fluence from our living Head-if the peace of God, that passeth all understanding, keep our own hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, it will go far to preserve this concord and unity amongst the members of Christ's body. I am not so enthusiastic as to suppose but difference of opinion must exist in such a large body as ours in many things. The members of the purest and the most limited society cannot, in our present imperfect state, think all alike; nor am I an advocate for the quashing of all free discussion, and the fair, honest, and manly declaration and interchange of men's sentiments, and views, and opinions. This I conceive to be essential to the eliciting of truth, and to the establishing of truth-aye, it is essential, if conducted in a Christian spirit, to the settling of amity and concord on a firm and substantial basis. Even private friendships are strengthened by mutual explanations, and often cemented by friendly remonstrance and plain dealing. And if there are not, which I trust there are not, spirits amongst us, who, like certain animals, cannot live but in troubled waters-and self-conceited spirits, who think every thing wrong that does not originate with themselves and exactly harmonize with their own views-and proud spirits, who must have all to bend to their dicta— and if all prejudice and jealousy cease, and if mutual forbearance is exercised, and mutual confidence begotten, and charity, that thinketh no evil, is cherished-and, combined with these, there be a consciousness on the part of every one of us of his own ignorance and liableness to mistakeand united and fervent prayer for Divine light and direction-there will be, there cannot fail to be there, harmony and peace.

Our circumstances are now, as a Church and as the courts of a Church, widely different from what they were in times not long gone by. Then we met as men of very different views and sentiments, though we had subscribed the same standards, and sworn allegiance to the same Master. Our subjects of discussion were not merely matters of ecclesiastical polity, and points of church discipline; but they often had respect to the vital doctrines of the Gospel, the characters of the heralds of salvation, and the functions of the sacred ministry, respecting which there were often the most discordant opinions, where nothing but one sentiment ought to have prevailed. But now the great causes of contention and division are removed-we meet together as brethren, wearing the same badge and uttering the same shibboleth-who have, in the face of the world and before God, as one man, lifted up a testimony against error, and, as with one hand, subscribed a declaration in favour of truth; and in all our assemblies, whether of greater or minor name, we meet for the maintenance of the principles which we have avouched, and carrying out the great objects for which a Church of Christ was instituted-the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, and the promoting of vital godliness. 0, 1

trust the unseemly spectacle will never be witnessed in our Free Church courts, of two antagonist bands placed against each other in martial array, but that we shall meet together as brethren of the same family, the followers of the meek and lowly Redeemer, to consult for the glory of our great Head, to seek the purity and prosperity of our Zion, and, by our counsels, and deliberations, and prayers, to strengthen each other's hands in our work of awful and everlasting importance.

4. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem includes praying that ourselves and others may be brought to the enjoyment of the peace of the New Jerusalem. There is a Jerusalem above of which the earthly is typical-a heavenly Canaan to which the earthly points. While we pray for the means, we surely cannot but pray for the end-while we entreat for preparation, we cannot but long for possession. Is there a soul that does not pant for the enjoyment of God in a better world, where peace and harmony, where purity and bliss, shall universally, and uninterruptedly, and eternally reign? The more we are agitated by wars and rumours of wars— the more we see of the jealousies of princes and the struggles of rival kingdoms-the more we witness the contentions of rulers and the schemes of state politicians-the more we contemplate, and are brought into contact with, the disputes and divisions of professing Christians-the more eagerly must every one who does not rejoice in envy, and turmoil, and strife, long for the serenity and peace of that country where there is no discord nor jealousy, no envy nor contention, nothing to hurt or destroy --where, though the tongues are ten thousand, there is but one heart, one purpose, one song. Does not thy prayer, then, O Christian, this day arise-shall it not continue to ascend heavenward, not only in thy own behalf, but in behalf of thy Christian brethren of every name— in behalf of Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Gentiles, Mahomedans and Indians, bond and free-in behalf of friends and enemies, that they may be all one in Christ-that He may be all in all to them, and that they, with you, may, through the blood of atonement and the purifying influences of the Spirit of God, be prepared for, and brought to, the possession of the land of light, and purity, and peace, and joy? Who is there that does not exult in this blessed prospect, and who does not pray for its consummation? Arise, then, Lord, and have mercy upon Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

I cannot enter on the second head-the Encouragement. These words I have brought before you, at this time, that we may, one and all of us, be stirred up to yield compliance with the important duty contained in the text And, surely, reverend fathers and brethren, this is a subject that ought to come powerfully home to us. Zion's glory-Jerusalem's peace

-the honour of our Lord-the prosperity of our Church-must doubtless be subjects of deep interest to our hearts, and, if so, we will spread them out before God. While this is the duty of every Christian, it is ours to go in the advance. We are recognised as men of God-as men of prayer-as intercessors with God for our people-the heralds of salvation -the messengers of the Lord of Hosts. It is our honour and our privilege, however unworthy, to lead the devotions of our people, and to go before them in every hallowed exercise and duty. While we urge them and stir them up to prayer, let us set them the example; and, surely, there never was a time when the duty was more imperative, whether we look to the past, contemplate the present, or venture to lift up the veil and cast a glance into the future-whether we are solemnized and, it may be, alarmed by the aspect of things that is frowning, or cheered by the prospect that is bright and hopeful. The glorious high throne has been, from the beginning, the sanctuary of God's people-thither let us betake ourselves; the chambers of the everlasting covenant have ever been the place of security to which they have fled-thither let us run and hide ourselves. as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. "Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest. till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." Imitate the prophet's purpose when he says, "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth."-AMEN.

SERMON XV.

THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY GHOST MORE PRECIOUS TO BELIEVERS THAN THE VISIBLE PRESENCE OF CHRIST.

BY THE REV. JAMES BANNERMAN, ORMISTON.

"It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but, if I depart, I will send him unto you.'-JOHN Xvi.7.

THESE words form part of the last discourse which our Saviour held with his disciples before his crucifixion, and were designed to comfort their hearts under the sorrow and painful surprise experienced by them at the near prospect of his death. Oftentimes, on former occasions, he had warned them of the approach of that hour when the Son of Man was to be taken, by the hand of violence, from the midst of them; he had talked, in no ambiguous language, of a baptism with which it behoved him to be baptized-a baptism, not with water, but with blood; and he had laboured, long and earnestly, to raise their thoughts to the anticipation of that season when the Shepherd was to be smitten, and the sheep scattered abroad. But, notwithstanding all such warnings, the announcement, on the occasion when our text was spoken, of his speedy removal from them, by means of a violent death, was, to them, a most unexpected and painful one. Up to the very moment when their Divine Master stood on the brink of betrayal and death, they had been slow of heart to believe, what he had often foretold, of his sufferings and cross; and their spirits were now overwhelmed with sudden astonishment and dismay at the tidings of the unlooked for and calamitous abandonment, which so nearly threatened them. It was in order to uphold their hearts, weighed down under the thought of this painful bereavement, that our Saviour addressed to his few, and, as yet, faithful followers, the language before us. He set before their eyes the new and better hopes they were to enjoy in consequence of his death, and assured them that, so far from his departure proving to them the beginning of sorrow, and consigning them to a state of utter desolation and despair, it was a matter, not for regret, but rather for rejoicing, inasmuch as it would turn out immediately subservient to their most important interest, and be the means of introducing them to a condition of higher and more enlarged privileges

than any they had hitherto experienced. He tells them, that manifold and exalted as the advantages were which they had already enjoyed, in consequence of their long and familiar intercourse with the Son of God manifested in the flesh, yet that these advantages would be enhanced, in an unspeakable measure, through means of his approaching death and speedy departure from the midst of them—that the place in their living society, left vacant by his removal, was to be supplied by the Comforter, who was to come in his stead, and would abide with them for ever, and that the loss of his bodily presence, and personal fellowship with them, would be richly made up, and compensated for, by the coming and the power and the communion of the Holy Ghost. "It is expedient for you,”—such were the words of comfort addressed by the Saviour, on the eve of his death, to his mourning disciples-"it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but, if I depart, I will send him unto you."

The great truth, then, which is involved in the language of our text is this, that the visible habitation of the Son of God, in the midst of his people, on this earth, when it should terminate, was to be succeeded by the invisible, but not less real, habitation with them of the Holy Ghost-that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead, being no longer manifested to the eyes of men in the flesh, his place was to be taken and his departure supplied by the coming unto them of the Third Person of the Godhead, even the Eternal Spirit-that he, the Comforter, was to make his abode with them for ever, and that his residence with believers in this world was to prove so glorious in its character, and so blessed in its fruits, as more than to compensate for the loss of Christ's bodily presence to his people and his Church. It was necessary, according to many declarations of Scripture, and in order to complete that work which he undertook as Mediator, that the Son of God should leave this world and go to the Father. But, more than that, it was expedient also that he should go away, not that he might thereby leave his followers alone and forsaken in the world, but, on the contrary, that he might send down to his people the everlasting Spirit from the Father, whose habitation and fellowship with them should be so intimate, and familiar, and blessed, as to leave no room for mourning or regret on the part of those men who had been deprived of the living society and personal presence of the Son of God dwelling with them in the flesh.

Viewing, then, deliberately, the very impressive and remarkable doctrine thus unfolded to us, there cannot, I think, be any declaration better calculated to enlarge our understanding of that blessed office which the Spirit of God sustains, in regard to believers, or to exalt our notions of the privilege they possess in the experience of his presence and fellowship