was Then he is not a Christian husband after this model. "Children obey." Cultivate the spirit in which the child Jesus went down to Nazareth, and subject to his parents. Such a going down prepares for the true exaltation, such subjection qualifies for subsequent sovereignty. "Fathers provoke not." Avoid the harshness, and even the thoughtless exactions from your children by which their spirits will become sullen, hopeless, moody. They will want spirits that parents have helped to make buoyant, not that parents have broken. III. THE MOTIVE FOR FULFILLING THE DUTIES OF FAMILY LIFE IS DIVINE. Whilst secondary motives are thus given to fathers, &c., we find in the pas sage the highest motive is again and again pressed. "In the Lord," "well pleasing to the Lord," 66 as unto the Lord," &c. Such a life as Paul described can only be achieved by the force of sufficient motive. And such motive he supplies. Here is argument enough for such a course of conduct, inspiration enough for such a spirit of family life. "In the Lord." There is a wonderful fulness of meaning in that phrase as the Greek language employed it. But not a profounder fulness than the Christian experience interprets when it shows Jesus to be the Source of Motive, the Circle of Duty, the very Sphere of Being to the Christ-loving man. 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 gems 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.258, 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.] AN IDEAL LIFE No. VII. BLOOMING INTO A HAPPY DEATH. "FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST, AND TO DIE IS GAIN." Phil. i. 21. Paul, having expressed in the close of the preceding verse his supreme resolve that Christ should be magnified in his body, whether it be by life or by death, here describes the life he was determined to live, and the death which he was certain to realise. The subject of these words is an ideal life blooming into a happy death. Here is "For to An I. An IDEAL LIFE. me to live is Christ." utterance this terse and pithy, carrying the divinest idea of life. The meaning may be thus expressed: living, I shall live Christ. I shall live as He lived, with the same master purpose and inspiration. In relation to this life two remarks may be made, First: It is sadly rare. Indeed, it is rare to live at all, living and existing are widely different conditions of being. All who breathe, sleep, eat, drink, follow out rare. their animal instincts, exist, but none but those who have some dominant purpose that fires their passions and concentrates their faculties live. To live means earnestness in some pursuit or other; the pursuit may be political, martial, mercantile, literary, artistic, or religious, and all who are earnest in their quest may be said to live. But this kind of life is Millions exist on this earth for seventy years and do not in this sense live one day; whereas those who have lived earnestly have become grey and old in a single night. The martyr, the night previous to his execution, lives years in a few hours. The thoughtless thousands who bowed to the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up existed, the three Hebrew youths lived an age the night before they were thrown into the fiery furnace. Saul of Tarsus lived the three days and three nights after he was divinely smitten with the conviction of sin, while he lay still and sightless. Indeed, to be earnest in anything is to live. If you take a census of those who exist on the earth you have only to count the numbers that breathe, and they are legion; but if you take the census of those who live you must count the souls that are really in earnest, and they are in a terrible minority. But whilst it is rare for men to live at all, it is far rarer for men to live to Christ, to live the ideal life, the life in which all bodily impulses are governed by the intellect, and all the intellectual faculties governed by the conscience; and all the powers of the conscience ruled by the will of God. To live as Christ lived is to become incarnations of Him. This was the life that Paul determined to live, and with this determination he brought all the rivulets issuing from the heart ocean of his being into the majestic stream of a Christly philanthropy and devotion. Alas, again, how rare this life. If the masses of men who are really in earnest, and who therefore live, were to express their belief, they would say, for us to live is wealth, power, science no more. Christ is no more to them than any of the gods of Olympus. In relation to this life we remark Secondly: It is manifestly imperative. It is urged on every man by the authority of reason, conscience, and the gospel. Here is― II. An ideal life BLOOMING INTO A HAPPY DEATH. "To die is gain." To whom? To the man whose life is Christly. It is not gain to those who live to First: On account of what it takes away. Physical afflictions, secular anxieties, mental imperfections, moral depravities, spiritual temptations; in one word, all that pains the body, deludes the judgment, saddens the heart, and deadens the conscience. Death is "gain" to the Christly man Secondly: On account of what it bestows. Perfection in his being, character, friendships, worship, enjoyments. Death is indeed then "gain." Shall the Christ-living man dread it? Shall the diseased man dread the hour in which he leaves his couch of suffering and weakness, and goes forth into the green fields of nature with vigorous limbs and buoyant health? Shall the exile dread the hour when the barque that bears him from the scenes of long banishment shall touch his natives shores? Shall the prisoner under the sentence of death dread the hour, promised by the clemency of his sovereign, when his fetters shall be struck off, and his dungeon door be opened, and he shall go forth to family and friends again? Sooner may this be than a Christ-living man dread death. Life in Comparison with Eternity. "THE world is but our nursery, And heaven our manhood stage; Eternity our age; And all earth's little griefs and joys, "A spark of an immortal fire, Edmeston. Homiletical Breviaries. 66 No. CCCXLI. Four Attributes of Divine Love. "HE SHALL GATHER THE LAMBS WITH HIS ARM AND CARRY THEM IN HIS BOSOM."-Isaiah xl. 11. this than in first Such power was Saul of Tarsus tokens of the ISAIAH tells us here: I. Of the STRENGTH of the Divine love. He shall gather with his arm." Often it would be a matter of physical power to gather some weak and utterly helpless, or still more some wild and struggling lamb, into the shepherd's arm. Always it is a matter of moral power thus to gather the souls imaged in such sheep. The power to overtake and elevate such an one as Saul of Tarsus is no power less "than the arm of the Lord revealed;" "The arm of the Lord made bare." "He shall carry in his bosom." Even greater power is involved in gathering in the arm. The power of endurance. that of the Divine love in Christ towards Peter. gathered, Peter borne and borne with, are such Divine life as Isaiah here figures in the Shepherd. He tells: II. Of the GENTLENESS of the Divine love. There is the exemplification of the tenderest gentleness when the Shepherd thus gathers in His kind. arm, and then shelters in His warm bosom, the frightened or injured lamb. So with the Divine love that said to Mary, "Why weepest thou?" or to Thomas, "Reach hither thy hand." Such as these, and millions since, praise God's love with the words, "Thy gentleness has made me great." Isaiah tells us here: III. Of the PROTECTIVENESS of the Divine love. That may be the chief thought in these words. For thus carried over rough ways and steep precipices, and thus gathered from marauder or wild beasts, the lamb was safe. So the Divine love promises, "No man shall pluck out of my hand." Indeed, when God declares He will put their sins behind His back, He promises more than the intervention of His arm between soul and dangers: He promises the intervention of His entire Being. The text tells: IV. Of the ADAPTATIONS of |