strong" in HIS POWER FOR USEFULNESS. Never does a minister of the Gospel preach so effectively as when he is conscious of his own insufficiency, when his selfism, so to speak, is gone, and he becomes the organ of Divine truths. Who are the men who have been, and still are, the most really powerful preachers, preachers whose words and spirit, go deep down into the souls of their hearers, and there work a moral revolution? Not the men of self-consciousness, men in whose formal reasoning and pretentions rhetoric egotism rides rampant. No, but those who are overwhelmed with a sense of their own weakness, and who sigh out of the depths of their nature. "Who is sufficient for these things?" As our egoism wanes, our power for usefulness waxes strong, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." "When I am weak then am I strong." Strength. "When adverse winds and waves arise, That-"As my day, my strength shall be." 'Mid smitten joys and buried loves, When sleep my tearful pillow flies, And every morning drinks my sighs, That, "As my days my strength shall be." Notes on the Epistle to the REFERRING our readers for all histerical 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. XVIII. CHRISTIAN GREETING. "ALL MY STATE SHALL TYCHICUS DECLARE UNTO YOU, WHO IS A As we read this last paragraph of our Epistle we are struck, First: With the humanity of our holy religion. There is a natural tone about the ending of every one of Paul's letters: there is the naming of men, the greeting. of friends, the talk about per sonal affairs. If the Bible were concerned only with systems, institutions, theories, doctrines, arguments, it would never be as it surely is, the great heart book of the world. Its charm is its humanness. And it is so of Christianity, because its Founder and its Theme,its Alpha and its Omega, is the Son of Man. Reading this last paragraph of the Epistle, we are struck, Secondly: With the mutual fellowship of the early churches. Between the Christians at Rome and Colosse, though the waters of the Adriatic rolled between them, there was, as these greetings indicate, intimate and intelligent personal fellowship. Passing from these introductory considerations of the the great principles to be found here, let us notice three things about Christian greetings. I. TRUE CHRISTIAN GREETING RECKONS VERY LITTLE OF SOCIAL POSITION. Who would know from the form of the greeting how vastly different were the social positions of Epaphras, the Colossian citizen, Luke, the cultured Jewish physician, and Onesimus, the runaway slave? It has been well said, "Men are not united to the Church of Christ by reason of similarity of calling, of knowledge or of position; not as rich or poor, learned or ignorant, but as possessors of a common human nature, of common feelings, sorrows, joys and hopes. Once within its pale, his riches drop from the rich man, and his poverty from the poor, and each beholds a brother soul." II. TRUE CHRISTIAN GREETING RECOGNISES FULLY THE INDIVID UALISM OF MEN. There is here no dealing with the mere mass, the group; no speaking of all with the same tones of unctuous endearment as is common in some churches to-day. No, each has a separate niche in the esteem and affection of the Apostle. In the light of this greeting we see the Church is not a huge piece of mechanism, but a family of dissimilar, though related souls. III. TRUE CHRISTIAN GREETING HONOURS GREATLY CHRISTIAN SERVICE. The only letter of introduction to a church Paul ever wrote is not to commend some wealthy or famous man, but a converted runaway slave. His epithets of praise are not those that describe rank or riches, or even culture, but usefulness. That he honours, and that the Church of Christ ought above all else to honour. Come the day when it will. Amen. Bristol. URIJAH R. THOMAS. Seeds of Sermons on St. Paul's Epistle to Philippians. Having gone through all the verses in the Epistle to the Ephesians (see "Homilist," Vol. xxii. to xxviii.), we proceed to develope, with our usual brevity, the precious germs of truth contained in this letter. The following remarks as a standing introduction, may contribute some portion of light to the whole Epistle-Notice (1) The residence of the persons addressed. Philippi-whose ancient name was Crenides-was a city of Macedonia and called after the name of Philip of Macedon, because he rebuilt and fortified it, B.C. 358, and afterwards colonised by Julius Cæsar, who invested the population with the privilege of a Roman City. It was the first place in Europe where the Gospel was preached by Paul, an account of which we have in the sixteenth chapter of the Acts. It was during his second missionary tour, and about A.D. 53.-Notice (2) The occasion of the Epistle. The contributions which the Philippians had made towards supplying the Apostle's necessities when a prisoner at Rome, evidently prompted its production.-Notice (3) The scene from which the Epistle was addressed. That it was from Rome where he was a prisoner is clear, from chapters i. 1-13, iv. 22. It would seem from the Epistle that he was expecting a speedy decision of his case, and hoped to obtain his release. Epaphroditus had been despatched to him from the Philippian Church with pecuniary contributions for the Apostle's relief, and on his return the Apostle entrusted this letter for conveyance. This would be about A.D. 63.-Notice (4) The general character of the Epistle. It is all but free from any censure, and breathes a warm and generous feeling through every part. The Epistle gives us the impression that the Philippian Church was one of the most pure, consistent, and generous, of that age. About 40 or 50 years after this Epistle was written, we are informed that Ignatius, on his way to martyrdom passed through Philippi, and was most warmly received in that city.] No. XI. THE MORAL HISTORY OF THE CHRISTLY SPIRIT. "LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS," ETC.-Phil. ii. 5-11. "FROM a practical introduction in the familiar exhortation to follow the example of our Lord, St. Paul passes on to what is perhaps the most complete and formal statement in all his Epistles of the doctrine of His great humility. In this he marks out first the incarnation, in which, "being in the form of God, He took on Him the form of a servant," assuming a sinless but finite humanity; and next the Passion, which was made needful by the sins of men, and in which His human nature was humiliated to the shame and agony of the cross. Inseparable in themselves, these two great acts of His self-sacrificing love must be distinguished. Ancient speculation delighted to suggest that the first might have been even if humanity had remained sinless, while the second was added because of the fall and its consequences. Such speculations are indeed thoroughly precarious and unsubstantialfor we cannot ask what might have been in a different dispensation from our own, and moreover, we read of our Lord as "the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. xiii. 8; see also 1 Pet. i. 19), but they at least point to a true distinction. As the "word of God" manifested in the incarnation, our Lord is the treasure of all humanity as such; as the Saviour through death, He is the especial treasure of us as sinners."Dr. Barry. This is one of the grandest passages in the Bible; it has been the arena of many a theological battle, the subject of many a serinon, aye, and of many volumes too. Eschewing, as far as possible, all verbal criticism and speculation, I shall turn it to a practical account by using it to illustrate the moral history of the Christly Spirit, the spirit which the Philippians in the preceding verses are exhorted to obtain and cherish. Using it with this view, there are two great facts to be noticed. I. It is a spirit of SELF ABNEGATION. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," &c. Now this 66 says "mind" or spirit he details as developed in Christ Himself. Developed, First: In what Christ did not do. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Or, as Dr. Davidson renders the words, "Did not think equality with God a thing to be grasped at.” "The term God here and in the following paragraph," Bengel, "does not denote God the Father; the form of God does not mean the Deity Himself, nor the Divine nature, but something rising out of it. Again, it does not signify the being equal with God, but something prior, the manifestation of God, that is, the form shining out of the very glory of the invisible Deity." The form of man is not the man himself, so the manifestation of God is not God Himself. Now Christ did not seize at this manifestation, did not consider it a thing to be grasped at. Of the true Christly spirit it may be said, that when great good is to be done, it does not hold on to privileges, honours, dignities, &c. This is strikingly illustrated in St. Paul, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Phil. iii. 7). Paul details this spirit as developed, Secondly: In what Christ did do. (1) "He |