net will in a certain sense be drawn to land when any one of you shall die. There is an unerring discrimination at every man's death; he is taken out of the net-if he be found good he passeth into happiness, if bad, he is thrown to destruction. But this is not the drawing of the whole net to land, though it is such a separation as should set us all on examining whether or not we are in the faith. The drawing of the whole net to land is associated with the second advent of Christ, because that advent is to introduce a season, when there shall be no such thing as mere nominal Christianity, when tares shall be no longer mixed with wheat, and bad fish no longer with the good. With Balaam, we ask, "Who shall live when God doeth this?" Of the times and the seasons we are necessarily ignorant; we assume not to conjecture, much less to decide, whether many or few years have to pass ere the fishers work being done, the net shall be full and drawn to the shore. But of this we are quite sure, that no proof can be given that it may not be whilst we are yet upon the earth, that Christ shall re-appear and commission his angels to the stern work of judgment. The coming is to be altogether unexpected; it is to take all nature by surprise, "for as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until all the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." It is not, then, because all things are proceeding in their accustomed order, and men are not startled by signs of approaching interference, that we may justly couclude Christ's coming to be distant. As suredly the day of the Lord will come, and just as assuredly when it cometh it will come as "a thief in the night." It may then come in our own lifetime; even now may the cords of the net be in the hands of the angels, and they may but wait the Divine mandate to draw to the land. We give it to you as a fresh incentive to diligence and vigilance in your spiritual calling, that the Lord may come whilst you are yet numbered with the living. It is not much to tell you that you cannot reckon on to-morrow, that you are bound to be earnest in working out salvation, inasmuch as you know not that a single day is left you in which to secure immortality. But, practically there is but little force in what ought to be so startling. Sudden death is comparatively very rare, and so long as men do not feel that sickness is at work upon their frames, they can hardly persuade themselves of the possibility that death may be at hand. But we now tell you, that whilst the pulse is beating strongly, and the eye is not dim, and the spirit not broken, there may be heard the cry, "Behold the Judge standeth at the door." We tell you that sickness may be far off, that death may be far off, and yet nevertheless you are not sure of another day of probation. Whilst not near the grave, you may be within a hair-breadth of judgment. So that the doctrine of Christ's advent doubles, as it were, the likelihood of sudden death; and we send you to your homes to muse on the two probabilities; the first, that you have but a short time to live; the second, that a little while and Christ may come to judgment. The "fishers of men" have been busy with all of us; all of us are inclosed within the net; the meshes are around us; so that we must be judged as Christians and not as heathens. Oh! will it be found at last, that we are only bound the tighter for the burning? or will it not rather be found-God grant it may-that God has verified in our experience his gracious words to the Jews: "I drew them with the cords of a man, with the bands of love. ?"

THE FAMILY PREACHER.

THE LOVE OF GOD ENLARGING THE HEART.*

BY THE REV. H. MELVILL, B.D.

(Chaplain in Ordinary to Her Majesty, and Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's.)

"I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart."Psalm cxix. 32.

THERE has not passed on a man any renewing change, unless his affections have been pressed into the service of God. No doubt the understanding has a large office to perform in the things of religion, theology, as much as any natural science, demanding the exercise of all those reasoning powers which belong to our nature. We reckon it as the noblest contemplation of man, when we survey him as created, body, soul, and spirit, for the service of his Maker, and we count it at the same time the noblest, as well as the truest contemplation of Christianity, when it is regarded as a system which engages the whole man in his triple constitution, and leaves no faculty which belongs to either of the parts unconcerned in the business of glorifying the Lord. If we think on our first parent as created in uprightness, we must suppose him to have combined, in all the perfection of which they are susceptible, those intellectual powers which are broken and dispersed amongst his descendants. A brilliant imagination, a clear and strong judgment, a vigorous memory, a keen discernment, these without question belonged to Adam in a degree unparalleled amongst ourselves, so that in the first of men burned the fire of genius with a splendour unknown in our present degeneracy. It has been well said, in reference to what we call great and commanding in science, that possibly Athens was but the ruins of Paradise, and an Aristotle only the rubbish of Adam. Mental talent is but a fragment of man's early greatness, a relic of man's early innocence; and when God, moved by his compassions towards the alienated family, arranged a scheme for restoring them to their forfeited position, it was altogether to be looked for, that whilst dealing with man as an immortal creature he would have respect to him also as an intellectual. This expectation, just as it is natural, is wondrously fulfilled by Christianity. Where is the science which, in the march of its discoveries, has not greatly contributed to the evidence and illustration of Scripture? Where is the individual who, having brought industry and intelligence to the study of nature, has not been, though perhaps unconsciously, and perhaps even unwillingly, an auxiliary to those who have laboured in the defence of the faith? And when has religion a nobler triumph, than when, gaining to her side a man gifted above his fellows in mental endowment, she has taught him the high employ of glorify. ing God with the majesty of talent, as well as the fervour of affection?

• A Sermon delivered on Tuesday Morning, November 18, 1856, at St. Margaret's Church Lothbury.

Mother's Magazine, December, 1856.

We make these remarks, because we wish you thoroughly to understand, that every power which comes from God by donation may go back to God in dedication. We wish you to be possessed of the important fact, that religion deals with the whole man, and not with a fraction of the man. It does not so consult the heart as to pass over the head; it rather comes with an improving and elevating power into every organ of the creature, and whilst it impregnates the soul with the hopes of immortality, it ennobles the intellect by directing it to the loftiest of truths, and genius by pluming its wing for a higher than mortal flight.

The occupation of the heart, then, is the great thing in religion: not because, the heart being mastered, other parts may be overlooked, for religion, as we have just said, is the nourisher and not the despiser of intellect, but simply because, in the first place, until the heart is carried there can be no real conversion, for the converted man loves God, and love is from the heart, and because,in the second place, the conquest of the heart involves as a natural and necessary consequence the conquest of the remainder of the man. We reckon it of first rate importance, that religion should thus be viewed as setting up in the heart the centre of its empire, but at the same time as sending out thence an energising influence which leaves unaffected no part of its subject. There is no real empire established unless the heart have been gained; but let the heart have been gained, and there will be no contempt for and no overlooking of reason and intellect, and all the rich furniture of mental endowment, as either unworthy or unsuited to be used in the service of God. On the contrary, there will be presented the picture of every faculty employed, and at the same time ennobled by the employment; and the lesson shall be practically taught, that the Almighty equips man with no capacity and bestows on him no talent, and distinguishes him by no property, which, being devoted to the offices of religion, will yield no revenue of honour to himself.

Now, there is mention made of the heart in our text; but it is that kind of mention which bears out, we think, our foregoing remarks. You must remember that the speaker, the Psalmist, is not an unconverted man, but one who had long before been brought under the dominion of religion. He is not, therefore, soliciting the first entrance, but the after and multiplied workings of a principle of grace; and he states his desire in an expression which is singularly descriptive of that outgoing of an influence from the heart over the rest of the man, upon which your attention has been turned. His wish is that his heart might be enlarged; and we consider this wish as amounting to a longing that the whole of himself might act in unison with the heart, so that he might become, as it were, all heart, and thus the heart in the strictest sense be enlarged, through the spreading of itself over body and soul, expanding itself till it embraced all the powers of both. If there be the love of God in the heart, then gradually the heart, possessed and actuated by so noble and stirring a principle, will bring over to a lofty consecration all the energies, whether mental or corporeal, and thus the result shall be practically the same as though the other departments of man were turned into heart, and he became, according to the phrase which we have just before used, and which we are accustomed to employ when describing a character of unwonted generosity and warmth, "all heart." So that the desire after an enlarged heart you may fairly consider tantamount to a desire that every faculty might be brought into thorough subjection to God, and that just as God himself is love love being rather the Divine essence than a Divine attribute, and therefore love mingling itself with all the properties of Godhead, so the man having love in the heart might become all heart, the heart throwing itself into all his capacities, pervading but not obliterating the characteristics of his nature. And exactly in accordance with this view of the enlargement of heart which the Psalmist desired is the practical result which was to follow on its attainment. He was already walking the way of God's commandments, but what he proposed to himself was the running that way. "I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart." A quickened pace, a more rapid progress, a greater alacrity, a

firmer constancy, a more resolute and unflinching obedience, these were the results which the Psalmist looked for from enlargement of heart. And truly if all the faculties of mind and body be dedicated to God, with a constant and a vigorous step will man press on in the way that leadeth to heaven. So long as the dedication is at best only partial, the world retaining some fraction of its empire, notwithstanding the setting up of the kingdom of God, there can be nothing but a slow and impeded progress, a walking interrupted by frequent haltings, if not backslidings-by much of loitering, if not of actual retreat; but if the man be all heart, then he will be all life, all warmth, all zeal, all energy, and the consequence on this complete surrender to God will be exactly that which is prophetically announced by Isaiah"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

You may thus easily trace a connection between our foregoing views of the enlargement of heart which the Psalmist desires, and that running the way of God's commandments which he proposes as the consequence. Suppose, however, we handle the text in a more popular manuer. The heart is often taken in Scripture for the whole soul, the understanding and will, in its several affections and emotions. For example, you are told that God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand which is on the seashore. Here certainly the enlarged heart would seem to denote that vast and comprehensive spirit which, like that which we supposed of man's first ancestor, could fathom nature, taken in its greater things and in its lesser. And if you look carefully through the 119th Psalm, you will find that the author dwells with a sort of repetition on the effect of religion upon the intellect and the understanding. Thus he declares "Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies." Again he says-"Through thy precepts I get understanding." And once more-" I understand more than the ancients." Why? "Because I keep thy precepts." So that it was evidently the uppermost consciousness in the mind of the author of this Psalm, that religion told mightily on all the powers of man-that if the understanding were to be enlightened, the intellect strengthened, and the judgment improved, then the effective engine for bringing round such results was Scriptural truth, handled and applied by the Spirit of God. We may therefore suppose that by an enlarged heart is intended that enlargement of the soul, in its powers as well as in its affections, which is evidently referred to in other parts of the Psalm as resulting from the workings of religion. Admitting this, we invite you to a very interesting inquiry. We will endeavour, in the first place, to show you how God by his grace enlarges the human soul; we will then, in the second place, connect such enlargement with the result alleged in our text, and then show you how truly David associated cause with effect, when he exclaimed-" İ will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.” I. Now, the first question before us is-supposing that by the heart, the whole soul, with all its powers and affections, is intended, how comes it to be true that God by his grace enlarges the soul? We take a man's understanding. We are accustomed to think and to say, that though busying himself with scientific inquiries, through all those processes of discipline which are furnished by the study of abstruse and sublime things, through converse with history, and with the writings of illustrious men, through the exercising itself on those difficult and unsolved problems which are presented by the mysteries of nature and the fortunes of nations, we are accustomed to believe that by these and similar means the human understanding may be made stronger and more comprehensive; and we are far enough from underrating these prescribed modes of enlarging the mind; we are far enough from disputing the possibility of its enlargement through the well-applied efforts of a vigorous education; for in the mind of a peasant whose every moment is bestowed on wringing from the soil a scanty livelihood for himself and his household, there may slumber powers which, had they been evolved by early discipline, would have elevated their possessor into the first rank of philoso

phers; and many a mechanic who goes patiently the round of unvaried toil is unconsciously the owner of faculties which, nursed and expanded by instruction and exercise, would have enabled him perhaps to electrify senates, and to exercise over his fellows all that commanding influence which is ordinarily conceded to superiority of talent. And therefore we make every admission of the power which resides in cultivation of enlarging and unfolding the human understanding; for we do not at all question that mental capacities are equally distributed amongst the different classes of society, so that if it were not that the adventitious circumstances of birth entailed the advantages of education there would be sent out from the lower grades the same proportion as from the higher of individuals distinguished by all the energies of talent. But, nevertheless, we are clear upon the point, that nothing more enlarges the understanding than the grace which God pours in upon it, when he is engaged in carrying on to perfection the work of sanctification. Of course I never tell you that religion will supply the place of education, or that the imbuing the soul with piety will be practically the same thing as storing the mind with scholarship. We do not, for example, maintain that the peasant who becomes not the philosopher simply because his mental powers have not been disciplined, would leave the plough for the orrery, if his understanding were expanded by religion. Education may give the powers to philosophical men that religion would not; but assuredly there may be enlargement of understandingay, vast strengthening and bringing out of capacities, and nevertheless there would be given so different a bias that we shall find a similar result from faculties as unfolded by religion, and those same faculties as unfolded by education. And after laying down these premises, who will deny that on a man's conversion follows a great enlargement of that man's understanding! Is it can it be a large understanding which is conversant with nothing but the century of a finite existence; or rather, if heretofore the understanding have grasped nothing but the truths of an hour or a league, and these have appeared to have filled it to the full, must there not have taken place a scarcely measurable enlargement, if eternity and infinity are now gathered within its spreadings? And if it be the contemplation of noble and majestic things which causes the understanding to shoot up its stature, and to amplify itself on the right hand and on the left, so that the mind remains dwarfish through not being brought into contact with gigantic truth, where will you find us such a nourisher, such a magnifier of the understanding, as religion, seeing that through the operations of God's grace there is a comparative abandonment of a survey of the created, and a fastening of the gaze on the Creator himself, and the spirit is carried into a region inaccessible to an unconverted man, and is engaged in climbing truths which are never surmounted by the loftiest intelligence, and thus brought precisely into that intercourse with the mighty, and the colossal, which tells most on its powers, quickening them into rapid growth, and bringing to light unsuspected resources? We hold that it must be the true dignity of the soul, and that as long as this is unattained she can be but a prisoner sepulchred in flesh, to have right apprehensions of God-his excellency, his greatness, his goodness, and to discern that, however beautiful and attractive the objects of worldly pursuit, they are unworthy the seekings of one illustrious as herself, the child of immortality; and, therefore, do we further hold, that inasmuch as the operations of grace alone exalt the soul to this her rightful dignity, these operations are to be considered as resulting in the enlargement of the soul, the soul being necessarily contracted whilst kept out of her place in the scale of intellectual being and therefore as necessarily enlarged when allowed to mount up and occupy that place. Therefore it must in the strictest sense be true that religion is effectual to the enlarging of the understanding. We should not even hesitate to say that it invigorates all the powers of the mind. If any study can improve the faculties through being a sublime and difficult study, must not the study of religion? Where is the study so awfully sublime? Where the one so intensely difficult? If it be for the benefit of the mental energies that we come under the tuition of highly gifted men, the mind gathering greatness from collision with great