brought before us, in the words of solemn appeal to Ephraim and Judah, affects man's eternal destiny, for it touches his present character and condition only for evil, and not for good. You walk out some fine summer morning, say in the island of Arran; the mountains are still swathed in clouds up to their very summits. The rays of the morning sun begin to gild the loftiest peaks with a burnish brighter than gold, the clouds that wrap the mountains round like the mantle of night are broken up, and slowly creep down their massive sides. You are now presented with a series of the finest dissolving views of cloud scenery, which is constantly changing its form and position. Dewdrops sparkle everywhere like bright diamonds. The fairest form of beauty was never decked with such an array. The lark bursts into song as it rises from its bed of lustrous gems. You follow it with eye and ear as it soars and sings, and in a little, to your surprise, the clouds are all nearly gone. One still rests on the bosom of Goatfell -the morning cloud of Arran, but it becomes less and less, till it passes away and leaves not a single trace of its snowy whiteness behind. The sun rises in the heavens, and from a cloudless sky pours out his fervid heat. Where now the pearly drops of dew? they are all absorbed by the solar beams, and in your returnwalk, you look in vain for a single gem on leaf, or flower, or blade of grass. Such are the striking images employed by God Himself, to describe the transient impressions towards goodness on the part of His ancient people. "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away." The morning cloud reminds us of the night that has just gone, of the new-born day upon which we have entered, to be followed again by another night; and so these words suggest a threefold experience of life. They do not indeed apply to all men, but to very many. I. A period of little or no religious impression. Man is addressed by his Maker as if he could be awakened to a better life. He is fallen indeed, and to the lowest depths, but he can be raised. There is something left to lay hold upon in his nature, whereby he can be helped-some chord in the mysterious harp of the human spirit that will vibrate to the touch of a loving hand, however weak the response may be. Не has been compared to a magnificent temple in ruins, but the ineffaceable marks of ancient grandeur and nobility are still there. Some indeed may be so bad, so sunken, that the eye of God alone can detect the traces of former greatness, and they still linger there, to attest that man was made in the moral image of his Maker. This is true of the lowest and most degraded specimen of our humanity. There is truth in the lines of the poet: "The darkest night that shrouds the sky, Of beauty has a share; The blackest heart gives signs to tell, That God still lingers there. "I pity those that evil are, I pity and I mourn, But the Supreme has fashioned all, The idol of the soul is self, selfish pursuits and pleasures. God is forgotten, or if He is at times. remembered at all, the thoughts regarding Him are very unworthy of man as a rational and immortal being, and very dishonouring to God. So far as right views of the Supreme Being, and man's relation to Him as a sinner-eternity, the interests of the soul, the way of salvation, the ground of a sinner's acceptance with God—are concerned, this period is a state of spiritual darkness. “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart." The apostle addresses those who were in this condition in these words: "Ye who sometimes were darkness." It is the night of the soul when these great realities. are not seen in their transcendent importance. The present world bulks far more largely in the estimation of a man in this condition, than the world. to come; time more than eternity; the body more than the soul; things seen and temporal, more than the unseen and eternal. In this state of mind men live wholly for the present; or if they think of a future world at all, they are very much disposed to take it into their own hands and deal with it in their own way. This may seem, to some minds, very easily done in the days of health and prosperity, when all things are bright and promise fair. If, on the other hand, they have at times any misgivings, as they are sure to have, for it is not all fair sailing, they put the evil day afar off, and would be glad if they could always keep it at a distance; but in spite of all their efforts to press the weights down upon any rising thoughts of a future world, it will flash out upon them, now and again, like the lightning, revealing to them with startling brightness what they would fain put in the back-ground, and hold there if they could. Very many in this state of mind are utterly beyond the pale of the church, and are to be found in all conditions of life; but a large number of these are doubtless inside the church, by some slender connection at least. They wait upon its services; they may take some little interest in its work; they may contribute for its support; they hear about Christ and the claims He has upon them; they listen to the most solemn appeals; but after all they remain careless, thoughtless, indifferent as to the great concerns of eternity. The force of habit, or respectability, or early associations, bring them to the house of God, and we rejoice to see them there; but so far as man is permitted to judge, is it any want of charity to say that they are destitute of spiritual life, and have no serious impressions about God and Christ and His atoning sacrifice, about the work of the Spirit in conversion, or their eternal interests? They are surrounded by gospel light, and they have light so far; but the light that is in them is darkness, and "how great is that darkness!"—"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." II. A period of good impressions. The night of ungodliness, of utter indifference to great spiritual realities, has passed away, and is succeeded by a morning of fair promise. This is "the early cloud and the morning dew," both beautiful to look upon. Doubtless there is a change for the better in thought, feeling, and action, in discourse and deportment in the daily round of life. There is an approach at least to the confines of true goodness; nay, more than this, in all charity true goodness seems to be attained. There are better and more frequent thoughts about divine things. The soul has been awakened to reflection, to pause and look into eternity, and to ponder the relation between God and the sinner. Aroused to anxiety as to his personal salvation, he is brought face to face with the solemn inquiry, "What must I do to be saved?" The burden. of sin, the need of deliverance, the awful realities of death, judgment, and eternity, and the powers of the world to come are now felt as they never were before. These are surely impressions for good, full of promise; and when they are seen in a life, just emerging from the night of sin and utter indifference to divine things, they are to be welcomed and hailed with delight by every sincere friend of true goodness. It certainly stands out in pleasing contrast to the past. The man who was the slave of intemperate habits renounces the intoxicating cup, and declares himself to be free from the "devil's chain," and in the most urgent terms he implores others to escape from the bondage in which he was so long held, and to come and |