is darkest to the eye of mere sense, is most certain to gather those rays which only reason can see, and faith appreciate. Do yourselves the justice to think, so to think of this life that your reflections will be most likely to fasten upon the next.

How eloquent, too, the plea of religion to one whose spirit has gained this select, this hallowed mount of vision! Hearing his own death-groan, sitting upon his own grave, reading the epitaph on his marble, looking into the coffin where his ashes lie, and musing upon the past, the present, and the future, does he need to be told, that this life is too short and uncertain to be made the exclusive object of all his pursuits? Shall we warn him, that death is approaching, and that when it comes, nothing except that which is future, will have any value to him? Can he not see, that the great interests of human existence are of necessity in the future, and that the chief importance of this life arises from its relation to the next? Is it not evident to him, that what he means to do, he must do quickly? Does he not understand, that the Gospel as a provision for eternal life, is, and must be of supreme value? These practical lessons will occur to him without the preacher's aid. They are as obvious as they are solemn, and gracious as they are urgent. There are but few men in death, perhaps none, who would not welcome the Christian hope. As few would there be in life, were all as reflective as they might be. This would rebuke every moment's delay, and hurry every sinner to the Son of God for the salvation of his soul. As men, as Christians, as patriots and lovers of a country whose institutions are in peril, as probationers for another life, as mortal and immortal, we have a work to do quite sufficient to task all our powers. Appreciating the nature, relations, and ends of our existence, let each then at once endeavor to do whatsoever his "hand findeth to do," remembering that "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave," whither we are all hastening. May God create this holy purpose in every heart!

SERMON II.

BY REV. JOHN MCLEOD,

DISTRICT SECRETARY OF THE A.B.C.F.M., PHILADELPHIA.

RELIGIOUS GROWTH.

"BUT grow in grace."-2 PETER 3:18.

ALMOST every created thing seems to have within it the principle of growth. The tree grows from a seed. The bird, the fish, the beast of the field, all come to maturity by growth. The human body grows from feeblest infancy into the strength of manhood. The earth, in its present form and order, is a sort of growth; and even the universe itself appears, according to the Bible and the highest deductions of science, to have come forth in a regular process of development, under laws instituted by the Creator.

But mind grows as well as matter. The reasoning faculty, the imagination, the memory, expand and strengthen. So too the moral and spiritual affections of the soul. Hence religion, which consists of love to God and love to man, this may grow also. In a word, every thing but God seems to have a time for growth.

Piety, therefore, is not perfect in the beginning of the Christian life. Conversion is the planting of the seed, not the maturity of the tree; it is the beginning of the battle, not the victory; it is the starting out on the race, not the touching of the goal.

However fervent and zealous and decided one's piety may be, at the time of conversion, there will still be abundant room for growth. However bright a Christian's first experience may be, he is no more a matured Christian than a child is a man as soon as it is born. Some, indeed, are much more healthful in their first religious life than others, and they may grow faster, and sooner reach maturity; but with all there is room for growth.

So taught our Saviour: "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed." It "is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." So taught Paul: "Not as though I had already attained-either were already perfect; but I press toward the mark for the prize." So taught the Psalmist: the righteous "shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season." So the wise man: "The path of the just is as the shining light-shining more and more unto the perfect day." So Peter's exhortation: "Grow in grace."

I. Grace, in its strict sense, is the free favor of God to the unworthy. This grace of God toward men produces piety in men; grace is the cause, piety the effect. The word grace is applied to both cause and effect. In the text grace stands for the effect; it stands for piety. To grow in grace is to grow in virtue-in Christian excellence. To grow in grace is to grow in love to God and love to man. To grow in grace is to grow in faith, in meekness, in gentleness, in patience, in a spirit of forgiveness, in usefulness.

To grow in grace is to grow not only in one grace but in all graces. It is the harmonious development of an entire Christian character; as in the healthful growth of a tree, there will be not only growth of roots, but of stock, branches, leaves, and fruit. In the first chapter of this epistle Peter gives his view of Christian growth: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance, (self-control, moderation;) and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

In this growth of all right principles, there will be going on at the same time in the soul, the weakening and decay of all wrong principles. While love and faith and meekness and justice strengthen in the soul, the opposite principles of selfishness and pride, resentment and falsehood will be cast off. The folds of the creeping worm will be sloughed away by the growth of the brightwinged insect beneath. As the outward man perishes, the inward man will be renewed day by day.

II. We may overlook too much the importance of religious growth. While awake to the necessity of conversion, we may quite overlook the great work of sanctification. We may be in danger of feeling, and of acting upon the feeling, that when one is introduced into the kingdom by conversion and the joining of the Church, the great work is done. Not so our Saviour. How much he labored to train his disciples. He left often the multitude, to be alone with them, that he might impart such special instruction as their spiritual wants required. So too in the labors and writings of the Apostles, how much was done, apart from labors for the conversion of men, simply and wholly, for the spiritual progress of the discipleship. All the epistles were written for this end.

There is the painful necessity of looking, at times, upon those who have been in the Church of God for a score of years, and who yet give no evidence of any progress in the graces of the Gospel; who have made no advancement, but, on the other hand, appear more worldly, more passionate, more unforgiving, more

fault-finding, more avaricious, more miserly, more the worshipers of mammon than they were, when they first professedly joined themselves to the Lord.

III. Having life by union to the Saviour, we grow in grace by using the means of grace. There is a law of spiritual growth just as fixed as the law of natural growth. The tree, though living, grows not without earth, moisture, sun, shade, showers, and the free air of heaven. The human body grows not except as it receives daily food. So religion, to make progress in the soul, requires the appropriate nourishment. Religion will no more grow by accident than a tree will grow by accident.

The means of grace, suited to advance us in the divine life, are daily provided, not only on the Sabbath, but through every day of the week; not only in the house of God, but in every engagement of the world.

The means of grace are not limited as many seem to suppose, to what are technically so termed. Precious and all-important as are the reading of the Scriptures, private meditation, the hear ing of the Gospel, the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, the sacred exercises of the Sabbath, the meeting for social prayer-precious and essential as are these exercises, they form but a part, I had almost said but a small part, of the system of means which our heavenly Father has provided for our religious growth.

When we have finished the means of grace, furnished by the first day of the week, we have the same means, only under different forms, for each of the six days that follow. Properly considered, every occurrence of daily life is designed and fitted, to aid us in our religious progress. The store, the workshop, the office, the farm, the family, the home, may be as efficiently places of religious growth as the closet, and the Sabbath, and the house of God. Indeed, the very object of the Sabbath and the house of God is to sanctify all business, all employment, to make the entire round of life holy. These places and times are sacred only as they make the duties of business and daily life sacred. The Sabbath is holy only as it makes the following six days holy.

He who grows not in grace in his store, in his daily labor, in his family, will not grow in the Church. He who sells goods has in that a means of grace, for there is a Christian way of selling. And he who buys has in that also a means of grace, for there is a Christian way of buying. He who in his business is tempted to wrong his neighbor has in that a means of grace, when he resists the temptation, and keeps to the right. He who is tempted to be indolent and neglect his business, and yet for Christ's sake continues diligent in his vocation, by so doing, grows in grace. Pov erty may be a means of grace by trying our submission. may be a means of grace when we use it as faithful stewards.

Wealth

All our relations in life may be aids in the divine life. Civil duties are such when discharged in a Christian spirit. The sitting on a jury may be as much a means of grace as sitting in a prayermeeting, if the man sits there to see that justice is done. So even

of war and the profession of arms. The legitimate end and object of an army is not conquest and national aggrandizement, but rather the support of divinely constituted authority-the keeping of order in the world. An army, organized for such purposes, is but an enlarged police. As the magistrate is a minister of God, so the soldier, who bears the sword of the magistrate, is a minister of God. The true soldier, in his place, is on duty. And with this view of his work, while struggling to maintain justice and right in the world, he may be growing as a Christian as well as a patriot. So Joshua, Cornelius, Washington, Havelock, and Vickers regarded their calling, and hence they could ripen, as devout men, even in the tent and on the battle-field.

Every human being you meet, in your pilgrimage through the world, may offer you a means of grace, for there is a Christian feeling to be cherished toward all, and a Christian way of treating all, for every man is thy neighbor.

Each relation of the family has in it discipline and nurture for the soul. You have a means of grace in your children, for there is a Christian way of training them. You have a means of grace in your parents, for there is religion in reverence for father and mother. There is a means of grace in being a master or mistress, for there is a Christian way of dealing with servants. And there is a means of grace in being a servant, for there is a Christian way of serving. Thus, by these daily cares, relations, and duties of life, God has furnished us with a sort of spiritual gymnasium, where every grace may every day be strengthened and devel oped.

IV. That we may grow in grace, we need to use the means of grace in their due proportion. Nothing is more common than the almost exclusive use of particular means of growth to the neglect of others. Meditation is good, but where it becomes exclusive it is evil. So outward activity, in laboring for the salvation of men, is of the highest importance; but let this absorb the Christian; let there be but little time for the soul to pass into the shade and night of retirement, and self-reflection, and private communion with God, and the most fruitful branch of piety will wither and die. The Saviour went frequently into solitary places for prayer. He left ministering to thousands, that his own soul might be refreshed in communion with the Father.

Give the soul to any one means of religious growth alone, and it will suffer. Thought of God is a precious means of grace, but exclusive thought of God would turn the brain, and send the mis