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the man who utters it, that converts the soul. Piety is of infinite importance to every soul of man; but a man who has no piety may yet do good. Neither the validity nor efficacy of ordinances depends upon the personal worthiness of the administrator. It would be very dangerous to teach that our acceptance in approaching God is rendered less certain by reason of the hypocrisy of him who comes to us in the name of the Lord. The apostles expressly denied that it was by their own power or holiness that they wrought miracles. If we must know the sincerity of any man who is our minister, we could never be sure that we had served God acceptably in any sacramental service. The efficacy and saving power of ordinances is from the Lord alone. And as worthy partakers of the Lord's Supper can not be hindered from receiving a blessing by the insincerity of the administrator, so neither can the unworthy receiver secure the blessing by the piety of his minister.

The history of Judas shows us how man will cling to false hopes. Hypocrites hold fast their delusive expectations with the utmost tenacity. There is no evidence that during years of hypocrisy Judas ever seriously doubted his own piety. There were many sure marks, indeed, against him; but what cares any hypocrite for evidence? His own blind confidence is to him more powerful than all the truths of God's word. Because he is determined to believe his state good, nothing will convince him to the contrary. If men thus self-confident forsake their profession, and openly apostatize, we need not be surprised. "It is impossible but that offenses will come." (Luke 17: 1.) "There must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." (1 Cor. 11: 19.) Open defections from truth and righteousness are no strange things. It has been so from the beginning. Jesus had his Judas. Peter must deal with Ananias, Sapphira and Simon Magus. Paul was in perils among false brethren, and Demas quite forsook him. We must expect those that are not of us to go out from us. If they were of us, they would no doubt continue with us. The wicked will do wickedly, though for a while they may seem to be righteous.

The case of Judas gives us the rule of admission to church-membership, and, so far as moral character is concerned, to church of fices. We may require a credible profession of piety. Infallible evidence of love to Christ is not attainable. A profession of piety, accompanied by such evidence as a consistent life affords, is as much as we may demand. Our Saviour knew Judas from the beginning to be a bad man, "a devil;" but his omniscience, not the overt acts of Judas, taught him thus, and so he received him into the church, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps. Our Lord judged of the members of his church, not by what he as God knew of their hearts, but by their credible profession. The Master never did evil that good might come. He practiced

on the true rule. Let us seek no other. However painful our fears respecting the real characters of men, we must respect a profession of piety, not contradicted by the life.

Thus, too, we have a full refutation of the objection made to a connection with the visible church, because there are wicked men in her communion. The apostles certainly knew that among them was one bad man; but they did not therefore renounce their portion among Christ's confessed friends. And Christ himself held intercourse with Judas just as if he were all he professed to be. So that if one certainly knew another to be an enemy of God, and yet could not prove it to the satisfaction of impartial church authorities, this should not debar him from the Lord's table. If dogs will sometimes get the children's bread, that is no reason why a table should not be spread for the children.

And in all our dealings with men, it is better to be sometimes imposed on, than to be of a suspicious temper. "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." Sometimes we must put ourselves in the power of others. To suspect every man will make us unhappy, and commonly prove us to be unworthy of confidence ourselves. Even a wise man of the world once said: "Always to think the worst, I have ever found to be the work of a mean spirit and a base soul."

How difficult it is to bring home truth to the deceitful heart of man. Hypocrites are slow to improve close, discriminating preaching. They desire not to look into their real characters. It was not until all the rest had inquired whether Christ referred to them in foretelling his betrayal, that Judas said: "Lord, is it I?" Thorough, impartial, frequent self-examination is not the characteristic of any who are at heart unsound. In fact the reluctance of some to this duty is sad evidence against them. It costs them too much. Aversion to close, searching sermons is a bad mark in any man's character. Such preaching often afflicts the righteous more than the wicked, though the latter are the most sure to be offended. When Christ had exposed the miserable hypocrisy of many who followed him, it is said: "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." (John 6: 66.) They could not endure the truth. Yet Judas smothered up his feelings, and bore it all. He cared not so much for his feelings. He went after his covetousness.

Nor could one do a wiser thing than to inquire whether he has better evidence of piety than the great traitor had during his apostleship. Judas could heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils. He was first a disciple, and then an apostle of our Lord. He often heard Christ preach. He held the only office of trust among the apostles. His reputation for piety stood as fair as any man's. His persuasion of his good state seems to have been so firm, that he hardly felt inclined to look into the grounds of his

hopes. He was not a drunkard, nor a swearer. He was not a captious hearer of the Gospel. Without a murmur he bore all the fatigue of his apostolic mission. He was not an envious man beyond others. He was not a slanderer, a reviler, a backbiter, a whisperer. He displayed no inordinate ambition. He was not a brawler, nor a violent and outrageous man. And yet he was not a child of God. Mere negative goodness, mere freedom from open vice, proves no man an heir of glory. It is true there was sufficient evidence against Judas, but he willingly overlooked that. If many men had as good evidence against their enemies or their neighbors, as they have against themselves, they would speedily pronounce them hypocrites.

The case of Judas discloses the uselessness of that sorrow of the world which worketh death, hath no hope in it, and drives the soul to madness. It is not desperation, but penitence, that God requires. Regrets without hatred of sin are useless, both on earth and in hell. They avail nothing in time, nothing in eternity. When it is said Judas repented, the word translated, repented, is not the word used by inspired writers to express godly sorrow, or saving repentance. There is much sorrow that does but prepare men for other and more dreadful deeds.

In the case of Judas we have also a fearful example of the terrible judgment of God against the wicked. As he loved cursing, so it came unto him; as he delighted not in blessing, so it was far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so it came into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. God's judgments are still abroad in the earth. Of all judgments, those which are spiritual should most alarm us. To have eyes and not see, to have ears and not hear, to have hearts and not understand, to hold the truth in unrighteousness, to be forsaken of God, to be given over to believe a lie-these are among the direst curses that fall on men in this world; and they are sure forerunners of God's sorest plagues in the world to come. And how fearful must it be to fall into the hands of the living God, when on earth a drop of his wrath will make men choose hanging rather than life. And how dismal must be the prospects of all who die in their sins, when they shall have for their companions Judas and all evil-minded men, the devil and his angels. The society of the damned is good ground of earnestness in fleeing from the wrath to come.

The doctrine of universal salvation has no countenance in Scripture. It is disproven by many express declarations, and by many fair and necessary inferences. It is disproven by the case of Judas. If, after many thousand years of suffering, he shall rise to everlasting happiness in the skies, it will be good for him that he was born. Eternal happiness far outweighs all temporal suffering, however protracted. Any existence which terminates in eternal

glory will prove a blessing beyond all computation. All tempo ral suffering can be gauged. But who can fathom the sea of love, the ocean of bliss, made sure to all believers? And eternal misery is as dreadful as eternal glory is desirable. Oh! how fearful must be the doom of the incorrigibly wicked, when in their case existence itself ceases to be desirable, or even tolerable! It is true of every one who dies without repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that IT HAD BEEN GOOD FOR THAT

MAN IF HE HAD NOT BEEN BORN.

SERMON V.

BY REV. WALTER CLARKE, D.D.,

PASTOR OF THE MERCER-STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW-YORK.

THE REIGN OF THE SAINTS.*

"AND the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High."-DANIEL 7: 27.

THIS is part of Daniel's prediction concerning the order of empire in the Christian ages. In a previous vision, the prophet had seen the world, with all its races, interests, institutions, and destinies, made over to Christ, the universal King. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

But, as this great empire, and every part of it, was then in alien hands, Daniel was permitted to complete the vision, and, by a second revelation, beheld the historic transfer of races, and governments, and trades, and destinies, to their appointed ownerthe King of kings and Lord of lords. These prophetic para

* Sermon delivered before the Foreign Missionary Society of New-York and Brooklyn, on Sabbath evenings, November 11 and 18.

graphs, therefore, are a carefully prepared chart, revealing the course of empire, till it consummates and ends in the universal reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Power, and greatness, and government shall descend, says the prophet, through successive administrations and intermediate thrones-the Assyrian, the Roman, the Papal, to the last eraand the closing stage, when the saints of the Most High God shall take the kingdom and superintend it in the name of their Lord.

And this is the topic upon which I propose to discourse this evening: the empire of the world falling at length into the hands

of the saints.

I shall be obliged to ask attention, however, here on the threshold, to several preliminary remarks, going to fix the exact meaning of the truth, that the saints shall one day possess and govern the world. Let me say, then:

1. That the doctrine of our text does not require us to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is, at some future time, to return in person to our world, and set up a visible and theocratic empire upon all these continents. If the Redeemer had no other way of administering his earthly kingdom than by a personal and visible reign, the inference would be, not that he should come back, at some fixed and far-off period, and assume the empire, but that he should have never departed. Now that he has departed, and has supervised and extended his kingdom for nineteen centuries, without the aid of any local palace, or the need of any visible government, it is too late for us to imagine that he can not go forward as he has commenced, and reign in the future as he has in the pastthe King invisible, eternal, and divine. The kingdom of which we are to discourse this evening, is a spiritual kingdom therefore; is an empire that asks and needs no visible manifestation of its Lord, no earthly metropolis, or scepter, or throne. And though the reign of the saints is to be a wide-spread and universal rule, yet I shall need to say:

2. That the Scriptures do not require us to teach or to believethis doctrine even in any absolute, extreme, and unexceptionable sense. We should look in vain, I suppose, for any text which, properly interpreted, assures us that at some time before the final coming of Christ his followers will literally hold all the offices, and own all the property, and ply all the trades, and make all the laws, and carry on all the affairs of the world, reducing the wicked to utter penury and subjection. I do not so understand the language of prophecy; or so imagine when I anticipate the future. The meaning of the Scriptures, if I do not altogether mistake their sense, is, that the saints as persons, and their great Christian maxims as principles, shall ultimately win such an ascendency over all nations, interests, institutions, and affairs, that this wholeworld shall become an orderly and well-governed Christian empire. If there shall be impenitent men, as there may be, they

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