On other ground, the light of a lost religion must be rekindled in sanctuaries that for centuries have been the sepulchers of an extinguished life, the dormitories of a departed faith.

Here, the work of God must be revived in congregations, and over whole continents, when piety declines, and graces droop, and the fire of devotion is almost extinct.

These, even must be expunged, and corruptions erased, and piety restored to her twin inheritance, of purity and truth. These morals must be improved and intelligence advanced, and laws administered, and the public weal made prosperous and safe.

Thus in every field and in every place, there is something to be done to give strength, and success, and enlargement to the kingdom of Christ. And what waits to be done; in one spot or another; afar in heathen land, or here in our own cities and churches; whatever work is yet unfinished, and yet on hand, that and all of it, is alike indispensable and alike important. So that we may not point to one field or another, and say: There is our one only work. Our work is every where, every where till the kingdom is set up. And this brings us to say:

2. That neglect or debility in any one department of this great work of saintly conquest and control, enfeebles and endangers the whole enterprise.

The cause, the kingdom, the Church, are one; even as Christ their Head and owner, is one. Our religion too, the animating principle of all our endeavors, at home and abroad, is one and the same. You can not disable it for one of its appointed tasks, and have it strong and undamaged for the others. Let any church or commonwealth of churches, become lax and impotent in the great work of missions among the heathen; and the same impotence and the same neglect will instantly appear in its greater work of building the kingdom at home. Zeal will decay, prayer cease, ordinances lose their power, hopes grow dim, and stagnancy and decline and apprehension be in all their sanctuaries. The light set under a bushel to prevent its rays going forth to gladden the whole house, droops in its unnatural prison, till, going out, it becomes as dark inside the bushel as it is in hall or chamber or closet around. On the other hand, let a church, or a continent of churches, neglect their work at home, to give the greater attention to the cause of missions in the far-off lands; and the distant heathen field will reflect in all its fortunes, phases, and destinies, the exact state of things in the Church and the communities at home. Take what care of hand and foot you will, if the heart be diseased, if the lungs are unsound, if there be weakness and decay at the fountain-head of life, the extremities partake in the common decline; and no care of these far-off members can prevent the transmission of decay and impotence to them.

And I would suggest, my brethren, for profound inquiry to

night, whether it be not just here, that we are to look for the hidden cause of all our impotence and ill success on heathen ground and in the cause of foreign missions. Fifty years have passed since the Church of America went forth to carry the Gospel to the benighted pagans. Doubtless much has been achieved in that time. And there was occasion for thanksgiving and jubilee, in the great convocation that met a few weeks since in a neighboring city. But go back over the course of centuries, and read what the first missionaries of Christ accom plished for him within fifty years from the date of their commission. Compared with their magnificent achievements, how poor a spectacle, over which to celebrate a jubilee, is this which we have done. What is the cause of this shortcoming in modern missions? And I submit to those who can answer: Whether our successes abroad have not kept pace exactly with our efforts and our advancement at home? In other words, whether we have not done as much in heathen lands, as could be done by a religion that accomplishes no more on her own domain and among her own people. When so many of our churches at home, decline in grace and decay in strength, when the number of our converts scarcely exceeds the number of annual removals by death; when our children, bearing the baptismal sign, reject the religion which we offer to the heathen, and Satan snatches from Christian households almost as many souls as we reclaim from the pagan hosts; when immorality gains strength within sight of our sanctuaries, and worldliness corrupts the graces of so many who call themselves saints; when ignorance and superstition and fraud constitute a heathenism on our own soil, and that heathenism instead of giving way before our religion, is growing annually more confident, more mighty, more portentous, is there not a cause in the character of our Christianity at home, for all its impotence and ill success when offered to the far-off races of the heathen?

The best thing the Church of America could do, the best thing the Church of Christendom could do for the great work of missions to the heathen would be, to stir up their graces, and call into use their strength, and accomplish at once and to the full the work they have on hand at home. God be merciful unto us and bless us, cried a saint of the olden time who understood the connection between the several parts of the Church's work. God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known on earth, thy saving health unto all nations. Arise, shine, said a prophet to the far-off Church of Christian times, arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. That is the time for the Church to shine upon the nations that sit in the shadow of death, when there is light in all her towers, and the glory of the Lord overshadows her services, and irradiates her sons.

Go then, ye saints of the Most High God, to your great, your universal, your predestined and royal work. Set up the kingdom, set up the kingdom, and commence your glorious and rightful reign. Here on the home field, acquit yourselves with courage, fidelity and unwearied zeal. Take up all these honest, inviting, and beneficent trades, holding and working them for Christ and his kingdom. Acquire what you may by every lawful means, of this precious, useful and accessible property. Ascend upon all legitimate paths, to posts of influence and seats of authority. Lay hold of government; possess the offices; compass all forms of knowledge; appropriate all liberal and honorable arts; wield the power of letters; put forth the energy of thought; get so much of the world as is within your reach, into Christian hands. And then, make it your fixed purpose, as it is your high mission, your holy calling, your supreme and unalterable duty, to hold, use, and govern all that you possess, in a truly Christian way; making the field in which you dwell a miniature kingdom of Christ. Scatter instruction; suppress sin; overcome evil; diffuse good; build upon this waiting soil the empire of your ascended Lord. Show to the nations, and send to the nations, that true, that mighty, that transforming religion which can erect here among us, and there among them, the needed, the promised, the glorious kingdom of Christ.

SERMON V I.

THE DECEITFUL HOPE.

"AND their hope shall be like the giving up of the ghost."-JOB 11: 20.

SUCH is the solemn and impressive language employed to describe the final disappointment of the unrepenting and ungodly in the hour of departure from this world of hope, trial, and probation. Such is the nature and effect of that fearful experience in the article of death, which all have encountered who have gone down to the land of silence, darkness, and the grave, leaning on a false foundation.

Wherever the word of God is revealed, almost every person cherishes some kind of hope. Beside that one hope, which is as an anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast, there are a great variety which are all fatal. From the hardened infidel up through all the grades of fundamental error, and through the influence of many deceptive impressions, multitudes gain and cherish a hope that all

will be well. The man of business anticipates some time, yet future, of leisure to repent; while he of many kind affections trusts to divine clemency either to insure conversion or preserve him from perishing without. The merely selfish seeker obtains the notion that his sins are forgiven, and considers the joy that attends as evidence of regeneration. Even the hardened hypocrite often fancies that when his several specific objects are accomplished, he will become honest with himself, his fellow-men, and with his final Judge.

These hopes, thus erected on sandy foundations, will be like the spider's web when the fiery trial comes; for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ.

Yet, until the very last moment, the self-deluding sinner will cling to these fatal hopes, and then when he must abandon them, it is like the giving up of the ghost. The moral features of the immortal soul are struck with a hue analogous in some respects to that which marks the form it is about to leave.

1. It is giving up that which is very dear. Like life itself, it has been ardently fostered. In order to maintain it, reflection has been shunned, Scripture perverted, the ministry derided, friendship grieved, and the Holy Spirit insulted. The delusions of error have been sought, and their preachers trusted. When conscience has warned him, he has refused to examine; when sickness assaulted, he has sometimes trembled, but still clave fast to his hope. It has eased the corrodings of remorse, and silenced the whisperings of fear. Therefore he has become fond of his delusion. Does he trust to the religion of form, or rely on the words of an absolving priest, or fancy there is no eternal pain, or reject an all-sufficient atonement-mark how wrathful he becomes when his platform is shaken, and his beautiful edifice denounced as utterly insecure. No bitterness of the human heart can exceed that of a man who feels that his long-cherished hope is earnestly and absolutely condemned. Still he finds consolation in his vi perous hope-still cherishes it in his bosom. At last, when the fatal crisis has arrived, and his hope must die, it winds its cold, expiring coil around his soul, and hisses his eternal doom: at the last, it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." 2. Yet, dear as it is, it must be given up. As there is no discharge in the great struggle with death, so there is none in the contest of false hopes with eternity, in all her irresistible light. The delusions of sophistry, the flattery of friends, the dread habit of self-deception, all are unavailing. The vulgar and the refined; the timid and the brave; the stupid and the sensitive; the beautiful and the strong, must alike fall before the scythe of Time, which cuts down impartially all, and the sword of the Spirit, which pierceth the vital depths of the departing soul. We remember how Voltaire begged for the dread hour to be postponed how Altamont raved in his irrepressible spasms. We have heard

For

of those, who rolling on a couch of agony, when tenderly questioned of the cause, have cried out, "Conscience! conscience!" and expired. There was no escape; the hour and the man had met, and the false hope must die.

3. Yes, it must be given up, and that suddenly. Death even in lingering disease is generally unexpected at the moment of its last effectual touch. So it is with the false hope. A prominent infidel in our country, recently, was carried into the land of death in about two hours, by the bursting of a blood-vessel. His infidelity fled in a moment. His soul was in agony, and he died repeatedly calling on the Deity's holy and reverend name!

4. Depend upon it, the giving up must be soon. Even at the longest, your end is near. Death standeth not far away. So is the hour when these delusive hopes must die. The world will not come to an end until the time which God has fixed and reserved in his own mind, and until the various and sure prophecies which require its existence longer, shall all have been accomplished. But the self-deluded sinner must soon be compelled to die. His frail but boasted hope will be like a "rolling thing before the whirlwind." A large portion of his life has been spent in compacting together his idolized hope, and the day of his merciful visitation is drawing rapidly to a close. When it comes, he will feel that his race has been short, and his end has overtaken him like an armed man, rushing upon him with irresistible might. Finally, when given up, it will leave no substitute but perfect despair. When life is resigned, death sits sole monarch of the mortal remains. All the bloom, and lustre, and indications of life forsake the corpse. So it is with the soul, when she is severed from her cherished hope. It is for her to sink in horrid despair. Then will she realize that the day of mercy has vanished, and that of retribution arrived. That soul, all appliances of redemption, all calls to repentance, and offers of pardon, and means of grace, and strivings of the Spirit have forsaken forever. That final despair no pen can describe, no heart on this side of eternityconceive.

Surely this will be "their end, and their dreadful end." Then let us examine our hopes. Let us be sure to build only on the imperishable rock. Wherever revivals exist, and the Spirit descends from on high, even there, guard against resting upon any sandy foundation. Seek to hear, learn, and know the whole essential truth of salvation! Let it come probing even painfully the deceitful heart, searching out every iniquity, and cutting to the roots of every unholy habit and affection. By all that the soul is worth, resolve on thoroughness in turning to God. Gaze even on those features of the divine character which are hated by the carnal mind; gaze till hatred shrinks from the pure light of truth, and the yielding heart rests delighted in all the bright perfections of a redeeming God!