heaven, throughout eternity shall be displayed "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

1. We may learn, in application of our subject, what place the redemption of man holds amidst the varied works of God. It is the last, the brightest and the best. It gives us the most distinct revelation of his disposition. It sets forth the Eternal One to our minds in forms of majesty and grace he nowhere else assumes. God is indeed observed in other departments of his works. His glory is written upon the spreading skies in characters of golden radiance. Yonder orbs floating in boundless space, by their numbers, their wonderful harmony, their unfading light, declare his glory, the firmament showeth his handiwork. So impressive an exhibition do they make, that from them the first, and perhaps the most excusable form of idolatry arose-Sabiism, or the worship of the Host of Heaven. The green earth, outstretching in our sight, sublime or beauteous in its scenery, yielding abundant treasures for our enjoyment, is an object of ineffable grandeur; and though under a curse for man's sake, speaks forth the praise of the Creator still. The living tribes that roam its surface, that float in air or sea in countless numbers, join the general chorus to Him whose hand hath made and fashioned all these things. Not a creature he has made, which does not attest the perfections of that Being who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working; and man, the noblest, most of all. Yet this is a tribute paid to him as the source of physical life and enjoyment. It regards not his moral glory, which evermore excels, and which appears pre-eminent in the person and work of Christ. Those forms of glory are to change and fade; this will survive and brighten through eternal years. The skies shall wax old, and the earth shall decay and die; and their divine characteristics will disappear so that no intelligent spectator will behold and adore. But the history of salvation by Christ will continue the grand subject of interest. and attraction in heaven, as long as God and heaven shall last. Our enlarged minds will become more and more interested in its unfolding glories. We shall take in hand the ample volume of the Creator's works, and occupy our thoughts in scanning its wonders. And as we turn from page to page, it will be our high delight to see God in Christ; to read of redemption in its beginnings, its progress, its completion. We shall think how its influence spread with silent power over the face of the globe, to meliorate its rugged features, and bring back its rebellious inhabitants to God's sceptre and his love. We shall see the trophies of grace all around us. We shall hear, we shall join the song that shall roll through heaven's high arches: "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."

Finally, we may deduce from our subject the proper topic

and the great end of the gospel ministry.* It is so set forth "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Paul is speaking in the context of preachers of the gospel; and in so doing, furnishes one of the most impressive exhibitions of ministerial duty and responsibility to be found even in the writings of the apostle of the Gentiles himself. The same sentiments are elsewhere frequently brought into view. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses;"-this was the gospel according to Paul; and on this basis, to "beseech men to be reconciled unto God," this was his, and is our appropriate and special work. "God forbid," he exclaims, "that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." We are to preach, not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; with such repetition of the wondrous theme, that the people shall not be allowed to lose it from their thoughts amidst the distracting cares and alluring pleasures of the world; and with such plainness and affection that they must understand its meaning and feel its force. Nor need we fear that the subject will become insipid, or that men's minds will weary of ministrations chiefly or wholly occupied with these matters. For besides the immense importance of the subjects themselves, which must ever make them interesting to sober and intelligent hearers, if only presented with evident sincerity and an ordinary share of address; there will be found within the lively oracles a copiousness and variety of matter, a fund of pertinent and beautiful illustrations, which the most original mind and glowing fancy can never exhaust. Experience, moreover, has abundantly proved that these truths, from their adaptation to our inward life and most urgent wants, will bear repetition so as no other subject of human interest or research will do, without satiety; and that those services are felt to be most in accordance with the great purposes of preaching, and that ministry is, in the end, most honored and most successful, which is made up mainly of a full, clear and faithful presentation of the elemental doctrines of the gospel. Intelligent worldly men quickly perceive that a minister mistakes his calling, who appears ever intent to escape beyond the limits of his commission into the regions of speculation or fancy; who seems to consider that some novel theory about Bible doctrine, some frostwork of fancy to amuse the imagination, cold as beautiful, will most interest his auditors and best subserve the ends of his ministry. His ministry, it may. But then he surely has other views than those Paul entertained; and the people are little likely to be nourished and built up on most holy faith by his lucubrations. No! brethren of the ministry, let us never forget that whatever might befit learned professors, or men of purely literary pursuits, it is our business to preach Jesus Christ and

• This sermon was preached at the installation of Rev. H. M. Field as pastor of the First church in West Springfield, Mass., Jan. 30th, 1851.

him crucified, the less encumbered by theories and speculations, the more simply and directly, the better. This has ever been the true glory of the gospel ministry; this, in all ages, has given it all its respectability, its real vitality, and its moral power. When the gospel was almost lost amidst the rubbish of Papal superstition, a recurrence to the cardinal truths embraced in this phrase, and a soul-felt and soul-stirring enforcement of them, was the means, under God, of giving new life and power to his cause. This it was, which gave to Luther and Calvin and the rest of the Reformers their energy and their victory. They felt, when preaching Christ, that they had in hand an instrument nei ther beneath their power to employ, nor incongruous to the work of pulling down strongholds. These doctrines, plainly, earnestly preached, gave Whitefield that success, which else not all the magic of his surpassing eloquence would have obtained. The same system of truth made Edwards so mighty in word and in doctrine, and becanre the operating cause of the Great Awakening in his day; it has been the means of rousing the slumbering energies of the Church to take hold on God's strength, when in any particular place he has been about to appear and build up Zion; it has been the life and soul of all genuine revivals of religion that have so often blessed our land. And, brethren, when we mourn, as now, the painful dearth of Divine influences in the Church, may we not believe that the cause, in part at least, lies here that we have somewhat forsaken the old paths;-that a muffling of the truth in soft phrases, or presenting it in grotesque methods, or a disposition in some measure to accommodate the gospel to the preconceptions of a philosophizing spirit, that it may be more acceptable to the prejudices of the carnal heart, has something to do with this result? Is there not room, at least, for the inquiry? And is there not reason why we should return to the methods which we know God has owned; to a more simple and free and fearless declaration of those truths we know he has, in times past, so signally blessed? To this new pastor, and the younger brethren present, the subject has a peculiar interest. For the character of their ministry as an evangelical ordinance and the success of their labors will doubtless depend upon their practice in regard to the subjects and the mode of their preaching. Let them, let us all strive to catch Paul's fervor on these high themes, to imitate his example in setting forth Christ as "the power of God and the wisdom of God." And then why may we not hope to see a day of revived zeal and orderly progress? Why may not all these regions be vocal, as once, with the sounds of rejoicing and salvation? Why may not the land bloom with the beauty and fertility of spring after the desolation of winter? Why may we not hear from all parts of the earth, the shout that shall usher in a day of millennial glory, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people." Amen.

SERMON DXLIII.

BY REV. J. MANNING SHERWOOD, NEW-YORK.

THE GOSPEL A SAVOR OF LIFE OR OF DEATH.*

"And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind."--JOHN 9: 39.

The gospel we preach is life or death-salvation or enhanced. perdition to all who come within the scope of its influence. As a system of moral truths and influences, designed and fitted to accomplish a stupendous moral result, the gospel is never nugatory; it makes its impression; its mission is made to honor its Author in the line of mercy or of wrath. Every person that hears the gospel is made wise by it unto salvation, or is plunged into deeper spiritual darkness-is converted, sanctified, and finally elevated by it to the felicity and glory of heaven, or he is confirmed in his wickedness, and thrust down into a deeper hell.

Here is a fact, a startling and momentous fact, for us to ponder who preach the gospel, and for you to ponder who hear it.

Christ came into this world expressly to save sinners. He has done all that is necessary to bring about so blessed a result. He has taught the world the way of life. He has made an allsufficient atonement for sin. He has established the preaching of the gospel, and whatever other means are necessary to bring sinners to repentance. He has sent the Holy Spirit into the world, and removed the last obstacle out of the way, and done all that can be done to secure the gracious end for which he came into the world and died upon the cross. And now he leaves that system of truths, agencies, and influences, to operate in the world and work out its amazing results, according to the fixed principles of God's government and the laws of the human constitution. And there is no power beneath the throne of the Eternal that can arrest the workings of this moral system, or prevent its achieving for each one of all the millions upon whom it acts a destiny of fearful interest and magnitude.

It is to the simple fact involved in this matter that Christ refers in my text. His coming into the world is as really for judgment to those who reject him as it is for mercy to those who receive him. The mission and death of Christ in behalf of sinners; the revelation of God's will contained in the Bible; the institution and operation of the means of grace; and the put

It is due to the Editor to say that he very reluctantly consents to the publi cation of this discourse, at our particular request.-PUBLISHER Nat. Pr.

ting forth of those spiritual and providential influences with which God pursues men in this life, as a matter of fact, are as certain to result in the enhanced guilt and ruin of some, as they are in the salvation and final blessedness of others. This is the natural and necessary result of Christ's coming into the world, and of the preaching of the gospel. And these results will follow wherever the gospel goes. It will prove a savor of death unto death in every case where it fails to prove a savor of life unto life.

There prevails a sad and often fatal delusion just on this point. Thousands cherish and act on the notion that they can have to do or not to do with the gospel, just as they please;. that it is optional with themselves whether the gospel shall influence their course and effect their destiny or not; that if they choose they can think and live, and die, and exist hereafter, just the same as if Christ had not come into the world, and there were no gospel to claim their faith and obedience. They are independent of the gospel; they hold their understanding, their affections, their character, their actions, their destiny in their own hands, and they'll believe what they please, and shape their own course, and control their own being, and work out their own plans and wishes, and nothing shall hinder them. But this is a mistake. It is a moral impossibility, since Christ has come into the world, to get beyond the scope or to resist the power of his mission. His coming into the world to save sinners is the foundation-fact of your probationary being-the foundation fact of all God's present dealings with you-the foundation-fact of all the agencies and influences that are operating to form your character and determine your destiny for the coming world. The mission of Christ is therefore necessarily influential upon every soul of man for good or for evil-for life or for death eternal. You are shut up to faith in the gospel-salvation from sin and death by the cross of Christ, or you must take the fearful penalty due to those who despise the amazing grace of God the Saviour. It is not possible for you. to breathe, or think, or act out of that sphere which the gospel of Jesus Christ permeates in every line of thought and influence, character and destiny, and in which its power as a moulding and controlling moral force is supreme and universal.

Men may disbelieve and reject the gospel; they may shut their eyes to keep out its penetrating light; they may harden their hearts against its influence, and thereby escape conviction and a troubled conscience. They are at liberty to do this. But will this suffice to deliver you out of the hands of Jesus Christ? suffice to leave you as free to work out the great problem of life as if this were not a gospel world? suffice to save you from that accumulated and overwhelming weight of guilt and wrath which is threatened against the unsaved? Will there be no advancement in the line of depravity; no enhancing