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all of us some spot of barren ground to cultivate within our little sphere of influence and duty; and our skill in cultivating that, will be in proportion to our skill in cultivating our own hearts. Masters, parents, heads of families, are you cultivating the life of faith first in yourselves? Do you exhibit an example to those around you? The love of God and of his truth in the head of the family, are calculated to arrest the attention of children. Fathers, mo

thers, parents, children, servants, let your hearts and lives be living bibles. Are you disturbing and dislodging the devil and his agents wherever you find them?

To apply my subject. Strangers to God and your own souls, and to everything that is truly good! I solicit your attention to these truths; the time is coming when I shall be a swift witness against you. Friends of God! thank God for the unspeakable gift of his dear Son. Don't be satisfied with being instrumental in promoting the welfare of others; begin and end at home; begin and end with yourselves; hide your faces before his throne ; humble yourselves in the dust before him; give him all the glory of your salvation; pray that he may be ever with you, and that you may be of one heart and of one head, fighting, as it were, in one united mass against sin and satan.

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will be in the millennium that the believer will be distinguished in the cultivation of personal religion, as well as in cultivating religion in others; that happy period I believe to be fast approaching; the dawn is even nigh; twilight darkness prevails as yet, but the dawn will soon appear above the horizon. God's Spirit and truth are destined to triumph over popery, infidelity, Judaism, and every error; they must fly before the Sun of Righteousness, when he shall gloriously arise with healing in his wings.

Sunday Evening, June 6, 1830.

SERMON XLII.

THE UNION BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH.

There is one body, and one Spirit.-EPH. IV. 4.

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THERE is a symmetry in the writings of the Apostle Paul which is very interesting. He does not exalt one truth at the expence of another; he does not murder one truth by pretending to exalt another: he dwells on doctrinal truths, on practical truths, and on experimental truths he dwells on all the glories of our religion. Some preachers like to dwell much on the doctrine of election, and on other doctrinal points, almost to the exclusion of practical points; this is mimicking, not imitating the Apostle. The Apostle, at the conclusion of the epistle, whence the text is taken, dwells on practical religion, blending it at the same time with doctrinal subjects. He connects causes with effects. The Apostle says in the first verse, "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the

vocation wherewith ye are called." This ought to be a desire near the heart of every believer; professors are the Bible of the enemies of God. God intended they should be such; it is to be lamented that so many blots appear;-they should be a living epistle of Christ, known and read of all men. Studiously avoid every thing that is inconsistent with your holy religion; avoid not only what is glaringly inconsistent, avoid weak and foolish things. God requires the homage of the intellect, as well as of the affections; and the Holy Spirit has covenanted to guide and sanctify both; "with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The spirit of Christ is the spirit of unity; if discord be continued in any family, or among other individuals, the spirit of Christ cannot live long there; discord is painful to all beings, but peculiarly so to the believer, who, like his Master, should and must be imbued with a spirit of love and peace. The Apostle then proceeds" there is one body and one Spirit;"-the body is the Church of ChristChrist is the head of that body-one Spirit pervading the whole.

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Ephesians iv. 2, 3.

I. CONSIDER THE UNION BETWEEN THE HEAD AND THE MEMBERS OF THIS SPIRITUAL BODY.

First, The union between the head and members of the natural body is incomprehensible: no one but God can fully comprehend it. We must not therefore quarrel with our religion, because it comprises many mysteries; we cannot fully comprehend anything-a particle of matter is incomprehensible; neither shall we be able even in heaven fully to comprehend these things; but, blessed be God, we shall be able to comprehend what is far more valuable, the image of Deity impressed upon our immortal spirits. There are a thousand secrets in ourselves at the present moment which we cannot comprehend. To be consistent, if we reject the Christian religion because we cannot comprehend its mysteries, we must doubt the reality of our own existence. But this union is one of the most glorious of mysteries, involving in it all the purity and bliss which God is capable of conferring upon humanity.

Secondly, This union proceeds from God; he is the author, and must be the preserver of it. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." "Of Him"-of God-Christ is of God,

1 1 Cor. i. 30.

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