country where he lives, and joins a little company of those whom he considers as more particularly the true Church, disobeys the command of the great Master and head of the Church, Jesus Christ; and, however sincere he may be in his motives, tries to do what the word of God gives him no expectation that he will ever be able to do. We have no power given to us to look into other people's hearts and though it is plain, that open sinners who profess religion are hypocrites at the time they do so, yet there are many of whom no man can say whether they are wheat or tares. We find also that every attempt that has been made to get together a body of people who shall be all spiritual "children of the kingdom," has always ended by shewing, that Satan will certainly find a way to get his people amongst them. We are told to expect a mixture of people, "bad and good" in the Church of Christ. (Matt. xiii. 47; xxii. 10.) The devil is always ready to make the mixture, and Christ tells us that for the present He permits it. For us then to try to alter this state of things during the Gospel-times, is contrary to scripture; and in the attempt to make such alteration, as we may judge for the better, we should break all the ties by which people are bound together in this life-even if we were not, by mistakes in our judgement concerning particular persons, to root up the wheat with the tares.

QUESTIONS.

Have I ever felt my mind so hurt by seeing bad or worldly conduct in professing members of the Church, that I have felt disposed to separate myself from the Church in consequence? Should I not in so doing have acted against the command of Christ?

Do I encourage any persons in the mistaken notion that the Church must be a body of true christians only, by helping them to make a separation according to the judgment of man?

Does the evil conduct of some professing christians have the effect of making me more anxious to shew by my conduct that I am not one of the tares, but of the wheat?

3. There will not always be a mixture of true and false christians-a time is coming, when Christ himself shall make the separation, with perfect knowledge of each heart. His Angels will go forth at the proper time, called in the explanation of this parable-"the end of this state." When all the true seed shall have grown up and brought forth fruit-when all the people, who are really born of the Spirit, and so children of the kingdom, shall have been numbered-then all the false professors shall be gathered together, and left to their awful punishment; and all the true christians shall have their happiness in the eternal kingdom of God, which is too bright to be described. Our great object in life ought always to be to "make our calling and election sure"; so that in the separation we may be found amongst "the righteous" for Christ's sake.

QUESTIONS.

Am I daily influenced by the certainty of that great dividing of God's children from the children of the devil?

Does it make me more desirous in every thing to make my calling and election sure?

VII. HEADS FOR PRAYER.

1. Pray that you may continually shew by your conduct that you are one of the true children of the kingdom.

2. Pray for the spirit of a sound mind so as not to be surprised by the evils which arise from a mixture in the Church of good and bad, and to know how to behave to those whose conduct is doubtful.

3. Pray that you may never fall into the mistake of making separations in the professing Church.

4. Pray that at the end of this state of things you may be found amongst those who are to shine brightly in the eternal kingdom of God.

VIII. THE PRAYER.

[1] Holy Father, who hast given thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to become a man, that He might purify unto himself a peculiar people zeal ous of good works, make me continually to be given to all good works, that I may constantly shew that I truly belong to thee, and that thy Spirit dwelleth in me. [2] Give me I pray thee the wisdom that is from above, and a spirit of a sound mind; that knowing what thou hast taught concerning thy Church upon earth, and the evil enemy who would disturb it, I may never be discouraged nor offended at finding that mixture of good and bad which Satan is permitted to make. Teach me how to behave towards those concerning whose state I am in doubt, so that my light may shine before them, and lead them to turn into the true way of eternal life. [3] Keep thy universal Church in the unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace; and preserve my mind from any unsettled thoughts concerning it, so that I may never think of separating from the Church that truly professes thy holy name. [4] And when the appointed time shall come, and thine angels shall gather thine elect from every part of the world, grant that, having by thy grace endured unto the end, I may be gathered into thy heavenly garner, and be admitted into the glorious inheritance of the saints in light. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. AMEN.

Our Father, &c.

SIXTY-EIGHTH PORTION.

I. BEGINNING PRAYER.

MAY GOD, for the sake of JESUS CHRIST, give me the HOLY SPIRIT, that I may understand this portion of his Holy Word, and profit by it. AMEN.

II. THE SCRIPTURE.

Read St. Mark's Gospel, c. iv. ver. 26 to 29.

III. THE MEANINGS;

[There is no word used in this portion the meaning of which seems difficult to understand.]

IV. THE EXPLANATION.

Our Lord had now taught the people by the means of two parables: in both he had taken the corn with which the land is sowed, as the comparison by which he explained to them the nature of the Gospel times. In the first he had shewed how the Gospel must be received by each person; and in the second he had shewed the mixed nature of the christian Church. After this Jesus instructed them still further upon this important subject, by means of a third parable; in which He made use of the seed-corn for another comparison.

He told them that the kingdom of God (that is the times of the Gospel power in the world) might be compared to the way in which the seed-corn was sowed on the land. The sower casts it into the ground; and when he has done all that is necessary to the sowing, he goes about his business, sleeping at night and rising in the morning;

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while the grain shoots up and grows by degrees, whilst the man knows nothing about the means by which it is made to grow. The growing of the corn when it is once put into the ground does not depend at all upon the person who sowed it: it becomes larger and stronger of its own accord; first the green blade is seen, then the ear breaks forth out of the blade, and then the corn swells and ripens in the ear, all by itself. As soon as the corn is quite ripe, the person to whom it belongs considers his harvest time to be come, and sends the reapers into the field to gather it.

In this parable the seed is meant to express the christian church, or the body of believers in Christ, in every part of the world. They are converted through the word of the Gospel, which is preached by the Apostles and following ministers of Christ. These however only speak the words; which is like casting the seed into the ground, and it is by the secret working of the Holy Spirit of God that the effect is produced. We cannot see how this work goes on-it is altogether spiritual and secret, and done by the power of God, without man having any thing to do with it, or knowing how it happens. (1 Cor. i. 27-31; iii. 5-7. John iii. 8.) This secret power of the Spirit has been at work in the Church of Christ, ever since the Gospel was first preached, and is at work now, and will continue to be at work up to the very end of the time appointed for the gathering of God's people. That time (when it shall come) is pictured in the parable by the corn being ripe; and then shall that same thing take place, which was explained at the end of the last parable (of the tares), the Angels shall