man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied." Would God that through the congregation of Christ's people there passed the deep and earnest Amen.

Ah, my

"Bear ye one another's burdens." readers, every person's soul is the theatre of a great war. Now in one form, and now in another, there is the same contest in all—the contest between the light and the darkness, the truth of heaven and the lie of hell. What we owe to every one is to help, to give what aid we can to him, that the light may comprehend and overcome the darkness. What can

I do in this direction to the one beside whom God places me? How can I relieve him? Is there any knot that I can disentangle? Is there any net from which I can deliver ? Is there any way by which I can bless? Suppose that there is something evil between him and me, that I feel he has wronged me, been unkind to me, or hurt me—never let my thoughts rest on how all this affects me so much as on how all this is affecting him; what mischief it is doing himself; and, bidding pride away, let me reflect how I can act with a view to his deliverance. I pointed out, in the beginning of this paper, that there is no opposition between the com

mand, "Bear one another's burdens," and the assertion, "Every man shall bear his own burden;" let me at the close indicate "a more excellent way" of harmonizing the two. In bearing another's load, the Christian really bears his own. For what is that but the discharge of the responsibility which rests on us personally, and for which none can hold our proxy? There is a verbal difference in connection with this which it is interesting to notice. The Greek word "burden" in the one sentence of the apostle is a different word from that used in the other. As Dr. Lightfoot expresses it, the one suggests the idea of "a load of which a man may fairly rid himself when occasion serves;" the other speaks of "a load which he is expected to bear," like the kit which each soldier carries containing his own provisions. Every man, then, has such a kit, and what he carries in it is responsibility for his individual fulfilment of the law of Christ. I may not be responsible for the burden which I see is weighing another down. But I am responsible as to the bearing of it. Nor is the obligation removed by the conduct of others. For what they are towards me I am not called to account-that is their burden; I am called to account for what I am towards them: if they are unbrotherly, that is no reason why I should be unbrotherly. The Lord

will prove the work of all. My readers, responsibility is only another word for sacrifice; it is the law of the life which is truly given to the Lord.

Such is the bliss of souls serene,

When they have sworn and steadfast mean,
Counting the cost, in all t'espy

Their God, in all themselves deny.

Oh, could we learn that sacrifice,

What lights would all around us rise!
How would our hearts with wisdom talk

Along life's dullest, dreariest walk!

IV.

A Rule for the Road.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"-MICAH VI. 8.

HOSE words are these?

In the fifth

verse of the chapter we are told of a consultation between Balak, king of Moab, and Balaam, the son of Beor. It is thought by many that the sixth and seventh verses contain the substance of the problem set by the king before the heathen soothsayer, and that the sentences before us are expressive of his reply. In which case we are bound to regard them as in many ways striking. Striking in themselves; striking as an illustration of the heights of vision to which, apart from the influence of habitual piety, the mind may attain; striking, especially, as proving that there may be discernment of truth whilst the heart refuses to receive it-that a man may know what righteousness is, may feel its beauty, may have

some measure even of aspiration towards it, and yet remain himself unrighteous, act in contradiction to the voice of his own reason and at higher moments the prompting of his own spirit. Certainly the sketch of Balaam, in the Book of Numbers, exhibits this perversity. How strange the contradiction ap.. parent in his character!—a man "whose eyes were opened, who saw the vision of the Almighty," yet in the whole bent of his mind was disobedient to the vision; loving the wages of unrighteousness, but prevented from touching them; forced to take up his parable and bless, when all the while cursing was in his heart; the incarnation of falsehood, yet for the time a prophet of God. But whether or not the words we are considering were his, or, as others suppose, the saying of the prophet to an inquirer as to the way of the Lord, they commend themselves to our attention as a most distinct exposition of what is essential in religion and what is necessary in conduct, of the great demand of God on the obedience of man.

They are set, you see, in opposition to the notions interpreted in the question, "Shall I come before the Lord with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the