sends its incense acceptable to the skies. In this world we find that if the husbandman do not sow, nor weed, nor watch, there will be no golden harvest in autumn; and, on the other hand, we find if the husbandman do sow, and weed, and watch, there will be no harvest, unless sunshine and showers fall and the earth retains its ancient fertility. We see, then, that in the husbandry of this world there is a terrestrial toil indispensable upon the one hand, and there is a celestial blessing as indispensible upon the other hand. And what we see in the outward world of nature is what we must realize in the inward world of grace. We must toil and study, and read as if all depended upon us; we must pray, and look up, and ask as if all depended upon God; and he has the highest reasoning who can so reconcile these two, that he will work out his salvation with fear and trembling; and yet feel, while he does so, that it is God that worketh in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It was because there was no Gospel in their sermons, and no prayer to God for a blessing, that the powerful eloquence of Bossuet, the silvery speech of Fénelon, the severe logic of Bourdaloue, the fervid energy of Massillon, fell upon courtly ears and upon crowded congregations only like the tinkling cymbal and the sounding brass, exciting a momentary joy, but leaving no living and lasting impressions be hind them. Thus we have tried to show first of all the interdicted weapons, the use of which in the assumed service of the Gospel injures, not advances, the cause of Christ. We have tried to show the nature of those spiritual weapons which the apostle wielded in this glorious cause; and which, having neither lost their temper nor their consecration, will, if wielded by us, be successful still to the pulling down of strongholds of Satan and of sin. In the days of Paul, the strongholds of Paganism fell and passed away before the breath of the advancing hosts of the people of Christ. Three hundred years ago, the strongholds of Romanism were shattered to their very foundations by the faithful utterance of one grand vital truth by that fearless and heroic man Martin Luther. And, now-a-days, you may depend upon it Romanism is to be overthrown, and that sacerdotal despotism which has made Austria a dungeon, beautiful and glorious Italy a desert, the people slaves, and the priests revered as gods, is to be cast down and swept away, not by Acts of Parliament, not by battalions of armed men, but by the silent, ceaseless, saturating influence of that mighty Gospel, that precious truth, those moral, not carnal weapons which are consecrated for this end, and have gained their greatest triumphs when they were most purely wielded by faithful and devoted men. We see that the whole Christian life, in the next place, is a warfare. We live in a world in which every element is hostile; we live amid influences that tend constantly to draw off all that is the characteristic life of the Christian. But blessed be God, in this warfare there are no garments rolled in blood, there is no booming of destructive cannon; there is no tramp of armed battalions; it is the moral controversy that dislodges the quiet that is temporary, and substitutes for it the peace of God that passeth all understanding. And, blessed thought, we are absolutely sure of the victory. Now one of the thoughts that most comforts one amid all that seems at times so adverse, so discouraging, and distressing, is this thorough conviction, that truth will eventually triumph; no weapon that is formed against her ever shall prosper. We feel, nay, every day we see the deepening influence of a religious principle in this nation, that begins to influence Cabinets, to mould the votes of Parliament, and to determine that, in this great land of ours, our culminating glory shall spring from the universal spread of light, and love, and truth, and peace. Christianity feeds on the centuries that waste all besides; waxes with the years, and gives sure token that one day it will have all space for its possession, all hearts for its subjects and, in the beautiful words of a deceased poet,— "With anthems of devotion Ships from the isles shall meet; "For Christ shall have dominion O'er river, sea, and shore; Far as the eagle's pinion, Or dove's light wing can soar." Let me ask, are you the subjects of this religion? Have you entertained its solemn questionings? Have you ever asked, each as an individual, “What shall it profit me if I gain rank, and title, and riches, and preeminence, and power, and lose my own soul?" Are you letting the cares of the world absorb all your thoughts? are you making haste to be rich, and forgetting the fact that you are rushing to the judgmentseat of Christ? Are you suffering anxious thoughts about things that perish in the using, for one moment to deaden, or in the least degree to damp your solemn obligation, to see that you have found Christ your only Saviour, eternity your sure home, God your Father, and the whole universe your rest? May God give us grace to value more and more the blessings of the everlasting Gospel; and to his name be praise and glory. Amen. CHAPTER XI. A MINISTER'S ANXIETY-HIS REASONING-GENESIS NOT A MYTH --EXPERIMENTAL PROOFS-PETER'S ALLEGED PRIMACY-PAUL'S BOASTING- SATAN AN ANGEL OF LIGHT-PROOFS OF SUCCESSION. We have in this chapter, as it were, the interior working of a ministerial heart in communion with a pecple who, by the seductions of false teachers, had been almost tempted to doubt his sincerity, or his message, and had gone far to throw off the obligations of gratitude and duty which they owed him. And therefore the apostle begins this chapter by saying, "Would to God ye could bear with me a little,”—not as if he felt that he spoke folly, but-"in what you are pleased to call folly. You say I am foolish; will you have a specimen of my folly and you will see, by carefully comparing my folly, as you call it, with the wisdom of the false teachers who are corrupting you, that their wisdom is folly, and what you call folly in me is the highest and the truest wisdom." And then he adds, "If I seem very earnest, if I use very strong expressions, do not be surprised; for I have introduced you to Christ; I have regarded you as a bride; I have presented him as the great Head and Bridegroom of his Church; and you cannot be surprised that I am jealous over you, and afraid lest what I have done should be reversed, and the splendour of your first glory should be shaded by the least |