come forward with that liberality for which they have been ever distinguished. When we come to the neighbouring county of Perth, a picture is presented before us with a varied outline. If the gentlemen

of Perthshire have not taken that interest in Church matters which might be desired, it has arisen from the fact that they have been never asked to do so. Churches have gone on there as best they could. Wordsworth has been the real mainspring of all movement there; and he has shown a prudence, and a tact, and a forbearance which cannot be too highly praised. The time has come, however, for a forward step. Perthshire is not wont to lag in a movement. It is in her very nature to lead. We have already referred to such churches as Dunblane, Strathtay, and others, in which an enlightenment has been shown in the financial question beyond even Edinburgh. Glenalmond College's

great success, whilst attributable greatly to the tact, good management, and enterprise of the Warden, is also greatly indebted to the prudence, business habits, and perseverance of Mr Smythe of Methven. From the gentlemen of Perthshire we augur great things. Representing as they do most of the wealth and intellect of Scotland, the time has now arrived for their taking their legitimate position in the movement. Their great historical names point them out naturally as the leaders of the old National Church. Whilst rendering every support to the Church as established by law, they are called upon by the most solemn call to provide a decent maintenance for their bishops and clergy, to aid the Church in her efforts to remove the reproach which has so long hung over her, of the richest communion in Scotland paying the smallest sum for the support of the ministers of God. Now that that last rag of intolerance has been erased from off the statute-book, the Disabilities Bill, and that we are declared by law to be upon a complete equality and in full communion with the Church of England, let every member of the Church do his utmost to show that we are a worthy sister Church-that though devoid of all the honours of State patronage, as a Voluntary we are quite her equal in spiritual graces, and in missionary energy.

ROSLIN CHAPEL.

LIKE some bright gem, unlook'd for, that we meet
Upon a barren and a rugged shore,

Where the wild winds of winter ever beat,

And the lash'd sea-waves echo to their roar.

Even so I saw thee, for in Scotia's vales

Few are the scatter'd remnants of the life
Of former days, when piety was rife,

And ancient chants breath'd on the evening gales.
Alas, that misdirected zeal should e'er

Have swept in fury o'er each holy fane,

Kindling the glow of shame and pity's tear

That in an age of havoc pled in vain!

Fair Roslin, thou, in this secluded nook,

Wert spared the wreck that prouder towers o'ertook.

ST ANDREWS.

How glorious once, upon the sea-girt shore,

Thy towers and structures shone both noon and night ;
Whether the sun flam'd on thy turrets hoar,

Or vespers rob'd each painted pane in light.
Thy inmates were but men, whom holy vows
Had sever'd from the world, and oft, alas!
The taint of sin o'er each proud brow might pass,
And the Church mourn a faithless child and spouse.
Were all, then, evil? No! though tares were shed,
Ye might discern the holy germs of love;
The haunts of piety and learning bred

Joy in the humble, awe in men above.
O Scotia! O my country! what ye lost
In Melrose and St Andrews, once our boast!

OXFORD.

J. M.

FIVE SERMONS

ON THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON.

By the Very Rev. E. B. RAMSAY, M.A. and LL.D., Dean of the Diocese of Edinburgh.

SERMON IV.

"I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."-LUKE, xv. 18-20.

But it is The parable

WE left the prodigal in the lowest state of misery and degradationhis means all expended-his character and conduct such as to have secured no real friends, and those pretended friends who shared his prosperity now gone from him in his day of adversity. He is in want -bitter and degrading want, and no man gives unto him. well that his distress has brought on serious reflection. tell us, “he came to himself," i.e., he is conscious of his wants, and he compares his condition as an exile and a ruined spendthrift with the condition of those who, whether children or servants, yet live at home and are occupied with serving the father of the family, and walking quietly and happily in the appointed path of duty. His resolution is taken, and he thus expresses his determination: "I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father." Here then is a striking picture, and a distinct representation of a sinner in his distress and misery turning to God; an example of what is in fact the very end and consummation of our exhortations to all those

who have departed from God, and who have left the path of virtue. It is the most gracious symptom of returning reason and sensibility when any sinner utters from the depths of his heart: "I will arise, and go to my Father." The resolution to reform may spring from various causes, and be dictated by mixed motives, some of them not at first entirely religious motives; but from whatever cause or motive it may come, we should hail the determination with joy and gladness. The situations of mankind in regard to religious feeling and religious movements are exceedingly varied. There are some who have never known such a period or crisis in their lives as called for any great and decisive change. They have from early years feared God and walked in his ways. Others, again, may depart; but occasionally, or by slight deviations, and then return is comparatively easy. But some there are who, like the younger son, have left their homes of piety—who have cast off all restraints of moral and religious obligation—who have for a time become absolutely estranged from principles and associations which they once received as binding and as holy. In such cases the return to piety and to God implies an entire change; and we must invite all such persons to call their ways to remembrance—to repent and be converted to come out from their present associates and occupations-to be renewed in the spirit of their mind and the habits of their lives. As Dr Paley observes of such persons: "They could as easily forget an escape from shipwreck, as forget the effort by which they turned from their sinful courses.' It is to spiritual changes, then, such as these, that in the first instance the parable and the lessons which it reads to us have reference. Still we must remember the return of conversion of which we now speak is not necessarily confined to cases of prodigality and of profligacy. The ways of piety may be deserted for other paths than those of grossly offending. They may be deserted for indolence-for amusement-for frivolity for worldly-mindedness-for business-for science-for taste -for speculation; and if these shall be found to absorb men's faculties so as actually to draw them away from God, the mischief is done as effectually, though not so grossly, as by the most licentious course. Remember always every departure from God, however slight, requires a return to God. And if, hitherto, religion have been a name, and not a reality-a profession, and not an active principle; if the heart and its affections have been given to the world—and the great promises and motives of the Gospel been mere inoperative names-then we say that as a believer the determination may be requisite for him in the midst of worldly prosperity, no less than it was for the prodigal in all his misery, to say, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." It is of no consequence on what grounds we have departed from God. If we have departed we must return. "He who is not with me is against me," saith our blessed Lord; and the man who neglected the improvement of his talent, although he hid it in the earth, and endeavoured to preserve it that he might present it unimpaired to his lord, was condemned and punished just as if he had squandered it in vice and folly. Various causes may,

under the divine teaching, conspire to produce a return to God and to a sense of religious duty: a sudden and unexpected affliction-a reverse of fortune-a sickness-a bereavement-a calamity-or it may be, as in the case before us, a sense of the misery and degradation occasioned by a sinful life. The prodigal was miserable, and he resolved to return to what he knew was a better and a happier state. But then you will observe it was not the mere calculating wish to be released from present distress. He went with an humbled heart, with a penitent spirit, and with grief at the recollection of having offended against paternal love. So far it had the characteristics of a sincere conversion. What was his resolution? What was the plea on which he was to rest? He was not to justify himself or to vindicate his past conduct. No! He was to acknowledge his faults fully and humbly. He was to say, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee." And this should be the spirit of every returning prodigal-and this the feeling for every offence. All sin is against heaven-against the love and the goodness of heaven-against creating and redeeming mercy. Oh! brethren, sin is a dark and foul spot in the human heart-it is a blot in the fair face of nature, a deformity in the works of a good and gracious God. But it is not the baseness and the foulness only of its earthly features which we are to look at. We are not to estimate its real character and consequences only as it embitters human life—as it mars the happiness of the social system-as it spreads misery and suffering around, and as it brings its victims to untimely graves! But it is sin against Heaven. It is the violation of a divine command. It is offence committed against a Being who "is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." It is offence before him "in whose sight the heavens are not clean, and who chargeth his angels with folly." The feelings with which the prodigal proposed to return are exactly those which every offender in his hour of repentance ought to cherish. The sinner should suffer not merely for the personal consequences of sin, but for the contamination of sin. His should be a regret, not so much for the evil and distress that sin has brought upon himself, as regret and shame at having broken the laws and dishonoured the name of God, his Father, Redeemer and Saviour, Sanctifier and Friend. Hence we find the penitent of the parable not only returning because he was following the most degraded occupation; but we find him returning home because under feelings of deep humility and unaffected self-abasement. He did not ask for full forgiveness. He did not venture to propose that he should be received at once into the family on the same terms as before his defection and disobedience—but he asks only protection and support. "Give me the oportunity of showing my obedience and attachment. Place me in a position, not of honour, but of servitudenot of favour, but of probation. I am no longer worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants." Such was the determination of the younger son. We admit that it was a feeling of present misery and privation which immediately brought him to the conclusion. But we are justified in believing that he was under influence of other

motives and stronger feelings not of a selfish character. He is ashamed, as well as weary of his sins. He is humbled before God, as well as degraded in his own eyes.

Now we are to observe, that after he had once made the resolution, he did not tarry ere he fulfilled it. No time was lost for the good feeling to pass away, or the virtuous resolve to be stifled by false shame or evil persuasions. He arose, and came to his father. Here is another important step in the penitent's return to piety and God marked out to us by the parable. Execution must follow upon resolution, else the work is incomplete, the determination a mere effect of momentary uneasiness. We can here, therefore, trace the steps of an earnest and sincere repentance as displayed in the conduct of the individual before us. First he feels the sorrow and the suffering of sin, then he comes to himself-then he begins to reflect-then he compares his condition in sin with his condition before he departed widely from duty—then he perceives the happier state of God's children as contrasted with the children of disobedience; he resolves to leave his present ways, and return to God. He goes at once on the strength of that resolve, and casts himself entirely on the parental goodness. He expresses contrition, and acknowledges that he has sinned not only against his own happiness and his own soul, but against what he owed his God and against his earthly obligations. He begs for admission to the lowest place in his father's household. He goes in humility-he goes in sorrow— -he goes in a sense of unworthiness and deep abasement; but he goes in hope; he goes in a full confidence that his Father would not cast him off, or refuse to receive him. The world might frown upon him, and the world might scorn him. His brethren might renounce him and treat him as an outcast-they might banish him from their society, and consider his acquaintance as a disgrace to them; but the kind father whom he had left, the father whose advice he had spurned, whose remonstrances he had disregarded, whose commands he had violated; He would not refuse the returning penitent; He would pity his wants and sorrows; He would not at any rate spurn him with harshness from his door. He was sure of a considerate hearing, and his heart again enjoyed a gleam of cheerfulness and hope, as he thought of the kindness and beneficence to which he was to make his appeal. Now, all that is expressed by the readiness of the prodigal to throw himself upon the goodness and the mercy of the parent whom he had left, is intended to apply with ten-fold power and certainty to the confidence with which, under the gospel dispensation, the offender is encouraged and invited to return to God.

Such, indeed, was the spirit and tendency of the older dispensation. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them; I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." If any one character of the Saviour's disposition, and of the doctrine which he proclaimed,