worthy of the name son. There are some offspring who are destitute of natural affection. What Aristotle of old said, will be endorsed by all thoughtful men. "A son must always be his father's debtor because he can never repay him for those greatest of all benefits, birth and upbringing, and in these the fathers resemble God." This being so, and you Israel are "My son, My firstborn," a relationship which you profess, "where is Mine honour ?" If the language is, as some suppose, specially addressed to the priests, the appeal gets new emphasis. The idea is, you profess to regard Me as your Father, and your Master, and you should, therefore, in your life treat me with honor, reverential fear, and loyal devotion. "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?" Any discrepancy between our profession and our practice is morally unnatural. Our conduct should accord with our creed, our deeds with our doctrines.

II. The profession and the practice are OFTENTIMES AT VARIANCE. The priests to whom these words were addressed practically contradicted their profession, they called Him Father and Master, and yet see how they treated Him in their sacrifices in the temple. Look at them in their offerings. They showed First :-A lawless spirit. "Ye offer polluted bread

upon mine altars." This is directly contrary to the law as given in Deuteronomy. "If there be any blemish therein as if it be lame or blind, or have any ill-blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God." "The sin with which the priests are charged is that of polluting God's altar by offering beasts not ceremonially clean, unfit for sacrifice. Any beast was passed as good enough for sacrifice, the lame or blind, that had become useless for work, sick or torn, the beast that was dying on its feet and could not be used for meat, or that which had been stolen, and so marked that it would not sell, anything, in short, that could serve no other purpose was good enough for God. His courts had the appearance of a knacker's yard." They showed in their offerings. Secondly: A niggardly spirit. Not only were they polluted, which is contrary to ceremonial law, but they were worthless blind, lame, wretched skeletons, were the beasts offered, worth nothing in the field or the market, mere refuse. "A cheap religion," says one, "costing little is rejected by God, worth nothing: it costs more than it is worth for it is worth nothing, and so proves really dear." God despiseth not the widow's mite but He disdains the miser's gold. They showed in their offerings-Thirdly: A captious spirit. They say "Wherein

have we despised Thy name?" "Wherein have we polluted Thee"? So blind and so insensible were they to moral propriety that they insulted the Almighty even in their formal efforts to serve Him. They showed in their offerings Fourthly: A thoughtless spirit. "Offer it now unto thy governor will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of Hosts? And now I pray you beseech God that He will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means. Will He regard your persons? saith the Lord of Hosts." This sentence is ironical: ye dare not go before your governor with such presents: but come now I pray you, enter God's presence and use your stock phrase of supplication (Num. vi. 25.) that He "would be gracious unto us." Will he regard your persons? How many who profess God to be their Father and their Master, act out even in their religious services this lawless, niggardly, captious, thoughtless, spirit.

Herein there is the discrepancy between profession and practice. But alas how common is it.

With lip we call Him Master,
In life oppose His Word,
We ev'ry day deny Him
And yet we call Him Lord!

No more is our religion
Like His in soul or deed,
Than painted grain or canvas
Is like the living seed.

In the balance we are weigh'd,
And wanting we are found,
In all that's true and Christly
The universe around.

CONCLUSION.-A fact nårrated to me by the late Rev. Dr. Leifchild some years ago, affords a striking illustration of the discrepancy between profession and practice in religion. He told me that there was an old lady in his church, very wealthy, and very loud in her professions, and apparently very enthusiastic in her devotions, but whose contributions for religious purposes were of the most niggardly kind. One Sunday in singing a hymn with which they closed the service of the Lord's Supper, she being near to the table, he observed her as the deacons were going round according to their custom collecting subscriptions for the poor. It so happened that the verse they were singing at the time the deacon came to her with the plate was

"Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small, Love so amazing, so Divine, Demands my heart, my life, my all.”

No one, in the whole congregation seemed more hearty in shouting out those words with their voice than she. Meanwhile the deacon held the plate right under her eye but she let it pass without enriching it by even a copper.

Wrong Worship. "WHO IS THERE EVEN AMONG

YOU THAT WOULD SHUT THE DOORS

FOR NOUGHT?" etc.-Malachi i. 10-14.

The subject of these words is wrong worship, and they suggest the following remarks.

IS

I. That WRONG WORSHIP WORSE THAN NO WORSHIP AT ALL.

"Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? Neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand." Kiel gives a version more in accordance with the original. "O that there were one among you, who would shut the doors, that ye might not light mine altar to no purpose! I have no pleasure in you saith Jehovah of Hosts, and sacrificial offering does not please me from your hand." "As if," says Dr. Dods, "God were to say it were far better that the temple were shut than that such profane and fruitless worship were carried on in it. (Isaiah i. 12.) Better that you and your offensive beasts be together shut out of the temple, and that no smoke ascend from the altar, since all such offerings as you present are offered in vain The Hebrew word translated 'for nought,' is the etymological equivalent of gratis but the meaning

:

here is not without reward' but the closely allied, secondary meaning without result: it is not the mercenary but the fruitless character of the services which is pointed at." There is a deal of wrong worship in the world, not only in heathen regions but in Christendom, not only in Popery but in Protestantism, not only in the Church but in Dissent. Some of the hymns are not only gross but blasphemous, and the prayers, too, are repugnant alike to reason and conscience. No worship is a thousand times better than wrong worship. Wrong worship insults the Infinite Father, and degrades the human soul. Another thought suggested is :

II. That WRONG WORSHIP WILL ONE DAY BE PRACTICALLY REPUDIATED.

"From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, My name shall be great among the Gentiles." A modern expositor expresses the idea thus," Since, ye Jewish priests and people "despise My name," I shall find others who will magnify it. (Matt. iii. 19). Do not think I shall have no worshippers because I have not you, for from the east to the west My name shall be great among the Gentiles, (Isa. lix. 12.; lxvi. 19, 20), those very peoples whom ye look down on as abominable. "And a pure offering," not the blind, the lame, and the sick,

such as ye offer. "In every place," implies the catholicity of the Christian church (John iv. 21-23; Tim. ii. 8). The incense is figurative of prayer (Ps. cxli ).; (Rev. viii. 2.) Sacrifice is used metaphorically of the offering of a "broken and contrite heart." This period(1)Though far in the future, is certain to dawn on the world. God hath promised it, and it is "impossible for Him to lie" "And the Gentiles shall come to Thy light and kings to the brightness of Thy rising. Then thou shalt see and flow together, and Thine heart shall fear and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee" (Isa. lx. 3-5). This period (2) Will exclude all false worship. It will be in " every place." No room for the knee in the temple of the false worshipper. Neither in this mountain nor in that mountain shall

ye

worship the Father. "God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth." In this period (3) All human souls will be blended in love and devotion. "No more divisions." "Thy name shall be great among the heathen." He will be the great centre around which all souls will revolve, from which all will draw their heat, their light, their harmony. We infer from the passage:

III. That WRONG WORSHIP IS SOMETIMES RENDERED EVEN BY THE

RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF MANKIND.

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But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, the table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible." From these words we learn that these priests made worship appear (1) Contemptible. Perhaps these priests did not literally say the Lord's table is contemptible, but in their acts they declared it. Is the word contemptible" here intended to express the feeling of the priests themselves? Some have considered it as referring to the revenue which the priests drew from their services at the altar. The beasts which were brought for their offering were so poor and wretched, that the flesh which fell to their share for food was so poor that they could not eat it, it filled them with disgust, it was contemptible. As if they had said, the reward which we have for our services at the altar is truly contemptible. But this view can scarcely be accepted, inasmuch as they themselves acaccepted those worthless animals for sacrifice. It rather means that they had made worship appear contemptible to others, that their services had brought worship into contempt. How often do the religious leaders of mankind, by the crudity of their thoughts, the narrowness of their creeds, the worldliness of their spirits, bring religion into popular