which hath declared, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," hath also declared, "Thou shalt love thy brother also." It will not do to neglect the one and to observe the other. Both must go together. The absence of the one is regarded as a clear proof of the absence of the other. "If we love not our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen?" If, then, any man would bring his gift to the altar, expressive of his desire to worship God, and to obtain his blessing, and while so engaged, remembers that his brother hath ought against him, so important is it, that while he is lifting up his hands to God they should be holy hands, that our Lord would have him to suspend his sacrifice for a time, that he may go straightway and be reconciled to his brother. This is, in the meantime, the first, the most important duty, because it mars the performance of the other. What a fearful warning to the man who is living in the indulgence of malice, envy, and revenge, who spends the week in acquiring dishonest gains, in blasting his neighbour's reputation, in ruining his neighbour's soul; and, yet, when the day of God comes round, he repairs to the sanctuary with all this leaven of malice and wickedness in his heart, offering up that sacrifice which the Lord abhors! Listen to the words of Jehovah in reference to all such hypocritical worshippers. Isa. i. 11-17. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full

of the burnt

offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me; the new-moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with: it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new-moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers will not hear your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow."

I

But we must not understand the Redeemer as discountenancing any man in the worship of his God. He would have the man who has injured his neighbour not to remove his gift from the altar, but to leave it there, and having sought reconciliation with his offended brother, to return immediately to his sacred duties, with clean hands and a pure heart. Such a view of the worship of God could not fail to rebuke the whole spirit of the Pharisees. It was enough with them if the outward act of worship were performed, but they forgot that He to whom the worship is addressed looketh to the feelings and the character of the

worshipper. And even to His own people who are accepted in the Beloved, His command is "Laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." If, then, believers, you would wish that your sacred services may be well-pleasing to God, pray that they may be the fruit of a heart sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and that you may draw near with true hearts, in full assurance of faith, having your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and your bodies washed with pure water. Thus thus alone will the Lord accept a gift at your hands, and recognise you as a holy priesthood appointed to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable unto God through Jesus Christ.

If, however, any man, though regular in his attendance on the sanctuary of God, and exemplary, and apparently devout in his observance of all the ordinances of God, shall continue in the indulgence of malicious and revengeful feelings towards his brother, the situation of that man is perilous in the extreme, and our Lord proceeds to warn all such that this is the time of their merciful visitation, and if pardon and reconciliation with God is not now obtained, the hour is fast drawing nigh when they shall have "judgment without mercy."

Vv. 25 and 26. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any

time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."

Reconciliation with our injured brother ought to be speedily and urgently sought. This our duty to God, and a prudential regard to our own interests, equally require, and if we shall delay a course of conduct so plainly demanded of us, we may be doomed to perceive, when too late, that we are reaping the bitter fruits of our unforgiving, unkind, and uncharitable spirit. The case supposed by our Lord is that of a man who has either wronged or is in debt to his neighbour. That neighbour has become his adversary, the plaintiff, the prosecutor in a lawsuit, which he has found it necessary to institute against him. Actions at law are at once expensive and vexatious, and it is our duty as far as possible to avoid them. "Why do ye go to law?" asks an apostle, "Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?" It is far safer, far more becoming a Christian, to yield a portion of his rights than to involve himself in unseemly litigation. Far better that we should agree with our adversary as quickly as possible, for "the beginning of strife is like the letting out of water;" we see its commencement, but we know not the consequences which it may bring upon us.

If then a speedy. reconciliation with an offended brother be so desirable in matters which concern mere human laws, how much more anxious ought we to be to obtain such a reconciliation, when we consider that all irritable and angry feeling interferes with our dealings with God. We are building with our own hands a wall of separation between us and a God of love, and effectually preventing a single prayer of ours from entering the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. In such a case we have an adversary infinitely more powerful than the deadliest and most determined foe we can encounter among men. God is our adversary. He has a controversy with us. We have done him wrong. We owe Him a debt which we can never hope to pay, a debt of obedience and a debt of punishment. If He be against us who can be our friend? We are on the way to the judgmentseat, and how fearful a thing will it be to fall into the hands of the living God! But blessed be God there is the possibility of an agreement between us and our offended Creator. He hath opened up a way of reconciliation through the blood of atonement. Christ is the daysman between God and the sinner. He hath laid His hand as it were upon the head of both, and hath made peace by the blood of His cross.

If reconciliation with God, then, be possible, there is no time to be lost. We must seek the Lord while He is yet to be found; we must call upon Him while