cities of Asia Minor, some of the most elevated, cultivated, and accomplished officials of the Greek empire, recognized in Jesus the only Messiah, and embraced the great salvation. If "the Greek" here is employed to denote a character, who is in spirit the modern Greek-the man that says the Mosaic record is all nonsense, geology has settled it; an assertion which would indicate his ignorance, not prove that the Mosaic record is untrue. The man who is a scholar, a graduate, a doctor of laws, a doctor of divinity, a master of arts, a great admirer of learning, a great student of literature who has no time to look at Christianity, who thinks it beneath his notice, and worthy almost of his contempt-unto such men it has proved and still daily proves the power of God. Men that pronounce all earnestness to be enthusiasm, all zeal to be fanaticism, justification by faith to be an old Lutheran crotchet, regeneration by the Holy Spirit a mere myth, heaven to be the place that everybody is going to, and hell an ungenteel word that no cultivated lips should dare to give expression to-unto such men it has also proved in their conversion the power of God unto salvation. It is still daily felt to be power in the case of thousands. It thrusts out evil passions, scatters prejudices, turns the heart of stone into an heart of flesh, brings a Church out of a crowd, a people out of a mob, and, by its still small voice, fills huts and cottages, and halls and palatial residences with its everlasting melodies. Its music already mingles with the pine forests of the

north and the palm groves of the east. The wide world begins to see that man is weak, that angels are weak, that natural forces are weak, that scientific discoveries are weak: but that there is one thing mighty as God, for the gospel "is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”

Its results will be salvation to the greatest number from the power of the greatest sin, through the precious blood of the only Saviour-salvation, for which is nothing to pay, nothing to suffer, no time to wait for, no absolution to seek, no penance to do. In all its fulness and freedom, we may now accept it and be happy.

racter.

Are we ashamed of this gospel? We all come to church; most of us come to the Lord's table: we are not ashamed of it. Ah, but how do we show this? It is what men do and say, and give, and sacrifice, and suffer-not what men speak, that decides chaAt present it is the universal thing to be a Christian in some shape. The man who does not profess to be a Christian would be regarded as a discreditable character; but what are our lives? We are not ashamed of it in the house of God, nor at the communion table; but are we ashamed of it in our shops? Can we cheat, deceive, and state what is not true, on the Exchange, in the banking-house, in the ship, in the railway, in our home, on the streets, mingling with society? Be not ostentatious. Do not parade your religion like a Pharisee; but the world ought to see, without our telling it, that there is

something within that tones our character, shapes our conduct into varied forms of excellence; and makes us rise superior to all around us, when the trial or the crisis comes. Then the world takes notice of us that we have been with Jesus. Christianity is not a nun shut up in a cloister and rarely seen; but a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter; fulfilling life's duties under the inspiration of heaven's motives and after heaven's laws. Christianity is not merely or chiefly a communicant sitting at the communion table; but a tradesman, a merchant, a banker, a physician, a lawyer, inspired by it, living under it, and carrying out into practical life its precious prescriptions and its purifying power. Christianity is not a priest in ecclesiastical robes, that disguise as well as decorate; visible on Sunday only in the pulpit; but a working man, or working woman, treading the dusty streets of common life, with as deep a sense of responsibility as priest paces a cathedral floor, or Christian approaches communion table. Are we in all these ways and spheres, practically, personally not ashamed of Christ? If so, at that day when not one solitary star shall stand over the manger of the infant Christ, but the whole sky shall burn with innumerable stars, like altar candles, shining in His light and setting forth His glory; when not a little band of angels shall say, "Glory to God in the highest," but a mighty multitude that no man can number, out of every nation, kindred, people, and tongue, shall sing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive

honour and glory;" at that day when there shall be no more the struggling dawn but high eternal noon -when the redeemed, and angels, and archangels shall crown Him Lord of all-blessed Saviour, be not ashamed of us, who have so often been ashamed of Thee.