holy in the Church than in the shop, more holy on the Sunday than on the other six days of the week. This notion, which is terribly prevalent, is a superstitious phantom, a preposterous fiction. Man, though of complex elements and faculties, is but one being, and moral in all and evermore. Even all his physical voluntary actions have a moral quality, and so have all his volitions, whether referring to the movements of bodily organs or of mental facul. ties. "Whatsoever he does in word or deed," whether in business or in worship, he is bound to do all to the "glory of God." Thirdly: It is founded on an absurd idea of mind. It supposes that the human mind is some passive substance, that can be defiled by some outward element or agent, irrespective of its own choice and effort, a kind of fabric, a piece of ware or stone that you can daub But it is not so. or wash. Nothing outward can affect the mind irrespective of itself, no force can soil or cleanse it independent of its own efforts. It can make itself filthy in scenes and services considered the most holy, it can wash itself from its pollution in scenes considered the most corrupt and vile. There is a power in the body, when in a healthy state, to appropriate whatever goes into it from external nature that is wholesome and necessary, and to expel that which is noxious and superfluous. The soul has a power analogous to this -a power to appropriate the wholesome and to expel the injurious. This power we call the transformative. Let us use it rightly-use it as Noah used it, who, amidst the blasphemy and ridicule of a corrupt generation, "walked with God" and fulfilled a noble destiny; as Paul used it at sceptical Athens and dissolute Corinth, and in Pagan Rome, who, from experience, left the world this testimony: "All things work together for good to them that love God." Another fact I predicate in relation to this spurious sanctity is III. IT IS PERNICIOUS. First: This spurious sanctity is a positive injury to its subject. The religionist who moves about the world with the dread of having his soul "defiled" by outward things, is like a man who enters a sickroom, afraid of inbreathing the disease of the sufferer, he is nervous and feels oppressed by the atmosphere, his buoyancy and brightness for the nonce have quitted him. The spurious saint lacks naturalness, buoyancy, and elasticity of soul, there is no joyous humour in the eye, no manly ring a in the voice, there is the pietistic face, the whining voice, and the dreamy eye. He is afraid of being "defiled," and he shuns the scenes of innocent recreation, he trembles all over in the presence of heretics and schismatics. Poor creatures, quit the world and retire to the scenes of monks or nuns! Secondly: Secondly: This spurious sanctity is calumny on true religion. The religion of Christ is happiness. "These things have I spoken unto you that your joy may be full." He came to bring the soul out into perfect freedom and to pour into it "joy unspeakable and full of glory." I am disposed to believe that the teeming thousands of sanctimonious men and women that crowd churches and chapels, talking in sepulchral tones and pulling long faces, are far greater obstructions to the progress of Christianity than all the sceptics of the day, for they misrepresent the religion of the Son of God. CONCLUSION: - Among the many practical lessons that may be drawn from this subject there is one applicable especially to parents. It is always a deeply anxious period in the history of a pious parent when the time comes to send his children out in the wide world to engage in such pursuits as may be the most conducive to their advancement and usefulness in life. This profession is thought of and given up because of the temptation with which it is associated. That business, though lucrative, is renounced because of the fallacious and dishonest principles on which it is conducted, and the depraved circle, with which it stands connected. There is not a single department of secular life that can be thought of as suitable for his child, that is not beset with perils to his innocence and virtue. And when, after much anxious thought and prayer, he decides on that which is least objectionable on moral grounds, still he is anxious. Which is the way to meet this parental difficulty? Teach the child that his Maker has endowed him with powers of mind and thought that will enable him to stand against all outward temptation; that if he is true to the spiritual nature which kind heaven has given him, he can pass through the most fiery assaults of the devil unscathed, move through the most polluted scenes without a moral taint. Teach him that his safety is in reliance upon the right use of his own faculties and in the blessing of his God. Teach him that it is not the unchaste conversation, the filthy song, the profane expression that may go into his ear, that will defile him but the use he makes of these. Teach him that he has a power to turn wickedness to his own spiritual advantage, that he may "Gather honey from the weed, And make a moral of the devil himself." Notes on the Epistle to the Colossians. REFERRING our readers for all historical and critical remarks about this Epistle to the able Commentaries of LIGHTFOOT and ELLICOTT, and FARRER'S more recent" Life and Work of St. Paul," it is nevertheless necessary to carry into and throughout our consideration of the entire Epistle, what was its main purpose. Throughout St. Paul is dealing with the twofold evil that had arisen in the Colossian Church-an error half Judaic, half Gnostican error that was theological and practical. It arose from the wrong conception of matter as inherently evil and as demanding intervening mediators between the material system of things and God; and at making abstinence from contact with material things, as far as might be possible, very incumbent on the godly. This error has its modern analogies in Sacerdotalism, and in Pietism. To combat the error then and now the Plenitude of Christ must be preached; Christ the fulness therefore the all sufficient Mediator, therefore too the all sufficient Consecrator of the material system. The errors of the Ritualist, and of the Recluse are both met by this great fact. No. XVI. AN EXHORTATION TO PRAYER. "CONTINUE IN PRAYER, AND WATCH IN THE SAME WITH THANKS GIVING; WITHAL PRAYING ALSO FOR US, THAT GOD WOULD OPEN UNTO US A DOOR OF UTTERANCE, TO SPEAK THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST, FOR WHICH I AM ALSO IN BONDS: THAT I MAY MAKE IT MANIFEST, AS I OUGHT TO SPEAK."--Col. iv. 2, 3, 4. PAUL had been, as we have seen, describing noble and difficult duties of husbands, children, &c. He evidently felt they were so noble that they ought to be attained, and yet so difficult that he must at once suggest one way to their attainment. He has shown the goal, now he shows the path-that path is prayer. Husbands, wives, all who would become what I have described, "Continue in prayer." In his exhortation to prayer we may notice I. SOME ELEMENTS IN ALL TRUE PRAYER. And of these elements there is in the very front: (1) Constancy. "Continue steadfastly," as the Revised Version has it. Not fitfully, occasionally, irregularly, but with steady constancy, pray. (a) There ought to be constancy because of the need there is. The need is perpetual, for the duties to be discharged to which prayer alone can help, and the dangers to be avoided, from which prayer alone can deliver, are ever with us. (B) There can be constancy, because the opportunity is always granted. There are avenues of religious help a man may close against his brother; but not this. Excommunicated, exiled, tortured, imprisoned, he can still pray. Wherever God is, and a human soul is,there prayer can be. So Daniel, Jonah, Stephen, found. Another element is (2) Wakefulness, "watching." Not as a sleeper, but as a sentry, must the man be who prays. Understanding, emotion, will, must be awake as he who guards the city is awake to hear the first footfall of a foe, to catch the first shadow of a danger. Not in dreamy lethargy can men pray. prayer "No arrow of can reach the sky that does not fly from a heart strongly bent as some elastic bow." Another element is (3) Gratitude. "With thanksgiving." Thus the conception of prayer is evidenced, beyond that of mere petition, to that of intercourse. Prayer becomes a Eucharist. Indeed, thanksgiving is the crown and goal of prayer. Elsewhere the apostle similarly exhorts, everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God." "In II. A SPECIAL SUBJECT FOR INTERCESSION. Paul thus bespeaks prayer for |