eternally! All honour to those who, toiling in shops or offices during the whole week, have little leisure for study or for enlarging their own store of knowledge, but are ready to tell what they know, of the Divine love and mercy to the little ones whom they desire to lead to Jesus! All honour to those elder scholars who, having long listened to the Divine Word themselves, come afterwards to share their teachers' work, and to make known what they have heard to others! These all are doing the Lord's work, are faithful labourers in His vineyard, and, according to the talents entrusted to them, will receive a corresponding reward for their patient, faithful, persevering efforts.

But are there not others, who have more time at their own disposal, more knowledge and experience, more advantages and oppor tunities, who ought also to be fellow-workers with these brethren of the Lord? We see young men in our Sunday assemblies in the Church so earnest and devout that we cannot think them indifferent to the duty of spreading the gospel throughout the world, or of their own responsiblility individually to do something for Christ their Saviour. In the Sunday school the harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few: work has to be done, but those who might do it stand without all the day idle.

Why are they absent? Is it because they think that it would be beneath their social position to mingle, even in Christian labour, in the company of those in a humbler walk of life, and that they would thereby forfeit the respect due to their own families and associates? We have already said that, here and there, we hare those amongst us of the highest social position, and we can assure those who may thus think, that they will rarely find a want of the respect which is due to the position in which God has placed them in those who have learnt in the Gospel to "render to all their due;" and that among true Christian workers, even in the humblest paths of life, they will see graces shining so brightly as to make them thankful that they have been brought in contact with them. Or, is it that the work of the Sunday school teacher is supposed to be beneath the capa cities of the well-educated, and so simple that it needs no high mental qualification for its exercise? Here also a great mistake is made. as all know who endeavour to expound a familiar passage of Scripture, so as to bring it within the comprehension of children. The well-informed Bible student will find it a useful mental exercise, so to analyse a well-known chapter as to be able to answer the questions as to its meaning which a quick class of boys will put to their teacher, and so to explain it that its main truths may be clearly brought out. Or is it simply that the labour is irksome and toilsome, and is, therefore, avoided? Alas! we fear this is the most frequent cause why so

many neglect to engage in Sunday school teaching. They consult their own ease and comfort, and they know that these must be sacrificed for a few hours at all events, if they undertake Sunday by Sunday to take charge of some eight or ten boys, perhaps troublesome to manage, inattentive or thoughtless, and that it will require some self-denial, in all weather, and whatever their personal engagements may be, faithfully to pursue the work of endeavouring to lead young children committed to their care to a knowledge of God, and to train them up in His fear and love.

the

Are such excuses deserving of Christian young men?

Ought

we not, one and all, high or low, to do our Lord's work, wherever, and in whatever way it is open to us ? "Inasmuch as ye did it not unto the least of these My brethren, ye did it not to Me," are the Saviour's own words. The time has passed, we hope for ever, when it was supposed to be the duty of the clergy exclusively to speak of religion to their fellow-men; but the time has yet to come when the laity will take their proper share in the work of the Christian Church, and do as much as they are able to do to strengthen the hands of their pastors. "No man liveth to himself " who is a Christian indeed, and those who feel how great their own debt is to Him who gave Himself for them, will be ready to do what they can in whatever field of labour He may assign them. No more direct, no simpler, and no happier way can be found for speaking of His love, and of winning souls for Him, than in teaching the young what great things He has done for them. Children attend eagerly to the touching story of the Saviour's life; they listen wonderingly to His mighty deeds; they catch the meaning and feel the power of His pointed words; and their young hearts are ready to give Him a place in their best affections. Nor need any fancy that his mind is too highly cultivated for such a task. Never did a Christian teacher sit down to speak to the youngest child of the things of God in a faithful spirit without finding his own mind illumined by fresh glimpses of the light of divine truth, and its reality and power brought home with greater force and comfort to his own soul. "High and low one with another" we assemble together in the great congregation to offer prayer and praise to "our Father which is in heaven ;" and So, in the communion of saints ought we to meet as fellow-workers for Christ on earth, if we expect to realize the blessedness of the communion of the glorified servants of the Lord in His kingdom in heaven.

But this Magazine, will perhaps never be read by any but Sunday school teachers and those interested in their work. Can these do anything to obtain helpers such as I have described? It might perhaps have greater weight if the clergy would personally commend this branch of Christian labour to those educated young men in their

churches whose lives give them reason to believe that their hearts are turned to God in sincerity, for no mere intellectual qualifications avail in this case, unless accompanied by the indwelling of the Divine Spirit, and a faithful devotion to the Saviour. But do we not all know, in our own circles of acquaintance, or in our congregations some whom we might enlist into our Master's service? When the army of the sovereign needs to be increased, soldiers are scattered throughout the country to obtain recruits, and it would never do to wait till enough volunteers come forward unasked to join the ranks. So in the army of the King of Kings, those who are already the soldiers of the cross should win others to fight under the same heavenly banner against the tide of evil and ignorance in the midst of which they live; and those who have themselves served under the Captain of our salvation are best able to tell how good and gracious a Lord and Master He is, and how blessed are all who enter that service which is "perfect freedom." Thus we may be able to add to the number of our fellow-workers, and so to remove the disconsolate cry so often heard in our Sunday schools, of the need for "more teachers."

DISCONTENT.

"SOME murmur when their sky is clear,

And wholly bright to view,
If one small speck of dark appear

In their great heaven of blue.
And some with thankful love are filled,
If but one streak of light,

One ray of God's good mercy, gild
The darkness of their night.

"In palaces are hearts that ask,
In discontent and pride,
Why life is such a dreary task,
And all good things denied?
And hearts in poorest huts admire
How love has in their aid

(Love that not ever seems to tire)

Such rich provision made.”

W. S.

Dean Trench.

The Teacher in his Study.

ON THE STUDY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS.

II.

No one will fully appreciate the great advantages arising from our having not one, but four narratives of the Saviour's life, who does not place them carefully in contrast as to design, method, and style. Each Evangelist evidently had his own peculiar purpose in writing, and this is found, in each case, to govern, in a great measure, the selection of the matter introduced. The language and style of each are further influenced by the individual character of his own mind. Each, again, would seem to have had sources of information distinct from those possessed by all in common. The result is, that by combining the aspects of our Lord's life, character, and teaching, presented by each, we are enabled more fully to comprehend the perfection of His life, the unity of His character, the supreme excellence of His teaching. This combined view I shall examine in my next paper, but the separate purpose and style of each Gospel I take first, as falling properly under my first division, the study of the four distinct records. It would be impossible in the space I can allot to this subject to go through all the steps of the investigation, and I therefore content myself with endeavouring to present the conclusions to which they lead, in the form of a historical account of the successive composition of the four Gospels, adopting the supplemental theory of their origin already referred to. I do not, of course, submit this sketch as certainly true, but as embodying what I believe to be the most probable and natural views; I state or imply nothing for which I cannot adduce good evidence; and in respect of the design and tone of thought which I attribute to each Gospel, I have the concurrence of almost all the chief expositors.

During the first twelve years after the Ascension, while the preaching of the new faith was confined to Palestine, where the twelve still remained together, engaged continually in orally instructing the infant Church, the want of a written narrative of the Lord's life would not be felt. But when the conversion of Cornelius opened the eyes of the Apostles to the calling of the Gentiles, and the persecution under the third Herod drove them from Judæa, the need of such an account would at once arise. At this juncture, then, and before the death of Herod led to the reappointment of a Roman governor (a point to which I have already

referred), I conceive that the Spirit of God moved St. Matthew to write his Gospel. And for whom? For those whom alone Christianity had yet reached-the Jewish people. And with what especial design? Not merely to supply the required authoritative record, but to avail of this felt need, more entirely to satisfy the believing, and more forcibly persuade the unbelieving Jews of the great truth that Jesus of Nazareth was, indeed, the Messiah King of the ancient Hebrew prophets. It is evident that this idea pervaded St. Matthew's thoughts while composing the first Gospel. He almost always describes the new dispensation by the term "kingdom of heaven," which is used by him twenty-nine times, and never by the other Evangelists. He represents John the Baptist proclaiming the approach of this kingdom (chap. iii. 3); and Jesus Himself as repeating the proclamation (chap. iv. 17); as giving the twelve the same commission (chap. x. 7); as declaring the blessedness of the kingdom, and the qualifications for attaining it (chap. v. 1-20; vii. 21; viii. 11, 12; xviii. 1-3); as describing the economy of its development in parables (chaps. xiii., xx., xxii., xxv.). In the discourses and parables which he selects to enrich his work, we observe continually a royal and authoritative character, until the whole is wound up with the Lord's proclamation of His supreme dominion"All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." His constant aim is to identify the incidents of the life of Jesus with the predictions of the Old Testament, reminding his Hebrew readers of Isaiah's prophecies of the Virgin bearing a Son, the preparatory voice crying in the wilderness, the great light to shine on the people sitting in the moral darkness of Galilee, the Healer of human infirmities and sicknesses, the tenderness of Him who should not break the bruised reed; of Jeremiah's prediction, too, of the weeping in Rama; Hosea's, of the sojourn in Egypt; Micah's, of the birth at Bethlehem; and of the fulfilment by Jesus of the many mysterious intimations which he sums up in the words, "He shall be called a Nazarene." And I may observe,

* See Matt. i. 22, 23, compared with Is. ix. 6; chap. iii. 3, with Is. xl. 3—6; chap. iv. 14, 16, with Is. ix. 1, 2; chap. viii. 17, with Is. liii. 4; chap. xii. 17-21, with Is. xlii. 1-4; chap. ii. 5, 6, 15, 17, 18, with Micah v. 2; Hosea xi. 1; Jer. xxxi. 15. See also chaps. xi. 10; xiii. 14, 15, 35; xxi. 42; xxvii. 9, 10, 35; compared with Is. xl. 3; vi. 9, 10; Ps. lxxviii. 2; xlix. 4; cxviii. 22, 23; Zech. xi. 12, 13; Ps. xxii. 18.

These words probably refer (1) to all the prophecies which give Messiah the title of the Branch (Heb. naza) of the root of Jesse (Is. xi. 1; Jer. xxii. 5; xxxiii. 5; Zech. vi. 11); (2) to the passages in which the obscurity of Messia's apparent origin and His contemptuous rejection are predicted (Ps. xxii. 6; Ixix. 7, 12; Is. xlix. 7; liii. 2, 3, compared with John i. 46; vii. 52). Ellicott, Huls. Lect., p. 81, note; Webster and Wilkinson, Greek Test., in loco.