LIBERAL PREACHER: MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF SERMONS BY LIVING MINISTERS. VOL. V.NEW SERIES. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY DAVID REED, CONTENTS. I. The Christian Panoply ;-By Rev. Thomas Tracy, Newburyport. III. Old Age;-By Rev. Edward B. Hall, Providence, R. I. IV. The Religious man and the man of the world;-By Rev. Alvan V. The Future Life ;-By Rev. William E. Channing, D. D., Boston. VII. Humility essential to true Greatness;-By Rev. Edmund Q. VIII. Christian Perseverance; By Sidney Willard, Cambridge. IX. Contentment;-By Rev. Joseph Field, Weston. X. Efficacy of Prayer;-By Rev. John G. Palfrey, D. D., Cambridge. XI. The Coincidence of Christianity with the higher nature of Man ;— By Rev. George Ripley, Boston. XII. Salvation come to the house of Zaccheus ;-By Rev. Thomas SERMON I. BY REV. THOMAS TRACY, OF NEWBURYPORT, MASS. THE CHRISTIAN PANOPLY. - EPHESIANS VI. 13. TAKE UNTO YOU THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD. My hearers, for what purpose have we assembled this morning, this morning of the new year? For myself I make answer: I come to worship God,-to worship God with those on earth, with whom I hope to worship him in heaven. That I wish also to promote your best good, I trust I need not declare you know it to be both the wish of my heart, and the grand aim of my ministry. But, my friends, what are the warmest wishes of man? A christian king desires the growth and glory of his kingdom; a christian president desires the prosperity and power of the republic, over which he presides; a christian minister longs to witness the improvement and salvation of the souls, for whom he performs the duties of his office; but, compared with the Supreme Being, what is the pastor of a flock, a superintendent of states, a ruler of realms or empires? Compared with the favor of the Almighty, their wishes, their desires are feeble and ineffectual, as the breath that gives them utterance. |