and, if they did, the path of ministerial succession is a dim path. The same is true of church succession, or a succession of ordinances. The clear matter of fact is, that no succession of churches, ministers, or ordinances, can be found sufficiently clear for any man to risk his salvation on it.

If a succession of churches is necessary to the validity of religion, any one can see that if there is a single link out of the chain of succession of churches, all below it is invalid. In the same way, if a succession of ministers is necessary to the validity of religion, and a single link is out of the chain of the succession of ministers, all below it is invalid. So, also, if a succession of ordinances is necessary to validity, and a single link is out of the chain of succession of ordinances, all below it is invalid. And for this there is no remedy. There can be no such thing as restoring succession. If there is a link out anywhere back, all below it is invalid, and that without remedy.

We need not theorize this or that, but must accept the facts of the situation. Let us look at some of these facts.

A large portion of the Baptists of the United States, if they were to trace a succession of their baptisms back, in a few generations would run up to Roger Williams, who received his baptism from the hands of a man who had never been baptized at all. Here the chain ends; there is not a link back of it, and yet to extend back to the apostles the long end of the chain would lie back of Roger Williams. The short end of the chain, from Roger Williams down to the Baptists in this line of succession, would appear to great disadvantage, with more than sixteen hundred years of the first end of the

chain missing! Yet a large portion of the Baptists of the United States are in this line.

If the Disciples in this country were to trace up a succession of their immersions, many of them would run back to the Baptists, and back to Roger Williams, and find the succession hanging on the same hook. Many more of them would trace the chain of immersion back to the beginning of this century, or near that time, to Barton W. Stone, who was immersed by David Perviance, who had never been immersed. Here ends another line. This short piece of chain lacks eighteen hundred years off the first end. This can never be supplied.

If any one desires to look at a succession of ordinances, ministers, or churches, of any of the other parties, they can begin with the Church of England, and, tracing back through a few generations, the line runs into the Church of Rome. The Lutheran Church runs back into the same body-the Church of Rome. The Presbyterian Church runs back to the same source. All the branches of Methodists run back into the "Episcopal Methodists," so called, to John Wesley, or Whitfield, and these into the Church of England. This ends all these chains of churches, ordinances, and ministers, in the Church of Rome. Then look at the long, dark list through which any chain must pass to make a succession back to the apostles, and the dark ages through which it must pass, and the great mystery of iniquity, and put the question honestly, What is it worth? In view of this, ought we not to be.thankful that the gos pel of Christ requires no such succession; that it says not one word about it. We have a more sure word of prophecy to which we should take heed as to a light that shines in a dark place. We have the word first spoken

by the Lord, and then confirmed to them that heard. him, "with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will," and should "give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." We "are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator. of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which can not be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."

The faith of the child of God is not in men, in the traditions, doctrines and commandments of men; nor in succession of men, officers, churches, or ordinances, but in God, Christ, and the eternal Spirit, as revealed to us in the Scriptures. "If ye believe not," said the Lord to the Jews, "that I am he, ye shall die in your sins," and "where I am ye can not come." Again he says, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." "The words which I speak to you shall judge you in the last day." Let us hear his sayings and do them, that he may liken us to wise men; let us keep his commandments, that we may

enter in through the gate into the city, and have right to the tree of life. He says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." "Hereby," says the beloved John, "we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." Let us learn more and more to adore and worship him; to learn of him and be led by him. He will lead us safely into the everlasting city, and to the fountains of living water, where there are riches, and treasures, and splendors, and sublimities, transcending all human imagination, in the presence of His Father and our Father, where we shall dwell with Him forever and ever. To the Almighty Father, through Him, be the honor and power everlasting.

SERMON No. III.

THEME. -A KINGDOM NOT OF THIS WORLD.

TEXT.-"My kingdom is not of this world."-JOHN XVIII. 26.

MANY of our Lord's sayings were dark to those to whom they were directly addressed-purposely dark to them. They were not intended to be understood by those to whom they were immediately addressed, but to be clearly understood at later periods, not only by those to whom they were first addressed, but by all intelligent people who would study the Scriptures in the ages to come. The negative statement, "My kingdom is not of this world," was not only dark to Pilate, to whom it was directly addressed, but equally so to all our Lord's disciples at the time he uttered it. They had no idea of a kingdom not of this world, and understood not the meaning of any such language. John the Immerser had been preaching that the kingdom was at hand. The twelve had been preaching the same, and seventy others whom Jesus sent under the first commission. The Lord had taught them to pray, "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." No doubt they prayed thus numerous times; but when they preached that the kingdom was at hand, and prayed, "Thy kingdom come," they had a king and a kingdom of this world in their minds. They were looking and praying for a temporal king and kingdom. This was