much the same experience. It is an evidence that our religion is the same in all ages, the same grace of God acting on the same human nature. The people of every age, those who come from the north and the south, from the east and the west, will be able to join in the song of Moses and the Lamb.

But while there is the same spirit there are diversities of operation. Because the spirit works in a certain way in the breast of one believer, this is no reason why he should work in the same way in the heart of every other believer, or any other believer. He finds different individ uals with different natural temperaments and beset by different sins and temptations, and he suits his manifestations to the difference of their state and character. Let no Christian then insist that the work of the spirit must be precisely the same in the heart of every other as in his own. Nor should any humble child of God permit himself to doubt of the reality of a work of grace in his own heart, merely because his experience has not been the same with that of some others of whom he has read, with whom he has taken sweet counsel, or who has opened up his heart to him. Just as there is diversity in the works of nature, in the color and size of the plants and animals, that people the air, earth and ocean, just as there is a variety in the countenance and shape of the bodily frame of human beings, just as one star differeth from another; so Christians, while all after one high model, are made to take different forms and hues of beauty on earth, and shall thus be transplanted to heaven, to adorn the garden of God and shine as stars, each with his own glory in the firmament above. As in heaven the foundations of the wall of the city are garnished with "all manner of precious stones," and the tree of life in the midst of the street bears "twelve manner of fruits," so the people of God will there as here have each his own characteristics, and the song which ascends will be a concert of diverse voices, each melodious, and each in its diversity joining with the others to make the harmony. Each in his own way will join in singing "the song of Moses the servant of God and of the Lamb."

III. THERE IS AN ACCORDANCE BETWEEN THE WORKS AND WORD of God anD YET THERE IS A DIFFErence. Both come from God and therefore reflect the character of God. But they exhibit it in somewhat different light. Nature teaches us by potent forces, by arrangements, by laws, and shows order and beneficence. The Word instructs by flexible language, by clear enunciations, by arguments, by appeals, by theatenings, by promises, and tells of a sin-hating God who yet pardons iniquity. The works manifest his power and his wisdom. The Word displays more fully his holiness on the one hand and his mercy on the other. When Moses desired to behold the glory of God, the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed "The Lord, the

Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty."

It must be acknowledged that there are times when science and scripture seem as if they contradict each other, with no means of reconciling them. But it is only as one branch of science may sem to be inconsistent with another. There are times when astronomy seems to run counter to geology: geology requires very long ages to explain its phenomena, to account for the successive strata and races of animals on the earth's surface, whereas astronomy seems to say that so long time has not elapsed since the earth was formed by the rotation of nebulous matter. Nobody thinks that there can be any absolute contradiction between the two sciences; every one believes that sooner or later the seeming inconsistencies will be cleared up. I say the same of the apparent incongruities between 'Genesis and geology. Account for it as we may there is a general correspondence between the two, the record in stone and the record in scripture. There is an order with a progression which is very much the same in both. In both there is light before the sun appears. In Genesis the fiat, "Let there be light and there was light" goes forth the first day, and the sun comes out the fourth day, in accordance with science, which tells us that the earth was thrown off ages before the sun had become condensed into the centre of the planetary system. In both the inanimate comes before the animate; in both the plant is supposed to come before the animal; and in both fishes and fowl before creeping things and cattle. In both we have as the last of the train, man, standing upright and facing the sky, made of the dust of the ground, and yet filled with the inspiration of the Almighty. It is clear that there must be great truth in that opening chapter of Genesis which has anticipated geology by three thousand years. With such correspondences we may leave the apparent irreconcilabilities to be explained by future investigation. "He that believeth will not make haste." At times it is not easy to reconcile profane history with scripture; but ever and anon there cast up such things as the monuments of Egypt, the palaces of Nineveh, and the stone of Moab to tell us that the Old Testament gives us a correct picture of the state of the nations in ancient times. We who dwell in a world "where day and night alternate," we who go everywhere accompanied with our own shadow, cannot expect to be delivered from the darkness, but we have enough of light to show the path which will lead us through the perplexities.

I might dwell on the numerous analogies between nature and revelation. Both give the same expanded views of the greatness of God; the one by showing his workmanship, the other by its descriptions

"The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge." Both show that there is only one God; the works, which are bound in one concatenated system, and the Word when it declares that "the Lord our God is one Lord." But instead of launching forth on this wide but obvious and commonplace subject, I must confine myself to two points brought into prominence by recent science.

One is the operation of development or evolution. We see it everywhere, both in the natural and supernatural dispensations of God. "The sun ariseth and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place whence he arose." "The wind returneth again according to his circuits," "Unto the place from whence the rivers arise they return again." But while all things go in their circuits, yet in doing so they leave their abiding results: the sun calleth forth vegetation and giveth heat and light; the winds give breath to every living thing; and the rivers leave their deposit which when raised up may become fertile land. We see it in the earth bringing forth grass, "the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit tree after his kind, whose seed is in itself." All this does not prove, as some would aver, that there is nothing but development. The extent of the process has not yet been settled; but it is certain that it has limits. For there cannot be development without some previous material, without some sced out of which the thing developed has come, and the most advanced science cannot show whence or how the original matter and germ have come. And then development is a very complex operation in which there is a vast variety of agents known and unknown, and these evidently combined by a power above them to accomplish a purpose. As evolution from a germ according to a general law is a common process in nature, so we see a like operation in the kingdom of grace. The Jewish economy is developed out of the Patriarchal, the Christian out of the Jewish according to a law in the Divine Mind and by agencies appointed by Divine Wisdom; and the seed planted eighteen hundred years in the world has become a wide-spread tree; all implying an original germ and a formative process, rising into higher and ever higher forms of spiritual life, and about to effloresce into a period, in which the Spirit of the Lord shall be poured on all flesh.

Another point is, that experience, history and science all concur with the Word of God in the view which they present of the state of things in which we are placed. The vain and frivolous may feel as if the Scriptures have drawn too dark a picture of our world, when they describe it as a scene of sin and suffering, with terrible conflicts within and without. But all who have had large experience of human

fife will be ready to acknowledge that the account is a correct one. The faithful representation of human character is to many the most satisfactory evidence of the truthfulness of the Word of God. The young and inexperienced may imagine, that in that distant spot on th landscape on which the sun is shining, there must be a paradise stili lingering on our earth: but when they actually go to it they find it to be very much like the other parts of the earth's surface. Often in sailing on the rough ocean have I imagined that away in the horizon there is an unbroken calm, but on the vessel reaching the spot it turned out to be agitated and distracted like the place from which I surveyed it. History tells the same story. How much of it is occupied with the narrative of battles and this from the earliest to the latest times-in which we have had two terribly desolating wars. We boast of our splendid cities; but in every one of them you will find sinks of iniquity, with crime and misery festering and fermenting, and into which are poured the filth engendered by the vices of the wealthy. And in our rural districts there are feuds and rivalries, bred of selfishness and passion, raging in scenes in which all may seem so calm and peaceful to the superficial observer. There are warring elements in every human bosom, and in every society composed of human beings. Any one seeking to remove the causes of discord will be sure to irritate and to meet with determined opposition, and he who has done most to assuage the storm had to say "I am come to send fire on the earth." Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but rather division." The greatest men in our world have been martyrs who in order to pull down the evil have had themselves to perish. And is not the science of our day giving us the very same picture? When we read the older treatises of natural theology, founded on scientific observation, the impression is apt to be left that our world is all fertile and smiling landscape with no desert and no troubled sea, is basking in the full sunshine of heaven with no darkness and no night. But of late years science has been obliged to speak of terrible conflicts. What mean these discoveries of worlds being formed out of warring elements? What mean these "struggles for existence" of which naturalists are for ever speaking? It is clear that suffering and death were on our earth since life appeared on it, and reigned over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." Does not science as well as Scripture shew that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now?" The two are thus seen to be in curious correspondence; but they differ in this that while both speak of a troubled day the later and more comforting revelation of God assures us that "at evening time there shall be light."

DISCOURSE LX.

NEWMAN HALL, LL.B.

MR. HALL was born in 1816, and educated at Totteridge, and at Highbury College, and graduated B. A. at the London University. In 1855 he took the degree of LL.B., and won the law scholarship. He was appointed minister of the Albion Congregational Church, Hull, England in 1842, and remained at that post till 1854, when he became minister of Surrey Chapel, known as Rowland Hill's Chapel, in the Blackfriars-road, London. He is the author of several devotional tracts, the most popular of which is "Come to Jesus," of which more than one million and a half copies have been issued in this country. It has been extensively circulated in the United States, and translated into about thirty languages. He has written an argumentative treatise on sacrifice, in opposition to the views of Mr. Maurice and others; a volume of sermons, entitled "Homeward Bound;" "Notes of a Journey from Liverpool to St. Louis ;" and several small works on teetotalism, of which he has been an earnest advocate during thirty years. He published a small volume of devotional poetry, entitled "Pilgrim Songs in Cloud and Sunshine," in 1871. He has labored in various ways for the social elevation of the masses, and has opened his chapel for weekly lectures on secular subjects, which have brought large numbers of persons under religious influences. He was unanimously elected chairman of the Congregational Union in 1866. Though a Noncon formist, he is an advocate of liturgies, and the Church of England service, with very slight alterations, is used at his chapel. He has twice visited the United States; and in two hemispheres he is known and beloved as one of the most useful ministers of the day. A volume of his sermons has been published in this country, by Sheldon & Co., of New York.

THE PENITENT THIEF.

"And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise."-Luke xxiii. 42, 43.

THESE words bring before us a remarkable illustration both of a sinner's repentance and of the Saviour's grace.

I. Let us consider the repentance of the dying thief.

Jesus was hanging on the cross, and the brutal crowd mocked Him in His agony. The thieves also derided Him. The aristocracy of the

* Preached on Sunday evening, November 3, 1867, in Plymouth Church Brooklyn, Rev. H. W. Beecher, pastor.