: All that appertains to the development of our nature, bears the same aspect. The most stupendous issues hang upon every human being the development of mind, of man, the image of God; the development of the conscience, God's vicegerent in the human heart, the representative of his moral nature; the development of character which shall be revealed in the day when the final decision shall be given by the heart-searching Governor of the universe, and founded upon which man shall reap to all eternity a harvest of weal or woe. We are of eternity; every step we take we are tending towards it. We are spirits, and we live with the spirit of the universe. There is a tribunal before which we must stand, and we can never, never die. The honour of God, the wellbeing of man, the defence of truth, and the overthrow of error, but, above all, the salvation of our immortal souls, are all dependent upon its issue. If this be so, let us then remember further, that human life is very short, that stupendous as are its concerns, they are all compressed into a small compass, and he who rightly surveys the distant horizon, will always see its shadows mantling thick and fast upon it, and will see the necessity of awaking up to a discharge of the important duties required of him, while yet there is time, and he will remember the language and imitate the spirit of him who said, "I must do the work of him that sent me while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work." Death is fast approaching, the sands of life are fast failing, and when once death has come, not one moment of the past can by any possibility be recalled, destroyed, or remodelled. Every step we take is final, every act we perform is for eternity, every word once escaped the lip is registered in the book of judgment. Shall we then feed on dreams, who are such vast realities? Shall we seek for fiction, who are ourselves facts? Shall we live in the regions of fancy, surrounded as we are by such stupendous realities? Manhood forbids it; if we will not be devoted, earnest, and active, we must forfeit many of the distinctions among men. Religion forbids it; for its earliest and most enduring impressions tell us to be earnest and active in understanding God's truth. The angels and "the spirits of just men made perfect" forbid it; those sons of God whose honour and whose delight it is to serve God, and to enjoy in his pure temple the delights of his presence, forbid it; our Divine Master forbids it,—He filled his life with toil by day and with prayers by night; the Holy Spirit dwelling within us forbids it, "for He worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure;" the soul of the universe, our Father, our Creator, and our Friend in heaven forbids it, for CC my Father worketh hitherto, and I work." May it be ours to cherish this spirit, and the result will be a peaceful life, and at last a blessed and everlasting reward. POINTS OF SIMILARITY BETWEEN JUDAISM AND ROMANISM. THE HE subject upon which I am to address you, is one of surpassing moment. It consists of two parts. One part relates to the most interesting people on the face of the earth -the descendants of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob ;-the descendants of the men to whom, as the Spirit's instruments, we are indebted for the whole revelation of heaven; and when we speak of Judaism, let us not forget that the Saviour of the world was a Jew, that it is to a Jew we are indebted for all our true happiness upon earth, and for the hopes of a blessed immortality. But when I speak of Judaism, I must explain to you that I do not mean the Jewish faith as held by Moses, or Joshua, or Isaiah, or by Daniel; for I look upon these as my elder brethren in the church of God, and as holding the same great fundamental doctrines you and I hold, believing in the same Saviour, and looking to the same Holy Spirit as their sanctifier. The outward form and dress of their religion may have been different from ours, but the body and the substance were perfectly the same. Neither do I speak of Judaism as it was sanctioned by Heaven from the time of Moses until the time of Christ; but I speak of Judaism cast out of the temple of the Lord-prostrate and impure; I speak of Judaism in ruins the melancholy memorial of its former greatness. And when I speak of Romanism I do not speak of the church of Christ in the first three or four centuries of her existence, |