it is a secret tabernacling with the convert for individual support in the other case, it is a mighty and mysterious energy co-operating with the minister for the support, and growth in grace, of thousands, and tens of thousands, of his fellow-beings. Should this communication of spiritual strength ever fail to be imparted, what, I ask, would be the position of the church, notwithstanding the scriptural simplicity of her rites, the purity of her doctrines, the sublimity of her services? As the fairest form, that ever blest the eyes of a young mother who watches over the cradle of her first-born, would present but a still and statue-like outline, the calm repose of sculptured marble, were there no soul lodged within it to evince the workings of intellect, and give animation to the delicate organization of matter;-even so would the church, unguarded and unpavilioned by the sacred presence of her Lord, unwatered by the continual dew of His blessing, be bereaved of her beauty, and her excellence, and her vitality, the very elements and lifechords of her existence. She might preach with the tongue of an angel," but her preaching would then become "as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."4 She might practice with all the rigour of an ascetic in the desert, but it would then be an oblation vain and valueless. Her glory would be departed from her, her efficacy destroyed. She would stand alone in the poverty

4 1 Cor. xiii. 1.

and blindness, and nakedness of spiritual widowhood. Even should gathering millions of her sons still assemble and meet together within her courts, they could never atone by their best homage, their deepest devotion, for that necessary in-dwelling of divinity, which gives holiness to every prayer, and authority to every act of praise. In her moral desolation, "gemmed and tiaraed in all the bitter mockery of external pomp, she would resemble those wondrous monuments of Egyptian art, those magnificent mausolea of the imperial dead, those charnel chroniclers of corruption, which stretch their giant shadows over the plain, and each shadow tells the record of a past century.

The APPLICATION OF THESE PRINCIPLES, my reverend brethren, to our own insulated position in society, conferring on the priesthood its dignity, its utility, and moral weight, comes recommended to our notice by various considerations, which claim a brief, hut distinct, examination. Of what materials, then, are those agents composed, whom the Almighty condescends to employ for the general conversion of mankind? What are they, but beings shrouded in all the weaknesses and wants of mortality,—of "like passions," like habits, like feelings with their brethren? Does the simple fact of their being ordained and set apart from the great mass "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for

5 Acts xiv, 15.

the edifying of the body of Christ,"

necessarily involve the elements of security from within, of success from without? Is the solemn investiture of the Christian ephod in itself a pledge and earnest, that flowers of victory shall strew their path in preaching repentance and remission of sins through the prevailing name of Jesus? No reasonable man will dispute the power of the Almighty, had it been consistent with His justice and wisdom, to have restored, by the simple act of volition, every nation, and every tribe, and every family, to all the rights and privileges of their lost inheritance. The same God, who cnrtained the heaven with its bright, blue, gorgeous canopy, and spangled it with stars,-who spake the word, and Ocean teemed with life, and Earth became instinct with beasts of the field, and fowls of the air, and every creeping thing,-might, with equal facility, have carried the marvels of Omnipotence into the moral and religious world. But how would the exertion of such an attribute have been compatible with the free agency of the creature, which alone forms the basis of responsibility, and brings man a heart-stricken, yet willing disciple, to the cross of Christ? The real question hinges, not upon the inherent qualities of the Godhead, but upon the actual manner in which those qualities are exercised "for us men and for our salvation.” Providence acts by secondary causes and since the promulgation of Scripture

truth is committed to the keeping of "earthen vessels,"s it becomes a point of absolute necessity, that those vessels, frail in themselves, and liable to contamination from an ungodly world, should bear the impress, and exhale the purity, of their proper sanctuary. But how can this be provided, except by an emanation from Him, who is Lord of the sanctuary, both in heaven, and on earth? Unless, therefore, "the God of Jacob be our refuge," how weak and unsatisfactory will be the course of our ministration! how scanty and imperfect our "work of faith, and labour of love!"1 Paul may plant, and Apollos may water: but it is God ALONE that giveth the increase.2 We have no right to demand,3 with the Lawgiver of the Israelites, a sensible co-operation of divine power in furthering the purposes of divine goodness. We have no right to beseech the renewed exhibition of another pillar of a cloud by day, another pillar of fire by night :-to claim the manifestation of a new Schechinah5 resting visibly upon the table of our altar. Because the circumstances of the Levitical and Christian priesthood are widely different. The necessity for miraculous interposition no longer exists. Religion expects no fresh suspension of the general laws of nature. All that she asks is a fair and impartial examination of evidence already accumulated evidence, that is written by the pen

9 Ps. xlvi. 7.

8 2 Cor. iv. 7. 1 1 Thes. i. 3. 21 Cor. iii. 6. 3 Exod. iii. 11, 12. 4 Exod. xiii. 21. 5 Lev. xvi. 2. Exod. xxv. 22.

of prophecy, substantiated by the finger of omnipotence, and holding in its grasp every part of man's destiny, from the morning of creation down to the very end of time. Old things have passed away. Symbols, and types, and figures, which were "a shadow of things to come,” though they once tracked the footsteps of Jehovah, have long since merged into the living substance of Him, the Lord Jesus Christ," who is over all, God, blessed for ever." Under divine grace, the objects of our ministry are all attainable, the difficulties in our career are all to be surmounted, by the ordinary means of God's appointment. But little have we estimated the nature of those objects, the character and extent of those difficulties, if we repose in blind security upon our own capacity to teach the things, belonging to the kingdom of heaven, unblest by a verification of the promise in our text. For what are those objects? To develope and disseminate religious truth among all sorts and conditions of men. What are those difficulties? To combat and confound ignorance and error, prejudice and habit, false doctrine, heresy, and schism. These all come within our sphere of action, and assuredly require something more than the mere grappling of a mortal hand. Nor ought we to disguise from ourselves the unwearied agency of that evil power, whose sole object appears, from scripture revelation, to be the destruction of our race. Against such

6 Col. ii. 17. 7 Rom. ix. 5. 8 1 Pet. v. 8.