letter of the Mosaic law, of which he was a professed expounder, but he had imbibed little of its spirit. He was familiar enough with the term neighbour as used in the Decalogue, but he was more anxious to raise subtle questions as to the extent of his obligation to the individual or individuals thus described than to heartily endeavour to do the duty that was enforced upon him.

There is in the present day a craze for education. Everybody is to be stored with knowledge, and to be tested by examination. The coming race is to consist of erudite sages. By the universal diffusion of knowledge crime and pauperism are to be annihilated, and a millennium of peace and plenty, of civilisation and culture, is to prevail throughout the world. So the optimists dream; but their dream, it is to be feared, is an Utopian one. Even if the wisest heads and the most experienced hands were to devote their energies to the promotion of learning throughout the country, it would not follow that crime and pauperism would be obliterated from the page of our national history. With an increase of culture would doubtless come a diminution in crimes of violence and in the coarser vices of life-in brutal murders, in inhuman sports, in offensive profanity, and in vulgar debauchery; but there would not necessarily be a decrease in the more elaborate phases of human guilt. The evil passions of man's nature would still hurry him on to deeds of crime, and his increased knowledge would but make him a more crafty concealer of his offences. Indolence and greed and lust would still bring want and knavery and shame. To fill the head with knowledge and at the same time to let the evil passions of the heart grow up unchecked and un

trained, is but to prepare for the child so reared a probable future of guilt and sorrow; is but,-even in the rare case where the natural evil tendencies are kept dormant,-the substitute for the sweet loveableness of a living humanity the cold and passionless accuracy of a calculating machine. The heart must be put to school as well as the head; and if no effort be made to cultivate the good seed sown in every child's heart by God, the evil tares planted by Satan will soon spring up and flourish. A child must daily grow in grace or in disgrace. It must be apprenticed to the service of God, or its indentures will speedily be signed by another master. Mere knowledge, valuable though it be, cannot change the heart for the better. Nay, sometimes, if it be but the knowledge of evil, may change it for the worse. In happy innocency our first parents roamed amidst the bowers of Eden. The attainment of a knowledge of good and evil brought to them not only an exclusion from Paradise, but an acquaintance with sorrow, disease, and death. Knowledge can effect much for man. can make him a prophet and a king—a prophet to foretell future phenomena, a king to reign over the elements of nature; it can give to him the society of the best and wisest of mankind of every age and nation; but it cannot make him happy or holy, rather, from the insight that it gives him into the impurity, the complexity, the mystery, and the misery of life, does it tend, if unaccompanied by a loving and trustful spirit, to make men sad in the present and reckless of the future. "In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." Be ye, then, "wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil; " nor think the heart can be with

It

impunity neglected, if the head be but stored with knowledge.

IV. THAT WHEN THEY WHOSE DUTY IT IS TO DO CERTAIN ACTS NEGLECT TO DO THEM, THE DEFICIENCY IS OFTEN, IN THE GOOD PROVIDENCE OF GOD, SUP

PLIED BY SOME OTHER AGENCY.

In the parable of the good Samaritan, told for the instruction of this lawyer, we perceive how, when the priest and the Levite neglected to perform their duty, the Samaritan executed it. The lamp of the Gospel, it has been said, has never lacked bearers; as soon as one fails, another succeeds. When one in any way neglects his charge, another arises to supply his place. When any one branch of the Church of Christ ceases to exist, or neglects its duty, another branch steps forward to carry on the abandoned work. Not only is the blood of the martyrs the seed of the Church, but the palpable negligence of one is turned by God's providence into an incentive to fresh zeal in another. Hence, all the reformations and purifications of the Church of Christ have in the course of time arisen. We need not then distrust the providence of God. He can bring good out of evil. The two sacraments shall not fail in their efficacy because the priest and the Levite are unworthy of their sacred office; a good Samaritan shall always be found to give the two pence to the host. The Gospel message shall not cease to come to men with healing on its wings because the priest and the Levite are selfish and unsympathising. Into the afflicted sinner's wounds some good Samaritan will ever be ready to pour in the oil of love.

V. THAT IN THE JOURNEY OF LIFE, WHEREIN WE ARE EXPOSED TO THE ASSAULTS OF MANY FOES, IT

IS VAIN TO IMAGINE THAT WE CAN BE SAVED BY THE MERE FORMAL ORDINANCES OF RELIGION, BY THE PRIEST OR THE LEVITE; we can hope for succour only from the Good Samaritan, from Christ Himself.

How many say, "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos,"-I am an Episcopalian, I am a Baptist, I am a Methodist. How many, that is, delude themselves that they can win salvation by attaching themselves to some special religious leader or to some special religious sect. How many, again, exclaim, I am a Catholic, or I am a Calvinist, under the mistaken notion that the mere reception of some special code of dogmata, fashioned by a fallible human mind, can be of any help to them in the hour of danger and and distress. The subtle lawyer who came tempting our Lord with casuistical questions was doubtless a most diligent observer of all the outward ordinances of the Mosaic law, and had doubtless a most correct and accurate knowledge of the phraseology in which the dictates of that law were couched. The priest and the Levite in the parable were probably strict attendants at the Temple services, wore probably very broad phylacteries, and were most careful in regulating according to the requirements of the Mosaic law the length and the pattern of the fringes of their garments. But what help did his mere formal observances and mere accurate knowledge of the law afford to the lawyer in his quest after eternal life? What aid did the correctness of costume or soundness of doctrine of the priest and Levite give to the wounded traveller in his time of need? Men imagine that they will be saved by sacraments of the Church, by the confession of their sins to some human inquisitor, by a regular attendance at public worship, by a strict adherance to the tenets of some eminent divine or some exclusive sect.

They delude themselves, however. They can be saved only by looking in faith and love to Christ, and by striving in all humility by God's grace to walk so as to have Him for an ensample, to reverence God, to love the brotherhood, to lead a Christ-like life. These are better than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices, than all professions or creeds. Orthodoxy in dogma and correctness in ritual, even if any man could be certain, which he cannot be, that he were in possession of both of these important acquirements,-can give but little aid amidst the dangers of life. Athanasius was not saved by the metaphysical subtleties of the creed called after his name, supposing for the sake of argument that he composed it. Simon Stylites was not saved by the painful character of the acts of religious worship that he performed on the top of a lonely pillar. Calvin was not saved by the logical accuracy with which he put forth the pitiless dogma of predestination to eternal perdition. These men were saved,-if they were saved at all,—not in virtue of their doctrines or ceremonies, but in spite of them; not, in a word, by dogma or by ritual, but by faith, by courage, and by toil. Laborare est orare, to labour is to pray; and it may be that the fanaticism, the pride, and the self-righteousness of such men as these have been forgiven for the sake of the dangers and the difficulties that they unflinchingly encountered in what they were pleased to think was the service of God. Put not your trust, however, in any barren formula or any worthless ceremonial, however eminent be the name of the individual who devised it; expect not succour from any priest or Levite in the hour in which, during your journey through life, you lie sore wounded, and robbed of all wealth and power, by the hands of those sins that most easily beset you, by the snares of