of Peter's, and forcibly reminds us of that ancient axiom, "To obey is better than sacrifice." Peter's fancied zeal for the honour of Christ led him into another error. In the rashness of mistaken energy, "he drew his sword, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear." This was a terrible failure, and soon proved to be the harbinger of worse. The Lord could only reprove Peter by immediately healing the wound, and shewing him that he knew not what manner of spirit he was of.

What instruction, beloved, do we gather from these things, but that true zeal for Christ, and a godly jealousy for the honour of His name and truth, (would that we had more!) must be carried on in the Spirit of Christ, and according to the example and word of Christ, if we would ensure His companionship with us now, and His "Well done" at His appearing.

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If we say, "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.". will speak of the glorious honour of Thy majesty," and "the Lord is gracious, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy;" we should also, in the exercise of our souls, have the ready lip to say from the heart, "Every day will I bless Thee, I will extol Thee; I will bless Thy name for ever and ever. (Psalm cxlv.)

THE LORD HATH NEED OF HIM." If the Lord needed a colt, the foal of an ass, to carry out His own purposes (Matt. xxi. 3), how much more doth He need now, in His service, His own flesh and bone. (Eph. v. 30; 1 Cor. xii. 21.)

"FORBEARING ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE.” [Translated from the French.]

WE are fond of giving all our lessons at once, and of insisting that every one shall, without hesitation, receive what we ourselves are convinced of. The apostle condemns this summary mode of proceeding. But in this forbearance of others, there is no concession of any part of the truth.

We dislike to be restrained in our actions, and we thus, by our example, hurry into presumption those who have not yet got rid of their ill-founded scruples. The apostle condemns the heartless violence which is thus inflicted on the weak. But this regard for the consciences of others does not involve the giving up of any part of the truth.

We should have consideration for the weak, in not requiring them to receive everything at once. They ought to advance step by step, as, in fact, we ourselves have done. It is a strange thing to imagine that our brethren should in one day accomplish what it has taken us so long a time to do.......

The conduct prescribed to Christians toward the weak, in general, is similar to what we pursue toward little children. A father walks with short steps when leading his child who is trying to walk; he does not say to him, "You are tall, you are strong, you must walk like a man." He says, "You are little and weak, and you often fall; but when you grow tall, you will walk like a man.".

If it be difficult for us to love those that are weak sufficiently to restrain ourselves from saying and exact

ing everything at once, it is perhaps more difficult for us to abstain, on their account, from certain lawful actions which might give them offence, or tempt them to go beyond their present convictions. It is so natural to make use of the coarse mode of preaching by our deeds, and harshly to wound consciences not yet thoroughly enlightened, instead of beginning by convincing them! The person that breaks the image of a saint, or insults a procession, imagines that he has done something for the conversion of Roman Catholics; whereas he has only driven some away from the truth by wounding them, whilst he has led others into unbelief by giving them an example which they will follow in defiance of the protestation of their secret feelings.

This is precisely what the apostle says in the fourtenth chapter of the epistle to the Romans, and in the eighth and tenth of the first epistle to the Corinthians. Doubtless, the advanced Christians in Rome and Corinth had the right to eat of all kinds of meats, without troubling themselves to ascertain whether they came from idolatrous sacrifices-" for the idol is nothing;" they would have been acting quite according to rule, provided they abstained from attending the festivals which were held in the temples, and from eating those meats which it was expressly told them had been sacrificed to idols; for, on the one hand, "the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God," but believers "cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils" (1 Cor. x. 20, 21); and, on the other hand, the injunction is given, "Eat not, for his sake that shewed

it, and for conscience sake....conscience I say, not thine own, but of the other." (ver. 28, 29.)

It was commanded to abstain only on these two accounts; but there were weak Christians, both in Corinth and in Rome, who were suspicious of all kinds of meats, and who, having an unfounded persuasion that the idol was something, and that what had been offered to it was thereby defiled in itself, would not eat any flesh. Now, observe in what manner the Holy Spirit enjoins us to act toward them, while, at the same time, He tells them that they are weak, and repeats eight or ten times in what their weakness and error consist: "To him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.....For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence." (Rom. xiv. 14, 15, 20.) "There is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled... Take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak.... Through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ." (1 Cor. viii. 7, 9, 11, 12.) “All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth... Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: even as I please

all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." (1 Cor. x. 23, 24, 32, 33.)

The secret of this charity, coupled with faithfulness, which the apostle here teaches, is to have consideration for others, and not for ourselves. We are perpetually apt to fall either into that indifference as to doctrine, which is ready to sacrifice the truth, or into that unyielding severity which goes straight forward without making allowance for any person, or any thing. The disposition to judge others keeps us from exercising courtesy towards the weak, from avoiding those things which offend them, from dealing tenderly with even their ill-founded scruples, from warning them with love, and from leading them in this way to the full reception of the truth. "Why dost thou judge thy brother?" adds Paul, "or why dost thou set at nought thy brother?... Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's way." (Rom. xiv. 10, 13.)

The disposition to judge others is not only hurtful to those who are its objects, but it exposes ourselves to great danger also. "Pride goeth before destruction" (Prov. xvi. 18); the man who thinking himself strong, despises the weak, shall himself fall grievously. "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." (1 Cor. x. 12.)

Paul said, "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

This does not mean, that we have the right to hold sacred a single error, or to change a single truth, or the