A SERMON

IN BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL SCHOOLS CONNECTED WITH THE CHURCH.

2 Cor. iii. 6. The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.

Ir is very evident from the whole of the chapter from which our text is taken, that St. Paul meant by the letter, the law as delivered by Moses, and by the Spirit, the Holy Ghost given to the apostles to enable them to preach the gospel, and to give full proofs of their ministry. "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life;' or in other words, he whose conduct is regulated only by the letter, or rather the law, hath no life in him, "for the letter killeth;" but he whose heart is influenced by the Gospel is quickened, "for the Spirit giveth life." That this is a faithful interpretation, may be proved by the whole tenor of revelation. To a few passages of Scripture we shall however allude. St. Paul says, in his Epistle to the Romans," By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." St. John says, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles, neither can they receive life from the law, but from the Spirit. And we know that the fruits of the Spirit are the exercise of the christian virtues, and that the greatest virtue is charity, not in its confined and limited meaning, but in its enlarged and philanthropic sense. And thus, as St. Paul expressly tells us, it surpasses even faith and hope. Occasions frequently occur, when the fruits of the Spirit are especially demanded of men; and these occasions testify the effect that the gospel has had upon the hearts of those who have heard it faithfully delivered. As for instance, this day we appear before you in behalf of the National Schools connected with this church, and require of you the fruits of the Spirit, or rather to evidence the effect that the Gospel has had upon your hearts. And we feel certain that he will prove to be the most charitable, upon whose heart and soul the Gospel has had the greatest power.

Now we purpose in this discourse to make a rapid sketch of the most important revelations with which God has favoured his people, and to show the effect which that revelation has had upon them. By so doing we trust to leave that impression upon your hearts, that the power of the Gospel shall be manifested by your bounteously giving in behalf of the charity for which I stand the humble, though zealous pleader.

man.

The subject to which we have to solicit your attention is of the most important character. It will include the carnal and spiritual state of It will exhibit him as fallen in Adam, and redeemed in Christ; and it will emphatically show what man is by nature, and what by grace; what he was under the law, and what he is now under the Gospel-what under the letter, and what under the Spirit. In short, it will be seen that "the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."

Man, originally, was created in purity, and consequently in happiness; he had the image of the Deity stamped upon him-he was created perfect, but alas! with the will to fall, the exercise of which incurred the

Preached at West Hackney on Sunday, Nov. 4, 1838. By the Rev. E Thompson, M.A. Rector of Keyworth, Notts: and officiating Minister of Brunswick Chapel, St. Mary-le-Bone. 5 A

VOL. XX. NO. XII.

penalty of sin, which was handed down to his posterity. The immediate consequence was Adam's ejection from paradise; and had not the Saviour of the world interceded, might have been instant death;-by that intercession God promised, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent, or in other words, that from the woman he would raise a great conqueror, who would trample upon sin, and crush the head of the serpent. This was the first prophecy. Similar prophecies were repeated, and types were instituted. Although man had sinned, although he had forfeited the blessings of heaven, and tainted the purity of God, still the Almighty withheld not his mercy. He continued to spread around him a succession of those objects which were created and preserved for his use. The sun continued to emit his might, the moon her placid sweetness, and the stars to shed their brilliancy over the beauties and grandeur of creation. The earth continued to produce its fruit, though it required labour from man to cultivate it. The works of creation were progressive, every thing for the benefit of man was ushered into existence by the mercy and compassion of Heaven. But sin was making its appalling ravages. Sin was making rapid strides, and disorganizing man's original power and man's superior strength. The murdered corpse of the son was laid before the eyes of the iniquitous father, as the first-fruits of his disobedience. Death was introduced to him as the penalty of sin, and that death, in its most hideous form, rested upon one who had descended from her upon whom Adam had poured out the inmost and the strongest affections of his soul. There lay Abel before the terrified eye of his disconsolate father, as an evidence of God's anger, and as the punishment of his sin. The introduction of evil was by the transgression of Adam, and that transgression was the cause of death. "In the day thou eatest thereof," said God, "thou shalt surely die:" words, however, that do not convey instant death, for Adam did not instantly die when he disobeyed his Maker, but only became subject to death, the first victim of which was his own son. But see how the mercy of God was manifested towards a rebellious creature. Sacrifices were instituted, by which sin might be expiated; the sins of the people were dismissed into the wilderness upon the head of the scape-goat; the lamb was slain, which was a type of Jesus Christ, to atone for sin; prophets arose to tell the coming of the Messiah; thus Abraham saw the day of Christ and was glad. Prophecies and types disclosed to him that an atonement for sin would be made under a scheme, divine as it was universal. No atonement for sin without a sacrifice could be made. God had to preserve his justice as well as to manifest his mercy. And how divinely was the plan carried into execution! Simple though it was, no one but Jehovah could have formed it. In the fulness of time God sent forth his Son in the form of man as the great sacrifice as the Mediator-as the Advocate, and as the propitiation for sin. We pass by the early days of our blessed Lord to the time when he began the works of his omnipotence. The very nature of his birth, and many other circumstances connected with his early years, proved him God. But the evidence was not in those years; his divinity was manifested during his ministry by the effect that his power produced. It was at the fulfilment of the prophecies that related to Jesus that this divine personage appeared. It was when iniquity was at its full that the Saviour came from heaven to teach, to heal, and to

save. But what were the immediate effects? the state of the world was at the lowest ebb. Men were dead in trespasses and sins. Temples were built, but they were dedicated to unknown gods. There was a blight resting upon the choicest works of Heaven. There was a cloud that overshadowed the original purity of creation. The first light of heaven was darkened by a density that originated from sin. The whole universe was groaning under the penalty of Adam's disobedience. Man stood forth in the world as the great sufferer. There he was, with a body hastening by disease, misery, and death, to the dust out of which he was taken. There he was, without power to avoid the penalty, witnessing the earth close over the dearest of his kindred, and with the knowledge that he himself must descend into the same humiliating abode. There he was, degraded in intellect, dejected in mind, and with the righteous indignation of Heaven upon his soul. There he was, not in his original grandeur-not with the pure stamp of Deity upon him—not with the celestial joys of paradise around him, but living in the foul thraldom of sin. There he was, like the wreck of a once mighty vessel, driven to and fro by the unpropitious winds and the lashings of the tempest; or like the ruins of some magnificent building, which had received the heavings of the earthquake, or the violent blast of the storm. But the fragments were complete; although shattered and injured, palpable traces of the Divine hand were to be seen; the wreck was not so great, but that it could be restored-the fragments collected. But the same Divine hand that originally made them could alone restore them. Just at the time when danger was at its height, when sin was violently raging, and man required assistance the most, did the Son of God appear in the world, to conquer the triple band, and restore man to the favour of Heaven. It was when man was on the verge of destruction, that Christ stood by the precipice to save. It was when the earth yearned the most for its kindred earth, that Jesus drew the sting of death, and obtained the complete victory over the grave.

But the most interesting part is yet to be told, viz. that which relates to the effect of the display of Christ's power, which proved him God. The miracles that he performed clearly manifested that a new dispensation was at hand; that men were to be guided by the Gospel, though Jesus came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil-to carry out the scheme that had God the Father for its author, and God the Son to accomplish it. It was by his working that a spiritual change took place in a world, before dead in trespasses and sins. It was by the power of Jesus that the blind received their sight, the deaf heard, the lame walked, the paralytic took up his bed and departed. Yes! it was by the power of Jesus that multitudes were fed upon a few loaves and fishes, that the tempestuous billows suddenly turned into a serene and peaceful calm; yes! it was by the power of Jesus that the graves opened and restored to life the long slumbering captives. Oh! then was seen, perhaps, the venerable figure of some aged patriarch bursting again into life, or the beloved form of some favourite child, whose parents had committed it to the earth in sorrow and in tears, as the mighty God threw out manifestations of his omnipotence. Or perhaps were seen those persons, who had not been so long buried as to have destroyed all the memory and the affections of the living; there doubtless

was evidenced the greater effect wrought out by the Messenger of good tidings, as the wife embraced her once lost lord, or the fond mother her loving children, as she received them one after another from the jaws of death and the corruptions of the grave; or the children, as they witnessed their aged sires springing into life, under the power and the authority of the great Eternal. Oh! we require a widow, who has just received back her only son, the only fond image of her husband, to tell the joy that Jesus of Nazareth brought to the disconsolate; or a father receiving back to his bosom his little favourite daughter, who had, in imagination, conceived her "even now dead;" or a Lazarus who has thrown off the folds and the wrappings of the grave, to stand among us to show the effect of the power of the Son of God. It was that power that gave life to the dead. It was that power that evidenced Divinity, and brought life and immortality to light. It was that power that added converts to the Lord, and imparted a spiritual existence to those who believed. It was that power that threw down the strongholds of heathenism, and built up the eternal truths of Jehovah. It was that power that destroyed the rude altars and the graven images, and erected the christian temples under whose roofs God has promised to be among his faithful children, as they send up the voice, in triumph, to his eternal abode. In short, it was that power which, when Jesus had ascended in majesty to heaven, after having atoned for sin, sent the Holy Ghost, the Spirit, the Comforter, to prevent and cooperate with man as he draws onwards to eternity. What then were the effects of the gospel and the manifestations of the Spirit? Before Jesus had ascended to his Father, he had chosen twelve men, and that the miracle might be the greater, men who were ignorant of their own language, to propagate the gospel throughout every land and every clime. One, however, betrayed the Son of Man, and suffered by his own hand for the crime. On the election of another, the Holy Spirit was sent in a bodily shape, in the form of cloven tongues, like as of fire, which gave an extraordinary power to these men of God to go forth and give full proofs of their divine commission. But what could these, to all appearance solitary men effect? The government of their country was against them, yea, the whole world rose to oppose the establishment of a new religion, and to thwart the propagation of the gospel. These twelve men had to contend against the prevailing habits and the opinions of the people. They had to pronounce all religions but their own as vain, and as idle tales. They had to expose themselves to the greatest hardships and dangers-to meet the tyranny of emperors and the menaces of the rabble. They went not, however, forth in their own strength, but had that extraordinary strength from above that enabled them to endure the cruelty and the tyranny of the world. Mighty was the effect that followed their great and arduous undertaking! Their object was to christianize the world—to plant the cross of Christ crucified on every land they entered-to convert nations and empires, and to throw open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Oh! who could have accomplished this mighty and dangerous undertaking, but men who had been divinely assisted and sustained! Upon their working, the effect naturally followed. Thousands were added to the Church of God in a single day; the strongholds of heathenism gave way before the preaching of Christ. The hard-hearted Felix, as he listened to the words