I have, I will do it, not for you only, but for any New Churchman.” The assurance was verified by all his subsequent behaviour. He proved himself in every way a benefactor, his books were open, his sympathy was warm, his advice was ready, his aid was prompt, and the welcome that he gave was as genial as it was frequent. It was with as much wonder as delight that I found his library to contain all Swedenborg's theology, and almost all the collateral works that had been published here or in America. Nor was this all. At his frequent Sunday evening at homes there were met several of the ministers of the Establishment, her elders and others, before whom Mr. Jamieson, with no need of aid from the writer, declared and maintained from time to time one or other of the distinctive doctrines of the Church. In Edinburgh, as in Glasgow, his preaching was effective, the old Tron Kirk was crowded by those who were conciliated by his geniality, refreshed by his earnest eloquence, and who in his stated opinions were glad to recognise him as "the truest evangelical minister in Edinburgh," as one of his elders described him to me-truest evangelical because he had the truest evangel to proclaim.

The Scotsman, in remarking on his departure from this life, says: "As a religious teacher, he was emphatically of the broad schoolone who never blinked the difficulties which science has raised in reference to the interpretation of the written Word, and who always showed more concern that his hearers should act uprightly and unselfishly than that they should hold by the exact terms of a dogmatic creed. His sermons bespoke knowledge of human nature, and were characterized by a freshness of illustration and a departure from traditional phraseology that no doubt went a long way in securing the popularity he enjoyed. Engrossed with his own work, Mr. Jamieson made few appearances in Church Courts, with some of whose proceedings, it may be surmised, he had but scant sympathy." He departed this life on Sunday, January 30, 1881.

The results of his work who can estimate? In the Tron parish there are thousands who sympathize with New Church doctrines; his very elders own them to be the truest statements of Divine truth; the young men of his society have heard him lecture on Swedenborg, and have known Swedenborgian works used as text-books in his Bible class; his brother ministers have been led by his example and kindly talk to study the New Church theology. One of them said to me, "I regard you and our friend Jamieson as my professors in New Church theology." All who knew him loved him, and learned to respect, at least, the influences which made him what he was.

W. C. BARLOW.

HONOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.

ADDRESSED TO THE YOUNG.

No one can compare the arrangements which God has introduced into creation with the laws He has delivered in His Word, without being convinced that there is a most intimate relation between them, and that they are designed to promote the same wise and beneficent end. In none of His natural arrangements are the wisdom and goodness of God more manifest than in those which He has made for the nurture of the young. This is more clearly seen when we compare the different affections and instincts He has implanted in the various creatures of His hand, suitable to the nature and necessities of each. It is sufficient for my present purpose to point out the remarkable difference observable in this respect between the human race and all inferior creatures. All living creatures, from the fiercest to the most gentle, love their young with the most tender affection, provide for them even to the neglect of themselves, and defend them at the risk of their own lives. So far are they on the level with human beings. But human parents do much more for their children than any other creatures do for their young. The necessity of the case demands that they should have both the will and the ability to do it; and we therefore find that the will and the ability are given.

Of all creatures human beings are naturally the most destitute, the most defenceless, the most helpless, the most ignorant. God has endowed them with far nobler faculties than any other creatures, but they have no inherent power to bring their faculties into use, and without instruction they would not know even how to clothe or feed or protect themselves. This is not the case with any of the inferior creatures. The beasts of the field and the fowls of the air receive their clothing and the means of defence from nature, or rather from the God of nature; and all the knowledge they require comes to them unsought, and grows with their growth. They soon come to maturity, and when they are able to provide for themselves the old and the young part company, never again to know or care for each other as parties in so near a relationship. Yet the instinctive love and care of animals for their young are beautiful, and are evidences that all creatures are inspired by an all-wise Creator with that kind and duration of love, of knowledge, and of care which the nature and necessities of their young ones 'require. But incomparably more beautiful are the rational love and care of human parents. Besides providing

for the greater and more immediate wants of their offspring, human parents have to provide for the future welfare of their children, and to provide for them as beings possessed of a rational nature and an immortal soul; their aims regarding their offspring extending not only into future time but into eternity.

I have made this comparison between instinctive and rational love and care for the purpose of impressing upon the minds of my young hearers, to whom I am to address myself on the present occasion, how much they owe to their parents, and through them to that good and wise Father who inspires parents with love to do for their children all that the natural inability of the young prevents them from doing for themselves. Reflect what your parents must have done to bring you to your present condition, and what they must still do before you are able to act and provide for yourselves. Think of a mother's unfailing love and unwearied attention during your early infancy-that period of your lives when you were hardly conscious of either her existence or of your own, and of which you retain no recollection. During that time of utter helplessness she cherished you in her bosom, nourished you from her breast, clothed you in the softest raiment, watched over you with the utmost vigilance, anticipated all your wants, soothed you in all your fretfulness and sufferings, and poured into your ear the very music of love, to charm into activity your yet unawakened faculties. These were, however, but the first-fruits of the parental love and labour which have been and are still to be lavished upon you. Your body and mind require ceaseless care and attention. Constant care is required simply to support your life and to preserve your health. But you will be convinced how much care, and labour, and expense must have been bestowed upon you to make you what you are, and how much is yet to be expended to make you what you are intended yet to be, when I mention to you, or, if you are already aware of it, when you reflect, that without instruction and example you would not know how to walk erect, you would not have a single idea of human thought, nor be able to utter a single expression of human language. But by the labour of love and intelligence which your parents have bestowed upon you, you are able to walk erect with your face towards heaven, your senses have been tutored, your minds have been instructed, your tempers have been moderated, and orderly and useful habits have been formed. By nature you were powerless, and dumb, and blind, and deaf, and insensible to everything intellectual, moral, and spiritual. By the labour of your parents your eyes and ears have been opened to see the beauties and hear the harmonies of truth and goodness, your tongues have been loosened to speak of them, and your hands have

been set free to do them. You have thus been brought to a condition to know and enjoy the world in which the Creator has placed you, and, what is of still more consequence, to know and to be able to serve that Creator for His wisdom and goodness. So much and more do you owe, under the Providence of the Lord, to your parents. The duty of honouring your parents is therefore a reasonable duty: it should be the spontaneous offering of gratitude for the unnumbered and inestimable benefits you have derived from them, and daily enjoy as the fruits of their love and their labour. Honour to parents, as an act of filial duty, is universally recognised amongst human beings; reason itself dictating that children should honour their parents for the benefits they derive from them. But amongst those who have the light of revealed religion this duty is rendered more clear and more obligatory by being revealed from heaven and enforced by the authority of God Himself. By this means it is made a religious as well as a moral duty. And in consequence of this its performance has the promise of a spiritual and eternal as well as of a natural and temporary reward. The place which it occupies in the Scriptures adds also solemnity and force to the law which commands this duty. No doubt every precept revealed in the Scriptures has the force of a Divine injunction. But those commandments revealed with such awful solemnity from Mount Sinai, and written with the finger of God upon tables of stone, were certainly intended to be regarded by all the children of God as eminently holy, and as demanding the most faithful and affectionate fulfilment. When these ten laws had been revealed from heaven by the Lord it was particularly enjoined upon parents to teach them to their children as well as to give them the best and highest place in their own minds. "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." The law which commands children to honour their parents is one of those laws which were engraved by the finger of God, and the nature and obligation of which were to be constantly instilled into the minds and impressed upon the hearts of children. The duty of parents to their children, and the duty of children to their parents, were thus bound inseparably together. Parents were required to act towards their children in such a way as to deserve and secure the honour which children were required to render them. Faulty as were the Israelitish people in many respects, they appear to have been to a considerable extent faithful in this. And as a recompense for this they appear

to have received due honour from their children. There are indeed more instances recorded in the Bible of ungrateful children than of neglectful parents. But judging from the pictures of domestic prosperity and felicity which we meet with in the Scriptures, we have reason to infer that parents loved their children, and that children loved and honoured their parents; for there can be no prosperous or happy home where harmony and unity do not prevail. "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord. . . . As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." Children were regarded as the chief blessing. "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. . .. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord." To realize these pleasing descriptions of domestic happiness, it is essential that children should regulate their conduct in such a way as to render themselves capable of entering into the pleasures and contributing to the happiness of all around, and especially those of the domestic circle. Parents are the centres from which all the true satisfaction and happiness of home must proceed; and honour rendered to them by their children is one of the principal means by which they are able to make their children happy in return. Honour involves several duties, amongst which are respect, reverence, submission, obedience. The last is the most important, and the foundation of all others; I shall therefore direct your attention to the duty of obedience. And here I may remark that the Divine law does not command you to love your parents, but to honour them. There is no necessity for requiring children to love their parents, for God implants in the hearts of all children love for their parents, and in the hearts of all parents love for their children. Love is an affection that is natural to children; but honour is not an act that naturally springs from that love. A child may be very affectionate and yet not very obedient. Some parents, and perhaps some children also, can bear witness to the truth of this apparent inconsistency. How is it to be accounted for? It is very easily explained. Children love their parents and parents love their children, it may be said instinctively, but honour and duty are the results of instruction and discipline. Personal love of parents may be strong in children who have very little respect to the will and wisdom of their parents. This is natural love. True spiritual love for a parent is the love of the parent's will and judgment; but as this is not a love into which children are born, but one which they have to acquire, therefore, before they can acquire love for the