which they are exposed. For the accomplishment of the former object, it has established a "Probationary House," in which there are at present forty-five females; and three "District Asylums," in which there are one hundred and forty-four females. For the accomplishment of the latter object, it not only forms "Girls' Associations," under the control and direction of Christian ladies, with the view of cultivating moral habits, and checking in its incipient state, and while under the parental roof, every tendency to female profligacy; and provides "Temporary Refuges for indigent young women," who are employed, instructed, and supported, until permanent situations can be obtained for them; but it has established "Servant's Homes and Registries,” where such as are out of place, but have not forfeited their character, are provided with comfortable lodgings at a moderate charge, and where a registry is kept to facilitate their obtaining situations. It also issues two monthly publications, and several tracts, all greatly calculated to promote its benevolent objects. In its labors of love, it knows no distinction of sect or party, of color or clime, but simply aims, under the blessing of the Most High, to diminish the amount of wretchedness and moral degradation to be found in London, and as far as possible to elevate the standard of female character; and were its funds more ample, it might greatly enlarge the sphere of its operations. The committee of this institution earnestly invite the attention of the benevolent to the following facts:-"From January 1st, 1839, to January 1st, 1840, a period of one year, the number of young women who applied to be admitted into the Asylum of the London Female Mission was 404; of these, 109 were received; the remaining number were sent away principally for want of room, the house then rented by the Mission being able to accommodate only thirty inmates. Since that period, a larger house, capable of receiving eighty beds, has been purchased, and furnished for forty-eight females; to which number the advantage of the institution is now extended. But though the operations of the society, in this department of benevolence, has been greatly enlarged, and the managers feel that they have advanced to the full extent their funds will allow, yet the number of applicants for the society's aid, is still so great, as to amount, in the short space of three days, to twenty-five in number; to all of whom the committee were obliged to say, "We cannot receive you." What! are they then to return to their haunts of vice and misery? thus to be repulsed in their attempts to escape from ruin? We cannot receive you! Who then will receive them? If they have knocked at the door of a Christian institution, and have been refused admittance, though they asked for it with tears of penitence in their eyes, and in the name of the sin

ner's Friend, what door will open to take them in? We cannot receive you! "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon," that in the metropolis of the Christian world where truth has triumphed and martyrs have bled, in three days twenty-five females applied to a number of Christian ladies and gentlemen, to interpose their aid to save them from wretchedness and hell, and were refused that aid. We cannot receive you! Indeed it was true; and no person's feelings can be more deeply affected with the rejection of those females, than were the feelings of the committee of the London Female Mission, in being necessitated, by their exhausted funds, to deny the assistance and protection sought for. The committee bring the case of these twenty-five hapless females before you to-night; and will you, as a Christian congregation, refuse to replenish their funds, and thus practically say to so many imploring outcasts, "We cannot receive you?" What! must they then be abandoned to ruin, descend into the pit, and bitterly exclaim, as it closes upon them, "No man cared for our souls?" Remember, you must meet them at the bar of God; and if you refuse them help, and they should in consequence be lost, how will you encounter their penetrating and upbraiding glance, as they turn from the judgment seat to meet their awful doom? Will you rather save money, than immortal souls? Your money perish with you; for if this be your feeling, it is easy to perceive that you are "in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." A piercing cry for assistance has this evening reached you; and "if you forbear to deliver them that are drawn into death, and those that are ready to be slain; if you say, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth the soul, doth He not know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?"

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SERMON XXXI.

THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL.

BY REV. T. ADKINS.

"The glorious gospel of the blessed God."-1 TIMOTHY, i. 11.

MAN is an ambitious being: the desire of attaining to some species of real or imaginary excellence is intimately interwoven with the very texture of the human mind. This desire commences with the earliest dawn of our conscious existence as soon as we are capable of forming an opinion respecting our actions and our possible circumstances: and it remains with us through every subsequent stage of our life; stimulating us to future attainments, and holding out the prospect of greater good.

But the entrance of sin has beclouded our faculty of spiritual perception, and vitiated our moral taste: and hence many seek happiness in that which is not in itself essentially "glorious;" but which only tends to augment the suffering, and to increase the misery of the heart. There are individuals who possess such a perspicacity of pride as to discover in themselves excellences imperceptible to any eye but their own. There are those who are so disposed to attain to elevation, that they are content to occupy a position, even though it be on a dunghill, if they can but secure the attention of their fellow men. There are others who, having no virtues to plume themselves with, boast of their very vices, and glory in their shame.

My brethren, I have this evening to put before you an object, not of imaginary, but of real glory; an object, the transcendent splendor of which surpasses all that human ambition ever panted after, or human success ever won. All the productions of nature, and all the events of time all that has been achieved by the ingenuity of man, or the majesty of God himself, is veiled before its transcendent splendor and in reference to them we may say, what the apostle said in reference to the comparative splendor of the two dispensations that the former had no glory "by reason of the glory that excelleth." O that this evening each of us may purge our abused vision at the fountain of heavenly radiance, that we may be blessed with spiritual perception to behold the unequalled splendor of that, respecting which it is declared, by the voice of infallible truth, that it is "the glorious gospel of the blessed God."

The expression rendered, "blessed," might, with no less propriety, have been translated "the happy gospel." And this suggests to us an important train of thought. All holy beings are happy; and all happy beings are benevolent: they are happy just in proportion as they are holy; and they are benevolent just in proportion as they are happy. Angels are holier than men, and therefore they are more happy, and more benevolent. Unallied to us by the ordinary sympa thies of a common nature, they yet take an intense interest in all that relates to the well-being of man. God is the holiest being, and therefore he is the happiest; and, being the happy God, he is the most benevolent being in the universe; and his own happiness is augmented whilst he is diffusing felicity through countless myriads of intelligent beings.

By"the gospel," I understand that revelation of mercy in which the Deity, through the substitution and sacrifice of his Son, condescends to bestow blessings on a lost and ruined world. It is the gospel, because it is glad tidings; glad tidings, inasmuch as it is a scheme through which the Deity bestows the greatest blessings on manbestows them in a manner correspondent with the perfection of his own nature, and in a manner adapted to the moral impotence of our own.

Instead, however, of occupying your time with any prefatory remarks respecting the nature and constitution of this gospel, I proceed to seize on the distinguishing feature which the apostle places before us, and remind you that it is "the glorious gospel: " and it is so BECAUSE IT IS A SYSTEM OF ETERNAL TRUTH, IN WHICH THE moral PERFECTIONS OF THE GODHEAD ARE MOST TRANSCENDENTLY DISPLAYED. There is but one being in the universe that is self-existent and dependent, and who, consequently, can make his own glory the ultimate object of his existence: and that being is God. Consequent obligation is the condition on which man receives his existence: "No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself: for whether we live, we live to the Lord; and whether we die, we die to the Lord: whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." The sun shines, not for his own glory, but for the glory of him who has placed him as a lamp in the firmament of heaven, and for the benefit of those minor orbs that roll round in infinite space. Some men are suns, and others are only stars; but all are compelled to shine to shine, not for their own glory, but for the glory of Him who has fixed them in their appointed spheres. And there is a propriety in all this. If a finite creature were to seek his own glory, he would make an attempt to vault into the very throne, and invade the very prerogative of heaven; he would aim at that which does not belong to the creature

because his glory cannot be the greatest good. But for the Deity to aim at this object, and to achieve it, is for him to achieve the greatest good and at the very moment that this is enhanced to its highest splendor, it becomes the medium through which, in a proportionate degree, the happiness of the moral universe is enhanced.

Now, in reference to this "glorious gospel," we say, that in it all the perfections of the Divine nature are strikingly displayed. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work." The dread magnificence of the stars- the beauty of the varying seasons - the living millions that swim in the seas, that float in the air, that graze in the field, or, in endless combination of color and form, people the regions of infinite space-speak of a present and a presiding God. But, brethren, where is the record of pardon? Where is the proof of forgiving mercy? It is neither written by the sun-beam, nor wafted by the breeze. The sea says, "It is not in me:" all nature says, "It is not in me." "Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" These are past man's understanding: how small a portion is known to him! But when we turn to this "glorious gospel," we see the Deity full robed, in his round of rays complete. In it we see exemplified what is profound in wisdom, inflexible in justice, awful in dignity, and touching in compassion, in their individual excellence, and in their harmonious combination.

But in this "glorious gospel" there is, besides the exhibition of all the perfections of the Godhead, the most striking developement of them. For though all the attributes of the Godhead are infinite, yet their manifestation may be varied in an endless diversity of degrees and forms: but in this "glorious gospel" there is the most striking display of the whole. Let us look at these perfections of the Divine nature as philosophers do at a ray of light, through the medium of prism: let us resolve them into their original elements (if I may be allowed the expression), and bring them to this test: and we shall point them towards this "glorious gospel: " there is the most striking display of all the attributes of Jehovah.

Is love an attribute of the Divine nature? God is love: he is benevolence itself; it dwells in him as its proper seat; it springs from him as its proper source; and ever actuates him as a vital and immortal principle. We see it in the fragrance that regales our senses, and in the beauty that charms our eye: as Paley has delightfully said, "Pain is the exception-happiness is the rule:" and in all the varied forms of happiness in which the countless myriads of God's creatures that