shipwreck of the ark, we would not be so importunate; but there is not, -"there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." You are a starving beggar, come to the last door: and if now you turn away, you must perish! If a man reject the very Saviour, who will entreat for him? "I will have nothing to do," said Luther, "with an absolute God." Devils have, and they are reserved under chains of darkness. Sinners must, because they choose to, and will not have a God who is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. The Lord save me from the guilt of healing your wounds slightly! If I do not plant your path with ob structing mountains, and your pillow with thorns, it will be only because I can not. But though Christ has been despised and rejected hitherto, it need not continue so always. Shall it continue? Shall not the Great Shepherd this morning lay some lost sheep on his shoulder, and bear it to his fold rejoicing? Shall not some new-born conviction, some faint effort of penitence and faith, springing from this occasion, prove the first-fruits of a joyful harvest here, where God's ministers have so long, and with so many tears, sown the precious seed? Hear me then, as a dying man, whose hold on life is feeble, and whose voice must soon cease to sound the gospel trumpet. The fashion of the world is passing away. Long before the "end of all things" we individually will have been silently called away. We shall ere long be principals in the sad, slow, moving procession, going forth from yon avenue to the grave-yard. The dust will be our resting-place.

"Thy flesh, perhaps thy chiefest care,

Shall crawling worms consume;
But ah, destruction stops not here-
Sin kills beyond the tomb !"

Let not the glare of the world, the hope of future repentance, the buoyancy of youth or health, beguile you of the persuasion that there is a reward for the righteous, and that it shall be well with him, but ill with the wicked.

I close with two summary mementoes. Reject Christ-live and die the enemies of his cross-and your dying hours will be disturbed by recol lections of Christ. Or, what is worse, yours will be the deceitful calm of a seared conscience, and the surprise of being undone for eternity. Believe on him, and yours will be a joyful experience. "Them that honor me I will honor." "No man has left father or mother, house or lands, for my sake, but he shall receive an hundred fold in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting." He will accept your services, increase your knowledge, sarctify your praises, and 'after keeping you from the corruptions of the world, will "present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Amen.

DISCOURSE XXXII.

CHARLES PETTIT MOILVAINE, D.D.

BISHOP MOILVAINE was born in Burlington, New Jersey, January 18th, of the last year of the eighteenth century. His parents-Joseph and Maria McIlvainewere of families descended from early colonists, and residents in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; on the mother's side from England, and the father's from Scotland. His mother, whose maiden name was Reed, was daughter of Brown Reed, Esq., whose brother, Joseph (General Reed of the Revolution), was Washington's adjutant-general and confidential friend, and President of Pennsylvania. Joseph McIlvaine was a distinguished lawyer of New Jersey, and at the time of his death represented the State in the Senate of the United States. The son was converted in 1815, at Princetor College, while in the junior class; and having been educated in the Episcopal church of Burlington (Rev. Dr. Wharton, rector) from childhood, he became a communicant of that church. There was an extensive work of grace in the college at that time (Dr. Green, President). His two intimate friends then, and ever since, the present Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, and Bishop Johns, of Virginia, were turned to God about the same time. He graduated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey, in 1816, and was ordained deacon on the 4th of July, 1820, in Philadelphia, by Bishop White, of Pennsylvania; and priest by Bishop Kemp, of Maryland, in 1823. In the summer of 1820 he took charge of Christ's church, Georgetown, D. C.

At the opening of the year 1825, at the request of Hon. J. C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, Mr. McIlvaine was induced to accept the appointment of Chaplain and Professor of Ethics, etc., at the United States Military Academy at West Point. While there, God was pleased to bless the word, and a powerful work of grace was manifest in the institution. Many were converted, and many received impressions which afterward matured to their conversion. Several have since been faithful ministers of the gospel, who then, as cadets, were turned to the Lord. The present Bishop Polk, of Louisiana, was one of them, and the first, in point of time. He resigned at West Point, December, 1827, and became rector of St. Ann's church, Brooklyn, New York. In 1831, he was appointed Professor of the Evidences of Revealed Religion and Sacred Antiquities in the University of the city of New York, and delivered a course of lectures, afterward published. In 1832 he was consecrated, in New York, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church, in the diocese of Ohio, where he has since officiated, with great acceptance and growing useful

ness.

Bishop McIlvaine is the author of several valuable works; among which his "Evidences of Christianity in their External and Historical Division," 8vo., reprinted, in

several editions, in England and Scotland; "Oxford Divinity compared with that of the Romish and Anglican Churches," 8vo., reprinted in London; "The Truth and the Life," a course of sermons, 8vo., also reprinted in London; "The Sinner's Justification before God-a Scriptural Treatise," 18mo., reprinted in London; "The Holy Catholic Church," 18mo., London also; "No Priest, No Altar, No Sacrifice but Christ," London also; with several smaller works, besides episcopal charges, reviews in periodicals, magazines, etc.

The personnel of the Bishop is quite prepossessing. He is about six feet high, of a ruddy, healthful complexion, and a portly, commanding carriage. His figure in the pulpit is very fine. He is distinguished for the soundness and clearness of his evangelical views, and for the expository character of his preaching. That for which, as a preacher, he is most eminent, is his power of illustrating Scripture by Scripture. And his mode of doing this shows at once the fullness and the accuracy of his knowledge of Scripture, and the transparent simplicity of his conception. He preaches as well extempore as from manuscript, and at times he is quite eloquent. His ministrations, however, have what is worth far more than eloquence, as commonly understood they are searching and edifying, enlightening the mind, speaking to the conscience, and stirring the sensibilities. In all his preaching he aims to lay deep and broad the foundations of Christian character, in strong, clear views of man's sinfulness and need, and Christ's fullness and freeness as a Saviour.

Some of his finest qualities as a preacher are observable in the following excellent discourse, which, by the Bishop's kindness, we are able to lay before the readers of this work.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

"The Lord is risen indeed."-LUKE, Xxiv. 34.

THESE are words of conviction, and of joy. To appreciate them, as uttered by the disciples of Christ, when they became assured that he had risen from the dead, we must enter into their circumstances. Well persuaded that, in Jesus, they beheld him to whom all the prophets had witnessed, who was to sit on the throne of David, and to establish his kingdom over all people, they had forsaken all to follow him, and had embarked all their hopes on his claims. Already had they learned, by painful experience, that it was through much tribulation they were to share in his kingdom; but such trials had not shaken their faith. Accustomed to behold him despised, persecuted, and rejected of men, their confidence was continually sustained, as they heard him speak "as never man spake," and with an authority that controlled the sea and raised the dead. But now, deep tribulation, such as they had not known before, had overtaken them. What darkness had come upon their faith! He, who was once so mighty to give deliverance to the captive, had himself been taken captive and bound to the cross. He, who with a word raised the dead, had been violently, wickedly, put to an ignominious

death. He, whom they expected to reign as King of kings, and to subdue all nations, had been brought under the dominion of his own nation, and shut up in the sepulcher, and all the people of Israel were now boastfully confident that the death of the cross had proved him a deceiver. O, indeed, it was a season of great heaviness, and dismay, and trial, those days and nights in which their beloved Master was lying in death! The great stone which his enemies had rolled to the door of the sepulcher, lest his disciples should go by night and take away the body, was expressive of the cold, dead weight, which that death and burial had laid upon their hearts. That sepulcher seemed as the tomb of all their hopes. All was buried with Jesus. "For, as yet (it is written), they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." (John, xx. 9.) Had they understood what he had often told them, they would have known "that thus it behooved (the) Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead, the third day."

The third day was now come. The Jewish Sabbath was over. The first day of the week was breaking. While it is yet dark, faithful women repair to the sepulcher with spices for the embalming. They find the stone rolled away. Wondering at this, they enter the tomb. The body is not there. Enemies have taken it away, is their first thought. Mary Magdalene hastens to say to Peter and John, "they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him." Angels appear to the women in their alarm, saying, "He is not here, but is risen." "With fear," and yet "with great joy," they ran "to bring his disciples word." But to the latter, "their words seemed as idle tales, and they believed them not." Peter and John had now reached "the place where the Lord lay," and entering in, they found the graveclothes remaining, but otherwise an empty sepulcher. "They saw and believed." After a little, came Mary Magdalene to the other disciples, and "told them she had seen the Lord," and what things he had spoken unto her. Still, "they believed not." It seemed too good to be true. How was it that they did not remember his words, which even the chief priests and Pharisees repeated to Pilate, as a reason for posting a guard around the tomb, "After three days, I will rise again." (Matthew, xxvii. 63.) The terrible shock of the crucifixion must have so stunned their faith, and distracted their thoughts, that what they afterward remembered so clearly, was either forgotten, or not comprehended.

That same day, two of them went toward the neighboring village. Their hearts were heavy, and they "talked of all those things that had happened." Jesus "drew near and went with them." He often draws near to those whose hearts are sad, because they feel their need of him. He asked their grief. They told him of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they believed to have been "a prophet, mighty in word and deed;" how he had been put to death-he of whom they expected that "he would have redeemed Israel ;" and how it was now the third day since this was

done; and of the amazing statement that the sepulcher had been found empty, and that a vision of angels had been seen, "who said he was alive."

Then answered their unknown companion: "O, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scripture the things concerning himself." What an exposition must that have been! Who but must wish we had it to read! No wonder their hearts were inflamed at the touch of such words, and burned within them, while thus the Light of the world was opening to them the Scriptures. Presently, while sitting at meat with them, Jesus "took bread, and brake it, and gave to them." It was a sign they could not mistake. Their eyes were opened in that breaking of bread. "They knew him, and he vanished out of their sight." Immediately they returned to Jerusalem with the tidings. They found the rest of the disciples, and others, gathered together-but in what mind? No more in doubt, but saying among themselves, "the Lord is risen indeed." The two from Emmaus now added their testimony. Again, and more confidently and joyfully, must they all have said one to another, with a relief of heart, and a return of faith, and a resurrection of hope, like the return of day after a long and fearful night, the Lord is risen indeed; the Lord is risen indeed.

Corresponding with the faith and joy of those disciples, is the state of mind in which the church should keep her feast this day*-the annual commemoration of the resurrection of the Lord and Head. Eminently is it the Lord's day-that from which all the Sabbaths of the Christian year derive their light and festival. It is "the great day of the feast" -that feast of faith and hope which measures all the life of the true believer.

We began by saying that the words of the text, as uttered by the apostles, are words of conviction and words of joyfulness. Under these two aspects we will treat the subject they contain.

I. Words of conviction.

"The Lord is risen indeed."

The apostles had laid aside their doubts and were assured. And what if we were not assured that Christ did rise? St. Paul answers, "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Ye are yet in your sins. Then they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." (1 Cor., xv. 14, 17, 18.) In other words, the great seal and evidence of the victory of Christ over sin and death, as our surety, would be wanting. We could have no confidence in the efficacy of his death as a sacrifice for us. Life and immortality would be still in darkness. Our hope would want its corner-stone, our faith its warrant. Every promise of the gospel would lack the signature of him who alone can fulfill it. But, saith the same apostle, "now is Christ * Easter Sunday Rom., i. 4; Acts, xvii. 31; and xiii. 32, 33.