test. The mountain torrent may sweep around its basis, but, having been built upon a rock, it has nothing to dread. The tempest may beat upon it, the lightning may play around it, and the destructive element may infold it in its embrace, but, having been constructed of imperishable materials, it can sustain no injury. It "abides." The law has no thunder that can shake it, the judgment has no lightning that can scathe it. Eternity has no force that can demolish it. The heavens may pass away with a great noise, the elements may melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein, may be burned up, and physical changes may occur in God's universe, the bare thought of which would now strike the boldest and most speculative astronomer with awe and astonishment; yet this spiritual edifice shall remain untouched. Having been erected upon the same principles as those upon which the throne of the Eternal stands, their period of duration will be analogous. The builder shall be rewarded. His fellow-creatures, possibly, treated him with disdain, and heaped much contempt upon his wise, faithful, and selfdenying labours. It matters not; he is now amply repaid. His reward will be a reward of grateful recollection—inward satisfaction—remunerative labour-public approval-Divine recompense. The reward shall be in proportion to the work done. "Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour." Heaven will be what we make it on earth. As we weave so shall be our crown; as we build so shall be our house; as we sow so shall be our harvest. The pleasures of memory, the commendation of conscience, the remunerative return of labour, the approving admiration of others, and the gracious recompense of God, will bear a strict analogy to the purity of our goodness, the fervour of our zeal, the self-denial of our sacrifices, the unweariness of our diligence, and the perseverance of our resolute activity in the present life.

V. THE BUILDING CONSTRUCTED OF PERISHABLE MATERIALS SHALL BE CONSUMED THE BUILDER SUSTAIN LOSS, BUT WITH

DIFFICULTY SAVED. "If any man's work shall be burned," &c. The very idea of erecting "wood, hay, and stubble," upon an everlasting foundation was highly imprudent. What could be more incongruous, or more indicative of misplaced labour? However, such a building cannot stand; the investigations of the last day are more than it can bear. The application of the testing element to such combustible materials will, with the rapidity of lightning, wrap it in flames, and reduce it to ashes. The fabric, while it was being reared, attracted considerable notice, and elicited many an expression of commendation and praise, but it is now proved that it was all worthless and wrong. The doctrines to which the individual held so tenaciously, and for the rejection of which he pursued others with such a vindictive spirit, were nothing but airy phantoms of his own creation, or the exploded dogmas of ignorance and superstition. The fervour which glowed so dazzlingly in his unwearied exertions was nothing but a zeal for sect, and a desire for the triumph of party. The love which seemed to burn like a seraphic flame in his devotional engagements was nothing but an excited passion, or a strong animal feeling. The elevated emotions of apparently pure and disinterested love were nothing but the kindlings of an ardent imagination. The various acts of Christian benevolence which gave his history an angelic tinge were nothing but the offspring of vanity and the love of human applause; and all the good which he appeared to accomplish, and in which he so often prided himself, was like the motives from which it proceeded-unsound and perishable. As a consequence, "HE SHALL SUFFER LOSS. Loss of labour. All that he had done, with one exception, had been done in vain. His life is now almost a blank, his history well-nigh a nonentity. Loss of inward satisfaction. There was but one thing he ever did that he can look upon approvingly: he fixed upon the right foundation. He might have reared upon it a durable building. The power was in his possession and the materials were within his reach, but he wasted his time and energy in another way. There must be a considerable destitution of tranquillity

within. Loss of hope and expectation. He expected his labour to be accepted by his Judge, and rewarded accordingly. He is now stripped of all such anticipations. Loss of reward. The recompense which otherwise would be awarded must now be withheld. A reward can never be given but in connexion with service rendered. This loss will be everlasting in its effects; it shall be a detriment to him to all eternity. The consciousness will ever accompany him, even in heaven, that he might have been elevated to a higher eminence, raised to superior bliss, exalted to a higher rank. There will be an undying conviction ever dwelling in his breast that his song might have been sweeter, his crown brighter, and his seat nearer the Eternal throne. HE HIMSELF SHALL BE saved. The groundwork abides upon which he has been erecting, and, in virtue of this, he is safe. His work shall perish, but his choice of the right foundation shall stand. There were much error and imperfection blended with all he did, yet, in virtue of the connexion which subsists between him and the great Redeemer, he is safe. His errors and defects shall be removed his labours shall be destroyed-he shall suffer loss-he shall occupy a lower place in heaven, yet he shall be safe. There has been one truth, amid all the perversions and corruptions of ignorance and superstition, triumphantly preserved;-it rode gallantly, like an ark of safety, over the tempestuous billows of religious contention and strife, ready to take up the shipwrecked soul; it shone brightly, like a lovely but a lonely star in the religious firmament, amid all the dark and stormy nights of bigotry and ignorance ;—that truth is, that faith, which connects the soul with Christ as the Foundation, is alone the condition of salvation. "Believe, and thou shalt be saved." The degree of salvation stands in proportion to the degree of moral excellence which the man attains, but salvation itself depends on faith in Christ. He SHALL BE SAVED WITH DIFFICULTY. "Yet so as by fire."

The sensations felt will be painful, and the hazard run will be great. To see the building destroyed must create some apprehensions as to the firmness of the foundation. The

situation of the man who rushes through the flames when his house is on fire, for the purpose of saving his life, is not an enviable one. There is salvation, but not without great difficulty, fear, and peril. He who is thus saved is "snatched out of the fire"- -"a firebrand plucked out of the burning."

Friend, what are the materials of which you are constructing your building? Are they such that can bear the trying elements of your probationary state, and abide the severe test of the judgment-day? or are they of a worthless and perishable character, that even now attract the frown of God's disapprobation, and that will ultimately be consumed to ashes? Having fixed upon an imperishable foundation, it is a matter of supreme importance that the edifice reared upon it should partake of the same character. Take care that there be a congruity and a fitness between the basis and the fabric : as the former is broad, deep, and immoveable, let the latter be stately, magnificent, and indestructible. Remember that there is a possibility of building a wretched cottage upon the best and firmest foundation, which every wind will shake, and which the least fire will soon consume. Feel that you are erecting for eternity, and that your dearest and most lasting interests are involved in the undertaking; realize the thought of the constant watching of an omniscient Eye; live in the contemplation of the great day of trial; ever carry with you the conviction, as each addition is made to the superstructure, that "every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."

D. EVANS.

Germs of Thought.

Analysis of Homily the Sixty-ninth.

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of," &c.— Gen. xxviii. 12-18.

THE number and state of man's faculties determine the extent and character of his universe. Had he fewer and weaker faculties, the outward creation would have fewer qualities and smaller dimensions, and contrariwise. We see more in the outward creation than the other sentient tenants of this earth, because we have a greater variety of faculty. We see far less, probably, than other beings, because we possess not the variety and extent of their capacity. Were we to be invested with some new faculty, or were some existing faculty now dormant to be called into action, our outward sphere of being would spread out its proportions, put on new forms of beauty, and teem with new life. Even now the magnifying lens gives us new worlds. Hence modesty becomes us in predicating what is, and what is not. Our experience measures not a millionth-parth of the universe; or, in the cant language of the day, the "objective" will ever stretch in immeasurable districts beyond the limits of the "subjective."

These remarks are suggested by the vision of the patriarch. Here alone, at Bethel, in the stillness of the night, with stones for his pillow, and naught but the sable heavens for his cover