nature; and the skill, the wisdom, and the power of God, which are displayed in its restoration, are only exceeded in glory by the splendid lustre of that redeeming mercy which prompted their exercise, and harmonized their operations with the claims of offended justice and unbending truth. To have created a living, intelligent being out of nothing was an effect of almighty power which staggers reason by its incomprehensibleness, and requires the assent of a faith which relies on the simple testimony of God to the fact of its production. But to evoke a living and holy soul from one already dead in sin, and contrary to its inherent tendency to perpetual corruption and vice, to infuse into it the vigor of an eternal life, to cause it to advance in every grace, and, in its complete restoration, to furnish a perfect exemplification of the Godlike principles of truth, justice, and charity,—this is the result not merely of inconceivable power, but of unutterable mercy and surpassing love. A redeemed and regenerated soul is the noblest work of God. The simple fact of its production more clearly illustrates the divine wisdom, power and goodness, than the grand mechanism of the external world, and the sublime procedures of natural Providence; while the graces implanted by the Spirit in its nature image forth the beneficent perfections of God more gloriously than the virtues which adorned the innocent soul of Adam, or shine in the unsinning spirit of an angel. These results are accomplished by the instrumentality of that Gospel which the apostle justly regards as affording the most complete representation of the glory of the blessed God. We are able now to perceive them only very inadequately. But the day is coming when they will be fully developed a day when the whole number of the redeemed, gathered out of

every kindred, tribe and tongue of earth, washed from sin in the blood of the Lamb, and made perfect in the beauty of holiness, shall assemble around the person of their enthroned and glorified Lord. Each ransomed saint in that immense multitude, like a polished mirror, shall perfectly reflect the image of his glorious Head, and the Savior shall look upon the purified souls before Him and be satisfied. That joy shall fill His heart for which He underwent the shame of humiliation, the temptations of the wilderness, and the agonies of Calvary. Nor will a single heart in that myriad throng be unmoved, nor a single tongue be silent. A saved church will forever show forth the glory of her God as it shall be everlastingly unfolded in the fruits of redemption. The hymn of justice and the anthem of grace will blend in the great chorus of salvation-the song of Moses and the Lamb; and all the glorious perfections of the Triune God-Father, Son and Holy Ghost, will be rapturously and eternally celebrated by the united choir of angels and ransomed sinners.

The

It only remains, in the last place, to observe and the remark may not inappropriately constitute the application of this discourse that the responsibility of preaching the Gospel rests upon sinful men. aspostle declares that the glorious Gospel of the blessed God was committed to his trust. It would appear to be obvious that there is eminent fitness and profoundest wisdom in the divine arrangement by which men rather than angels are commissioned to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. It might have pleased God to have assigned this office to the latter; and doubtless they would have proclaimed the wonderful condescension and the amazing mercy of God to sinners with hearts of seraphic love and tongues of living fire. But

not conscious themselves, by personal experience, of the evil and misery of sin, how could they sympathize with the fallen state of man? It is for a sinner who has himself been "snatched as a brand from the burning" to appreciate the difficulties, the temptations, the wants of sinners with a patience which never tires, and a charity which "hopeth all things," to bear with their obstinate indifference and persistent unbelief. It is precisely this consideration which sustained and animated the great preacher to the Gentiles when tempted to sink under the weight of his work, and to faint under the discouragements to which in its prosecution he was ceaselessly exposed. "Seeing then we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not." Yes, brethren, this is the resistless argument which, springing from the bosom of our own experience, forbids despair in the presentation of the claims of the Gospel upon our dying fellowmen. We speak that we do know when we declare the wondrous grace and mercy of God in Christ. Have we not in time past resisted the love of Jesus, refused to believe in His name, and turned a deaf ear alike to the moving appeals and the tremendous threatenings of the Gospel? How can we despond? What right have we to faint? No, we must preach the mercy of God, the love of Christ, the hope of salvation, to our unbelieving fellow-sinners, until either they or we are laid in the grave, and pass from the sweet influences of grace to the changeless destinies of eternity. He who has had no experimental knowledge of the discipline of the law, of the anguish of the spiritual conflict, and of the rest of the conscience in Christ, may yield to discouragement, and faint under a task with which he never had any true and heartfelt sympathy; and woe! woe! woe! to that man who,

without such experience, impelled by ambition, or a mere intellectual relish for the sublime truths of redemption, or by any other carnal motive, ventures to invade the sacred precincts of the pulpit, to stand between the living and the dead, and to assume the awful responsibility involved in preaching the glorious Gospel of the blessed God to the deathless souls of men. But they who have felt that God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, may well be content to bear all discouragement, and endure all trials, in accomplishing their high vocation, and, with the apostle, exclaim: "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken; we also believe and therefore speak."

We see, too, in the light of this subject, what it is that the preachers of the Gospel arę commissioned to proclaim. It is not the facts of nature, the speculations of philosophy, or the theories of science, physical or political, it is the glorious Gospel of the blessed God that is committed to their trust. I do not mean to convey the impression that science and philosophy constitute a tree of knowledge the fruit of which is forbidden to those who preach the Gospel of Christ. But these are not the Gospel. A dying Savior, a risen Savior, an exalted and immortal Savior,-repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, these are the themes which are to be pressed upon the attention of sinful men, in view of their solemn relations to God and to the eternal world. And oh, my brethren, what respon

sibilities thicken upon those who preach this Gospel! Standing between God and the sinner, between the Cross of Calvary and the Judgment bar, between the glories of heaven and the glooms of hell, dealing on the one side with the perfections of God, and on the other with the immortal destinies of men, who of them is sufficient for these things? How shall they secure the glory of Him who has commissioned them to preach, and the eternal welfare of those to whom they minister? Erelong preachers and people shall stand before that bar at which all human ties and human duties will be subjected to a rigid and impartial scrutiny; and of all the solemn relations which will there be reviewed, none will appear to be so big with momentous issues, springing into light amidst the splendors and terrors of that day, as that which has existed between a preacher of the Gospel and immortal souls. The complexion of eternity must largely depend upon the manner in which the Gospel has been proclaimed and received. Were it not that he who has been called of God to preach, is constrained to exclaim, with Paul, "necessity is laid upon me: yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel," would it be any marvel that, conscious of his weakness and short-comings, he should sometimes be tempted to shrink back in dismay from the gigantic work, and even pray that he may be released from farther incurring its all but intolerable responsibilities?

But if these responsibilities are confessedly not less than awful, the reward which, through grace, will be conferred on the faithful preacher of the Cross will be proportionately great. To be called of God to minister in the Gospel of His Son, is to be possessed of an honor which he who enjoys it may well prefer to the thrones