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recurrence of the same idea, though generally expressed in different language, and with some new speciality, either in its bearing or in its illustration. And he further knows, that the habit of expatiating on one topic may be indulged to such a length, as to satiate the reader, and that, to a degree, far beyond the limits of his forbearance.

And yet, if a writer be conscious that, to gain a reception for his favorite doctrine, he must combat with certain elements of opposition, in the taste, or the pride, or the indolence, of those whom he is addressing, this will only serve to make him the more importunate, and so to betray him still farther into the fault of redundancy. If the lesson he is urging be of an intellectual character, he will labour to bring it home, as nearly as possible, to the understanding. If it be a moral lesson, he will labour to bring it home, as nearly as possible, to the heart. It is difficult, and it were hard to say in how far it would be right, to restrain this propensity in the pulpit, where the high matters of salvation are addressed to a multitude of individuals, who bring before the minister every possible variety of taste and of capacity; and it it no less difficult, when the compositions of the pulpit are transferred to the press, to detach from them a peculiarity by which their whole texture may be pervaded, and thus to free them from what may be counted by many to be the blemish of a very great and characteristic deformity. There is, however, a difference between such truths as are merely of a speculative nature, and such as are allied with practice and moral feeling; and much ought to be conceded to this difference. With the former, all repetition may often be superfluous; with the latter, it may just be by earnest repetition, that their influence comes to be thoroughly established over the mind of an inquirer. And, if so much as one individual be gained over in this way to the cause of righteousness, he is untrue to the spirit and to the obligations of his office, who would not, for the sake of this one, willingly hazard all the rewards, and all the honours of literary estimation.

And, if there be one truth which, more than another, should be habitually presented to the notice, and proposed to the conviction of fallen creatures, it is the humbling truth of their own depravity. This is a truth which may be recognized and read in every exhibition of unrenewed nature; but it often lurks under a specious disguise, and it is surely of the utmost practical importance to unveil and elicit a principle, which, when admitted into the heart, may be considered as the great basis of a sinner's religion.

SERMON I.

The Necessity of the Spirit to give Effect to the Preaching of the Gospel.

"And my speech, and my preaching, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God."-1 Corinthians, ii. 4, 5.

PAUL, in his second epistle to the Corinthians has expressed himself to the same effect as in the text, in the following words: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit.”

In both these passages, the Apostle points to a speciality in the work of a Christian teacher, a something essential to its success, and, which is not essential to the proficiency of scholars in the ordinary branches of education,--an influence that is beyond

the reach of human power and human wisdom; and to obtain which, immediate recourse must be had, in the way of prayer and dependence, to the power of God. Without attempting a full exposition of these different verses, we shall, first, endeavour to direct your attention to that part of the work of a Christian teacher, which it has in common with any other kind of education; and, secondly, offer a few remarks on the speciality that is adverted to in the text.

I. And here it must be admitted, that even in the ordinary branches of human learning, the success of the teacher, on the

one hand, and the proficiency of the scho- | the business of education, and conspires to lars on the other, are still dependent on the the result of an accomplished and a wellwill of God. It is true, that in this case, informed scholar, is in the hand of the Deity, we are not so ready to feel our depend- and he will pray for the continuation of ence. God is apt to be overlooked in all these elements, and while science is raising those cases where he acts with uniformity. her wondrous monuments, and drawing the Wherever we see, what we call, the opera- admiration of the world after her, it retion of a law of nature, we are apt to shut mains to be seen, on the day of the revelaour eyes against the operation of his hand, tion of hidden things, whether the prayers and faith in the constancy of this law, is of the humble and derided Christian, for a sure to beget, in the mind, a sentiment of blessing on those to whom he has confided independence on the power and will of the the object of his tenderness, have not susDeity. Now, in the matters of human edu-tained the vigour and brilliancy of those cation, God acts with uniformity. Let there very talents on which the world is lavishing be zeal and ability on the part of the teacher, the idolatry of her praise. and an ordinary degree of aptitude on the Let us now conceive the very ablest of part of the taught, and the result of their these teachers, to bring all his powers and vigorous and well sustained co-operation all his accomplishments, to bear on the submay in general be counted upon. Let the ject of Christianity. Has he skill in the parent, who witnesses his son's capacity, languages? The very same process by and his generous ambition for improvement, which he gets at the meaning of any ancient send him to a well qualified instructor, and author, carries him to a fair and faithful renhe will be filled with the hopeful sentiment dering of the scriptures of the Old and New of his future eminence, without any refer- Testament. Has he a mind enlightened ence to God whatever, without so much as and exercised on questions of erudition? ever thinking of his purpose or of his agency The very same principles which qualify in the matter, or its once occurring to him him to decide on the genuineness of any to make the proficiency of his son the sub-old publication, enable him to demonstrate ject of prayer. This is the way in which the genuineness of the Bible, and how fully nature, by the constancy of her operations, sustained it is on the evidence of history. is made to usurp the place of God: and it Has he that sagacity and comprehension of goes far to spread, and to establish the de- talent, by which he can seize on the leading lusion, when we attend to the obvious fact, principles which run through the writings that a man of the most splendid genius may of some eminent philosopher? This very exbedestitute of piety; that he may fill the office ercise may be gone through on the writings of an instructor with the greatest talent and of Inspiration; and the man, who, with the success, and yet be without reverence for works of Aristotle before him can present the God, and practically disown him; and that world with the best system or summary of thousands of our youth may issue every year his principles, might transfer these very powwarm from the schools of Philosophy, stored ers to the works of the Apostles and Evanwith all her lessons, and adorned with all her gelists, and present the world with a just accomplishments, and yet be utter strangers and interesting survey of the doctrines of to the power of godliness, and be filled with our faith. And thus it is, that the man who an utter distaste and antipathy for its name. might stand the highest of his fellows in All this helps on the practical conviction, the field of ordinary scholarship, might turn that common education is a business, with his entire mind to the field of Christianity; which prayer and the exercise of depend- and, by the very same kind of talent, which ence on God, have no concern. It is true would have made him the most eminent of that a Christian parent will see through the all the philosophers, he might come to be vanity of this delusion. Instructed to make counted the most eminent of all the theolohis requests known unto God in all things, gians; and he who could have reared to his he will not depose him from the supremacy fame some monument of literary genius, of his power and of his government over might now, by the labours of his midnight this one thing, he will commit to God the oil, rear some beauteous and consistent fabric progress of his son in every one branch of of orthodoxy, strengthened, in all its parts, education he may put him to,-and, know-by one unbroken chain of reasoning, and ing that the talent of every teacher, and the recommended throughout by the powers of continuance of his zeal, and his powers of a persuasive and captivating eloquence. communication, and his faculty of interestSo much for the talents which a Christian ing the attention of his pupils,-that all teacher may employ, in common with other these are the gifts of God, and may be with- teachers, and even though they did make drawn by him at pleasure, he will not suf- up all the qualifications necessary for his fer the regular march and movement of office, there would still be a call, as we said what is visible or created to cast him out of before, for the exercise of dependence upon his dependence on the Creator. He will God. Well do we know, that both he and see that every one element which enters into his hearers would be apt to put their faith

in the uniformity of nature; and forgetting | give you a clear view of what that is which that it is the inspiration of the Almighty constitutes a speciality in the work of a which giveth and preserveth the understand-Christian teacher. And to carry you at ing of all his creatures, might be tempted to once by a few plain instances to the matter repose that confidence in man, which dis- we are aiming to impress upon you, let us places God from the sovereignty that belongs suppose a man to take up his Bible, and to him. But what we wish to prepare you with the same powers of attention and un for, by the preceding observations, is, that derstanding which enable him to compreyou may understand the altogether peculiar hend the subject of any other book, there call, that there is for dependence on God in is much in this book also which he will be the case of a Christian teacher. We have made able to perceive and to talk of intelligently. a short enumeration of those talents which Thus, for example, he may come, by the a teacher of Christianity might possess, in mere exercise of his ordinary powers, to common with other teachers; but it is for understand that it is the Holy Spirit which the purpose of proving that he might pos- taketh of the things of Christ and showeth sess them all, and heightened to such a de- them to the mind of man. But is not his gree, if you will, as would have made him understanding of this truth, as it is put illustrious on any other field, and yet be ut-down in the plain language of the New terly destitute of powers for acquiring him- Testament, a very different thing from the self, or of experience for teaching others, Holy Spirit actually taking of these things that knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ and showing them unto him? Again, he will which is life everlasting. be able to say, and to annex a plain meaning to what he says, that man is rescued from his natural darkness about the things of God, by God who created the light out of darkness shining in his heart, and giving him the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. But is not his saying this, and understanding this, by taking up these words in the same obvious way in which any man of plain and honest understanding would do, a very different thing from God actually putting forth his creative energy upon him, and actually shining upon his heart, and giving him that light and that knowledge which are ex

With the many brilliant and imposing things which he may have, there is one thing which he may not have, and the want of that one thing may form an invincible barrier to his usefulness in the vineyard of Christ. If, conscious that he wants it, he seeks to obtain from God the sufficiency which is not in himself, then he is in a likely way of being put in possession of that power, which alone is mighty to the pulling down of strong holds. But if he, on the one hand, proudly conceiving the sufficiency to be in himself, enters with aspiring confidence into the field of argument, and think that he is to carry all before him, by a series of invin-pressed in the passage here alluded to? cible demonstration; or, if his people, on the other hand, ever ready to be set in motion by the idle impulse of novelty, or to be seduced by the glare of human accomplishments, come in trooping multitudes around him, and hang on the eloquence of his lips, or the wisdom of his able and profound understanding, a more unchristian attitude cannot be conceived, nor shall we venture to compute the weekly accumulation of guilt which may come upon the parties, when such a business as this is going on. How little must the presence of God be felt in that place where the high functions of the pulpit are degraded into a stipulated exchange of entertainment on the one side, and of admiration on the other; and surely it were a sight to make angels weep when a weak and vapouring mortal, surrounded by his fellow sinners, and hastening to the grave and the judgment along with them, finds it a dearer object to his bosom, to regale his hearers by the exhibition of himself, than to do in plain earnest the work of his Master, and urge on the business of repentance and of faith by the impressive simplicities of the Gospel.

II. This brings us to the second head of discourse, under which we shall attempt to

Again, by the very same exercise wherewith he renders the sentence of an old author into his own language, and perceives the meaning of that sentence, will he annex a meaning to the following sentence of the Bible-" the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." By the mere dint of that shrewdness and sagacity with which nature has endowed him, he will perceive a meaning here which you will readily acknowledge could not be perceived by a man in a state of idiotism. In the case of the idiot, there is a complete barrier against his ever acquiring that conception of the meaning of this passage, which is quite competent to a man of a strong and accomplished understanding. For the sake of illustration, we may conceive this poor outcast from the common light of humanity, in some unaccountable fit of attention, listening to the sound of these words, and making some strenuous but abortive attempts to arrive at the same comprehension of them with a man whose reason is entire. But he cannot shake off the fetters which the hand of nature has laid upon his understanding;

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ions. How natural to think that the same powers and habits of investigation which carried him to so respectable a height in the natural sciences will enable him to clear his way through all the darkness of theology. It is well that he is seeking,-for if he persevere and be in earnest, he will obtain an interest in the promise, and will at length find;-but not till he find, in the progress of those inquiries on which he en tered with so much alacrity, and prosecuted with so much confidence, that there is a barrier between him and the spiritual dis

of philosophy cannot scale,-not till he find, that he must cast down his lofty imaginations, and put the pride of all his powers and his pretensions away from him,-not till he find, that, divested of those fancies which deluded his heart into a feeling of its own sufficiency, he must become like a little child, or one of those babes to whom God reveals the things which he hides from the wise and from the prudent,—not till he find, that the attitude of self-dependence must be broken down, and he be brought to acknowledge that the light he is aspiring after, is not created by himself, but must be made to shine upon him at the pleasure of another, not in short, till, humbled by the mortifying experience that many a simple cottager who reads his Bible and loves his Saviour has got before him, he puts himself on a level with the most illiterate of them all, and prays that light and truth may beam on his darkened understanding from the sanctuary of God.

and he goes back again to the dimness and delirium of his unhappy situation; and his mind locks itself up in the prison-hold of its confined and darkened faculties; and if, in his mysterious state of existence, he formed any conception whatever of the words now uttered in your hearing, we may rest assured that it stands distinguished by a wide and impassable chasm, from the conception of him, who has all the common powers and perceptions of the species. Now, we would ask what kind of conception is that which a man of entire faculties may form? Only grant us the unde-cernment of his Bible, which all the powers niable truth, that he may understand how he cannot discern the things of the Spirit, unless the Spirit reveal them to him; and yet with this understanding, he may not be one of those in behalf of whom the Spirit hath actually interposed with his peculiar office of revelation; and then you bring into view another barrier, no less insurmountable than that which fixes an immutable distinction between the conceptions of an idiot and of a man of sense, even that wonderful barrier which separates the natural from the spiritual man. You can conceive him struggling with every power which nature has given him to work his way through this barrier. You can conceive him vainly attempting, by some energies of his own, to force an entrance into that field of light where every object of faith has the bright colouring of reality thrown over it, where he can command a clear view of the things of eternity,-where spiritual truth comes home with effect upon his every feeling and his every conviction,- We read of the letter, and we read also where he can expatiate at freedom over a of the spirit, of the New Testament. It scene of manifestation, which the world would require a volume, rather than a sinknoweth not, and breathe such a peace, gle paragraph of a single sermon, to draw and such a joy, and such a holiness, and the line between the one and the other. such a superiority to time, and such a de-But you will readily acknowledge that there votedness of all his affections to the things are many things of this book which a man, which are above, as, no man of the highest though untaught by the Spirit of God, may natural wisdom can ever reach with all his be made to know. One of the simplest inattention to the Bible, and all the efforts of stances is, he may learn the number of his sagacity, however painful, to unravel, chapters in every book, and the number of and to compare and to comprehend its pas-verses in every chapter. But is this all? sages. And it is indeed a deeply interest-No,-for by the natural exercise of his meing object to see a man of powerful under- mory he may be able to master all its hisstanding thus visited with an earnest desire torical information. And is this all? No, after the light of the gospel, and toiling at for by the natural exercise of his judgment the entrance with all the energies which he may compare scripture with scripture,— belong to him,-pressing into the service he may learn what its doctrines are,-he all the resources of argument and philoso- may demonstrate the orthodoxy of every phy-mustering to the high enterprise, his one article in our national confession,-he attention, and his conception, and his rea- may rank among the ablest and most judison, and his imagination, and the whole cious of the commentators, he may read, host of his other faculties, on which science and with understanding, too, many a ponhas conferred her imposing, names, and laid derous volume, he may store himself with before us in such a pompous catalogue, as the learning of many generations, he may might tempt us to believe, that man, by one be familiar with all the systems, and have mighty grasp of his creative mind, can mingled with all the controversies,—and make all truth his own, and range at plea- yet, with a mind supporting as it does the sure over the wide variety of her domin-burden of the erudition of whole libraries,

the Spirit worketh. He does not tell us any thing that is out of the record; but all that is within it he sends home, with clearness and effect, upon the mind. He does not make us wise above that which is written; but he makes us wise, up to that which is written. When a telescope is directed to some distant landscape, it enables us to see what we could not otherwise have seen; but it does not enable us to see any thing which has not a real existence in the prospect before us. It does not present to the eye any delusive imagery,-neither is that a fanciful and fictitious scene which it throws open to our contemplation. The natural eye saw nothing but blue land stretching along the distant horizon. By the aid of the glass, there bursts upon it a charming variety of fi lds, and woods, and spires, and villages. Yet who would say that the glass added one feature to this assemblage? It discovers nothing to us which is not there;

he may have gotten to himself no other wisdom than the wisdom of the letter of the New Testament. The man's creed, with all its arranged and its well weighed articles, may be no better than the dry bones in the vision of Ezekiel, put together into a skeleton, and fastened with sinews, and covered with flesh and skin, and exhibiting to the eye of the spectators, the aspect, and the lineaments of a man, but without breath, and remaining so, till the Spirit of God breathed into it, and it lived. And it is in truth a sight of wonder, to behold a man who has carried his knowledge of scripture as far as the wisdom of man can carry it,-to see him blest with all the light which nature can give, but labouring under all the darkness which no power of nature can dispel,—to see this man of many accomplishments, who can bring his every power of demonstration to bear upon the Bible, carrying in his bosom a heart uncheered by any one of its consolations, un-nor, out of that portion of the book of namoved by the influence of any one of its truths, unshaken out of any one attachment to the world, and an utter stranger to those high resolves, and the power of those great and animating prospects, which shed a glory over the daily walk of a believer, and give to every one of his doings the high charac-enables the spiritual man to see what the ter of a candidate for eternity.

ture which we are employed in contemplating, does it bring into view a single character which is not really and previously inscribed upon it. And so of the Spirit. He does not add a single truth, or a single character, to the book of revelation. He

natural man cannot see; but the spectacle We are quite aware of the doubts which which he lays open is uniform and immuthis is calculated to excite in the mind of table. It is the word of God which is ever the hearer, nor is it possible within the the same; and he, whom the Spirit of God compass of an hour to stop and satisfy them has enabled to look to the Bible with a clear all; or to come to a timely conclusion, with- and affecting discernment, sees no phantom out leaving a number of unresolved ques-passing before him; but amid all the visiontions behind us.

ary extravagance with which he is charged, can, for every one article of his faith, and every one duty of his practice, make his triumphant appeal to the law and to the testimony.

There is one, however, which we cannot pass without observation. Does not this doctrine of a revelation of the Spirit, it may be asked, additional to the revelation of the word, open a door to the most unbridled We trust that this may be n made clear variety? May it not give a sanction to any by one example. We have not to travel conceptions of any visionary pretenders, out of the record for the purpose of having and clothe in all the authority of inspira- this truth made known to us,-that God is tion a set of doctrines not to be found within every where present. It meets the obserthe compass of the written record? Does vation of the natural man in his reading it not set aside the usefulness of the Bible, of the Bible; and he understands, or thinks and break in upon the unity and consis- he understands, the terms in which it is tency of revealed truth, by letting loose delivered; and he can speak of it with conupon the world a succession of fancies, as sistency; and he ranks it with the other endless and as variable as are the caprices attributes of God; and he gives it an avowed of the human imagination? All very true, and formal admission among the articles did we ever pretend that the office of the of his creed; and yet, with all this parade Spirit was to reveal any thing additional to of light and knowledge, he, upon the subthe information, whether in the way of doc-ject of the all-seeing and ever-present Deity, trine or of duty, which the Bible sets before us. But his office, as defined by the Bible itself, is not to make known to us any truths which are not contained in the Bible; but to make clear to our understandings the truths which are contained in it. He opens our understandings to understand the Scriptures. The word of God is called the sword of the Spirit. It is the instrument by which

labours under all the obstinacy of an habitual blindness. Carry him abroad, and you will find that the light which beams upon his senses, from the object of sight, completely overpowers that light which ought to beam upon his spirit, from this object of faith. He may occasionally think of it as he does of other things; but for every one practical purpose the thought aban

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