effects of his obedience, and the term saved | power of God through faith unto salvation, is not at all applicable to such a supposito every one who believes them. tion. But the God of the Bible says differently. If a man obtain heaven at all, it is by being saved. He is in a diseased state, and it is by the healing application of the blood of the Son of God, that he is restored from that state. The very title applied to him proves the same thing. He is called our Saviour. The deliverance which he effects is called our salvation. The men whom he doth deliver are called the saved. Doth not this imply some previous state of disease and helplessness? And from the frequent and incidental occurrence of this term, may we not gather an additional testimony to the truth of what is elsewhere more expressly revealed to us, that we are lost by nature, and that to obtain recovery, we must be found in Him who came to seek and to save that which was lost. He that believeth on the Son of God shall be saved, but he that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on him.

We know that there are some who loathe this representation; but this is just another example of the substantial interests of the poor being sacrificed to mismanagement and delusion. It is to be hoped that there are many who have looked the disease fairly in the face, and are ready to reach forward the remedy adapted to relieve it. We should have no call to attend to the spiritual interests of men, if they could safely be left to themselves, and to the spontaneous operation of those powers with which it is supposed that nature has endowed them. But this is not the state of the case. We come into the world with the principles of sin and condemnation within us; and, in the congenial atmosphere of this world's example, these ripen fast for the execution of the sentence. During the period of this short but interesting passage to another world, the remedy is in the gospel held out to all, and the freedom and universality of its invitations, while it opens assured admission to all who will, must aggravate the weight and severity of the sentence to those who will not; and upon them the dreadful energy of that saying will be accomplished, "How shall they escape if they neglect so great a salvation?"

We know part of your labours for the eternity of the poor. We know that you have brought the Bible into contact with many a soul. And we are sure that this is suiting the remedy to the disease; for the Bible contains those words which are the

To this established instrument for working faith in the heart, add the instrument of hearing. When you give the Bible, accompany the gift with the living energy of a human voice-let prayer, and advice, and explanation, be brought to act upon them; and let the warm and deeply felt earnestness of your hearts, discharge itself upon theirs in the impressive tones of sincerity, and friendship, and good will. This is going substantially to work. It is, if I may use the expression, bringing the right element to bear upon the case before you; and be assured, every treatment of a convinced and guilty mind is superficial and ruinous, which does not lead it to the Saviour, and bring before it his sacrifice and atonement, and the influences of that spirit bestowed through his obedience on all who believe on Him.

While in the full vigour of health we may count it enough to take up with something short of this. But-striking testimony to evangelical truth! go to the awful reality of a human soul on the eve of its departure from the body, and you will find that all those vapid sentimentalities which partake not of the substantial doctrine of the New Testament, are good for nothing. Hold up your face, my brethren, for the truth and simplicity of the Bible. Be not ashamed of its phraseology. It is the right instrument to handle in the great work of calling a human soul out of darkness into marvellous light. Stand firm and secure on the impregnable principle, that this is the word of God, and that all taste, and imagination, and science, must give way before its overbearing authority. Walk in the footsteps of your Saviour, in the twofold office of caring for the diseases of the body, and administering to the wants of the soul; and though you may fail in the former-though the patient may never arise and walk, yet, by the blessing of Heaven upon your fervent and effectual endeavours, the latter object may be gained-the soul may be lightened of all its anxieties, the whole burden of its diseases may be swept away-it may be of good cheer, because its sins are forgiven -and the right direction may be impressed upon it, which will carry it forward in progress to a happy eternity. Death may not be averted, but death may be disarmed. It may be stript of its terrors, and instead of a devouring enemy, it may be hailed as a messenger of triumph.

THOUGHTS ON UNIVERSAL PEACE.

A SERMON,

DELIVERED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1816, THE DAY OF NATIONAL
THANKSGIVING FOR THE RESTORATION OF PEACE.

"Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."—Isaiah ii. 4. THERE are a great many passages in | shall offer or not to help it forward by our Scripture which warrant the expectation that a time is coming, when an end shall be put to war-when its abominations and its cruelties shall be banished from the face of the earth-when those restless elements of ambition and jealousy which have so long kept the species in a state of unceasing commotion, and are ever and anon sending another and another wave over the field of this world's politics, shall at length be hushed into a placid and ever-during calm; and many and delightful are the images which the Bible employs, as guided by the light of prophecy, it carries us forward to those millennial days, when the reign of peace shall be established, and the wide charity of the gospel, which is confined by no limits, and owns no distinctions, shall embosom the whole human race within the ample grasp of one harmonious and universal family.

But before I proceed, let me attempt to do away a delusion which exists on the subject of prophecy. Its fulfilments are all certain, say many, and we have therefore nothing to do, but to wait for them in passive and indolent expectation. The truth of God stands in no dependence on human aid to vindicate the immutability of all his announcements; and the power of God stands in no need of the feeble exertions of man to hasten the accomplishment of any of his purposes. Let us therefore sit down quietly in the attitude of spectators-let us leave the Divinity to do his own work in his own way, and mark, by the progress of a history over which we have no control, the evolution of his designs, and the march of his wise and beneficent administration.

Now, it is very true, that the Divinity will do his own work in his own way, but if he choose to tell us that that way is not without the instrumentality of men, but by their instrumentality, might not this sitting down into the mere attitude of spectators, turn out to be a most perverse and disobedient conclusion? It is true, that his purpose will obtain its fulfilment, whether we

co-operation. But if the object is to be brought about, and if, in virtue of the same sovereignty by which he determined upon the object, he has also determined on the way which leads to it, and that that way shall be by the acting of human principle, and the putting forth of human exertion, then, let us keep back our co-operation as we may, God will raise up the hearts of others to that which we abstain from; and they, admitted into the high honour of being fellow-workers with God, may do homage to the truth of his prophecy, while we, perhaps, may unconsciously do dreadful homage to the truth of another warning, and another prophecy: "I work a work in your days which you shall not believe, though a man declare it unto you. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish."

Now this is the very way in which prophecies have been actually fulfilled. The return of the people of Israel to their own land, was an event predicted by inspiration, and was brought about by the stirring up of the spirit of Cyrus, who felt himself charged with the duty of building a house to God at Jerusalem. The pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was foretold by the Saviour ere he left the world, and was accomplished upon men who assembled themselves together at the place to which they were commanded to repair; and there they waited, and they prayed. The rapid propagation of Christianity in those days was known by the human agents of this propagation, to be made sure by the word of prophecy; but the way in which it was actually made sure, was by the strenuous exertions, the unexampled heroism, the holy devotedness and zeal of martyrs, and apostles, and evangelists. And even now, my brethren, while no professing Christian can deny that their faith is to be one day the faith of all countries; but while many of them idly sit and wait the time of God putting forth some mysterious and unheard of agency, to bring about the universal diffusion, there are men who have

betaken themselves to the obvious expedient of going abroad among the nations, and teaching them; and though derided by an undeserving world, they seem to be the very men pointed out by the Bible, who are going to and fro increasing the knowledge of its doctrines, and who will be the honoured instruments of carrying into effect the most splendid of all its anticipations.

other, and taking its ample round among all the tribes and families of the earth, shall we arrive at the magnificent result of peace throughout all its provinces, and security in all its dwelling-places.

In the further prosecution of this discourse, I shall, first, expatiate a little on the evils of war.

In the second place, I shall direct your attention to the obstacles which stand in the way of its extinction, and which threaten to retard for a time the accomplishment of the prophecy I have now selected for your consideration.

Now, the same holds true, I apprehend, of the prophecy in my text. The abolition of war will be the effect not of any sudden or resistless visitation from heaven on the character of men-not of any mystical in- And, in the third place, I shall endeavour .fluence working with all the omnipotence to point out, what can only be done at of a charm on the passive hearts of those present in a hurried and superficial manwho are the subjects of it-not of any blindner, some of the expedients by which these or overruling fatality which will come upon obstacles may be done away. the earth at some distant period of its his- I. I shall expatiate a little on the evils of tory, and about which, we, of the present war. The mere existence of the prophecy day, have nothing to do but to look silently in my text, is a sentence of condemnation on, without concern, and without co-ope- upon war, and stamps a criminality on its ration. The prophecy of a peace as uni- very forehead. So soon as Christianity versal as the spread of the human race, and shall gain a full ascendency in the world, as enduring as the moon in the firmament, from that moment war is to disappear. We will meet its accomplishment, ay, and at have heard that there is something noble in that very time which is already fixed by the art of war; that there is something Him who seeth the end of all things from generous in the ardour of that fine chivalric the beginning thereof. But it will be brought spirit which kindles in the hour of alarm, about by the activity of men. It will be and rushes with delight among the thickest done by the philanthropy of thinking and scenes of danger and of enterprise;--that man intelligent Christians. The conversion of is never more proudly arrayed, than when, the Jews-the spread of the gospel light elevated by a contempt for death, he puts among the regions of idolatry-these are on his intrepid front, and looks serene, distinct subjects of prophecy, on which the while the arrows of destruction are flying faithful of the land are now acting, and to on every side of him:-that expunge war, the fulfilment of which they are giving their and you expunge some of the brightest zeal and their energy. I conceive the pro- names in the catalogue of human virtue, phecy which relates to the final abolition of and demolish that theatre on which have war will be taken up in the same manner, been displayed some of the sublimest enerand the subject will be brought to the test gies of the human character. It is thus that of christian principle, and many will unite war has been invested with a most pernito spread a growing sense of its follies and cious splendour, and men have offered to its enormities, over the countries of the justify it as a blessing and an ornament to world-and the public will be enlightened, society, and attempts have been made to not by the factious and turbulent declama- throw a kind of imposing morality around tions of a party, but by the mild dissemina- it; and one might almost be reconciled to tion of gospel sentiment through the land- the whole train of its calamities and its horand the prophecy contained in this book rors, did he not believe his Bible, and learn will pass into effect and accomplishment, from its information, that in the days of by no other influence than the influence of perfect righteousness, there will be no its ordinary lessons on the hearts and con- war;-that so soon as the character of man sciences of individuals-and the measure has had the last finish of Christian principle will first be carried in one country, not by thrown over it, from that moment all the the unhallowed violence of discontent, but instruments of war will be thrown aside, by the control of general opinion, expressed and all its lessons will be forgotten: that on the part of a people, who, if Christian therefore what are called the virtues of war, in their repugnance to war, will be equally are no virtues at all, or that a better and a Christian in all the loyalties, and subjections, worthier scene will be provided for their and meek unresisting virtues of the New exercise; but in short, that at the comTestament—and the sacred fire of good-will mencement of that blissful era, when the to the children of men will spread itself reign of heaven shall be established, war through all climes, and through all lati- will take its departure from the world with tudes--and thus by scriptural truth con-all the other plagues and atrocities of the veyed with power from one people to an-species.

But apart altogether from this testimony | other side, lest he hear that pleading voice, to the evil of war, let us just take a direct which is armed with a tone of remonlook of it, and see whether we can find its strance so vigorous as to disturb him. He character engraved on the aspect it bears cannot bear thus to pause, in imagination, to the eye of an attentive observer. The on the distressing picture of one individual, stoutest heart of this assembly would recoil, but multiply it ten thousand times; say, were he who owns it, to behold the de- how much of all this distress has been struction of a single individual by some heaped together upon a single field; give deed of violence. Were the man who at us the arithmetic of this accumulated this moment stands before you in the full wretchedness, and lay it before us with all play and energy of health, to be in another the accuracy of an official computationmoment laid by some deadly aim a lifeless and strange to tell, not one sigh is lifted up corpse at your feet, there is not one of you among the crowd of eager listeners, as they who would not prove how strong are the stand on tiptoe, and catch every syllable of relentings of nature at a spectacle so hide- utterance, which is read to them out of the ous as death. There are some of you who registers of death. O! say, what mystic would be haunted for whole days by the spell is that, which so blinds us to the sufferimage of horror you had witnessed-who ings of our brethren; which deafens to our would feel the weight of a most oppressive ear the voice of bleeding humanity, when it sensation upon your heart, which nothing is aggravated by the shriek of dying thoubut time could wear away-who would be sands; which makes the very magnitude so pursued by it as to be unfit for business of the slaughter, throw a softening disguise or for enjoyment-who would think of it over its cruelties, and its horrors; which through the day, and it would spread a causes us to eye with indifference, the field gloomy disquietude over your waking mo- that is crowded with the most revolting ments-who would dream of it at night, abominations, and arrests that sigh, which and it would turn that bed which you each individual would singly have drawn courted as a retreat from the torments of from us, by the report of the many who an ever-meddling memory, into a scene of have fallen, and breathed their last in agony Brestlessness. along with them.

But generally the death of violence is not instantaneous, and there is often a sad and dreary interval between its final consummation, and the infliction of the blow which causes it. The winged messenger of destruction has not found its direct avenue to that spot, where the principle of life is situated-and the soul, finding obstacles to its immediate egress, has to struggle it for hours, ere it can make its weary way through the winding avenues of that tenement, which has been torn open by a brother's hand. O! my brother, if there be something appalling in the suddenness of death, think not that when gradual in its advances, you will alleviate the horrors of this sickening contemplation, by viewing it in a milder form. O tell me, if there be any relentings of pity in your bosom, how could you endure it, to behold the agonies of the dying man-as goaded by pain, he grasps the cold ground in convulsive energy, or faint with the loss of blood, his pulse ebbs low, and the gathering paleness spreads itself over his countenance; or wrapping himself round in despair, he can only mark by a few feeble quiverings, that life still lurks and lingers in his lacerated body; or lifting up a faded eye, he casts on you a look of imploring helplessness, for that succour which no sympathy can vield him. It may be painful to dwell on such a representation; but this is the way n which the cause of humanity is served. The eye of the sentimentalist turns away rom its sufferings, and he passes by on the

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I am not saying that the burden of all this criminality rests upon the head of the immediate combatants. It lies somewhere; but who can deny that a soldier may be a Christian, and that from the bloody field on which his body is laid, his soul may wing its ascending way to the shores of a peaceful eternity? But when I think that the Christians, even of the great world, form but a very little flock, and that an army is not a propitious soil for the growth of christian principle-when I think on the character of one such army, that had been led on for years by a ruffian ambition, and been inured to scenes of barbarity, and had gathered a most ferocious hardihood of soul, from the many enterprises of violence to which an unprincipled commander had carried them-when I follow them to the field of battle, and further think, that on both sides of an exasperated contest-the gentleness of Christianity can have no place in almost any bosom; but that nearly every heart is lighted up with fury, and breathes a vindictive purpose against a brother of the species, I cannot but reckon it among the most fearful of the calamities of warthat while the work of death is thickening along its ranks, so many disembodied spirits should pass into the presence of Him who sitteth upon the throne, in such a posture, and with such a preparation.

I have no time, and assuredly as little taste, for expatiating on a topic so melancholy, nor can I afford at present, to set before you a vivid picture of the other mise

ries which war carries in its train-how it | which stand in the way of the extinction desolates every country through which it of war, and which threaten to retard, for rolls, and spreads violation and alarm a time, the accomplishment of the proamong its villages-how, at its approach, phecy I have now selected for your consievery home pours forth its trembling fugi- deration. tives-how all the rights of property, and Is this the time, it may be asked, to comall the provisions of justice must give way plain of obstacles to the extinction of war, before its devouring exactions-how, when when peace has been given to the nations, Sabbath comes, no Sabbath charm comes and we are assembled to celebrate its trialong with it-and for the sound of the umphs? Is this day of high and solemn church bell, which wont to spread its music gratulation, to be turned to such forebodover some fine landscape of nature, and ings as these? The whole of Europe is summon rustic worshippers to the house now at rest from the tempest which conof prayer-nothing is heard but the death-vulsed it—and a solemn treaty with all its ful vollies of the battle, and the maddening adjustments, and all its guarantees, prooutery of infuriated men-how, as the fruit mises a firm perpetuity to the repose of of victory, an unprincipled licentiousness, the world. We have long fought for a hapwhich no discipline can restrain, is suffered | pier order of things, and at length we have to walk at large among the people-and all established it—and the hard-earned bequest, that is pure, and reverend, and holy, in the we hand down to posterity as a rich inheritvirtue of families, is cruelly trampled on, ance, won by the labours and the sufferand held in the bitterest derision. ings of the present generation. That gigantic ambition which stalked in triumph over the firmest and the oldest of our monarchies, is now laid-and can never again burst forth from the confinement of its prison-hold to waken a new uproar, and to send forth new troubles over the face of a desolated world.

Oh! my brethren, were we to pursue those details, which no pen ever attempts, and no chronicle perpetuates, we should be tempted to ask, what that is which civilization has done for the character of the species? It has thrown a few paltry embellishments over the surface of human affairs, and for the order of society, it has reared Now, in reply to this, let it be observed, the defences of law around the rights and that every interval of repose is precious; the property of the individuals who com- every breathing time from the work of viopose it. But let war, legalized as you may, lence is to be rejoiced in by the friends of and ushered into the field with all the pa- humanity; every agreement among the rade of forms and manifestos-let this war powers of the earth, by which a temporary only have its season, and be suffered to respite can be gotten from the calamities overleap these artificial defences, and you of war, is so much reclaimed from the will soon see how much the security of the amount of those miseries that afflict the commonwealth is due to positive restric- world, and of those crimes, the cry of tions, and how little of it is due to a natural which ascendeth unto heaven, and bringeth sense of justice among men. I know well, that down the judgments of God on this dark the plausibilities of human character which and rebellious province of his creation. I abound in every modern and enlightened trust, that on this day, gratitude to Him society, have been mustered up to oppose who alone can still the tumults of the peothe doctrine of the Bible, on the woful de-ple, will be the sentiment of every heart; pravity of our race. But out of the history of and I trust, that none who now hear me, war, I can gather for this doctrine the evi- will refuse to evince his gratitude to the dence of experiment. It tells me, that man | when left to himself, and let loose among his fellows, to walk after the counsel of his own heart, and in the sight of his own eyes, will soon discover how thin that tinsel is, which the boasted hand of civilization has thrown over him. And we have only to blow the trumpet of war, and proclaim to man the hour of his opportunity, that his character may show itself in its essential elements-and that we may see how many, in this our moral and enlightened day, would spring forward, as to a jubilee of delight, and prowl like the wild men of the woods, amidst scenes of rapacity, and cruelty, and violence.

II. But let me hasten away from this part of the subject, and in the second place, direct your attention to those obstacles

Author of the New Testament, by their obedience to one of the most distinct and undoubted of its lessons; I mean the lesson of a reverential and submissive loyalty. I cannot pass an impartial eye over this record of God's will, without perceiving the utter repugnance that there is between the spirit of Christianity, and the factious, turbulent, unquenchable, and ever-meddling spirit of political disaffection. I will not compromise, by the surrender of a single jot or tittle, the integrity of that preceptive code which my Saviour hath left be hind him for the obedience of his disciples. I will not detach the very minutest of its features, from the fine picture of morality that Christ hath bequeathed, both by commandment and example, to adorn the na ture he condescended to wear-and sure I