been valuable indeed. In any season of difficulty or trouble, I could gain ready access to him, and was sure to obtain encouragement and comfort. His benevolence to the poor, and the kind words he spoke to them, were always cheering to me. I spent the usual hour with him just one week before he died, when he was as cheerful as ever. A more happy Christian I never knew."

And now the earthly scene is over, and the heavenly rest is begun. Our brother has ceased to be among us, and is summoned to be with his Lord, which is far better. Those who knew him will glorify God in him. They will be thankful that he was spared so long; they will strive to follow him as he followed Christ; and, in giving all diligence to make their election sure, they will be animated with a cheerful and a soul-sustaining hope, when they recollect the victories which have been already won by their triumphant kindred, through the blood of the Lamb.

FROM THE LEAST UNTO THE GREATEST:

SUBSTANCE OF A SERMON PREACHED ON OCCASION OF THE JUBILEE OF THE WESLEYAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY, IN WALTHAM-STREET CHAPEL, HULL, WEDNESDAY MORNING, NOV. 18TH, 1863; AND IN BRUNSWICK CHURCH, HALIFAX, NOVA-SCOTIA, SUNDAY EVENING, JULY 3D, 1864.

PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE HULL DISTRICT MISSIONARY COMMITTER*

"Who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zech. iv. 10.)

It appears that Haggai and Zechariah were born during the capti vity :—a beautiful indication, this, that "the first care of Heaven is the church;" that He who raised the church out of nothing, (calling Abraham alone, and blessing him, and increasing him,) will not fail to revive, adorn, and enlarge His own inheritance. "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." (Isai. li. 3.) "Mine eyes and mine heart," saith the thrice-holy One, "shall be there perpetually;" (1 Kings ix. 3;) not only in the sunshine, but also in the day of clouds and of tempest, when iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold; when discouragement follows discouragement, and chastening after chastening is compassionately permitted or inflicted. The church in exile and in grief is not forgotten. It is most striking to note when the most signal interposi tions of her Lord are vouchsafed. For the sake of this lesson, among others, let us keep in remembrance the annals of the past. He who once led His people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron,

* An apology for several months' delay is due to a number of friends, who have too kindly expressed a wish to see this outline in type.

for the pressure of recent duties.-EDITOR.

They will, doubtless, allow

then known as "the Angel of Jehovah's presence,"—is still, and evermore, with the true Israel; no longer, indeed, as "the Angel," but, in a new sense, Lord of the worlds, Regent of providence, King of saints, and "Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." This special honour is the Mediator's crown, having been conferred on Him, when the Father, well pleased, "raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." (Ephes. i. 20-23.) Such is the meed of unknown sufferings, endured for man by "the Holy One and the Just." "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity," O Son of the Blessed! and "therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." (Psalm xlv. 7; Heb. i. 9.)

In no flight of lyrical fancy, then, but in sober and measured truth, may we affirm that all providential rule is now exercised for the good of the church. For her, it is hardly too much to say, this planet is kept in being, though there is not a day, not an hour, in which its ten thousand crimes are not insulting the pure heavens. For her the sun shines, the seasons roll. Stars, in their courses, fight against her enemies. The sun stands still, high in the firmament, to light her champions to signal and decisive victory. Mountains are ready to skip like rams, and little hills like lambs. "What ailed thee, O thou

sea," in days of old, "that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?" It was the God of Jacob that was making the depths a way for His ransomed to pass over.-More than all this: Christ raises up the manifold instrumentality which the offices and the enterprises of His church demand. It is His to kindle genius, to breathe mag animity, to sustain the patience of hope, to enrich His servants with ample variety of gifts and graces, and to make all availing by the unction from above. While He sits on the right hand of God, the church shall never want herces for the field, sages for the councilchamber, or martyrs for the fires. In one word, He supplies all the need of His people, whether regarded individually or collectively; and this, not according to any poor conception of ours, but according to His own riches in glory everlasting.

Our first note, then, is a note of praise to the Triune God. We adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, (" neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance,") while we trace herein. the unfailing bounties of grace and providence. In no other aspect will we magnify even the most precious of the gifts bestowed: all blessing and honour to the Giver ! We will" cease from man,".from Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas; from Wycliffe, and Cranmer, and Wesley, and render thanks only to Him who "hath done marvellous things;" who "with His own right hand, and with His holy arm, hath gotten Himself the victory."

Reflections like these arise from a survey of the context.

VOL. X.-FIFTH SERIES.

The two

3 L

prophets, named in the first sentence above, removed while young to the land of their fathers, being destined for important service there. Zerubbabel already appears on the scene; born, as his name would imply, in the city of the Euphrates; and registered in David's house, (1 Chron. iii.,) as if to recall the ancient oracle, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be." (Gen. xlix. 10.) When, according to the sure word which inspiration had spoken two hundred years before, great Cyrus proclaimed the captives free, thousands of these went, under the lead of Zerubbabel, to their ancestral home; and, as we learn from Ezra, the foundation of the second temple was very promptly laid. That was a festal day, harmonious with trumpet and cymbal, and with the responsive chantings of priests and Levites, who sang unto the Lord, "for He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever," while consenting crowds shouted for joy.

But the work, so eagerly begun, was soon interrupted. Samaritans, and other envious observers, harassed the builders with most vexatious opposition. More than twice seven years rolled away; and, with the loss of favouring occasions, a newborn and precarious zeal is sure to languish. In the lapse of unimproved time, it became needful to rouse the people from their slumber. And now the word of the Lord came to Haggai," Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and the house of the Lord lie waste?" Zechariah, also, was commissioned to set forth the vanity of man, and the brevity of life's golden season, in contrast to statutes which know no change: "Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever!" The former goes on to show how public calamities are already aveng ing the guilt of supineness; the latter, to relieve the picture with lights of encouragement, notwithstanding all that is adverse; while both announce the coming of the incarnate Christ of God, "the Desire of all nations," whose visits will confer on the latter temple an excelling glory.

From such sources of appeal, what exhortations would those inspired preachers draw! And what stings of sympathy, of patriotism, of felt responsibility, would begin to quicken the lukewarm hearers! One of the points, always deeply affecting to a frail and dying race, bears with special force on our present engagement. "Your fathers, where are they?" Prophets and apostles,-founders of our churches, schools, colleges, hospitals, Missionary and Bible Societies," do they live for ever?" Let a glance at their graves and marbles remind us that there is much to be done in the service of Christ, and of our fellowmen, that can be done only in this transitory scene. The glorified in heaven cannot labour as we can, and as our lowly Master did, on earth. Now, only now, is the priceless opportunity. The "flower of time" (as Baxter calls it) quickly fades; and, should it escape the keen wind and the sultry ray, it is cut down at nightfall by an inexorable mower. Eternity is near. This daydream will be soon dissolved. "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and

we shall be changed...... Therefore, my beloved brethren," (so does St. Paul enforce his practical teaching,) "be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."

All that has been said belongs to what may be, perhaps, allowably termed the history of the text. In the paragraph from which it is taken, (verses 1-5,) we have the detail of a most instructive vision. The imagery of the prophets is to be studied; and, if some of their pages are dark, (dark, however, only to our purblind orbs, and that with a glory too dazzling,) it is easy to draw from each the ethical and the theological truth which it is designed to reveal. If it be admitted that everything conveyed in symbol is also conveyed in plain and unfigured scripture, it will by no means follow that the former is to be passed by. There are reasons, worthy the wisdom of God, and not wholly undiscoverable to us, for the use of both modes. The mystical is fitted, not merely to please the fancy, but now to rivet the attention, then to awaken a salutary awe, and not unfrequently to disclose analogies of truth which have long lain hidden under the veil of earthly things. Nature, for the most part silent, becomes vocal, like the statue on the western bank of the Nile, when touched by the light of heaven. But, in dealing with texts of the allegorical kind, let us take a lesson from the angel-interpreter who talks with Zechariah. There is the "candlestick," or chandelier, "all of gold." There are the "seven lamps," and the "seven pipes" to couvey oil to them from the "bowl," or receiver. Finally, there are the "two olive-trees," one on each side, whence the bowl is supplied, and the lamps are fed. Now, it is not for us to deny that there is meaning in the gold, and in the sevenfold light, if not also in the form and ornamentation of the candlestick. important is it to mark, for our learning, that the candlestick, though made of the richest metal, and beautified with the utmost artistic skill, has not a spark of its own. It can but hold forth the light which it is made to bear. Nor can the flame be kept burning, even for one moment, without the oil. Hence the main part of the picture is found in the olives which yield their fatness for this end. Yet, in illustrating the import of these, the angel does not pursue the figure to anything like the minuteness affected by some who are greatly his inferiors in exegesis. He is not resolved, like our ingenious preachers, to hang on every twig a weighty significance; nor does he find a distinct moral in the stock, another in the branches, and a third in the foliage. At the sixth verse he shows that the whole is intended to convey one great lesson. As God in nature supplies the pure olive-oil that feeds the lamps, so He confers on His ministers-as, for example, in the present instance, on the prince of His people, and on the high-priest-an unction of power and grace. Those trees He enriches, by dews, and rains, and the summer heat, which causes the sap to rise; and the two

Still more

sons of

(verse 14,) who "stand by" their great Master, "hearkening to the voice of His word," and ready to "do His pleasure," shall never want those succours of the almighty Spirit which make the feeble like David, and the house of David like the angel of the Lord. Here is

the fountain of all strength, and of all effectual blessing. The Holy Ghost, who gave energy to those who took part in rebuilding the temple and re-instituting the Jewish state, is still, and in every age, the Helper of the helpless, "the Lord and Giver of" all true "life;"-to whom, with the Father, and the Son, be glory for ever! Amen.

When Zechariah seeks to know more about the olive-trees, it is remarkable that he has to ask twice; and then he learns, simply, that they are the Lord's anointed servants. If the precise application of such a text is obscure, it may be so by design, that all who are engaged in holy work may take the comfort it brings. The prophet-pupil has already heard the discourse of the angel, and that is enough. "Moreover, the word of the Lord" has come to him, "saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zech. iv. 8-10.) In the builder's hand is the plummet; and he is watched, guided, animated, by "the eyes of the Lord," which, with sevenfold glance, "run to and fro through the whole earth."

In the just esteem of the catholic church, this vision and its interpretation are recorded for the learning of mankind at large. The text may be taken, first, as describing our own times; secondly, as sug gesting the sentiments with which the condition of the church ought to be regarded; and, thirdly, as fitted to impress us with certain practical lessons, at all times seasonable, and in a high degree pertinent to this era of our Foreign Missionary Society.

I. Let no one wonder that we continue to tell of "the day of small things.' For, though it is the wont to say much of what has been done, we ought to look far beyond that horizon. True, that Christianity spread and prevailed, eighteen hundred years ago, by the preaching of apostles. True, that three centuries did not pass ere the master of legions confessed its mild sway. True, that it has survived the "ten persecutions," of which church-historians speak, and ten thousand assaults more, from earth and hell. True, that it now claims to be the established religion of the most powerful and polished nations of the earth. True, that the present is a day of unexampled enterprise. Yet are there deep shadows which eclipse its light, and make us on it is a day of feebleness, and, to every eye but that of faith, one of discouragement. It is obvious to remark, in the first place, that the builders of the spiritual temple are, by comparison, few; in the second, that the opposition is strong, unwearied, and malignant; in the third, that, according to all common reckoning, the agency is utterly inade quate to so great a task.

1. Let the population of the globe be set down at a thousand millions.* From this sum deduct the Jewish element, amounting, at least, to fourteen millions; the Mohammedan, to one hundred and forty millions; the Heathen, to six hundred and forty-six millions.

* According to recent tables of Dieterici, who is at the head of the Statistical Department of Berlin, the amount far exceeds 1,200,000,000.