that has ever failed. All our resolutions up to this, have been accomplished. Shall that which proposes the truly Christian object of the world fail? It may fail. God will not be wanting to us; but we may be wanting to ourselves. We may pass the resolution in the spirit of pride. We may forget where our strength lies. We may go forward in the confidence of our own resources. But we shall be in equal danger of doing this, any number of years hence. I confidently trust, that He, whose Spirit suggested the resolution, will give us grace to adopt it, if at all, in the true spirit of dependance on him. In that case it cannot fail.

But if it fail, I contend that it is more glorious to undertake such an enterprise and fail, than to decline undertaking for fear of failing. Perhaps, however, Christians of America, are not prepared for this resolution. Perhaps, should it be adopted, there would be no great accession to your annual income; and, peradventure, it would be found at the end of two or three years, that Christians of this age have not that love for Christ, and that faith in God, and that good will to men, which alone can secure the sacrifices, the efforts and the treasures necessary to the success of the enterprise. But shall it be so? Friends of Jesus, shall it be so? Christian philanthropist, shall this fear be realized? I lay the cause at your feet-the cause of the world—the cause of bleeding, dying humanity. I am sure you will not trample on it. I hope you will take it up and lift it high, and bear it on to victory, speedy, complete, and glorious, through the blood of the Lamb, and the grace of the Spirit of God.

SALVATION GREAT AND DIFFICULT.

Some think and represent it as easy, exceedingly easy to save a soul-to bend a will-to change a heart. Easy? It is God's greatest work. Creation is not so hard a work. And it is more difficult than destruction. It is the most wonderful species of resurrection. With men it is impossible; and with God barely possible: for the righteous are scarcely saved. Here, ye sons of God, is something for you to think about, that God, in saving a single soul, putteth forth a mightier energy than in making many worlds; that in order to bring you to a saving faith of the Gospel, and to persuade you to the love of God, a greater exertion of power is requisite, than to produce the most stupendous physical creation. If this be not the doctrine of the Bible, why did the Apostle speak of the "exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power"? We sometimes, and indeed more commonly in our discourses, treat of the moral attributes of God, displayed in the salvation of sinners, of the divine wisdom and goodness, the justice and mercy exhibited in the conception and carrying out of the wondrous plan of redemption. How benevolent the motive! How wise the scheme! How beautiful and glorious its progressive development !—until at length on Calvary, the Captain of our salvation said, "It is finished," and justice and mercy met and em

braced each other,-God was glorified, and men saved, and death died by death. But now our theme is the power displayed in salvation. And mark, it is not the power displayed in the procuring of salvation, but that exerted in its application. In the constitution of the person of the Mediator, and in the progress unto completion of his mediatorial work and passion, there are astonishing exhibitions of his power, as in his incarnation and in his resurrection. But let us dismiss these for the present, and direct our attention to the power necessary to make the work of the Mediator effectual in the salvation of a particular soul-not that branch of salvation which regards justification, and is therefore external, but that which regards purification, and is therefore internal, upon the soul. Christ is not the agent in it. But the Holy Ghost is the agent. Our subject is not what

Christ did and suffered to render faith effectual to salvation, but what the Holy Ghost does in bringing the sinner to believe. Our subject is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. Perhaps there are few, if any, themes more grand, or interesting, or more likely to be useful to all who will give it close and considerate attention.

The power of God exerted in the salvation of a soul, is exerted first, in its conversion, and subsequently in its sanctification and preparation for glory. The power of God does not cease to be exerted, even in its exceeding greatness, after the production of faith. "We are kept," says Peter, "by the power of God through faith unto salvation." That which makes us Christians, is necessary

to preserve us as such. The power which places us in the right way, is needed to keep us in it, and to speed us along it. What good man does not every day feel the need of an almighty influence on his soul-a God working in him both to will and to do? The present object is to speak only of the power of God exerted in conversion, in producing faith: in illustration of which, consider,

The language made use of in expressing it, such as "the exceeding greatness of his power, the working of his mighty power-thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Divine power is necessary to make men willing.

Consider the other displays of divine power which this is said to resemble. These are creation and resurrection. "For we are his workmanship," as truly as the heavens and the earth are, though in a different sense," created in Christ Jesus." "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature." "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in tresspasses and sins;" "and both raised us up together," "according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead." There are various opinions in regard to what a Christian is. According to some, a baptized person is a Christian, or one educated in the belief of certain principles, and who is attentive to certain forms. According to others, he is a Christian, who is not a Jew, Mahommedan, Pagan, ór Infidel. But according to the divine Spirit, a Christian is not the workmanship of a parent, or a priest, or of himself, but of God. "In Christ Jesus neither circum

cision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing, but a new creature." "They that received him were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Consider the nature of the thing to be done-the character of the result to be accomplished. It is not merely to change one's creed, so as that he shall believe in conformity to certain statements. Nor is it a mere proselyting of a man from one sect or party to another. If that were all, nothing would be necessary but evidence-such an amount of evidence as should not only justify belief, but in opposition to the most inveterate prejudices compel it. For such a flood of light may be shed around a subject, as shall render the strongest reluctance of the will powerless to prevent the belief of it. But that which is to be done in the conversion of a soul, is not any thing which light can do. Not all the light of the universe can convert a soul. It cannot warm. It cannot melt. Another influence does that. It only illuminates. Light discovers every thing, but originates nothing, alters nothing. Light reveals objects which ought to be loved, but never generates love. Religion is not light, but light and love. And the power of religion is in its love.

The thing to be done in conversion, is the changing of the heart, the transferring of the affections from one class of objects, on which they have been long and firmly fixed, to another, towards which they have hitherto felt utter aversion. It is to bring the will of a man into subjection to divine authority, and to frame all its acts in conformity to the dictates of a pure con