THE TREES OF THE LORD; A SPRING DISCOURSE.

"The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars which he hath planted.-Psa. civ. 16.

Or the great order of pine trees, honoured of God to perform the most important services in the economy of nature, and more useful to man than any other kind, one group, that of the cedars, stands out in distinct and well-marked prominence. Of the cedars of Lebanon, the cedars of the Himalaya, and the cedars of the Sierra Nevada, there are various reasons why the Lord may be said to have a special interest and property in each of them, they are "trees of the Lord."

I. ON ACCOUNT OF THE PECULIARITIES OF THEIR STRUCTURE.

They reveal a new idea of the creative mind. They are neither Phonogamo, or flowering plants, nor Cryptogamo, or flowerless, and have many points of alliance with clubmosses. They combine the

the

highest appearance with the lowest structure, and are thus links binding together the two great orders of vegetation. In them we have an example among plants of a common principle in God's moral procedure towards His creatures, choosing the weak things of the world to confound things which are mighty, and giving more abundant honour to that which lacked. Into the earthen vessel of the humble organisation of the cedars He has poured the glory of the highest development, that the glory may be seen to be all His own. And in this wondrous combination of types in the "trees of the Lord" we have a dim foreshadowing of "Him who dwelt in the bush ;" who united in Himself the highest and the lowest, God and man, in one person for ever; and who still, though in the midst of the throne, dwells with the man that is of an humble and contrite heart. The cedars are "trees of the Lord."

II. ON ACCOUNT OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THEIR TYPE. Of this class Preadamite forests were principally composed. In every stratum in which arborescent fossils occur we can trace this antique tree pattern. We burn the relics of extinct cedars in our household fires as the microscopic investigation of the coal formation reveals. They form the evergreen link between the ages and the zones, growing now as they grow in

the remote past, inhabiting the same latitudes, and preserving the same appearances in bulk and figure. Universal in space and universal in time they are monuments of the unchangeableness of the Ancient of Days-proofs indisputable that the vegetable kingdom did not commence as monads, or vital points, but as organisms so noble and complicate that even the most bigoted advocate of the development theory must admit that they could not have been formed by the agency of physical force.

During untold ages the cedars were the sole examples of forest vegetation. They afford an illustration of a general law of the deepest philosophic import, namely, that the first introduced animals or plants of any class have been combining types. From the side, as it were, of those preadamite cedars God took the ribs, of which He made the graceful palm-tree to yield its welcome shade and fruit in the thirsty desert, and the beautiful apple tree to clothe itself with its bridal dress of blossoms under the smiling, tearful skies of the northern spring. Thus is illustrated that the ceaseless working of the Creator hitherto has been exercised only in the eternal unfolding of the original conception. The cedars are "trees of the Lord."

III. ON ACCOUNT OF THE MAJESTY OF THEIR APPEARANCE.

Religion and poetry have

sounded so loudly the praise of the cedar that it has become the most renowned natural monument in the world. At an elevation of six thousand feet, with their roots firmly planted in the moraines of extinct glaciers, with their trunks riven and furrowed by lightning, with the snows of Lebanon gleaming white through their dusky foliage, who can fail to feel the force of the Psalmist's words "The trees of the Lord are full of sap," &c.

HUGH MACMILLAN, M.A.

THE CORN OF WHEAT.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." -John xii. 24-26.

WE have here an illustration, set forth under the form of an analogy, of the work of Christ for us and the work of Christ in us.

I. THE ANALOGY IN THE WORK OF CHRIST FOR US. First: The sower casts the seed into the ground suggesting that the death of Christ was according to the will and appointment of God. The Father sent the Son His coming and death fore-ordained: anticipated in the Divine plan: fore

told. The cup His Father gave Him to drink. Secondly: The seed dies in virtue of its nature, because it is a seed and not a stone: suggesting that the will of Christ himself was one with His Father's. "I lay down my life of myself." His death a voluntary surrender on His part as well as an appointment on the part of the Father. In this is its virtue. Thirdly: The soil has powers in it in virtue of which the seed dies. There is a power in human nature through which Christ was brought to deathsin. The efficient cause of His death in God and Himself, not in man man the instrument, of his own choice, hence the guilt is his. Fourthly: The fruit-the result. (1.) The dying seed begets new life. Christ has introduced into the world a new life. This is true individually, socially, politically. The nature of the life is determined by the seed sown, not by the soil. Whatever varieties there may be in the Divine life as it assumes outward form, the principle of life is one. (2.) Fruitfulness by multiplying. Thirty, sixty, a hundredfold. Each community, church, heart, a centre of this process. Christ alone till He was crucified, then He began to drawn all men to Himself. His drawing mostly gentle and imperceptible as growth, as the influence of the warm sunshine and the soft rain on the new life in the soil.

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II. THE ANALOGY IN THE WORK OF CHRIST IN US (v. 25, 26). The analogy is carried on in these verses and made personal. personal. First: It is the will of God that we should lose our life-corresponding with the dying of Christ. We are to die daily. The natural man must die we cease from self only as we die to self. Secondly The will of God in this matter becomes our will as we become Christ's. This is the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man so far as the natural man is concerned, we resist; so far as the spiritual man is concerned, we comply increasingly. The blessed life is the life of perfect and cheerful compliance. The key to the whole life of Christ is self-surrender: His whole life a life of voluntary self-sacrifice; ours to be like His in this constant unceasing dying to self, and afterwards there will be the exaltation. (Ver. 26.) Life in Christ leads to likeness to Christ and to the glory of Christ.

Thirdly The attitude of the world may be as healthful to the spiritual life as the active forces in the soil to the seed. Enmity was busy about Christ at this time; they sought to kill Him, and did ultimately. Enmity about us often in proportion to our fidelity to the higher life, is of advantage as making our course and conflict clear to us. While the friendship of the

world is dangerous to us, a subtle influence, the enmity of the world, at least, will never be mistaken for the friendship of God. The planting of the seed calls forth the slumbering powers in the soil: the powers are there, the presence of an occasion awakes them. The soil only destroys the husk, but developes the life of the seed. Fourthly: The fruit. (1.) Reviving. Dying with Christ gives a new life. The new life springs from the germ within the corn; is of the same nature as the corn: human nature is

susceptible of the Divine life; there is a germ of the Divine nature in man, and this is the hope of man: the spiritual life partakes of the nature of the germ. The blade: emotions, longings, drawings-the ear: a decided life-the full corn in the ear the reliableness and certainty of a consistent and maturing life. (2.) Fruitfulness: the law of growth suggested by the figure of the seed, not only rapid and sure, but manifold.

R. V. PRYCE, LL.B., M.A.

Seeds of

(No. CCLX.)

THE INFAMOUS.

"Proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath."Prov. xxi. 24.

THERE are two very abhorrent things in the text, an infamous name and infamous conduct.

I. AN INFAMOUS NAME. "Proud and haughty scorner is his name.' The first appellative in an infamous name is pride, and this is an ignominious thing. What is pride? Exaggerated self-esteem. The proud man is one who has grossly overrated his own merits, and who lives and acts in the absurd fiction. The next appellative in an infamous name is

haughtiness. Haughtiness is pride in its last stage of moral absurdity. It is pride run into arrogance and imperious contempt. The third appellative in an infamous name is "scorner." Scorn is extreme haughtiness. The "scorner" is a man that despises every thing that does not tally with his own notions, and recognise his own imaginary superiority. A more odious character than a 66 scorner" is not to be found in any of the ranks of infamy. The man to whom this name applies must be characterized by three things.

First: By untruthfulness. The proud man lives in falsehood. He is inspired with ideas con

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Thirdly: By irreligion. The "" scorner has no reverence either for virtue, truth, God. Such is the infamous name that we have here- a name abhorrent to God and man. There are certain names in law, which if you apply to men will render you liable to an action for libel; but here are names worse than any of them, which civil law does not touch. me that a man is "proud" and "haughty," and scorning, and you will tell me that he is allied to the infernal, and that he is a child of the devil.

Tell

to his ears. There have ever

been monsters of this class. The Neros and the Julians of history. Malice, it has been said, is the devil's picture. Lust makes a man brutish, malice makes him devilish. Malice is mental murder: you may kill a man and never touch him.

CONCLUSION. Let us studiously, earnestly, and prayerfully eschew the evils that make up the infamous character in the text. Let us cultivate humility, that low, sweet root from which all heavenly virtues shoot. "Humility," says Sir Thomas Moore, "to superiors is duty to equals; courtesy to inferiors, nobleness, and to all it is safety." It is safety, because it always keeps the soul at anchor, however high the seas or boisterous the winds.

(No. CCLXI.)

SLOTH.

"The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. He coveteth greedily all the day long; but the righteous giveth, and spareth not."Prov. xxi. 25, 26.

SOLOMON here strikes another blow at sloth. It is one of his Apollyon's. We have found him battling with it many times before. Here he deals out to it another strike as he passes on. He seems to attach to it here several evils, suicide, greed, and unrighteousness.

I. SUICIDE. "The desire of the slothful killeth him." The man who is too lazy to move his limbs, or open his eyes, is not too lazy to have a "desire." Within the bosom of his lazy carcase he hatches swarms of desires, he covets social prestige, mental furniture, perhaps