trance into that blessed city, which hath no need of sun nor of moon, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the light thereof.

It is nearer than many of us think, and either it will soon come to us, or we must go to it: one or the other must be. If we are now the people of God, the partitionwall that separates it from us becomes thinner every day. One can feel the pulses of that great heart of love to which we shall soon draw near; one can almost hear, in rapt moments, the first notes of that glorious jubilee in which we shall take a part. We stand every moment on the verge of that great and unsounded sea. Are we ready to set sail? Are we clothed in the Redeemer's righteousness? Are we actuated by the Redeemer's spirit? Have we the humility of a Christian? Have we the humility of the soldier, the faith of the soldier, the trust of the soldier, recorded in the miracle? How is it that any one, with one foot in eternity and the other in time, not knowing into which section of eternity he is about to plunge, there to be for ever, can remain in such a state for one single day? Let me repeat the blessed truth: Salvation now, this very day, for the guiltiest of us all; instant pardon, glorious, sufficient pardon, through the blood of Jesus, for the chiefest of sinners. My dear friends, God's great grief is, if I may use such language, that we are always suspecting him to be a hard Egyptian taskmaster, instead of feeling of him, and flying to him, as to our Father. Father, go home, and watch the babe in the mother's bosom, and see where it finds its repose, where its rest and its confidence are; and learn that, great and gifted and celebrated as you may be, it is only when you can become like that little babe, and feel toward God as that infant feels to its mother, that you will be a true, a happy, and exalted Christian.

70

LECTURE IV.

THE DISCIPLES IN THE STORM.

And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.-MATT. xiv. 22-33.

I BEG to introduce the beautiful miracle recorded in the passage I have read by some additional prefatory remarks upon the nature of the miracles of our Lord. I have prefaced every exposition of the successive miracles of Christ by remarks on their nature; and I come now to that point of discussion which is of some importance in the present day, namely, Are miracles still continued in the church? Ought there to be in the visible church, or in any section of it whatever, power to do miracles? And if we see not that power exercised, is it a sign that it has been withdrawn in sovereignty, or is it a proof of the unfaith

fulness of the church that has shorn her of her prerogative? or is it the mind of God that there should be no miracles in the visible church whatever, and that there is neither a necessity for them, in the circumstances in which we are placed, nor power to do them in those who are either the teachers or the pupils in the church of Christ? It is my conviction, founded upon fact and Scripture, that it is not God's mind that there should be now miracles in the church; that from the nature of the thing it could scarcely have been expected that there should; and that while there is every reason to believe that miracles were required at each successive epoch or stage in the progression of God's purposes, there is no proof that they were meant to be every-day exhibitions by every Christian.

In noticing the miracles of the Old Testament Scripture, you will perceive (and this is presumptive evidence that they were not meant to be always continued) that they cluster around each great crisis, or epoch, or era; they are not spread over the whole dispensation as every-day things, but they seem to cluster into masses, to occur at special intervals, or on specific occasions, when there was a great crisis at which the interposition of omnipotence was necessary; then and there only omnipotence developed itself. For instance, we find that at the establishment of the kingdom by Moses and Joshua miracles were done, because it was the commencement of a new and great era. So at the reformation of the kingdom by Elijah and Elisha, miracles were again exhibited; there was another great change in the progression of God's purposes, a new and more startling development of his mind to mankind at each of these periods.

You will notice now, (and I think this will be a sufficient reply to those persons who allege that it is want of faith or want of Christianity that makes it come to pass that

there are now no miracles,) that the most distinguished saints of the Old Testament Scriptures did no miracles. This alone will be evidence that there may be Christianity without miraculous power. Abraham, "the father of the faithful," did not perform one miracle; yet who can doubt that he was a distinguished Christian? David did not perform a single miracle; miracles were done in his time, but not by him. Daniel performed no miracle; it is true miracles were done around him, and about him, but not by his instrumentality in any sense or shape. And I think it is one of those simple, yet striking and expressive evidences of the Divine origin of the Bible, that it is asserted of John the Baptist, specifically asserted, that he did no miracles. Contrast that one statement with the legends of the canonized saints, as they are called, of the Church of Rome. A Roman Catholic saint without a miracle would be a sun without rays, a star without light, a nonentity, a phenomenon. There is something inimitably grand and beautiful in this, that while of all the pseudosaints it is constantly said that they did miracles of all sorts, grotesque, extravagant, ridiculous; it is said in simple terms, without assigning any reason, of John the Baptist, that he did no miracles. In looking at past dispensations, then, we have presumptive evidence that miracles were not to be of every-day occurrence, or to be perpetuated always.

There is evidence of this also from analogy. At the commencement of an epoch, or at the first development of a kingdom, or at the creation of a world, you may expect more power to be put forth than at the continuance of it. For instance, the first creation of the world required more power than the continuation of the world does, and more. was accordingly developed. The continuance of a race, too, requires perhaps less power than the creation of that

race. So the introduction of God manifested in the flesh was a new epoch, so remarkable, so strange, so unexpected by the mass of mankind, that you might expect on such an occasion and such a crisis there would occur miracles to attest it. What is a miracle? It is just God's omnipotence becoming a pedestal or candlestick on which to plant God's truth; it is omnipotent beneficence coming down from heaven, pointing to a doctrine, or specifying a person, and saying the one is of God, and the other is God manifest in the flesh. Now that at such a crisis a miracle should be done was natural; but when that crisis had passed away, that the miracle should cease is no less natural. When the fruit is ripe, the calyx or the petals that surround it drop away; when the building is well founded and complete, the scaffolding is taken down. It is so with miracles. We have now come to that era when it is not more power that man needs to see, but more grace that man needs to feel.

All miracles, I would notice too, that have been performed, or pretended to be performed, since the apostolic age closed, have been either lying legends, interruptions of God's harmony by Satan himself, or they have been gross, palpable deceptions. Let any one read, for instance, the life of Ignatius Loyola, or St. Francis Xavier, and judge for himself. One of the ways of forming a higher estimate of God's book, is to read any other book pretending to be equal, or to be next to it. The contrast is so vivid and striking that your impression would be more and more confirmed that this is the book of God. Let any one read the life of the Lord of Glory, that simple, sublime biography, which has four penmen, but one grand original to draw from, and then let him read the life of St. Francis Xavier, or Ignatius Loyola, or St. Alphonsus Liguori, or any of the canonized saints of the Church of Rome, draw