experimentally and faithfully remember that his kingdom is not of this world; that, despised as may be the Gospel, it is mighty to the uttermost through Christ's all-sufficiency and almightiness; and that, while bold as lions, the servants of the Lord that bought them, with blood most precious, should ever be wise as serpents and harmless as doves! O if it had always been thus, there could not have been, at this eventful period of the 19th century, so much of the land of promise yet to be possessed-so many millions of heathen in such fearfully dark places of the earth, and who have never heard, the name of Jesus, or the first note of the song :-" How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth salvation!" If, since the farewell charge upon the Mount of Olives, all that have named the name of Christ, had been faithful to his word and spirit, as was Paul, then would they have been to the enemies of the cross " terrible as an army with banners;" and they would have gone forth from conquering to conquer, until long since "every knee" should have been constrained to bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

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It is, as I humbly conceive, no common responsibility, whatever may be said of the privilege,-which pertains to the office of a minister of the Gospel, in our ancient commonwealth of Massachusetts. May I then be permitted to inquire, to what end we have now come up to this city of the fathers and of the children, at this anniversary of "holy convocation?" What do we here, as ministers of the New Testament,-worthy in any measure of our "high calling,"-if "we seek our own, and not the things which are Jesus Christ's ;" and if, while participating in these numerous solemnities, we do not find it in our hearts to return to our pulpits and the people of our charge, with a renewed resolution in love stronger than death, that we will PREACH CHRIST more faithfully than ever--as much as in us lies,-by the power "of faith and of the Holy Ghost?" What higher commission than ours can mortals have, from the highest heaven? And who is sufficient for the trust thereof, without Christ and the spirit of Christ, as his light, love, and life?

While he himself, our adorable Master and Saviour, has left us in his own divine ministry--when "in the days of his flesh,"-that human example, which can so far be appropriated and approached, that Paul might say to us," Brethren, be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ,"it is yet an occasion of unspeakable gratitude, that we have the apostle's own undying example, for our instruction, our admonition, and our animating consolation. Can any of us follow him too closely, in any one principle, rule, or characteristic of all those means, by which "Christ wrought" in him, "to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed?" Ours is the same Lord, the same Gospel, the same baptism, the same rejoicing hope. Let us, therefore, so preach the Gospel, as we have him for our ex

ample; and like him, let us feel that all our sufficiency is of God in Christ, and Christ in our own souls. And to this end, may the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom!

"If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" Let no man, then, ever be at a loss to determine what it is that we preach, as the Gospel of Christ; and let no sincere and kindly-affectioned believer in Jesus ever have occasion for a doubt, that we preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as opportunity is given us to magnify our office. Whatever may be the signs of the times; whatever the aspect of the churches in this "goodly heritage," now extended from ocean to ocean; whatever the encouragements or the discouragements in our immediate sphere of labor and of trial,—whether we have a refreshing from on high, or the love of many waxes cold, and iniquity abounds, and we seem to be in the very region and shadow of death; let us still preach Christ and him crucified, as the sovereign remedy for all the woes of man, until time shall be no more. In the spirit and devotedness of Paul, we also should be "determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ and him crucified." And like him too we should ever in our preaching, spontaneously and impressibly, make manifest our personal and our joyous faith in the Creator and the Crucified as ONE. Ineffectual, utterly ineffectual, for the purposes and the ends of the Christian ministry, will be all our preaching,--if we do not HONOR THE SON EVEN AS THE FATHER! It will not, it cannot be, in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,-witness, if example were needed, the memorable ministrations of Chalmers,-intellectual, accomplished, earnest, and eloquent as he was,-in his fourteen years at Kilmany. It cannot be possible for us to make too much of Christ, in our private and our public life; or to preach too many sermons all of Christ. We are of course to avoid all appearance and all reality of aim at "excellency of speech," as if of men we sought glory. But the beauty of holiness and love in the Gospel is infinitely worthy of the richest and the purest offerings of human genius, learning, and refinement. True it is as ever, according to the sacred description and commendation of eloquence, that "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." And we are without excuse,-certainly the most of us,-if we ever prompt a hearer to inquire, whether there be any incompatibility between the requirements of evangelical truth and the laws of good taste; or, whether any man can be warranted to make the offence of the cross still more an offence to the carnal mind, by a seeming or an actual disregard of those proprieties and attractions of style, in which the original Scriptures excel all the literature of all nations.

Such "foolishness" as Paul had in his preaching, it is very safe and very wise in us now to have. But his "foolishness of preaching," so called, was not foolish preaching, nor vulgarity, nor discourtesy. Since I have known God in a saving manner," Henry

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Martyn once remarked, "painting, poetry, and music, have had charms unknown to me before. I have received what I suppose is a taste for them: for religion has refined my mind, and made it susceptible of impressions for the sublime and beautiful. O how religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those pleasures which keep so many from God, by their becoming a source of pride!" Such a testimony is above suspicion, and is not to be lightly esteemed.

To her preachers, from the beginning hitherto, New England has been most indebted, under God, for her unrivalled advancement in civilization, her exalted character of intelligence, her correctness and propriety and strength of language, as well as her distinction in theology and morals. But no man can shut his eyes to the fact, that there has never been so great a degree of enlightened elevation among the people at large, nor so much of intellectual activity applied to all subjects and objects; and hence never so much of imperative demand for a high order of excellence in the general or ordinary character of the ministrations of the sanctuary. To such a state of things we must adapt ourselves, as best we may, by our diligence in study, and our increased watchfulness unto prayer. But, alas, are there not too many of us, who have no light reason to fear, that we study far less, because we pray the less? And if the study and the closet of all could here testify, would it not be said of more than one, in the lamenting confessions of another, that "want of private devotional reading and shortness of prayer, through incessant sermon-making, had produced strangeness between God and his soul!"

And, my beloved and respected brethren, why is it, that we so often seem to forget, that we stand between the living and the dead? It cannot, full well I know, be expected of any of Christ's ministers, that they should always be alike interested, earnest, powerful and impressive. But if we preach of heaven and hell, as a stone speaking to stones," or if when redeeming love is our theme, we are as cold and passionless as the unquarried marble,-how can it be, that we commend the truth to any man's conscience, or how do we anything, as becometh us, that Christ may see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied?

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Yet must it be remembered, that no one has a commission to preach, as if in his own hands were "the keys of hell and of death," and it was for him to open or shut at his pleasure. And a sad blemish, if not a fearful sign of the inward spirit or interior life, it must be regarded in any man's preaching, who declaims of "the damnation of hell," as if sure of personal deliverance from the wrath to come, and cared little, except as affecting his place and emoluments, whether his hearers repented, or perished! Not so was he who ceased not to warn every man, day and night, with tears, and who always exercised himself to have a conscience void of offence, and so unremittingly watched over his remaining propensities of

corruption and liabilities of iniquity,-lest after having preached the Gospel to others, he himself should be a castaway!

There are views that we might take of ourselves and our responsibilities, which, if long cherished and not counteracted, would seriously hinder us in our work, and greatly embitter our sweetest satisfactions. An example, if I do not much mistake, we have in that eminently holy young man, David Brainerd; so also in a marked degree, in the godly and devout Henry Martyn; not to speak of Payson and of others, whose praise is in all our churches. But may I say to my coævals, and more especially to my younger brethren, that, if we would have as heavenly a spirit as that of Payson, or of Martyn, or of Brainerd, and as close a walk with God, -with a cheerfulness and a loveliness unsurpassed in any whom we have ever known,-we may find a model with which many may do well to be more familiar. I refer to Robert Murray McCheyne, of the Free Church of Scotland, and who, not inappropriately, has been called the Henry Martyn of Scotland.

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Perhaps some may have known of him only by that song of "Jehovah Tzidkenu," or "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,' strain, which would seem to be pure and sweet enough for the holiest melodies of a blood-bought harp in heaven. Upon the beauty of his life unto Christ-amidst severe infirmities and most arduous toils, there was no veil, and no tinge or shadow of sombre melancholy. He had joy in believing; and joy over many sinners repenting. "He dwelt while here below, far away from the damps that rise about Doubting Castle, and hard by the Beulah, where the sunlight ever falls." And why should not we-all of us,—and why not all here present with us, or associated with us, as "fellowhelpers to the truth,"-why should not we all be thus devoted,be thus lovely and heavenly,--thus happy and rejoicing in the Lord our Righteousness?

Young as he was, he was accustomed to seal his letters, with the impression of the sun going down behind the mountains, and the motto on it," The night cometh." Brethren, "the night cometh," very soon to some of us. But not too soon, for him who is ready and waiting for his Lord. Meanwhile, when so much can be attempted, and so much may be done by the faithful servant of the Son of God, in the very shortest term of active usefulness, at a period like that now passing; in a land whose far-distant west is but a hand's breadth from the Orient-a land of such providential loving-kindness, such ancestral renown, such amazing developments, hour by hour, and such wonders of magnificent and overpowering anticipation, in the accelerated coming of the future of prophecy and of hope ;-O let each be valiant for the truth as in Jesus, until he shall hear the summons-" Come up hither and take thy crown!" Amen.

XVI.

THE SUFFERINGS AND THE GLORY.

BY REV. GEORGE SHEPARD,

PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, BAngor, me.

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."-Roм. viii. 18.

THE apostle speaks in a similar strain in 2 Cor. iv. 17. "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

The present is a state of afflictions and trials. They fall somewhere; they come at some time. The apostle represents the entire world as in a burdened and suffering condition; not only Christians, but all men; not only the rational, but the irrational, and even the inanimate. "For we know," he says, "that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until now: and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies." In the text, the apostle speaks of sufferings here, of a glory which shall be revealed in us, and of the comparison between the two.

I. Let us turn our minds, for a few moments, to the present sufferings, or the sufferings of this present time. There may be here a reference to the peculiar tribulations of Christians in that cruel and persecuting period. But the language is not confined to that period; for sufferings on the part of Christians, were not peculiar to that period; as has been remarked, they are the lot of all time.

In speaking of the sufferings of Christians, I shall first adduce those sufferings which are peculiar to the Christian character and experience. As the disciple of Christ, the renewed heart has joys with which the stranger intermeddleth not, so he has sorrows of which the mere worldly mind has no experience.

His sufferings from the presence and workings of sin within him, are often keen; sometimes overwhelming. He is not yet wholly delivered from sin; but he hates it, and watches and prays against it, and if endowed with the spirit of his Master, he will resist it even unto blood. There is suffering in these conflicts-these wrestlings with the enemy; and if sin gets the advantage, as it sometimes will, and he is thrown down and defiled, there is greater