these avail nothing, then come trials, chastisements, and afflictions. God will in some way arouse those who have any spiritual life in their souls. If the hearts of any grow hard under these influences, there is reason to fear they will die in their sins.

Means of some kind, my friends, are often employed to stir you up to live as becomes the disciples of Christ. God says to you, "It is high time to awake out of sleep." He is even calling upon you to remember your covenant vows, to consider your ways, and turn your feet to his testimonies. If you have any true love to Christ, any of the spirit and temper of the gospel, you will hear his words, you will be moved by the means he employs: your hearts will be melted, and you will humble yourselves before him. If you have only a name to live, or are dead, you will probably remain unmoved, or sink to a lower depth.

As the eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings and teaches them to do the work of eagles, so God stirreth up his people, teaches them his mind and will, and uses means to induce them to live and act as becomes the disciples of Christ.

SERMON DCLXIII.

BY REV. E. CARPENTER,

NEW-YORK.

PRINCIPLES OF CONSTANT OBEDIENCE.

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable; always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."-1 Cor. xv. 58.

THE work of the Lord, in doing which we are called upon to be steadfast, is the duty which God requires of man in all the obligations of piety, faith, and virtue; the practice of true religion as pointed out by the joint instruction of natural conscience and revelation. To be steadfast is to perform the task assigned us of following Christ, growing in grace, and working out our eternal salvation with unabating ardor, firmness, and diligence, in all the extent of well-doing. It is to hold our integrity fast to the end, in contradistinction to some professing Christians, who seem at times to feel and act according to the spirit of the Gospel, but often yield to the corruption of the heart, or the power of temptation; and who, amid the occupations and cares of life, grow weary in well-doing, from the discouragements they frequently meet with; or are irresolute in the service of religion, and unstable in the practice of holiness.

But we are not merely to continue, we are also to abound in the work of the Lord; that is, to be constantly making progress in holiness and increasing in the fruits of righteousness, by adding grace to grace, and strength to strength, in the life of God; by giving all diligence, so as to make our calling and election sure. For righteousness is likened to a seed sown in the heart, which ought to

be ever growing and ripening, till it reach the size of a tree of life, shedding fruits of immortality. It is a talent given us to improve in various measures of spiritual profit. It is a spark of heavenly fire which is to burn within us till it influence the whole soul with the pure ardor of all divine and moral excellence. If man, in these respects, grow not in righteousness, nor advance towards perfection, he is called the barren fig-tree, which will be cut down; he is the unprofitable servant whom his Lord, at his coming, will not approve; he is insensible to virtue, dead to godliness, and utterly unqualified for the joys of heaven. A true Christian must have the same mind as Christ. He ought to be grounded and confirmed in all the principles of the gospel. According to the expressive language of Scrip ture, Christ shall dwell in his heart as his life, and the spring of his whole conduct. Supposing, then, the same spirit in us which was also in Jesus, and setting before us the exalted prospect of a glorious issue to all our labors in the work of the Lord, let us inquire by divine grace into those principles of mind which are the foundation of being steadfast and always abounding in the work of the Lord.

I. The first principle of steadfast and abounding righteousness is a constant sense of the obligation of the divine law. He who truly partakes of the spirit of Jesus Christ is formed anew to better sentiments. Placed in the light of the divine fellowship, he looks on sin as moral darkness; he regards the will of God as the indispensable law of what is right, and as the instrument of his own happiness. And he feels himself bound by the strictest ties to the unceasing obedience and imitation of Christ, who, although not originally bound to obey, voluntarily subjected himself to the law, that he might illustrate to his people the beauty and excellence and indispensable obligation of obedience. Thus the Christian, in all his conduct, acts agreeably to the dictates of religion. Though influenced by pride, the security, or the indifference of the worldly spirit, he devotes his powers to God who gave them, and more and more abounds in goodness. Would you, then, maintain your integrity, and grow in righteousness? At all times feel the supreme and indispensable obligation of the divine law. The principles which men devise are weak and unstable, like their authors, and varying with the changes of interest, fashion, and humor, which give them birth. But that which I now recommend partakes of the energy and immutability that are the chief characters of the divine nature from which it flows. It is pure as heaven, strong as Zion, and lasting as moral obligation. It is thus that religion and virtue are indissolubly connected. To break them asunder, as some have impiously attempted to do, is to tear from religion whatever is amiable in the human heart to sap the foundation at once of morals and of social happiness; and, in the vaiu presumption of soaring to heaven on the wings of a barren, speculative faith, to abandon the only course of practical belief and good works, going together hand in hand, which God himself has pointed out as the only true and living way of conducting his people to the dwelling of immortal bliss.

II. The second principle of standing fast and growing in righteousness is that of love. Love is the sovereign attribute of God in relation to man. Was it not love to fill the universe with animated beings, and to pour the riches of beauty and happiness over creation. Was it not love to form man after the image of God, and to breathe into him a thinking, reasonable, immortal spirit? And is it not love that at this moment we think, and feel, and hear, and see, amidst all the enjoyment of the light of the sun, all the means of temporal being, and everything that sweetens life? Thus hath God, above all, commended his love, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the soul of man, to give it eternal glory in the heavens. His life, his doctrine, his agony, his death, his resurrection, and his intercession-all were love passing knowledge. From the sense of all this goodness, will not the man, who is not dead to every generous feeling in human nature, love the Lord his Maker and Saviour with all his heart, and soul, and strength? Will not the love of Christ constrain him? And will not the energy of this divine principle transfuse itself, from his inmost bosom, through all his conduct, so as to prove a perpetual spring of unwearied activity in well-doing? This we are told is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and to abound in

love to God and man is the means of being established, or rendered steadfast, unblamable in holiness before the Lord.

III. The third principle of unwearied steadfastness and increase in the work of the Lord is a conviction of the evil of sin. In this respect a good man partakes of the spirit of that holy and righteous Being who hateth the workers of iniquity, and with whom evil cannot dwell. He despises what is mean, and abhors what is impure, with every false and wicked way. The sentiment which I describe is, moreover, quickened by fellow-feeling with the Saviour of men, who, laying aside the form of God, gave himself up to sorrow, and suffering, and death, for sin. Now, in all cases, sympathy is a powerful spring of action; it interests the heart, and raises every power of the soul. Above all, in this concern, its whole energy is called forth to make the Christian abstain from every appearance of evil, lest, by the commission of any sin, he should crucify afresh the Son of God.

IV. Another principle of unwearied well-doing and increasing righteousness is, the conviction that holiness is necessary as a qualification of the Christian fellowship. The great law of communion with Christ is that of light, purity, and righteousness, in opposition to the spiritual darkness of corruption and sin. If, then, we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, that is sin -"we deceive ourselves," says the Apostle. But if we walk in light or righteousness, then we have communion with the Father and his Son; and, cherished by the rays of divine light from the Sun of righteousness, graces spring up and virtues flourish in our lives as the tender herb, with the fostering warmth and dew of heaven.

V. The last principle I will mention of holding fast our integrity, is a firm confidence in the declaration that our labor shall not be in vain in the Lord; that if we are steadfast, and always abounding in the work, we shall reap, through Jesus Christ, the fruit of eternal life and peace. It is the prospect of this that purifies the heart, and exalts the affections beyond the earth to things above. How animating the motive to perseverance and progress in grace, that the fruit of these things shall be peace and joy unspeakable for evermore! In this assurance the good man breathes ardently after God, and seeks the glory which is with Christ. He rises superior to the ills of life, and no obstacle discourages him from the performance of his duty, however difficult or painful it may be. In the whole discipline of purity and virtue he exercises himself; and his path shines more and more till he is adorned to mingle in the glorious hosts of heaven. The world may often repay your endeavors to do good with ingratitude and calumny; and after spending your best years in the service of men, or in quest of temporal happiness, disappointment and vexation may be all your reward. But, in the Christian life, benevolent and powerful is the Master you serve; and none who ever sought to please Him, have yet spent their labor in vain.

Such, my Christian friends, are the great principles of continuing steadfast, and always abounding in the work of the Lord; a constant sense of the obligation of the divine law; the power of love; a conviction of the evil of sin, and of the necessity of holiness; and the confidence of future retribution. By the united influence of these principles, may you be effectually prevented from ever becoming remiss in duty. Thus, while the ungodly, who refuse to be influenced by these principles, are unfruitful in good works, and have their minds lightened with vanity, till they become as the chaff, which the wind driveth away, you, on the contrary, shall be as trees planted by the rivers in the vineyard of God; you shall bring forth fruit in its season, and your leaf shall not wither; your spiritual work shall prosper; and you shall finally reach the end of all your hopes, the bliss and glory of heaven, and reap the harvest of life eternal.

BY REV. JOSEPH P. THOMPSON,

PASTOR OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE church, NEW-YORK.

THE BOW IN THE CLOUD.

"And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire; and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it I fell down upon my face."-EZEKIEL i. 26–29.

THERE is but one scene in nature that approximates this sublime vision of the throne of God; and he who once has looked upon that scene will ever after feel the inspiration of these symbols of the prophet.

I stood at midnight upon the brink of Niagara. No human form was nigh; no voice or step of man was heard. There rolled the everlasting flood, thundering into the abyss that seemed to swallow it, yet left it undiminished in volume or in power. Dread symbol of eternity, without beginning, without end, rolling evermore upon its unseen axis, like that living wheel of emerald flashing with eyes, with wheel revolving within wheel," whose rings were so high that they were dreadful." There resounded evermore the thunder of that power that shakes both earth and heaven-a power that sweeps to instant destruction all that comes within its grasp. There yawned that dread abyss upon whose slippery brink trembled one poor mortal with the thought of utter impotence in this close proximity of death. Above all

stretched the firmament with its "terrible crystal," and upon its pavement of stars seemed to rest the sapphire throne. From the abyss there rose up a column towering to the sky, like the smoke of a furnace, the spray of that great agony of waters vainly seeking to regain the level they had lost. The voice of many waters, the voice of mighty thunderings, rolled the eternal anthem up to the throne of God. And yet I could not feel that such a God as nature here set forth was mine. I feel the awe of His power who sitteth above the floods; but should I step foot upon those floods they would sweep me to destruction. I seem to catch a glimmering of his eternity in this majestic plunge of unabated waters; but I am as a single drop of that flood, and plunging over, would vainly strive to regain the level I had lost. I look at the edge of the cataract-within a hand's breadth-and it is terrible. I look over into the abyss, and it is terrible. I hearken to the thunder of the fall, and it is terrible. I look upward to the crystal firmament, and that, too, is terrible. This God whom nature here offers me is the great and terrible God. This noise of great waters is the voice of the ALMIGHTY, and I hear in it no tone of love, no accent of mercy. That sapphire throne is the throne of Infinite Majesty; and I am but a poor, weak mortal, and cannot so much as look upon it. There is no way for me to rise above this chasm, above these floods, above these thunderings, to dwell with such a God. "Oh, give me Christ!" I cried-alone, aloud, upon the ear of midnight, above the roar of waters, the soul, awe-struck and terrified with a material Deity, or an almighty and eternal fate, cried, "Give me Christ, the God-man, the Creator stooping to the creature; power and majesty arrayed in love!" And suddenly upon that huge frightful column that seemed the smoke of the damned, by the rays of the full moon that then slanted athwart the flood and adown the abyss, there sprang from the depths of that abyss up even to the terrible crystal above my head, a luminous arch, as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain. The prophet's vision burst upon me. In the brightness of that bow I saw the symbol of Christ, even as the Revelator of Patmos, when uplifted by the Spirit to the door that was opened into heaven, "beheld a throne set in heaven, and one that sat upon it, and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like to an emerald."

Not as a mere ornament to the picture, filling up the back ground with its radiant glories, is this overarching bow introduced alike by those prophets of both dispensations who were privileged with the nearest insight into heaven;-this bow is the symbol of mercy, and in heaven it is associated with the likeness of the Son of man upon the throne. It is the symbol of Christ's administration of grace over the world.