does he cast down human pride! Quoting the prophet Isaiah, he asks, in the verse immediately preceding the text: 66 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" And then, taking a comprehensive view of the state of the polished heathen world, he says of it: " For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." All the learning, philosophy, and eloquence of the proudest age of heathenism, failed to discover the knowledge of the true God! The Almighty, in his wisdom, left the intellect of man to struggle with the powers of darkness, and it totally failed in its attempts, and left the world a moral wilderness, covered with a thick mist of spiritual ignorance; and amidst the learned speculations of philosophers, and the beautiful theories of moralists, superstition

the most absurd, and vice the most flagrant, generally prevailed. It was then that God was pleased to produce a moral and spiritual revolution in the world, and that by the apparently insufficient instrument which the apostle mentions," by the foolishness of preaching."

It is to the nature and operations of this ordinance of God, the preaching of the gospel, that I wish particularly to draw your attention on this occasion, and I shall also endeavour to prove that the services of our church are highly suitable as an introduction to this important occupation of our time and thoughts. May the grace of God assist us, and may our minds be enlightened, and our hearts softened by divine truth!

I. IN CONSIDERING THE GENERAL SUBJECT OF THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD, WE MAY OBSERVE THAT IT IS A DIVINE ORDINANCE APPOINTED

FOR

I

THE

BENEFIT OF THE CHURCH OF

CHRIST UNTO THE END OF TIME.

The opinions of men upon this subject, have fluctuated according to the temper of the times in which they have lived, but no one who consults the Bible, and the history of the church, can deny that preaching is a divinely appointed ordinance, and has been the honoured means of producing astonishing effects upon the minds and morals of mankind. If, in the days of the Puritans, the preached word was exalted above the written word, and an undue importance attached to it, we may fear that there is in many persons of our own days a disposition to underrate the preaching of the gospel, and to forget that there is a divine blessing and power annexed to it. Some indeed, imagine that the peculiar efficacy attached to preaching was confined to the apostles' days, and that now as much benefit may be derived from reading in private as from hearing in public. This arises

from their looking merely at the instrument, and forgetting the hand that wields it. Doubtless there are many discourses in print, far superior to those which in our days are ordinarily preached, but then there is a divine blessing connected with the public ministry of the word, which is despised, and consequently lost, by those who do not attend and hear the gospel in faith. One passage from the word of God will be decisive upon this subject. Our Lord, when about to leave the world and go to the Father, in the very last words which he ever spake on earth, gave this commission to his disciples: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." And lest any should think that this command was confined to the apostles, he added: " and lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world;" clearly proving that the preaching of the gospel was appointed as a continual ordinance to the end of time, and that the suc

cessors of the apostles, the faithful ministers and stewards of God's mysteries, should have the special blessing of Christ resting upon them, and giving energy and efficacy to their labours.

66

That this commission has been executed, and this promise fulfilled in different ages of the church, may be easily shown. We all know that it was by the foolishness of preaching" that the apostles confounded the wisdom of heathen philosophy, and subdued the whole world to the obedience of Christ. Whereever they went they preached; and God's word never returned unto him void, it always accomplished his purposes in the salvation of multitudes. And subsequently to the times of the apostles, preaching was held in the highest estimation, both as affording instruction to believers, and the means of conversion to all. We might quote much from the writings of the early fathers of the Christian church, illustrative of the importance which they at