that you must be very careful of using the word God in your familiar talk, because God hath set apart that for solemn purposes; but you do not think much of swearing by heaven, or by earth, or by Jerusalem, or by your head,-you do not care how lightly you use these oaths. Now, whether you know it or not, this arises from want of reverence of God. You think it is just the name that is sacred. Oh no! Everything is sacred. God is in everything. Look up to the wide heaven over your head,-God is there: the sun speaks of Him; the firmament speaks of Him. Look at the earth,—God is there: every tree, and plant, and flower speaks of Him. Go into Jerusalem, -there is the temple in which God has promised to dwell. Think of your head, there is a witness for God: it is he who preserves every hair of it. I say then, Swear not at all.' If you trifle with an oath, you trifle with God, in whose presence you are living, and moving, and having your being."-MAURICE, iii. 34, 35-42, 43. No. III.-Vol. I., p. 247. Matthew v. 43. "So long as MAURICE is the only interpreter I have met with who considers these words as the utterance of Divine law. Israel was a nation, so long as it owned God and God owned it, the maxim, Thou shalt hate thine enemy,' expressed a duty as real, as binding, as the other to which it was appended, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour."—MAURICE, iii. 60. A man is far gone in an attachment to a hypothesis, whether hermeneutical or dogmatical, who, rather than abandon it, can take up a position such as this. The fact and the philosophy of the intentional applicability of this discourse, to Christians through all time, though it was ori ginally addressed to the apostles, has never been so clearly and beautifully stated as by Dr HEUGH, in his first expository lecture on the fourteenth chapter of John: -" Perceiving, by his own prescience, the end from the beginning, and loving his whole church as he loved the few, but distinguished, members of it who were then before him, our Lord has so arranged his discourse, and has so formed his intercessory prayer, as to embrace the interests of his people in every age, and place, and variety of circumstance, as to fit these enduring effusions of his grace and truth to instruct, to solace, to animate all his followers, as effectually as the apostles themselves. Nor is it known to any, save that omniscient Lord by whom these words were spoken, and who has been watching over-and, indeed, producing by the agency of his Spirit-the gracious effects which they were designed to accomplish, what these effects have already been, or shall yet be. Like some living fountain, which has never ceased to flow, this record of our Redeemer's words has been sending forth its influence unimpaired, refreshing the thirsty, reviving the fainting, and invigorating the weak. Like the sun in the heavens, unchanged by years, it has been enlightening the eyes' and rejoicing the hearts' of men ;-it has been diffusing through the world the warmth of spiritual consolation, and the joy and vigour of spiritual activity, from age to age. Short as it is, it has done what imposing volumes of human composition have been insufficient to accomplish. It has been a vehicle of the richest communications of the Divine benevolence to the souls of men. What a mass of satisfactory, of infallible, information, on the highest subjects to which the human mind can be turned, and connected with the chief interests and duties of all men, does it contain! What moral effects of the greatest value, of the purest and noblest character, has it already accomplished! What has it not done for the faithful followers of Christ, when it has been his will to subject them to the fiery trial of persecu 6 1 "Life of Hugh Heugh, D.D., with a Selection from his Discourses," by his sonin-law, H. M. Macgill-vol. ii. p. 3, 4. These are precious volumes. The value of the discourses may be judged of by this specimen. The memoir is invaluable for the stimulus, direction, and encouragement it is fitted to give to all, especially to ministers. tion! How have the afflicted of every class, in this world of sorrow-the poor man and the indigent-the solitary and the friendless-the widow and the orphan-the sick and the tempted -found a peace here, which they would not part with for the wealth of worlds, have found in these sayings of their Saviour, received from his lips with faith and love, their burdened and wounded hearts relieved and healed! And how often have even short sentences taken from them sustained the spirit, when heart and flesh were failing, dispelled all terror and gloom from the death-bed, and turned the shadow of death into the morning!' INDEX. I. PRINCIPAL MATTERS. "Abide in me, and I in you," what the Accomplishment of his great work by "Agree with thine adversary," what All whom the Father has given Christ 66 Angry without a cause," what the Anxiety, the unreasonableness of, i., 327. Apostates, their awful condition, i., Application of the arguments for work- Appointment of Christ to his work by under his sufferings, by his Father, "Arise, let us go hence," what the ex- "As I have loved you," what the ex- Asking in the name of Christ, the im- "Beam in the eye," what the meaning "Believe in God and in Christ," im- Benignity, divine, glorified in Christ's Birth of Christ, an event most im- "Born again," what the expression Bread of life, Christ, i., 486, 519. 66 Building the sepulchres of the pro- Casting out of the prince of this world, "Children of the light," what the ex- Christ, in accomplishing the work Christ and his Father coming to his 20 Christ's power to lay down his life and Christianity, the relation of, to the "Clean through the word I have Closet, what the entering into, means, "Come" and "believe," the distinc- Coming to Christ, our natural inability Comfort, the formation of the charac- Commandments of Christ, what are Conclusion of Valedictory Discourse, Confidence to be exercised in the finished work of Christ, ii., 495. Connection between the church on 201. "Continue ye in my love," what the "Convinceth me of my sin," what the "Corban," what the term signifies, ii., 7. Cross, the death of, ii., 295. "Daily bread," the meaning of the Danger of false principles in religion, "Death, never see," what the import Death of Christ, and the increase of Dedication, the feast of, ii., 199. Departure of Christ necessary, and Design of the Messiah's mission, i., 17; Devil, who and what he is, ii., 86; a "Disciples indeed," meaning of the Disciples of Christ fortified against the leges of the disciples of Christ, i., 134. Doctrine and law connected, iii., 287. they should do unto us," the mean- |