all are calculated to interest their minds and make their duties a pleasure. Here they learn the most important truths in the universe; and are made conversant with those high and interesting motives which ought to influence them as the creatures of God, and candidates for a life of endless happiness.

The sabbath school is emphatically the nursery of the church. Here the earliest seed is sown, from which may be expected the maturest fruit. There are thousands who now shine in the church militant as brilliant lights, and thousands who now sing the song of Moses and the Lamb in a glorified state, whose first thoughts of God and of heaven were awakened in the sabbath school room, and who, but for the blessed opportunity, might still have groped in the darkness of sin and death. Christians, whose character has been moulded by such an influence, are more likely than others to become active patrons of those benevolent institutions which are designed ultimately to evangelize the world.

Who are to be our successors in the sanctuary of God, and take our place in the ranks of the militant faith, when we shall have gone to our final accounts, and our lips shall cease to give instruction? Who shall then build up the waste places of Zion, and extend her borders, and preserve the purity of our holy religion? Those, certainly, whom we have taught to reverence the sabbath, to love the Bible, to love prayer, to love each other, to love Christians and imitate their examples of piety and virtue. These are the hopes of our beloved Zion, the tender plants, which are yet to bloom in the garden of God, and magnify the riches of heavenly grace. These are to be the salt of the earth; who, while they shine as Christians in the church, will add to the highest dignity and honor of their country. It is, indeed, an interesting and important thought, that the pious examples of every sincere Christian, while they more directly advance the special interests of religion, will extend a salutary influence over the affairs of civil community, and go far towards imparting new strength and energy to the free institutions of human government. Religion will not, indeed she cannot, shrink from the responsibility which attaches her to the civil rights of man. It is for her to give a finishing beauty and stability to the temple of freedom, and guard those sacred rights of liberty and happiness, which are the lawful inheritance of every man, who claims them in due submission to the supreme authority of God. There is no fear that she will lay a rude hand upon their rights, and endanger their safety. She too sensibly feels the responsibility, and acts too much in view of the glory of the Divine Being, and the best interests of mankind, to be guilty of such wickedness. Our highest officers of civil government never act with greater wisdom, nor govern with greater equity and efficiency, than when they take the Bible for their text

book, and are influenced by the highest sanctions of religious obligation. It is the influence of mere human policy and personal ambition, that originates all the higher acts of maladministration, and brings disgrace upon rulers, and ruin upon nations. Carry the authority of the Bible, and the mild and persuasive force of religion into our halls of legislation, and our courts of justice and equity, and our nation will stand high in the magnanimity of its own superio excellence, and firm and safe under the protection of God and truth.

Let the influence of a religious education be felt every where among us; let all the children of our country enjoy the advantages of sabbath school instruction, and we secure the whole moral force of the nation on the side of patriotism and virtue; we make the religion of the Bible the paramount law of the land; and that, too, without constraint, receiving a willing and joyful obedience.

It comes, then, to this; that the church, the nation, and the world, are all looking to the sabbath school for an influence which shall change the general tide of human manners, establish correct habits of conduct, give force to correct moral principles, and hasten that universal reign of righteousness, which shall fill the earth with the glory of the Lord, and consummate the gracious promises of eternal truth.

NOW UNTO THE King eternal, IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, THE ONLY WISE GOD, BE honor and GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN. 33

SERMON XXVIII.

BY REV. DANIEL DE VINNE,

WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK.

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

COLOSSIANS I. 18.

HE IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE CHURCH.

In every age of the world God has had his people. After the flood, when the knowledge of his nature and worship was nearly lost, he selected the posterity of Abraham from among every other nation for the purpose of imparting to them the revelation of his will, and constituting them his church. This covenant made with them, with all its immunities and privileges, was afterwards enlarged and extended under Moses, and finally received its completion and perfection in the Christian dispensation.

Into this new covenant all nations are now invited to come, having the assurances from Christ, its Mediator and original Projector, that on condition of their acceptance, he will not only receive and dwell with them, but will also keep, defend, and ultimately bring them to the church triumphant and general assembly of the first born in heaven. Having, therefore, these great and precious promises, it is highly important that we examine ourselves, whether we have complied with this condition, and have become already the true members of Christ's church; whether we have a scriptural warrant to believe that we are entitled to all these blessings and immunities; for if we err in this, we may err to the loss of our souls. This inquiry will lead us to consider the nature and constitution of the Christian church into which we are invited to come. And let us,

1. EXAMINE THE TERM BY WHICH THIS BODY IS CALLED. The word church, in its modern acceptation, is extremely ambiguous. It is sometimes taken for the building set apart for public worship; sometimes for the people worshipping in it; according to others, it

designates that denomination of Christians who adhere to a particular ritual and order of ministers; but more generally, for the whole collective body of believers throughout the world. But it is the scriptural, and not the common and corrupted, application of the word which at present we examine. The original word Εκκλησία, in the text, means simply an assembly, or congregation of any kind, the nature of which can only be learned from concurring circumstances. The word rendered church, is even used, Acts xix. 32, for the mob or confused rabble collected for the purpose of persecuting St. Paul, which the town clerk distinguishes from a lawful assembly. In its application to Christianity, it signifies the assembly, congregation or society of Christians, which, by the preaching of the gospel, has been called out of the spirit and maxims of the world, to live according to the precepts and institutions of Christ. It designates all those true believers, of whatever place or society, who are vitally united to Christ by living faith, and who, deriving from him spiritual life, walk no longer after the flesh, but are led by the Spirit of God into all truth. The Christian church is, therefore, a visible body, which has not only spiritual union with its Head, but also visible fellowship among its own members for the purpose of observing the ordinances of Christ, and confessing him before men.

From the evidence which the New Testament affords, the word church is not applied to the building, but uniformly to the people.

1. To a particular and single congregation of believers, as the church which was in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, Rom. xvi. 3 6, and 1 Cor. xvi. 19, and that which was in the house of Nymphas Col. iv. 15, and Philemon i. 2. This meaning of the word must appear evident from the fact that the early Christians, either on account of poverty or persecution, had no public buildings for worship. but always held their meetings in private houses. The word, in the above sense, is frequently used in the plural number, denoting several of these congregations; "Paul, to the churches of Galatia ;" chap. i. 2, that is, to all the Christian congregations dispersed throughout that country; so the "churches were established in the faith and increased in numbers daily." But whenever these assemblies are spoken of collectively, the term denotes,

2. The catholic or universal church, composed of true believers, of whatever society or country throughout the world; Matt. xvi. 18. Acts xx. 28. In this sense the Christian fathers frequently use the word; Ireneus speaks of "the church dispersed through the world to the ends of the earth;" St. Cyprian says, "Where two or three believers are met together, there is a church;" and so also Tertullian, "Wheresoever three are gathered together in the name of the Lord, there is a church." Therefore, in the proper use of this word, there can be no such thing as the church; applying the term to one partic

ular denomination, there may be a church, and the churches signifying one or more; different religious assemblies, but no individual branch of the general church, can be exclusively entitled to this name; hence the church of Rome, and some Episcopalians in our own country, by arrogating this title wholly to themselves, abuse the term, and change it from its meaning in scriptural and apostolic times. Having thus determined the signification of the word by which this body is called, we shall now show who are,

II. THE MEMBERS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED.

And this is a subject of the utmost importance to every individual. The very inquiry, to ascertain what constitutes not a nominal, but a real member of Christ's spiritual church, demands our serious and prayerful attention, for if we err in this, we may err fatally. The Jews depended much upon their covenant relation to God, supposing their salvation sure, merely because they were the lineal descendants of Abraham, while at the same time our Lord declared them to be as "rottenness," and "of their father the devil." And it is still to be feared, that there are those, even in this age of evangelical light, who, because they are zealous for the church, punctual to observe its outward forms and duties, and because they have been baptized in the name of Christ, and have a place in his visible communion, think all is safe, while, at the same time, they have not the "Spirit of Christ, neither a part nor lot in his spiritual kingdom. As the Scriptures are the only rule of faith, to them we must look for an answer to the question, Who are the real members of the Christian church?

And this the apostle shows largely, and in the clearest manner, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, iv. 1-6, in which he instructs all the members of the church "to walk worthy of their vocation, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called unto one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." In this description the apostle designates not only the believers at Ephesus, but all Christians, in every part of the world, so that the above character and experience are necessary to constitute a real member of the Christian church in every place and age of the world; and if we have not these, whatever our profession may be, we are, in reality, "none of his." The common division of religion, into the belief of doctrines and practice of duties, is incorrect; experience, which forms the most prominent part in the Christian system, has been often wholly omitted, or thrown into the shade. It is remarkable that our Lord, when instructing Nicodemus in the nature of religion, says nothing of the two former, but dwells altogether upon experience "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Every at