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these, friends, are some of the treasures of the snow, as they lie most obviously open to our reverent study, inestimable, in their way, as the blossoms of the spring, the flowers of the summer, and the fruit of the autumn of the year.”

The snow is an emblem of immortality.

Although we speak of the snow as an image of death, does it not hide the everlasting life under its robe? Even so. It hides the life to be revealed in due time, when all cold shadows shall melt away before the ascending sun, and we shall be, not unclothed, but clothed upon, and mortality shall be swallowed up of life. "How gloomy," says Johnson, "would be the mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he should never die; that what now thinks shall think on for ever." Be this, then, one lesson from the snow-flakes, as at this season of the year they cover the earth. One blessing, nay, the blessing revealed to God's children in the beautiful snow. Is not the very whiteness of the snow emblematic of the purity with which God clothes His children? Can He not make everyone of us "whiter than snow"? If then, as yet, you have not entered into the "treasures of the snow," and have not assured yourselves of the inscrutableness of God's ways, nor yet of the wisdom and goodness of all His doings, be this your theme now that Christmas-time is upon you; and as your thoughts revert to the birth of our Saviour do not let them overlook His death, but rather let your prayer and mine be,"Create in me a clean heart, O, God,

And renew a right spirit within me."

"Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

"Helpless and foul as the trampled snow.
Sinner, despair not! Christ stoopeth low
To rescue the soul that is lost in sin,
And raise it to life and enjoyment again.
Groaning, bleeding, dying for thee,
The Crucified hung on the cursed tree!
His accents of pity fall soft on thine ear,

Is there mercy for me? Will He heed my weak prayer

O God! in the stream that for sinners did flow, Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow!" DARLINGTON.

?

FREDERICK A. CHARLES.

Germs of Thought.

The Gospel Dawn and Christian Duty.

"KNOWING THE TIME (SEASON), THAT NOW IT IS HIGH TIME FOR YOU TO AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP FOR NOW IS OUR SALVATION NEARER THAN WHEN WE BELIEVED. THE NIGHT IS FAR SPENT, AND THE DAY IS AT HAND LET US THEREFORE CAST OFF THE WORKS OF DARKNESS, AND LET US PUT ON THE ARMOUR OF LIGHT," &c.Romans xiii. 11-14.

ST. PAUL had been spending some three months at Corinth, and was about to take, from the churches at Cenchrea and Corinth, the alms, which they had collected for the poor saints at Jerusalem, when he heard that some difficulties had arisen among the few Christian converts in the great city, Rome. Some were Jews and some were Gentiles; each having different views as to the requirements of a religious life, whilst their knowledge of Christianity was by no means an enlarged knowledge. The apostle, with a soul of love wide as humanity itself, longed to be the bearer of Gospel truth to Rome also. For as yet no apostle had visited them.

Rome was then what London is now-the greatest city in the world. Its grand palaces, temples, monuments, and theatres, rose proudly on every side. But profligacy and vice, obscenity and corruption, had sunk the city into the dismal depths of moral gloom; and, to crown all, the cruel and dissolute Nero was the Emperor.

Like a star in the blackness of night was this little church amid the benighted thousands of that vast city. It was to this little company that St. Paul wrote this wonderful Epistle. The apostles had gone forth to preach the Gospel everywhere. St. Paul had laboured and lived to see Christian communities established in Asia and in Europe. He knew both the power

and the prospects of Christianity. With the eyes of a Seer he discerns the future; and with the voice of a prophet he tells that small body of adherents to the new Faith that even now the moral darkness is passing away, and already there are signs of the dawning of a glorious day. The apostle bids them

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I. THE CHANGING CONDITION OF THE WORLD. Knowing the time, that now it is high time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand." With prophetic vision, as from the mountain peak of Divine inspiration, he looks beyond the intervening valleys of trials and persecution; "light afflictions which are but for a moment;" and he hails the dawning light, whose brightness shall yet cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep.

He saw, he knew, that the world was in transition. "The little leaven" of the Gospel was "leavening the whole lump." Here were the signs and proofs.

1. The passing darkness. "The night is far spent." The apostle assured them of what he himself had seen and known. The glorious Gospel of Christ, which had begun at Jerusalem, was spreading throughout Asia, was making its way into Europe, and had even found an entrance into the metropolis of the Roman Empire. Surely no city in the world needed Christianity more than this; and here it had come. It was destined to fill the world. Knowing the time," the critical period in the world's history, the mighty under-current of religious thought, the powerful agencies of Christianity which were at work, and would shortly produce amazing upheavals of society; knowing this period and these things, the apostle urges them "that now it is high time to awake out of sleep." The "night" of heathen darkness was passing away, and why should Christians who are of the day be found sleeping. With the passing darkness there was also ;

2. The nearing dawn. The day is at hand." "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." The light of Gospel truth which was dawning elsewhere was beginning to glimmer

even in Rome; for the Gospel was to be "preached to every creature." The clouds of thick heathen darkness were breaking, and "the Sun of righteousness" was about to arise with healing in His wings." What encouragement there was for them to go on their way rejoicing. But how great was the necessity for watchful steadfastness. How beautifully has the dawning of this Gospel light been described by one of the most gifted preachers of this day.* "Dark clouds may sweep the changing sky, eclipse the upper lights, and spread their gloomy shadows over these lower scenes. These clouds shall break in blessings and pass away. Heavenly orbs shall beam in brightness from the clearest azure, and the 'light of the morn shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold.'" Let us notice,―

WORLD. With the
When the light of

II.—THE DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS IN THE light of knowledge comes the call to duty. God's truth shines forth, even in the midst of darkness, there must be no doubting, no hesitancy. Every noble spirit will answer; every loyal soldier will prepare for action; for the call to duty is the roll-call of heaven. Like faithful Abraham, his spiritual children must be ready to obey when the command is given. The voice of duty; the voice of God by His servant, the apostle, to those Roman converts was,—

1.-To awake out of their lethargy. "It is high time to awake out of sleep." There is a diseased drowsiness, a lethargy of life, which ends in soul deadness. It is a fearful affliction which lulls men into apathy and indifference, even in the face of the most momentous issues. Sin benumbs the vitality of the soul, and, like the cold and fast-falling snows, lures men on to sleep the sleep of death. Athens was 'full of idols;" Rome was full of wickedness, " rioting and drunkenness, chambering and wantonness, strife and envying." Around this handful of converts there was the darkness of moral night. Men were indulging in the sleep of sin, the sleep of indifference to all that is good and pure and holy. But startling as a trumpet-call the voice of the apostle sounded forth saying, "awake!" They were also,—

*

Dr. David Thomas. See Homilist, Vol. I., page 15.

2. To equip for their contest. "Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." They must cast off the sleeping garments in which souls are lulled to sleep the sleep of death. They must cast off the night garments of "the filthiness of the flesh." They must "put on the armour of light"; armour that would bear looking upon in the light of day. The "armour of light" is the armour of heaven; it is "the Lord Jesus Christ." "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." Having Christ, we have a glorious equipment. We have the girdle, the breastplate, and greaves; the shield, the helmet, and the sword; the whole armour of God. It was well for these Christians at Rome, as it is for all Christians, to know their position and duty. Again they were called upon—

3. To walk becomingly. "Let us walk honestly as in the day." As men and Christians they were to live and act consistently. They were to walk honestly, prudently, and blamelessly, according to the principles of the new religion they had adopted. Their conduct was to be such as would bear the light of day, and not after the fashion of the night revellings of those around them. Their night was well-nigh past; they were now become children. of the light and of the day. Their character was to be formed after the model of their Lord and Master. In all this they would need great faithfulness and strong courage, and they must be prepared for trial and persecution. In Judea there were stones, and in Rome there were lions. The disciples said to Jesus, "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again?" But His meat and drink was to do the will of His Father in heaven. His duty and love for men called Him, and He went in the face of the cross itself. And this must be the spirit of all Christ's faithful followers. Faithful unto death. Ere long the yell of "the maddening crowd" in Rome would be, "The Christian to the lions"; and then would be the test of fortitude. But even in this dread hour a strength from heaven shall be given them, an all-conquering faith and love, and the night of the martyr's death shall end in the dawn of eternal day.

The true Christian will maintain his loyalty to his Divine

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