his Saviour's feet, and tends to secure the perseverance of others when he himself shall have gone to

receive it.

And this reminds us that the great designs of the Christian are entailed; for the Church on earth, though mortal in its members, as a community is undying. History informs us of some governments, which having formed schemes of national aggrandisement too vast to be accomplished within "the hour glass of one man's life," have devolved the prosecution of them as a sacred duty on those who came after them. The Christian Church is to exhibit the sublime spectacle of an unearthly government, embarked in an enterprise of mercy for all time. Its members are "commanded to make it known to their children, that the generation to come might know it, even the children who should be born; who should arise and declare it to their children." And as time rolls on, the only change which this spiritual government is to exhibit is that which necessarily arises, under God, from persevering fidelity to its original design-extended domains, and a nearer approach to universal conquest. "For the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High."

Prayer is influence. Appeals, entreaties, and petitions, between man and man, move the affairs of this world; but in the Church, they move Heaven. All those other things which we have described as exercising influence, become spiritually useful only by that power which descends in answer to prayer. Other means may be influential, but the amount of their influence is incalculable, bearing a proportion to the power employed;-but prayer, by engaging a divine power, sets all calculation at defiance. Other means may be good-but what must that be, the effect of which is to bring down Goodness himself;-and yet here the entire Church is supposed to be in daily, unceasing, impassioned, entreaty for the Spirit to "convince the world of sin.”

Union is a means of usefulness. And here it is supposed to be universal, visible, divine. As to each individual; here is the union of the whole man-all his principles and passions combined-no part of his nature wanting-no part shedding a counter-influencethe whole man bound and braced up for one purpose, as if devoted to the grand experiment of ascertaining how much a single human agent can effect in the cause of Christ. Here is the union of a number of these in a particular Church-in which none is inactive-each has his post-all act in concert-the whole blent into a single power, and putting forth an undivided effort to draw the world around them to Christ. Here is the union of all these distinct societies in one collective body-bringing together agencies the most distantharmonizing materials once the most discordantblending hearts naturally the most selfish-in bands more tender than those of kindred, and so sympathetic that the emotion of one thrills through them all-a union which economizes and combines all the energies and passions of sanctified humanity--which, collecting all the scattered agencies of good that earth contains, organizes them into a vast engine whose entire power is to be brought to bear for the conversion of the world. And then, not merely in addition to, but infinitely more than all, here is the union of Divine Influence with the whole-heaven come down to earth -the powers of the future world imparted to the present the Spirit himself, in a sense, incarnate-pervading his body the Church-investing it with unearthly power-and employing it as the organ of an almighty influence for recovering the world to Christ.

Such, then, is an outline of the Scripture Theory of that agency by which Christ proposes to reclaim the world. Can we forbear to admire the simplicity of its principle? It is simply the law of reciprocal influence, baptized in the blood of the Cross, and endued with the energy of the Holy Spirit. All in God that can influence, is brought to bear, through the Cross, on all

in man that can be influenced, and the whole of that is then put into requisition by the Spirit to influence others. If this theory were realized, could we question its efficiency? Of all who are brought within its scope, each of them is prepared to say, "None of us liveth to himself"-and what but the expansion of that sentiment is necessary to fill the world with the influence of the Cross? Could we doubt its ultimate and universal triumph? What, when the Spirit himself had come down to work the entire system? What, when the Church withheld nothing that could influence, and the Spirit withheld nothing that could crown that influence with success? If even the secret tear of an obscure penitent on earth creates a sensation among the seraphim, the "travail" of such an agency for the salvation of the world would carry with it the sympathies of the holy universe. God would bless it; and "all the ends of the earth would fear him."

CHAPTER II.

THE THEORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE CONVER SION OF THE WORLD, ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED FROM THE WORD OF GOD.

Ir it be true that the Christian Church is thus constructed expressly to embody and diffuse the influence of the Cross-and if its full efficiency for this end depends under God on the entireness of its consecration to this office, we may take it for granted that this truth will not only bear to be subjected to certain appropriate tests, but that all the results of such an examination can only tend to illustrate its importance, and to enforce its practical application.

If the economy of Christian influence be more than a temporary expedient to meet an emergency—if it form a part of an original plan-may we not expect to find, for instance, that he who "sees the end from the beginning," and who so often sketches an outline of the future in the events of the present or the past, has indicated his purpose in the dispensations which preceded it? Accordingly, we find that from the moment when the first promise was announced, the instrumentality employed to impart it was calculated to give it the widest diffusion and the greatest effect.

I. During the long lapse of years prior to the flood, this instrumentality was domestic, or patriarchal. By creating one common father of the species, making

him the depositary of the first communication from heaven, and prolonging his life to nearly a thousand years, the Almighty may be regarded as making the wisest and most gracious arrangement for the welfare of his fallen posterity. For in each and all of the myriads to which they had multiplied, Adam would only behold the multiplications of himself, and would therefore be supposed to feel a father's yearning solicitude for their recovery to God. And even as late as "in the days of Noe," the comparative recency of the fall, and its immediate results, by rendering these results so much the more impressive and personally interesting; the small amount and the simplicity of the revelation which had then been made, by rendering it so much the easier to be remembered and imparted; the universal prevalence of the same language, by rendering it so much the easier to diffuse that knowledge universally; and the continued longevity of man, by enabling one party to speak with the authority and tenderness of a parent, disposing the other to listen with the docility and faith of children, and giving to each a family interest in the religious welfare of allafforded facilities for diffusing the knowledge of God, which strikingly evinced his readiness to save, and loudly called on all to inculcate and exhibit that faith by which Abel "obtained witness that he was righteous," and Enoch "had this testimony that he pleased God.”

11. The patriarchal dispensation, subsequent to the deluge, was migratory. By calling, and "preaching the Gospel to Abraham"*-removing him from province to province through a protracted life-investing him with importance in the eyes of the nations among whom he sojourned-sending his posterity into Egypt, and keeping them there for ages as a marked and distinct people-leading them out by miracle-conducting them slowly and circuitously to Canaan as an entire

* Gal. iii. 8,