hearts, with thankfulness to Christ their Saviour, with love to Him and to all mankind.

May we be so taught by the blessed Spirit of God, as to be enabled gratefully to receive this precious doctrine! May we ever frequent our Lord's table with a thankful remembrance that He died for penitent sinners, and that therefore sinners may come to Him and partake of this heavenly food, which He has spread for our souls. Let us not ask, with unbelieving hearts, as the Jews did, "How can all this be?" nor murmur as they did, because Christ offers to feed us with the bread that came down from heaven. There was in their eyes no beauty nor comeliness in a religion so spiritual, with hopes directed almost entirely to another and a better world. Sad to say, these people, who lately would have made Christ their king, began now to despise and reject Him. In vain did our Lord speak to them more and more plainly of these heavenly things: they could not understand them, they were too high for them. In vain did He direct them to that powerful grace of God, which was able to draw even their hard and obstinate hearts to Christ; in vain did He assure them, that those, who came to Him, should be in no wise cast out. Mortified and disappointed the people turned at once away, and even many of His own disciples went back again, and walked no more with Him, saying of these blessed doctrines, that they were hard sayings which none could hear. The fact was, they began to find out what the Gospel really was. They began to see clearly that the soul, not the body, was the great object of Jesus' care, and eternal life the great blessing which He held out to them. Alas! that they should turn away from it!

We grieve for their unbelief; and yet naturally our own hearts are just as stupid, just as dead to heavenly things, just as fond of this present evil world, as their hearts were. All by nature are alike. The blessed Jesus declares in this very conversation, "No man can come unto me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him." We cannot of ourselves turn to God, but if we each say to Him from our hearts, "Turn thou me, good Lord; then shall we be turned." -Draw us, O Lord, to thy dear Son;' then will He give us grace "to run after him."

E. What did our Lord do, Mamma, when the people, and even some of His own disciples, so ungratefully left Him?

M. He turned to the chosen twelve and said, "Will ye also go away?" And blessed are those, dear Edward, who can join with their whole hearts, in the reply which burst immediately from Peter's lips: "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!" No doubt these were words most pleasing to the Saviour's ears; but a mournful thought crossed His mind as He heard them. He recollected that there was one even among the chosen twelve, who belonged to Satan, and not to Him. He thought of Judas Iscariot who would afterwards betray Him.

It might well make us sad too, to think that there is such a thing as living among the people of God, yet not being really one of them. Happy those whose hearts are true to their Saviour; whom the Father hath drawn to Christ; whom the Holy Spirit hath taught to discover the things which belong to their

everlasting peace; and to prefer above all things that this world can give,-wealth, honour, liberty, power, pleasure that eternal life, which God has given us in His Son.

See Matt. xiv. 13-36. Mark vi. 30—56.
Luke ix. 10-17.

John vi.

THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY EVENING.

THE TRADITIONS OF THE PHARISEES.

M. You have often heard, my dear Edward, already of the manner in which our blessed Lord was hindered in His works and labours of love by the chief people among the Jews, especially by the Pharisees.

E. Yes, Mamma; but those Pharisees always puzzle me a little; for they seem to have been very particular about serving God, and yet our Lord never seems to have been pleased with them. I am sure He was right; but I do not quite understand it.

M. I do not wonder that the character of the Pharisees should perplex you; for there was a great appearance of religion about it, whilst it was in reality very hateful in God's sight. They made a great outward show of piety, and managed in this way to get the good opinion, and indeed the high esteem of their fellow countrymen; though far differently thought of by Christ, who knew their hearts, and did not judge of them by outward appearances. He saw that their

religion was but a hollow sort of thing, appearing well outside, but not able to bear the least examina

tion. It rested entirely in outward things; but did not improve or touch the heart. True religion, you know, purifies the thoughts and feelings, and affections of the heart; casts out every thing from within that is offensive in the sight of a pure and holy God; and thus leads to holy actions and tempers. But the hearts of these Pharisees were full of malice and wickedness, and every thing which God hates, and therefore their outward pretences to holiness were hateful and abominable in His sight. This was the hypocrisy, or acting a part before men, of which our Lord so often accused them, and which He continually exposed to view, that they might no longer deceive either themselves or others.

Such was the general character of the Pharisees; and as they were chief people among the Jews, their example must have been very hurtful to those around them. But besides this, they had fallen into one very bad and dangerous practice: they made the traditions of men of great importance, and set them up, not only as equal to, but even as far above, the commandments of God.

E. It must be very wrong, surely, to set any thing above God's word; but what are traditions of men, Mamma? I do not quite understand what traditions

are.

M. I dare say not. Traditions are practices, or opinions, or sayings, not found in the word of God, but handed down from one generation to another, from man to man, from father to son. Some of these traditions may at first have come from God. This was most likely the case before the flood with all the religious ideas and practices of mankind; for at that

time there were no written communications of God's will, nor yet indeed until the time of Moses. He, you know, was the first person employed to write an account of God's dealings with men, and of His will concerning them. In these old traditions, therefore, there was some mixture of truth. Perhaps whatever ideas of religion may now be found in the heathen world, were derived at first from the traditions of the Patriarchs. But opinions and articles of faith, when communicated from one to another, merely by word of mouth, can very easily be so changed, and corrupted, and spoiled, by the folly, and ignorance, and wickedness of men, as in a short time to have very few traces left in them of what was once pure and good. Tradition was not able to preserve men from gross idolatry. Even their priests and prophets had fallen into a sad state, as we saw in the case of Balaam.

E. Oh! yes, I remember, you told me at the time that he was a real prophet, but a bad man; and so he was, for he was willing to do any thing, however profane or wicked, for the sake of Balak's riches; and you know, Mamma, nothing kept him back at all, but his fear of the great power of God.

M. Thus, you see, tradition was of some use, but was easily corrupted. When, however, the Lord was pleased to set apart to Himself a peculiar people, that He might preserve the true religion in the world, He gave them something better and safer to depend upon, even His own word. This He caused to be committed to writing, first by Moses, and then by the other sacred historians, and psalmists, and prophets; then by the apostles and disciples of our Lord.