THE PRECIOUSNESS OF LIFE. Pp. 486-495 (Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity.) For a living dog is better than a dead lion.”—ECCLES. 9 ́ 4- THE FRUITLESS TREE. Pp. 496-502. (Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity.) Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this figtree, and find none: cut it down : why cumbereth it the ground?”—LUKE 13 : 7. Salvation Cometh. First Sunday in Advent. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.-ROM. 13: 11. JALVATION! Our salvation! Our salvation, nearing and at hand! This is the salutation with which the opening of the new Church-year greets us to-day. The word is to believers, to those who have heard of Christ, accepted Christ, and are hoping for eternal life through Him. The little word "for," at the beginning of the text, intimates that the statements it contains are meant to serve as a reason, motive, and argument for certain activities and duties with which they stand connected. The persons addressed are contemplated as more or less asleep and oblivious to the great matters of which the apostle is treating, and these great and startling facts are stated to arouse them from their slumbers, and to get them fully awake to their situation, so as to bestir themselves accordingly. There is no difficulty in understanding this drowsy and sleepy condition as it applies to those who make no pretensions to religion. It is night with them; and they are spiritually in the state which night brings. They are like men asleep. They have no right sensibility. They neither see, nor feel, nor care for the things of God, nor the condition and needs of their souls. They may be dreaming of security and happiness, but the real situation they do not take in. Being asleep, they are inactive, and as good as dead, touching the great things of salvation. What they need above all is to be aroused to spiritual consciousness, and stirred up to active life and duty, or they will sleep the sleep of death, to awake when it is too late to be of avail. And although sometimes temporarily disturbed by the alarms which God's word rings into their ears, or by the divine judgments which strike by their sides and in their homes, they put off the needed action by the plea of "time enough yet," and are presently as deep in the old slumbers as before. But the implication here is, that even Christian believers are liable to be dull and drowsy with reference to the things that make for salvation. Even in those apostolic times, when Jewish and heathen persecutions tended to make Christians such in very truth or not at all, many were so dull and sluggish in their piety as to need stirring up. Though things were so warm and sharp about them, and the conflict so intense, that we can hardly see how it was possible for them to sleep, yet they did often sleep, perhaps not in such dead sleep as the indifferent and unbelieving, but still in a condition so dull and sluggish as to need the apostle's sharp admonition to stir them up to greater earnestness and devotion. People are not apt to become thorough saints at a single bound. Much of the old deadness and depravity still clings even to the most enlightened. The good work begun in them needs culture and nursing, and oft revival of energy and exertion, to be kept up to the mark. While the bridegroom tarried all the virgins became drowsy and slept; and so it frequently is with Christians. Once awake and active, they subsequently begin to consult their own ease, yield more or less to the fashion and current of things about them, leave off one and another of their Christian duties, become dilatory and self-excusing, and wonder to themselves sometimes whether it is worth their while to give so much attention, work, and anxiety to religious matters. Carnal likes and laziness plead for indulgence, and they get it. The spiritual life sinks, languishes, and largely disappears. Sleepiness takes the place of proper feeling and the necessary zeal and faithfulness. The things of God, heaven, and duty cease to touch, impress, and animate them as once. They do not trouble to call themselves to account for their way of living and doing. They take for granted that all is right. They have joined the Church; they confess the orthodox faith; their consciences are not burdened with any worse life than the average of Christian people; and so they rest. They have done good service in the past, and think now let others take the place and do as well, while they retire. Yes, there be many professed Christians who are not only drowsy, but almost as fast asleep as those who have never been spiritually awakened at all. And it would be well if we were free from the reproach. Now such a condition is no credit to any one, and is so dangerous and so much of a hindrance and scandal to the Christian profession that the apostle is very anxious to have it broken up. And the Church, in setting his words before us to-day, would have us make a new start with the new Church-year. She would have us know and feel that the time for greater wakefulness is here; that sleep and drowsiness are now quite out of place; that our proper business is to throw off slumber, listlessness, and what pertains to the night, and equip ourselves for the work and battle of the children of light. And that the admonition may not be without effect, let us consider what we have at stake. Think of the soul; that living inspiration of God, by which we were made to resemble Him, and to live in blessed fellowship with Him forever. Think of the preciousness of being that has thus come to us, and the sublimity of its capacity for expansion, growth, usefulness, and enjoyment. What indeed can a man give in exchange for his soul? The material world and all things in it cannot represent the value of the soul. Created for eternity and for eternal alliance with the Father of spirits, no limit can be set to its worth. And what if the soul should be lost! Who can |