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cacy of the story of the Cross need to be prepared for by any previous culture of mind or manners. So far as respects such auxiliaries, the Gospel is competent to go alone. We may safely give it as a first lesson. The simple recital of God's plan of saving men, attended by that almighty influence which we are fully justified in expecting, meets the savage and tames him, the barbarian and civilizes him, the Hottentot and elevates him, the Dyak and subdues him. An omnipotent energy goes along with the oftrepeated tale. We may liken it to the silent and noiseless influence of the sun, visiting us with his morning beams, and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race-or to the quiet and serene efficacy of the dew, as it descends with the shades of the evening, to spread fertility abroad over the earth. These energies are so mild in their movements, as not to awaken infancy in its cradle, or disturb old age on its weary bed. But quiet and potent as are such operations of nature, they are only emblems of an equally quiet, though infinitely more potent operation of grace which, in the manifold wisdom of God, is made to attend the simple annunciation of the Gospel.

We rest with confidence here. It is the purpose of the Father thus to give the Son a seed to serve him. On the strength of a prediction so encouraging, we may press forward, assured that God will take out of the nations a people for himself, and that in no tribe or city, where the Gospel is faithfully preached, will there fail to be a remnant, according to the election of grace. What if our efforts are powerless in themselves? We have only, in obedience to the divine command, to fill the valley of Edom with ditches, and the water to supply them will, in due time, come, either from the clouds, or the bowels of the earth. Moses hesitated about attempting to deliver his brethren. But he, at length, went on, and the Nile was turned into blood, and hail stones and coals of fire descended, and darkness covered the land-and the first born died-and Pharaoh let the people go. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Jesus is to see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied, and the spirit, in the hearts of believers, is to secure to him this reward. We anticipate the time, when France, with her little remnant of true faith revived, shall build again her long since dilapidated Huguenot temples-when the active penetrating mind of Germany shall work out a second Reformation, more glorious than the first-and when all Europe shall inquire after the old paths, and recover the precious doctrine of justification by faith. India too, with her idolatrous sons, including the kingdoms which have gone after the false Prophet, with his crescent, his battle field, and his Sensual Paradise-and China, at whose walls we were so long, and so anxiously waiting, with all her uncounted millions shall welcome the Gospel of the blessed God-yes, and even Africa,

poor Africa, steeped in crime and sorrow at home, and everywhere abroad goaded and peeled by the bloody whip of the task master, shall come forward and lift up her head among the ransomed nations, and rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ sets his people free. These lands are all to join our own, with her noble rivers, her extensive lakes, her beautiful prairies, and her lofty mountains, in placing the crown upon the head of Immanuel. Blessed prospect! May God hasten it in his time!

Nay more reality already begins to mingle with prediction, and accomplishment follows upon the heels of anticipation. When we reflect upon the steady and long continued blessings which have descended upon our labors at Ceylon-the wonders of mercy wrought in the Sandwich Islands-almost renewing the days of old-the solemn movement among the Armenians, bringing forth in such lovely forms all the fruits of the Spirit-and the convictions and conversions now occurring in the midst of the Nestorians, it seems to me, if we should altogether hold our peace, the very stones would cry out. With all that has thus been predicted, and all that has thus been achieved spread out together before our eyes, can it be deemed premature to say: 0 Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid-say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.

Such, fathers and brethren, are some of the views which it seemed to me important to present, on this occasion. Called to the discharge of a duty, which no one can expect to perform a second time, it has been my heart's desire and prayer to God, to be led to suggest such trains of thought, as might benefit myself, and my fellow laborers in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. This object I have sought to gain, by fixing our minds on the Holy Spirit of promise, as our good hope in seeking to convert the world.

Now, as we sit here, and contemplate all this, what is the first feeling that springs up in every pious bosom? I speak for you, disciples of the Savior! It is one of gratitude to God-gratitude that we ourselves have heard the joyful sound, and been brought to bow to the sceptre of King Jesus; gratitude that to us is given the privilege of being almoners of salvation to a lost world—a privilege which Gabriel before the throne might covet-a gratitude that we have the pledge of an influence to accompany our efforts, which shall eventually cause the truth everywhere to triumph. It is for this, among other reasons, that we are kept a little while out of heaven. Christ will have us suffer with him, and labor with him awhile, that we may, at length, be more fully glorified together. Our business then is, not to sit down content with the fact that we have been begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection

of Jesus Christ from the dead; or to rejoice in trophies already won; or successes already gained among the heathen, but to gird up our loins anew for a further onset upon the kingdom of dark

ness.

For this we have special encouragement in the times in which our lot is cast. Never is it to be forgotten, that we are not only living under what the Apostle calls the ministration of the Spirit, but we are now approaching that period of it, when developments of mercy are to be expected, more numerous and striking than have distinguished any past age. The great promise of the Old Testament was fulfilled eighteen hundred years ago. Thus it was that wisdom built her house, and hewed out her pillars, and killed her beasts, and mingled her wine, and furnished her table, and ever since she has been sending out her maidens, and crying in the high places of the cities. But we want one blessing more; the promise of the New Testament, the pouring out of the Spirit. An atonement has been made, commensurate with the exigencies of the world, and all that we can need additional is, the coming of that blessed Comforter, whose presence in the Church is more than a compensation for the departure of the Saviour. This is the gift in which are wrapped up the destinies of the race.

Nothing else can keep alive the missionary zeal of the Church. It will not do to rely upon such highly wrought descriptions of the sorrows of those who hasten after another god, as the talents and eloquence of the friends of this good cause may now and then give. Emotion may, in this way, be excited in our breasts, and tears drawn from our eyes. But we cannot calculate upon feeling thus awakened; the fountain is not full enough. The impression is not abiding enough. Besides, the oft-repeated looking upon the miseries of heathenism, apart from all divine influence, like familiarity with any other miseries, must tend to harden rather than soften the heart. We need to be impelled by a higher motive. To hold out in such a work as this, we must have the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

Hence, too, arises all our encouragement. Faith in the efficacy of the Gospel, when preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, is the mainspring of every effort to save the heathen. Man's utter ruin is a fact, written so clearly upon every page of the Bible, and portrayed so vividly in the whole history of the race, that it cannot be gainsayed. That the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin is also a fact, which no believer in revelation can hesitate for a moment to admit. Now, all that is necessary is for the remedy to be applied to the disease, and that is done, done effectually and gloriously, when the Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto men. This is the agency, which can render our dead and dark world instinct with the presence, and radiant with the beauties of holiness.

But alas, we have very little of the special presence of the blessed Spirit. The discouragements, which press upon us, and weaken our strength in the work, come not, I am sorry to say, from the other side of the globe, but arise from the state of the Churches in our own land. There is nothing disheartening in the intelligence which reaches us from abroad, but we are grieved with the lukewarmness at home. We are not straitened in the promise, or Providence, or Grace of God, but we are straitened, most sadly straitened, by the apathy, and worldliness, and declension of the Church. O, for a general and powerful revival of religion! We must have it. The work cannot advance in any other way. It is impossible for the stream to rise above the fountain.

Our duty, Christian friends, all converges to a single point. It is prayer, prayer-prayer for the spirit that we need. Such prayer as was offered by that little band that waited at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. Such prayer as Brainerd offered on the banks of the Susquehanna, and Martyn on the plains of India. Such prayer as was offered by the dying Bakus, when he asked for the privilege of getting out of his bed, to lift up his soul once more to God. This is a blessing which we cannot do without. I would call, then, upon every blood-bought disciple of the Saviour here this evening. I would lift up my voice in notes loud enough to reach every Christian in the land. I would send out an affectionate exhortation to our brethren and sisters abroad, and say, 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.

Go ask your Father in heaven, that the coming twelve months may be signalized everywhere, among the Churches here and at all our missionary stations in nominal Christendom, and in lands. of pagan darkness, by the pouring down upon us of the Spirit of God.

I feel emboldened to press this point, because I know that if that voice could reach us again, to which we loved to listen on these hallowed occasions, and which was heard in tones of such sublime serenity, amidst the ocean's roar and the work of death, it would be lifted up with more than all its former pathos and power, to charge us to pray for the Spirit of God. Two things, that beloved brother never forgot-the atonement of Christ, and the work of the Spirit. I knew him well from the time when his face was first irradiated with the smiles of a newly cherished hope, until the master came, in the midst of storm, and waves, and darkness, to call him to himself; and I can testify, that never, at home or abroad, in the repose of his own fireside, or the fatigues of journeys, did he forget his indebtedness to Christ and the Spirit.

Blest Saint! Thy voice is hushed, but thy example shall not

be lost upon us. Thy presence is no more seen here, but we will remember the cheerful and confiding features of thy face. We miss thee from our assemblies, but we know that thou dost still love the heathen.

That good man is gone, and we shall never all meet again. Whatever acquaintance most of us can hope to have in this world, we are forming now in this holy convocation, while deliberating on the great interests of the Redeemer's kingdom among men, and renewing our pledges of fidelity to him over the symbols of his broken body, and shed blood. O, may our intercourse be such that we shall review it with pleasure, when we come to cast our crowns at the feet of Immanuel.

SERMON CCCCLXI.

BY REV. ENOCH POND, D.D.

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, BANGOR, ME.

ORTHODOXY NOT INCONSISTENT WITH THE DIVINE BENEVOLENCE.

"God is love."-1 JOHN, 4: 8.

THAT "God is love," is here asserted on the authority of Jehovah himself. After such an announcement, to attempt to prove the proposition would be more than superfluous. It would be a virtual impeachment of the truth and sufficiency of Scripture. It would be as much as to say, that a positive declaration of God's word was not worthy of credence, unless supported by other evidence. But though the proposition in the text requires no proof, it may require explanation; and my object, in the following discourse, will be,

I. To explain it. And,

II. To show its consistency with the leading principles of the orthodox faith.

I. "God is love." The love here spoken of is that of benevolence; a wishing well to the universe of being; an earnest preferring and seeking of the highest universal good. This love of benevolence enters into, it constitutes the root and element of all holiness. The law of God, in its spirit, requires nothing else. Love, in this

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