intend to take us all to pieces, and make none of our religions exactly that of the latter-day glory, but bring out a new and a more perfect system than any of us have yet attained to. But without troubling ourselves as to what denomination is to prevail in the latter-day glory, it is enough for us to know that there is to be a latter-day glorythat there is to be a millennium, in which Christianity shall cover the earth in its purest and brightest form. And the man who in the foresight of the downfall of Popery, Paganism, Mahometanism, Judaism and Infidelity, and the raising up of Christianity upon their ruins, holds his heart in abeyance till he has ascertained, if he can, whether it is his denomination that is to prevail,—who, in imagination listening to the shouts of a renovated world, while heaven and earth are responding to each other, "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" determines not to echo the song till he can ascertain whether it is raised by Methodist, or Episcopalian, or Presbyterian, or Congregational voices, or he who watches " the new heavens and the new earth" emerging out of the moral chaos of our world, refuses to rejoice before he has ascertained whether his party is then to be dominant, may be a sectarian, but he cannot be a Christian.

Friends of Immanuel, friends of your species, friends of your Bible, in the hope and the prospect of our regenerated, redeemed world, in which, under the peaceful sceptre of Jesus, the earth shall be delivered from slavery, from tyranny, and from war, when commerce shall be purified from its stupidity, literature from its pride, and philosophy from its scepticism; do not stand calculating or conjecturing who are to do this, and how it is to be accomplished! Brethren, we are all to do it, and God will honor us all; and when our world shall be illuminated, and the latter-day glory shall come, and the light of heaven shall spread over the earth, it will, perhaps, be as impossible to say who has done most to accomplish this, as it is to say which of those gas lights has thrown most splendor around us this evening. Here they are all illuminating the place together. And so will it be with respect to the glory of that period to which our attention is now directed; we shall all be honored of God to do something to bring it on, and shall praise him on that day, not only for what we have done, but for what others have done. And the man that hushes the groans of creation, and spreads over our desolate earth the verdure of moral vegetation, shall have my hand, my heart, my prayer, my adoring praise and gratitude to God, however I may differ from him on the subject of church government, the ordinances of religion, or some of the minor parts of Christianity. In the prospect of the millennium, in which "the knowledge of the Lord is to cover the earth as the waters

cover the channel of the sea," I see enough to rejoice in, without staying to ask who has done most to accomplish it, or whose opinions will then most widely prevail.

My beloved and honored brethren in the ministry, of every name and denomination that may be present here this evening, bear with me while I give utterance, not indeed to the responses of oracular wisdom, or to the counsels of patriarchal authority, but to the effusions of a brother's heart, anxious for your success and for his own. If Christians are to be "the light of the world," we are to be the light of the Church. If the Church is to be "the salt of the earth," we are to be the salt of the Church. Our influence, I say, although I seem to magnify my office, but not myself is great, and our responsibility proportionate. We cannot be negative characters. The pulpit, raised as it is between the law on the one hand and the gospel on the other, is the very centre of the moral universe, and all the world will feel its influence, and feel it through all the ages of eternity. There is a mighty power in this ministerial and pastoral character, more than even in books. Here are the

it.

"Thoughts that breathe and words that burn."

The minister in earnest awes by the thunder of his sermon, delights by its music, or kindles by its enthusiasm the souls of those who hear There is an addition of all that influence which we carry with us in the private circle, where a single remark may be the means of starting an immortal soul on a career of glory, never to end for ever and ever; or may sink that soul down to the bottomless pit. Oh! let us consider how much the harmony of the Church, the conversion of the world depends upon us! In one sense, though in a very different one to that which Tractarian theology contends for, we are the channels through which the blessing of God descends to the Church and to the world. Oh! let us take care how we choke those channels by indolence, negligence, or carelessness, and that we keep them open by ministerial zeal, fidelity and holiness. Immortal souls, for their eternal destinies, hang upon our hands: we, in reference to the world, retard or accelerate the millennial glory. Oh! let us then, in these eventful days, look up to God, by fasting and prayer, that we be not found wanting at our post! Considerable stir has been made of late about the rising ministry, but oh! my venerable fathers in Christ, is it not true that we on whom the snows of winter are descended, who have had so much more time to study the worth of souls, the value of divine truth, the importance of salvation, the terror of damnation, and the life of eternity, are more wanting even than some of our younger

brethren. Oh! that God would help us all, younger or older, to consider how much the tone and temper of the Church depend upon ushow much we have it in our power to bring Christians closer to each other, or to repel them to a wider distance! May we all consider, that God will hold us responsible for what we do, for the Church and for the world! Upon us hang the interests of our Master, which will flourish or decay as we appeal to the minds and hearts and consciences of our people. May God lead us to meditate upon these tremendous truths; for sometimes it does appear to me wonderful, that with such interests hanging upon us, we can be so light-hearted, or that we can find any rest upon our beds, when such interests are dependent upon us. May the Lord God grant that we may be found faithful-kindling the purest and the brightest zeal in the souls of our hearers, and aiding onward, as our duty, our honor, and our privilege is, the triumphal car of the Redeemer, who is going forth" conquer!"

conquering and to

We

Brethren, what need I say to you on the subject of your missions? As to their nature, their importance, their extent, and at the same time their claims, you know all this better than I do. God has greatly honored and blessed you. Without one particle of envy, without a single feeling but that of gratulation and thankfulness, I think of your more than £100,000 a-year, for the support of your missions. I can only stand and wonder and adore. You leave us far behind. wish that we were up with you, but we do not for a moment regret that you are blessed of God to the extent of your liberality. Go on and prosper. You have missions of which any denomination under the sun might, (I will not say be proud) but for which any one, and every one might be thankful. To whatever part of the vast field I turn my eyes, I see every thing which should be felt by you as a motive and stimulus to greater zeal. Look at the West Indies, where you began ; what wonders has the Lord achieved by you there! Look at Ceylon; how many, in that eastern part of the world, have you turned from following dumb idols to serve the living and true God! Look at your more modern missions of Polynesia; look at New Zealand; look at the Fejees; in all those spots of God's world you see motives for thankfulness and increased zeal. May the Lord bless you in your mission to Africa; may you be the honored instruments of carrying the gospel of mercy into those regions that " are full of the habitations of cruelty!" There plant the standard of the cross, amidst those pyramids of human skulls, and other marks of ferocity, which have troubled the feelings and inspired the zeal of your missionaries. Go on, brethren; you have reached a pitch which might lead any body to

suppose that it needs no stimulus, and admits of no increase; but the Methodist body will repudiate the idea of not looking for any increase. It would be as bold an attempt for any man to fix the ne plus ultra of Methodist zeal as it would be to fix the ne plus ultra of scientific research and attainment. Halt, is not a word which your leaders are accustomed to give to those who follow them; to retrogade is not a motion which their followers are accustomed to make. Onward! is the cry. Your missionaries abroad give the sound, and friends at home echo it here. Brethren, perhaps it will startle you when I say, that you could, if you would, raise another £100,000 to that which you have raised. Oh! go forward, that we, peradventure, may have our zeal kindled and warmed by you.

There are four questions, which in conclusion, I would put to youmay you not do more can you not do more ought you not to do more—and will you not do more?

May you not, when the world is all before you, and Providence your God; when there is no limit, but that which your means impose upon your efforts; when doors are opening in every part of the world, and voices from heaven and the earth are saying, "Come and help us?" Go and help them. You can do more. Where is the man, except he be among the poorest in society, who will rise and say, with all his luxuries or comforts that Providence has bestowed upon him, that he can do no more? Can is a mighty word, and cannot is a fearful one for any man to utter in reference to duty. What you can do, ought you not to do? Can the word ought be measured by any other limit than the word can? What you ought to do, that will you not do? Men are afraid of that word will, as if it belonged only to Omnipotence, and was the fiat of the Creator. Brethren, it is a lawful word; we find it in the Scripture; and let every man say, By God's grace I will do what I ought to do. I ought to do what I can do, and from this hour I will study the meaning, and act under the potency of the questions that have been submitted this night to me. Brethren, I have done. I throw this offering upon the altar of your cause, with one regret — and only one-that it is not more worthy of the cause of the people of God I have come here to-night to advo

cate.

SERMON IX.

THE GREAT THEME OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

BY JABEZ BURNS, D. D.

"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 CORINTHIANS, ii. 2

THE apostle Paul was eminently a man of one subject, and that subject was Christ; Christ in his person, work, offices and glory. He made this evident by his preaching, for immediately after the record of his conversion, it is added, " And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God."- Acts ix. 20. This too was his theme at Antioch, in Inconium, to the jailer and others at Philippi, at Corinth, and in Thessalonica. Before the apostle finished his eloquent oration to the Athenians, he announced the doctrine of the resurrection, and the judgment of the world by Christ Jesus.Acts xvii. 31. In harmony with these statements was the apostle's noble avowal, that if he visited imperial Rome, he would go unto them in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Not only do we see the apostle's one subject from the topics of his constant preaching, but also from the uniform tenor of his epistles. Hence, writing to the church at Colosse, he refers to Christ, in them, the hope of glory, whom, says he, "we preach." To the Philippians he declares that he "accounted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord." He declared to the brethren in Galatia, that he would not glory in any thing, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So when he wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, he observes with peculiar emphasis, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." So in the striking language of the text: "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Probably the idea of the apostle was, that in his search after knowledge, he would devote his chief thoughts and time to know more and more of the Savior, and that as an apostle commissioned to preach to a perishing world, he would make the Lord Jesus and his cross the great theme of his ministry. Noble resolution! Evangelical averment! Worthy of him who had been so marvellously converted by the grace of Christ, and who was destined to be one of the chiefest of the apostles. But the resolution of Paul is worthy of every Christian minister. Though this subject was the grand theme of the apostles and early preachers of the gospel, it is still as fresh