glorious honour of God's majesty;" but there is no sphere too contracted for this great display; there is no position so low, that in it it will refuse to shine. The fault, dear reader, lies in ourselves; the majesty of the sun is not seen by the eye that is blind; the majesty of God in daily life is veiled, just in proportion to the darkness of our understandings. If God open our eyes, we behold wondrous things; not only out of His law, but in His daily ordering of events. Yes! in these common things, the glorious honour of God's majesty is to be seen; just as His creative majesty is visible, in the formation of the smallest grass-blade or the meanest shell. When our very daily bread comes before us, common as it is, the glorious honour of God's majesty is to be traced in it; for what was every grain of corn of which it was composed, but a separate resurrection from the dead? And how could that have been brought about, save by the glorious majesty of God? Well might the Psalmist say, "I will meditate also of all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings."

Let me add, in conclusion, one or two practical directions with reference to the "converse" upon which we have just now been dwelling. If we be God's people, let us shew the world that we have a real interest in everything connected with Him; let them see by our way of speaking of Him, and His, that we love Him, and all connected with him, in every way. And let us encourage each other, and magnify the majesty and honour of God, by bringing into our familiar converse, the one with the other, the particulars wherein we have found Him gracious, and wherein He has done wondrously for us.

We cannot tell how blessed the result, which may be thus produced. Perhaps some christian brother, dull of hearing and of seeing, will understand more of His greatness and His goodness; perhaps some little spark, which we have struck from our knowledge or experience, may kindle a flame in him; so that he may say "my heart burns within me on the way." It may be, that making use of our talent, we shall have more given unto us; perhaps we shall be kept from some evil knowledge, or evil train of thought, which, coming up in other conversation, might have done us hurt. Of this we may be sure, that the more our conversation has to do with the glorious honour of the majesty of God, the more will it be free from all that is calculated to debase, or depress the mind: the more will self, in all its varied developments, be excluded: the less will there be of those idle words, for which we must give account.

102

CHAPTER V.

Ministry and Testimony.

Psalm xli, 13.

THE "I WILL OF TEACHING.

"Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways,

and sinners shall be converted unto Thee."

TEACH

EACHING is ennobled by the great fact that God Himself is a Teacher. The three persons of the Trinity-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—are all presented to us in Holy Scripture in the character of Teachers; yea, not only of Teachers, but of laborious Teachers, carrying on their work in the midst of many impediments; and with patience, and wisdom, and skill.

It is a sad fact, that but comparatively few are alive to the vast importance of the position of the teacher. Teaching is looked upon by many almost in the same light as household work, and paid after the same rate; the tutor and the butler are looked upon alike as servants, and the master says, "I will give unto this last, even as unto thee!"

We can never degrade the teacher except at the expense of the person taught; the shaft men so often cruelly let fly, will glance aside, and do some hurt to one they love.

The teacher's mission is from God; and whether this teaching be that of masters, and mistresses in their schools; or that of the mother, who clusters her little ones around her knee; or that of the nurse, from whom the infant catches the first meaning of the different tones of the human voice; it is a mission from God: it is ennobled by God, and if it be carried on for God,—it will, in eternity, take rank amid the great things which were done by God's people, in time.

The victory which patient teaching has gained over an unruly spirit, will be thought more of than the successful issue of the most protracted siege; the devices by which, with God's blessing, stubbornness of the disposition is melted, and through which the after life becomes full of holy deeds, will be magnified above all that the man of science has done in his laboratory; above all that the skilled artizan has produced from his loom. Christ Himself will, in eternity, as the One who was the Great Teacher, assume the headship of all who were teachers after His example, and for Him; and will acknowledge as His brethren, in this respect, alike the apostle Paul, who wrote "many things hard to be understood," and the poorest Sunday school teacher, who could do little more than teach his infant class how to spell the name of Jesus. Jesus, verily, will not be ashamed to call them all brethren; they will be accounted the members of a body, of which He is the head.

Surely such a consideration as this, should cheer the heart of many, who are now, it may be, almost tempted to despond. To flesh and blood, much of their work is uninteresting; and many of those upon whom they have to carry it on, are disappointing and provoking; but

whether they succeed, or whether they do not, if they be teaching as unto the Lord, they are one, in work and interest, with Jesus; and every hour spent in labor, and every effort made, shall hereafter be acknowledged by Him.

Let us now, however, turn from the general subject of the ministry of teaching, to some of the particulars connected with it. Several are suggested to our notice by the passage immediately under consideration. We are all familiar with the circumstances under which this psalm was written; it is full of fearful realities; the realities of a broken heart; of a deep view of the holiness of God; of the awful nature of sin: there is a living personal earnestness, running through it all, which many, perhaps, of ourselves, have unwittingly acknowledged, by choosing it as the form of words, in which we confessed before God, it may be, our general sinfulness, or more probably, some recent, some decided sin.

It is in a psalm of this character, we find the words, "Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways;" and coming, as these words do, after the petitions, that God would "restore to the Psalmist the joy of His salvation, and uphold him with His free Spirit," we have brought before us the great fact, that the Psalmist's teaching will be from experience; out of the fulness of his own knowledge of God, he will minister in teaching to others.

We will now assume that the duty of ministering in teaching, is recognised by each of our readers; that you, dear reader, wish to fulfil the whole will of God; and this as well as anything else. Let me, then, direct your attention to the great importance of teaching out of your own personal experience; of using your experience for this purpose, and not letting it lie idle. Experience is