--ye that are spiritual, to whom a soul in darkness turns with quick instinct, and cries, if but with the dumb prayer of pain, for aid, If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."

III. Restore such an one.

Restore him. There is but one way.

Restore

him to God, and you restore him to his brother, to the Church, and to himself.

1. Do not imagine that you can restore him. Man can do just one essential service to his brother: he can bring him to Jesus, and leave him with Him. The highest are but ministers, to set the soul before God, and God before the soul. "Readjust," "refit," is the precise meaning of the word. That is, readjust the man's divine relations, and the rest will fall into the true order at once. The danger is, in our endeavours to restore a soul from sin, lest we aim at too much. The best service is to bring him to Jesus, and leave the rest with Him. You may have formed strong convictions as to the nature of the transgression. You could discourse long and ably on the theme, to bring your brother to a humbling sense of his fault. Beware lest it be your righteousness, the right as it seems to you, rather than God's righteousness, as God can show it to him, with which you are seeking to readjust him:

beware lest you be seeking, under specious guise, a victory rather than a soul. Beware, above all, of homilies on transgression. Be sure that God is reading to him a sterner homily than any that can fall from your lips; or if not, yours will be worse than useless. There is but one thing in the universe which can convert him-the vision of the Cross. Restore him. Don't crush him, lift him; lift him, as Jesus lifted that heart-crushed woman whose sorrow broke in a rain of tears at his feet; or like the Good Shepherd, who, having lost one sheep, left the ninety and nine and went after the lost one until He found it, and lifting in His arms, laid it on His shoulders rejoicing, and brought it home.

The Father's grief, the Saviour's pain and sorrow, these are the great forces in the hand of the Spirit, whereby he that is of the Spirit, he that is spiritual, may convince and restore souls. The great matter, the greatest, is to get a is to get a fallen brother or sister to believe that the very intensity of the Righteous Father's hatred against sin, is the measure of His sorrow that a soul should be ensnared by it, should be befouled by its stains, and buried in its pit-that every act, every thought of continued transgression is a fresh and shameful question of the earnestness of that purpose of Redemption which sealed itself on Calvary, a fresh wound to the tenderness of the Father's and the Saviour's love. The most admirable exhor

tations, the most clear expositions of the duties which have been neglected, or the injury which has been inflicted, will be powerless in comparison with the thought, that you have grieved and wronged a love which clings to you more tenderly at this moment of sin and wretchedness, because you most need its ministries, which receives fresh wounds each moment that you harden yourself against it in pride and impenitence, and will receive the last and sharpest wound that you can inflict, if you break away from its pleadings, and refuse to believe that its best and most joyous welcomes await your return.

The tenderness of the love of God in Christ to the wretchedest sinners, yea to the rebellious also, though the Church has been talking and the world has been hearing of it for eighteen centuries, is all unfathomed still. The meaning of Calvary has yet to be explored. Could we make that love to sinners which inspired the prayer, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," glow in our words and tremble in our tones, the Church had long ere this restored a sin-lapsed world. It is the one overmastering power everywhere, the tale of Calvarythe one triumphant antagonist of sin. To the worst reprobates on earth, could my voice reach them, I would cry, "Care for yourselves, for Christ cares for you; save yourselves, for Christ is saving you; conquer this sin, for it pierces afresh the

Friend who was 'wounded for your transgressions, and bruised for your iniquities,' even unto death. Abandon that sin, for there is One on high who must share the sorrow with which it comes laden; the misery to which you doom yourself must press as a burden on your merciful Saviour's heart." If that thought will not unseal the fountains of tears, the ablest homilies, the sternest denunciations, are vain.

Brethren, ye which are spiritual, ye who can enter into the mind of Christ about sin, and make sinners understand the measure and the quality of His love, bear ever His charge in mind, "As my Father hath sent me into the world, even so send I you." There are a thousand enterprises, a thousand missions, on which the world can send its children. Christ, in the Church, has but one-to seek and to save the lost. Be ye His helpers. Spend, yea, be spent, in the enterprise to which, unseen, all Heaven is assistant, and whose fruits outlast eternity. Live for the help of souls, in their struggle against evil; live to deepen their faith in the force of the redeeming love of God. And if--for

"The Son of God, in doing good,

Was fain to look to heaven and sigh;
Nor can the heirs of sinful blood

Seek joy unmixed in charity "

cross-bearing, you have to fulfil that ministry; if weeping you go forth, bearing that precious seed,

if, as you watch for the harvest of your toils and watch fruitlessly, the hands hang down, the heart fails, the spirit faints, and is ready to abandon its mission in despair, remember the long-suffering patience and hope of Christ-remember what He sees, and you cannot see, of the harvest of His toil and pain beyond the river of death, and go forth to your work re-inspired. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He which goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."