frequently accompanied this ploughman in his rural employment. Mr. Hervey, understanding the ploughman was a serious person, said to him one morning, "What do you think is the hardest thing in religion?" To which he replied, "I am a poor illiterate man, and you, sir, are a minister: I beg leave to return the question?" Then, said Mr. Hervey, "I think the hardest thing is to deny sinful self," and applauded at some length this instance of self-denial. The ploughman replied, "Mr. Hervey, you have forgot the greatest act of the grace of self-denial, which is to deny ourselves of a proud confidence in our own obedience for justification." In repeating this story to a friend, Mr. Hervey observed, "I then hated the righteousness of Christ; I looked at the man with astonishment and disdain, and thought him an old fool. I have since clearly seen who was the fool: not the wise old Christian, but the proud James Hervey."

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