zealous devotion to every good cause. I congratulate you. Brethren, upon the present occasion and your future prospects. I rejoice with you in your joy. I remember your kindness to my youth, and your appreciation of my early ministrations, when you so cordially invited me to live and labour among you. Allow me, with all my heart, to pray that peace may be within your walls, and prosperity within your borders. May you go forward prospering and to prosper-a city set on a hill, a burning and a shining light, provoking all around you to love and liberality. May strength go out of this Zion, and may you arise and shine the glory of the Lord having arisen upon you. This occasion must now close, but we who are now assembled must meet in review all the issues of this rehearsal. Oh, my friends, realize and lay to heart that hastening hour. Pray, oh, pray earnestly, that when pastors and people shall meet face. to face, at that awful tribunal, instead of mutual upbraidings and reproaches-you accusing them of unfaithfulness or negligence, and they accusing you of coldness, formality, and refusal to come up to the help of the Lord against the mightyyou may be able to congratulate each other; you blessing God for them as helpers of your faith, and they presenting you to God as their joy and crown of rejoicing. The time is short. These earthen vessels cannot hold out to any of us much longer, though the riches they contain may never fail. For myself, especially, the time of departure must be near at hand. And oh, my beloved Brother, (looking towards Dr. THORNWELL,) if permitted to become an indweller in the new Jerusalem, how shall I long and look for your coming! And when intelligence of your approach shall be conveyed by ministering spirits, with what alacrity and ardour of love shall I ascend to the loftiest heights of its projecting battlements, and as the seraph minstrelsy announces your approach, how shall I exulting spring to catch you by the hand, and welcome you to the kingdom and the crown prepared for you; to the white robe, and the palm of victory; to the harp of melody; to everlasting joy; to communion of soul, as well as communion with saints and angels; to the river of life and the tree of life; and above all, and beyond all, to Jesus the light and life of all, and Himself the heaven and happiness of all His faithful followers! PREACH THE WORD. A SERIES OF ARTICLES BY REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D., of Charleston, S. C. Published in PREACH THE WORD. This is the injunction of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, and through him to all ministers of the Gospel. The term is very emphatic. It signifies the pure word; the Gospel Word; THE Word; the inspired Gospel message itself, as the term is used in Mark 2:2; Luke 1:2; Acts 6:7, and 8:14; what he calls the word of the Lord (13, 48, 49); the word of the Lord's grace, (14, 3); what Paul calls the word of salvation, (Acts 13:26); the word of the truth of the Gospel, (Col. 1:5); the word of life, (Phil. 2:16); and the good word of God, (Heb. 6:5.) Even then, there was a manifested tendency to mix with this WORD OF GOD the words, the philosophy, and the interpretation of men. "I charge thee, therefore," says the martyr Apostle, "before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. "For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; "And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." Paul was now a prisoner in chains, in a Roman prison, in the anticipation of death to himself, and devastation and destruction to multitudes of believers, but cheerfully and cheeringly he exclaimed, "THE WORD IS NOT BOUND." Let Nero and his myriad hosts of persecutors do what they may to repress, exterminate and silence preachers and believers, and let philosophers and priests do what they may to abuse, ridicule and thwart the cause, only let ministers preach, and christians hear and heed, the pure word of the Gospel, all the wrath of men, sustained by all the powers of darkness, could not prevail against it. Nor did they. Paul and Timothy both perished. Millions, in their day and since, contended earnestly, even unto blood, for this word of the Gospel, this word of salvation, this faith delivered unto them by holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But, blessed be God, THE WORD is not bound yet, but lives and abides in ever new and widening influence, quickening dead souls, transforming enemies into friends, translating captives of Satan out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, and |