vide men into two classes, and to put him into class one, and to relegate "other men," the whole common crowd of them, to class two. "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are." That is as unchristian as anything can be. It flatly contradicts the whole intention of the Christian gospel. Jesus Christ came to drive contempt out of the world, and to bring brotherly love in. The one virtue upon which he insisted more than any other as essential to the approval of God is the virtue of brotherliness. The one deadly heresy is the heresy of Cain. No man who asks, "Am I my brother's keeper?" saying "no" in his heart, is within sight of the kingdom of God. Men are not admitted into college for their good looks, but for their intellectual attainments; and no human being will enter heaven upon the credentials of his respectable life: brotherly people are wanted there, and none else.

Take, now, a man who is an honest merchant and an upright citizen, an example of domestic virtue and a leader in the church, and who out of every hundred dollars of his income gives ten dollars to the poor, and you have an uncommonly good man. And yet Christ said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the

righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." So that one may have all the graces and the sanctities which marked this eminent citizen of Jerusalem, and yet be making spiritual shipwreck of his life. No man will be saved by respectability. That is worth thinking about.

As for the Publican, doubtless he described himself with accuracy when he prayed that God would be merciful to him, a sinner. Any one seeing the two men that day, climbing the temple steps together, would have remarked upon the contrast. And had you asked the question, Which of these two is nearer to the kingdom of heaven? you would have been answered, with some natural surprise at your folly in asking, The Pharisee. But Christ said, The Publican!

God's judgment is evidently diverse from ours. God's thoughts, as the wise psalmist phrased it, are as remote from ours as the east is from the west. The sermon sounds in the ears of the hearers, wise and unwise, rich and poor, saints and sinners. But in the sight of God some of the rich are poor, and some of the poor are rich, and some of the wise are foolish. Some who are accounted first by us and by them

selves, God sets among the last; and we would no doubt be unanimously amazed if the names of the first should be read out here by an angel of God from the pages of the books of God. For no amount of advantage can insure one against spiritual failure; and no disadvantage, no complication of adverse and hindering circumstances, can keep anybody from making a man of himself and winning the benediction of the absolutely impartial Judge.

But what was the matter with the Pharisee? Wherein did he fail?

He failed, our Lord tells us, for a reason, or a combination of reasons, which he puts into a single sentence, because he "trusted in himself that he was righteous, and despised others.” Contempt is as unreasonable as it is unchris

tian.

Take intellectual contempt, for example, the spirit which says, "I am wiser than thou." The most learned of scholars has no monopoly of knowledge; many humble folk know important things of which he is quite ignorant. Somebody wrote a great book once in Latin, and entitled it "De Omnibus Rebus," "Concerning All Things;" and then presently added a supplement, which he entitled "Et Ceteris Re

bus," "And a Few Other Things."

But

even thus he did not record all that is knowable. Everybody we meet knows more than we do about something. And, after all, the really important thing is to be rather than to know. Character is better than culture. And culture sometimes endangers character by imparting this foolish pharisaical spirit of mistaken superiority.

Take, also, the case of social contempt; the feeling, "I am politer than thou." This is the most unchristian element in society. It puts barriers between "classes," erects walls of caste. Christian courtesy is never guilty of contempt. The essence of good manners is consideration for the feelings of others. Whoever fails in thoughtfulness for the humblest household servant betrays vulgarity, and is a social Pharisee.

Then there is religious contempt, which says, "I am better than thou." Ah, but are you? That is what this mistaken Pharisee mistakenly imagined.

And thus we learn our lesson in humility. God rejected the proud and gave his benediction to the humble.

DISPOSITION AND DUTY.

"A man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not; but afterward he repented himself, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir; and went not."- ST. MATT. xxi. 26.

It

NOTHING can take the place of obedience. is very well to be respectful and good-mannered, like this second son, and to be prompt at promising; but if that is all, then it is worse than nothing. The second son, with his polite, deferential "I go, sir," not only disobeyed his father, but also lied to him.

The second son is the man who makes hearty and reverent response to the reading of the commandments in church on Sunday, and then breaks five or six of them on Monday. "Thou shalt not steal," says the minister. "Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law," says the man; and then for six days he devotes himself, body, mind, and spirit, to every variety of respectable stealing known to the world of trade.