and feet and senses like ours of means and times and seasons like ours. Whatever HE would do with them, that is precisely the use to which we should put them. In using them thus, we would "walk after the Spirit." What a model! and what a life! to think and feel, to see and speak in the world, as the Holy Spirit would: - this would be the "life of God" this would be minding the things of the Spiritthis would be practically convincing the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." Surely neither body nor mind would be debased or injured by such a use; but rather, far rather, improved, purified, and ennobled.

Doing good means to produce good, or to increase the amount of good: and Christian usefulness is, to act kindly towards the world, to confer favors upon the world, and to labor for its best welfare. This was the destined course of the first-formed man, and this, is the business and life of redeemed and renewed man: this is pure and undefiled religion, which benefits others as well as ourselves.

1. The whole creation is an apparatus of means for doing good.

God made everything for use; and upon a survey of his works, he saw "all things very good" for the use to which he intended them. It is on the hypothesis that they were all intended for use, that we perceive in them evidences of wisdom, skill, and contrivance. In the midst of this apparatus of good, man was placed to be the minister of the world. All things were put under him, and he had dominion, control, and mastery over all for his use. All these things are as good for use now, as they were then. The light of the sun, the refreshing air, the fertility of the soil, and the influence of the elements, are as good for their uses now, as when the first man employed them. Our difficulty now is, not their use, but the rescuing them from abuse. The very fact, that they are liable to be perverted and abused, proves that they are still under the control of men, and that they are useful or injurious, according as they employ them. "I know," says Solomon, that their is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life;" which means that these things are not innately good of themselves, but good as they are means for man to do good with them.

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In all our attempts to do good, the means supplied by God never fails us; it is only in those, which are to be furnished by men, that we are disappointed. To the Christian, whose

spirit is stirred within him to do good, all things are ready for his use to him the sea rather unites, than separates, the various portions of the globe; the forests of a thousand hills are ready to furnish barks to convey him to the ends of the earth; the fibres of plants, to form his canvass; the gales of heaven, to swell his sails; and the mystic powers of the magnet, to direct his course. If there be failure, it is in the means to be supplied by the church -means by which she is to train and equip the Agent of Mercy for the conversion of the world.

2. All the powers of man are instruments for doing good. The students of Natural Theology have investigated, with much labor and skill, the doctrine of final causes, as evidenced in the works of nature. They have told us of the various and skilful adaptations, fitnesses, and uses of elements, gasses, and forces in the great apparatus of the world; shown us the design and use of every herb yielding seed, and every tree yielding fruit, and of every moving creature that hath life; and they have demonstrated the subserviency of all to man, the lord of creation. They have examined the structure of man himself, and have illustrated the purposes and designs of every bone and muscle, of every duct and vessel, of every nerve and sense in his body; they have explained the use of his mind and thoughts, of his emotions and passions, of his volitions and imaginations; and they have proved him to be a noble creature of the first order, so high in station as to marshal all things around his footstool for his use and service. There they stop. They tell us the use of everything for man, but they do not inform us of what use man himself is. Here revealed theology steps in, and claims him for the use of God, his Maker and Benefactor, to glorify him by doing good.

Every power conferred on man is given him for action. No power is given for enjoyment only. We have something to do, with every power with which we are endowed. Every power given to us is intended for doing good. We have no power conferred on us for the purpose of doing evil: we do evil, only by perverting the powers given us for doing good. The eye is intended for good, but envy and lust pervert it: the arms and hands are for good, but hatred and avarice pervert them. Every man has some power to be useful in doing good; either to contrive plans of benevolence, or to labor in their execution; either to encourage them by his influence, or to support them by his contributions; either to assist them

by his example, or to further them by his prayers. Every man is of value in proportion to the use to which he can be put, or to the good which he can do. Doing good, therefore, is the test by which to try the character of every man. We know that in the awards of the last day, "glory, honor, and peace," will be conferred, not on the man that is good, but on every man that worketh good."

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Jesus Christ went about doing good, and the good which he accomplished, in his short career, was immense. Yet the powers which he had, as instruments for doing good, were just such as we have· excepting, of course, his mediatorial fitness for atonement, and his miraculous endowments. When he went about doing good, he was in the likeness of sinful flesh his body having the same infirmities as ours, his feet as liable to weariness as ours, his heart as liable to be distressed as ours, his sense of hunger and thirst as enfeebling as ours, his feelings under opposition, reproach, and pain, as keen as ours, his mind developed and growing by discipline like ours and yet what large amount of good did he achieve with such powers as we have? Why cannot we employ our bodies and minds like him? He came to be our example, and to demonstrate, practically, the possibility of pleasing God, and of benefiting the world by our life. To make an atonement for sin, and to work his miracles, are impossible to us; not so his humility, his love, his patience, his devotedness to God, his prayerfulness, his concern for souls, his readiness to serve, his contempt of the world, and his zeal for the Divine glory. Christ exemplified all these, and more than these, with such powers as we have for usefulness in our day. The same powers which we employ in amassing wealth, in attaining rank, or procuring fame, He employed in doing good. Were we to employ our present powers as he did, we would do good as he did, and we would "walk, even as he walked," in labor and usefulness.

3. The revolutions of Providence are times and seasons for doing good.

The history of Divine Providence, and the evident progressiveness of Divine dispensations, show that God has a work peculiar to every age, and to every generation, of the world. Every age has its particular work, and its defined and specific course of usefulness for God. Paul remarks of David, that "he served his own generation by the will of God." This is the work and employment of every good man. The

work of our own generation is eminently ours. The work of Noah, of Abraham, of Moses, of David, of Ezra, and of the Jewish church, in their respective generations, is not ours. What was, in their generation, obedience and piety, would, if done in ours, be will-worship and rebellion. It would be irreligious in our generation to build an ark, or erect a tabernacle. John the Baptist, the apostles, the martyrs, the Reformers and Puritans had a work to accomplish, peculiar to their ages, while the same principles of usefulness ran through all. It greatly concerns every Christian to attend to the work of God in his own generation. This is the reason why he was born in his particular generation, and not in another. "Who knoweth," says Mordecai to Esther, "whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" As Esther was born for the work of her age, so every good man is born for the work of his generation. Man is "to do good in his life." The scriptures do not recognize the principle, that we are to do the work of future generations, by testamentary bequests of property. In a thousand instances, endowments have proved a judicial leprosy to the health and the efficiency of our churches. Nevertheless, where compunction is felt for having been unfaithful in the use of the mammon of unrighteousness, it is right for a man to do all the good he can with his property; but this should not be looked forward to as an act of contrivance and calculation, but decided upon only as a solemn deed of contrition for the sin of covetousness. Man ought to honor the Lord with his substance, and to honor him bountifully, but it ought to be in his lifetime, day by day in his generation, according to the providential openings and facilities which he has for usefulness; for the scriptures direct and encourage us to bequeath nothing to posterity, but the example and weight of holy character.

This is the work which is marked out as being most directly in subserviency to the designs of God. When it was the design of God to preserve much people in Egypt, Joseph worked accordingly; when it was to give them the land of Canaan, Moses and Joshua worked accordingly; when it was to build the temple, David and Solomon did their work; and when it was to restore the captives from Babylon, Ezra and Nehemiah were at their post. Thus, when in our age it is the design of God to diffuse saving knowledge, and call the nations to the faith of Christ, we should be active in this work. God is signally pleased with those who do the work of their

day. He gives a sweet odor to their name, and their memory is blessed. They live after death, and live as usefully as before their death. BRAINERD has been dead about a hundred years, but he still lives and speaks, even in the church below. His life and character and influence are, at this moment, and will be for years to come, as really useful as if he lived and moved amongst us. In the work of his generation, none was greater than John the Baptist; and in the work of his day none was greater than David Brainerd. God always distinguishes the men who devote themselves to the work of their age; and they who neglect this work are exposed to awful dangers and severe judgments. Meroz was cursed, because it came not to the help of the Lord in the work of its day. King Saul was abandoned, because he neglected the conquest of the Amalekites, which was the work of his age; but instead of doing that, he proceeded to the work of sacrificing, which God had, not allotted him. Even the gentlest punishment which God inflicts on those who neglect or oppose this work is, that he lays them aside before they die, as vessels of no service, or instruments of no use.

To ascertain the work of your time and age, search the predictions and promises of the scripture, and mark the particular works which are about to be accomplished, such as the conversion of the heathen, the fall of anti-christ, the spread of truth and liberty, the diffusion of peace and love: mark the designs of Providence in the formation of your mind, in your relations in life, and the bounds of your habitation: observe the work to which you are most prompted when you are most serious in devotion; the work in which you find most communion with God; the work to which the ungodly and profane are most opposed; the work to which the most unprejudiced and unbigoted wish success; and the work, the execution of which will give you comfort in death:- whatever work that be, have your share in the accomplishment of it, and "do it with all your might." The present is an age of benevolent activity, and the church, or the Christian, that is not active, is under deserved reproach.

4. The whole instructions of the scriptures are rules for doing good.

For this all scripture is profitable. The Bible is the only book that can form and produce an entire and perfect good man: other books may produce some of the virtues, but this is the only book that produces them all, and thoroughly furnishes